Can anyone update this 2e material to 3.5e?

[DaragosKitsune]

I found something awesome on a website for 2nd Edition, but want it updated. However I don't know how to update it.

It is this:
Flare Wolf.

Frequency: Very rare
No. appearing: 1-6
Armor class: 4
Move: 12"
Hit Dice: 5-7
% in lair: 25%
Treasure type: C
No. of attacks: 1
Damage/attack: 2-8
Special attacks: From rear 50% of the time, breath fire.
Special defenses: Teleporting.
Magic Resistance: Standard.
Intelligence: Average.
Alignment: Lawful Neutral (evil)
Size: M (4' at the shoulder, 200 lbs)
Psionic ability: nil

A Flare Wolf is not actually a wolf at all. It is, in fact, a creature created by the inter breeding of blink dogs and hell hounds. Whether or not this happened, "naturally", or by wizardly meddling is unknown. What is known is that these monsters are deadly, and a plague on any land unlucky enough to host them.

Flare wolves possess the blink dogs limited teleportation power, and use it in the same way during an attack. A flare wolf will teleport to the attack from as far as medium range, with a 50% chance of appearing directly behind the victim. There is a 50/50 chance that the flare wolf will either bite, or breath fire as would a hell hound.
Fiery breath does 1 point of damage per hit die, plus a 30% chance of any flammable material worn or carried by the target, catching fire. Fire damage caused by, say, a burning cloak, will be determined by the Game Master separately.

A flare wolf moves with the stealth of a hell hound, they surprise on a roll of 1-4 out of 6.
Most often, a flare wolf will stalk it's victims unnoticed, and then attack by teleporting to melee range at a moment when the target creature is at a disadvantage of some sort.

A flare wolf appears as a huge, shaggy and wolfish, hound, with fiery, glowing red eyes, and with black teeth and lolling tongue. Their fur is rusty black, and when they teleport, they are engulfed in a flare of lurid red fire, and brimstone reeking smoke.

Flare Wolves are most often encountered singly, but sometimes form small packs. A pack of these monsters is a terror, and will strip a land of livestock and peasantry in short order.

[Lord Vukodlak]

Flare Wolf
Size/Type:Medium Magical Beast(Evil, Fire)
Hit Dice: 4d10+4 (26 hp)
Initiative: +3
Speed: 40 ft. (8 squares)
Armor Class: 17 (+3 Dex, +4 natural), touch 13, flat-footed 13
Base Attack/Grapple: +4/+5
Attack: Bite +4 melee (1d8+1+1d4 fire)
Full Attack: Bite +4 melee (1d8+1d4 fire)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: —
Special Qualities:Blink, darkvision 60 ft, low-light vision, scent, dimension door, reeks of brim stone.
Saves: Fort +4, Ref +7, Will +4
Abilities: Str 12, Dex 17, Con 12, Int 8, Wis 13, Cha 11
Skills: Hide +7, Listen +4, Sense Motive +7, Spot +4, Survival +4
Feats: Iron Will, Run, Track(b)
Environment: Temperate plains
Organization: Solitary, pair, or pack (7-16)
Challenge Rating: 4
Treasure: None
Alignment:Always lawfulevil

A Flare Wolf is not actually a wolf at all. It is, in fact, a creature created by the inter breeding of blink dogs and hell hounds. Whether or not this happened, "naturally", or by wizardly meddling is unknown. What is known is that these monsters are deadly, and a plague on any land unlucky enough to host them.

Flare Wolves speak the same language as blink dogs a mixture of barks, yaps, whines, and growls that can transmit complex information. Though most of the 'words' for compassion, mercy and love are missing. They do however understand infernal a trait inherited from their hellhound ancestry.


Most often, a flare wolf will stalk it's victims unnoticed, and then attack by teleporting to melee range at a moment when the target creature is at a disadvantage of some sort.

Breath Weapon (Su)
10-foot cone, once every 2d4 rounds, damage 2d6 fire, Reflex DC 13 half. The save DC is Constitution-based.

Fiery Bite (Su)
A Flare Wolf deals an extra 1d4 points of fire damage every time it bites an opponent, as if its bite were a flaming weapon.

Dimension Door (Su)
A Flare wolf can teleport, as dimension door (caster level 8th), once per round as a free action. The ability affects only the Flare Wolf, which never appears within a solid object and can act immediately after teleporting.

Reeking Smoke (Ex): When a flare wolf teleports, it is engulfed by brimstone-reeking smoke. Anyone within 10 feet of the creature must succeed on a DC 13 Fortitude save or be Sickened for one round. The save DC is Constitution-based. Creatures with immunity to poison are unaffected, and creatures resistant to poison receive their normal bonus on their saving throws. Flare wolves are immune to their own reeking smoke and the reeking smoke of other flare wolves.

Skills: Flare Dogs have a +4 racial bonus on Hide and Move Silently checks.
*They also receive a +6 racial bonus on Survival checks when tracking by scent, due to their keen sense of smell

There you go a 3.5 Flare Wolf

[DaragosKitsune]

Thanks! Tiz awesome.

[DracoDei]

Lord Vukodlak: You left out the organization line. Also, there is a tricky bit here... did you combine the 3.5 Hellhound with the 3.5 blink dog? It appears that is what you may have done. I say this because I see no chance (or opposed reflex saves/dexterity checks?) listed for them to catch a foe flat-footed or dex-denied or whatever when coming out of a Dimension Door, nor am I seeing a racial bonus to Move Silently, which I suspect from the description the original would have had due to the concept of them inheriting a Hell Hounds penchant for stealth. The thing is... you may be exactly right in doing all of this. it is a question of are you translating directly, or trying to recreate the creature from its component parts with really 3.5 feel to it? This is a sliding scale. There are some things about 2e that I think just need to STAY there, but, for instance, a monster or two whose breathweapons deal damage equal to the individual monster's current hit-points instead of rolling could be an interesting variation... well technically that was FIRST edition, but I think it still suffices as an example.

You also seem to have neglected to transfer the fluff... this is fine for the original poster, but others looking to use your work later might appreciate having everything in one place. For instance "There is a 50/50 chance that the flare wolf will either bite, or breath fire as would a hell hound." would go under "combat"...

[Debihuman]

It is missing the fact that it reeks of brimstone when it teleports.

Reeking Smoke (Ex): When a flare dog teleports, it is engulfed by brimstone-reeking smoke. Anyone within 10 feet of the creature must succeed on a DC 13 Fortitude save or be Sickened. The save DC is Constitution-based. Creatures that successfully save cannot be affected by the same flare dog's reeking smoke for 24 hours. A delay poison or neutralize poison spell removes the effect from the sickened creature. Creatures with immunity to poison are unaffected, and creatures resistant to poison receive their normal bonus on their saving throws.

It's only fluff in 2e but I think it should have an effect. What do you think? I based it off the Troglodyte's Stench.

Debby

[DracoDei]

It is missing the fact that it reeks of brimstone when it teleports.

Reeking Smoke (Ex): When a flare dog teleports, it is engulfed by brimstone-reeking smoke. Anyone within 10 feet of the creature must succeed on a DC 13 Fortitude save or be Sickened. The save DC is Constitution-based. Creatures that successfully save cannot be affected by the same flare dog's reeking smoke for 24 hours. A delay poison or neutralize poison spell removes the effect from the sickened creature. Creatures with immunity to poison are unaffected, and creatures resistant to poison receive their normal bonus on their saving throws.

It's only fluff in 2e but I think it should have an effect. What do you think? I based it off the Troglodyte's Stench.

Debby
Sounds like a racial feat? Maybe 1st HD only?

[Lord Vukodlak]

did you combine the 3.5 Hellhound with the 3.5 blink dog? It appears that is what you may have done. I say this because I see no chance (or opposed reflex saves/dexterity checks?) listed for them to catch a foe flat-footed or dex-denied or whatever when coming out of a Dimension Door
It has the blink dogs dimension door ability, so it can teleport up to 800ft and then attack. It should be fairly easy for a pack of flare[or blink] dogs to catch opponents by surprise, by teleporting in and attacking. It shouldn't matter if they appear behind the opponent or not.
All that should matter is if they actually catch them unaware, which I don't see as difficult when you can teleport up to 800ft as a free action.


nor am I seeing a racial bonus to Move Silently, which I suspect from the description the original would have had due to the concept of them inheriting a Hell Hounds penchant for stealth.
The racial skill bonuses are there check the bottom their slightly weaker then the standard hellhound. Keep in mind I kept the flare dog a magical beast and its slightly less intelligence so its skill points are less.


The thing is... [U]you may be exactly right in doing all of this. it is a question of are you translating directly, or trying to recreate the creature from its component parts with really 3.5 feel to it?
I'm trying to recreate the creature from the component parts in 3.5


"There is a 50/50 chance that the flare wolf will either bite, or breath fire as would a hell hound." would go under "combat"...
Breath weapons are every 1d4[or more] rounds so that doesn't work and the creature should be intelligent enough to make a more logical decision not some mechanical nonsense. Especially considering that 3.5 hellhounds lack that line.

Debi I added the stinks of brim stone ability.

[DracoDei]

800 foot teleport is great for surprise... the first round. After that, you can create flanking a lot more easy, but the "Oops! Now I am behind you!" thing is lacking on the 2nd and later rounds. That is all I meant.

Mechanical nonsense removal is good I suppose.

[Lord Vukodlak]

800 foot teleport is great for surprise... the first round. After that, you can create flanking a lot more easy, but the "Oops! Now I am behind you!" thing is lacking on the 2nd and later rounds. That is all I meant.

Which doesn't mean anything as there is no such thing as facing in 3.5, it only be important for flanking.

[Debihuman]

Sounds like a racial feat? Maybe 1st HD only?

Why does this sound like a feat? It screamed "Special Ability" to me.

Lord Vukodlak, most of the text of the Reeking Brimstone is missing. The DC is is missing but you note the save. It doesn't make sense the way you have it. That's why I posted the complete version.

[Edit -- one more thing that I forgot] You should note whether or not flare dogs are immune to their own reek and that of other flare dogs.

Debby

[Mulletmanalive]

I'm going to weigh in and suggest that the 'oops, i'm behind you' bit could be done by allowing them to feint a a Swift action once every 1d4 rounds as part of a "bampf," or whatever the blink effects are called...

It works well as a Nightcrawler type effect in Mutants and Masterminds anyway

[Lord Vukodlak]

Lord Vukodlak, most of the text of the Reeking Brimstone is missing. The DC is is missing but you note the save. It doesn't make sense the way you have it. That's why I posted the complete version.
Debby
Why doesn't it make sense?
I removed most of the text because it was completely unnecessary.
A delay poison or neutralize poison spell removes the effect from the sickened creature. Creatures with immunity to poison are unaffected, and creatures resistant to poison receive their normal bonus on their saving throws.
If I simply state its a poison effect that entire paragraph is no longer necessary.

I also changed the ability, as the stench isn't a constant effect like a troglodyte I saw no reason to give creatures an immunity for making their save. Its only a brief effect when the Flare Dog teleports, as such the duration was limited to one round[you never mentioned a duration BTY]

[Debihuman]

The reason for putting the full rules in the entry is to help the poor DM (like me); it saves me the trouble of having to look things up while looking at the entry. It's a huge waste of time to have to look up poison rather than to have it in the entry.

I forgot the duration was so short. Call it a bad case of CRS ;-) So yeah removing the 24 hour duration bit makes sense. However, you should still note whether the flare wolf is immune to his own reeking smoke or the reeking smoke of other flare wolves. I could see using a couple of these to corner PCs but not if they make each other Sick.

Debby

[DracoDei]

Why does this sound like a feat? It screamed "Special Ability" to me.
Because it is an "upgrade" and I probably thought that he wanted to keep the CR reasonable or something?

[Debihuman]

One more thing: hell hounds do not speak but understand Infernal while blink dogs have their own language, a mixture of barks, yaps, whines, and growls that can transmit complex information.

I would imagine that flare wolves understand both. They have an Int of 8 so giving them the ability to understand Infernal isn't a problem.

Last of all, the typical hell hound "stands 4½ feet high at the shoulder and weighs 120 pounds." Is this true of flare wolves too?

Edit:

This is how I'd phrase Reeking Smoke.

Reeking Smoke (Ex): When a flare wolf teleports, it is engulfed by brimstone-reeking smoke. Anyone within 10 feet of the creature must succeed on a DC 13 Fortitude save or be Sickened for one round. The save DC is Constitution-based. Creatures with immunity to poison are unaffected, and creatures resistant to poison receive their normal bonus on their saving throws. Flare wolves are immune to their own reeking smoke and the reeking smoke of other flare wolves.

Debby

[Lord Vukodlak]

The reason for putting the full rules in the entry is to help the poor DM (like me); it saves me the trouble of having to look things up while looking at the entry. It's a huge waste of time to have to look up poison rather than to have it in the entry.

Why would you need to look anything up?
Its a poison effect, why do you need a reminder to the existence of neutralize poison, delay poison, or that creatures resistant or immune to poison get their bonus. Every enchantment spell doesn't say elves get their bonus to save against it. The elf ability blanketly covers it.

Besides as the DM you don't have to remember what counters the smoke, just state to the PC's its a poison effect, and if they can't remember their own bonuses and magic vs poison its their problem.

I also avoided editing the topic again to give you a chance to notice the save DC was there when you said it wasn't.

Good question on he size though, I don't think blink dogs had there sized described so might as well go with the hell half. I'll try and think of a good appearance description.

[Debihuman]

No, my question was not about the DC as I have seen it clearly. My question was regarding the whether or not they were immune to their own reek and the reek of other flare wolves but I see that you have edited it in.

Nothing further :-) Well, other than my previous question regarding the creature's languages (or lack there of) and size.

It looks really good BTW.

Debby

[Lord Vukodlak]

You clearly said at one point
"The DC is is missing but you note the save"

[Debihuman]

I did, but it was fixed when you edited it previously and I saw the fix. Sorry to be so confusing to you.

Debby

[Lord Vukodlak]

I did, but it was fixed when you edited it previously and I saw the fix. Sorry to be so confusing to you.

Debby
Except the DC was always there you just missed it.