Special Conversion Thread: Moldvay's Undead

[Shade]

That makes good sense to me. Freyar?

 

[Cleon]

Shall we use the Dire Wolf sample instead of the Wyvern, since it seems to work better, or stick in both?

 

[Shade]

Let's use 'em all.

Updated.

Finished?

 

[freyar]

CR now looks pretty good.

I noticed that the attacks section still says it can use slams "instead" of other natural attacks when it should say "in addition to."

 

[Shade]

Fixed.

Here's the next one...

Prikolic
CLIMATE/TERRAIN: Any
FREQUENCY: Very rare
ORGANIZATION: Nil
ACTIVITY CYCLE: Night
DIET: Nil
INTELLIGENCE: Non-
TREASURE: Nil
ALIGNMENT: Neutral
NO. APPEARING: 1-6
ARMOR CLASS: 7
MOVEMENT: 6 (9 in werewolf form)
HIT DICE: 4
THAC0: 17
NO. OF ATTACKS: 1 weapon (1 bite in werewolf form)
DAMAGE/ATTACK: 1-8 (3-8 in werewolf form)
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Nil
SPECIAL DEFENSES: See below
MAGIC RESISTANCE: Nil
SIZE: M
MORALE: Special
XP VALUE: 270

The prikolics are dead werewolves that have been animated as zombies. Prikolics initially appear to be normal zombies, but there is a 25% chance each time one takes damage that it will change into an undead “wolf-man” form, dropping its weapons and biting savagely. In werewolf form, only + 1 or better or silver weapons will hit them. Cold-based, sleep, hold, charm, and all mind-affecting and death-magic spells have no effect on the prikolics, although they may be turned by a cleric as shadows. Holy water does 2-8 hp damage to these creatures.

Originally appeared in Dragon Magazine #158 (1990).


While this one theoretically could be a template, I think that will be an absolute nightmare and strongly suggest we just make it a monster.

Shade sends out psionic signals reminding others of his hatred of the 3e lycanthrope templates...

 

[freyar]

Heh. I think we can justify restricting to strict were-wolves and not all lycanthropes. This doesn't seem much more than a zombie template (minus the single action only SQ I think) applied to a werewolf with a few changes to the alternate form. What do you think?

 

[Cleon]

CR now looks pretty good.

I noticed that the attacks section still says it can use slams "instead" of other natural attacks when it should say "in addition to."

That's because it should be "instead". That's why there's an "OR" between a full attacking Dire Wolf Quick Zombie's bite and slam attacks.

 

[Cleon]

Heh. I think we can justify restricting to strict were-wolves and not all lycanthropes. This doesn't seem much more than a zombie template (minus the single action only SQ I think) applied to a werewolf with a few changes to the alternate form. What do you think?

I agree. We can restrict it to human and hybrid forms, since it says "wolf-man" and not "wolf".

 

[GrayLinnorm]

I'd make this a straight monster. It won't have any class abilities and there aren't that many other creatures a template could apply to.

Edit: forgot giants could be lycanthropes.

 

[freyar]

That's because it should be "instead". That's why there's an "OR" between a full attacking Dire Wolf Quick Zombie's bite and slam attacks.

Doesn't "instead" imply that it loses the natural attacks of the base creature?

I agree. We can restrict it to human and hybrid forms, since it says "wolf-man" and not "wolf".

Yup. And agreed with GrayLinnorm also.