Alleran
2011-03-02, 08:49 AM
As the title. More specifically, I've been reading Feist's latest novel (Kingdom Besieged), and I'm wondering how the Playground would go about adapting a Dread, Dreadmaster or Dreadlord (or Dreadling, at the lowest level) to 3.5e D&D.
For reference, this (http://midkemia.wikia.com/wiki/Dread) has some basic information on the Dread (though it isn't up to date). In his most recent novel:
- Dreadlings are the weakest of the Dread. An epic-level sorcerer (or around 20th level, at least, so near-epic) couldn't kill one despite significant effort, only slow them down/incapacitate them. It took an artifact blade wielded by a Valheru (Tomas) to kill them.
- A standard Dread is comparable to some of the most powerful demons ever faced by the star elves (demons being an approximation to either devils or demons in D&D, or possibly both). Essentially, a Dread is within spitting distance of things like Balors and Pit Fiends (or so I would presume).
- A Dreadmaster would take at least a dozen powerful elven magicians and a score of extremely highly trained warriors to subdue, and not only would it be touch and go, but there would be heavy losses.
- A Dreadlord can challenge (and beat) the most powerful of the gold dragons in battle, and are a significant threat even to the Valheru themselves (a race that could probably be approximated on average as 20th level characters combined with DvR 0 and the Paragon (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/monsters/paragonCreature.htm) template - though the Lords of Dust from an issue of Dragon Magazine would also serve, IMO, as a reasonable approximation of a Valheru). When a Dreadlord fought a Great Wyrm Gold Dragon (or the equivalent to it, anyway), it took a near-mortal wound from a Valheru to give the dragon enough time to defeat it, and the dragon was toast after the battle (read: dead). When the Valheru encountered the Dread, they lost many of their number, but did kill a number of them before retreating to their own reality.
Are there any monsters in particular that approximate (or provide a cut'n'paste of, given that Feist's Midkemia was a 1st edition D&D game before he started writing novels about it) the Dread? I was thinking something like a Nightwalker (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/nightshade.htm) could serve as a basic Dread, or am I vastly overestimating their power? They really do seem to be the ultimate bad guys, the most evil of evils and so powerful that they make even the epic characters of Midkemia (like Pug*) feel real fear.
* Pug, for the record...
...has among his feats of power the creation of a rift (somewhat like a Gate spell, for people who don't read Feist) so big that a moon went partway through it and rammed the planet on the other side. The destruction turned the entire planet-and-moon to dust.
For reference, this (http://midkemia.wikia.com/wiki/Dread) has some basic information on the Dread (though it isn't up to date). In his most recent novel:
- Dreadlings are the weakest of the Dread. An epic-level sorcerer (or around 20th level, at least, so near-epic) couldn't kill one despite significant effort, only slow them down/incapacitate them. It took an artifact blade wielded by a Valheru (Tomas) to kill them.
- A standard Dread is comparable to some of the most powerful demons ever faced by the star elves (demons being an approximation to either devils or demons in D&D, or possibly both). Essentially, a Dread is within spitting distance of things like Balors and Pit Fiends (or so I would presume).
- A Dreadmaster would take at least a dozen powerful elven magicians and a score of extremely highly trained warriors to subdue, and not only would it be touch and go, but there would be heavy losses.
- A Dreadlord can challenge (and beat) the most powerful of the gold dragons in battle, and are a significant threat even to the Valheru themselves (a race that could probably be approximated on average as 20th level characters combined with DvR 0 and the Paragon (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/monsters/paragonCreature.htm) template - though the Lords of Dust from an issue of Dragon Magazine would also serve, IMO, as a reasonable approximation of a Valheru). When a Dreadlord fought a Great Wyrm Gold Dragon (or the equivalent to it, anyway), it took a near-mortal wound from a Valheru to give the dragon enough time to defeat it, and the dragon was toast after the battle (read: dead). When the Valheru encountered the Dread, they lost many of their number, but did kill a number of them before retreating to their own reality.
Are there any monsters in particular that approximate (or provide a cut'n'paste of, given that Feist's Midkemia was a 1st edition D&D game before he started writing novels about it) the Dread? I was thinking something like a Nightwalker (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/nightshade.htm) could serve as a basic Dread, or am I vastly overestimating their power? They really do seem to be the ultimate bad guys, the most evil of evils and so powerful that they make even the epic characters of Midkemia (like Pug*) feel real fear.
* Pug, for the record...
...has among his feats of power the creation of a rift (somewhat like a Gate spell, for people who don't read Feist) so big that a moon went partway through it and rammed the planet on the other side. The destruction turned the entire planet-and-moon to dust.