woohoo, just got it on my lunchbreak - haven't had enough time to read or comment yet. ;)
Didn't the Xvart from Fiend Folio have some sort of electrical attack or power?There was no xvart in the Fiend Folio, at least not the 3e one. I gave away my 1e Fiend Folio awhile ago so...
1e.
I don't own the 3e one.
I'm backwards.
And nostalgic.
Also, because of their connection to rats, wererats, bats, and werebats, we end up with the following humanoid/animal groupings.
Xvarts/rats, bats, dire rats and bats, wererats and bats
A creature's choice of pets help define the variety of encounters you may get with them. With xvarts, the rat/bat connection means they're a shoe-in to live in sewers, especially with their lycanthrope leaders.
That's the ONE redeeming quality of them, I'll give ya that.
And they look cool, too.
A nice twist for players who are used to goblins, orcs, etc.
Great work on the article, Mr. R.!
Can we see 12 new/old monsters next January?
I'd be happy to do more, we just need to figure out which ones.
there are so many to choose from! of course, the utility varies...
there are so many to choose from! of course, the utility varies...
Utility is a pretty nebulous term, but I agree. I want creatures I know I will use in adventures (or at least try to fit into encounter tables, change out monsters in pre-written adventures for the new ones to keep my players guessing, etc.).
Maybe a poll could be set up for which monsters we'd most like to see make a comeback.
They do it over at WotC for Magic cards, fer cryin' out loud!
usefulness would have been a better term, but i was too tired to think of it. ;)
Maybe a poll could be set up for which monsters we'd most like to see make a comeback.
way ahead of you: http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?goto=newpost&t=161038
I loved the creatures in this article and I am already mulling putting the dusanu in an adventure I'm writing. That said, I would love to see more and more monsters from the older editions converted, either in Dragon or Dungeon, especially those from 1e Fiend Folio and MMII (as well as from the D&D Known World aka Mystara). I do love me the weirdness.
Heh! Funny coincidence. I've been wanting to submit an adventure proposal idea ot Dungeon with carrionettes as the main villains of a low-level urban adventure. About 8 years ago my younger brother ran a campaign with a fun mini-adventure with them taking over a dollmaker's shop, so I thought it would be cool to recreate it, but had to go to him for the old Monstrous Compendium from 2E that had their stats in it.
The day before he shows up at my house after a couple days of digging through old boxes and finally finding it I get issue #339 in the mail and Lo, and behold! There's the carrionette all v.3.5'd up on pg. 48.
Well, so much for my idea :( I'm pretty sure someone has beat me to it.
Heh! Funny coincidence. I've been wanting to submit an adventure proposal idea ot Dungeon with carrionettes as the main villains of a low-level urban adventure. About 8 years ago my younger brother ran a campaign with a fun mini-adventure with them taking over a dollmaker's shop, so I thought it would be cool to recreate it, but had to go to him for the old Monstrous Compendium from 2E that had their stats in it.
The day before he shows up at my house after a couple days of digging through old boxes and finally finding it I get issue #339 in the mail and Lo, and behold! There's the carrionette all v.3.5'd up on pg. 48.
Well, so much for my idea :( I'm pretty sure someone has beat me to it.
Don't be so easily discouraged, maybe yours will be the best evil doll adventure query submitted, :).
I would love to see more and more monsters from the older editions converted, either in Dragon or Dungeon, especially those from 1e Fiend Folio and MMII (as well as from the D&D Known World aka Mystara). I do love me the weirdness.
last week i sent in a query regarding 16 conversions of my own (about half of them strongly considered on the not-so-subtle advice of Erik Mona himself), and an equal number of new monsters.
among the conversions there aren't any from Fiend Folio (sorry!), but there are two Mystara critters, and several from Monster Manual II if that makes up for not having any "Fiendies" as i call them. ;)
I sent an article that had a conversion of the mystara/known world monster the Lava Lizard a while back, but have not heard back on it's acceptance or rejection yet.
I would love to see more and more monsters from the older editions converted, either in Dragon or Dungeon, especially those from 1e Fiend Folio and MMII (as well as from the D&D Known World aka Mystara). I do love me the weirdness.last week i sent in a query regarding 16 conversions of my own (about half of them strongly considered on the not-so-subtle advice of Erik Mona himself), and an equal number of new monsters.
among the conversions there aren't any from Fiend Folio (sorry!), but there are two Mystara critters, and several from Monster Manual II if that makes up for not having any "Fiendies" as i call them. ;)
Sounds cool. Is this related to your poll on EN World? I am proud to say that I was the first one to vote, but I think only the quickling, of all of my choices, will make the cut. However, I would love to see the quickling officially converted, along with several other personal favorites such as the korred, kech, and vampire rose.
One annoying thing about monster conversions, is that I usually find one or two monsters that I used to love, like the juju zombie, in FR regional sourcebooks. Oh well...
Also, I'm wondering if any conversions will be included in the upcoming MMIV.
Sounds cool. Is this related to your poll on EN World? I am proud to say that I was the first one to vote, but I think only the quickling, of all of my choices, will make the cut. However, I would love to see the quickling officially converted, along with several other personal favorites such as the korred, kech, and vampire rose.
directly related, yes. and i did notice that you were the first to vote. :) the quickling made the cut (it had like 27 votes the last time i looked, and nothing else had over 20), and if the editors like my ideas it seems likely that that one (if none other) will be featured. :)
Also, I'm wondering if any conversions will be included in the upcoming MMIV.
i'm wondering that myself! we shall see...
Hi,
I finally got ahold of this issue. I enjoyed the monsters article, though I had been hoping for a bit more Mystara material in there.
As has been commented elsewhere, the Nagpa as a Template was a bit of a mystery, but I noticed that it is only applicable to human and half-elf sorcerors. Not sure that this is a good thing though, given the controversy over the existance of half-elves in Mystara. The illustrations were love though, My favorite was the Nagpa, followed by the Phanaton, and the Dusanu wasnt too bad either. I also liked the detailing of the Nagpa Staff, as a unique type of item, has that been mentioned in prior sources? I would have liked to see a reference to their Tabi familiars though.
A year to the next CC issue? *groan* :(
Håvard
{As has been commented elsewhere, the Nagpa as a Template was a bit of a mystery, but I noticed that it is only applicable to human and half-elf sorcerors. Not sure that this is a good thing though, given the controversy over the existance of half-elves in Mystara.}
Well, i was just using the info presented in the Mystara Monstrous Compendium entry, which the Paizo folks kindly scanned for me.
{I also liked the detailing of the Nagpa Staff, as a unique type of item, has that been mentioned in prior sources?}
That's also in the MMC entry.
{I would have liked to see a reference to their Tabi familiars though.}
That's not in the MMC entry, so I didn't know about it. :)
As one of the SJ fans who felt a bit slighted at the Polyhedron fiasco I must say this is a better treatment of the setting than it has gotten. As far as I can tell the Giff were very accurate in their portrayal and this was one of the races I was concerned about as this was the one race that kept me interested in the setting as a whole. While I play lupin and similar races mostly, I still wanted the option of having them around to meet and interact with. Heck the one story I am writing features a Giff paladin and the pic used is about how I pictured the character to look like in my own story. Insectare are nothing I paid much attention to. Scro are dead on. Excellant article and the new monsters are a bonus section of new toys to play with.On the other hand, I'm glad to hear that SJ has its fans. See, I was a Dark Sun fan, back in the day, and kind of understand how you people must feel, to be left adrift in wildspace without a Spelljamming engine. Of course, I can't reach wildspace from Athas, so I'm simply stuck in one of the last jungles of the Tyr area, beset by savage halflings who only want me for my nutrients...
AHHHH things being talked about that were created before I was born!! man I started playin when i was in second grade and now im in 10th....my brain hurts with trying to learn all these old games that are now outta business....scary stuff man
{As has been commented elsewhere, the Nagpa as a Template was a bit of a mystery, but I noticed that it is only applicable to human and half-elf sorcerors. Not sure that this is a good thing though, given the controversy over the existance of half-elves in Mystara.}
Well, i was just using the info presented in the Mystara Monstrous Compendium entry, which the Paizo folks kindly scanned for me.
Thanks for commenting on this one Sean! I guessed that the MMC was the only source, and I can't really say I blame you for it. But I hope that if paizo publishes articles on Mystara creatures in the future that they will look into the Classic D&D sources as well.
Hope to see more Mystara related material from you in paizo magazines in the future :)
Håvard
see, that's why i like to make use of every available source when doing conversions. ;) sometimes newer entries leave out things from older entries, and you can miss out on a surprising amount of stuff that way.
but, eh, if that's all they gave you then that's all you had to work with!
i don't think it will be conversions like this one, but i do remember Erik saying he wanted to put CCV within the first half of 2006.
Giff are only silly if you play up their uniforms, names and odd British accents. In my old AD&D campaign one of the high level wizards had four giff bodyguards. I ran them the same way bodyguards for rappers and rock stars tend to act--aloof, pushy, arrogant and all so willing to pummel somebody.
Seconded for truth. I think that a lot of "silly" elements from older games are a matter of perception. Any race could probably be interpreted as either silly or serious. Settings work that way too.
The Giff, neogi, and Arcane (aka Mercane) were the three best things that came from SJ, IMO, and I now have them for 3.5. I am a happy kobold.
Personally, I loved this issue and the articles that convert old information in previous issues. Would it be possible to see these articles in another Dragon collected volume? I can dream, can't I?
AHHHH things being talked about that were created before I was born!! man I started playin when i was in second grade and now im in 10th....my brain hurts with trying to learn all these old games that are now outta business....scary stuff man
They were strange times, my friend, strange times indeed. I myself am only old enough to remember Dark Sun, which was, in my limited expirence, the best of the lot when it came to D&D's once-many worlds.
On the other hand, Spelljammer, Planescape and other worlds have had lasting effects on the game. Many of the old favorite monsters got their start in Spelljammer, and among other new mainstays, the Tiefling and Aasimar came from Planescape (... Right...?)
If you're ever interested, there are sources online, and a lot of old material is available in PDFs, available for sale at places that sell PDFs...
(Oddly enough, you posted this on my birthday...)
And I concede: The Giff aren't silly by themselves. Though I always thought the concept of hippo-men was a little absurd, I guess I can only say this because I never got to watch one liqueify a man in front of me with their bare hands. And the Scro... I know I said the concept was silly, but the execution is slick. I might have to use them. Insectarre? Not so much...
And once again, Nagpa? Hmmm... Maybe...
I used the Suel Lich as the main bad guy for last Saturday's game. Memorable, threatening and a lot of fun. He came "this" close to taking down half the party, but then his luck ran out. Very cool...