[EQ/WoW] Converting the froglok/murloc to *D&D

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

My son is now getting interested in miniatures and playing "Dungeon" with battlemats. (He's played the board game and assumes that battlemats are more of the same, something I'm encouraging him in.)

I've got my eye on the various frogmen miniatures Reaper produces and, while I never much liked the bullywug back in the day, EverQuest's frogloks (and, more specifically, the Guk and Sebilis dungeons) and World of Warcraft's murlocs (who were pretty darn frog-like back in WarCraft III) have made me think those would be good humanoids for him and his mother to fight in our introductory D&D games. (He's at the stage where his imagination is causing him nightmares, so many other monsters have a potential to be a little too intense, but frog guys are inherently silly, even for those of us who've lost countless young characters to The Village of Hommlett's moathouse bridge).

For folks who have played either game, what are the essential elements of frogloks and murlocs? My goal is to make them a level 1 evil humanoid, suitable for filling a damp dungeon of their own or serving as the hench-frogs of various "boss fights" (the kid's growing up in the videogame era) like hags, lizard kings and naga later on.

(And bullywugs aren't in the SRD, annoyingly, so at worst, I may just reskin a skum, or use Green Ronin's Advanced Bestiary to make a goblin aquatic and then reskin that.)

Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

 

[Kinak]

Cool to hear about your son getting into gaming

Bullywugs aren't in the SRD as you noted, but Pathfinder has the boggard and grippli for OGL frog people. Personally, I'd use them both as members of the same race: grippli as the rank and file with boggard leaders.

If you narrow down what version of D&D you're using, other people might be able to help more.

Cheers!
Kinak

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Well, I can handle the stats pretty well, but I want to make sure I've captured the essential froglok-ishness and murloc-ishness in the critter first. Stats come second. (I just reviewed the Advanced Bestiary, and seriously, a completely generic small humanoid with the Amphibious template might be fine, but I just want to make sure there's not something key from the videogame races that I'd miss by doing that.)

 

[dd.stevenson]

God I've just been hit with murloc nostalgia.

--Murlocs moved fast (or so it seemed)
--Murlocs were somewhat low hp
--Murlocs respawn fast, it always seemed
--Murlocs are runners: they flee when they're low hp and pull other mobs back to you
--Murloc pats move along somewhat hard-to-remember paths.
--There are always several murlocs running around a set path around the murloc camps, creating the danger of adds and in particular of pulling still other murlocs when they add
--It's been like five years since I played WoW, but I still can't get their "Mmmmuuurrgargle" sound out of my head.

God, what a walk down memory lane. I'm half tempted to log back in just to get my murloc fix.

 

[Kinak]

I feel like they have a similar sort of "gimmick" in the games. Murlocs love to run and bring back all their friends. Frogloks love to train people (choo choo!).

As for how I'd do that in D&D, the easy way would probably be to give them a good movement rate and Mobility (+4 to AC against Attacks of Opportunity) so they can get away.

Alternately, give them a loud croak they can use to summon allies or a long jump (several squares) so they can skip over difficult terrain and get in some distance. If I were designing monsters for someone young, I'd personally focus on very evocative abilities like that.

The only thing I remember that [MENTION=6683099]dd.stevenson[/MENTION] didn't mention is that Murlocs have lightning-using shamans. I'd probably just model that as a ranged touch attack (or just reskin a bow).

Cheers!
Kinak

 

[jadrax]

As EQ was basically derived from someones D&D campaign with the serial numbers filed off, Guk probably started its life as a Bullywug Dungeon.

 

[DnD_Dad]

If you haven't already, check out mega miniatures frogmen. They are taking orders until the end of may as they are going oob.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

As EQ was basically derived from someones D&D campaign with the serial numbers filed off, Guk probably started its life as a Bullywug Dungeon.

True. Sebilis especially shows how to make a bullywug dungeon cool, between the evil cultists and the swamp dragon running things from the bottom level.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The big issue I'm encountering -- and I know this might be silly to some -- is what to call these critters, since I don't want to use "froglok," "bullywug" or "murloc," and "batrachian" is a little too scientific. "Frogman" would be kind of cool in an OSR way, I suppose, but it's not very colorful.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

If you haven't already, check out mega miniatures frogmen. They are taking orders until the end of may as they are going oob.

Thanks. Those four frog warriors are pretty great; I'll definitely pick those up.