I have started work on converting E1 to 4E. I am converting it to suit 7th level characters, which is where the party will be when we get to it.
One of the challenges I am facing is that it is an event-based adventure. If the party attempts to take an extended rest...
Anyway, I thought I'd post a few converted monsters to get some feedback. Any comments are appreciated.
Dark Ice Brownie
Dark Ice Brownie Level 6 Skirmisher
Tiny fey humanoid (cold) XP 250
Initiative +10 Senses Perception +12
HP 84; Bloodied 42
AC 23; Fortitude 20, Reflex 22, Will 18
Resist 10 cold, Vulnerable 5 fire
Speed 6 (ice walk)
m Frostblade (standard; at-will)  Weapon, Cold
+11 vs. AC; 1d4 + 4 cold damage and the target is slowed until the end of its next turn.
C Icy Burst (standard; encounter)  Cold, Zone
Close Burst 2; +9 vs. Fort; target is immobilized (save ends). The zone is difficult icy terrain until the end of the encounter. Cold creatures are immune to this effect.
Frost Aura
The Dark Ice Brownie gains a +4 racial bonus to AC against opportunity attacks provoked by movement.
Alignment Evil Languages Common, Elven
Skills Bluff +9, Insight +9, Stealth +12
Str 14 (+5) Dex 20 (+8) Wis 17 (+6)
Con 18 (+7) Int 10(+3) Cha 13 (+4)
Frosty Chisiler
Frosty Chiseler Level 6 Soldier
Small fey humanoid (cold) XP 250
Initiative +10 Senses Perception +12, darkvision
HP 84; Bloodied 42
AC 24; Fortitude 20, Reflex 22, Will 18
Resist 10 cold, Vulnerable 5 fire
Speed 6 (ice walk)
m Hammer (standard; at-will)  Weapon, Cold
+11 vs. AC; 1d10 + 4 cold damage.
m Chisel (standard; at-will)  Weapon, Cold
+11 vs. AC; 1d8 + 4 cold damage and the target is slowed until the end of its next turn.
R Brittlebone Curse (standard; recharge 5+)  Cold
Ranged 10; +9 vs. Will, the target gains vulnerable 5 cold and is slowed (save ends). First Failed Save: The target is immobilized instead of slowed (save ends). Second Failed Save: The target is petrified (save ends).
Alignment Evil Languages Common, Elven
Skills Stealth +12
Str 14 (+5) Dex 12 (+4) Wis 17 (+6)
Con 18 (+7) Int 20(+8) Cha 13 (+4)
Jack-in-the-Box
Jack-in-the-Box (Poppit) Level 7 Elite Soldier
Medium natural animate (construct) XP 600
Initiative +5 Senses Perception +10; darkvision
HP 156; Bloodied 78
AC 24; Fortitude 22, Reflex 20, Will 19
Immune disease, poison, sleep
Saving Throws +2
Speed 4 (can’t shift)
Action Points 1
m Mallet (standard; at-will)  Weapon
+12 vs. AC; 1d8 + 6 damage, and the target is knocked prone.
M Wild Swing (standard; at-will)  Weapon
The jack-in-the-box makes two mallet attacks.
Poppit Hop (standard, recharge 5+)
The jack-in-the-box moves up to its speed plus 2 and can move through enemies’ spaces, provoking opportunity attacks as normal. When it enters a creature’s space (ally or enemy), the poppit makes a slam attack against that creature. The creature remains in its space, and the poppit must leave the space after it attacks. The poppit must end its hop in an unoccupied space.
Back In The Box (standard, at-will)
The jack-in-the-box retreats into his box and gains resist 15 to all damage, regeneration 5, and tremorsense 10. It loses all other senses and can take no actions in stone form other than revert to its normal form (as a minor action).
Alignment Unaligned Languages --
Str 22 (+9) Dex 11 (+3) Wis 8 (+1)
Con 14 (+5) Int 1 (-2) Cha 3 (-1)
The Cold Rider
The Cold Rider Level 10 Solo Brute
Large fey humanoid (cold) XP 2,500
Initiative +6 Senses Perception +12, darkvision
HP 440; Bloodied 220
Regeneration 5 (if The Cold Rider takes fire damage, regeneration doesn’t function on its next turn)
AC 24; Fortitude 27, Reflex 22, Will 23
Saves +5
Resist 20 cold
Speed 9 (ice walk) or 5 (ice walk); see Dismounted
Action Points 2
m Quicksilver Glaive (standard; at-will)  Weapon, Cold
Reach 2; +13 vs. AC; 2d6+4 plus 1d6 cold damage and the target is immobilized until the end of its next turn. See also Dismounted.
m Cerulean Antlers (standard; at-will)  Weapon
+13 vs. AC; 1d8 + 4 damage and the target is grappled.
M Fel Cavalry Strike (standard; at-will)  Weapon, Cold
The Cold Rider makes a Quicksilver Glaive attack and a Cerulean Antlers strike. See also Dismounted.
B Ice Storm (standard; recharge 5+)  Cold, Zone
Area Burst 3 within 20; +11 vs. Fort; 4d6+4 cold damage. The burst creates a zone of ice. The zone is difficult icy terrain until the end of the encounter or for 5 minutes.
C Terror Gaze (standard; encounter)  Fear
Close burst 5; targets enemies; +10 vs. Will; the target is stunned until the end of the dragon’s next turn. Aftereffect: The target takes a –2 penalty to attack rolls (save ends).
Dismounted (once bloodied)
The Cold Rider’s steed has been destroyed. The Cold Rider now has a movement of 5 (ice walk), is now Medium size, cannot use fel cavalry strike, and does and extra 1d6 cold damage with all attacks.
Alignment Chaotic Evil Languages Common, Elven
Skills Intimidation +12
Str 22 (+11) Dex 12 (+5) Wis 14 (+6)
Con 20 (+10) Int 12 (+5) Cha 10 (+4)
Thoughts?
I have finished converting the module to 4E. I made several considerations when doing the work.
1. I kept the encounters at full strength instead of toning them down. While the seelie court with provide some help along the way, the players will be forewarned that the short time frame of the adventure will prevent extended rests. Thus they will have to make due with the resources at hand.
2. I simplified many of the aspects of the module. For example, since ice mephits aren't in the MM, I replaced the one in the module with something else, a young white dragon carved out of ice. The Modern Engineering Machines have the same stats except for how they attack (area vs. one target).
3. Since there isn't much treasure placed in the module itself, I will add some at the end (probably as rewards from both the town and the seelie court) depending out the adventure outcome. I will also add quest rewards depending on the outcome as well.
If you are interested in what I have, I can post more here.
|
Hot damn, someone that knows 4E help him out, please! The more groups emotionally scarred by this module, the better!
If they did actually dare to take an extended rest, I'd definitely err on the side of ambushing them. Otherwise it's all over and they're left with nothing but grimdark aftermath. Hopefully they'll realize that taking a break simply would not work though, once things go to hell.
|
Spoiler:Dark Ice Brownie Level 6 Skirmisher
Tiny fey humanoid (cold) XP 250
Initiative +10 Senses Perception +12
HP 84; Bloodied 42
AC 23; Fortitude 20, Reflex 22, Will 18
Resist 10 cold, Vulnerable 5 fire
Speed 6 (ice walk)
m Frostblade (standard; at-will)  Weapon, Cold
+11 vs. AC; 1d4 + 4 cold damage and the target is slowed until the end of its next turn.
C Icy Burst (standard; encounter)  Cold, Zone
Close Burst 2; +9 vs. Fort; target is immobilized (save ends). The zone is difficult icy terrain until the end of the encounter. Cold creatures are immune to this effect.
Frost Aura
The Dark Ice Brownie gains a +4 racial bonus to AC against opportunity attacks provoked by movement.
Alignment Evil Languages Common, Elven
Skills Bluff +9, Insight +9, Stealth +12
Str 14 (+5) Dex 20 (+8) Wis 17 (+6)
Con 18 (+7) Int 10(+3) Cha 13 (+4)
I'd add in an encounter power to capture the Magic Circle Against Good Effect. Long dureation protections are really against the spirit of 4.0 rules. However building something like this this:
Protection from Good (Encounter, when attacked by a good creature, recharge on a 6) ✦ Arcane, Force
The Frost Brownie receives +2 on all defenses agaisnt the triggering attack.
I like your design!
If they did actually dare to take an extended rest, I'd definitely err on the side of ambushing them. Otherwise it's all over and they're left with nothing but grim, dark aftermath. Hopefully they'll realize that taking a break simply would not work though, once things go to hell.
I am definitely going to err on the side of ambush. If they can’t take the hint after a couple of attempts at an extended rest, then it will lead to the grim, dark aftermath. But I will try to be nice enough to hit them with the big “hint stick” before getting too nasty.
I'd add in an encounter power to capture the Magic Circle Against Good Effect. Long duration protections are really against the spirit of 4.0 rules. However building something like this...
When creating the Dark Ice Brownie, I took a good look at its original powers and tried to create something to capture the flavor of the original creature and its new “role”. Since I felt that the brownie was a skirmisher I went with the Frost Aura effect, which will allow it to hit and run more effectively. I thought it to be a good translation of the Magic Circle effect.
Thank you for the feedback. When I get to my conversion notes, I will post them on my blog and post the link here. It should be a lot of fun to both play and DM.
This looks like a really great start! I'm about to go through this process, but have never done a 3e to 4e conversion. One thing I'm wondering about though is the 4e focus on larger skirmish battles rather than individual monsters. When I first thought about converting, I thought, hmmm, better find groups of monsters (with different roles) to fill the places of the individual 3e counterparts.
So, I was thinking of downgrading the main monsters, and then dropping in allies (monsters of similar type or random carnies of different varieties, belligerent lumberjacks, etc.) Did you consider that when doing your conversion?
I agree that extended rest presents a challenge. One option is to make the crazyness really take off the next day (rather than that night.) So, they have 1 day of fun at the fair, spend the night with Syntira, and then the crazyness emerges the next day... Agree that once the main encounters start, it will be pretty tough to squeeze one in.
For my conversion, when it comes to mobs vs. solos I took both routes.
A lot of 3.xE stuff I plan on using will not neatly fit in the 4E scheme of mob fights. I will continue to mob up some fights and elite up others to find a good balance.
