Converting Monsters from Polyhedron Magazine

[freyar]

Well I was aiming at a 'D&Dish interpretation' of the Houyhnhnm rather than an close simulacrum of their culture & history as they appear in Swift's novel. So they may not live in a lost world with no dangers, but may need the ability to cope with external threats.

As mentioned earlier, just giving them a few additional special monk weapons doesn't do much to help them with that.

Can't they do like humanoids and gain class levels if they need to defend themselves?

But an enhanced version is cool, too!

 

[Shade]

Updated with flavor text.

 

[freyar]

Are we going to let the monks use spiked gauntlets and armor spikes as monk weapons? We could just list this in the nonproficiency.

 

[Shade]

Absolutely! I just hadn't worked it in yet.

Are there any other creatures that give special monk weapon proficiencies we can use as a model?

 

[freyar]

I do feel like I've seen something like that somewhere, but I can't figure out where.

 

[Shade]

I thought it was the buomman, but apparently not.

 

[freyar]

Can we just add the following to the nonproficiency line? "Houyhnhnms may treat spiked gauntlets and armor spikes as special monk weapons."

Also, perhaps we should also let them use regular gauntlets proficiently.

 

[Shade]

Sounds good, but I think a namechange for the ability is in order. "Nonproficiency" seems awkward when we're granting special proficiencies.

How about "Unusual Grip"?

 

[Cleon]

It looks like this one is going to get a faithful conversion and a "Cleon enhanced version".

I don't know where you could have got that idea from.

(Cleon whistles innocently while hiding a half-completed "Building a Better Houyhnhnm" write-up in a desk drawer.)

 

[Cleon]

I do feel like I've seen something like that somewhere, but I can't figure out where.

Yes, there is something very familiar about it, but I can't quite put my finger on what monster it was.

Can we just add the following to the nonproficiency line? "Houyhnhnms may treat spiked gauntlets and armor spikes as special monk weapons."

Also, perhaps we should also let them use regular gauntlets proficiently.

Yup, I've already said we should include regular gauntlets.

Sounds good, but I think a namechange for the ability is in order. "Nonproficiency" seems awkward when we're granting special proficiencies.

How about "Unusual Grip"?

Since it includes armour as well as weapons, maybe something like "Unusual Physique" would be a better name?