Converting monsters from First Edition modules

[Shade]

Updated. Finished?

 

[freyar]

Looks good.

 

[demiurge1138]

Looks fantastic to me.

 

[Shade]

Snake Grass
AC:10 MV:0 HD:1+1 hp:15 #AT:1 Dmg:1 SA:Special poison SD:Multiple heads AL:N THAC0:18

"The path winds beside the lake shore past stands of reeds and floating lilies. Here and there the path turns into a patch of mud and leaves. Suddenly, you are brought to an abrupt halt by the sound of hissing and rattling that comes from a patch of segmented reeds that overgrows the path."

This is a patch of snake grass. This weird animated grassy reed bears the tiny head of a snake at its tip that hisses and curls its tongue at intruders. Anyone trying to cut a path through them will be attacked by the elongating reeds. Every time 5 points of damage is inflicted, a reed will be severed and another segment will be revealed beneath with another snake head. The snake grass injects a weak poison that causes a cumulative -1 penalty to all rolls for one day. Save vs. poison at -2 for no damage. There are 18 reeds.

Originally appeared in I13 - Adventure Pack I (1987).

 

[Cleon]

How is their "multiple heads" supposed to work? The wording is rather confusing, but I'm guessing they mean that it grows an additional head every time it takes 5 or more damage.

 

[Shade]

Yeah, a bit like a Lernaean hydra methinks.

 

[Cleon]

Yeah, a bit like a Lernaean hydra methinks.

Yes, that's the monster I was thinking of too!

So shall we start on the stats.

First question, how does it get 15 hit points with 1+1 HD?

If we give it 1 Hit Dice it'd need an extraordinarily high Constitution for those HP, so I'm thinking 2HD and Toughness as a bonus feat.

 

[freyar]

Uh, first off, magical beast or plant?

It's going to need a decent Con even with 2HD and Toughness, depending on the type.

 

[Shade]

I'm inclined to stick with the plant type. To better fit it, we could say the tips of the reeds simply resemble snake heads.

Alternately, I could see these as aberrations with plantlike traits, perhaps created by the yuan-ti.

 

[freyar]

Hmm, or by medusas. Well, I'm pretty much up in the air among the three options. I guess aberration is slightly ahead of plant, but I don't mind much either way.