How to convert a D&D monster?

How to convert a D&D monster?

I have received messages telling me to explain how I convert D&D monsters to GURPS multiple times, but I never could explain it properly. So, I decided to write this post as something of a stream of consciousness. Let's see if the result is any good.

First, let's talk about the D&D editions, as monsters all are presented differently in them. You probably know that D&D 3.0/3.5/PF are the most familiar to me, but I have seen statblocks in OD&D/AD&D/4e/5e. I would say that AD&D statblocks are the most "conversion-friendly", as they have few meaningless numbers, fewer gamey abilities, and have such things as diet and activity cycle. An interesting observation for me was that there seems to have been a paradigm shift between D&D 3.0 and D&D 3.5, as monsters in 3.5 were much more likely to have purely game-mechanical abilities, such as an abstract bonus to hit in certain situations, and less likely to have flavorful abilities that you might see in AD&D and even partially in D&D 3.0 books. This is even more pronounced in Pathfinder. All my guidelines will assume a D&D 3.5 statblock, but most of what I am going to say can be applied to anything else.

As an example, let's check the lammasu statblock. I will copy it here for convenience.

Lammasu

Size/Type: Large Magical Beast

Hit Dice: 7d10+21 (59 hp)

Initiative: +1

Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares), fly 60 ft.(average)

Armor Class: 20 (-1 size, +1 Dex, +10 natural), touch 10, flat-footed 19

Base Attack/Grapple: +7/+17

Attack: Claw +12 melee (1d6+6)

Full Attack: 2 claws +12 melee (1d6+6)

Space/Reach: 10 ft./5 ft.

Special Attacks: Pounce, rake 1d6+3, spells

Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, magic circle against evil, spell-like abilities

Saves: Fort +8, Ref +8, Will +7

Abilities: Str 23, Dex 12, Con 17, Int 16, Wis 17, Cha 14

Skills: Concentration +13, Diplomacy +4, Knowledge (arcana) +13, Listen +13, Sense Motive +13, Spot +15

Feats: Blind-Fight, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes

Environment: Temperate deserts

Organization: Solitary

Challenge Rating: 8

Treasure: Standard

Alignment: Always lawful good

Advancement: 8-10 HD (Large); 11-21 HD (Huge)

Level Adjustment: +5

A typical lammasu is about 8 feet long and weighs about 500 pounds. Lammasus speak Common, Draconic, and Celestial.

Combat

A lammasu attacks with spells or its razor-sharp claws. It almost always enters combat if it observes a good creature being threatened by evil.

Spells

A lammasu casts spells as a 7th-level cleric, and can choose spells from the cleric spell list, plus any two of the following domains: Good, Healing, Knowledge, or Law.

Typical Cleric Spells Prepared (6/6/5/4/2; save DC 13 + spell level)

0—detect magic, guidance (2), light, read magic, resistance; 1st—bless (2), detect evil, divine favor, entropic shield, protection from evil*; 2nd— aid*, bear’s endurance, bull’s strength, lesser restoration, resist energy; 3rd—daylight, dispel magic, magic circle against evil*, remove curse; 4th—holy smite*, neutralize poison.

*Domain spell. Domains: Good and Healing.

Magic Circle against Evil (Su)

A lammasu radiates a continuous magic circle against evil that affects a 20-foot radius.

Spell-Like Abilities

2/day—greater invisibility (self only); 1/day—dimension door. Caster level 7th.

Pounce (Ex)

If a lammasu charges a foe, it can make a full attack, including two rake attacks.

Rake (Ex)

Attack bonus +12 melee, damage 1d6+3.

Skills

Lammasus have a +2 racial bonus on Spot checks.

When I convert a new monster, the first thing I am looking at are body morphology and size. Nowadays, I just copy a statblock of another similar monster, but when I had no premade library of templates, I had to do it from scratch. In this case, we see that this is a quadruped, so we give lammasu Extra Legs (Four Legs) [5] and Horizontal [-10]. Does it have fine manipulators? No, it just has paws, so we also give it No Fine Manipulators [-30].

Then, let's take a look at the size. It is a Large creature, but that's not telling us much. However, the description say that the lammasu is about 8 feet long and weighs 500 pounds. 8 feet corresponds to SM+1, according to the table on page 19 of GURPS Basic Set. I have to say, that this is lucky, because you do not always have such measurements in the description. If you don't, then you have to just guess it. Since we know the mass, we can also approximate the ST value, using the formula from GURPS Space - ST equals 2 x the cube root of mass in pounds. This results in 15.87 that we round up to 16. That seems fitting for an SM+1 creature. But again, we are lucky here, because if such measurements are given at all, they might be a bit off. Some D&D monsters are known to be way too heavy or light for their size. In that case, you just have to approxiamate something yourself. In general, if something does not look right, just fix it - don't rely blindly on formulas.

While we're calculating attributes, let's take a look at the rest of them. This is where things become much more vague. For example, the D&D lammasu has Dex 12. You could give it a racial +1 bonus to DX and call it a day, but you could also do the following. What is a lammasu? It's a winged lion. Let's open page 456 of GURPS Basic Set and check the lion statblock. Lions are agile, so they have DX 13. It would be appropriate to give the lammasu the same. They are also said to be very wise, so it wouldn't be unreasonable to give them a +1 or +2 bonus to IQ. What about health? They definitely seem tougher than a human, so a +1 bonus to HT seems fine. I think it is important to mention that you really should not use the D&D numbers here as a guideline because the two systems are way too different. D&D is prone to stat inflation due to being a level-based system, while GURPS is not. Also, keep in mind that these are racial averages, not attribute levels for a prime specimen. When assigning secondary characteristics, you should remember that animals usually have Will and Perception levels as high as humans, and often higher, despite having low IQ.

Movement. The D&D lammasu has the standard ground speed of 30 feet per round. Why is this leonine body this slow? The Basic Set lion has Move 10! So let's give it Basic Move 10. Also, it has wings, so let's also give it Flight with Winged and, possibly, Cannot Hover limitations. I like to include Cannot Hover on most winged creatures to, I guess, nerf the flight somewhat.

Defenses. Armor Class works very differently from GURPS DR and active defenses, and it also is subject to number inflation. Would a lammasu have a thick hide? Probably, but it doesn't seem very thick. The Basic Set lion has DR 1, so let's give the lammasu DR 1 with Tough Skin. However, there's also the thick mane, so let's add DR 2 with Flexible, but limit it to skull and neck hit locations. I guess the creature should also have the Fur perk.

Senses. The D&D lammasu has low-light vision and darkvision. Typically, I represent low-light vision as Night Vision 5, but in some instances I vary the level. Depending on your taste, darkvision can be represented as Infravision or, well, Dark Vision. I prefer the former. However, I also think that D&D makes darkvision way too common - I think more than a half of all creatures have it. Why would a lammasu be able to see in the dark? It's not an underground-dwelling creature, and it can already see at night just fine with its Night Vision. So, in this case, I would just omit darkvision entirely.

Attacks. The lammasu has a humanoid head that lacks sharp teeth, but it does have feline claws. So, let's give it Sharp Claws. Cats, however, have retractable claws, so applying Switchable to the Sharp Claws advantage might be a flavorful decision.

Diet. The book says nothing about the diet. Is is a carnivore, like cats are? Or is it an omnivore, like humans are? I assume that since the head is humanoid, that the lammasu is an omnivore, so no disadvantages are required.

Lifespan. Again, the book says nothing about lifespan. It rarely does that in general. We assume human lifespan, and that's it.

The most complex part of a D&D monster, typically, is its array of special abilities and qualities.

First, the D&D lammasu has a fire breath weapon that can be used once per day. This is a Burning Attack with appropriate modifiers - Magical, Cone, Reduced Range, etc. Most of the times, I really dislike abilities that have limited uses per day as they feel too gamey. When converting such abilities, instead I try to either impose an FP cost, a recharge time, or both. This way, you will not be able to spam the ability, and it will require at least some resources to use.

The lammasu also has some spell-like abilities. Honestly, I'm torn when it comes to spell-like abilities. On one hand, they do feel a bit gamey, but on the other hand, it is very easy to use them. Instead of coming up with new abilities each time, you just give the creature some premade sorcery spells as alternative abilities without the Sorcerous Empowerment advantage. Usually, when creating monster templates, I only consider spell-like abilities that can be used at-will. In this case, there's no such abilities. However, the lammasu also has a constantly active magic circle against evil. In this case, I take the route of least resistance and just treat this ability as a single spell-like ability - Protection from Evil 1. Yes, I could have created an ability that projects an aura that grants DR and Magic Resistance against evil creatures, but I am just lazy. Do not go overboard with spell-like abilities, as they can easily inflate the point cost of the template and/or make the creature "lose focus." Keep only the ones that are essential to the concept. My early conversions are guilty of not adhering to this principle.

The lammasu also has an innate ability to cast spells as a cleric. This is a major ability! What do I do with it? I just ignore it and pretend that it doesn't exist. In my opinion, it just does not make sense for a creature to have innate clerical powers. They would need an innate code of conduct and connection to a specific deity, so I just skip it. Clerical abilities are appropriate for lammasus, but as learned abilities that are not part of the racial template.

Technically speaking, we're done here. But let's not forget that D&D and GURPS are different systems. Some things are not represented in D&D at all. For example, this is a leonine monster that lives in hot deserts. Shouldn't it have at least a level of Temperature Tolerance (Hot)? Also, this is still a cat, why not give it Catfall? Perhaps, Perfect Balance would not be out of place. Have you ever seen cats climb trees? Let's steal Clinging with Requires claw-holds from GURPS Animalia. Cats also usually have Combat Reflexes, so let's give this advantage to the lammasu as well.

And here's the result: 

Lammasu [Monster Manual, page 165]

207 points

Attribute Modifiers: ST+6 (No Fine Manipulators, -40%; Size Modifier, -10%) [30]; DX+3 (No Fine Manipulators, -40%) [36]; IQ+1 [20]; HT+1 [10].

Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: SM+1; Basic Move +4 [20]; Will+1 [5].

Advantages: Catfall [10]; Clinging (Requires claw-holds -30%) [14]; DR 1 (Tough Skin, -40%) [3]; DR 2 (Flexible, -20%; Partial, Neck, -50%) [3]; DR 2 (Flexible, -20%; Partial, Skull, -70%) [2]; Extra Legs (Four Legs) [5]; Flight (Cannot Hover, -15%; Winged, -25%) [24]; Night Vision 5 [5]; Perfect Balance [15]; Sharp Claws (Switchable, +10%) [6]; Temperature Tolerance 1 (Hot) [1].

    Breathe Fire: Burning Attack 2d (Cone 5, +100%; Costs Fatigue, 1 FP, -5%; Magical, -10%; Reduced Range, 1/10, -30%;Takes Recharge, 15 seconds, -20%) [14].

    Spell-Like Ability:

    Protection from Evil 1 [23].

Disadvantages: Horizontal [-10]; No Fine Manipulators [-30].

Perks: Fur [1].

Notes: Size 3 hexes; Weight 500 lbs.

Creature Type: Magical Beast.

It ended up being different from my earlier lammasu conversion, but I will replace that one with this one, as I like this one better. It feels more like a cat than just a quadruped, right?

As you could see, I pretty much disregarded all numerical data from the D&D statblock, but I should also note that you might want to adjust some numbers as well. Every GURPS game is different, and while this template might be fitting for a more grounded game, for something more high powered you might want to increase the numbers.

Anyway, I'm not sure what else to write here, so here you have it. I hope this was useful.