Converting monsters from Dragon magazine (Part Two)

[demiurge1138]

I'd be fine with either a smallish Large or Medium. Poison slows, then kills. How about 1d6 Dex damage/2d6 Con damage?

 

[Shade]

That poison will probably work.

A wyvern downsized to Medium looks like this...

Str 11, Dex 14, Con 11, Int 6, Wis 12, Cha 9

A pseudodragon upsized to Medium looks like this...

Str 14, Dex 11, Con 15, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 10

Since these have animal intelligence, how about...

Str 14, Dex 14, Con 13, Int 2, Wis 11, Cha 9?

 

[Leopold]

Str 16? I'd like to make these a touch tougher for physical damage. After all it is the parent of the Wyvern species.

beyond that i'm fine with the deisgn.

 

[freyar]

The thing is that wyverns aren't so strong for Large monsters. I'd be happy to stick with Str 14, but Str 16 is ok if that's what the group wants to do.

 

[Cleon]

Hmm, tricky. The SRD Wyvern has identical dimensions to the Bloodstinger, which argues for it being the lower end of Large, but on the other hand the Bloodstinger's bite and sting damage are pretty close to a Wyvern that's been downscaled one category. (Bite 2d8 -> 1d10, Sting 1d6 -> 1d4)

I'll go for Medium, since the 2E Wyvern is about twice as long as the 2E Bloodstinger (25' vs 15'). We could halve the length of the Bloodstinger to 7 to 8 feet, including a four foot tail, plus a 10 foot wingspan. It should weigh about 250 pounds.

I'd use the stats of the Wyvern, but drop its Int to 2 (animal intelligence) and cut its Strength by 4 (it should be weaker than a Wyvern but I don't think it deserves the whole +/- 8 Str advancement between Medium and Large):

Str 15, Dex 12, Con 15, Int 6, Wis 12, Cha 9.

Natural Armour would probably be +6, giving it AC17 with its Dex.

As for its poison, I suspect the intent was to duplicate a slow spell's effect:

An affected creature moves and attacks at a drastically slowed rate. A slowed creature can take only a single move action or standard action each turn, but not both (nor may it take full-round actions). Additionally, it takes a -1 penalty on attack rolls, AC, and Reflex saves. A slowed creature moves at half its normal speed (round down to the next 5-foot increment), which affects the creature’s jumping distance as normal for decreased speed.
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A minute of that followed by Con damage is pretty nasty.

If you fancy a less cruel option, what about the initial effect being similar to fatigued, exhausted or sickened?

Say, the victim can not run or charge and suffers a -1 or -2 penalty on attacks, Reflex saves, Dexterity checks and Dex-based skills for the poison's duration?

 

[freyar]

Your ability scores are fairly close to Shade's, Cleon. Can we agree on his? Or do people prefer Str 15 as a compromise between 14 and 16?

Well, I could see substituting fatigued or sickened for a minute or so for the Dex damage just to be interesting.

 

[Cleon]

Your ability scores are fairly close to Shade's, Cleon. Can we agree on his? Or do people prefer Str 15 as a compromise between 14 and 16?

Str 14-16 is fine, I'm more concerned with the Dex 14 Shade proposed. Reading the description gives me the impression of a fairly clumsy beast, although that may be limited to the air, but regardless it makes me want to aim for the lower range of Dex. We could compensate for it with a higher Con but I'm not sure that's needed, since the original creature didn't have an X+Y Hit Dice like a 2E Wyvern's 7+7.

So, Shade's proposal:

Str 14, Dex 14, Con 13, Int 2, Wis 11, Cha 9

My proposal:

Str 15, Dex 12, Con 15, Int 6, Wis 12, Cha 9

or a compromise proposal that's an average (rounding Str up, Wis down):

Str 15, Dex 13, Con 14, Int 4, Wis 12, Cha 9

Decisions, decisions.

Whichever one we go for, it's not a major difference.

 

[demiurge1138]

I agree with Cleon on this one. The flavor text supports a stronger, somewhat clumsier critter than Shade's stat overlay.

I still prefer the Dex damage to just nausea/sickness/fatigue, though.

 

[freyar]

Let's go with Str 15, Dex 13, Con 14, Int 4, Wis 12, Cha 9 and Dex poison, then. Dex 13 gives us a few more feat options.

 

[demiurge1138]

That's true. Opens up the Dodge tree, among others.