Cleon
Legend
I was reading Noism's [Let's Read] AD&D 2e Monstrous Manual over on Enworld a few days ago and saw a post by demiurge criticizing the mechanical weakness of the 3E Otyugh which got me thinking. There are some monsters in the 3E SRD that I find a little … unsatisfactory. They don't quite match the abilities I expect for them.
Now, I'm not talking about stuff like a mechanically and conceptually sound monster being CR6 when it should be CR5, but monsters that seem to have the wrong stats, or don't have much resemblance to previous versions of D&D, or just don't play like you'd like them to.
The SRD Otyugh is an excellent example, just compare its stats to an Ogre. The 3E Otyugh is less of a threat than the SRD Ogre. It's slower and does less damage, even if it hits with all three of its attacks (2d6+1d4 versus 2d8+7). Filth fever doesn't make up for it, due to it having a mediocre DC and taking days to take effect, leaving plenty of time for a magical cure.
Worse, as demiurge points out it's a grappling monster with a mediocre grapple bonus.
Then there's the missing abilities - 2E Otyughs have immunity to disease, which makes perfect sense. Where did that disappear to? Plus they possessed telepathy and the "cannot be surprised" ability, which makes a lot of difference to how they play.
Blast it, the 3E Otyugh isn't even much good at Hiding in a dungheap, considering its poor Hide modifier.
Overall, Third Edition D&D's version of the Otyugh is a weak CR3 monster in CR4 clothing.
So, I decided to start this thread dedicated to modifying SRD monsters to our tastes. I was originally planning to do a cooperative conversion of the Otyugh and Neo-Otyugh, but I got carried away and finished statting up my version before I got around to launching this thread.
You'll find my version of the "Better Otyugh" and the Neo-Otyugh below. Here's a few notes on how I designed it.
Building a Better Otyugh
The SRD Otyugh is too weak, 2E Otyughs have Strength 18, tentacles which do 1d8 damage and immunity to disease, which all seem reasonable for a Large monster, so I stuck those in. Con 13 seemed a bit low, so I gave it a +4 on those stats, rationalizing that they'd accidentally used some of the stats for a Medium-sized immature Otyugh.
I added the special abilities of Telepathy and All-Around Facing, which accounts for the traditional Otyugh being very hard to surprise.
A 2E Otyugh has Intelligence 5-10, so I arbitrarily bumped my version up to Int 7 instead of 5, close to the average of that range. It doesn't make any difference to its stats, but it felt right.
Toughness is a useless feat, so I changed it for Lightning Reflexes, which is far more useful. Otyughs are described as being able to turn very quickly, so I thought it not too much of a leap that they are surprisingly good at stepping out of the way of a reflex-save attack.
Otyughs are renowned for their keen eyesight, so I granted it a racial bonus to Spot. I also bumped up its Hide racial bonus to +12, to give it a fair chance of successfully skulking in a midden.
Oh, and I changed the dimensions and weight. A 2E Otyugh is 6' across, not 8', and 500 pounds is woefully light. I calculated that a 6' tall 6' diameter cone has a volume of about 56.5 cubic feet, which is a rough approximation of an Otyugh's size and shape. At regular flesh densities, 56.5 cubic feet would weigh about 2800 pounds, which I rounded down to 2000 pounds since its 6' height includes its legs.
Finally, I toyed with the idea of giving the Otyugh a Stench attack like a ghast, a Burrow speed (through garbage) or tremorsense but decided against it. Although they're arguably thematically appropriate, earlier versions of the monster didn't possess these abilities.
Building a Neo-Otyugh
The Neo-Otyugh was straightforward once the Otyugh was done. It's a size larger and tougher, so I adjusted the Str, Con and Natural Armour to fit, although I didn't reduce its Dexterity as it felt right at Dex 10. It's smarter, so I upped its Intelligence to Int 10 (the average of the 2E version's 8-12), which gives it more skill ranks.
The only ability a Neo-Otyugh possesses that a regular 2E Otyugh doesn't was "neo-otyughs use their victims as shields, bettering their Armor Class by 1. Neo-otyughs may also force attackers to hit the grappled character with a successful attack roll of its own (vs. the grappled character's AC); to do this the neo-otyugh forgoes its squeeze attack.", which became a Wield Foe special attack. Its Telepathy is a bit better, so I tweaked the fluff text to indicate that.
Now, I'm not talking about stuff like a mechanically and conceptually sound monster being CR6 when it should be CR5, but monsters that seem to have the wrong stats, or don't have much resemblance to previous versions of D&D, or just don't play like you'd like them to.
The SRD Otyugh is an excellent example, just compare its stats to an Ogre. The 3E Otyugh is less of a threat than the SRD Ogre. It's slower and does less damage, even if it hits with all three of its attacks (2d6+1d4 versus 2d8+7). Filth fever doesn't make up for it, due to it having a mediocre DC and taking days to take effect, leaving plenty of time for a magical cure.
Worse, as demiurge points out it's a grappling monster with a mediocre grapple bonus.
Then there's the missing abilities - 2E Otyughs have immunity to disease, which makes perfect sense. Where did that disappear to? Plus they possessed telepathy and the "cannot be surprised" ability, which makes a lot of difference to how they play.
Blast it, the 3E Otyugh isn't even much good at Hiding in a dungheap, considering its poor Hide modifier.
Overall, Third Edition D&D's version of the Otyugh is a weak CR3 monster in CR4 clothing.
So, I decided to start this thread dedicated to modifying SRD monsters to our tastes. I was originally planning to do a cooperative conversion of the Otyugh and Neo-Otyugh, but I got carried away and finished statting up my version before I got around to launching this thread.
You'll find my version of the "Better Otyugh" and the Neo-Otyugh below. Here's a few notes on how I designed it.
Building a Better Otyugh
The SRD Otyugh is too weak, 2E Otyughs have Strength 18, tentacles which do 1d8 damage and immunity to disease, which all seem reasonable for a Large monster, so I stuck those in. Con 13 seemed a bit low, so I gave it a +4 on those stats, rationalizing that they'd accidentally used some of the stats for a Medium-sized immature Otyugh.
I added the special abilities of Telepathy and All-Around Facing, which accounts for the traditional Otyugh being very hard to surprise.
A 2E Otyugh has Intelligence 5-10, so I arbitrarily bumped my version up to Int 7 instead of 5, close to the average of that range. It doesn't make any difference to its stats, but it felt right.
Toughness is a useless feat, so I changed it for Lightning Reflexes, which is far more useful. Otyughs are described as being able to turn very quickly, so I thought it not too much of a leap that they are surprisingly good at stepping out of the way of a reflex-save attack.
Otyughs are renowned for their keen eyesight, so I granted it a racial bonus to Spot. I also bumped up its Hide racial bonus to +12, to give it a fair chance of successfully skulking in a midden.
Oh, and I changed the dimensions and weight. A 2E Otyugh is 6' across, not 8', and 500 pounds is woefully light. I calculated that a 6' tall 6' diameter cone has a volume of about 56.5 cubic feet, which is a rough approximation of an Otyugh's size and shape. At regular flesh densities, 56.5 cubic feet would weigh about 2800 pounds, which I rounded down to 2000 pounds since its 6' height includes its legs.
Finally, I toyed with the idea of giving the Otyugh a Stench attack like a ghast, a Burrow speed (through garbage) or tremorsense but decided against it. Although they're arguably thematically appropriate, earlier versions of the monster didn't possess these abilities.
Building a Neo-Otyugh
The Neo-Otyugh was straightforward once the Otyugh was done. It's a size larger and tougher, so I adjusted the Str, Con and Natural Armour to fit, although I didn't reduce its Dexterity as it felt right at Dex 10. It's smarter, so I upped its Intelligence to Int 10 (the average of the 2E version's 8-12), which gives it more skill ranks.
The only ability a Neo-Otyugh possesses that a regular 2E Otyugh doesn't was "neo-otyughs use their victims as shields, bettering their Armor Class by 1. Neo-otyughs may also force attackers to hit the grappled character with a successful attack roll of its own (vs. the grappled character's AC); to do this the neo-otyugh forgoes its squeeze attack.", which became a Wield Foe special attack. Its Telepathy is a bit better, so I tweaked the fluff text to indicate that.
