5E: Converting Monsters from White Dwarf Magazine for Fifth Edition

Cleon · Sep 11, 2022

Casimir Liber said:
ok....I like the idea of its mind being a solid as a rock...with all mental-based saves...

Shouldn't it be Speed 0 ft.?

Updating the Chthon by adding the Mental Stats, Saving proficiencies and removing its:

Cleon said:
False Appearance. While the chthon remains motionless, it is indistinguishable from a normal boulder. [?]

Regarding the "a note in the description that they can move very slowly if needed but much too slow to be perceptible in combat" you mentioned earlier, I think we could include that in its Rooted trait.

Cleon · Sep 11, 2022

Casimir Liber said:
NB: trying to break the formatting impass of the gurgohemoth, the only workaround I canthink of is to slot this into special traits section:

Thick Hide. The gurgohemoth takes no damage from nonmagical weapon atttacks from opponents of size Large or smaller on account of its thick hide.

I like the approach but not the name.

It'd be better to mention "Immunity" or "Invulnerability" or the like so it's clear what its function is.

Like so:

Damage Resistances fire, lightning; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from magical attacks

Damage Immunities poison

Invulnerable to Lesser Opponents. The gurgohemoth is immune to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from nonmagical attacks by creatures of size Large or smaller.

Cleon · Sep 11, 2022

Casimir Liber said:
Ok starting to post these.

Let's see…

D&D Beyond	Enworld
Brethren pine kindred (base) pine kindred jarl pine kindred thane Minions pine kindred fircarl pine kindred resin-thrall Creatures resin-hound root-ogre thorn-ogre tree-jotun tree-vargr	Brethren Pine Kindred Pine Kindred Jarl Pine Kindred Thane Minions Pine Kindred Fircarl Pine Kindred Resin-Thrall Creatures Resin-Hound Root-Ogre Thorn-Ogre Tree-Jotun Tree-Vargr

These will take me a while to check before I can update the Indexes. Will have to get back to you!

Casimir Liber · Sep 11, 2022

Cleon said:
I like the approach but not the name.

It'd be better to mention "Immunity" or "Invulnerability" or the like so it's clear what its function is.

Like so:

Damage Resistances fire, lightning; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from magical attacks
Damage Immunities poison

Invulnerable to Lesser Opponents. The gurgohemoth is immune to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from nonmagical attacks by creatures of size Large or smaller.

Ok incorporated as that was the last thing I think, and posted here

Cleon · Sep 11, 2022

Casimir Liber said:
Ok incorporated as that was the last thing I think, and posted here

Hold on, a few Constitution-related errors have appeared.

It doesn't have CON 27, but CON 25 for a +7 base modifier and +14 CON Saves.

The 525 hit points require a +7 CON mod, as it's got 30 Hit Dice (d20s, so that's 315 hp) plus 7 per HD (for 210 hp) and 315 + 210 is 525. If it had 240 hp from a +8 CON modifier it'd have 30 more hit points then what is listed.

Also, if the Gurgohemoth had a +8 CON modifier from CON 27, some of its attack's DCs would be different (the DC 22 ones would be DC 23).

It should be:

Hit Points: 525 (3d20 + 210)

CON 25 (+7)

Saving Throws: CON +14, INT +7, WIS +8, CHA +8

Oh, plus you forget to delete Thick Hide. It hardly needs two traits that do exactly the same thing!

I'll update the Gurgohemoth.

Casimir Liber · Sep 11, 2022

I was wrestling with the formatting...and forgot about the hid. Fixed and posted here

Cleon · Sep 11, 2022

Cleon said:
Damage Resistances fire, lightning; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from magical attacks
Damage Immunities poison

Invulnerable to Lesser Opponents. The gurgohemoth is immune to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from nonmagical attacks by creatures of size Large or smaller.

Casimir Liber said:
Ok incorporated as that was the last thing I think, and posted here

Hold on, I just noticed you've got "Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing from Nonmagical Attacks" in the D&D Beyond version's Damage Resistances.

It's actually "Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing from Magical Attack" since it takes half-damage from magical weapons wielded by regular sized opponents.

Remember the previous version used:

Damage Resistances: fire, lightning; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from magical damage by creatures of size Large or smaller as well as nonmagical damage not caused by siege engines or creatures of size Huge or larger.
Damage Immunities: poison; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical damage by creatures of size Large or smaller.

If we want Huge opponents and siege engines to damage it normally as per the original intent, we'll need to tweak the wording to something like:

Damage Resistances fire, lightning; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing attacks

Damage Immunities poison; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks

Vulnerable to Great Enemies. The gurgohemoth's damage resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing attacks is ineffective against creatures of size Huge or bigger. Its damage immunity to bludgeoning, piercing and slashing from nonmagical attacks is ineffective against siege engines and creatures that have the Siege Monster trait or are size Huge or bigger.

Which do you prefer?

Cleon · Sep 11, 2022

Cleon said:
If we want Huge opponents and siege engines to damage it normally as per the original intent, we'll need to tweak the wording to something like:

Damage Resistances fire, lightning; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing attacks
Damage Immunities poison; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks

Vulnerable to Great Enemies. The gurgohemoth's damage resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing attacks is ineffective against creatures of size Huge or bigger. Its damage immunity to bludgeoning, piercing and slashing from nonmagical attacks is ineffective against siege engines and creatures that have the Siege Monster trait or are size Huge or bigger.

Which do you prefer?

Hmm, we could further refine that so it has an intermediary band of magical attacks. As written, it doesn't matter whether a Huge or greater creature's attacks are magical or nonmagical, they're both equally effective.

Perhaps:

Damage Resistances fire, lightning; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing attacks
Damage Immunities poison; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks

Vulnerable to Great Enemies #2. The gurgohemoth's damage resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing is ineffective against magical attacks from creatures of size Large or bigger and nonmagical attacks from creatures of size Gargantuan. Its damage immunity to bludgeoning, piercing and slashing from nonmagical attacks is ineffective against siege engines and creatures that have the Siege Monster trait or are size Huge or bigger.

Almost put "Gargantuan or larger" before remembering that Gargantuan is the biggest size 5E creatures get. Although I suppose it wouldn't hurt to word it that way.

Casimir Liber · Sep 11, 2022

ok done here

the odd order of "resistances" is because (amazingly) there is not a single drop down slot for resistance to the 3 attack types without some qualifier (!)

Cleon · Sep 12, 2022

Casimir Liber said:
ok done here

the odd order of "resistances" is because (amazingly) there is not a single drop down slot for resistance to the 3 attack types without some qualifier (!)

Guess that'll have to do. I'll update the Enworld version of the Gurgohemoth with the "bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing attacks" wording as it makes more sense.

Guess that's it, I'll update the Completed Fifth Edition Creatures Index and White Dwarf Conversion Index.