Greetings all,
I'm already working on converting "Into The Maw," and I have run into a few concerns. My biggest concerns are (a) am I doing the conversions appropriately, and (b) are some of the choices I made fit into the character of the npc?
So, for those of you who have ran "Into The Maw" as a PF conversion, listed below are the changes I made (not full stat blocks but rather key differences) and I would like your input.
Most creatures are straightfoward in the sense that they have already been done in the Bestiary 1-3. Other required some thinking.
The filth demons are built from scratch - I gave them 21 HD, the chaotic and evil subtypes, but not the demon subtype, even though they pratically share most of the same qualities, because their description indicate that they're not demons born from mortal souls/sin, but from "pools of fetid ooze that collect in the cracks and crevices of Abyssal resrvoirs and sewers." I made their Powerful Bite ability doubled Strength modifier to damage and doubled threat range. This seemed more appropriate to me since their "mouth" looks just as dangerous as a shark or t-rex. Everything else is a straightforward conversion. Not sure if it warrants a CR 14 or something less.
Belshamoth is a shaggy demodand, straight from Bestiary 3. No changes other than adjusting feats to resemble that which Belshamoth originally had and changing the morningstar to the guisarme.
Blood fiends...damn, they were annoying at first but ultimately, I made them from scratch as undead. I was tempted to make them originally outsiders who become vampires but then their BAB, saves, and so forth would be too good. So, Large 16 HD undead from scratch, and gave them most of the special qualities from the vampire template except for stat boosts and extra feats. Their eight feats selection reflects the bonus feats that a vampire would have gained, except for Alertness, I left that out as that seemed ridiculous on top of the +8 racial modifiers to the relevant skills. I think I ended up with something that has the same challenge rating as the original blood fiends - 15.
Greater Lemorian Golem - built from scratch, 30 HD Huge construct. Mainly the same abilities as the original 3.5 version but I changed dual nature so that the golem could not be flanked (with it have two heads and all). Among the feats that it purchased, I decided on Critical Focus and Sickening Critical (makes sense in conjunction with its Rot ability).
Jariaxer - standard babau demon with ten levels of rogue with the chameleon and scout archetypes. Even though I used the standard babau stats, they were modified as a normal monster with heroic class levels (so +4, +4, +2, +2, +0, -2, assigned as desired). CR 17. I focused on Feints and Trips for this npc. I decided on her having ranks in Craft (alchemy) so that she had the ability to devise certain alchemical items from one or two of the labs that I have inserted in Divided's Ire (hey, it was built by Demogorgon, of course there has to be at least one lab for experimenting on prisoners).
Kululblax - similar to Jariaxer, standard glabrezu, with three levels of barbarian (true primitive and wild rager archetypes) and 2 levels of ranger. CR 18. Feats are pretty much the same as listed in the adventure but Double Slice is one of his feats, along with Improved Sunder. I have pictured as this out-of-control warden who is happy to destroy anything that gets in the way of his fun.
Lazruvakus - what the hell? Took a while but decided on building it from scratch as a gargantuan dragon with the earth and fire subtype, plus the advanced and fiendish templates with 30 HD. I think the CR is right as 21. I ran mock battles against the Deep Sea Serpent (CR 21) and the fight can go either way, depends on who goes first and how the dice rolls for damage. Even though they're not PF feats, I decided on the Awakened Frightful Presence, Fast Healing, and Shock Wave feats from the 3.5 Draconomicon for this ancient beast. Still, this is one slow monster, with a pretty lousy fly speed. PCs have an easy time of running away or pinging at it from a distant, at which point it will just hide and slumber again.
Lynnara - standard succubus, with eight levels of bard (court bard archetype) and eight levels of Thrall of Malcanthet. I believe this gives her the correct CR of 19, not 17 as listed in the adventure (I have no idea as to how they arrived at that number). For her, I did almost everything possible to skyrocket her social skills. With the same gear as listed in the adventure, her Bluff modifier is 63 without any magical boost (such as glibness). It is all ranks, stat modifier, racial modifiers, feats, and class features. I'm rather proud of that kind of Bluffing power (her Disguise is almost in the 50's) but I really cannot hide the fact that she's a demon if the players use true seeing. I'm tempted to have her disguise as a tiefling instead - much more believable.
Mature nabasu - straight from Bestiary 1, with 10 growth points. CR 15.
Nalfeshnee - straight from Bestiary 1.
Nycaloth mercenaries - built from scratch, with four levels of fighter. Total 18 HD outsider, with the evil and yugoloth subtypes (essentially the same as the one from 3.5). Sure, I could have used daemons, but it didn't seem as fitting as an actual yugoloth. CR 14. Same gear, feats selection is nothing fancy.
Quasit - straight from Bestiary 1.
S'Shara - built from scratch as a 12 HD outsider with the chaotic, demon, and evil subtypes, and eight levels of anti-paladin (total of 20 HD). CR 18. I carried over the kelvezu abilities into the PF versions. Her feat selections reflect her two-weapon fighting style and Spring Attack feat tree.
Kelubar - I made them Tarry Demodands, CR 13.
Vanthus - He is still at CR 20. Graveknight template, on top of the Lemorian half-fiend, and he's a fighter 15 (two-weapon archetype), aristocrat 1, rogue 1 (rake). His weapons are cutlass instead of the weapons listed in the adventure. Not the most tricked out npc but I made sure the feats selection played to his strengths, and his gear has been changed (I even used the Mastercraft qualities from Dragon #358 to improve his gear so that it would not sunder so easily - again, Demogorgon is master of alchemy and crafting magic items). His base AC is 43, not bad, before any improvements, such as Combat Expertise or Defensive Flurry.
Vrock - same as Bestiary 1.
The only things I have not finished yet are Lillianth, the shadows of Socothbenoth, Saureya, and Orgosh. Lillianth is a bit tricky, but I am thinking of giving her eight levels of inquisitor. As a tactician and former general, I am thinking she was good at understanding her enemies and their weaknesses. Her job was to destroy the enemies of Graz'zt, and to me, inquisitor (and its class abilities) seem like a natural fit for Lillianth. I am thinking that in terms of determining the CR, inquisitors fall in the same role as paladins and monks.
Saureya, I am not sure yet what to do with him. Orgosh is naturally a necromancer. I might change his feats around or supplement him with feats that improve undead.
So, thoughts? If requested, I could forward the exact stat blocks. Ah, one thing to keep in mind is that I view natural spell resistance to increase with CR. Since SR = 11 + CR, if the monster's CR increase because of HD or class levels, the SR goes up too. I find it keeps SR relevant at higher levels of gameplay that way.
CB out.
Nice ideas!
If you need any more inspiration, check out this thread. I know that you've already posted on it, but since then Charlie Bell has re-issued his offer to share some of his own PF conversions on Google.
E-mails sent to Mr. Bell and Mr. Carborundum respectively.
Hopefully, I will have all of the Into The Maw finished and cleared up for better readability within a week or so to forward for peer-review. My stat blocks tend to remind me of the cram sheets I had put together for high school exams.