Converting original D&D and Mystara monsters

[Cleon]

Looks done!

I agree, time we let it curl up and wait for a party of adventurers while we move on to the next conversion.

 

[Shade]

Time to convert the master naga. The stat block is really for a standard naga, so can be largely ignored. There is very little to go on, so we're free to get creative. A template to add to any type of naga, perhaps?

Naga
Armor Class -- 5
Move: 15"
Hit Point: 36
Magic Ability: (See Below)
Fighter Ability: 6th Level
Psionic Ability: Class 6

Naga are of 3 different types: the guardian Naga is a creature found in temples about 20" long and spits poison, bites, or constricts; Water Naga live deep below the surface of lakes and streams and use spells as a Thaumaturgist; the master Naga has 7 cowled heads and can use cleric and wizard spells as a 10th level magic user or cleric. This last snake can regenerate 5 points per melee round and wears all of its treasure in its cowl in the form of giant gems with the older the snake the more valuable the gems.

Originally appeared in Supplement IV: Gods, Demigods, Heroes (1976).

 

[demiurge1138]

So, is this going to be a template or a creature? If it's a creature, is it going to be more or less powerful than the ha-naga in the Epic SRD?

 

[freyar]

Template is an interesting idea, but I had been thinking monster. As far as power level, there's a nice gap we could fill in the SRD nagas by pegging this at 15-17HD, so less than the ha-naga.

 

[demiurge1138]

Sounds good to me.

 

[Shade]

The template idea was that you could have a master of each type, such as "master spirit naga", "master dark naga", and "master guardian naga". But a monster in the 15-17 HD range sounds fine.

Size and HD should probably place it between these two:

Guardian Naga: 10 HD, L, Str 21, Dex 14, Con 19, Int 16, Wis 19, Cha 18
Ha-Naga: 20 HD, C, Str 27, Dex 38, Con 32, Int 35, Wis 31, Cha 36

So maybe Huge, Str 29, Dex 26, Con 25, Int 26, Wis 25, Cha 28?

 

[freyar]

Looks good! 16 HD?

 

[Shade]

Sure!

the master Naga has 7 cowled heads and can use cleric and wizard spells as a 10th level magic user or cleric. This last snake can regenerate 5 points per melee round and wears all of its treasure in its cowl in the form of giant gems with the older the snake the more valuable the gems.

Guardian nagas cast spells as 9th-level sorcerers, and can also cast spells from the cleric list and from the Good and Law domains. The cleric spells and domain spells are considered arcane spells for a guardian naga, meaning that the creature does not need a divine focus to cast them.

Spells: Ha-nagas can cast spells as 21st-level sorcerers, and can also cast cleric spells and spells from the domains of Chaos and Evil as arcane spells

So maybe cast spells as 15th-level sorcerers, and can also cast spells from the cleric list and from the two domains?

Fast healing 5?

 

[freyar]

That all sounds right. The question is, what alignment and domains? We could go true neutral and pick Scalykind and something else, but we might want to think about flavor for this.

 

[Shade]

Good point. We could offer variety, noting different domains for different alignments.

I just remembered to look at the nagahydra, and we might be treading a bit too closely on its turf:

Huge, 18 HD, Str 30, Dex 14, Con 20, Int 16, Wis 19, Cha 21

Nagahydras cast spells as 15th-level sorcerers, and can also cast spells from the cleric list and from the Destruction and Scalykind domains. A nagahydra can cast one spell per round per head, but all spells come from the common pool of spells available.