Converting World of Greyhawk monsters

[demiurge1138]

Humans or snakes? That screams template.

 

[freyar]

I'd agree.

Also, I think I'd rather go with normal Con damage as opposed to "Con damage that does not reduce hp." I'm fine with putting on a proviso that the Con damage only returns when regular meals are eaten, though.

 

[Shade]

Sounds good.

INTELLIGENCE: Low (5-7)

-4 Int?

Most of their minds are gone, and their only thought is of satisfying the hungering ache in their stomachs and bones.

Combat: Ravenous attack with their natural weapon nails for humans, bites or constriction for snakes.

Humanoids gain claw attacks; snakes gain no additional natural attacks?

In addition to this damage, the touch of a ravenous draws vitality from the victim, resulting in a loss of one point of Constitution; this does not cause an adjustment in the victim's hit points due to a change in bonus hit points per level.

As freyar mentioned above, reverse to normal Con damage that cannot be removed until eating.

A creature brought to 0 Constitution dies and rises as a ravenous within 24 hours unless the corpse is blessed or buried with a full meal.

Sounds like create spawn.

Only a human, humanoid, demihuman or a snake may be turned into a ravenous; a creature that rises as a ravenous has its original hit dice and THAC0; humans and demihumans become 1-HD ravenous.

Isn't that contradictory? I'd say HD are unchanged.

A ravenous can be distracted by throwing food to it normal rations are preferred to dried ones - or the use of spells such as create food and water or hero's feast.

We could modify this from the ravenous undead template in Dragon #319...

Need to Feed (Ex): A ravenous creature is driven by a consuming hunger, not a lust for battle. Whenever it slays a living opponent, the ravenous undead must succeed at a DC 15 Will save or immediately stop to eat its kill. When eating, a ravenous creature can do nothing else. It loses its Dexterity bonus to AC and does not make attacks of opportunity.

 

[freyar]

All good suggestions. I'd suggest that HD revert to racial HD (remove HD due to class levels), like skeleton or zombie, as another alternative.

 

[demiurge1138]

I think we should allow this template apply to all humanoids and animals, not just snakes.

 

[freyar]

I think we should allow this template apply to all humanoids and animals, not just snakes.

Agreed.

 

[Shade]

All good suggestions. I'd suggest that HD revert to racial HD (remove HD due to class levels), like skeleton or zombie, as another alternative.

Added to Homebrews without this, but I'm willing to change it if others prefer this approach.

 

[demiurge1138]

Reversion to racial HD sounds promising

 

[freyar]

I do think I like just going with racial HD (min 1) better.

I'd like to revist Need to Feed, given

A ravenous can be distracted by throwing food to it normal rations are preferred to dried ones - or the use of spells such as create food and water or hero's feast.
...
They hunt in packs to more easily bring down their victims, which are not eaten but drained of their life-giving properties. They have no concern for treasure.

How about this?

Need to Feed (Ex): A ravenous is driven by a consuming hunger. Whenever it can see or smell food, the ravenous must succeed at a DC 15 Will save or immediately stop to eat that food. If the food is dried or salted, such as trail rations, the ravenous has a +2 bonus on the save. When eating, a ravenous can do nothing else. It loses its Dexterity bonus to AC and does not make attacks of opportunity. Strangely, ravenous do not consider their kills to be food.

Anyway, no treasure, CR +1, warm forests, always NE, and advancement as base creature sound right (though humanoids lose class advancement, if we go with the racial HD only).

 

[Echohawk]

Just a note that there is already a "Ravenous" template in Dragon #319/Dragon Compendium, Volume 1, so this template might need a slightly name change to avoid confusion.