Oblivium Monster Conversion: part one

Ad&d stuff should be coming relatively soon, ive set up a session and I'm just putting the finishing touches to the dungeon, but returning back to the Oblivium conversion i think i mentioned last time getting started on converting the bestiary over, this is a relatively simple process but i think it's worth spelling it out as it can get a little Vague in some areas,

So how does each system run monsters and judge their power levels? 

well in 5e a monster is run much in the same way a player character is, they have ability scores skills features, ac and the same types of actions etc, the power level is judged by cr which is what level party it can theoretically solo (assuming a party size of 4) 

Osr systems are a lot simpler, monsters don't have ability scores or skills, how strong a monster is usually having to do with number of Hit Dice (which to hit and saving throws are usually tied to) and how many special ability's it has (each making it count as one hit dice more in power level) Swords and Wizardry complete has its how Cr system, this is basically hit dice plus abilities (they have a table for calculating it as well, very helpful) 

So when converting a 5e monster to an Osr monster your basically binning half the stat block, we will ignore hp ability scores and skills and only focus on Cr(as a way of understanding roughly what level a party will fight it) and attacks/abilities and Mabe AC. So starting from A lets quickly convert a handful of monsters to show the process:

1. Abhuman Sojourn, this is a human in the process of becoming non-human? its Cr 6 and has a multitude of spell like abilities, so lets make it hd 6, give it the ability to make illusions and cast telekinesis on will and a once a day cast of dominate person and that should put us about cr 9, their weaon does alot of dmg which i would proberly reduce to around 2d8 dmg (still very deadly for its level) and it can keep the two attacks which would make it a formidable foe, it has 15 base ac which sounds about right, and the ability to communicate telepathically, 

2.Asharaan Concubine, emerald skinned humanoids with beguiling abilities, this one is Cr 1/4, since hd really only starts at a 1/2hd and this doesn't seem like a particularly weak creature like a goblin or kobold ill start it at Hd 1, it has ac 12 but has +3ac vs humanoids, it has a 1/day charm effect which we can keep working like the charm spell, given its stealthy nature lets make it have a 1-3 chance of Suprise, it say it has a poison needle which would be a save vs death in Swords and wizardry, since its such a low level creature its probably best to make it a poison +4 or somthing, so the final S&W Cr would be 2 or 4 with the poison attack,

3.Battyfang, think Victorian gang member, these are relatively standard cr 1/2 lets make them hd 1 again, ac 11 from a thick duster, they have multi attack but they are a bit too low level for that in S&W so we will ignore that same goes for pack tactics which really dosnt translate to S&W, they have a pistol attack which does d6 dmg which i would keep, CR 1 nice and simple no need to overcomplicate things,

ive kept ac mostly the same it might have to be tweaked up or down but might require a bit of play testing first, general power level may have to be adjusted based on play test but this is a start for monsters, there are some real unusual creatures in this setting so i might have to spend more time on one or two rather odd ones to get them right but this shouldn't take too long overall.

Starting a journey into AD&D,

So, throughout the last few weeks there has been one phrase ive heard repeated again and again, "One D&D" this phrase has seeped into my subconscious and piled up into my mind until this memetic programming triggered some repressed desire, it's so obvious "One D&D, D&D One D&D 1st edition, FUCK IT I SHOULD RUN AD&D" so grabbing my copy of OSRIC and started reading, in short it's really not that bad, I started with the combat segment system as I know this would be the hardest part to learn, but it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, hell I think it could be made easier with some tools or visualisation aid of some kind (could be a future blog post).

One of the things i find most appealing about AD&D is the subsystems form managing hirelings' mercenaries and experts to arial manoeuvring it's got a lot of depth that doesn't bog down the core gameplay as well as providing emergent game play.

Another aspect I'm interested in looking into is the "implied setting" a sort of inherent world assumption written into the AD&D rules, with lots of information on the monsters that dwell within this weird Swords and Sorcery world (including how good they are at tunnelling i.e. how well they can make or modify caves and dungeons for habitation) this implied setting is also reflected in what marital is suggested in the Appendix N: list of inspirational reading, which is mostly Swords and Sorcery and other weird fiction (such as the complete works of H.P. Love craft) definitely worth immersing yourself in these story's to understand this particular style of fantasy.

I'll be occasionally trying to make some AD&D related posts in the future, probably looking at some of the sub systems like psionics or arial agility and seeing how it works, if there's any questions about AD&D or something AD&D related let me know and I'll try to write something on it.

Oblivium conversion part 5

So reptilians, classic pulp villain and found throughout fantasy settings, obviously they are the sort of race that would have magic users and maybe clerics (possibly worshiping set or something) and this could be an opportunity to have a multi class combo of cleric and magic user outside of half elf (to represent a sorcerous priest of some dark deity) in fighters and thief's they have some interesting quirks being scaled monsters (AC bonus?) and slippery and Maby camouflaged ( bonuses to hide in shadows and move silently) Oblivium 5e presents 2 sub races the degenerate and the savants, i think the difference between the two could largely be determined by class combination picked (degenerates picking thief's and fighters for instance)

so classes would be fighter(6th level), thief(unlimited), magic user(9th level) and cleric(5th) , they can multi class into magic user-cleric, thief cleric, or fighter thief

they gain a + 10% to hide in shadows and move silently, and a +5% to climb sheer surfaces,

reptiloids gain 60ft dark vision, a bite attack that does d4 +str if fighter, +1 bonus to Ac from their scales, 

you also have a +4 vs poison 

I feel this might be a bit light, but this should be enough for now, i think im going to work on converting some monster stat blocks for a bit before returning to finish off the player races. I also have some other projects that i would like to do for the blog in the near future so hope fully ill have something for that done soon too.

Oblivium conversion part 4

Right today we are going to do the koraara, a race of cat men who are also sailors, judging by the art in Oblivium they are more human than cat like but have some cat features (eyes, ears tails and claws) so of course they have dark vision due their claws and their culture of sailing they are good climbers  (easy enough as a bonus to climb sheer surfaces) a reroll ability, proficiency in perception (bonus to listen checks i think) have a claw attack d4 + str(keep as is) a nine lives ability to avoid dying (might be interesting to try keeping) and of course some stuff with sailoring and fishing (s&w has some ship rules it might be interesting to give something related to them)

So classes would probably be thief(unlimited) and fighter (max level 6?) There is some mention of assasins so giving them the ability to go to level 8 in assassin might be interesting, and Maby monk?(maby not monk is a silly class) they would be able to multiclass into fighter thief or fighter assassin, 

The thief abilities will be +15% to climb, +1 to listen checks, +10 to move silently and delicate tasks, 

Claw attack would be d4 dmg + str if fighter, they get dark vision, for the lucky ability it, might be interesting giving them a +4 vs instant death effects, since they seem to get fairly little otherwise, 

in terms of sailoring, S&W has some rules for ship combat that would be interesting to reference and since these are mostly d100 rolls we could treat them much like thief skills in that the koraara get a percentage bonus to attempting these actions, so when sailing a vessel they have a +10% to patching a vessel and +10% to grappling another vessel, 

I think this should do for now, ive lagged behind with this conversion a bit and need to catch up some pace, next will be the reptilians and then some monster stat blocks.

Oblivium conversion part 3

Right next up is the hollows the half undead, half construct and half fiend, this race seems to lean towards the magical so im thinking largely mirror the elf for classes levels, they get dark vision and a bunch of skill proficiencies in intelligence based skills, which is a bit tricky as unlike more dex or str based skills they don't have a direct analogue in s&w, it still gives an idea of what sort of race this is though.

They are also detected by detect good/evil due to their fiendish nature, i think this can be kept as is though i think detect evil in s&w is more along the lines of detect curse of intent.

The toper is interesting, it stating that instead of sleep they enter a toper for 4 hours but unlike an elf in 5e you can still be put to sleep by magic, this could probably be kept as is, idk if it would have much mechanical influence given rules as written rests are days in length rather than in 5e where they are 8 hours.

The last ability they have is a profane legacy which determines which of their origins is most dominant, this infers resistances and some in built magic, in s&w most resistances could be changed to a +4 to save vs that dmg or effect as with the dwarfs poison resistance for instance, in built magic is also possible in the design but not all the spells (especially the cantrips) would directly translate so im going to change the cantrips to once a day level one spells and find the closest fit in S&W spell lists 

Cabalus: flesh golem is the most dominant origin, resistance to lightning and poison (+4 vs lighting and poison) mending cantrip, at 3rd level once a day cast of create food and water, at 5th level once a day cast of alter self

Infurnus: the fiendish is the most dominant origin, resistance to fire and poison (+4 vs lighting and poison) the thaumaturgy cantrip 3rd level a once a day cast of hellish rebuke (and at 5th level a once a day cast of darkness

And lastly Necru: the undead is the most dominant origin, you have resistance to necromantic and poison dmg (+4 vs poison and um necromantic isn't that well defined in s&w magic so ill have to find something else for this...) They also get the chill touch cantrip, 

At 3rd level a once a day cast of false life, and at 5th level a once a day cast of ray of enfeeblement, 

So for classes hollows can have unlimited levels in thief, up to 8th level in magic user (9th with 18 int) up to 4th level fighter (5th with 18 str) and can multi class as fighter magic user, thief magic user or thief fighter magic user, 

They gain a +4 to saves vs poison and a +4 to saves vs either fire, lightning or death( so save or death effects etc)

They are detected by the detect evil spell as a being of evil magic regardless of what alignment they are.

Ill leave it there for now as im unsure how exactly to translate over the inbuilt spells many of them don't have direct tie in's in s&w and with the ability to be a magic user thief/fighter such ideas may be redundant either way ill talk to Obliviums creator about it.

Oblivium conversion part 2

Right next up on the conversion is the chaedran the insect rearing weasel men, in terms of classes im thinking thief fighter and magic user as options, given their proficiency for animal rearing and training druid may also be an appropriate option, this race also haz dark vision which is nice. They are Usually neutral alignment.

They get quite a few proficiencies in thief skills stealth perception and slight of hand which could be translated over quite easily, the fact they also get an ability giving advantage on smell is also interesting and clearly something important for the race. And lastly they have a bite attack and a squirm ability to get through small openings easier.

So they can go unlimited levels in thief, up to level 6 fighter, up to level 8th magic user and up to level 8 druid, they can multi class, as fighter thief, thief magic user, thief druid or magic user druid 

Thief skills first then, lets give them a +15 delicate tasks and traps, a +10 to hide in shadows, a +15 to move silently,

In terms of the smell ability, the closest thing in S&W is the rangers tracking ability, giving access to a few levels of ranger might be a good option for this, however certain restrictions might confuse things. So lets give it a 2 in 6 chance of detecting the scent if a recently nearby creature 1 in 6 automatically? 

So i think this is pretty passable for a first go, i got some feed back from Obliviums creator where he said he was planning a s&w playtest he said that the area he was planning on running focused on the apelings, reptilians, koraara and hollows, so having already done the apelings i will shift to doing these other 3 next.

Oblivium Conversion: Part 1

So Starting at the beginning, Swords and wizardry has some clear differences in pc race option design especially how they are balanced, S&W primarily balances through level caps for race, though pretty much everything can level unlimited in thief (and as a wise old man told me, that means you always want to duel class into thief), as well as non human races getting bonuses to some thief skills, so since this is something show in pretty much every race provided in S&W already its something i will keep across most of the races.

So starting with Apelings, mostly Chaotic or Neutral in the 5e version of Oblivium they have a climbing speed (possible bonus to thief skills) advantage on perception and athletic checks (again a thief skill bonus maby a reduction of surprise or a find secret door ability?) And a bite attack for d4 + str (could probably be kept as is) powerful build doesn't really have a equivalency in s&w and the encumbrance system is somewhat different so i feel its unnecessary to convert such features.

So for the class options I'd say an apeling can go up to 6th level fighter, 8th levels assassin and unlimited thief and can multi class fighter/thief or fighter/assassin.

They receive bonuses to their thief skills of:

+10% climb walls (bringing them up to 95% at first level!!!), +10% to delicate tasks and traps, a +5% to move silently, hide in shadows and open locks

The bite attack can be kept, 1d4 + str mod if fighter,

S&W race blocks tend to be quite simple in terms of actual mechanics so i think this should do for a first run. I may go back and change this once I've done a few more of the races and got used to the process a bit.