I've actually been working on converting these as a Kingmaker sequal as well. I've been working on CM2-Deaths Ride and CM3-Sabre River, but have also started on Test of the Warlords. I'm using the old standard of OD&D to AD&D where every two levels above 14 are equal to one AD&D level. Thus an adventure for 20th level is actualy for 17th in Pathfinder. This keeps the Epic stuff out of the way until something gets published(since a 25th level OD&D would be 20th by this standard) I'll see if I can put up the results when I'm done, it won't be as nice as some of the others out there however.
It's safe to say that Green Ronins Daemons didn't work well with any other concept of them in any setting. I always thought it was the weekest part of that book...kinda thrown together at the last minute. However, one of Green Ronins Daemons did show up in a Pathfinder adventure..."Cry of the Carion King" from Legacy of Fire, if I remember properly. It was mentioned to be an agent of a Horseman as well. After reading through Bestiary 3 though, I'd say they might work well as Divs.
I should like to point out that the Conan stories by Robert E Howard(one of Lovecrafts best friends) were heavily Cthulhu mythos influenced. They would write letters to one another, preview their stories and make suggestions.
Just because they go out and say the word "Azathoth" rather than disguising the name as "Tharizduun" for example doesn't really change the nature of the evil god much now does it?
I thought at this time that I might like to point out that the ludicrous fantasy setting in Spelljammer consisting of Phlogiston space and crystal spheres was actually a once widely believed theory of the cosmos. It comes from a 16th century philosopher named Tycho Brahe, and was the accepted theory of reality until his former apprentice Kepler proved him wrong. And yeah, I'd totally be game for a planetary book as well...I'll download "Red Revolution" as soon as I can to see how it went.
If you don't mind using non OGL sources, some of it was converted to 3.5 in Dungeon#114(available as a PDF on this site). Also, about four of the Savage Tide adventures were set on the Isle as well, but those are not available in PDF form for certain legal reasons. That's at least a start, since it a whole hell of a lot easier to convert from 3.5 to pathfinder than from 0D&D. Some of the monsters were converted on this site as well:
The Kopru is in MM2, but the Phanaton and Rakasta I don't know about, but I assume they may be in Savage Tide.
Monte Cooks "A Paladin in Hell" and Gary Gygax's "Isle of the Ape" are two other good sources of inspiration for high level encounters. Both of them use the attrition method, in which you do your best to exhaust the parties resources by allowing no breaks in the action! If the party is low on spells, charges, healing potions and otherwise, simple encounters can become much more challenging. Environment can also hinder your characters. In "Witchwar" for example, perhaps their potions freeze in the cold environment, don't forget that a frostbit sword hand is not very useful...and how the heck is that crocodile faring in sub arctic temperatures? Giving monsters levels in rogue can allow sneak attacks as well as better hiding abilities. Four Wraiths with eight levels in rogue can surround a character and practically sneak attack him every round, since if he's surrounded, one of them automatically flanks him. Speaking of wraiths, incorporeal monsters tend to ignore most armor...I doubt very many players other than Wizards tend to focus on their touch AC...and there's really not much that can be done to improve it. Any creature with a +10 or more to hit can pretty much use "aid another" automatically...the above encounter with the wraith rogues could have the other three aiding the one every round giving it an additional +6 to hit, or AC. Reinforcements halfway through an encounter can quickly turn the tide of battle. Just when they think the battle's won then... Shoggoths! Not one, but many, that happen to wander in halfway through the battle, from every open portal.
The two that I can think of from the SRD that show up in Pathfinder Products so far are: 1. Worm that Walks - shows up in "Sound of a Thousand Screams" 2. Mu Spores - Show up in "Into the Darklands" as for the third? Since I don't own everything published yet, I'm not sure...three Non SRD pathfinder monsters are epic level from the adventure paths, but I don't think these are what he's referring to.
Here's a few solutions I've observed over the last 20 years or so: 1. The super old school Gygaxian solution was to take their toys away. "The Isle of the Ape" rotted your equipment away to nothing, and "Tomb of Horrors" seemed to leave a lot of naked adventurers by the end of it. This is definitely unsatisfying for the players so if you're going to do this, do it only once, and make bloody well sure the rewards at the end are worth more than what they lost. 2. The "aid another" combat feature can be exploited to a fairly high extent. Any creature with a +10 or higher to hit can practically do it automatically, so organizing a group of fighters into squads of ten with one at the head with all the others aiding them could potentially make their first attack(Albeit only one) with a +30 to hit.
3. Merely switching out the feats for existing monsters can totally change their dynamic. If all of them had Improved initiative, weapon focus and Improved natural attack in stead of what they usually do, it could change up an encounter or two in surprising ways. 4. The taint mechanic from Oriental Adventures, and later in Unearthed Arcana(But not the one in Heroes of Horror, since it's not OGL) can cause Con and Wis damage, eventually turning your players into Bodaks or Madmen. In Monte Cooke's Ptolus, his 15+ area had a taint type situation in which the creatures acclimated to it could use to heal their selves at will! If you didn't drop them in the first round, it wasn't likely to happen. 5. Plane-hopping in Golorian isn't realy all that necessary. The Vaults of Orv deep withing the earth could be both challenging and otherworldly without actually being otherworldly. The Land of Black Blood is detailed in Second Darkness, The midnight mountains are crawiling with Gugs, Umbral Dragons, Shoggoths, Mu Spores, and Neothelids all trying to bring back their ancient masters-If that's not epic, I don't know what is. Not to mention there are ten other inhabited planets with hidden Stargates between them. 6. Finally, with the rich history of gaming, even from just the last ten years of OGL alone, there is a wealth of monsters and villians to chose from...If you can't find SOMETHING from one of those sources to challenge them, you're just not trying hard enough ;P(Not meant to sound inflammatory) Hope this helps.
Rummaged through this one after reading this...It's one of the few I never played 20 years ago...doesn't look like it would be too hard to update by just taking standard monsters and adding an aquatic template...after all, do you really need new stats for Tritons and Velyas when they're just swimming men and Vampires? I'm currently trying to convert a few Companion and Masters set adventures for continuing Kingmaker(I think they'd fit) But maybe I'll try my hand at this one too. Of course, since your post is almost two months old, you may not care anymore. |