Does This Look Like a D&D Monster To You

[Zardnaar]

For the last year or so I have been mucking around with homebrew stuff and started work on a personal version of D&D before realizing it is a huge amount of work. Anyway I had a small bestiary completed and 10 or so prototype classes completed. In the end I found a d20 based clone of 2nd ed and played around with that as it was not exactly what I wanted. I also went back and reread various TSR era books from the 1st ed DMG and Unearthed Arcana through to the 2nd Ed Players option books and the BECMI Rules Cyclopedia.

After spending a year or so playing older D&D games instead of Pathfinder I kind of came to the following conclusion. The only real improvement to the game for me personally has been some of the changes made in 3.0 and by that I mean most of them could be house ruled into AD&D, BECMI or any retro clone. Things like ascending ACs, fort/ref/will saves, clerics able to cast spontaneous heal spells etc and a unified ability core system. Unified ability scores are nice but BECMI had that as well. I like a basic skill system similar to d20 era D&D just maybe not how the various d20 games have pulled it off. I pulled out my High level Campaign 2nd ed book as it had rules for modifying monsters. I started to think how I would put together and AD&D 3rd edition game/ simpler 3.0. So here is one of my creations/tweaks a Death Knight base heavily on the AD&D original just beefed up a little bit and formatted for the modern gamer.



DeathKnight


MediumUndead Sensesdarkvision 60'
HD9d12+27 hp 90
AC20
MR:75%
SavesFortitude +11Reflex +9Will +10
Speed30'
Attack: 2 Melee+15Dmg 1d8+5(+2 longsword) or by weapon
SA:Fear5',
AlignmentCELanguages Common,Abyssal, Draconic, Giant, Goblin, Infernal, Orc,
SkillsPerception+4,Ride +6
Str18 Dex 11Con 16Int 17Wis 16 Cha 14
Skills:
Equipment:full plate, steel shield
Spell Like Abilities: (20^thlevel)At will:detect magic, detectinvisibility, wall of ice, 2/daydispel magic, 1/day power word blind or death or stun, symbol of fear/pain,fireball (20d6)

Just wondering what peoples thoughts are. A decent take on a classic D&D monster, complete garbage or "thats not D&D"?

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

For the last year or so I have been mucking around with homebrew stuff and started work on a personal version of D&D before realizing it is a huge amount of work. Anyway I had a small bestiary completed and 10 or so prototype classes completed. In the end I found a d20 based clone of 2nd ed and played around with that as it was not exactly what I wanted. I also went back and reread various TSR era books from the 1st ed DMG and Unearthed Arcana through to the 2nd Ed Players option books and the BECMI Rules Cyclopedia.

After spending a year or so playing older D&D games instead of Pathfinder I kind of came to the following conclusion. The only real improvement to the game for me personally has been some of the changes made in 3.0 and by that I mean most of them could be house ruled into AD&D, BECMI or any retro clone. Things like ascending ACs, fort/ref/will saves, clerics able to cast spontaneous heal spells etc and a unified ability core system. Unified ability scores are nice but BECMI had that as well. I like a basic skill system similar to d20 era D&D just maybe not how the various d20 games have pulled it off. I pulled out my High level Campaign 2nd ed book as it had rules for modifying monsters. I started to think how I would put together and AD&D 3rd edition game/ simpler 3.0. So here is one of my creations/tweaks a Death Knight base heavily on the AD&D original just beefed up a little bit and formatted for the modern gamer.



DeathKnight


MediumUndead Sensesdarkvision 60'
HD9d12+27 hp 90
AC20
MR:75%
SavesFortitude +11Reflex +9Will +10
Speed30'
Attack: 2 Melee+15Dmg 1d8+5(+2 longsword) or by weapon
SA:Fear5',

Since you're using saving throw bonuses, this should have a save DC listed. Also, what action is it? Is it supernatural or spell-like? (It should be supernatural, because otherwise it's provoking AoOs. Or is it?)

AlignmentCELanguages Common,Abyssal, Draconic, Giant, Goblin, Infernal, Orc,

That is a lot of languages. Why so many? I don't see why it has or needs Giant, Goblin and Orc.

SkillsPerception+4,Ride +6
Str18 Dex 11Con 16Int 17Wis 16 Cha 14
Skills:
Equipment:full plate, steel shield

Spell Like Abilities: (20thlevel)At will:detect magic, detectinvisibility, wall of ice, 2/daydispel magic, 1/day power word blind or death or stun, symbol of fear/pain,fireball (20d6)

D&D? Sure. Balanced? Probably not. This is a 9 Hit Dice monster. I'm not sure what it's XP value/Challenge Rating/Slaughter Margin is, but it's not supposed to be a challenge for 20th-level PCs, I assume. So why cast as a 20th-level monster?

I would drop the Power Words entirely. I don't know what it plans to do with the Symbol spells, those are basically lair traps, but it's the kind of thing that could be useful some of the time.

This is a "melee monster" so does it really need Fireball? (Wall of Ice makes sense; it could trap PCs and then smash them into said wall. Repeatedly. Also a great way to stop archers.) The other spells (seeing invisible, dispel for debuffing) make sense.

Attacking spells should have save DCs listed (which I assume you're making relevant since it has saving throw values much like 3e).

Just wondering what peoples thoughts are. A decent take on a classic D&D monster, complete garbage or "thats not D&D"?

It's pretty similar to a 2e death knight. It's missing an XP value/Challenge Rating/Slaughter Margin though. (Those XP values in 2e and earlier were much like CR, it's just that they weren't very transparent.) A death knight is a powerful challenge and so should be worth a lot of XP.

Also, there's no organization rating. I'm assuming you're just using what's already written though. Do death knights normally come with a mount? Maybe give him a nightmare, if it's stats put it at the same "level" as the death knight.

 

[Zardnaar]

It was built tweaking the 2nd ed death knight so that is why it has 6 languages. I just picked 6 languages off the top of my head. Its spell like abilities are straight from AD&D as it had 9HD and cast them at 20th level.


Spell DCs are not listed as I have not figured out what they are. Either a flat DC20 to simulate OSR play or I might go with 3rd eds DCs and cap the DC at 20. For now assume the DC is 20. The type of action and if the effect is supernatural was not listed because the stats were lifted from 2nd ed and converted to d20. Looks like 3rd ed but its mostly AD&D stat wise. And no it is not balanced and its not supposed to be.

 

[Stormonu]

Looks pretty good, simple and elegant. I think at worst it just needs a couple of extra notes.

Say, something like this:

DeathKnight

Medium Undead
Senses: darkvision 60'
HD: 9d12+27 hp 90
AC: 20 (full plate & shield)
MR: 75%
Saves: Fort +11,Reflex +9, Will +10
Speed: 20'
Attack: 2 Melee +15
Dmg: 1d8+5(+2 longsword) or by weapon
Spec Ab:Fear 5'
Align: CE
Languages: Common,Abyssal, Draconic, Giant, Goblin, Infernal, Orc
Skills: Intimidate +5, Perception +4,Ride +6
Str 18 Dex 11 Con 16 Int 17 Wis 16 Cha 14
Equipment:full plate, steel shield
Spell Like Abilities: (CL 20)
At will:detect magic, detect invisibility, wall of ice (DC 14),
2/day: dispel magic,
1/day: power word blind (DC 18), power word kill (DC 19) or power word stun (DC 17), symbol of fear/pain (DC 18), fireball (DC 13) (20d6)

 

[Zardnaar]

Power words do not have DCs as they are no save based on hit points. As I said not sure if this is a AD&D 3rd ed hypothetical monster or a simplified 3rd ed monster. I do likeyour edit though Stormanu thanks.