Converting original D&D and Mystara monsters

[Cleon]

I was just thinking the DM could stack 5 ft cubes next to each other filling up an appropriate type area, rather than doing any math! While I think we're both on good terms with the square or cube root, I've seen enough people complain about multiplication to want to avoid that.

I think I'd rather make it a spread or burst, but don't really mind which of the two it is.

I'd rather the explosion be bigger for the largest booms, but for the sake of argument let's keep it simple by forgetting about splash/secondary damage and having one grade match the area of effect radius and damage of a standard fireball (i.e. 20 ft. and 5d6 to 10d6).

So the explosion would be, say, a 5 ft. radius for a 1d6 blast; 10 ft. radius for a 2d6 to 4d6 blast; 20 ft. radius for a 5d6 to 10d6 blast; 30 ft. radius for a 11d6 to 15d6 blast; and 40 ft. radius for a 16d6 or higher blast.

Are we tying the damage done to the number of morsels? I guess we could instead make the size of the explosion in feet independent of the number of morsels (maybe it just has to do with how far the fumes spread), but the damage is 1d6 per morsel or whatever. How's that?

One problem with that is the cheese can explode before it's cut into morsels.

The original basically did 1d6 damage per Hit Dice/caster level of the caprine, so how about that's the damage an entire individual vat of killer cheese does, but if it's cut up into morsels it loses a good deal of explosive potency.

I'm not sure how to avoid the giant pile of killer cheese problem. Maybe caprines don't like to work together that much? Or maybe it would be fun to have a giant explosion! Giving the cheese a 1 day expiry date might help mitigate the problem a bit.

While I'm fine with giant explosions I don't want them to be too easy. My preferred solution is to have the "vat explosion" and "morsel explosion" be scaled differently, plus have the morsels last longer. Say a day or a few hours for the vat explosion, and days or a week for the morsels. Soft unpausterised cheeses last for a few weeks in our reality but that's with the benefit of modern refrigeration.

Might as well try roughing up a rough draft…

 

[Cleon]

Killer Cheese: A caprine with a resonance score of 41 or more can play music so sour it can turn an open container of milk into cheese, creating up to 1 pound of cheese per Hit Dice of the caprine. The caprine needs a vat or bucket plus a gallon of milk per pound of cheese. After 1d4+1 rounds the cheese begins emitting concentrated fumes that smell so pungent the cheese can easily be smelled from a mile away, in indoors areas such as a dungeon the odor can be smelled from 200 feet away. Creatures with the scent ability can detect the cheese from even greater distances.

The cheese and its fumes are explosively inflammable. If an open flame comes within 10 to 20 feet of the cheese vat (roll 2d6+8 ft. per round) it ignites the concentrated fumes and the entire vat explodes, causing 1d6 damage per HD of the caprine up to a maximum equal to the pounds of cheese created or 20d6, whichever is lower; this damage is half fire and half bludgeoning because it combines intense heat and concussive force. The explosion covers a [spread or burst?] with a radius of 5 ft. for a 1d6 damage explosion; 10 ft. for 2d6 to 4d6; 20 ft. for 5d6 to 10d6; 30 ft. for 11d6 to 15d6 and 40 ft. for 16d6 or more.

After an hour [?] the cheese vat stops its intense fuming and becomes less explosive. This also happens if the cheese is cut up into chunks, normally creamy morsels that weigh one pound each. This low-explosive form of the cheese only explodes if it makes contact with fire. The damage it does varies depending on how many pounds of cheese are exploded as detailed in the Creamy Explosion table. Creamy morsels created by different caprine can be piled together to produce a larger explosion, it does not matter what vat the killer cheese came from. Killer cheese morsels remain explosive for ###. [Days or hours? Random, fixed of CL-based duration?] Its explosive properties are a spell-like ability so can be removed by dispel magic and suppressed by antimagic.

Creamy Explosion Table

Creamy Morsels	Damage (Half Fire / Half Bludgeoning)	Explosion's [Spread or Burst?]
1-2 pounds	1d6	5 ft. radius
3-5 pounds	2d6	10 ft. radius
6-9 pounds	3d6	10 ft. radius
10-14 pounds	4d6	10 ft. radius
15-19 pounds	5d6	20 ft. radius
20-24 pounds	6d6	20 ft. radius
25-29 pounds	7d6	20 ft. radius
30-34 pounds	8d6	20 ft. radius
35-39 pounds	9d6	20 ft. radius
40-49 pounds	10d6	20 ft. radius
50-59 pounds	11d6	30 ft. radius
60-69 pounds	12d6	30 ft. radius
70-79 pounds	13d6	30 ft. radius
80-89 pounds	14d6	30 ft. radius
90-99 pounds	15d6	30 ft. radius
100-109 pounds	16d6	40 ft. radius
110-124 pounds	17d6	40 ft. radius
125-139 pounds	18d6	40 ft. radius
140-159 pounds	19d6	40 ft. radius
160+ pounds	20d6 (maximum)	40 ft. radius (maximum)

Killer cheese is outstandingly delicious and remains edible for one to two weeks (1d8+6 days). Natural and magical preservatives can be used to extend this period of edibility, but no preservation technique can extend the time that killer cheese remains explosive. Dispelling the cheese's explosive spell-like properties does not affect its flavor, scent or nutritional qualities.

Empowerment: A caprine can use empower damage on a killer cheese explosion if they made all the exploding cheese themselves, a creamy explosion that uses creamy morsels made by more than one caprine cannot have its damage empowered. A caprine who uses empower spell magnitude on their killer cheese creates one additional pound of cheese for every 2 empowerment points it expends (maximum bonus +5 pounds of cheese), this does not increase the cheese vat's fuming explosion damage which is based on the caprine's Hit Dice.

 

[Cleon]

Killer Cheese: A caprine with a resonance score of 41 or more can play music so sour it can turn an open container of milk into cheese, creating up to 1 pound of cheese per Hit Dice of the caprine. The caprine needs a vat or bucket plus a gallon of milk per pound of cheese. After 1d4+1 rounds the cheese begins emitting concentrated fumes that smell so pungent the cheese can easily be smelled from a mile away, in indoors areas such as a dungeon the odor can be smelled from 200 feet away. Creatures with the scent ability can detect the cheese from even greater distances.

The cheese and its fumes are explosively inflammable. If an open flame comes within 10 to 20 feet of the cheese vat (roll 2d6+8 ft. per round) it ignites the concentrated fumes and the entire vat explodes, causing 1d6 damage per HD of the caprine up to a maximum equal to the pounds of cheese created or 20d6, whichever is lower; this damage is half fire and half bludgeoning because it combines intense heat and concussive force. The explosion covers a spread with a radius of 5 ft. for a 1d6 damage explosion; 10 ft. for 2d6 to 4d6; 20 ft. for 5d6 to 10d6; 30 ft. for 11d6 to 15d6 and 40 ft. for 16d6 or more.

After an hour [?] the cheese vat stops its intense fuming and becomes less explosive. This also happens if the cheese is cut up into chunks, normally creamy morsels that weigh one pound each. This low-explosive form of the cheese only explodes if it makes contact with fire. The damage it does varies depending on how many pounds of cheese are exploded as detailed in the Creamy Explosion table. Creamy morsels created by different caprine can be piled together to produce a larger explosion, it does not matter what vat the killer cheese came from. Killer cheese morsels remain explosive for ###. [Days or hours? Random, fixed of CL-based duration?] Its explosive properties are a spell-like ability so can be removed by dispel magic and suppressed by antimagic.

Creamy Explosion Table

Creamy Morsels	Damage (Half Fire / Half Bludgeoning)	Explosion's Spread
1-2 pounds	1d6	5 ft. radius
3-5 pounds	2d6	10 ft. radius
6-9 pounds	3d6	10 ft. radius
10-14 pounds	4d6	10 ft. radius
15-19 pounds	5d6	20 ft. radius
20-24 pounds	6d6	20 ft. radius
25-29 pounds	7d6	20 ft. radius
30-34 pounds	8d6	20 ft. radius
35-39 pounds	9d6	20 ft. radius
40-49 pounds	10d6	20 ft. radius
50-59 pounds	11d6	30 ft. radius
60-69 pounds	12d6	30 ft. radius
70-79 pounds	13d6	30 ft. radius
80-89 pounds	14d6	30 ft. radius
90-99 pounds	15d6	30 ft. radius
100-109 pounds	16d6	40 ft. radius
110-124 pounds	17d6	40 ft. radius
125-139 pounds	18d6	40 ft. radius
140-159 pounds	19d6	40 ft. radius
160+ pounds	20d6 (maximum)	40 ft. radius (maximum)

Killer cheese is outstandingly delicious and remains edible for one to two weeks (1d8+6 days). Natural and magical preservatives can be used to extend this period of edibility, but no preservation technique can extend the time that killer cheese remains explosive. Dispelling the cheese's explosive spell-like properties does not affect its flavor, scent or nutritional qualities.

Empowerment: A caprine can use empower damage on a killer cheese explosion if they made all the exploding cheese themselves, a creamy explosion that uses creamy morsels made by more than one caprine cannot have its damage empowered. A caprine who uses empower spell magnitude on their killer cheese creates one additional pound of cheese for every 2 empowerment points it expends (maximum bonus +5 pounds of cheese), this does not increase the cheese vat's fuming explosion damage which is based on the caprine's Hit Dice.

Let's see, that'd mean a basic 3 HD caprine could make a 3d6 vat explosion which they can empower damage up to 3d6+5 or create up to eight pounds of killer cheese with empower magnitude which can be detonated for 3d6 damage.

Maxed out, a 20 HD caprine using empower magnitude can create a batch of 25 pounds of cheese, enough for a 7d6 damage creamy explosion, but their fuming explosion is 20d6 (or 20d6+5 with empower damage).

For the midranks, a 12 HD caprine can create a 12d6 (or 12d6+5) vat explosion or 17 pounds of cheese for a 5d6 "standard fireball" level creamy explosion.

As for the "piling up issue". Twenty of standard 3 HD caprine all using maximized empower magnitude can produce the 160 pounds of cheese needed to pile up a 20d6 creamy explosion, or fifty four of them can do it with the non-empowered basic production of 3 pounds of cheese per caprine. Two standard caprines using max empower magnitude can create 16 pounds of cheese for a 5d6 creamy explosion, three can create 24 for 6d6, and four can create 32 for 8d6!

If the cheese remains explosive for multiple days, even a single caprine can combine vats to produce huge creamy explosions - if it remained explosive for, say, three weeks then even a single standard caprine could produce a 20d6 explosion with a little effort, a bucket, and a lot of milk.

It'd seem prudent to restrict the creamy explosiveness to a day or two at most. Maybe 4 hours per caster level? Then a basic HD 3 caprine can make cheese that remains explosive for a day (CL 1 +5 empowerment = 6, times 4 for 24 hours), a 12 HD one can manage almost 2 days with empowerment (CL 6 +5 empowerment => 44 hours) so could combine two days worth of production for 34 pounds of cheese and an 8d6 creamy explosion. A maxed-out 20 HD caprine's cheese lasts up to 60 hours (CL 10+5) so should be able to combine three days worth of production in a 75 pounds and a 13d6 creamy explosion. It'd also require a minimum of five 12-HD caprines OR three 20-HD caprines to pile up the 160+ pounds of cheese for a 20d6 creamy explosion.

It might be easier to just say killer cheese remains low-explosive for a day, so all the cheese has to be made at more-or-less the same time for a creamy explosion.

Those numbers look OK by me. We might tweak the Creamy Explosion table a bit to have it scale up faster or slower but it doesn't look excessively exploitable.

 

[freyar]

The basic framework seems good to me. I'd agree with stopping the fuming vat explosion after an hour, but I wouldn't mind up to 2 days for the morsels. 1 day is ok, though. But I wonder if there's a good way to simplify that table! I'm not seeing much of a pattern! What if we controlled things by putting a tighter maximum on the pounds of cheese created but made a simpler damage formula?

 

[Cleon]

The basic framework seems good to me. I'd agree with stopping the fuming vat explosion after an hour, but I wouldn't mind up to 2 days for the morsels. 1 day is ok, though. But I wonder if there's a good way to simplify that table! I'm not seeing much of a pattern! What if we controlled things by putting a tighter maximum on the pounds of cheese created but made a simpler damage formula?

Yes, the first attempt at the Cheeseplosion table scaled up gradually is a slow semi-exponential fashion but that makes it unmemorable.

Hmm, how about if we use linear progression in a couple of stages?

The first stage would be up to the normal 10d6 damage cap of a fireball spell. Let's say two pounds per 1d6 damage? Perhaps have a single pound of cheese explode for 1d3?

That'd be:

1 pound - 1d3
2-3 pounds - 1d6
4-5 pounds - 2d6
6-7 pounds - 3d6
8-9 pounds - 4d6
10-11 pounds - 5d6
12-13 pounds - 6d6
14-15 pounds - 7d6
16-17 pounds - 8d6
18-19 pounds - 9d6
20+ pounds - 10d6

Then we could have the next five steps (i.e. up to the 15d6 limit of a mid-level damage spell) go up at six or ten pounds per 1d6 damage.

After which we can have the increase at ten or 20-to-40 pounds per 1d6 damage up to the maximum of 20d6 (the same as an improved blast fireball).

That'd make the progression:

26-31 pounds - 11d6
32-37 pounds - 12d6
38-43 pounds - 13d6
44-49 pounds - 14d6
50-59 pounds - 15d6
60-69 pounds - 16d6
70-79 pounds - 17d6
80-89 pounds - 18d6
90-99 pounds - 19d6
100+ pounds - 20d6 maximum damage

30-39 pounds - 11d6
40-49 pounds - 12d6
50-59 pounds - 13d6
60-69 pounds - 14d6
70-79 pounds - 15d6
80-99 pounds - 16d6
100-124 pounds - 17d6 [smoothed progression, +20 step would be 100-119]
125-159 pounds - 18d6 [would be 120-159 without smoothing the +20/+40]
160-199 pounds - 19d6
200+ pounds - 20d6 maximum damage

Larger quantities of cheese do not increase the damage but might increase the blast radius following an inverse square root rule. (i.e. doubling the radius of a 100 pound cheeseblast requires 400+ pounds of cheese).

but I wouldn't mind up to 2 days for the morsels.

Two days is good. That way if the explosion progression starts at 2 pounds/1d6 as above a caprine of up to 10th CL can produce a creamy explosion as large as their vat explosion by stockpiling all the chunks they can make over two days together.

Revision:

After an hour the cheese vat stops its intense fuming and becomes less explosive. This also happens if the cheese is cut up into chunks, normally creamy morsels that weigh one pound each. This low-explosive form of the cheese only explodes if it makes contact with fire. The damage it does varies depending on how many pounds of cheese are exploded, but it does not matter what vat the killer cheese came from. Creamy morsels created by different caprine can be piled together to produce a larger explosion,. Killer cheese morsels remain explosive for 2 days. Its explosive properties are a spell-like ability so can be removed by dispel magic and suppressed by antimagic.

[#1] A single morsel of cheese explodes for 1d3 damage; 2 to 20 morsels of cheese explode for 1d6 damage per 2 morsels of cheese (up to 10d6 damage at 20 pounds/morsels); after which the explosion increases by 1d6 damage per 6 additional morsels up to 15d6 damage at 50 pounds; after which the explosion increases by 1d6 damage per 10 additional morsels up to the maximum damage of 20d6 at 100 morsels or more. [Once the 100 pound maximum is achieved, additional cheesy morsels can increase the radius of the explosion but not the damage. To multiply the radius of the explosion by X multiply the number of cheesy morsels by X squared (e.g. doubling the radius requires four times as much cheese)].

Creamy Explosion Table [#1]

Creamy Morsels	Damage (Half Fire / Half Bludgeoning)	Explosion's [Burst?]
1 pounds	1d6	5 ft. radius
2-3 pounds	1d6	5 ft. radius
4-5 pounds	2d6	10 ft. radius
6-7 pounds	3d6	10 ft. radius
8-9 pounds	4d6	10 ft. radius
10-11 pounds	5d6	20 ft. radius
12-13 pounds	6d6	20 ft. radius
14-15 pounds	7d6	20 ft. radius
16-17 pounds	8d6	20 ft. radius
18-19 pounds	9d6	20 ft. radius
20-25 pounds	10d6	20 ft. radius
26-31 pounds	11d6	30 ft. radius
32-37 pounds	12d6	30 ft. radius
38-42 pounds	13d6	30 ft. radius
44-49 pounds	14d6	30 ft. radius
50-59 pounds	15d6	30 ft. radius
60-69 pounds	16d6	40 ft. radius
70-79 pounds	17d6	40 ft. radius
80-89 pounds	18d6	40 ft. radius
90-99 pounds	19d6	40 ft. radius
100+ pounds	20d6 (maximum)	40 ft. radius [(maximum)?]
150+ pounds	20d6	50 ft. radius
225+ pounds	20d6	60 ft. radius
400+ pounds	20d6	80 ft. radius
625+ pounds	20d6	100 ft. radius
900+ pounds	20d6	120 ft. radius
1,400+ pounds	20d6	150 ft. radius

[#2] A single morsel of cheese explodes for 1d3 damage; 2 to 20 morsels of cheese explode for 1d6 damage per 2 morsel of cheese (up to 10d6 damage at 20 pounds/morsels); after which the explosion increases by 1d6 damage per 10 additional morsels up to 16d6 damage at 80 pounds; after which the explosion increases to 17d6 at 100 pounds, 18d6 at 125 pounds, 19d6 at 160 pounds and finally the maximum damage of 20d6 at 200 morsels or more. [Once the 200 pound maximum is achieved, additional cheesy morsels can increase the radius of the explosion but not the damage. To multiply the radius of the explosion by X multiply the number of cheesy morsels by X squared (e.g. doubling the burst radius requires four times as much cheese)].

Creamy Explosion Table [#2]

Creamy Morsels	Damage (Half Fire / Half Bludgeoning)	Explosion's [Burst?]
1 pounds	1d6	5 ft. radius
2-3 pounds	1d6	5 ft. radius
4-5 pounds	2d6	10 ft. radius
6-7 pounds	3d6	10 ft. radius
8-9 pounds	4d6	10 ft. radius
10-11 pounds	5d6	20 ft. radius
12-13 pounds	6d6	20 ft. radius
14-15 pounds	7d6	20 ft. radius
16-17 pounds	8d6	20 ft. radius
18-19 pounds	9d6	20 ft. radius
20-29 pounds	10d6	20 ft. radius
30-39 pounds	11d6	30 ft. radius
40-49 pounds	12d6	30 ft. radius
50-59 pounds	13d6	30 ft. radius
60-69 pounds	14d6	30 ft. radius
70-79 pounds	15d6	30 ft. radius
80-99 pounds	16d6	40 ft. radius
100-124 pounds	17d6	40 ft. radius
125-159 pounds	18d6	40 ft. radius
160-199 pounds	19d6	40 ft. radius
200+ pounds	20d6 (maximum)	40 ft. radius [(maximum)?]
300+ pounds	20d6	50 ft. radius
450+ pounds	20d6	60 ft. radius
800+ pounds	20d6	80 ft. radius
1,250+ pounds	20d6	100 ft. radius
1,800+ pounds	20d6	120 ft. radius
2,800+ pounds	20d6	150 ft. radius

Hmm, I slightly prefer progression #2 but would accept #1.

Haven't decided were I stand on the "oversized explosions".

 

[Cleon]

Oh, we didn't decide for sure whether the explosion was a Burst or Spread.

I'm currently favouring a burst since it's a fiery concussion rather than a pure incendiary effect like a fireball.

 

[freyar]

Let's just go for version 2. I wouldn't mind something simpler than a table, but it's ok. Burst is good.

Do we have anything left for this ability?

 

[Cleon]

Let's just go for version 2. I wouldn't mind something simpler than a table, but it's ok. Burst is good.

Dang it, just noticed a copy-paste error. There's a Table #1 that should be #2.

Do we have anything left for this ability?

No, I'll double-check after posting it but think we're good.

Upon reflection, the progression is clearer if I add a last line to the table "5,000 pounds ǀ 200 ft. radius" then put the "quadruple weight to double burst radius" text below the table.

There's no point continuing the table ad infinitum (20,000 lb for 400 feet, 80,000 for 800 feet…).

 

[Cleon]

Updating the Resonance Working Draft.

Decided to add a few more extra lines to the "massive explosions" end of the table.

Added a couple of intertextural references namely "(see below and the Creamy Explosions Table)" and "Even bigger bursts can be created by combining multiple batches of non-fuming killer cheese, as detailed below."

Oh, and I put in a bit more explanation with "The maximum damage of killer cheese is 20d6." and rephrasing the excessive burst radius sentence.

Oh, and the "Killer cheese is a sonic ability" required amendment, since it only applies to manufacturing the stuff.

 

[freyar]

OK, that looks fine.

Just noticed, under "Resonance Abilities" it says "Even while using bardic music that doesn’t require concentration" (my italics). Shouldn't the italicized bardic music be resonance?

Which one next, covet?

Covet: all within a 40' radius desire something or someone in the caprine's presence. A saving throw vs spells negates the effect. Those who fail become obsessed with acquiring the indicated object or gaining the company of the indicated person. How they approach the issue depends entirely on their intelligence (no mass suicides). The effect lasts one day per level of the caprine.

This doesn't seem to require playing an instrument, etc. But do we want to make the caprine take some kind of action?