Starcraft d20 Conversions

[Andion Isurand]

As I continue to dabble in converting various Starcraft units into stats for D&D 3.5 from the work I started in another thread, I’ve decided to place this in the Homebrew section. Feel free to add your thoughts and ideas on what I have posted to either thread.

So far, the protoss creatures I've made are intended to work for any setting that includes psionics and constructs, although their hit points and damage output are likely too low to compete with much of the technology available in future settings.

I figure in more advanced settings, feats and abilities can be offered to the protoss constructs representing technology upgrades and offered to the zerg as further genetic manipulation.... in order for these creatures to better compete.

For the members of the protoss race itself, like the dark templar, I figure they could just use technological items to boost their innate abilities up to a level where they can compete with futuristic weapons and forms of protection.

Some of the added feats I’ve given to these creatures reflect how the original game worked, where crowded units and obstacles typically didn't get in the way of attacks, and where units didn’t grapple one another, and so forth. I deviated from the original overlords a bit, to simplify the logistics of loading and unloading units, even if that resulted in an overlord that can carry quite a few more units.

Zerg Units:

Zerglings (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=18843782&postcount=225)
Hydralisks (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=18855595&postcount=226)
Mutalisks (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=18873625&postcount=230)
Ultralisks (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=18873638&postcount=231)
Overlords (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=18879367&postcount=232)
Brood Lords (http://magerune.blogspot.com/2015/03/brood-lord.html)*

Protoss Units:

Interceptors (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=18892632&postcount=251)
Dragoons/Immortals (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=18899665&postcount=252)
Carriers (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=18906092&postcount=253)
Observers (http://magerune.blogspot.com/2015/03/protoss-observer.html)*
Tempests (http://magerune.blogspot.com/2015/03/protoss-tempest.html)*
Dark Templars (http://magerune.blogspot.com/2015/03/dark-templar-substitution-levels.html)*

Terran Units:

Battlecruiser (http://magerune.blogspot.com/2015/04/terran-battlecruiser.html)*
Marine (http://magerune.blogspot.com/2015/03/terran-marine.html)*
Siege Tank (http://magerune.blogspot.com/2015/04/terran-siege-tank.html)*

Miscellaneous Links:

Additional Updates (http://magerune.blogspot.com/2015/03/starcraft-d20.html)*
Summoning Feats (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=18814634&postcount=140)

( *Linked to my blog. )

PROTOSS RACIAL TRAITS


Humanoid (Protoss, Psionic): Despite their hairless color-changing skin tones, pupiless eyes, extra thumbs, digitigrade legs, and absence of a mouth or vocal ability, protoss are humanoids.
-2 Dex, +2 Int or Wis or Cha.
Medium: As Medium creatures, protoss have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
Low-Light Vision: Protoss can see twice as far as a human in starlight, moonlight, torchlight, and similar conditions of poor illumination. They retain the ability to distinguish color and detail under these conditions.
+2 racial bonus on Concentration checks.
+2 racial bonus on saving throws against mind-affecting spells and effects, as well as possession.
Naturally Psionic: Protoss gain 1 extra power point per character level, regardless of whether they choose a psionic class.
Mute (Ex): Protoss lack the bodily components to produce vocalizations.
Thoughtcast (Su): While they are psionically focused, protoss can ignore the verbal component of spells they cast and may activate command word items with a similar command thought instead.
Thoughtspeak (Su): Once per round as free or immediate action, a protoss may produce a mindlink or a mass missive effect as if manifesting the power using a number of power points and an effective manifester level equal to its Hit Dice. Any save DC is Charisma-based.
Absorption (Ex): Protoss absorb and utilize energy from sources of light in a manner similar to human food requirements, and take in all the oxygen and water they need through their skin.
Automatic Languages: Common and Khalani. Bonus Languages: Any (other than secret languages, such as Druidic).
Favored Class: Any psionic class. When determining whether a multiclass protoss takes an experience point penalty, her highest-level psionic class does not count.

[RedWarlock]

I like what I see, but I don't understand the excessive templating to come to your desired stats. I could see a possible thematic connection to the zerg concept, but it's really frustrating to try and read. Just list the stats as a regular creature, I'm begging you, please.

[Andion Isurand]

I guess I wanted to lay out the process a little bit, so it can be adopted by others who wish to aim for the same thing. Looking ahead, perhaps I could amend the unit posts with spoilers containing normal stat blocks for each creature.

[qazzquimby]

This looks like something I'd use. Have you seen the other two attempts at zerg/tyranid creatures? There's the swarmlord, and another who's name I cannot recall right now.

If you continue adding more (and reformat a little) this could be a very nice resource.

[toapat]

i kinda expected a rules hash that would sorta let you play Stars Without Number or Rogue Trader in the Koprulu sector with the Broodwar/Starcraft 2 units.

Small note, Protoss are actually supposed to be large creatures, its just that Raynor is, like most Blizzard characters, on the extreme side of human potential. That, and Zeratul seems physically incapable of straightening out his spine.

That, or im missing some cutscene with Raynor and Kerrigan where he isnt 18" taller then her due to the CMC-600. When shes already something like 5' 6" and the suit only adds 2 inchs

[Andion Isurand]

Medium creatures range up to 8' tall and 500 lbs.... I could give them powerful build, but then that would be hard to balance without an LA.

Perhaps the supernatural abilities it has are already pushing it anyway.

[Hanuman]

I have to agree with the templating, there seems to be an enormous amount of bloat. I'll try and help.

For ling/hydra:

Template, and has to use source material from an old 3.0 book. To think some moral people actually have to hunt down physical copies huh.

Aberration gives 60 DV, that's fine. Maybe overlords should have a bit more than 60 because they are big eyeball crabs but ground units are meant to be funneled into the meatgrinder via psionic control. Reason DV is small is because thats how encounters work underground, at 300' you would be better off saying "zerg can see in darkness as well as they can see in daylight" and skip all the measurements.

I would give zerg a burrow speed equal to their occupied squares. Medium 5', large 10' ect.

DR1 and fastheal1 is fine. Acid resist is fine, all other resists (especially "dissection?") can be taken out, or at least simply combined to one number if you're giving all resistances.

I'd say they don't breathe, and give immunity to nonlethal damage and fear. Sickness and such is whatever, devourer's disease ability and whatnot still effects. Trades detail for simplicity. All other immunities seem excessive.

Acid damage on claws are fine if they have to be there, definitely need to be on hydras.

Hydras attack is a Sting, just mod it with damage, call it a projectile ranged natural attack and if you really want consider all stings primary. Everything else is kind of unnecessary.

Damage reduction works by having something that beats it, so when something specifically counters DR it either ignores it as a whole, counts as something that could beat DR (such as a monk's fists being considered a magic weapon), or rarely it removes X points of DR on-hit. Honestly the best solution is to just deal damage as normal and let DR work like DR works.

As for swim speed, I donno, I rather them have a climb speed equal to land speed, I kind of picture a hopping ball of fish hooks being better at climbing than swimming.

Zerg Biology has a lot of references. Nope, not reading those. Die hard is good, essential even, run is good.

[Andion Isurand]

The 300 feet of Darkvision was just a standard distance I picked, I didn't want to give them unlimited Darkvision which no D&D 3.5 creature has that I know of.

The zerg's resistances help them resist their own acid, and resist the cold of space (2d6 per round, as per Nailed to the Sky). The immunity to altitude and pressure related things helps them in the vacuum of space as well (1d4 per round).

The resistance to desiccation is a resistance to spells and effects that drain moisture from the body. The lore on zerglings at least, mentioned an adaptation against drying out.

I mainly stuck to the physical biological immunities. If zerg should be immune to fear, then I would probably save that for when they are being controlled, but in actual play, Starcraft never had fear effects that I know of.

I gave all creatures some kind of natural melee weapon based on their appearance, if they were a ranged or caster unit in Starcraft, then these weapons were secondary weapons (-5 to attack, half Str to damage).

As for the defiler's plague, I think its more than a disease since it consumes mechanical units and structures the same way (reminds me a bit of D&D's green slime, which is too powerful since it deals Con damage)... but if it were a disease, I would just say that creatures with the zerg subtype cannot apply their immunity to disease against it.

If they possessed an actual Climb speed, then those cliffs in the Starcraft game would have meant nothing. So i just gave all nonflying units a +4 racial bonus to Climb checks.

As for swimming, the game never addressed it in actual play (at least the original didn't), but I think I remember a cinematic from the original game with hydralisks swimming underwater. Plus, zerglings are described as having webbed feet. But ultimately, I wanted Starcraft units to work somewhat for D&D Summoners in aquatic environments.

All the feats involving ranged attacks and grapple escape are there since in playing Starcraft, crowded units and obstacles never really got in the way of attacks , and units didn't grapple one another.

[Hanuman]

@DV
Yeah no creature has infinite DV, not that it actually matters, standard is 60-120 because of how underground encounters work, 300' if often farther than the battle grid.

@Resistance
Ah space deals lethal damage, I was thinking like mountaintop for cold nonlethal damage and just avoid it all with nonlethal immunity.

@Dessication
My bad, read as dissection. No opinion.

@Fear
Actually this could be changed by giving them mindless qualities. I mean, are they big bugs or not?

@Natural Attacks
Oh yes I actually seem to remember 3.5 being a bit disorganized with the whole natural attack thing, PF has pretty clear cut examples.

@Hydras
Oh hydras make sense, similar to summoner's serpentine body eidolon.

@Climb
Oh you're right, sc2 zerg cant climb walls, that's so weird because protoss and terran can climb walls. SST bugs also can't climb sheer metal walls as I remember, huh ok.

@Crowd
Crowded units definitely got in the way of attacks?

[Andion Isurand]

@Fear
Actually this could be changed by giving them mindless qualities. I mean, are they big bugs or not?
Well, I wanted them to be affected by mind-affecting compulsion and charm powers used by their controllers, along with the various mind-affecting communication powers. I also wanted to give them enough intelligence to understand the commands they can be given in the game. But honestly, I haven't decided how to specify what happens to them in a statistical sense when they go uncontrolled.


@Crowd
Crowded units definitely got in the way of attacks?

Maybe when it came to selecting specific units, but otherwise units always hit what they were aiming for (at least in the original).

Edit: Sure, units (and buildings) on the ground would bump into one another, and bunched flying units would drift apart, but if they were in range to make an attack on another unit, then the attack itself wasn't impeded by obstacles.

[Andion Isurand]

Update: Dark templars have been added to the list of converted Starcraft units, as substitution levels for the soulknife class.

[Andion Isurand]

Update: Versions of the protoss tempest and the zerg brood lord have been added to the list of converted Starcraft units.

[MojoBojangles]

Very nice job. Subscribed all up in here. Any thoughts on Terran units/classes?

[Andion Isurand]

I was thinking that when I make a construct with the Terran subtype, I will add one of the following as an additional subtype: Host or Vehicle.

Each of these constructs would lack an intelligence score and have 1 Charisma.
So far, "unoccupied" constructs like the marine battlesuit will have a 1 Dexterity.


Operator Dependent (Ex) Without a creature to occupy and manipulate them, Constructs with the Host subtype may not take standard or full-round actions or use weapons. In the absence of such an occupant, willing Constructs of these types will still follow the commands they receive from other authorized creatures. In addition, these constructs have no base attack bonus progression.

....from there, an occupant/driver/pilot will take actions to manipulate the construct on their initiative, and the construct will respond during that occupant's turn as if it were an extension of the occupant's body....

and there will be some base score, ability and feat sharing going on depending on whether the construct as the host or vehicle subtype

[MojoBojangles]

That makes sense. Well keep it coming then I guess.

[Andion Isurand]

Update: Versions of the terran marine and terran battlecuiser have been added to the list of converted Starcraft units.

[Andion Isurand]

Update: A version of the terran siege tank has been added to the list of converted Starcraft units.

All units and such, remain subject to periodic tweaks and changes.