Planescape Converting Planescape monsters

[BOZ]

This thread continues my idea of “cooperative conversions” started in this thread, converting a series of monsters from similar sources. For this thread, we will be focusing on monsters that first appeared in various Planescape setting products.

What I will do is first post the creature’s original stats and flavor text. Then, I will post a basic outline of the things I think it needs, and then I will give you an opportunity to suggest stats and ideas on how powers and abilities should work. Then, I will add more to it and we will continue to discuss it until I feel it’s done and time to move on to the next. As we work on these creatures, they will be posted in this thread, and after 10 conversions are complete they will be added to the Creature Catalog. You may comment on monsters already finished, of course.

The following is a list of monsters from Planescape that haven’t yet appeared in official WotC products, the Tome of Horrors, or the Creature Catalog. You may feel free to make suggestions, but ultimately I will pick what to convert and when. If I’m missing any monsters from this list or if any of these have appeared elsewhere already, feel free to inform me.

PSMC1 - Planescape Monstrous Compendium Appendix I, 1994

Incarnates
Mediator (Mechanus, Translator)
Imp, Mephit (Smoke, Radiant, Lightning, Mineral, Ash, Mist)



PSMC2 - Planescape Monstrous Compendium Appendix II, 1995

Balaena
Demarax
Dhour
Eater of Knowledge
Ghostlight
Incantifier (Sect)
Merkhant (Sect)
Observer
Prolonger
Quill
Rager (Sect)
Razorvine
Reave
Simpathetic
Spellhaunt
Spider, Hook
Sword Spirit
Tso
Wastrel
Wraithworm



PSMC3 - Planescape Monstrous Compendium Appendix III, 1998

Bzastra
Chososion
Darklight
Devete
Dharum Suhn
Egarus
Facet
Fundamental
Garmorm
Homunculous, Elemental (Breather, Skin)
Klyndes
Magran
Menglis
Nathri
Ooze Sprite
Opposition
Phirblas
Primal
Quasielemental, Negative (Ash, Dust, Salt, Vacuum)
Quasielemental, Positive (Lightning, Mineral, Radiance, Steam)
Ruvkova
Scile
Shad
Shocker (Contented One, Sojourner) (one type was in RttTEE?)
Sislan
Suisseen
Tsnng
Ungulosin
Vacuous
Wavefire


Planes of Chaos, 1994 (PS boxed set)

Chaos Imp


Planes of Law, 1995 (PS boxed set)

Busen
Gear Spirit
Moigno
Parai


Planes of Conflict, 1995 (PS boxed set)

Aeserpent
Buraq
Delphon
Ethyk
Gautiere
Linqua
Ni'iath
Warden Beast


Hellbound- The Blood War (boxed set, 1996)

Darklore


In the Cage: A Guide to Sigil

Executioner’s Raven
Aoskian Hound
Astral Streaker
Arcadian Pony


A Guide to the Ethereal Plane

Ether Horse
Meme
Neth’s Child (Nethling)
Rabbiun

 

[BOZ]

first up is the lesser tanar'ri known as the bulezau!

TANAR’RI, BULEZAU (LESSER)
CLIMATE/TERRAIN: The Abyss
FREQUENCY: Uncommon
ORGANIZATION: Group
ACTIVITY CYCLE: Any
DIET: Carnivore
INTELLIGENCE: Low – Average (5-10)
TREASURE: A
ALIGNMENT: Chaotic evil

NO. APPEARING: 3-12
ARMOR CLASS: -1
MOVEMENT: 9
HIT DICE: 7+3
THAC0: 13
NO. OF ATTACKS: 4 or 3
DAMAGE/ATTACK: 1d4+1/1d4+1/2d8/1d3 or 2d8/1d3 and weapon +6
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Head-butt, rage
SPECIAL DEFENSES: Struck only by +1 or better weapons
MAGIC RESISTANCE: 25%
SIZE: L (8’ tall)
MORALE: Fanatic (17-18)
XP VALUE: 9,000

Bulezau tanar’ri are born and bred to fight in the Blood War. With the exception of the vrocks, bulezau are the toughest front-line troops of the tanar’ri hordes. Bulezau are used as heavy infantry, assault leaders, and personal guards; they lack the mobility or magical prowess of a similar band of vrocks, but they’re strong and fearless bashers who’re too stubborn and stupid to ever give up.
A bulezau resembles a minotaur, but it’s gaunt and skeletal, and its flesh is filthy and diseased. The creature isn’t covered with fur, but instead with patches of wiry bristles over battered, boil-covered skin. Its feet are clawed, not hoofed, and it has a long, serpentine tail with a clump of iron-hard spines at its end. The bulezau’s horns and head are more ramlike than bul1-like, and its mouth is filled with small, needle-sharp fangs. Bulezau are often armed with great tridents, pole arms, or morning stars of wicked design.
Bulezau can speak the common trade-jargon of the planes with difficulty or communicate with a weak form of empathy at will. It’s a good idea for a cutter to make out like he understands the bulezau perfectly no matter how animallike its speech is, since it’s not a patient basher. If a bulezau decides it’s easier to tear the arms off a sod than talk to him it won’t wait long to act on its impulses.

COMBAT: Bulezau are built for a fight. They can deal out raw damage just as well as many kinds of greater or true tanar’ri, but their chief vulnerability’s found in the hollow space between their ears. Strategy, discipline, and common sense’ve got no place in the world of a bulezau, and if there’s anything
dumber than a bulezau, it’s two of ’em together. ’Course, strength and energy’ll make up for a lot of failings of strategy, and that’s an approach bulezau are happy to take.
Like all tanar’ri, bulezau suffer no damage from nonmagical fire, electricity, or poison. Cold, magical fire, and gas cause only half damage to a bulezau.
Unarmed bulezau strike with each of their clawed forelimbs for ld4+1 points of damage, deliver a powerful head-butt for 2d8 points of damage, and lash out with their bristly tails for another ld3 points of damage. If the bulezau rolls a natural 19 or 20 with its head-butt, it knocks a man-size or smaller opponent back 5 to 10 feet (d6+4) and stuns the sod for 1 to 3 rounds. If the bulezau’s armed, it substitutes the weapon attack for its claw attacks. Bulezau weapons’re huge (size H) and inflict double normal damage, +6 for the creature’s Strength. A bulezau fighting with a morning star’ll do 4d4+6 points of damage with a hit. The bulezau can also butt and lash with its tail in the same round.
Once a bulezau’s in a fight, it’s likely to go berserk. There’s a 25% chance each round that it goes on a rampage of destruction, refusing to stop until either it or its opponent is dead. This rises to a 75% chance in a round in which a bulezau takes damage without managing to hit its foe. (They don’t take failure well.) A berserk bulezau’s Armor Class falls to 1, since it ignores any defensive tactics whatsoever, but it gains a +2 bonus to all attack rolls. While berserk, the bulezau gains a +4 bonus to its saving throws versus any fear, emotion, or mind-affecting spells, including hold monster and the like. The bulezau doesn’t recover from its rage until all opponents are dead, routed, or the bulezau’s been unable to engage in melee for 5 rounds or more.
In addition to the powers common to all tanar’ri, bulezau can use the following spell-like abilities (at will unless otherwise specified) at the 7th level of ability: cause fear, command, detect invisibility, shout (l/day), and wall of fog. Bulezau be injured only by cold iron or weapons of + 1 or better value. Once per day they can attempt to gate 1 to 3 rutterkin (40%) or 3 to 12 dretches (60%) with a 25% chance of success.

HABITAT/SOCIETY: Bulezau are quarrelsome, bullying creatures that often fall into lethal disagreements with each other. Only the authority of a powerful greater or true tanar’ri can keep them from each other’s throats, and even then only if the promise of battle is near. Bulezau live for combat, and regard all other activities as a waste of time. They make poor pickets, sentries, or scouts since they’ve got no patience for waiting around or attempts at stealth - if a bulezau sees an enemy, it charges, and if it doesn’t see an enemy, it goes looking for one.
Bulezau may be difficult troops to keep control of, but they’re very good at what they do. Once committed to a battle, they hold nothing back and plunge into the thick of the fight with reckless abandon. For a tanar’ri commander, the bulezau are a slavering band of maniacs that’ll attempt any attack and never retreat, no matter how long the odds are. Loyalty of that kind is hard to find in the Abyss, even if it’s uncontrollable bloodlust instead of iron discipline.
With a strong and charismatic commander, bulezau can hold themselves in check – just barely. High-ups in the Abyss sometimes create a ruthless and fanatical guard of bulezau, deciding that it’s worth the headaches to have such capable and loyal (for tanar’ri) fighters at their beck and call.

ECOLOGY: It’s rumored that the tanar’ri lord Baphomet, the patron demipower of minotaurs, was responsible for the creation of the bulezau. The chant goes that Baphomet bred his Minotaur servants with some of the tanar’ri in his service, but there’s no way to know if this’s a peel or not. It‘s also said that Baphomet maintains a bodyguard of fierce bulezau of unusual loyalty and discipline.
Bulezau are generally well-regarded by tanar’ri of higher station, since bulezau pursue the Blood War with so much enthusiasm that a more subtle tanar’ri can drop out of sight when they’re around. Tanar’n commanders place a high value on bulezau formations and go out of their way to gather such units when possible. On the other hand, less powerful tanar’ri rarely want to be anywhere near a bulezau since the creature’s likely to fly off into a murderous rage at the least provocation, regardless of the consequence. There’ve been engagements where more dretches and rutterkin were lost to bulezau impatience than to baatezu action.
Bulezau’ve got a bitter rivalry with vrocks, and encounters between the two almost always break out into a fight unless there are baatezu nearby to deal with.



here are some preliminary stats for the bulezau:

Demon, Bulezau
Large Outsider (Chaotic, Extraplanar, Evil, Tanar’ri)
Hit Dice: 7d8+X (X hp)
Initiative: +X
Speed: 25 ft (5 squares)
Armor Class: 21 (-1 size, +X Dex, +X natural), touch X, flat-footed X
Base Attack/Grapple: +7/+17
Attack: X
Full Attack: 2 claws +12 melee (1d4+6), and gore +7 melee (2d8+3) and tail +7 X melee (1d3+3); gore +12 melee (2d8+6) and tail +7 X melee (1d3+3) and weapon +X melee (?)
Space/Reach: 10 ft/5 ft (may use reach weapons)
Special Attacks: Headbutt, rage, spell-like abilities, summon tanar’ri
Special Qualities: Damage reduction X/cold iron or good, darkvision 60 ft, immunity to electricity and poison, resistance to acid 10, cold 10, and fire 10, spell resistance 16, telepathy 100 ft.
Saves: Fort +X Ref +X Will +X
Abilities: Str 22 Dex X Con X Int 8 Wis X Chr X
Skills:
Feats: Improved Critical (headbutt) plus 2 more (Multiattack?)

Environment: Infinite Layers of the Abyss
Organization: 3-12
Challenge Rating: X
Treasure: Standard
Alignment: Always chaotic evil
Advancement: 8-14 HD (Large); 15-21 HD (Huge)
Level Adjustment: +X

 

[Shade]

Sweet, a fiend! You made my day.

For starters, lets give our stat block guy a Huge trident (3d6/x2).

Here's a start on some of the abilities.

Summon Tanar'ri (Sp): Once per day a bulezau can attempt to summon 3d4 dretches or 1d3 rutterkins with a 25% chance of success. This ability is the equivalent of a 4th-level spell.

Spell-Like Abilities: At will—cause fear (DC 11+Cha), command (DC 11+Cha), fog cloud (DC 12+Cha), see invisibility; 1/day—shout (DC 14+Cha). Caster level 7th. The save DCs are Charisma-based.

 

[BOZ]

For starters, lets give our stat block guy a Huge trident (3d6/x2).

not a morning star?

 

[Shade]

not a morning star?

A morning star is fine, but there just aren't enough landlubbin' trident wielding monsters out there nowadays.

Gotta go for the day. I look forward to seeing the developments of this beastie tomorrow.

 

[Krishnath]

As this seems like a though bugger, I suggest giving it a con of 18.

As for future conversions, I humbly suggest the Shadowdrake, but that's not really surprising is it

 

[Shade]

As this seems like a though bugger, I suggest giving it a con of 18.

I'd go even higher. The babau, which is described as "sneaky and sly", and is a Medium CR 7 tanar'ri, has a Con score of 20. Since the bulezau is tough and size Large, I'd recommend a Con score of 24.

For its other stats, maybe Dex 8, Int 5, Wis 13, Cha 13?

 

[Shade]

Comparing this guy to the other demons, a thought popped into my head. Are we going to have to beef him up a bit, since most of the other demons got a power boost in 3.5? These guys are supposed to be about as tough as vrocks, which gained 2 HD, 4 Str, 7 Con, and its attacks bumped by 1 damage die. If so, should we do a straight 3E conversion, then work on upgrading it to be on par with 3.5 demons?

 

[Leopold]

As this seems like a though bugger, I suggest giving it a con of 18.

As for future conversions, I humbly suggest the Shadowdrake, but that's not really surprising is it

boz don't do dragons

 

[BOZ]

here are a few earlier 3e conversions of bulezau for reference...

http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=58016

http://www.planewalker.com/ps3e/monsterDetail.asp?id=53

http://66.34.111.89/Eric/conversions/Bulezeau_demon.rtf