D&D 3E/3.5 Converting monsters from Mayfair Games Role Aids product line

[Cleon]

ok so maybe a couple weak pincher attacks?

I prefer the Slam idea. They don't seem to designed for melee combat, so a couple of claw attacks wouldn't feel right.

A Medium-sized Animated Object has a 1d6+1 slam. That seems enough.

 

[Cleon]

Regarding the tracked movement and stability idea. I'm thinking we could bundle them together into a bunch of traits, like so:

Tracked Chassis (Ex): This droid does not possess the flexible torso and jointed legs of many living creatures, but has a squat, rigid body that moves upon tractor treads. This gives the droid the following traits:

• Hampered Movement: If a tracked droid's movement is hampered by difficult terrain or obstacles, each square it enters counts as three squares instead of the usual two squares of hampered movement.
• Barriers: A tracked droid can not simply step over vertical obstacles or horizontal gaps, since it has no legs. It must use Climb or Jump checks to cross obstacles that are taller than one-fifth the droid's Space or gaps wider than one-half the droid's Space.
• Unagile: A tracked droid has a -6 [?] racial penalty to Climb, Jump, and Tumble checks.
• Stability: A tracked droid is hard to push aside or knock prone, but also has difficulty righting itself if it falls over. A tracked droid gains a +6 racial [?] bonus on ability checks made to resist being bull rushed or tripped when standing on the ground (but not when climbing, flying, riding, or otherwise not standing firmly on the ground). If a tracked droid is in a prone position it can not stand up with a move action like a normal creature, it must take a standard action to right itself.
• Heavy Lifting: A tracked droid has twice the carrying capacity of a normal creature of its size and strength.

What do you think?

 

[Nookie]

Regarding the tracked movement and stability idea. I'm thinking we could bundle them together into a bunch of traits, like so:

Tracked Chassis (Ex): This droid does not possess the flexible torso and jointed legs of many living creatures, but has a squat, rigid body that moves upon tractor treads. This gives the droid the following traits:

• Hampered Movement: If a tracked droid's movement is hampered by difficult terrain or obstacles, each square it enters counts as three squares instead of the usual two squares of hampered movement.
• Barriers: A tracked droid can not simply step over vertical obstacles or horizontal gaps, since it has no legs. It must use Climb or Jump checks to cross obstacles that are taller than one-fifth the droid's Space or gaps wider than one-half the droid's Space.
• Unagile: A tracked droid has a -6 [?] racial penalty to Climb, Jump, and Tumble checks.
• Stability: A tracked droid is hard to push aside or knock prone, but also has difficulty righting itself if it falls over. A tracked droid gains a +6 racial [?] bonus on ability checks made to resist being bull rushed or tripped when standing on the ground (but not when climbing, flying, riding, or otherwise not standing firmly on the ground). If a tracked droid is in a prone position it can not stand up with a move action like a normal creature, it must take a standard action to right itself.
• Heavy Lifting: A tracked droid has twice the carrying capacity of a normal creature of its size and strength.

What do you think?

-Thumbs up-

 

[Cleon]

-Thumbs up-

Updating Guardian Droid Working Draft.

What about the ability scores and the 1d6 slam?

 

[Nookie]

d6 slam looks good maybe a 2 point dex bump for the sake of ranged attacks. Or maybe a static bonus from "Targeting computer" or something. Its lazer is its main offence and even as a touch attack it might have a slight issue hitting cause of crappy BAB.

 

[Cleon]

d6 slam looks good maybe a 2 point dex bump for the sake of ranged attacks. Or maybe a static bonus from "Targeting computer" or something. Its lazer is its main offence and even as a touch attack it might have a slight issue hitting cause of crappy BAB.

Updating Guardian Droid Working Draft with 1d6 slam.

I'd rather give it some kind of attack bonus than an increase to its Dex, as I've said earlier.

The original monster has THAC0 15, the standard accuracy of a 4 Hit Dice monster.

Maybe a +3 bonus to attack with its laser?

We'd better decide on its ability scores and AC before we go too far.

I've been thinking it over, and how about we make the basic droid about average intelligence (but note that it's a "pseudo-sapiency" with a lot of logic but no creativity), and have a "Defective Droid" subentry for a droid who's logic circuits are breaking down (with lower mental stats and a tendency to go into "Mite Mite" breakdown)?

The original AC seems pretty low for a guardian, equivalent to +6 natural armour. Maybe they're not top-of-the-range? Or we could give them some resistance to energy weapons, since that's what they're armed with.

Speaking of which, what damage shall its laser do?

2d6 like the original? Is it fire damage?

The 3E Dungeon Master's Guide has a laser pistol and laser rifle we could use as a model. The laser pistol does 3d4 (Small) or 3d6 (Medium) with a 40 ft. Range Increment, the laser rifle does 3d6 (Small) or 3d8 (Medium) with a 100 ft. Range Increment. Neither lists a damage type, so I guess it's untyped.

 

[Nookie]

Updating Guardian Droid Working Draft with 1d6 slam.

I'd rather give it some kind of attack bonus than an increase to its Dex, as I've said earlier.

The original monster has THAC0 15, the standard accuracy of a 4 Hit Dice monster.

Maybe a +3 bonus to attack with its laser?

We'd better decide on its ability scores and AC before we go too far.

I've been thinking it over, and how about we make the basic droid about average intelligence (but note that it's a "pseudo-sapiency" with a lot of logic but no creativity), and have a "Defective Droid" subentry for a droid who's logic circuits are breaking down (with lower mental stats and a tendency to go into "Mite Mite" breakdown)?

The original AC seems pretty low for a guardian, equivalent to +6 natural armour. Maybe they're not top-of-the-range? Or we could give them some resistance to energy weapons, since that's what they're armed with.

Speaking of which, what damage shall its laser do?

2d6 like the original? Is it fire damage?

The 3E Dungeon Master's Guide has a laser pistol and laser rifle we could use as a model. The laser pistol does 3d4 (Small) or 3d6 (Medium) with a 40 ft. Range Increment, the laser rifle does 3d6 (Small) or 3d8 (Medium) with a 100 ft. Range Increment. Neither lists a damage type, so I guess it's untyped.

I am ok with medium animated object stats except with maybe a str buff i recall the flavor test saying the creature can handle heavy loads.

Ok combat computer it is. That would that be represented with the weapon focus feat as well maybe as a bonus feat.

I like the basic and berk model ideas.

I vote fire damage sense most lasers in most games burn just use the small 3d4 laser pistol (makes a similar damage range to 2d6) For consistancy. SHould have a type though to allow for some kind of defense against it sense its a touch attack and all. No type and touch attack might be nasty sense you cant have energy resistance against no type.

 

[Cleon]

I am ok with medium animated object stats except with maybe a str buff i recall the flavor test saying the creature can handle heavy loads.

It's the Fez V "Generic" Droid that has flavour about heavy loads, not the Fez I "Guardian" Droid.

Anyhow, the heavy load was why I added a double carrying capacity trait to the Tracked Chassis SQ. Given that, I'm not sure we need to increase its Strength score as well.

Ok combat computer it is. That would that be represented with the weapon focus feat as well maybe as a bonus feat.

Weapon Focus would only give it a +1, and I think it needs more than that.

I'd think Point Blank Shot or Rapid Shot would be better picks for the feats.

I like the basic and berk model ideas.

Agreed!

I vote fire damage sense most lasers in most games burn just use the small 3d4 laser pistol (makes a similar damage range to 2d6) For consistancy. SHould have a type though to allow for some kind of defense against it sense its a touch attack and all. No type and touch attack might be nasty sense you cant have energy resistance against no type.

Well I have two main problems with making it fire damage.

No 1 - The DMG laser weapons have untyped damage. Also, the sunbeam spell creates a beam of intense light that does 4d6 points of damage with no type.
No 2 - More significantly, fire resistance is very easy to acquire in 3E D&D, and a mere resist fire 10 makes the droid's laser virtually useless.

So I'd rather make it untyped.

I don't really mind whether it's 3d4 or 2d6, it's only a half-point difference in average damage.

Since it has effectively "unlimited" shots, I'm fine with the lower damage.

What Range Increment shall we give it? The pistol is 40 ft. and the rifle 100 ft. I'm leaning towards the longer rifle range.

 

[Nookie]

Okedokey The flavor text of the robot sugjested the strength was a function of the arms but Libertied will need to be taken on most conversions so im ok with it being the treads thing.

 

[Cleon]

Okedokey The flavor text of the robot sugjested the strength was a function of the arms but Libertied will need to be taken on most conversions so im ok with it being the treads thing.

Well we're taking liberties even giving the Guardian Robot arms, since there's no mention of them in the text.

When we get around to the "Service Droid" I'm planning to give them some kind of "Fine Manipulators" SQ that boost various manual skills.