Converting original D&D and Mystara monsters

[Shade]

I tried so hard, and got so far...

 

[Mortis]

Here's what we've got so far. Comments and suggestions in bold.

Malice
Tiny Undead (Incorporeal)
Hit Dice: 1d12 (6 hp)
Initiative: +5 (+5 Dex)
Speed : Fly 40 ft. (8 squares) (perfect)
Armor Class: 19 (+5 Dex, +2 size, +2 deflection), touch 19, flat-footed 17
Base Attack/Grapple: +0/-
Attack: Bite +11 melee (Spiteful Touch) – Do we want to make this a touch attack? I would suggest not – it’s dangerous enough.
Full Attack: Bite +11 melee (Spiteful Touch)
Space/Reach: 2 1/2 ft./0 ft.
Special Attacks: Spiteful Touch
Special Qualities: Damage Reduction 5/magic and silver, darkvision 60 ft., incorporeal traits, undead traits
Saves: Fort +0, Ref +5, Will +2
Abilities: Str -, Dex 20, Con -, Int 0, Wis 10, Cha 14
Skills: -
Feats: Flyby Attack (B)
Environment: Any land, underground, and aquatic – same as philosopher!
Organization: X
Challenge Rating: X
Treasure: None
Alignment: Usually neutral evil – usual for mindless undead and in keeping with 2e.
Advancement: 2-3 HD (Tiny) – reasonable?
Level Adjustment: -

Bound to Philosopher (Su): A malice can never stray more than 100 feet from the gray philosopher that created it. Should it be forcefully moved from this area, it must immediately return to within 100 feet by the fastest means possible. If the gray philosopher that created a malice is destroyed, the malice is also instantly destroyed.
A malice uses its gray philosopher’s base attack bonus and can use any skills (and feats – have we agreed to remove this?) the gray philosopher has access to. A malice uses its gray philosopher’s Hit Dice for the purposes of turning attempts (and cannot be commanded?). A malice uses its own Dexterity modifier on attack rolls with its natural weapons? – Do we need to explicitly state this as it is a feature of the incorporeal subtype

Spiteful Touch (Su): The touch of a malice deals 1d10 points of damage to good-aligned creatures, 1d8 points of damage to neutral-aligned creatures, and 1d6 points of damage to evil-aligned creatures. Additionally, it is treated as evil-aligned for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.

Thinking about CR for a moment - it looks like things may get turned on their head, with the malice getting a higher CR than the philosopher!

For Organization we should have something more evocative than 'group' - maybe something to do with thoughts? a 'jumble', a 'muddle', a 'release'... etc.

Then again I like a 'Malevolence'

I presume, BOZ, that you are going to include the malice in the grey philosopher's post in homebrews, rather than a seperate post. We're getting very close to another 10 conversions and a seperate post could mean we have to wait awhile to see the malice in all its glory.

Regards
Mortis

 

[BOZ]

Attack: Bite +11 melee (Spiteful Touch) – Do we want to make this a touch attack? I would suggest not – it’s dangerous enough.
Full Attack: Bite +11 melee (Spiteful Touch)

does it matter, though? as an incorporeal attack, would there be any difference between a bite and a touch?

Special Qualities: Damage Reduction 5/magic and silver

did we want that to be 5? or do they need a DR at all?

Abilities: Str -, Dex 20, Con -, Int 0, Wis 10, Cha 14

did we talk about the Dex, Wis, and Cha earlier? i don't remember...

Alignment: Usually neutral evil – usual for mindless undead and in keeping with 2e.

plus, it also matches what we gave the philosopher anyway.

Advancement: 2-3 HD (Tiny) – reasonable?

sure.

A malice uses its own Dexterity modifier on attack rolls with its natural weapons? – Do we need to explicitly state this as it is a feature of the incorporeal subtype

good point - we can clip that out.

Thinking about CR for a moment - it looks like things may get turned on their head, with the malice getting a higher CR than the philosopher!

it's definitely possible. or they may both be the same, at 2 or 3.

For Organization we should have something more evocative than 'group' - maybe something to do with thoughts? a 'jumble', a 'muddle', a 'release'... etc.

Then again I like a 'Malevolence'

definite possibilities.

I presume, BOZ, that you are going to include the malice in the grey philosopher's post in homebrews, rather than a seperate post. We're getting very close to another 10 conversions and a seperate post could mean we have to wait awhile to see the malice in all its glory.

yes, as a matter of fact, i just posted what i have so far, as of yesterday afternoon.

 

[GrayLinnorm]

The malice's intelligence should be -, not 0. 0 intelligence indicates a creature is helpless.

 

[Mortis]

does it matter, though? as an incorporeal attack, would there be any difference between a bite and a touch?

No - I'd just forgot that that incorporeal creature ignores armour anyway. My excuse was that I was up til 2.00am playing Neverwinter Nights 2 and got up at 6.30am for work.

did we want that to be 5? or do they need a DR at all?

Maybe not, as incorporeal they're immune to nonmagical weapons anyway.

did we talk about the Dex, Wis, and Cha earlier? i don't remember...

Not as such, but as they were my suggestions naturally they're fine. Actually I forgot to put them in bold, see 1st point for reason.

I think Wis will be 10 though, other mindless undead such as skeletons and zombies have their Wis set to 10.

it's definitely possible. or they may both be the same, at 2 or 3.

Obviously we need to see the final versions.

yes, as a matter of fact, i just posted what i have so far, as of yesterday afternoon.

That's good

The malice's intelligence should be -, not 0. 0 intelligence indicates a creature is helpless.

Good catch.

Regards
Mortis

 

[Shade]

I'd stick with DR/silver at least, since magical weapons can hit them.

Do they really need advancement? They exist only at the philospher's whims. Do they actually get larger the longer he keeps them around, or do greater philospher's create greater malices?

 

[Mortis]

I'd stick with DR/silver at least, since magical weapons can hit them.

I'm not bothered either way .

If you go for DR/silver it technically is DR/silver and magic because as you've pointed out they can only be affected by magical weapons..

Do they really need advancement? They exist only at the philospher's whims. Do they actually get larger the longer he keeps them around, or do greater philospher's create greater malices?

Some thoughts are more dangerous than others.

Regards
Mortis

 

[BOZ]

The malice's intelligence should be -, not 0. 0 intelligence indicates a creature is helpless.

Correct!

No - I'd just forgot that that incorporeal creature ignores armour anyway. My excuse was that I was up til 2.00am playing Neverwinter Nights 2 and got up at 6.30am for work.

Likely story! I can make a note in the text that they appear to bite and scratch at their foes.

Maybe not, as incorporeal they're immune to nonmagical weapons anyway.

I'd stick with DR/silver at least, since magical weapons can hit them.

I'm not bothered either way .

Me either.

If you go for DR/silver it technically is DR/silver and magic because as you've pointed out they can only be affected by magical weapons..

Right – which is what I did with the GP anyway.

Not as such, but as they were my suggestions naturally they're fine. Actually I forgot to put them in bold, see 1st point for reason.

I think Wis will be 10 though, other mindless undead such as skeletons and zombies have their Wis set to 10.

OK, we can go Dex 20, Wis 10, and Cha 14 then.

Obviously we need to see the final versions.

Naturally.

Do they really need advancement? They exist only at the philospher's whims. Do they actually get larger the longer he keeps them around, or do greater philospher's create greater malices?

Some thoughts are more dangerous than others.

Heh… advancement seems like a good idea to me. but it’s not particularly important, either. I could definitely see a malice getting more powerful as the GP gets older…

A malice uses its own Dexterity modifier on attack rolls with its natural weapons? – Do we need to explicitly state this as it is a feature of the incorporeal subtype

On second thought, yes. I think we need to state that it uses its own Dex mod, since it is using the GP’s BAB.

 

[Shade]

Likely story! I can make a note in the text that they appear to bite and scratch at their foes.

Cool.

Me either.

Right – which is what I did with the GP anyway.

Well, since I "care", let's go with silver.

OK, we can go Dex 20, Wis 10, and Cha 14 then.

That works for me.

Heh… advancement seems like a good idea to me. but it’s not particularly important, either. I could definitely see a malice getting more powerful as the GP gets older…

So bet it.

On second thought, yes. I think we need to state that it uses its own Dex mod, since it is using the GP’s BAB.

Agreed.

 

[BOZ]

you care a lot! 5/silver it is, then.

updating...