Monday 31 May 2021

Treasure: Drow Magic Items

Treasure: Drow Magic Items

It's been a very long time since I've made any treasure posts. There's been a request to convert some magic items from the Drow of the Underdark for AD&D. I was asked to convert the driftdiscs, the spider wand, and house insignias. While the first two are possible, I will forego converting the insignias - each one of them pretty is a unique item with unique abilities, so you cannot really convert a generic insignia.

Racial Templates/NPCs: Aquatic Races of Dominions

Racial Templates/NPCs: Aquatic Races of Dominions

All right, probably the last Dominions races post.

Sunday 30 May 2021

Racial Templates/NPCs: Enki and Heathens

Racial Templates/NPCs: Enki and Heathens

At last, before I post the underwater racial templates, let's have the enkidu, kulullu, and some indies.

Monster: Obsidian Dragon

Monster: Obsidian Dragon

And this is one of those monsters that not many even know about. There's actually six gem dragons in D&D 3.5 - one of them was available only in a web article on the WotC website. There's more gem dragons, but they never made it to 3.5 (there are some fan conversions though).

Friday 28 May 2021

Racial Templates/NPCs: Apefolk, Bakemonos, and Yakshas

Racial Templates/NPCs: Apefolk, Bakemonos, and Yakshas

Racial templates for Bandar Log and Shinuyama races from Dominions. The bakemonos were made by Comrade Point, if I recall things correctly.

Monster: Deep Dragon

Monster: Deep Dragon

Deep dragons are another kind of underground dragon that usually lives close to drow cities.

Thursday 27 May 2021

Racial Templates/NPCs: Giants of Dominions, Part II

Racial Templates/NPCs: Giants of Dominions, Part II

And here's the rest of the giants from Dominions.

Monster: Shadow Dragon

Monster: Shadow Dragon

I was surprised to find out that there's actually two different species of shadow dragons in D&D - that drow-dragon sidebar is very hard to notice.

Wednesday 26 May 2021

Racial Templates/NPCs: Giants of Dominions, Part I

Racial Templates/NPCs: Giants of Dominions, Part I

Oh boy, there's a lot of giants in Dominions. Way too many for a single post.

Lenses/Monsters: More Lycanthropes

Lenses/Monsters: More Lycanthropes

There's a lot of different lycanthropes that were published for D&D. I have already converted all (at least I think so) the ones that found their way into the 3.5 edition, but let's add some of the ones that weren't so lucky. The lycanthrope lens that is used as the base can be found in this post.

Tuesday 25 May 2021

Arena: Fantastic Dungeon Grappling

Arena: Fantastic Dungeon Grappling

Let's run a quick test combat to try out the Fantastic Dungeon Grappling rules.

Racial Templates/NPCs: Northfolk of Dominions

Racial Templates/NPCs: Northfolk of Dominions

Just some more racial templates from the northern lands of Dominions.

Monsters: Faerun Monsters II

Monsters: Faerun Monsters II

Another batch of assorted Forgotten Realms monsters. Watchspiders are more intelligent than normal monstrous spiders, and can be trained as guards. Dweomervores are small dragons with a wide array of spell-like abilities that feed on magic items. Osquips are multilegged rodents. Cavvekans are underground bat-dogs.

Monday 24 May 2021

Racial Templates/NPCs: Lizardmen of Dominions

Racial Templates/NPCs: Lizardmen of Dominions

Dominions 5 has four species of lizard people.

Monsters: Faerun Constructs

Monsters: Faerun Constructs

In this post, I convert some constructs from the Forgotten Realms setting. Helmed horrors and battle horrors are animated suits of plate armor with imbuement skills. Batte effigy is a dwarf-sized stone golem with an axe. Walking statue of Waterdeep is a huge stone golem with free will and some magical abilities.

Sunday 23 May 2021

Racial Templates/NPCs: Half-men of Dominions

Racial Templates/NPCs: Half-men of Dominions

Half-men of Pangaea are various satyrs and -taurs that live on land. The templates are different from the eponymous monsters from D&D.

Monsters: Leucrottas

Monsters: Leucrottas

Leucrottas are deer-badger-lion hybrids that are adept at tricking their prey with mimicry. Greater leucrottas, also known as changesteeeds, can polymorph as well.

Saturday 22 May 2021

Racial Templates/NPCs: Abysians and Caelians

Racial Templates/NPCs: Abysians and Caelians

Another batch of Dominions racial templates. Originally made by Iceland, and slightly adjusted by me.

Monsters: Saurials

Monsters: Saurials

Serpent Kingdoms has a web enhancement that describes four new lizardfolk subspecies for the Forgotten Realms setting. Now I know that both "flyer" and "flier" are correct spellings.

Friday 21 May 2021

Racial Templates/NPCs: Humans of Dominions

Racial Templates/NPCs: Humans of Dominions

I've mentioned it in some other posts, but Dominions is one of my favorite video game series. One of my friends (Iceland) is currently GMing a GURPS game set in that universe. He did a great job translating all the racial templates from the game (at least those relevant to the Middle Age), so I am going to post them. I helped him with some of them, after all! Colossi aren't exactly human, but they are close enough.

Lens/Monster: Shade

Lens/Monster: Shade

Technically, shade should be a lens, but the sample statblock is a human, so the lens becomes the actual racial template. And interesting monster, I must say.

Thursday 20 May 2021

Occupational Template: Incantatrix

Occupational Template: Incantatrix

Here's the thing - there's two version of this prestige class in D&D. One from Magic of Faerun (D&D 3.0) is very different from the one from Player's Guide to Faerun (D&D 3.5). In this template, I'm trying to combine them both. Some of their abilities are well represented by generic meta-spells in GURPS, so there's no need for conversion. Male form is "incantatar". Overall, this is a more specialized variation of the wizard template.

Monsters: Orcish Halfbreeds

Monsters: Orcish Halfbreeds

In this post we have three orcish halfbreeds that never made it to D&D 3.5, even as fan conversions. Red Neo-Orogs are bred by Thayan red wizards as soldiers, black neo-orogs - as archers and scouts. Boogins are orc-quaggoth hybrids.

Wednesday 19 May 2021

Occupational Template: Jordain Vizier

Occupational Template: Jordain Vizier

Another occupational template by request. This one in interesting, but weird. It's something between a monk and a spy/scholar that serves as an advisor to a wizard, but himself not only cannot cast any spells, but also has some anti-magic abilities. Not a combat character.

Monster/Sorcery: Crypt Spawn

Monster/Sorcery: Crypt Spawn

Crypt spawns are undead creatures that resemble zombies, but are sentient and free-willed. They are created by the Undeath after Death spell.

Tuesday 18 May 2021

Occupational Template: Blood Mage

Occupational Template: Blood Mage

A template for a sacrificial spellcaster.

Monster: Dragonkin

Monster: Dragonkin

Dragonkin are humanoid creatures believed to be distant cousins of dragons. Found in wild tribes or serving human masters, their brute strength and sharp claws make them a deadly threat.

Monday 17 May 2021

Occupational Template: Halruaan Magehound

Occupational Template: Halruaan Magehound

Halruaan magehounds are magical law enforcement in the Forgotten Realms setting. Basically, they are anti-mage mages. Mostly based on the wizard template with some parts taken from the DF Mage-Slayer template.

Monsters: Ruinous Monsters/Races

Monsters: Ruinous Monsters/Races

Champions of Ruin is a Forgotten Realms souorcebook about all things evil. It introduces three new races - draegloth (probably outside of the playable power level both for GURPS and D&D), extaminaar, and krinth. They all can be easily adapted to any other setting. There's also the living zombie template hiding somewhere in the book.

Sunday 16 May 2021

Monsters: Underdark Monsters/Races

Monsters: Underdark Monsters/Races

Underdark is one of my favorite Forgotten Realms supplements. In this post I convert the quaggoths that actually are from Drow of the Underdark, the deep imaskari that are a race suitable for PCs (I decided to remove their spell clutch ability that would be useless to a non-spellcasting character in favor of an innate talent), and three variations of a giant maggot.

Saturday 15 May 2021

Occupational Template: Night Mask Deathbringer

 Occupational Template: Night Mask Deathbringer

I do not have in-depth knowledge of Forgotten Realms lore, but I do have all the books. Night Masks are an organisation ruled by vampire lords that operate in the city of Westgate. Deathbringers are their enforcers of higher rank than the normal members. They undergo a horrific ritual that often scars them mentally, but grants them some supernatural powers of the undead. Their signature ability - the blood bond is not part of the template due to being very expensive, but is presented as a power-up.

Friday 14 May 2021

Monster: Chaos Roc

Monster: Chaos Roc

The chaos roc is a larger roc with bright feathers and an ability to create a blinding color spray. Also with magic resistance.

Thursday 13 May 2021

Lenses: Lich Variants

Lenses: Lich Variants

Monsters of Faerun not only expands the variety of magical abilities of liches (already added then to the lich lens), and describes several new lich variants. Let's list them here as well.

Monster: Kalabon

Monster: Kalabon 

This little devil was very difficult to convert - I had no idea how to make the ability to combine powers into a single colony! But I think this should do the trick. Again, I think there was some miscommunication with the art department, because the picture you see here clearly is not a creature on three legs with a single tentacle.

Wednesday 12 May 2021

Tuesday 11 May 2021

Sorcery: Assorted Spells XII

Sorcery: Assorted Spells XII

Even more fun D&D spells! Net is an area effect Binding. Blacksphere is something like Force Dome combined with Blackout with some extra features. Spidereyes is a drow spying spell. Giant Spider enlarges spiders. Censure is a divine spell that excommunicates the subject. Hold Metal is an interesting spell that freezes ferrous metals in space. Faith Magic Zone slows and impedes arcane spellcasting. Divine Purpose is a more general version of Reveal Function. Blood Lust is a buff that isn't as interesting as the other spells. Slicing Shadow is a shadowy area attack spell. Biting Shadow is its mobile variant. Everchanging Self is a weird spell to conceal the caster's identity. Dark Way is another bridge-creating spell with some interesting features that I couldn't translate fully into GURPS. Crawling Darkness is an interesting Obscure spell. Dark Road is a very expensive digging spell (I removed the navigational component, because that's basically the Seeker spell). Skyhook creates an invisible force hook in the air. Death Link is one of the jankiest spells I've ever converted. Shadow Double is a spell based on the signature class feature of the Shadow Adept prestige class. My first time using the Duplication advantage in any of my writeups.

Monsters/NPCs: Creations of the Mishtai

Monsters/NPCs: Creations of the Mishtai

What a weird pose.
Magic of Incarnum introduces two new races that have common origin, but very different worldview. Both have some minor reptilian features. Honestly, I find them to be quite interesting. They work very well as player character races.

Monday 10 May 2021

Sorcery: Assorted Spells XI

Sorcery: Assorted Spells XI

Some more D&D spell conversions. Summon Monster differs from Planar Summons in that it takes only a second to cast, the summoned being is not an actual outsider, but is something like a planar projection, it obeys the caster, and must be maintained. So, it's a combat summoning spell. Summon Undead is a similar spell that creates undead beings out of thin air. Not a big fan of this one from the flavor perspective. Gate Seal prevents magical portals from activating. Dimensional Lock is useful to pin down teleporting enemies. Disguise Undead is a spell used to walk a ghoul into a throne room. Cloak Undead is Mass Invisibility that only affects undead. Reveal Magic is an interesting variant of Detect Magic. Battering Ram creates a force field around one's fist. Portrait is a peculiar spell that creates a 3D image of something inside a crystal sphere. Phase Trap locks the subject to the current plane of existence.

Monsters/Lenses: Incarnum Lenses

Monsters/Lenses: Incarnum Lenses

Magic of Incarnum has two lenses - the lost (creatures tainted by incarnum and forced to experience negative emotions) and the soulfused construct (contructs given a semblance of life via incarnum).

Sunday 9 May 2021

Sorcery: Assorted Spells X

Sorcery: Assorted Spells X

In this post, I convert several D&D spells. Shadow Walk is a quite difficult statistics-wise spell that moves you across large distances and lets you cross planar boundaries. Fetch is a summoning spell that leaves the summoned creature free of the summoner's control instead of sending it back to where it came from. Light Step and Personal Light Step are limited variants of Walk on Air. Teleport Cage is a permanent spell that redirects teleportation spells to another random point within its area.

Occupational Template: Paladin

Occupational Template: Paladin

And here's another D&D class as an occupational template. The Holy Warrior from DF serves as a base, but this one takes a lot from the cleric and fighter templates I've made.

Saturday 8 May 2021

Friday 7 May 2021

Arena: Wrestler versus Lolth-Touched Monstrous Hunting Spider

 Arena: Wrestler versus Lolth-Touched Monstrous Hunting Spider

The wrestler wants another fight! This time against a monster - a Lolth-touched monstrous hunting spider. Again, there's no need for maps this time.

Monster: Lifeleech Otyugh

Monster: Lifeleech Otyugh

Lifeleech otyughs are slightly larger than normal otyughs, have magically toughened hide, and have an ability regenerate quickly when a healing spell is cast around them. And twice as many arms.

Thursday 6 May 2021

Arena: Wrestler versus Knife Fighter

Arena: Wrestler versus Knife Fighter

This time, we decided to test out a fight between a wrestler and a knife fighter. I won't be posting maps for this one, because they aren't really necessary here.

Lens/Monsters: Lolth-Touched Creatures

Lens/Monsters: Lolth-Touched Creatures

What a boring template, honestly.

Wednesday 5 May 2021

Monsters: Incarnum Monsters

Monsters: Incarnum Monsters

This post contains several monsters from Magic of Incarnum.

Tuesday 4 May 2021

Monday 3 May 2021

Monster: Obyriths

Monster: Obyriths

Obyriths are demons that were ruling the Abyss before the tanar'ri have appeared. Nowadays, they are quite rare, and they all look unsettlingly terrifying. And with this post, I'm done with non-aspect monsters from the Fiendish Condex I: Hordes of the Abyss!

Sunday 2 May 2021

Monsters/Lenses: Echohusks

Monsters/Lenses: Echohusks

Echohusks are zombies animated by residual psychic energies that have slain them. Unlike normalzombies, they are not immune to mind control and can transform damage into psychic stun. Dread echokusks also can terrify others (and are not immune to fear themselves).

Saturday 1 May 2021

Monster: Duergar Tyrant

Monster: Duergar Tyrant

Duergar tyrants are duergars with inborn kineticist powers. However, in my framework of psychic magic there is not place for the kineticist, so instead I interpreted this template as a normal duergar with an alternative set of psionic abilities.