Special Conversion Thread: Moldvay's Undead

[freyar]

Another mini-template, or do we think this is distinct enough for a separate monster? The peculiarity of it as well as the HD suggest separate monster to me.

Did Dark Sun ever get defiling rules in 3.X?

 

[Shade]

Separate monster sounds right.

Defiling rules are found in Dragon Magazine #315.

 

[freyar]

Care to share those?

 

[Cleon]

Another mini-template, or do we think this is distinct enough for a separate monster? The peculiarity of it as well as the HD suggest separate monster to me.

Did Dark Sun ever get defiling rules in 3.X?

Definitely a new monster.

There are 3E defiling rules in both Dragon magazine and on athas.org, both of which have WotC's blessing (at least to some extent).

We might as well settle on the basics of the monster first, though.

Medium Undead, obviously.

Their 4+4 HD suggests 4 Hit Dice plus Unholy Toughness to give it its Cha bonus as a per-HD hp bonus.

Ability-wise, I was thinking a Ghoul or Ghast would make a good foundation.

Ghast - Str 17, Dex 17, Con -, Int 13, Wis 14, Cha 16
Ghoul - Str 13, Dex 15, Com -, Int 13, Wis 14, Cha 12
​

Keep the physical scores and drop the mental ones, these are mindless so are Int 0. Drop the other two mental abilities by 2 apiece?

That would make it:

Ghastly Defiler - Str 17, Dex 17, Con -, Int -, Wis 12, Cha 14
Ghoulish Defiler - Str 13, Dex 15, Con -, Int -, Wis 12, Cha 10
​

Averaging the two would work out to something like:

Defiling Skeleton - Str 15, Dex 16, Con -, Int -, Wis 12, Cha 12
​

I bumped the Charisma up a point so it has 2 odd abilities and 2 even ones. It doesn't make any difference to it bonus-wise.

If we give them a standard Medium Skeleton's +2 natural armour they'd have AC15 with that Dex. I think I'll cut a point off its Dexterity so (a) they're AC isn't a point higher than a direct conversion of the original's AC6 and (b) most of their stats are +2 higher than a standard human Skeleton.

Defiling Skeleton - Str 15, Dex 15, Con -, Int -, Wis 12, Cha 12
​

Since these are "Undead Soldiers", should they be proficient in armour? Slapping leather armour on top of their current defences would give them AC 16, which I think is reasonable for a creature of their probably CR.

What weapons do you fancy for them - I was thinking of 2-handed weapons like Spears or Morningstars. As "Soldiers" they might be proficient in martial weapons, so we could give them Greatswords, Scythes or Heavy Flails. I don't fancy Falchions, since we've been using that weapon quite a bit recently.

EDIT: Upon reflection, I would like masterwork greatswords for their main weapon.

I'm presuming they'll have two 1d6+2 claw attacks, so a Greatsword at +1 to hit and 2d6+3/19-20 damage will be a near-equivalent. There's little point in them carrying a weaker weapon than their claws, except for ranged attacks.

Hmm... ranged attacks.

Should we give them a missile weapon too?

 

[freyar]

I'd prefer to drop Wis since they're mindless -- usually mindless critters are Wis, Cha 10, 11. I can see keeping Cha 12, but then I'd like Wis to be 9 or 10.

Leather armor should be fine. Greatsword could be good. Let's use a halberd sometime soon, too.

 

[demiurge1138]

Wait, if you dropped the Dexterity to keep the AC in line with the original, why did you add back leather armor? Keep Dex at 16 and give them the armor. With their regenerative abilities, these guys are already in a higher CR bracket than the ghast.

 

[freyar]

Good point. Let's stick to Dex 16 plus the armor.

 

[Shade]

Care to share those?

Essentially, defiled land is utterly destroyed, turned to a fine white ash. The land is sterile and won't sustain life for decades or centuries afterward.

The radius of this defilement varies based on the amount of vegetation around and the number of defiler points earned by the spellcaster.

We'd probably be best off genericizing this to something akin to blight, and can probably simplify it to a radius of 30 feet.

 

[Cleon]

Good point. Let's stick to Dex 16 plus the armor.

I can live with that.

What about a ranged weapon? I was thinking a composite bow of some kind, but am open to suggestions.

 

[freyar]

Crossbows seem to fit better for mindless monsters, but I guess I can go with a composite bow. Their CR will probably be reasonable to go with that.

As for defiling, yes, I agree with killing or damaging all plants within 30 ft (plant creatures get a save).