I was politely asked by an old friend if I would convert our favorite solo dungeon (Maze of the Riddling Minotaur) to PF2E. Since we both have been playing this one module for, like, ever, and I have converted it to multiple systems over the years, I agreed. A majority of the monsters exist in the Bestiary (just got it last night, Yay!) and I can adjust existing ones with the Elite add-on, I find it difficult to create the necessary Obsidian Golem that weighs in around a CR of 6 to 8. I don't think adding the Weak adjustment will work on an existing monster.
Obsidian being volcanic glass would be weak possibly to sonic and bashing?
Explosive death possibly with glass shards flying about? (ala the skeleton trait)
Based on a Minotaur shape so Large size.
Can't think of any reasonable antimagic tho...
On a side note, adjusting the size of a monster from Medium to Large like an Animated Statue, bump up CR by 1 and give it Elite mods? Or does making something Large from Medium give different modifications? Would adding extra abilities to an existing creature bump it by a +1 CR, say a ranged attack of a burst of flame (1d6 per 2 levels)?
I humbly request input from the various and sundry Creature Forge Experts in residence. Thank you.
I would likely scrub the Flesh Golem, apply a Weak, and then retool the statblock to fit the new concept. Say, for example...
Resistance physical 5 (except adamantine or bludgeoning)
Golem Antimagic harmed by sonic (4d8, 2d4 from areas or persistent damage); healed by
fire (area 2d4 HP); slowed by cold
Vulnerable to Maze
And some sort of special attack or reaction themed around minotaurs, perhaps the powerful charge ability and some other? Could see a fire aura. Some small fire damage continously dealt to nearby creatures. Not much but just enough to discourage melee and hint at its volcanic nature, say 2 points if you end your turn next to it.
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I'd go with Alchemical Golem (they are made of glass, after all), but apply the Weak Template and whenever it says to roll for an alchemical effect, have it just do Slashing damage from obsidian shards instead of rolling.
For example, you can treat 'Generate Bomb' as always rolling a 5, but with slashing damage instead of poison as it throws obsidian shards.
Thank you, gentlemen...
Hmmm...
Obsidian Golem CR7
Perception +10 Darkvision
Athletics +17
S+3 D-1 C+3 I-5 W+0 C-5
AC 24 Fort+16 Ref+12 Wis+13
HP 120 Std Golem Immunities
Resistance Physical 5 (except Adamantine / Sonic)
Golem Antimagic: Healed By fire 2d4 (persistent 1d4), slowed by cold
Vulnerable to Shatter: double damage
Attack: +18 Greataxe 1d12+3 (Sweep, Reach 10', Critical special: Bleed 1hp/rnd) [Hell, they make surgical instruments outta this stuff...]
Trigger: Upon reaching 0 HP, Action: Explode 3d6 5' radius, Ref save DC17 for half.
Possibility of a handful of useful obsidian shards left behind for use in various spells or weapons but care must be used in handling and transporting as edges will severely lay open exposed skin.
Typically in the module you would answer the riddle it had programmed into it to get past it but if you failed you would be forced to fight it. The default solo character is level 6 so the beastie is a good challenge or is this too much for one guy to handle?
I would give the golem one good special action to use, because as-is the only interesting thing from the character's perspective it has is blowing up in death. Maybe just steal one from a martial class, like Brutish Shove or something, that way it has a more dynamic turn than move close and attack.
With the new monster designing math they are trying to stick very closely to the idea that a level 7 character and a level 7 creature would be equals in combat. So if it's a solo adventure, I would make the big bad at most the character's level, and probably one below the character's level, since a single character won't always have the tools to deal with every monster. For comparison, the section for designing encounters calls a level + 1 enemy a low/moderate threat miniboss for a standard group of 4 adventurers. If your intention is for the player to lose more often than not, it would be okay, but I think you probably want the character to win more often.
Edit: if you also use the rules in that section for scaling down encounter XP budgets, a single character should fight 10 XP of enemies for a trivial fight (one PL-4 enemy), 20 XP for a moderate fight (one PL-2 enemy), and 40 XP for a severe fight. The severe XP lines up with 1 enemy at-level, and is intended as end-of-the-campaign BBEG difficulties. Applying these rules to one character is a bit of a stretch (4 lackeys is probably not severe threat), but can give at least a baseline for expectations.
it's based on a minotaur right?
give it a horn attack and a '2 action' action that lets him strike with his axe and horn attack using the current MAP penalty, the action counts as two attacks when calculating MAP.
i like actions like that that mix up it's attacks rather than greataxe every attack.
I like the idea of the two action Battle Charge with the axe/horn combo, I'll most likely add that.
Bellybeard brings up an interesting point, the original module has some 127 specific maze encounters with the above ground part being an exploration mode entrance if solo (with a group it's pretty much a mix of explore and avoid patrols til you find an entrance). But these rooms are a mix of clues (pretty much a Seek with a simple to average DC), a preset trap (at most a hazard-1), or a straight up fight (group mode adds the occasional wandering patrol). The overarching story has this as a timed hide and seek so only one short rest is available to the player(s). If I treat them all as individual scenarios strung together to figure the experience awards, I think this module lends itself to around 3,000 xp overall (give or take, haven't finished figuring) if the player wants to hit ALL the rooms. Optimally, the quickest path through the maze averages around 900 xp. I think this will work if the solo player can avoid fighting the Obby Mo-taur and answer the riddle correctly (same xp). Again, thank you everyone.
I hope that's 3000 XP using the first edition system. Otherwise that's three levels with only one short rest lol
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There are now fairly official rules for monster creation, so using those would work.
That'd make for stats more like this:
Obsidian Golem CR7
Perception +12 Darkvision
Athletics +17
S+6 D-1 C+4 I-5 W+0 C-5
AC 24 Fort+17 Ref+12 Wis+12
HP 120 Std Golem Immunities
Resistance Physical 5 (except Adamantine / Sonic)
Golem Antimagic: Healed By fire 2d4 (persistent 1d4), slowed by cold
Vulnerable to Shatter: double damage
Attack: +18 Greataxe 2d12+6 (Sweep, Reach 10', Critical special: Bleed 1hp/rnd) [Hell, they make surgical instruments outta this stuff...]
Trigger: Upon reaching 0 HP, Action: Explode 8d6 5' radius, Ref save DC17 for half.
Or to put it another way, it looks mostly fine, but the damage is way too low for the most part.
I hope that's 3000 XP using the first edition system. Otherwise that's three levels with only one short rest lol
Sorry, wrong math, once i go through the encounters the optimal shortest path with appropriate awards is 905 xp, hitting all the rooms grind-style is 2058 xp but I would probably add extra rests in a full grind (i.e. rescue the babe, drop her off at her dad's, and then go back to purge/loot/general mayhem), to clear the top portion would require a larger team as there is an ogre work gang of 8, a cyclops, an 8th level wizard, an 8th level cleric, and a company of guards numbering around 100 first level fighters with maybe ten 5th level captains and a 7th level commander with various challenges in monsters around the area (a chimera, 10 harpies, 3 salamanders, a family of 4 faerie dragons) Could keep a party busy for MANY scenarios to come...