Converting monsters, animals, etc.

[Taharqa]

OK, I spent a good while yesterday trying to decipher how Conan animals and monsters compare to the standard Monster Manual varieties. In terms of the animals, there is a fairly one-to-one correspondence between animals, except for the following changes in Conan:

1) Add base reflexes to initiative

2) increase damage die by one category (so if it does 1d6 in the MM, it does 1d8 in Conan). This corresponds to the higher damage of weapons in Conan.

3) Armor class becomes DV. Any natural bonuses (like thick skin) to AC are gone, but a monster gets a natural dodge bonus depending on its hit die. This bonus is identical to the one granted barbarians and pirates (+15 at 20HD).

4) Add DR and Armor Piercing. This seems to be done on an ad-hoc basis. I would suggest a one-to-one correspondence between a creatures "natural" armor in terms of AC into DR, except that this gets ridiculous at high levels.

Once you apply this formula, the animals in Conan and the MM are virtually identical (see the Panther in Conan and the Leopard in MM, for example).

 

[Yokiboy]

Nice work Taharqa, this will help me out, as I'm looking for an "elder god" type of monster for an upcoming Conan game.

TTFN,

Yokiboy

 

[Lando The Archmagi]

Any thoughts on monsters like undead? For example skeletons, ghouls etc? I'm considering doing some conversions and maybe adding a necromancy spell or two for my game until I see what the Scrolls of Skelos has to offer.

I'm running a variant of the Halls of the Dead storyline from Conan.

Lando

 

[urdinaran]

I have been converting monsters from MMI and MMII, basically getting the stat blocks right (i.e. DV and DR, etc.) using esome of the suggestions posted earlier. I just recently got my copy of Scrolls of Skelos, so I need to go back and figure in the Conan-type spells to these monsters (spell-like abilities and such).
I am by no means including all the monsters in these books. I am merely adding a bigger variety of monsters. I have come up with some categories which I think would be appropriate for the Hyborian world: Cthulhu-style creatures (... this monstrosity with lots of tentacles comes out of the darkness...), Mythical (... ala Sinbad -style...), Constructs, and such. Any ideas?