The Silver Aniversary copy is pretty good, and as the Keep consists of pretty classic monsters it shouldn't be too hard to update. Four gnolls is still pretty much four gnolls, etc. Great adventure for new gamers and old timers who want something a little more fun than scary...
Anarch of Sxao
They have not updated this venerable classic, but... as mentioned previously, four gnolls are four gnolls. There are several sites that have other DM's updates and modifications that could save you a lot of work. When I switched it over I did one Monsters cave at a time. Good luck. I'll see if I can dig up my map of the Keep rendered in 5 foot squares.
This was the first thing I played in when 3.0 hit. The DM at the time, now one of the players in my group, ran it and did his conversions ahead of time with little to no problems.
Good times...definitely worth it.
I'm considering doing the same thing with the Silver Anniversary one. The only major thing for me would be magic item adjustment; I find 2nd edition modules give away a lot more magical treasure than 3.5 (at lower levels, anyways) partially as a balancing factor in case the PCs bite off a little more than they can chew in a normal situation. But that's just my opinion for the most part. 3.5 edition tends to distribute more single use magic items like scrolls or potions at lower levels than longswords +1 or chainmail +2.
I'm considering doing the same thing with the Silver Anniversary one. The only major thing for me would be magic item adjustment; I find 2nd edition modules give away a lot more magical treasure than 3.5 (at lower levels, anyways) partially as a balancing factor in case the PCs bite off a little more than they can chew in a normal situation. But that's just my opinion for the most part. 3.5 edition tends to distribute more single use magic items like scrolls or potions at lower levels than longswords +1 or chainmail +2.
**** MAJOR SPOILER WARNING - IF YOUR A PLAYER AND MIGHT EVER PLAY THIS ADVENTRURE DON'T READ THIS I'M GIVING AWAY THE TWO BIGGEST SECRETS OF THIS ADVENTURE IN THIS POST *****
I've converted the silver anniversary version myself. I did not notice much a problem in terms of the magical items really at all. What is a problem is that one can find stuff really really clumped. As an example you can wade through a fair number of caves and find basically diddly squat - my players were crying "DM treachery and cheating" in virtual unison by the 6th or 7th session in which they pretty much had got diddly squat.
Just for the record they cleared out Cave D and most of F but skipped E until much later (The Trolls was to nasty for them). Then went on to A, C and H.
Magic items - or any treasure for that matter - for these caves, with one big exception, is sparse. In 3.5 your players are going to start leveling just from these few caves and they, pretty much, won't have all that much treasure - my players were getting into 3rd level and had found pretty much zip all.
The one uber exception is the Kobolds Dragon Egg - think on what you want to do with that baby because its a mother load find. Though being surrounded by thousands of gold painted coppers and diamonds made of cut glass may throw your players off - if the they see through the Kobolds attempts at making a treasure horde - and they have experience with kobolds - they are going to put two and two together and come to completely the wrong conclusion. My players took a look at the egg - figured out the glass gems and had found out about the gold painted coppers. So they new the treasure was fake - they saw lots of fake treasure and a big egg and made the obvious assumption. Its one really big booby trap to trick stupid and gullible adventures into thinking that there is a Dragon Horde just sitting there for the taking - they were pretty sure that entering that room was a sure fire way to end up maimed or worse. Of course my players eventually went into the room and got the Egg - thats a Good Dragon Egg - its the find of a lifetime.
Anyway treasure in this thing can come in massive clumps - around session 7 or 8 or some such they went into Cave G beat the snot out of that Wererat and a bunch of wimpy Dire Rats and found the Wererats treasure - which is loaded with magic and treasure - in one session with one easy fight they had hit on the equivalent of 4 or 5 sessions worth of treasure - they'd not score again for at least three more sessions - its like a lottery.
You might want to replace the bandits with something else as players fight a lot of humans in this adventure - make them fight something else - anything else. Or maybe better yet run it as some other kind of adventure, I suggest something that involves either role playing or something that involves puzzle solving. Your players are going to be hacking a phenomenal amount with this baby - give them a break here with something that does not involve killing every thing that moves.
Also the Skeltare and Zombire obviously don't convert - you could remake them as unique monsters but personally I converted them to a female Necromancer and her male consort a Cleric with the Death Domain. Very memorable encounter they had with that one - the parties Paladin charged the Cleric and got to learn about the Death Touch ability - by being slain outright.
Also keep in mind that the module may well kind of whimper out. The final encounters in the Hidden Temple are not that tough and all this hacking and slashing is going to be pushing your players levels up. If I recall correctly there is nothing between the cave entrance the room leading to the holy of holies. The big defense for that room and thus the guardians of the largest treasure horde in the adventure is blocked by nothing much more then a room with 30 zombies in it. In 2nd Edition 30 Zombies is pretty tough even for a 3rd or so level party but in 3.5 your clerics are likely to be 4th level - they automatically destroy Zombies with their turns - they are going to hit this room and literally blow the defenders away - then they just waltz into the holy of holies and make off with the biggest treasure score in the entire adventure ... wham bam thank you ma'am.
Also the Skeltare and Zombire obviously don't convert - you could remake them as unique monsters but personally I converted them to a female Necromancer and her male consort a Cleric with the Death Domain. Very memorable encounter they had with that one - the parties Paladin charged the Cleric and got to learn about the Death Touch ability - by being slain outright.
Well, if you have the Book of Vile Darkness, you can convert them. There are templates for a "Bone Creature" and a "Corpse Creature" that are basically skeletons and zombies retaining all their abilites. You still need a base creature to work from, of course.
Stefan
Well, if you have the Book of Vile Darkness, you can convert them. There are templates for a "Bone Creature" and a "Corpse Creature" that are basically skeletons and zombies retaining all their abilites. You still need a base creature to work from, of course.Stefan
Ah - I see what you mean. Templates are on p. 184 and 185 of The Book of Vile Darkness. This is a common problem with converting modules from first or 2nd edition into 3.5 (well for me anyway). Surprisingly often a creature you can't find turns out to exist after all but under some new name and maybe in some different guise.
Anyway if one does choose to convert these guys using this template make sure that they have some descent number of HD. It'd be really annoying spending 45 minutes on each of these characters making ex-adventurer types and then applying a template to them only to have the Cleric take one look at them and then turn or destroy them - In my opinion it sucks when the bloody players go through an encounter that took an hour and a half to set up with three dice rolls - its not like the cleric won't shine in a huge chunck of this adventure any way - so making him feel good is not an issue.
Come to think of it if any one has seen Quicklings I'm interested.
Also I'm converting Secret of the Towers at the moment and there is a Wereshark in there. Worse yet the Wereshark may have been little more then a throw away encounter in Secret of the Towers as written but in my campaign world this guy has been having a noticeable effect by making a lousy trade route into a downright unprofitable one by raiding the small cargo ships that use the route - and if my players have been paying attention they already know this info.
So know I really need a Wereshark or something really close to a Wereshark. I figured that even if there was no specific Weresharks there would surely be a Lycanthrope template - but I did not take into account that the template might only be for a handful of animals.
So know I really need a Wereshark or something really close to a Wereshark. I figured that even if there was no specific Weresharks there would surely be a Lycanthrope template - but I did not take into account that the template might only be for a handful of animals.
They only have templates listed for a handfull of animals, but the rules for creating a Lycanthrope are there. Either in the MM or on the D20SRD site.
Not knowing what size of wereshark you are intending to use, It's a little tricky to set up the template. I'll take a stab at it, but keep in mind I'm half asleep at the moment.
Wereshark (Large).
Type does not change, add Shapechanger subtype.
Hit Dice: Base creature + 7d8(+con modifier of course)
Speed Humanoid (NOrmal), Shark Form: Swim 60.
Natural Armor +2 (Total of +6 in Hybrid or Shark form)
BAB: +5
Attacks (As per form, hybrid damage based on creature size)
A lycanthrope retains the special attacks of the base creature or base animal, depending on which form it is using, and also gains the special attack curse of lycanthropy.
A lycanthrope can shift into animal form as though using the polymorph spell on itself, though its gear is not affected, it does not regain hit points for changing form, and only the specific animal form indicated for the lycanthrope can be assumed. It does not assume the ability scores of the animal, but instead adds the animal’s physical ability score modifiers to its own ability scores. A lycanthrope also can assume a bipedal hybrid form with prehensile hands and animalistic features.
Changing to or from animal or hybrid form is a standard action.
A slain lycanthrope reverts to its humanoid form, although it remains dead. Separated body parts retain their animal form, however.
Afflicted lycanthropes find this ability difficult to control (see Lycanthropy as an Affliction, below), but natural lycanthropes have full control over this power.
Abilities: +6 Str, +4 Dex, +2 Con, +2 Wis.
Skills/Feats, as base humanoid+Animal levels.
Out of laziness I copied some of this information from the d20srd site.
The 3e Wereshark is detailed in Monsters of Faerûn (page 92) and there's a (non-official) Quickling here http://www.enworld.org/cc/converted/pdf/fey/quickling.pdf
Come to think of it if any one has seen Quicklings I'm interested.
Also I'm converting Secret of the Towers at the moment and there is a Wereshark in there. Worse yet the Wereshark may have been little more then a throw away encounter in Secret of the Towers as written but in my campaign world this guy has been having a noticeable effect by making a lousy trade route into a downright unprofitable one by raiding the small cargo ships that use the route - and if my players have been paying attention they already know this info.
So know I really need a Wereshark or something really close to a Wereshark. I figured that even if there was no specific Weresharks there would surely be a Lycanthrope template - but I did not take into account that the template might only be for a handful of animals.
There's a 3.5 rendition of the quickling in the Revised Tome of Horrors from Necromancer Games. There is no print version of the 3.5 revision for the book, it is available exclusively as a pdf from DriveThruRPG, I believe.
The original Tome of Horrors also included the quickling, but as I only have the revised copy, I'm not sure how extensive the changes were.
Also - Green Ronin's Advanced Bestiary has a quickling template that can be applied to a variety of creatures.
- Ashavan
Anyway if one does choose to convert these guys using this template make sure that they have some descent number of HD. It'd be really annoying spending 45 minutes on each of these characters making ex-adventurer types and then applying a template to them only to have the Cleric take one look at them and then turn or destroy them - In my opinion it sucks when the bloody players go through an encounter that took an hour and a half to set up with three dice rolls - its not like the cleric won't shine in a huge chunck of this adventure any way - so making him feel good is not an issue.
With Undead, you can always give them an Amulet of Turn Resistance or something to make ´em harder to turn. Fourth level group against 4HD Undead can be too easy, but if you add Turn Resistance +2, it is much harder. And the players do not have any use for this amulet (if you have a normal group, that is...). Or the undead evil cleric can bolster them anyway.
Stefan
They only have templates listed for a handfull of animals, but the rules for creating a Lycanthrope are there. Either in the MM or on the D20SRD site.Not knowing what size of wereshark you are intending to use, It's a little tricky to set up the template. I'll take a stab at it, but keep in mind I'm half asleep at the moment.
Hmm - this is a really good stab at Wereshark and should work just fine for what I'm after.
Thanks!
They only have templates listed for a handfull of animals, but the rules for creating a Lycanthrope are there. Either in the MM or on the D20SRD site.Not knowing what size of wereshark you are intending to use, It's a little tricky to set up the template. I'll take a stab at it, but keep in mind I'm half asleep at the moment.
Hmm - this is a really good stab at Wereshark and should work just fine for what I'm after.
Thanks!
I reccomend reading over the entry in either MM or d20srd site for Lycanthropes, then checking the stats of both the shark you wish to use and the creature that it will be combined with. Make sure the numbers add up and all that. That post was written when I was half asleep so I may have made some obvious mistakes.