Converting monsters from First Edition modules

[Cleon]

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.

I prefer Plant for them too.

Getting some inspiration from the Hydra, Medium Viper and Tendriculos, hows about something like this:

Snake Grass
Medium Plant
Hit Dice: 2d8+6 (15 hp)
Attack: Bite +1 melee (1 plus poison)
Full Attack: 1+ bites +1 melee (1 plus poison)
Special Attacks: Poison, sprout heads
Special Defenses: All-around vision, darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, plant traits, scent
Abilities: Str 10, Dex 10, Con 16, Int --, Wis 8, Cha 3?
Feats: Combat Reflexes (B), Weapon Finesse (B) ?

 

[freyar]

Looks good so far, though I have a kind of far-out idea. What about we make them a swarm of Tiny plants? It's a patch of grass, so I have a hard time seeing it as a single plant.

 

[Cleon]

Looks good so far, though I have a kind of far-out idea. What about we make them a swarm of Tiny plants? It's a patch of grass, so I have a hard time seeing it as a single plant.

I like the idea of an immobile Swarm but I don't think it'd work well with the Snake Grass's ability to sprout multiple heads.

Cut the grass in one square of the Swarm and the grass blades in its other squares wouldn't sprout extra heads, since they haven't been severed.

Methinks we're better sticking to single monster.

 

[freyar]

I thought each reed sprouts the new head, not that a new reed grows up.

 

[Cleon]

I thought each reed sprouts the new head, not that a new reed grows up.

I think a new head forks off the severed reed, so you've got a "two heads on one stump" thing going on like a Lernean Hydra.

Still, the point is if it's a swarm the extra head would be in a particular square and presumably won't have any Reach, being Tiny, which would be awkward to adjudicate.

Keeping them a single monster just seems easier.

 

[freyar]

A single monster with 18+ attacks, though? That's going to be a super-pain to deal with, especially for something with 2HD.

 

[Cleon]

A single monster with 18+ attacks, though? That's going to be a super-pain to deal with, especially for something with 2HD.

It gets an extra attack every time it takes 5+ damage, so an average plant can't grow more than two before it goes dying/dead.

 

[freyar]

Even so, it starts with 18 reeds!

 

[Shade]

Yeah, this one is a bit of a mess.

We could go with a swarm, and simply increase the damage by 1 die each time it takes 5 points of damage to represent additional heads.

Or we could take a step back, and make it a single Diminutive creature with 1 head, and just let them cluster close together.

 

[freyar]

I think I prefer the swarm, but doing a Diminutive single version appeals too.