Exit 23 Winter Demon, in d20 Modern?

[Roudi]

I've got a d20 Dark*Matter game ready to go (inspired heavily by John Rogers' excellent story hour, which is linked in my sig). I'm opening the game with a localized version of the Exit 23 adventure, but I'm stuck as to how to stat out the Winter Demon. I have the Alternity version of the adventure, but that system is boggling my mind, so I'm having trouble converting the stats. I CAN play fast and loose with the demon's stats, but I'd rather have something consistent to work from.

If anyone has converted this monster previously, or has some conversion suggestions, I would greatly appreciate the help. I've preordered d20 Dark*Matter, but I can't wait until September! The clamoring masses want me to run a game NOW!

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I am running Killing Jar.

In one encounter scene, it says an NPC gets nervous if three or more PCs show up. So I get the impression that Alternity adventures might not have assumed a group of four or so PCs, but something smaller.

There's only one winter demon. Even with decent DR (DR 5/silver, for instance) the PCs will kill it easily.

I suggest making several weaker winter demons then.

Anyway, what level? We can't convert if we don't have a target CR.

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

Okay, here's a conversion I did.

Just did, actually. I went with a 5hd/CR4 Winter Demon, which seemed about "right". It has a Def of 21 and DR 10/Silver, so if we've got 1st-2nd (maybe 3rd) level standard d20Modern characters, he'll both be rather hard to hit and hard to hurt. Used the conversion doc (what of it there is) to do it.

I mean, the original Winter Demon in Alternity had "Good" armor (more or less DR) but didn't have huge HP (not a health bonus, anyway). 12 Stun, 12 Wound, 6 Mortal. He depended on that damage step-down plus armor to pretty much reduce everything coming in to nil. I figure DR 15 would be too much.

If we're using something close to the pregens from the D*M book, we've got some 2d6 handguns and a 2d8 shotgun and a 2d8 assault rifle ... average damage 7 and 9 ... so we've got a better than 50% chance on any particular hit of doing no damage at all.

We've only got about 40hp to work with here, but the key to the adventure is to have the beast spring out randomly and jack up a character and fade into the snow again.

The big thing is I added an autofire icicle attack. The original can throw 3 of them in a round at growing penalties ... I figure a -4 AoE style attack would be about as good there.

--fje

 

[arwink]

When I ran it, I converted the stats for a Winter Wolf from the d20 Fantasy SRD. AFter that, it was a simple matter of giving it damage reduction 10/silver, immunity to cold, and the ability to transform into a cloud of snow as a move-action (treated as gaseos form with a faster fly speed).

I think I gave it a fairly limited form of regeneration as well, but I don't really remember terribly well.

 

[arscott]

I am running Killing Jar.

In one encounter scene, it says an NPC gets nervous if three or more PCs show up. So I get the impression that Alternity adventures might not have assumed a group of four or so PCs, but something smaller.

More likely, Alternity just assumes that not every party member is going to be involved in every encounter. Six pregens are included with Exit 23, and the game runs smoothest if you've got at least four of them.

I favor a Winter Demon with a Challenge Rating 2 higher than the Average Party Level (3 if the party is well equipped to handle the demon). The thing should be downright deadly.

I've attached the version I used (he went up against a party of non-well-optimized 1st level characters). I build him using the guidelines for fiends in d20 Modern, which I've come to realize break down at very low levels in certain respects. This guy definately needs a lot less armor--I'd drop it's natural armor by 5 or 7 points.

 

[Peterson]

My personal advice?

If Heap and/or Arwink gives stats, run those. In my (not-so-humble) opinion, no one knows D*M (or the conversion from Alternity to d20 Modern) than Heap, though Arwink runs a solid second.

In fact, I'm running a campaign now, using Exit 23 right now, using stats Heap wrote up for the Winter Demon and its working perfectly. Simply perfectly.

Again, just my personal advice.


Peterson

 

[reanjr]

In one encounter scene, it says an NPC gets nervous if three or more PCs show up. So I get the impression that Alternity adventures might not have assumed a group of four or so PCs, but something smaller.

In my experience, the party splits up way more often in Alternity than in d20. This might be the reason as well.

 

[Roudi]

I knew I forgot something in my original post.

I've created six new pregens who have ability scores, starting occupations, Int mod x 4 skill points, one starting feat, and an equipment package. They have no class levels. They're lower than ordinaries at the moment... let's call them level 0 characters. The idea was that they'd enter a class upon recruitment to the Hoffman Institute.

So, my ideal Winter Demon is somewhere between CR 1/2 and 1 (maybe I don't have much respect for the summoning strength of the Treize Corbins).

There's a 2d6 pistol and a 2d10 hunting rifle present among the characters. Localizing the adventure to Canada means that firearms are sparser.

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

Well in the adventure, the point isn't really to fight and kill the Winter Demon. The point is to SURVIVE the Winter Demon by outsmarting the situation. From running the adventure, it seems like most groups eventually try to fight the thing with fire, and the notes on fighting it say that it recoils from fire. After they've figured that out, the best bet is usually to keep the thing away while doing what needs to be done. The Good armor of the thing in Alternity, and the difficulty in dousing it in gas and setting it on fire, meant that a frontal assault usually meant you got slaughtered. Both of its natural attacks are about as powerful as a handgun (thus my 1d8+4 conversion) while even the best attacks would be doing just a few Wound damage, usually only Stun.

I figure it should be a Large creature, if it is going to be scary at all, and the minimum HD for a Large Outsider is 2d8. The best I could do with the CR was 2. I cranked down the HP to less than half, dropped the Str by 2 points, dropped the claw by one die, and lowered the other scores by similar amounts (including the natural armor bonus).

--fje

 

[Roudi]

Very nice work, Heap. I think I'll work with your Weak Winter Demon. If they try and assault the thing, well... I can't stop natural selection.

All right. My game is finally ready to start. Let's hear it for Dark*Matter!