#first time that I remember the dnd classes of the original matched up to the dungeonbreakers | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

reversemoon255 · 3 years

Photo

(This is the final of a three-part series chronicling the development and ideas behind “Dungeons ‘n’ Dragonites,” a Pokémon DnD campaign. This last entry will be about the final string of encounters, some of the later ideas for story elements, and a deep dive into the overarching themes of the campaign’s Starters. Speaking of, the fantastic art of them, along with many of the other original Pokémon seen here, was done by @extyrannomon on Twitter, and I highly suggest you check them out.)

Dungeons ‘n’ Dragonites - Phase 3: Fauxchemine

Like the Queen Durant, the Steelix/Glacix fight would have been a transitory battle between phases of the campaign, taking place right before the Starters were about to evolve for the final time. Glacix was an idea I came up with early in development. As Rock, Steel, and Ice have a relationship throughout Pokémon, having Onix evolve into a specially tanky Ice-Type rather than the physically tanky Steelix made sense. This was also a design I put a lot of work into the actual proportions, like stretching its face vertically as Onix is circular, and Steelix is horizontally stretched. Also, as Steelix has two long spikes on every other segment, Glacix has four smaller spikes in the same pattern.

Glacix was also the first of the four penultimate boss encounters before the close of the campaign, each representing one of the four sacred beasts of Chinese mythology. I thought it would be a pattern that players could recognize and possibly plan ahead for. Glacix was always planned as the Phase 2-to-3 transitory boss, but I actually had roughly prototyped the other three before I realized Glacix fit into role of the Azure Dragon (which I was missing).

The second of the bosses, representing both the Black Tortoise and Rare Variants, was a Dire Torterra. The idea was this Torterra was symbiotic, housing a Sudowoodo instead of a tree, and hiding its identity was a shiny Altaria capable of Mega Evolving thanks to the Key Stone that had replaced one of Torterra’s stone spikes. This was a rough concept, and I’m sure it would have changed drastically by the time the players would actually encounter it.

Third, representing both the White Tiger and Ultra Beasts, was Shora (from Shodo and Tora, the Japanese words for calligraphy and tiger). A pure white tiger that paints floating, metal stripes above its body with its brush-like tail. This was an idea I was very happy with, though I lacked the artistic abilities to render it effectively. If I remember correctly, the markings above its shoulder were based on the Kanji for Tiger. I also hadn’t settled on an ability for it, which was key for depicting Ultra Beasts in this campaign.

And the last of the penultimate bosses was Phanic, being a second Ultra Beast and representing the Vermilion Phoenix. Sadly, I had little planned for this guy apart from some concept designs, like the rest of them. I was working on these as the campaign was starting, and didn’t pursue finishing them after its premature conclusion.

Phanic (from Phoenix and Panic) is actually an Ostrich. If you picture a phoenix, you typically imagine great plumes of feathers around the head, wings, and tail, which are all things Ostriches specifically lack, and I wanted to subvert that typical depiction. I liked the idea that when it was startled, it would scatter its feathers resulting in an exclamation point forming using the spot on its face. It was supposed to seem unassuming compared to the many larger and more imposing bosses, though just as dangerous. Also, it was Electric-Type because it is frequently “shocked” *Ba-dum-tish.*

=====

Let’s talk about our players. One of the backstory elements our Grass Trainer, Ethan, had was that his parents’ restaurant was struck by lightning and destroyed some time before he went to school, and saw a Pokémon at that time. This left him with a fear of lightning (ironically picking an Electric-Type Starter). With this knowledge, and as I was using Ultra Beasts, I altered his backstory slightly so that it was caused by a Xurkitree, and would eventually encounter one during the campaign with his victory over it (probably with a lot of Wisdom Saves) curing his phobia.

Johnny, our Fire Trainer, had a goal of becoming an entertainer, but was vague about what kind. I had an idea for a “Streamer” Trainer Class he could run into. Someone who uses their Rotom Phone to live stream battles and get reactions and advice from their chat. (Let’s face it, if Pokémon were real, this would totally be a thing.) There was also DJ Tomomitsu, who runs Stelopy City’s Trainer Radio, and was a Gym Leader. The idea was to present a bunch of different Pokémon-based entertainment ideas and professions and have him decide which ideas he liked and wanted to pursue.

While our other players were aiming for careers, Orion, our Water Trainer, was more interested in exploring his relationship with his family. His father in particular; both he and his wife being high-ranking executives for Silph Co., and raising their children to also be successful. However, Orion had always wanted to be a Trainer, and it was his parents that prevented him from adventuring. I had it that his father was so against the idea was because he, too, was a Trainer in his youth. But not a successful one, failing many more times than he succeeded, and didn’t want his son to suffer the same disappointments as he did. His partner was Rhyperior, btw.

Lastly was our Fairy Trainer, Arthur. He wanted to be a Gym Leader, and cited specific interest in the Galar League. He also mentioned in his back story that his father was belligerent and against the idea. While the Leaders of the Galar League are entertainers by profession, if you look at the list of Gym Leaders and Kahunas in US equivalent regions, almost all of them have a profession and run Gyms on the side:

(Restaurant Owner, Museum Curator, Artist, Model, Business Tycoon, Pilot, Actor, Teacher, Rock Star, Mayor, Shop Owner, Police Officer; 12/15)

It felt like a hobby, rather than a career, and I ran with this idea as it seemed like Arthur and his obsession with the Galar League hadn’t noticed this fact (nor had his player), but his father had and was pushing him into a sports-based career (one that is usually lucrative and has off-seasons) so he could have a well-paying job and time on the side for his interests, similar to Orion’s father.

Though, no DM can control their players, and even by the end of our fist session I could tell I would have to change some things. It’s just good to have some idea of where to lead everyone, and adjust as you go.

=====

There’s one more Pokémon I want to talk about before we get to the Starters.

This is Necrotiti (Combining Necro with the Egyptian God Nefertiti), an evolution of Cofagrigus, evolving if it’s holding an item called the “Ceremonial Jar” (literally a jar filled with Yamask’s human intestines). It was meant to evolve from the Yamask they could catch during their museum field trip. The reason it exists is... silly. It’s another instances where I wanted to surprise my players, and giving the “Gardevoir Treatment” to what I consider the creepiest Pokémon was funny (which I feel is a reason I cite a lot). And I was really happy with this design, which is why it got commissioned.

A lot of the original ideas I had for this campaign were meant to either surprise or creep out my players. Everyone I was playing with knew Pokémon very well, so I had this fear that if I presented them with a standard adventure they would either become bored or be able to easily predict where things were going. Having a Pokémon adventure within a single city, having it be more a mystery than a collect-a-thon, and using new Pokémon were all ways I came up with to keep interest high and have them guessing as to what would happen next.

Back to Necrotiti, despite having a sarcophagus Pokémon, we didn’t get a mummy. I wanted to make the body effeminate without being overly so, which is why her body is very geometrical in specific areas. For the mask, I went with a typical Egyptian Nubian motif mixed with some of the overall design elements and basic lines from Yamask, and the colors and patterns from Cofagrigus. But despite how much I like it, I don’t know if I would have used it. It didn’t match the Mutant Evolution concept, with its only similarity being that it’s a rare occurrence.

Onto the Starters: Epipesis has evolved into Drachenura (from Dragon, Lichen, and Meganeura). Grass Starters are typically based on extinct animals, and Flymph’s line is based on a Meganeura (an ancient species of giant dragonfly). Apart from some bulking out and additional colors, the lichen sacks in its tail are now yellow, as the plant matter has evolved with it. It supplies it with so much energy that it has to constantly move while the sun’s up to burn it off. Its tail tip is also based on the X-15, the fastest aircraft to date, as it was designed to be the fastest Grass-Type.

Steared has evolved into Auradiat (from Aura, Auroch, and Radiate). Now a Fire/Ice-Type, it’s based on an extinct species of cattle found around the time of the Ice Age. Its ability to absorb energy with its horns has become so powerful that they have frozen over. When I was originally designing it, I was actually trying to base it on the phrase “Irish Bull” (meaning a paradoxical statement), but as I kept working on it, it became more and more Minotaur-like, so I kept the Fire/Ice-Typing and dropped the more abstract elements. As I did, I actually made it more bull and less Minotaur since all Fire Starters are bipedal, and I wanted to try and avoid that.

Knaval has evolved into Chivalazuli (from Chivalier, the French word for knight, and Lapis Lazuli). This was probably my favorite example of features naturally changing as it evolves, with the antenna growing longer and the shield and lance growing harder (going from carapace, to stone, to crystal). Some of the things you might not have noticed at first glace were his forelegs becoming sub-arms on his chest, him gaining the lobster nose and it becoming a face guard, and how his eyes recess into his head. Also, almost every Starter is symmetrical (apart from patterns), with the only exception being Torterra, so I designed it to be asymmetrical throughout.

And Uteteo has evolved into Makutah (from the Aztec naming scheme used for their Gods of wealth and abundance and Utahraptor). He’s Fairy/Flying, with the gold adornments that first appeared on Uteteo now on his head and arms, giving him a more bird-like appearance. The idea was to have him naturally evolve from a Dinosaur into a bird, with the leg bands making them look more like talons, and the face mask giving him a beak. Also, he starts out with the singular sickle toe raptors are known for, and gets a new one every evolution, ending with a full set.

The thing that sets these Starters apart from ones you’d find in the games is that these are designed to be a team. As such, there are a few themes they all share to help reinforce that. (This ignores Utaw, but) All the Starters, throughout their evolutions, have a distinct yellow detail on their heads (eyes, nose ring, and antenna). Furthermore, once they reach their final stages, they share colors between them, with Drachenura having red on its extremities, Auradiat having blue neck fur, and Chivalazuli having flecks of green in its gemstone. And on top of that, they also all have two overarching themes. First is they all represent different time periods, with Drachenura being pre-humans (Precambrian), Auradiat being prehistoric humans (Ice Age), and Chivalazuli being more modern (Medieval Period). Secondly they all represent DnD, with a Dragon(fly), Auradiat filling the role of a minotaur and its connection to a labyrinth/dungeon, and the adventurous knight who traverses them.

There’s also reasoning behind their types, as all three’s secondary Types are also strong against their usual counterpart (Grass and Electric are both strong against Water, Fire and Ice against Grass, and Water and Rock against Fire). Furthermore, Electric, Ice, and Rock are all strong against Flying, which is the reason behind Makutah’s Type (a joke against the player who joined late).

Makutah does fit into these themes, but more loosely as it was created later. Utaw and Uteteo lack the yellow facial details (though they do have yellow eyes), only really achieving this during their final evolution. He also doesn’t share any colors, as Fairy is outside the usual threesome. It does somewhat fit into the themes of the others, but not as cleanly. Utaw, being a Dinosaur, is still pre-humans, but closer to them than Flymph is, and having Aztec themes puts him past Medieval and closer to the Renaissance in terms of human history, but is very close compared to the other time gaps. Also, the gold was partly to fit him into the DnD theme, representing treasure.

=====

One of the first things the players were told at the beginning of the campaign, and was reinforced throughout, was that Pokémon from outside the Wellou Region were mysteriously popping up all over the place, with the Ultra Beasts being the most extreme example. As to the cause, there were a number of red herrings. Silph Co. employees could occasionally be seen in areas where UBs were with strange equipment, Tomomitsu could occasionally be found before something would show up, and there were a few other strange characters like the Regional Champion or Silph Co.’s president. The only definite thing they would know was that there was a strange, creepy, grey Charizard that would occasionally appear when they took something down.

However, it would eventually be revealed that the above were only trying to understand what was going on, and prevent the appearances of such dangerous Pokémon, like our heroes. And as a massive Ultra Wormhole appears above the city, they come face-to-face with the true mastermind. Not an evil team, or a lone conqueror. Merely a single, twisted Pokémon. And our heroes have interfered with its fun long enough.

“You stare up at the now familiar form of the grey Charizard, which stares back with unblinking, dead eyes... Its mouth stretches wide, wide enough to swallow you whole, and a hand appears. And another. And another. Four skeletal hands pry its maw open from the inside, stretching it until its skin falls down to settle on its hips. What looks down on you now, with a single, glowing eye, is a monstrous form made of bone and rotting flesh. And witnessing the four of you before it, it lets out a high-pitched, chilling laugh...

“‘Fofofofofo...’“

Fauxchemine. A sadistic Ultra Beast capable of warping time and space to its will. All the disturbances throughout the town, all the strange creatures that have appeared, all the monsters sent to terrorize our heroes; all the result of its twisted sense of fun, and the consequences of getting in the way of it.

So there’s a running joke among my friends that we all “hate” Charizard. Not actually, but it’s always pushed in marketing with new forms and such, even though its popularity has been dropping steadily over the years. As such, I thought it would be somewhat cathartic to have the big bad they have to beat up at the end be related to Charizard. ‘Chemine’s skeletal nature comes from trying to cinematicly picture the encounter in my mind, with the eerie image of the mouth stretching open from the dialogue earlier. With bone white and rotten greens, the skin wasn’t meant to reflect Charizard as a shiny, but rather with all its color drained from it, as it’s more a puppeted skin than an actual part of the Pokémon. And as many Pokémon draw inspiration from Kaiju, ‘Chemine does, too, specifically calling back to an Ultra-Kaiju named Greeza with space warping abilities.

It’s Steel/Dragon with Thick Fat. When planning encounters, especially this late into the game, Auradiat made things tough since its offensive Typing is insane, and that combination made it resistant to all of the Starter Types except Fairy. This was supposed to be the toughest fight in the campaign, so I wanted to build a Pokémon that would be difficult to deal damage to. A swift Pokémon able to warp around the field, summoning Ultra Beasts or other versions of Charizard as adds or for specific attacks, I wanted this to be memorably difficult.

Oh, and the name? It’s meant to rhythmically sound like “Pokémon,” with the ‘faux’ symbolizing its disguise, and the ‘mine’ representing its personality. Everything in this world is its to play with.

But that giant Ultra Wormhole wasn’t just for show. Part-way through Phase 2 our players were sucked through a Wormhole themselves, both they and Fauxchemine bearing witness to a titanic creature as they did, and upon its defeat, it is let loose upon the city:

Standing over 100ft tall is Wreknarogg (from wreck, to destroy, Níðhöggr, a massive world-ending creature from Norse mythology, and Ragnarok, the end of the world). A massive symbiotic group of four Pokémon from a dead world, the whale-squid Bayleige, the parasitic Serrasite, and the barnacle Rhizocano. This was actually the first symbiotic Pokémon I designed, and its creation sparked the others like Shiinotic and Torterra so this wouldn’t be the first time our players encountered one.

Whales are the largest creatures on Earth, so using one as the base for a kaiju-sized Pokémon fit. It also helped that the prototype designs for the Cloverfield monster were based on a whale, so I had something to go on. Secondly, I really like a lot of the eldritch design philosophy, and a lot of those are based on sea creatures, which is where the combined squid elements came from. Also, when I was prototyping the design and trying to make it creepier, a friend suggested having a parasite coming out of its blowhole, which is what sparked the creation of Serrasite and Rhizocano (as whale’s are known to have such parasites in real life).

This was a design very inspired by the world it was supposed to inhabit. Coming from a desert world where they are the only living things remaining, they symbiotically support each other to stave off their own inevitable death, with Bayleige able to create rain with its ability and Rhizocano able to make artificial sunlight to feed Serrasite. Serrasite then gives energy to Bayleige to allow it to keep moving, and Rhizocano takes energy from Bayleige. It’s an incomplete system where energy is slowly lost over time.

Stage 2 of the final boss wasn’t supposed to be as intense as the last one. A gimmick for this fight was, at the start of every round, I was going to roll a D100, and an event would happen. They would be things like their friends showing up with healing items, trainers they knew joining the battle, wild Pokémon they’d befriended getting in pot shots, etc. It was meant to be a fun, celebratory, “you’re at the end of the campaign” fight rather than an intense one off the back of another. I was even considering having everyone use their full parties.

But after it’s defeated, a thick, dark haze enshrouds everyone. With their allies gone, and left with just their Starters, our players are alone in a dark void. I did say there were four Pokémon earlier...

And the final encounter is Wreknarogg (Core). The Pokémon who brought the three titans together, and controls them while siphoning off some of their energy to survive. Similar to Phanic, this was another unassuming Pokémon. Designed to resemble a virus while calling back to aspects from mythical Pokémon like Jirachi or Manaphy. I understand it might not feel as climactic as there wasn’t any set-up compared to ‘Chemine, who was shown throughout, or the previous Wreknarogg, who was foreshadowed, but I wanted a 3-stage boss fight, and this felt like a good way of concluding it.

While stage 1 was supposed to be difficult, and stage 2 was meant to be fun and call back to the long journey, stage 3 was an un-losable, cinematic fight with a somewhat somber tone to it. It was the final fight, the end of it all, and there’s a certain level of sadness that comes with that in accordance with the jubilation of completion. It was also meant to see how much everyone had grown; how would they handle this encounter? Fight it? Catch it? Persuade it? Maybe I haven’t listened to enough DnD finalés, but in how many can you beat the final boss by being nice to it and calming it down?

=====

And that’s the end. There would be some sort of epilogue, picking up with our characters some months or years later, but that’s not something I could write without witnessing the actions of the players. I was debating having everything that came from an Ultra Wormhole be sucked back in after Fauxchemine’s defeat, including the Starters (pull a Digimon Tamers), but as Wreknarogg came from a dead world I thought that a little cruel.

And to end things how I usually do; Overall, despite not getting off the ground, I was very happy with this project. I’m the type to pick up and drop projects frequently, and the fact that I stuck with and continued to work on it for months was something I was really proud of. It was also a great learning experience on many levels. And who knows; maybe I might do something like this again in the future...?

#Pokemon #Dungeons and Dragons #DnD #dnd homebrew #Onix #Steelix #Torterra #Sudowoodo #Altaria #Yamask #Cofagrigus #Charizard #Whale #Ultra Beast

19 notes · View notes

allandnot · 2 years

Text

I posted 10,107 times in 2021

14 posts created (0%)

10093 posts reblogged (100%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 720.9 posts.

I added 1,579 tags in 2021

#critical role - 407 posts

#cr spoilers - 248 posts

#politics - 245 posts

#sw - 193 posts

#kotor - 120 posts

#dnd - 99 posts

#american politics - 97 posts

#dimension 20 - 88 posts

#long post - 41 posts

#cops tw - 41 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#so smart and lovely! you definitely did something good – maybe even saved the world with the doctor? the tardis may even let you own one of

My Top Posts in 2021

We talk a lot on this website about the baffling lack of reading comprehension on this website, but I think saying that “people on this website can’t read” misses an important point. Specifically, I would argue that the lack of reading comprehension is not based in a lack of capacity of people to observe text (or video, audio, etc.), process, and comprehend it, but rather in that these people who “can’t read” are not actually undergoing this process in the first place. They observe the text assume what it is about and don’t bother to compare their assumptions to the actual statements made in the text.

Assuming what is in a text is something pretty much all of us do on some level. Our brains function on patterns, it’s how we remember each other’s faces, recognize dogs even though different breeds of dogs can look absolutely different, and understand language. If we stopped and thought about the definition of every word we heard/read/observed we wouldn’t be able to comprehend the sentence. Thus, we follow patterns and make assumptions, to do things more quickly, more efficiently.

The problem happens when people fail to check if their assumptions, if the patterns they thought they comprehended, are accurate. They jump to a conclusion, and react to it without checking if their assumption properly matches what is actually being communicated. Of course, being able to check your assumptions quickly and efficiently is a learned skill, and as such there shouldn’t be any shame in failing to do so. Sometimes people read things wrong, it happens to me all the time.

What is a shame is that people don’t bother to try in the first place, which is why people will react to a statement by furiously arguing against the exact opposite of what the statement originally said.

In my experience there are generally two types of people who don’t bother trying to understand something: People who don’t want to understand because understanding would go against their accepted biases and make them uncomfortable, and people who believe that they’re not smart enough to understand.

I would argue that for those who have the spoons and time to try and be more patient with those who make such asinine responses. Try to gently point out the flaws their reading, and see if their emotions and opinions might align with yours.

2 notes • Posted 2021-06-15 21:10:06 GMT

Comedians who say “they’re just jokes” and “I make fun of everyone” are just class clowns who discovered they could be bullies when they grew up.

3 notes • Posted 2021-03-28 12:05:37 GMT

End of the Year Fandom Meme

(I missed the end of the year, but now I have time so I’m doing it)

Tagged by:@aspiewillgraham

Your main fandom of the year? Dimension 20, Critical Role, The Untamed, and The Mandalorian.

Your favourite film watched this year? Probably “Get Out”.

Your favourite book read this year? Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb.

Your favourite album, artist, or song to listen to this year? The Longest Johns.

Your favourite TV show of the year? Dimension 20 (I know it’s technically not a TV show, but it’s my favorite)

Your best new fandom discovery of the year? Not even sure what this means. I don’t really interact with fandoms in general that often.

Your biggest fandom disappointment of the year? In Dimension 20 (Spoiler Alert for Crown of Candy)-----------------------

------------------------

Lapin Dying.

Your fandom girlfriend of the year? Yeah, I got nothing, really.

Your fandom boyfriend of the year? Wei Wuxian.

Your biggest squee moment of the year? In Dimension 20 (Spoiler Alert for Crown of Candy)-----------------------

------------------------

Count Liam Wilhelmina of House Jawbreaker coming out as ace in an incredibly relatable moment.

The most missed of your old fandoms? I’ve been trying to get back in Leverage but it’s a bit difficult to get back into something I’ve watched so many times.

The fandom you haven’t tried yet, but want to? None

Your biggest fan anticipations for the coming year? The next episode of Critical Role.

Tagging: I also never know who to tag so just gonna tag some people who I’m wildly guessing might be interested. Feel free to ignore this, or if you want to do this pretend I tagged you. @bismuth-209 @persepinetree @acid-atlas @horns-and-ember @thought-u-said-dragon-queen @mcdarkandshiny

4 notes • Posted 2021-01-05 21:19:39 GMT

I rolled truly terribly in character creation for a D&D game, and the DM said I could reroll, but I need to first turn the first roll into a fantastically cursed character. Thus came into existence Old Man McGoo, the 499 year old level 1 Gnome Wizard. He will not survive long.

5 notes • Posted 2021-06-10 17:39:45 GMT

That moment when you’re asexual in middle school, other kids are asking you which celebrity you’re attracted to, and you’re like “no thots, head empty”.

158 notes • Posted 2021-03-25 09:43:38 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

#my 2021 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #That's right I created 0% content on this website #woot

2 notes · View notes

kiingbiing · 4 years

Note

bro Please show us ur ocs what

gladly

just know that names will change bevause i have too many characters woops (im a bad character maker lol)

i made them children who murder but now i dont know what to do with them, soon i will make a story for them

king and jester raise a baby and fall inlove :]

theyre originally humans but with a potion gone wrong, they end up as animals and now they have to work together to turn themselves back, also the snake works with the law and the mouse is a crook

dnd character, but i never got to play him cause i never played dnd, lol, one day, i will

ethan works at a cafe and got turned into a vampire, carter is a monster hunter and wendy is his assisstant. carter has the hots for ethan and ethan doesnt want to acknolwedge his existence. maggie and callie is ethan’s friend, barry LIKES wendy

the triplets were inspired by moosop ngl, but i do remember making triplets in 5th grade lol

inspired by tarzan, but i changed the story cause i made these characters when i was younger and i cant abandon them. meriam raised talia (i changed her name) when she decided to leave london and live in the jungle. talia barely speaks because her speech isnt good. mark comes to visit his mother and to try and see if the island can be used for good money, mark and talia hate each other for this fact.

made this in 4th grade cause my first lesbian ship was bubbaline and i was like, i dont have enough lesbian ships, gotta make my own then,

no name for them but its set in the philippines, inspired by our monsters :]

a fellow monster has to be in love with their food

fairly odd parents oc, josh and penny got adopted by this rich couple, and everything was fine till they figured out that they only got adopted because the parents would get more money from their parents if the wanted kids, this warrented a god parent and francis is here. francis HATES children and is onyl doing this because its good money. penny is too energetic, josh is the quiet kid and francis hates kids, but he can handle one, hes not gonna be able to handle 2

theres 2 stories for this, bt judas and merith were in an arranged marriage and percy became merith’s crying buddy when judas is mean, they can be in a threesome, still dont know. still have to upadte this story

dominic goes savage during the full moon and his sister is the only one who knows this secret. the two rodents have a thing for dominic

these were just random ocs with no actual plot line, dino and cloudy are buddies and they go everywhere together

the colony of ants have a thing for the ant eater, not the tables have turned lol

dad is forced to raise a baby and he cant cause hes sad depressed, and he just doesnt know what to do but he can abandon her. jerry is like, buddy, BUDDY, if u let me crash, i can help out, hes helpful,

used to be an adventure time oc but i scrapped it,

princess aya runs away from the royal family to find her missing sister cause she doesnt want to be queen

she meets with red, a thief who dabbles with magic, which is illegal,

due to unfortunate events, red helps aya find her sister

animal crossing ocs. kenny and lola are dating :]

one and two are childhood friends? one was mean and two got depressed, but now one is trying to make up for it

kylan is failing his class, so richard has to tutor him to make sure hes on the right track, kylan just doesnt want to do anything with him, and when he realises that richard has a hard time making friends, he makes it his task to help him make a friend, in return, richard has to leave him alone

just two teenagers coming to terms about their feelings for each other.

braden never gave romance a thought until he reached middle school. he started to crush on george hard and he doesnt know how to handle this and he tries to deny it.

george is straight and is just vibing, and he thought things were fine until braden confessed his feelings.

braden is demisexual (im demi, hes very special to me)

this ones old, (also i made another oc thats named carter WOOPS)

no name (teddy) got kicked out from home when his mom figured out hes gay, and carter is a rich art student that needs a model and he ask teddy to become his model. carter pays teddy a good sum of money, (i need to work on this story woops)’

melissa is a rich blind girl and shes not allowed to party and go outside if she doesnt hire a body guard (thanks dad), she hired danny, an ex underground boxer to help her around the city.

in this world, magic welders are getting killed because only officials are allowed to use magic. momma summons demote, a demon, with a deal that he keeps her daughter safe. demote and harper hate each other and they have to tolerate each other in order to get away from the hunters. dewey is a forest entity that latched onto harper

my little pony oc

madison loves flowers, she tends flowers and honestly? flowers only.

valentine is a match maker and she stumbles upon madison, and her match making skills dont work on madison, just ponies being ponies :]

characters made with my friends but i lost contact with them and one day, ill work on their stories

david is in his first public school and he meets molly and he doesnt vibe with her cause she doesnt talk to him and it didnt settle with him right, so he bullies her, and when he figures out that shes deaf and maliciously bullied her, hes just, not happy and tries to make it up to her, and shes not having it

life and death, my friend wanted me to make a comic bout life and death,

just ur standard life and death ship

used to be an adventure time oc but i changed it

andrew grew up in a religious household with strict parents, making him study. hes not allowed to be with friends

margee is raised by her uncle because her dad died in a car accident,

dally has a strained relationship with his dad, his dad being an alcoholic and not taking care of his health

they were all childhood friends and then they got seperated, when they got older, they all saw each other and got together for support

(ok imm a fool and i try to make a webcomic but i keep not not finishing it so, woops)

bunny ocs when i was younger, i need to work on their stories, sorry, no other info except they want to beat each other lol

cupid accidentally shots an arrown at ching and now they fell inlove with mar, and mar just wants to vibe and be ignored but with ching contantly trying to woo mar, cupid thinks thats enough and tried to help mar because that wasnt suppposed to happen lol

girl realises that the monsters under her bed and in her closet are real and tries to get her mother to help her.

her mother abuses her and the girl is just scared and she doesnt know what to do

(im getting lazy)

baintly wants to be a good wizard but she sucks at everything

butters(the broom) is accidentally made when she tried to summon her animal

she was about to get kicked out of school but out of sepretation, she promised her school that she’ll go get a gem from a feared dragon in order to prove her place in the school

she got lonely and got a pet bunny and fox

terry accidentally summoned perry and she doesnt know how to handle a demon in her room, ralph is terry’s friend

set in space and theyre all animals

the top are a bunch of criminals and the bottoms arer in the police forces

and they both have to work toegether to get rid of a dangerious villian set to destroy the galaxy

ok so i lost their names but basically, big demon goes to the human world and befriends a child. other demon is the right hand and he follows his master and hes just a ball anxiety. the older sister is a monster hunter and she tries to kill the big demon living in her house

#doodle #Anonymous #anon #oc #ocs #long post #im not even joking there more #i just couldnt fit them all in here cause i got really lazy #but uhhh #opions please #cause uhhhh #anon asked #and i want to know what u think #anon please respond #:[

45 notes · View notes

okietokiee · 5 years

Text

The Song of Achilles/Metalocalypse AU

ahh !! I commissioned a friend of mine (who is an incredible artist and specializes in custom/DnD art!! If you’re interested in her work her etsy is MadisonNicoleArt) and she helped me finally create an AU I’ve been obsessed with for a while!

Ok this is going to be pretty long, so bear with me !!

If you’re not familiar with The Song of Achilles it’s basically a retelling of The Iliad by Homer, but from the perspective of Patroclus, the right-hand man of Achilles. It’s a beautiful, magical tale and if you’re familiar with The Iliad the ending is (spoiler) gut-wrenching and heartbreaking. You spend the whole story knowing what’s coming, and you almost get lost in the enchanting beauty of Achilles’ and Patroclus’ relationship with each other.

Now when I first got into the Mtl fandom I was surprised there weren’t any Iliad AUs (BUT CORRECT ME IF IM WRONG AND SEND THAT SHIT MY WAY), because Achilles was a beautiful, golden demi-God (sKWIsGAar in a nutshell LOL) and Patroclus his stong, toned, gorgeous (im extrapolating here but...) right-hand-man/partner/lover/soulmate/other half who, though never prophesied by the Gods for greatness, had his own strengths and made his own name for himself following his heart (Achilles ;))

Here are just some ideas I’ve had about this:

Skwisgaar

- Serveta being a promiscuous Queen who has a one night-stand with a lower level God that left immediately. The God’s seed was so strong that after birthing Skwisgaar his mother became incapable of having any more children and she resents him for this.

- However, Skwisgaar was prophesied by the Gods to become the greatest/quickest warrier of his time with potential to become one of the Gods. His step-father (gentle Tyr) married Serveta and he loves her dearly, though she constantly cheats on him and neglects her only son.

- Tyr does his best to make it up to Skwisgaar, but obvious damage has been done.

- Skwisgaar’s real father is never revealed and it’s quite popular in town to make theories about which gorgeous God Skwisgaar is the bastard of. (Adonis is a popular choice)

Toki

- Toki being the only son of the cruel King Aslaug, a malevolent leader of a deteriorating village. Toki is a small/weak boy for his age and is constantly beaten, belittled, and humiliated by his father, and therefore has no respect from the village people despite being the rightful heir.

- He ends up accidentally killing a young bully his age (son of a noble man) in blind rage because he has certain freak episodes (episodes that likely led to his parents fearing/hating him??). (This is almost exactly what happened to Patroclus in TSOA)

- He’ s exiled from his home, loses his family name, and is sent to be a ward of King Tyr and lives with various other abandoned orphans/exiled princes in Skwisgaar’s father’s rich, plentiful kingdom.

NOW the fantastic slow-burn begins. Because Toki can’t seem to fit in with the other boys and there are constant rumors about how he beat a kid to death for such petty reasons and the rest of the kids are scared of him and keep their distance.

aLL BUT SKWISGAAR! (and fuck i keep almost writing Achilles)

Who finds the new foreign boy utterly fascinating and is inexplicably drawn to him.

Skwisgaar is obviously popular with the fellow boys for he is a tall, strong child destined for greatness, and he basks in this fact.

Now I see Skwisgaar skipping training/class to wander off and play with a golden lyre in some hidden spot in the nearby woods.

The same spot Toki escapes to to avoid the blatant stares and loneliness. He’s shocked for a moment to see the golden prince lounging serenely on his favorite spot surrounded by flowers. But he’s stopped in his tracks after hearing Skwisgaar’s masterful Lyre playing and is absorbed in the music. He remember how, during his cold lonely years back home, an old wooden lyre was his favorite escape.

Skwisgaar spots him and is not surprised to see how this young boy is amazed by his playing because everyone is. He’s a Lyre God. But he is surprised when the young boy timidly asks,

“Cans I tries it?”

No one has ever had the audacity to interrupt him mid-play or the confidence to play anything that could match him. However, he’s amused and has been watching this new kid for a while, so he beckons him over and lets him play a song.

NOW THIS IS THE MOMENT! The moment Skwisgaar is sHOOK by how Toki’s fingers glide across the instrument and the gorgeous sounds he makes. It’s not exactly like Skwisgaar’s, but it’s something entirely his own. Something gut-wrenching and heartbreaking. And Skwisgaar feels something he has never felt before for any music other than his own.

And they end up sneaking off often and spending their free time like this, playing Lyre together and barely speaking. Eventually Skwisgaar tells his step-father he has chosen Toki to be his partner/right-hand-man (bc they did that in Greece, forgot what it was called??) and Toki is shocked and happy and can’t believe for once in his life he can be near the first person that’s ever made him so happy in his life.

Then obviously the growing up together thing !!!

- Toki becomes stronger and truly grows into himself. He’ll never have Skwisgaar’s natural swiftness of foot or affinity for combat, but he’ll be damned if he doesn’t try.

- Skwisgaar is originally jealous of/shocked/impressed/aroused by how muscular/toned Toki grows up to become, but he constantly lords his impressive height over Toki

There’s so much more I feel is too much to add!!!

But the other mtl ppl too:

- NATHAN AS ODYSSEUS!! PLS AND THANK

- Murderface or Pickles would actually be a really cool Chiron (a satyr who has trained many Greek heroes)

- Abigail as Briseis !!! (wont talk too much about her role bc TSOA spoilers)

- I’m not sure yet who Charles would be but he definitely has a place in this AU!!!

- mAgNuS iS hECToR !!!ii!!Ii!!

And the boys have so many obstacles in the way of their relationship, society/expectations/responsibilities/themselves. And it’s hard and painful but so worth it as long as they have each other.

And stuff happens and the Trojan war breaks out...

I have so many thoughts for what happens to them, but ugh it’s too much to put in words almost. Just, I can’t help but think of these quotes from the book?!?! They scream Skwistok to me

“I could recognize him by touch alone, by smell; I would know him blind, by the way his breaths came and his feet struck the earth. I would know him in death, at the end of the world.” ― Madeline Miller, The Song of Achilles

“He smiled, and his face was like the sun.” ― Madeline Miller, The Song of Achilles

and another quote that i can’t put up bc if i do ever get around to writing this i want it to be a heartbreaking shock bc just thinking about it makes me tear up LOL

Even re-imagining versions of these quotes in their broken english makes my heart hurt !!!

Just asadasfsd

end rant, I hope to add more to this AU in the future

ANd pls if any of you writers are inspired by these ramblings at ALL pls feel free to write something with this AU. Because i crave Ancient Greek Skwistok fics so much

#mtl #metalocalypse #fan art #skwistok #skwisgaar skwigelf #toki wartooth #nathan explosion #william murderface #pickles the drummer #au

50 notes · View notes

acespirit · 5 years

Text

DnD 5e - Anime Edition (Part 1)

Hey! So, I’m new here, and if you’re reading this, thank you! This is my first ever post! I wasn’t sure where to start with stuff, but a project of mine I was doing for a friend gave me the perfect opportunity to show off the kind of fun stuff I’m going to try to post semi-regularly...

Back in July, I was running the second session of a new tabletop game with my friends when I mentioned how cool it would be to run a campaign with a bunch of Player Characters just fighting each other to see who had the strongest build. Then my friends suggested that it might be more fun if we tried to make already existing characters from other shows, games and such fight it out. At the end of the session, one of them asked me if I would actually be willing to run a campaign like that, and, if so, if I’d be willing to do so as a one-shot for her birthday party. I said that I could, and for the past few weeks I’ve been researching characters, mechanics, and everything I could possibly need. So, not only will I be able to share this cool project with you all, but I’ll also have a place to keep my work after I send everyone home with their character sheets. This is going to be a series of posts over the next 2 weeks detailing the format of the tournament, the 9 characters I made for it, and how it went down in the end. This post is going to cover the format, as well as the 10 characters competing in it. That said, here we go!

The first thing to consider when making this was how the bracket was going to be laid out - it is a tournament after all. Because I was dealing with 10 PCs, not exactly a bracket-friendly number, I had to alter things from how a normal system might work just a tad - making the tournament split into 4 rounds!

Round 1: 5 separate 1 v 1 matches between characters, letting 6 people through. Now, with 10 people, you’re probably wondering how a 6th person gets through to round to, right? Well, in addition to the 5 characters that win their matches, the 5 losers get to convene, and from them select one “wild card” they believe has the highest chance of winning, whom they send on to Round 2. The win conditions are one of 3 things: causing your opponent to fall to 0 HP, causing your opponent to willing say ‘I surrender,’ or knocking them unconscious without knocking out their hit points.

Round 2: The 6 remaining competitors enter the arena all at once, but their goal is not actually to fight each other. Instead, the DM selects a boss, series of enemies, or anything intended to whittle down the number of players. (In my case my prime candidate for this job was a Tarasque. Why this works will become clear soon.) 4 characters move on from this round, with the first 2 to fall to 0 HP being eliminated.

Semifinals & Finals: Here return to basic 1 on 1 fights, with the last remaining character being crowned victor.

Now, for those, Round 2 is where most of the messing around with went in, and ideally, anyone planning to run a campaign like this will have more control over player numbers than me, and will be able to use a normal bracket system.

The rest of what went into this was basic rules and levels, which worked out like this:

Every PC is set at 20th level from start to finish, ignoring money in their creation. (It’s less fun if the characters can’t fight to their full potential.)

The breaks between each fight, no matter how short they are technically, are treated in-game as long rests for the fighters, and any injuries incurred outside of the arena space in RP segments or otherwise will have vanished by the time you enter for your next match. Because of this, broken items are fixed, you start every fight with max HP, magic users recover any used spell slots, and special abilities only usable once per short or long rest are usable in each match.

No self-destruct devices, spells, or anything of that ilk are allowed - the match won’t have a winner, which would be problematic.

Defeated characters aren’t dead, rather, they just watch the competition as outsiders and can appear in RP in between matches. They’ve been the defeated, but the apparent restorative properties of the tournament space stop them from actually dying.

PCs can only use abilities, classes, races actually available to players under normal circumstances. This does allow for expanded content, for example, the Warforged race and the Mystic class, neither of which are in the starndard 5e Players’ Handbook, were both allowed and used over the course of making the characters, as you’ll see when I release separate character posts.

No double classing - you must take 20 levels in 1 class. However, this does not bar you from gaining abilities from another class if it’s a built in feature of yours - such as Rogues with the Arcane Trickster archetype being able to cast Wizard spells up to Level 4.

You are not allowed to play or make characters that are specifically deities, gods, etc. (The exception being if they’re explicitly shown to be on the same basic level as normal people except for the title - such as, say, Aqua from Konosuba.)

Any ability that allows you to glean information about another character - be it ability scores, items, race, class, whatever - must be used by a player at the very top of the match, the DM will not provide the information of a player only remembers to use it during the middle of the fight.

Finally, with the format and ground rules out of the way, we can get to the characters that my players actually chose to have compete in the tournament - I’ll be posting their full stats and how they work over the course of the next 2 weeks!

Yuri(o) Plisetsky from ‘Yuri!!! On Ice’ *Altered for combat viability* (Race: Human | Class: Rogue - Arcane Trickster Archetype)

Killua Zoldyck from ‘HunterxHunter’ (Race: Human | Class: Rogue - Arcane Trickster Archetype)

Korosensei from ‘Assassination Classroom’ (Race: This guy literally said F-all to fitting into a race. | Class: Mystic)

Matthew (AKA Zecaeru) from ‘Seduce Me - The Otome’ (Race: Tiefling | Class: Wizard - School of Conjuration)

Baki Hanma from ‘Legendary Grappler Baki’ (Race: Human | Class: Monk - Way of the Open Hand)

Gowther from ‘Seven Deadly Sins/Nanatsu no Taizai’ (Race: Warforged - Envoy | Class: Wizard - School of Illusion)

Maou Sadao (AKA Satan) from ‘Devil is a Part-Timer’ (Race: Tiefling | Class: Warlock - Patron of ‘The Fiend’ - Pact of the Blade)

Generic Black Haired Anime Protagonist #952 (Totally not Kirito from Sword Art Online) An original creation based off of the fact that there are too many of them (Race: Human | Class: Fighter - Champion)

Wild Card original DnD character made by the only player who knew how to make their own character (Class: Cleric - War)

If you’re still hanging in here after all of that - heck, if you somehow happened to find this post anyways - thank you! The rest will be out over the next 2 weeks and I look forward to sharing them with everyone. As I release the character sheets, feel free to take them and use them for your own games, for art, or for anything else you might want them for so long as you credit me in anything you post! I put a lot of time into building this campaign and look forward to sharing it with you all!

#DnD #d&d 5th edition #anime #TOURNAMENT ARC #one-shot campaign #making all this occasionally gave me stress issues #series of posts

3 notes · View notes

zippdementia · 7 years

Text

Zipp’s Guide to Monster Conversion (3.5 /PF to 5th Edition D&D)

Note: an updated version of this guide with a fully stated Criosphinx can be found here for free.

I play a lot of 3.5 adventures, but I prefer the 5th edition rules. So this means I do a lot of conversions. After months of playing around with numbers, I have hit upon a system that I have tried enough and feel confident enough about to share.

When converting a monster/creature/bad-ass Blackguard with an Unholy Mace, remember there is no right and wrong conversion. If you make a Goblin who rolls 2d12 for damage, that’s not “against the rules” just because Goblins don’t normally do that. You can DO anything. The goal in conversion is to try and keep the intention of the original adventure, including its difficulty. So if you are converting a Goblin Beserker that is supposed to deal mighty damage with its massive spiked gauntlets worn on its over-muscled arms, then give it that 2d12 damage and don’t look back!

Above all, don’t get stuck trying to perfect your creation. Remember: even WOTC conversions, like those seen in the Yawning Portal, are only “official.” They are not perfect.

The perfect conversion is the one which works at your table and makes the moment you are trying to recreate a memorable one. Using these guidelines has helped me many times in achieving that. If it can help you do the same, then great!

Before Anything Else...

The first step is deciding, hey, is there an easier way to do this? By that I mean, does this monster or something “close enough for jazz” already exist in fifth edition?

For instance, if I have a sneaky backstabber character I need to convert, rather than try to simulate 3 levels of fighter and 2 of rogue, how about I just use the “Master Thief” NPC from Vollo’s Guide? I can easily change out the thief’s base stats for those listed in the original module and if there is some special ability that is key to the backstabber’s encounter, then I can add that in (maybe he uses a special poison that I need to recreate). With that, I have converted the character with a minimal of steps. Just make sure you take a second look at Hit Points. They can get a bit funky in the conversion, as you will see later on.

In the case of the Criosphinx, there is nothing equivalent in the MM. There are Sphinxes, but they are different enough (and far more powerful) that I feel I have to start from scratch on this one.

Challenge Rating

This is the first thing I look at. It tells you a lot about what your monster should look like, in terms of power (even if the end result doesn’t keep the same CR). A good rule of thumb is that whatever the 3.5 CR is, the 5th edition CR tends to be one lower. After figuring that out, I match the new CR to the CR in the DMG to figure out proficiency, which helps me build everything else, from attack bonus to skill bonuses.

The Criosphinx is listed as a CR 7 in the module. Looking at a CR 6 monster in the DMG tells me its proficiency should be +3. I also get a general sense of what a creature at that level has in terms of health, AC, damage, and attack bonus. CR 6 is my target, now!

Base Statistics

Charisma, Dexterity, Strength, etc... these can almost always stay exactly the same. The only red flag here is for exceptionally powerful stats, like a Strength of 23 or a Constitution of 25, because modifiers in DnD 5 are more conservative than in earlier editions. For instance, if Strength and Proficiency end up giving +9 to athletics, that is a HUGE boost for all grapple rolls and could potentially give your monster a party shattering ability to pin down the players or make a Strength based DC of one of their abilities far too hard to withstand. It is not WRONG to leave such stats this high, but make sure you review it for potential problems.

After reviewing the Criosphinx stats, I see that STR is listed as 23. As flavor, I like this, because the Criosphinx, based on a ram, should hit like a brick to the face, but for my party level I feel it is a little over powered, so I reduce it to 19. Still plenty of oomph with a +4 modifier, and since I want to use its “push” feature quite a bit to try and knock players off of platforms, it will make its strength bonus to athletics a little more reasonable than the +6 it would have gotten. This also will help reduce its attack bonus and thus its overall CR, helping me not overshoot my CR 6 target.

Skills and Saves, Resistances and Vulnerabilities

As a rule, D&D 5 monsters don’t tend to have skills and saves, whereas all D&D 3.5 monsters do. To decide whether your converted monster has these things, look at their stat block. If one of their skills or saves is really high, or one of their common attack abilities relies on doing something that involves skills (like grappling or shoving), they should gain proficiency in the relevant skill or save. Also, if they have certain feats that let them dodge or soak hits, consider giving them a save. Common flags for me are the feats evasion and toughness, which I consider giving Dex and Con saves for, respectively. There are so many feats in Pathfinder/3.5 that you may have to do some research on them to decide which ones deserve skills/saves.

The Criosphinx relies heavily on its Bull Rush attack and on tossing people around with its strength, so one skill I decide it really needs is Athletics (+7). It also is listed as having a pretty high listen skill (+11) so I decide it deserves proficiency in Perception (+3). Then, because the adventure wants it to be disguised as a statue when it first appears, I decide to give it Stealth (+3). That will also be fun in case it flies into the mist and hides, waiting for a surprise attack. Lastly, I give it a Con save because its Fort save in 3.5 is fairly high and I feel like it fits the monster.

Attacks and Damage

This is where you get to have the most fun. D&D5 monsters are boiled down to their purest elements. Rather than having a ton of feats which offer special attack options and full round attacks versus one action attacks, DND5 simplifies things. As a general rule, monster attacks can be broken down into the following categories (and in each category they will have only ONE option):

Weapon attack (sometimes one for ranged, one for melee, and rarely another for different kinds of damage like a bite attack for piercing)

Weapon attack with special effect, usually requiring a save roll (like pulling someone prone after the attack)

Special ability which usually does something other than damage, but has a detrimental effect on the victim, like a mummy using its gaze to cast fear (requires saving roll)

When converting, you are trying to come up with attacks that let the monster act as it was intended. So if a monster uses tentacles in 3rd edition with a special grappling feat, that grapple effect can either be added to its normal attack as a secondary “save against” option, or can be put in as a second action, like “tentacle grab.” Damage is determined by size or by natural weapons (which is pretty much up to DM discretion) plus the appropriate modifiers, and “to hit” is determined by modifiers and proficiency. Really, the only thing you are building from scratch is special effects and when doing so keep in mind that you don’t have to come up with an equivalent move for EVERYTHING. Pick what the key attacks or abilities are and use the above limitations to determine if you are going overboard. THE GOLDEN RULE: if the ability is just another option for the monster and not something it will use on a regular basis, it is better not to convert it.

If a monster would get multiple attacks on a full attack action, that is turned into multi-attack here, the number of attacks determined by their challenge rating. Look to the damage output in the DMG CR table, page 274, to determine how many attacks they should get and what you want your damage dice to be (you can also look at similar monsters to get a feel for what natural weapons should roll on damage dice).

Spells can be direct copied from third edition and you can either find the closest 5th edition equivalent for spells which don’t exist in this edition or you can get creative and convert them as you see fit. Legendary Abilities, Special Abilities, and Special Rules are all open to DM discretion and can mime passive abilties like uncanny dodge or auras. Note that many feats and abilities from 3rd edition don’t need to be converted as their mechanics aren’t really appropriate to 5th edition. This is especially true of improved critical, improved initiative, cleave, and combat reflexes. Things like power attack and bull rush can either be worked into the attack damage and effects if they are especially important to the monster or its attack strategies, or ignored.

Gore is one of the Criosphinx’s attacks, and it treats as an extension of a double claw attack. This sounds like multi-attack material to me, so I stat out a claw-claw combo that it can use every turn. In addition, I really want that “shove” feature of Bull Rush to be a part of this fight (and it is written as a key strategy of the Criosphinx in the module) so I give it an alternate attack option, Bull Rush, which does decent damage and can push the players around if they fail a Str Save (for the DC on this, I use the CR 6 standard DC of 15 as given in the DMG).

As for abilities, it is labeled as having flyby, so I give it that. I also give it inscrutable, because the other 5th edition sphinxes have that.

Armor Class

There is a formula for converting DCs from 3.5 to 5 that I like a lot, and it seems to be very accurate. It is: (3.5 DC - 10)/2 +10 = 5 DC (Round up). So if the 3.5 DC is 23, then you get 23 - 10 = 13/2 = 6.5 + 10 = 16.5 = 5th DC is 17.

Because Armor Class is basically a DC where you roll your attack skill, the same method works great for converting it (for AC under 11, just use the AC as written).

Note: this is only for natural armor. For characters who wear armor, usually humanoids, use the standard method of the armor’s AC plus any appropriate Dexterity bonuses.

The Criosphinx is listed with an AC of 20 in 3.5, so using the formula I end up with AC 15. Because this isn’t a monster which wears armor, I don’t add Dex to this, I consider it part of the overall calculation.

Hit Points

In general, monsters in 5E have 2 more hit dice levels then their counterpart in 3.5. But it is more complex than just adding a few hit points, because enemy hit dice in 3.5 are class based, whereas enemy hit dice in 5 are size based, so the conversion doesn’t happen smoothly. For instance, a Barbarian Hobgoblin in Pathfinder is going to roll d10′s or d12′s for each of its levels, because it is a Barbarian. But a Fifth Edition Barbarian Hobgoblin is going to roll d8′s, because they are medium sized. To get this to work right, you need to do a little math. Here are the steps...

Figure out your creature’s size. Medium monsters and creatures have 1d8 each level (this is the one you will use most often). Take this number and divide it by half, then add 0.5 to get your “average hit points per level” (AHP) For 1d8 it is 4.5.

Divide the 3.5 creature’s hit points by the AHP. Round up. This will give you the creature’s adjusted level.

Add two to this level. This is the creature’s Fifth Edition level. Don’t be concerned if it seems ridiculously high, like 18 or 22. Remember, this isn’t CR, it is just for determining health.

You can represent this level as the number of dice +/- their Constitution Modifier per level. So for a level 13 medium sized monster with a +3 CON, it would read 13d8+39 for an average HP of 98 (and a possible HP of 143).

Once you have that average hit point number and possible hit point amount, you can play around with numbers within that range to make the monster have a lower or higher final CR, see below.

A third edition Criosphinx has about 85 hitpoints and is a large creature. Using the formula above using D10 as my base gives me 18, so 18d10+54 (average of 153).

Wrapping it up...

The final step is figuring out what the 5th edition CR of your newly converted creature is. Use the guidelines on page 274 of the DMG, follow its instructions to get the average CR, and then compare it to the CR you intended back when you started. If it matches, then you are done. Congratulations! If it doesn’t match, then you might have some tweaking to do.

First, consider how far off the CR is. If the DMG CR is only a point below your intended CR, look at your monster. Does it cast spells or have legendary abilities or powerful resistances that the CR average doesn’t take into effect? For instance, a Mage’s hit points, AC, and damage output may list him as a CR 2 monster, but if he can cast spells like wall, haste, magic missile, and command and has a high wisdom/intelligence bonus to back those spells up, he may very well destroy a party who wipes the floor with hordes of CR 2 Orcs. Similarly, if your monster has spells and lots of special abilities, it may actually be a point or two tougher than the DMG is telling you. In this case, you can label it with your intended CR.

But, if the CR the DMG gave you is HIGHER than you intended, you probably want to look into making it a little less powerful (unless it has really bad vulnerabilities or other exploits). Similarly, if the DMG CR is more than a point lower than your intended CR, you probably need to make the monster stronger.

If you need to adjust the monster, you can easily do so by adjusting health or damage output. Raising one of the monster’s base stats could potentially add bonuses to its hit, damage, health, or AC. Just play around with the numbers using page 274 in the DMG to check your work until you get the desired CR out of the DMG.

You shouldn’t have to change much: I never have. But it does provide a nice check on your work, especially if you are making up your own attacks or damage dice for natural weapons.

#homebrew #dnd conversion #dnd 5e #Pathfinder #DnD 3.5 #Monster #Criosphinx

11 notes · View notes