2008-10-16 Converting Monsters for M20 Hard Core

I’m running my group through River Into Darkness by Greg A. Vaughan. That requires me to change some stats. I thought I’d give you a quick rundown of what I used until now:

River Into Darkness by Greg A. Vaughan

+-------------------+----+----+-----+---------------------+--------------------------------+
|      Monster      | HD | AC | hp  |       damage        |             notes              |
+-------------------+----+----+-----+---------------------+--------------------------------+
| Enraged Dragonnel |  8 | 15 |  41 | 1d6/1d6/1d6         | Forget about snatching and all |
|                   |    |    |     |                     | that.                          |
| Kapoacinth Rogues |  6 | 14 |  35 | 1d6/1d6/2d6         | I think at the beginning I     |
|                   |    |    |     |                     | made some mistakes with the    |
|                   |    |    |     |                     | hitpoints.                     |
| Hippo             |  3 | 12 | n/a | 1d6                 | Party scared it away, no need  |
|                   |    |    |     |                     | to roll for hp.                |
| Elven Ranger      |  3 | 14 |   8 | 1d6                 |
| Girallion         |  7 | 13 |  35 | 1d6/1d6/1d6/1d6/1d6 | Roll claw attacks in pairs. If |
|                   |    |    |     |                     | both hit: Extra 2d6 damage.    |
| Crocodile         |  2 | 13 | n/a | 1d6                 | Our paladin (aka. cleric)      |
|                   |    |    |     |                     | killed it with a crit before I |
|                   |    |    |     |                     | could roll for hitpoints.      |
| Pygmy Keche       |  5 | 16 | n/a | 1d6/1d6/1d6         | Roll both claw attacks         |
|                   |    |    |     |                     | together. If both hit: Extra   |
|                   |    |    |     |                     | 1d6 damage. I rolled hp on the |
|                   |    |    |     |                     | fly.                           |
| Mamba             |  1 | 10 |   1 |                   1 | +8 attack vs STR defense for   |
|                   |    |    |     |                     | 1d6/1d6 STR damage             |
| Faruq as a zombie |  4 | 13 |  15 | 1d6                 | Improvised some attacks for    |
|                   |    |    |     |                     | the yellow musk creeper.       |
| Lizardmen         |  2 | 19 |   3 | 1d6/1d6             | +5 to hit because of bless and |
|                   |    |    |     |                     | superior position; AC is high  |
|                   |    |    |     |                     | because of the shield.         |
| Lizardman Shaman  |  3 | 17 |  10 | 1d6/1d6             | Casts bless, burning hands,    |
|                   |    |    |     |                     | and sleep.                     |
| Shambling Mount   |  8 | 20 |  32 | 2d6/2d6             | Immune to fire & electricity.  |
| Elven Warriors    |  2 | 11 |   7 | 1d6                 | The party killed about 15 of   |
|                   |    |    |     |                     | them before they fled.         |
| Esteban           |  6 | 10 |  32 | 1d6+2               | +8 to hit because of fighter   |
|                   |    |    |     |                     | levels.                        |
+-------------------+----+----+-----+---------------------+--------------------------------+

I really liked “converting” the monsters:

1. Pick HD

2. Use flat-footed AC if reasonable (in the range of 10-20 at the moment)

3. Determine number of attacks

4. Determine if any of them should do more than 1d6 damage

5. Pick one or two special abilities

6. Roll hitpoints

Done. 😄

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