Converting monsters from Dragon magazine

[Cleon]

Sure, that will all work.

Updating Sa'ir Working Draft.

No real SAs or SQs, I guess. They should probably have a racial Hide and/or Move Silently bonus and a Spot/Listen bonus (or Alertness), but that seems like about it.

As the working draft indicates I'm tempted to give it the Pounce special attack, since there's mention of a "pouncing range of 20' " in the original text.

Oh, and I agree that the original surprise text does indicates racial bonuses to Hide and Move Silently checks, the degree to be determined.

 

[Cleon]

anybody convert the following dragon magazine monsters, skullcap ivy, chia golem, chocolate golem & the plush golem?

We've got all of those in the Creature Catalog except for the Chocolate Golem - see our temporary CC conversion index.

 

[abe ray]

anybody on this thread ever do the duckbunny, spider horse or the venom dog?

 

[Cleon]

anybody on this thread ever do the duckbunny, spider horse or the venom dog?

If you search the index I linked to in my previous post you'll find the answer to that question yourself.

 

[abe ray]

sorry, I didn't know

 

[freyar]

anybody convert the following dragon magazine monsters, skullcap ivy, chia golem, chocolate golem & the plush golem?

I don't think anyone has done the chocolate golem (which you could request we do next!), but the others are in the Creature Catalog. I'm having trouble getting the direct link working, but go to the Creature Catalog Files List from that page.

 

[freyar]

As the working draft indicates I'm tempted to give it the Pounce special attack, since there's mention of a "pouncing range of 20' " in the original text.

Oh, and I agree that the original surprise text does indicates racial bonuses to Hide and Move Silently checks, the degree to be determined.

Ah, yes, Pounce is good, though there doesn't seem to be an accompanying Rake. I don't think the Hide/Move Silently bonus needs to be large, maybe +8 in grasslands or something?

 

[Cleon]

Ah, yes, Pounce is good, though there doesn't seem to be an accompanying Rake.

So shall I add the following to the Working Draft:

Pounce (Ex): If a sa'ir charges a foe, it can make a full attack.

Ah, yes, Pounce is good, though there doesn't seem to be an accompanying Rake. I don't think the Hide/Move Silently bonus needs to be large, maybe +8 in grasslands or something?

A +8 racial bonus to Hide in grasslands is as good as a 3E Leopard has, but the original's -1 to surprise checks isn't that great compared to other 2E AD&D monsters - both a Bugbear and Leopard have -3.

Similarly, -2 to be surprised isn't as good as most AD&D great cats "surprised only on a 1".

So maybe we should just give it a relatively modest bonus, such as:

Skills: Sa'ir have a +2 racial bonus on Hide and Move Silently checks.

*In areas of tall grass or heavy undergrowth, the Hide bonus improves to +4.

 

[Cleon]

sorry, I didn't know

Don't worry about it Abe.

If you're looking for a particular conversion, most of the creatures that were in the old creature catalog have been given a temporary home in a test archive Darjr set up, which contains both the Creature Catalog Index I linked to earlier as well as a Crypt Index that contains conversions that were superseded by official 3E sources.

All the monsters in the above archive are based on backups I made before the original CC went down, so they only go up to the 14th of February 2014. More recent conversions are listed in the thread Creatures Awaiting Upload & Current Conversions, but that is a work in progress so is occasionally missing a monster or two.

Speaking of which, I should really update that current conversions list…

 

[Cleon]

A +8 racial bonus to Hide in grasslands is as good as a 3E Leopard has, but the original's -1 to surprise checks isn't that great compared to other 2E AD&D monsters - both a Bugbear and Leopard have -3.

Similarly, -2 to be surprised isn't as good as most AD&D great cats "surprised only on a 1".

So maybe we should just give it a relatively modest bonus, such as:

Skills: Sa'ir have a +2 racial bonus on Hide and Move Silently checks.

*In areas of tall grass or heavy undergrowth, the Hide bonus improves to +4.

Oh, and just a reminder that in Second Edition AD&D a surprise roll uses a d10 rather than the d20 of a Third Edition Spot or Listen check, so the -1 advantage of the original is equivalent to a +2 in 3E.