Cloverfield - The Immortal's Handbook 4E to 3.5 Conversion

I was bored and thought I'd pop in. :)


Only problem is, the CRs in the MM are wrong. Going by UK's CRs, a T Rex is CR 13.

That seems awfully high. The MM T. Rex has no Damage Reduction or SR, no ranged attacks, and an utterly crappy AC. A 10th level party would have no trouble taking it down.

Its Will save is a mere +8. A 10th-level sorcerer with Cha 19 (which is not that high, since you can have a cloak of charisma easily by that level) will have a DC 18 charm monster, a 50% chance of taking Rex out of the fight instantly.

Its AC is so low that it is nearly impossible to miss at that level.

CR8 seems about right. A CR13 party wouldn't even break a sweat.

In point of fact, a blue whale is a hell of a lot bigger (just over 100 feet long and up to 190 tons, according to Wikipedia) - firmly in the Colossal bracket. If you want to go with dinosaurs, there are a few that are proposed (I say that because they're working off incomplete skeletons) to be even bigger.

Remember that the length is meant to exclude the tail. 60 feet without tail is going to be about right for an average blue whale; the 100+ footers/200 tonners would be Colossal though.

Those dinosaurs were what I had in mind when I suggested RL animals could reach CR10. A nonmagical (thus no DR or SR) creature without ranged attacks, and with the low Will saves typical of animals, shouldn't go over about CR10; they're too easy pickings for spellcasters, or anybody with a ranged attack.

All except the bear - I'd put it around 130 HD (guesstimating, since I didn't extend the tables to Macro-Dim).

Well, UK's Godzilla is 160 HD, and "only" Macro-Fine. A Macro-Diminutive bear, up to twice that size, should at least be comparable in HD; without regeneration or DR, it'll still be a lot less tough. Bears are impressively scary.
 

log in or register to remove this ad

My only concern is whether it's justified or not based on the movie.

Well, it's pretty incredibly agile, and most of the military's attacks don't seem to draw blood at all. I can see a pretty high AC; natural armor equal to 3/4 HD is what the Squamous ability gives; the equivalent of that seems appropriate.

Probably the best thing based on the movie would be to give it a far higher DR; that way the airplanes etc. can pound it all day without doing anything serious, but Hammerdown still kills it.

DR x/epic is useless at level 50 since everyone will have epic weapons; maybe make it DR 50/-, or DR 75/epic and 50/-? I calculated earlier in this thread that an average air-to-surface missile would be roughly 25d6 damage = averaging 87.5.

How does natural armor +75 (AC 74) and DR 50/- sound?




Well, that's not the formula the IH typically uses, but it might be better in this instance, as 10+HD is obnoxiously high for his CR.

Yeah, I think I'll add SR 62 to him.
 

Kerrick

First Post
That seems awfully high. The MM T. Rex has no Damage Reduction or SR, no ranged attacks, and an utterly crappy AC. A 10th level party would have no trouble taking it down.

Its Will save is a mere +8. A 10th-level sorcerer with Cha 19 (which is not that high, since you can have a cloak of charisma easily by that level) will have a DC 18 charm monster, a 50% chance of taking Rex out of the fight instantly.

Its AC is so low that it is nearly impossible to miss at that level.

CR8 seems about right. A CR13 party wouldn't even break a sweat.
Don't shoot the messenger - I'm just pointing out what UK came up with. When I converted everything to ECLs, I came up with ECL 13, which is around CR 8-9 (I think I did that right; I can never remember if ECL = 2/3 CR or the other way around).

Remember that the length is meant to exclude the tail. 60 feet without tail is going to be about right for an average blue whale; the 100+ footers/200 tonners would be Colossal though.
Whales don't have tails to speak of; they have flukes, which are maybe 10-15 feet long (and their primary weapon). "Up to" 100 feet isn't very indicative of average length, but I'd put it around 80-90 feet, or 75 (average) without the flukes - still firmly in the Colossal category. Picking HD is really a matter of what you (the designer) feel is "right". I go by its relative size in the category - since it's closer to 64 than 128, I'd give it around 20-25.

Those dinosaurs were what I had in mind when I suggested RL animals could reach CR10. A nonmagical (thus no DR or SR) creature without ranged attacks, and with the low Will saves typical of animals, shouldn't go over about CR10; they're too easy pickings for spellcasters, or anybody with a ranged attack.
Yeah.

Well, UK's Godzilla is 160 HD, and "only" Macro-Fine. A Macro-Diminutive bear, up to twice that size, should at least be comparable in HD; without regeneration or DR, it'll still be a lot less tough. Bears are impressively scary.
UK didn't have my creation system either. :) Extrapolating (again), I'd put Godzilla at around 130 HD (I'd treat it as semi-natural, since it's a product of radiation, not natural evolution). I forgot Macro-Dim was larger than Macro-Fine (shame on me), so extrapolating (again), I'd say it's also around 130 HD, depending on its size (the range for that size is 96-216).
 

Don't shoot the messenger - I'm just pointing out what UK came up with. When I converted everything to ECLs, I came up with ECL 13, which is around CR 8-9 (I think I did that right; I can never remember if ECL = 2/3 CR or the other way around)

I didn't mean to imply anything bad -- I just think CR 13 is too high. ECL 13 is indeed CR 8-9, which is what the MM has (CR 8), and works fine.

Whales don't have tails to speak of; they have flukes, which are maybe 10-15 feet long (and their primary weapon). "Up to" 100 feet isn't very indicative of average length, but I'd put it around 80-90 feet, or 75 (average) without the flukes - still firmly in the Colossal category.

Depends on the kind of blue whale ... Northern Hemisphere ones average about 75 feet total, Pygmy Blue Whale even smaller, Southern Hemisphere ones 80-90 feet. So I'd say a "basic" blue whale would be 70-75 feet, thus 55-60 w/o flukes - with the Southern Hemisphere types being advanced a few HD.

UK didn't have my creation system either. :) Extrapolating (again), I'd put Godzilla at around 130 HD (I'd treat it as semi-natural, since it's a product of radiation, not natural evolution). I forgot Macro-Dim was larger than Macro-Fine (shame on me), so extrapolating (again), I'd say it's also around 130 HD, depending on its size (the range for that size is 96-216).

Well, I'd just question that a bear should be so low in its size range. There aren't many natural creatures tougher, barring those which are basically boxes of armor.

---
I added a Titanic version of American Godzilla to that thread.
 

Kerrick

First Post
I didn't mean to imply anything bad -- I just think CR 13 is too high. ECL 13 is indeed CR 8-9, which is what the MM has (CR 8), and works fine.
:) We're pretty much on the same page.

Depends on the kind of blue whale ... Northern Hemisphere ones average about 75 feet total, Pygmy Blue Whale even smaller, Southern Hemisphere ones 80-90 feet. So I'd say a "basic" blue whale would be 70-75 feet, thus 55-60 w/o flukes - with the Southern Hemisphere types being advanced a few HD.
*nodnod*

Well, I'd just question that a bear should be so low in its size range. There aren't many natural creatures tougher, barring those which are basically boxes of armor.
True. I was guessing, as I said - I'd base HD on the creature's actual size, but I had no idea how big a bear that size would be.
 

Slightly revised version:

Titanic Magical Beast (Aquatic)
Hit Dice: 100d20+1900 (3900 hit points)
Initiative: +13 (+5 Dex, +8 Superior Initiative)
Speed: 110 ft. (22 squares), swim 80 ft.
Armor Class: 74 (-16 size, +5 Dex, +75 natural), touch -1, flat-footed 69
Base Attack/Grapple: +100/+141
Attack: Bite +108 melee (6d6+42/19-20)
Full Attack: Bite +108 melee (6d6+42/19-20), 2 claws +105 melee (4d6+20), tail slap +106 melee (8d8+20/19-20)
Space/Reach: 225 ft./150 ft.
Special Attacks: Disease, feeding tubes, tail flail, tail smite, trample
Special Qualities: Amphibious, darkvision 60 ft., DR 50/-, fast healing 50, great leap, low-light vision, scent, shattering strength, shed parasites
Saves: Fort +71, Ref +57, Will +37
Abilities: Str 52, Dex 21, Con 49, Int 3, Wis 18, Cha 7
Skills: Jump +68, Listen +31, Spot +15, Survival +15, Swim +56
Feats: Awesome Blow, Cleave, Combat Reflexes, Great Cleave, Improved Bull Rush, Improved Critical (bite, tail), Improved Initiative, Improved Natural Attack (bite, tail), Improved Toughness, Multiattack, Power Attack, Toughness, Weapon Focus (bite, tail)
Epic Feats: Blinding Speed, Devastating Critical (bite, tail), Epic Speed, Improved Combat Reflexes, Overwhelming Critical (bite, tail), Penetrate Damage Reduction (adamantine), Perfect Health, Superior Initiative, Supreme Natural Attack*, Supreme Toughness
Divine Abilities: Divine Toughness
Environment: Temperate aquatic and land???
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating:
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always Neutral
Advancement: ?
Level Adjustment: -

Combat
Disease (Ex):
Star chills, Fort DC 79, damage 1d8 Con drain. The save DC is Constitution-based.

Unlike normal diseases, star chills has an incubation period of 1 hour, and it deals damage every hour instead of every day. In addition, every time a Fortitude save against star chills fails by 5 or more (fails to beat DC 74), the period in which it deals damage decreases (to every 10 minutes, to every minute, and then to every round - star chills will never deal damage more than once per round.)

Feeding Tubes (Ex): Cloverfield may, as a standard action, make touch attacks to start a grapple against all creatures three or more sizes smaller than itself in or adjacent to its space, without provoking an attack of opportunity. In addition, whenever Cloverfield's trample damages a creature, Cloverfield automatically makes a grapple check against that creature, without making a touch attack or provoking an attack of opportunity. If the grapple check succeeds, in the next round, Clover can make another grapple check to swallow the victim, or can expel the victim violently (causing the victim to fall 1d6+4x10 feet and take 1d6 damage per 10 feet fallen). Expelling a victim is automatic and requires no check. Clover can make up to four grapple checks per round via its feeding tubes. Any successful grapple check made via its feeding tubes forces the opponent to make a Fortitude save (DC 91) or contract star chills.
A swallowed creature takes 4d6+42 bludgeoning and 21 acid damage and suffers 1d3 Str drain per round, and must save (Fort DC 79) each round or contract star chills. A swallowed creature can escape only by cutting its way out, dealing 250 points of damage to the interior of Cloverfield's stomach (AC 45).

Tail Flail (Ex): As a standard action, Clover can whip its tail in frenzied motions, smashing everything nearby. All creatures and unattended objects within 60 feet of Clover take 5d10+42 damage (Reflex DC 81 half). The save DC is Strength-based.

Tail Smite (Ex): As a full attack action, Clover can make a single mighty tail slap attack at its highest attack bonus (+110), dealing 10d10+63 damage.

Trample (Ex): 4d6+63 damage, Reflex half DC 81. The save DC is Strength-based. In addition, creatures of Huge or smaller size are also affected by feeding tubes when trampled, without requiring a touch attack.

Great Leap (Ex): Clover's jumps are always made as though it had a running start, even if it jumps from a standstill. Its jumps are not limited by its height.

Shattering Strength (Ex): Clover doubles its Strength bonus when applying it to melee damage.

Shed Parasites (Ex): When Clover takes damage, it releases one parasite for every 30 points of damage it takes (round down). Parasites appear in squares adjacent to Clover; if all these squares are full, the parasite appears in the nearest open square.


*New Feat: Supreme Natural Attack [Epic]
Prerequisites:
Improved Natural Attack, base attack bonus +15
Benefit: Choose one of the creature’s natural attack forms for which it possesses the Improved Natural Attack feat. The damage for this natural weapon increases by one step, as if the creature’s size had increased by one category. This stacks (does not overlap) with Improved Natural Attack. This feat does not provide any other bonuses that a virtual size category would provide.

This feat may be taken multiple times, but each time it applies to a different natural attack (for which the creature must have the Improved Natural Attack feat).
 
Last edited:

I know CR3 seems really low, but the people in the movie would in D&D terms have been 2nd-level Experts or Commoners at best, so...


Cloverfield Parasite


Medium Vermin

Hit Dice:
4d8+12 (30 hp)

Initiative:
+0

Speed:
30 ft. (6 squares)

Armor Class:
13 (+3 natural), touch 10, flat-footed 13

Base Attack/Grapple:
+3/+5

Attack: Bite +5 melee (1d6+3 and star chills)

Full Attack: Bite +5 melee (1d6+3 and star chills)

Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.

Special Attacks: Group attack, star chills

Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft., vermin traits

Saves: Fort +7, Ref +1, Will +1

Abilities:
Str 15, Dex 10, Con 17, Int -, Wis 10, Cha 7

Skills:
--

Feats: --

Environment:
Temperate land and aquatic

Organization:
Pack (2-5) or swarm (6-60)

Challenge Rating: 3

Treasure: None

Alignment: Always neutral

Advancement:
5-8 HD (Medium); 9-12 HD (Large)

These creatures resemble 6-foot-long, 3-foot-tall versions of lice or fleas, only with more horrific mouthparts. Their bite carries a deadly plague.

Individual Cloverfield parasites are relatively fragile - but they are never found alone; and an infestation, unless it is the result of an unwisely opened portal or gate, is the herald of a full-scale Cloverfield monster attack.

COMBAT
Cloverfield parasites attack in groups, biting nastily. As many as possible will always focus on one target at a time, maximizing the effect of group attack.


Disease (Ex): Star chills, Fort DC 15, 1d3 Con damage. The save DC is Constitution-based.

Unlike normal diseases, star chills has an incubation period of 1 hour. In addition, every time a Fortitude save against star chills fails by 5 or more (fails to beat DC 10), the period in which it deals damage decreases (to every hour, to every 10 minutes, to every minute, and then to every round - star chills will never deal damage more than once per round.)


Group Attack (Ex): For every two Cloverfield parasites attacking the same creature in the same round, all of them gain a +1 competence bonus on their attack roll against that creature for that round (maximum of +4).



---

Does this look good?

Does anyone else want to make any changes on the Cloverfield monster itself, or does it look reasonably close to a final form?
 

Hiya mate! :)

Khisanth the Ancient said:
I know CR3 seems really low, but the people in the movie would in D&D terms have been 2nd-level Experts or Commoners at best, so...

There is a massive disparity in terms of the difference between the Parasites and the Monster itself. So much so that I don't really see how the two can be used 'physically' within the same campaign.

I though a good quick fit for the Parasites (with a few tweaks naturally) would be the Kruthik. However, even a swarm of Kruthik (by my reckoning) would only be about Level 16.

I think either you have to use the Parasites, in a Heroic tier campaign, or the Monster itself in an Epic+ Tier Campaign.
 

There is a massive disparity in terms of the difference between the Parasites and the Monster itself. So much so that I don't really see how the two can be used 'physically' within the same campaign.

I know... I just can't justify them above CR3; plenty of man-eaters are that or lower (leopards are CR2).

I think either you have to use the Parasites, in a Heroic tier campaign, or the Monster itself in an Epic+ Tier Campaign.

Yes, definitely. Either the PCs are struggling to survive in a city (or whatever) being wrecked by the monster, and having to fight off the parasites in the process, or they're facing down the monster itself (maybe trying to get rid of it quickly so that the parasites don't spread.) One interesting possibility is that the parasites mature into something nasty ... and so the PCs have to figure out how to hunt them all down (and by then they've spread really widely) before they turn into bigger monsters, or have to face those bigger monsters.
 

dyspro

First Post
Earlier in this thread I had mentioned that the parasites could be incorporated into the mob template which came out of the 3.5 DMG 2. I actually planned on finding the template and putting the mob together. It can be easily done now.

In theory, multiple mobs of the parasites should be harder to handle . . . Of course, I haven't actually seen the movie (yet) and have no idea how these come out and spread.

About the disparity, I understand fully expected to see such a large gap. After all, characters most likely to take on Clover toe to toe would see the parasites as less than bumps in the road.

That's where you can add interesting twists like having to save innocents while Clover stomps through the city. Though I also like the idea of a maturing parasite.
 

Remove ads

Top