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<blockquote data-quote="Razz" data-source="post: 3446668" data-attributes="member: 3014"><p>First off, I want to thank <u><strong>Ken Marable</strong></u> and the staff at Dragon for producing the article in <strong>Dragon #354</strong>, "<em>Return of the Modrons</em>". The article brought a tear to my eye as I read through it and was happy to see such a wonderful race of Law exemplars make its show in 3.5e D&D and produced the Base Modrons stats for all to use in their games.</p><p></p><p>Unfortunately, the staff at <strong>Dragon Magazine</strong> are "iffy" on producing the rest of the race. This probably comes to a shock to us modron fans and then a heavy blow afterwards...and then a wrenched gut feeling. It's horrible...I know.</p><p></p><p>There're plenty of ways for the staff at Dragon to produce the missing <strong>Hierarch Modrons</strong>, but none either want to compromise or want to say anything about what they plan to do. At the moment, things look grim and I always expect the worst. That we may never see the Hierarch Modrons come to light. At least in 3E.</p><p></p><p>So I have taken it upon myself to convert them myself. I have consulted all official D&D material I could come across about the Modrons from the 1E, 2E, and 3.0E stats, to the articles I could find in old issues of Dragon ("<em>Modron Magic</em>" being one of such articles), to using Ken Marable's article as comparisons. </p><p></p><p>Thankfully, the staff at <em><strong>Dungeon Magazine</strong></em> have produced the Tertian modron in <strong>Dungeon #144</strong> for which I can use as comparison to how their mechanics should be.</p><p></p><p>Maybe Dragon will one day produce them, but for now I am preparing myself. That, and I can't really wait any longer to start my campaign involving this race.</p><p></p><p>Now on to my notes on the conversions and then the conversions themselves.</p><p></p><p>I went and updated the Hierarchs myself for my own games since this recent let-down. I finished all the mechanics but I did try to give them other unique abilities for them rather than one being more physically, mentally, and magically superior than the one below it. As Ken had done when he produced his Base Modrons.</p><p></p><p>I want to say it's written in the old monster format for a few reasons:</p><p></p><p>1) I am still not used to the new monster format. </p><p></p><p>2) I believe the old format was easier to read</p><p></p><p>3) I'm really used to the old format...still</p><p></p><p>So there you have it.</p><p></p><p>Now for my conversion notes:</p><p></p><p>First, as I have stated before, I used everything I could find on modrons and did some research to make these conversions. Ken's article and the Tertian in Dungeon really helped out. As you can see, their stats upgrade as each rank is increased. A little natural armor, spell resistance, Hit Dice, skills, and others. Some lose out on stats, such as the Septon's strength. Since it dropped from Large to Medium I didn't see a reason for its strength to increase, for example. I did give some of them unique abilities, too.</p><p></p><p>For example, I gave the <strong>Decaton</strong> a supernatural ability to have a <em>status</em> effect on constantly with all modrons within its telepathy range. This allows it to better adjucate where it is most needed so it can use its <em>greater teleport </em> (something all hierarchs have access to) to go where it is needed to repair damaged modrons. I gave it <em>mass repair moderate damage </em> as opposed to its <em>healing circle</em> it had in 3.0 and I let it keep <em>heal</em> but it only works on constructs.</p><p></p><p>Working on the <strong>Nonatons</strong> and <strong>Octons</strong> wasn't easy. I wasn't sure if I should lose or keep the 50 ft. speed for Nonatons from their 3.0 version but decided to keep it due to their large size and three legs. </p><p></p><p>I gave Octons a swim speed, of course, and increased their maneuverability from their 3.0 version according to their descriptive text (which says they can maneuver in the air very well). I also wasn't sure if I should give them improved grab, since they both have tentacles, and was thinking of giving Octon constrict as well. So far, I have not added these to their conversions, but may do so whenever I get the chance to playtest these against my players. </p><p></p><p>I read that old Dragon Magazine article called "Modron Magic" written by Monte Cook (who also did <em><strong>Modron March</strong></em>...he really loves modrons I noticed) and read that <strong>Septons</strong> are the ones in charge of crafting magic items and spells for the modrons. So I gave it several bonus item creation feats. This idea was based off the Midgard Dwarf from <strong><em>Frostburn</em></strong>. The second one was based off of <strong><em>Book of Vile Darkness</em></strong> Grazz't, called <em>Item Mastery</em> where they can use any magic item, even spell completion items.</p><p></p><p>As for <strong>Hextons</strong>, I gave them <em>Repetitive Attack </em> as the Quadrone received in Ken marable's article, since I figure they'd be fighting machines since they're the generals of the modron armies. I was also thinking of giving them either a sort of summon ability 1/day to summon more modrons or something akin to the Marshal class, where they emit an aura that affects lawful allies into granting them bonuses to attack, damage, saving throws, or temporary hit points and the Hexton can switch between the auras as a swift action. Maybe give them the abilities of a 10th-level Marshal and the auras only affect lawful allies (or maybe just modrons?) But I realized they have strong spellcasting power so I decided to give them <em>Linked Minds</em>, which actually worked once I finished writing it in.</p><p></p><p>I am not sure what to do with <strong>Quintons</strong> and <strong>Quartons</strong> but I definitely gave them Multiweapon Fighting with Large longswords for their melee. Reading their entries, I couldn't think of anything to add to them to make them more unique from one another and the rest of the hierarchs. </p><p></p><p><strong>Tertians</strong> were already done in <em><strong>Dungeon #144</strong></em> and it was the Tertian that helped me do the ones below its ranks. I've printed it here for completion's sake.</p><p></p><p>The <strong>Secundus</strong> was the one I had real trouble on. I upgraded it to be a little more tougher than the Tertian's stats, as you can see, but wasn't sure whether to keep it possessing the abilities of a 13th-level Monk as the 3.0 version had. I thought of possibly lowering it or maybe possibly raising it. When I left it alone, however, I realized it was really powerful, as much as a Solar (which they're compared to you in the article for #354 anyway and should be, since there's only 4 of them). I may definitely have to decrease their natural armor since they now possess an AC of 50 for their high Wisdom score (I gave them Wisdom 30, 2 more than the Tertian) and +2 AC for being 13th-level Monk. Much higher than the Solar and Pit Fiend and with 20th-level Sorceror spellcasting ability with access to Cleric spells to boot...it may just be a bit too high. Well...it's only 8 higher than a pit fiend's, but if they cast <em>mage armor</em> and <em>shield</em> then it's too much lol (though a 1st-level sorceror pit fiend can pull off the same and get 48 AC, and it can wear magic items to beef it up that it possesses and solars may have 35 AC but they cast as 20th-level clerics...so maybe it's not such a big deal a Secundus has 50 AC without buffs...?)</p><p></p><p>I also gave all hierarchs Improved Toughness as one of their feats along with Great Fortitude, as per the Tertian. It makes them more formidable due to the lack of them being Outsiders (no Constitution score, all poor saves, Medium BAB).</p><p></p><p>As for their spellcasting I worked it out so Decatons cast up to 5th-level spells, Nonatons and Octons up to 6th-level, Septons and Hextons up to 7th-level, Quintons and Quartons up to 8th-level, Tertian and Secundus 9th-level.</p><p></p><p>The ones that were psionic got the Psionic subtype and equivalent Psi-Like Abilities to what they had in their 3.0 versions (as per the <em><strong>Expanded Psionics Handbook</strong></em> rules.)</p><p></p><p>It's still in working condition, at the moment, and I brought it here to share with everyone. If you have suggestions to make, feel free to give them! Like I said, these are still under construction. Comments are appreciated! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin :D" data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /> </p><p></p><p>It's at this hyperlink and it's written using Wordpad (don't ask) and it's in RTF format. Stretch the text to the page width if it looks funky.</p><p></p><p><a href="http://www.geocities.com/razzelmire/3.5HierarchModrons.rtf" target="_blank"><strong><u><span style="font-size: 18px">Hierarch Modrons</span></u></strong></a></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Razz, post: 3446668, member: 3014"] First off, I want to thank [U][B]Ken Marable[/B][/U] and the staff at Dragon for producing the article in [B]Dragon #354[/B], "[I]Return of the Modrons[/I]". The article brought a tear to my eye as I read through it and was happy to see such a wonderful race of Law exemplars make its show in 3.5e D&D and produced the Base Modrons stats for all to use in their games. Unfortunately, the staff at [B]Dragon Magazine[/B] are "iffy" on producing the rest of the race. This probably comes to a shock to us modron fans and then a heavy blow afterwards...and then a wrenched gut feeling. It's horrible...I know. There're plenty of ways for the staff at Dragon to produce the missing [B]Hierarch Modrons[/B], but none either want to compromise or want to say anything about what they plan to do. At the moment, things look grim and I always expect the worst. That we may never see the Hierarch Modrons come to light. At least in 3E. So I have taken it upon myself to convert them myself. I have consulted all official D&D material I could come across about the Modrons from the 1E, 2E, and 3.0E stats, to the articles I could find in old issues of Dragon ("[I]Modron Magic[/I]" being one of such articles), to using Ken Marable's article as comparisons. Thankfully, the staff at [I][B]Dungeon Magazine[/B][/I] have produced the Tertian modron in [B]Dungeon #144[/B] for which I can use as comparison to how their mechanics should be. Maybe Dragon will one day produce them, but for now I am preparing myself. That, and I can't really wait any longer to start my campaign involving this race. Now on to my notes on the conversions and then the conversions themselves. I went and updated the Hierarchs myself for my own games since this recent let-down. I finished all the mechanics but I did try to give them other unique abilities for them rather than one being more physically, mentally, and magically superior than the one below it. As Ken had done when he produced his Base Modrons. I want to say it's written in the old monster format for a few reasons: 1) I am still not used to the new monster format. 2) I believe the old format was easier to read 3) I'm really used to the old format...still So there you have it. Now for my conversion notes: First, as I have stated before, I used everything I could find on modrons and did some research to make these conversions. Ken's article and the Tertian in Dungeon really helped out. As you can see, their stats upgrade as each rank is increased. A little natural armor, spell resistance, Hit Dice, skills, and others. Some lose out on stats, such as the Septon's strength. Since it dropped from Large to Medium I didn't see a reason for its strength to increase, for example. I did give some of them unique abilities, too. For example, I gave the [B]Decaton[/B] a supernatural ability to have a [I]status[/I] effect on constantly with all modrons within its telepathy range. This allows it to better adjucate where it is most needed so it can use its [I]greater teleport [/I] (something all hierarchs have access to) to go where it is needed to repair damaged modrons. I gave it [I]mass repair moderate damage [/I] as opposed to its [I]healing circle[/I] it had in 3.0 and I let it keep [I]heal[/I] but it only works on constructs. Working on the [B]Nonatons[/B] and [B]Octons[/B] wasn't easy. I wasn't sure if I should lose or keep the 50 ft. speed for Nonatons from their 3.0 version but decided to keep it due to their large size and three legs. I gave Octons a swim speed, of course, and increased their maneuverability from their 3.0 version according to their descriptive text (which says they can maneuver in the air very well). I also wasn't sure if I should give them improved grab, since they both have tentacles, and was thinking of giving Octon constrict as well. So far, I have not added these to their conversions, but may do so whenever I get the chance to playtest these against my players. I read that old Dragon Magazine article called "Modron Magic" written by Monte Cook (who also did [I][B]Modron March[/B][/I]...he really loves modrons I noticed) and read that [B]Septons[/B] are the ones in charge of crafting magic items and spells for the modrons. So I gave it several bonus item creation feats. This idea was based off the Midgard Dwarf from [B][I]Frostburn[/I][/B]. The second one was based off of [B][I]Book of Vile Darkness[/I][/B] Grazz't, called [I]Item Mastery[/I] where they can use any magic item, even spell completion items. As for [B]Hextons[/B], I gave them [I]Repetitive Attack [/I] as the Quadrone received in Ken marable's article, since I figure they'd be fighting machines since they're the generals of the modron armies. I was also thinking of giving them either a sort of summon ability 1/day to summon more modrons or something akin to the Marshal class, where they emit an aura that affects lawful allies into granting them bonuses to attack, damage, saving throws, or temporary hit points and the Hexton can switch between the auras as a swift action. Maybe give them the abilities of a 10th-level Marshal and the auras only affect lawful allies (or maybe just modrons?) But I realized they have strong spellcasting power so I decided to give them [I]Linked Minds[/I], which actually worked once I finished writing it in. I am not sure what to do with [B]Quintons[/B] and [B]Quartons[/B] but I definitely gave them Multiweapon Fighting with Large longswords for their melee. Reading their entries, I couldn't think of anything to add to them to make them more unique from one another and the rest of the hierarchs. [B]Tertians[/B] were already done in [I][B]Dungeon #144[/B][/I] and it was the Tertian that helped me do the ones below its ranks. I've printed it here for completion's sake. The [B]Secundus[/B] was the one I had real trouble on. I upgraded it to be a little more tougher than the Tertian's stats, as you can see, but wasn't sure whether to keep it possessing the abilities of a 13th-level Monk as the 3.0 version had. I thought of possibly lowering it or maybe possibly raising it. When I left it alone, however, I realized it was really powerful, as much as a Solar (which they're compared to you in the article for #354 anyway and should be, since there's only 4 of them). I may definitely have to decrease their natural armor since they now possess an AC of 50 for their high Wisdom score (I gave them Wisdom 30, 2 more than the Tertian) and +2 AC for being 13th-level Monk. Much higher than the Solar and Pit Fiend and with 20th-level Sorceror spellcasting ability with access to Cleric spells to boot...it may just be a bit too high. Well...it's only 8 higher than a pit fiend's, but if they cast [I]mage armor[/I] and [I]shield[/I] then it's too much lol (though a 1st-level sorceror pit fiend can pull off the same and get 48 AC, and it can wear magic items to beef it up that it possesses and solars may have 35 AC but they cast as 20th-level clerics...so maybe it's not such a big deal a Secundus has 50 AC without buffs...?) I also gave all hierarchs Improved Toughness as one of their feats along with Great Fortitude, as per the Tertian. It makes them more formidable due to the lack of them being Outsiders (no Constitution score, all poor saves, Medium BAB). As for their spellcasting I worked it out so Decatons cast up to 5th-level spells, Nonatons and Octons up to 6th-level, Septons and Hextons up to 7th-level, Quintons and Quartons up to 8th-level, Tertian and Secundus 9th-level. The ones that were psionic got the Psionic subtype and equivalent Psi-Like Abilities to what they had in their 3.0 versions (as per the [I][B]Expanded Psionics Handbook[/B][/I] rules.) It's still in working condition, at the moment, and I brought it here to share with everyone. If you have suggestions to make, feel free to give them! Like I said, these are still under construction. Comments are appreciated! :D It's at this hyperlink and it's written using Wordpad (don't ask) and it's in RTF format. Stretch the text to the page width if it looks funky. [URL=http://www.geocities.com/razzelmire/3.5HierarchModrons.rtf][B][U][SIZE=5]Hierarch Modrons[/SIZE][/U][/B][/URL] [/QUOTE]
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