dreast
2020-07-25, 12:25 PM
I'm about to start a Planescape campaign (Great Modron March/Dead Gods is the framework) in D&D 5e. AD&D 2e to 5e conversions are always a blast, so I figured I'd discuss that process a little bit here to help others who might want to follow in my footsteps. I've already found acceptable Modron Hierarch stat blocks online (https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/B1Mv02NQb) (best viewed in Chrome), and a little experimentation with using them for the "modron of the DM's choice" when a high-level wild sorcerer surges has led to a great deal of fun, so I'm good on the stat blocks of every creature that appears in the Great Modron March (substituting appropriate NPC classes where appropriate, like Volo's Arcane Trickster for Jezrene in the first adventure, etc). This framework lacks a few good bossy Adversaries, however, so I figured I'd borrow a staple from those glorious days of Planescape's heyday, Rowan Darkwood, and give him the full 5e conversion treatment (I'm not sure the players will ever get to fight him, but this is fun!). His fate is intertwined with *cough* the mysteeeeeeerious Tenebrous *cough* so it works out. (If you happen to know who Tenebrous is, you know we already have HIS stats.)
I'll be ignoring the Pathfinder version I found online, simply because it's easier to convert AD&D 2e to 5e than it is 3e/Pathfinder to 5e.
In AD&D 2e, Rowan Darkwood was a Ranger 19/Cleric 20 follower of Heimdall. Note that this is NOT the equivalent of a 39th level character in AD&D 2e, as XP needed to gain a level reset when a human character "dual-classed," so he'd be closer to a level 29 character in 5e terms, and later levels didn't contribute as much as earlier levels in AD&D 2e, so it probably scales closer to a CR 22 or 23 target. Really, anything between 20 and 25 would be acceptable. Since he was an NPC with class levels, my favorite method of creating an NPC of this type is to basically recreate it as a character and then file off all the extra cruft until a solid, easy-and-fun stat block emerges.
So, if I were building a 20th level Ranger/Cleric, how would I do it? Heimdall's domains are War and Light, according to the PHB, and there's no question but that War works best for a ranger multiclass. The subtype is just crying out to multiclass with something with Extra Attack. The best fighting style to go with War domain is actually probably Archery, but Rowan Darkwood was famously equipped with a giant's bane bastard sword (and melee big bads are always more satisfying for players than ranged big bads), so we'll keep that. We normally don't actually need to pick a fighting style for NPC's (as we'll be tweaking his stat block later), but it does help us establish a theme. However, because Fog Cloud is such a universal blocker of vision, and to reflect his time in the Nine Hells, we'll give Rowan the Blind Fighting fighting style (as seen in the Unearthed Arcana class options), and reflect that in his stat block.
Statwise, since he's using a big sword, we'd expect Darkwood's Strength and Wisdom to be his major stats, Constitution to be secondary, with at least 13 Dexterity to allow the multiclass. In addition, he is an intelligent and charismatic leader, so at least 14 in both Intelligence and Charisma to reflect this. He started out as a ranger, so he's proficient in Strength and Dexterity saving throws.
What does the War domain bring? A few martial uses of channel divinity, an extra attack as a bonus action once in a while, proficiency in heavy armor (yay!), and some bonus damage on attacks once a round. A 5th ranger/15th cleric wouldn't have access to Avatar of Battle, but the richest faction leader would never be short of materials for stoneskin, which is a domain spell and does the same thing essentially. Since he'd get 3 attacks a round for most of a standard combat, we'll just give him multiattack for three attacks (his BFS or with a bow), and we'll give him an extra two dice of damage from divine strike on all his attacks (this also covers Colossus Slayer, since as a giant-fighting ranger that's what he'd have taken as his ranger ability). That's his action block filled out!
Jumping back to skills, we'd expect him as a ranger to have proficiency in Perception and Survival (the first being the uber-stat of 5e, and nice to avoid getting ambushed), as well as History, Persuasion, and Deception (as the Fated faction leader and a former noble), and Religion (because a) this is Planescape and b) he's a cleric). We'll throw in Athletics just in case the players want to grapple, and call that good. We could, if we wanted, give him expertise in Perception and Athletics just to make him a bit more of a beast (these being the most relevant battle stats)... so we will! (This replaces all the exploration cruft rangers get.)
For spellcasting, he's a 17th level caster in terms of spell slots, but can only cast up to 8th level cleric spells and 2nd level ranger spells. Stat blocks with "empty" spells in them are annoying to work with in a stat block, however, so we'll just say he casts as a 17th level caster and let him cherry-pick from the Ranger and Cleric spell lists. Always strive for simplicity. In addition, I'm limiting his spells per level so he never has more than he has slots; this will greatly simplify running a high-level spellcaster for the DM. Because he gets so much out of his actions when attacking, his spell list will mostly be field control, out-of-combat utility, and counter-magic, and no planar travel or conjuration (as this DOES NOT WORK in Sigil). If he's out of Sigil, he'll reprepare spells to include Banishment and Plane Shift, at a minimum, and probably Conjure Celestial.
Rowan Darkwood's alignment is Chaotic Good. He always thinks what he's doing is for the greater good, but that greater good tends to upset the applecart (and happens to often leave him on top), and people rarely agree with him. He's also a Randian objectivist, like all Fated, so the players will probably hate him, but some may love him!
Equipment-wise, Rowan famously has splint mail +3, his +2 giant's bane bastard sword (longsword in 5e), and a "+5 ring of protection". To make the stat block simpler (and because of changes in 5e magic items) we'll remove the ring; his other equipment is unchanged.
Finally, being one of the Big Bads (Big Goods?) of the setting, we'd expect Darkwood to have legendary actions and resistances. Also, since his XP level would correlate to something like level 29 in the original AD&D, we'll give him 29 hit dice in this one and see what it does.
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Rowan Darkwood
Medium huanoid (human), chaotic good
Armor Class: 20 (splint mail+3)
Hit Points: 247 (29d8 + 116)
Speed: 30 ft.
Str 20 (+5) Dex 13 (+1) Con 18 (+4) Int 14 (+2) Wis 20 (+5) Cha 14 (+2)
Saving Throws: Str +11, Dex +7
Skills: Athletics +17, Deception +8, History +8, Perception +17, Persuasion +8, Religion +11, Survival +11
Senses: passive perception 27
Languages: Common, Celestial
Challenge: 21 (33,000)
Blind Fighting: Being unable to see a creature doesn't impose disadvantage on Rowan Darkwood's attack rolls against it, provided the creature isn't hidden from him.
Legendary Resistance (3/day): If Rowan Darkwood fails a saving throw, he can choose to succeed instead.
Slayer: Rowan Darkwood does an extra two dice of damage with every weapon attack (included in the attacks).
Spellcasting: Rowan Darkwood is a 17th-level spellcaster. His spellcasting ability is Wisdom (spell DC 19, +11 to hit with spell attacks). Darkwood has the following spells prepared:
Cantrips (at will): Guidance, Light, Mending, Resistance, Spare the Dying
1st level (4 slots): Cure Wounds, Fog Cloud, Hunter's Mark, Shield of Faith
2nd level (3 slots): Darkness, Protection from Poison, Spiritual Weapon
3rd level (3 slots): Dispel Magic, Remove Curse, Spirit Guardian
4th level (3 slots): Freedom of Movement, Death Ward, Stoneskin
5th level (2 slots): Greater Restoration, Hold Monster
6th level (1 slot): True Seeing
7th level (1 slot): Symbol
8th level (1 slot): Holy Aura
9th level (1 slot): True Resurrection
Equipment: Rowan Darkwood's longsword is a +2 longsword with a special giant's bane ability (included in the attacks). His longsword attacks are magical.
Actions:
Multiattack: Rowan Darkwood makes three longsword or longbow attacks.
Longsword: Melee Weapon Attack: +13 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 20 (3d8+7) slashing damage, or 23 (3d10+7) slashing damage when used with both hands. When this weapon hits a giant, the giant must make a DC 17 Constitution saving throw or die.
Longbow: Ranged Weapon Attack: +11 to hit, range 120/360 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (3d8 + 1) piercing damage.
Legendary Actions:
Rowan Darkwood can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from the options below. Only one legendary action option can be used at a time and only at the end of another creature's turn. Rowan regains spent legendary actions at the start of his turn.
Land's Stride: Rowan Darkwood can move up to his movement speed. This movement does not provoke attacks of opportunity.
Attack: Rowan Darkwood makes a longsword or longbow attack.
Spellcasting (Costs 2 Actions): Rowan Darkwood casts a spell of 5th level or lower with a casting time of 1 action.
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CR calculations: Assuming a pre-cast spiritual weapon (at 4th level, for 2d8 +5 damage, which is the highest damage he can get with a spell slot he has multiples of) and a first-turn hunter's mark application (for the sake of simplicity of the CR calculations) gives us a per-round damage of 161 at an attack bonus of +13, which results in an offensive CR of 23 and a defensive CR of 18 (thanks to legendary resistance). CR 21 is right on the money for where we'd want the Duke to sit. CR calculations fail to take into account the many tactical implications of spellcasting, but for the most part the Duke won't need them anyway; savvy DMs, however, might want his first legendary action to be a casting of Fog Cloud, so that his blind-fighting can enhance his brutal physical damage. In any case, an example of how a memorable AD&D 2e character can be "projected" to the 5e dimensions, and get something resembling the original that your party can break some teeth on.
Hope you enjoyed my thought processes, and please post any conversions you may do: there's always someone looking for it!
I'll be ignoring the Pathfinder version I found online, simply because it's easier to convert AD&D 2e to 5e than it is 3e/Pathfinder to 5e.
In AD&D 2e, Rowan Darkwood was a Ranger 19/Cleric 20 follower of Heimdall. Note that this is NOT the equivalent of a 39th level character in AD&D 2e, as XP needed to gain a level reset when a human character "dual-classed," so he'd be closer to a level 29 character in 5e terms, and later levels didn't contribute as much as earlier levels in AD&D 2e, so it probably scales closer to a CR 22 or 23 target. Really, anything between 20 and 25 would be acceptable. Since he was an NPC with class levels, my favorite method of creating an NPC of this type is to basically recreate it as a character and then file off all the extra cruft until a solid, easy-and-fun stat block emerges.
So, if I were building a 20th level Ranger/Cleric, how would I do it? Heimdall's domains are War and Light, according to the PHB, and there's no question but that War works best for a ranger multiclass. The subtype is just crying out to multiclass with something with Extra Attack. The best fighting style to go with War domain is actually probably Archery, but Rowan Darkwood was famously equipped with a giant's bane bastard sword (and melee big bads are always more satisfying for players than ranged big bads), so we'll keep that. We normally don't actually need to pick a fighting style for NPC's (as we'll be tweaking his stat block later), but it does help us establish a theme. However, because Fog Cloud is such a universal blocker of vision, and to reflect his time in the Nine Hells, we'll give Rowan the Blind Fighting fighting style (as seen in the Unearthed Arcana class options), and reflect that in his stat block.
Statwise, since he's using a big sword, we'd expect Darkwood's Strength and Wisdom to be his major stats, Constitution to be secondary, with at least 13 Dexterity to allow the multiclass. In addition, he is an intelligent and charismatic leader, so at least 14 in both Intelligence and Charisma to reflect this. He started out as a ranger, so he's proficient in Strength and Dexterity saving throws.
What does the War domain bring? A few martial uses of channel divinity, an extra attack as a bonus action once in a while, proficiency in heavy armor (yay!), and some bonus damage on attacks once a round. A 5th ranger/15th cleric wouldn't have access to Avatar of Battle, but the richest faction leader would never be short of materials for stoneskin, which is a domain spell and does the same thing essentially. Since he'd get 3 attacks a round for most of a standard combat, we'll just give him multiattack for three attacks (his BFS or with a bow), and we'll give him an extra two dice of damage from divine strike on all his attacks (this also covers Colossus Slayer, since as a giant-fighting ranger that's what he'd have taken as his ranger ability). That's his action block filled out!
Jumping back to skills, we'd expect him as a ranger to have proficiency in Perception and Survival (the first being the uber-stat of 5e, and nice to avoid getting ambushed), as well as History, Persuasion, and Deception (as the Fated faction leader and a former noble), and Religion (because a) this is Planescape and b) he's a cleric). We'll throw in Athletics just in case the players want to grapple, and call that good. We could, if we wanted, give him expertise in Perception and Athletics just to make him a bit more of a beast (these being the most relevant battle stats)... so we will! (This replaces all the exploration cruft rangers get.)
For spellcasting, he's a 17th level caster in terms of spell slots, but can only cast up to 8th level cleric spells and 2nd level ranger spells. Stat blocks with "empty" spells in them are annoying to work with in a stat block, however, so we'll just say he casts as a 17th level caster and let him cherry-pick from the Ranger and Cleric spell lists. Always strive for simplicity. In addition, I'm limiting his spells per level so he never has more than he has slots; this will greatly simplify running a high-level spellcaster for the DM. Because he gets so much out of his actions when attacking, his spell list will mostly be field control, out-of-combat utility, and counter-magic, and no planar travel or conjuration (as this DOES NOT WORK in Sigil). If he's out of Sigil, he'll reprepare spells to include Banishment and Plane Shift, at a minimum, and probably Conjure Celestial.
Rowan Darkwood's alignment is Chaotic Good. He always thinks what he's doing is for the greater good, but that greater good tends to upset the applecart (and happens to often leave him on top), and people rarely agree with him. He's also a Randian objectivist, like all Fated, so the players will probably hate him, but some may love him!
Equipment-wise, Rowan famously has splint mail +3, his +2 giant's bane bastard sword (longsword in 5e), and a "+5 ring of protection". To make the stat block simpler (and because of changes in 5e magic items) we'll remove the ring; his other equipment is unchanged.
Finally, being one of the Big Bads (Big Goods?) of the setting, we'd expect Darkwood to have legendary actions and resistances. Also, since his XP level would correlate to something like level 29 in the original AD&D, we'll give him 29 hit dice in this one and see what it does.
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Rowan Darkwood
Medium huanoid (human), chaotic good
Armor Class: 20 (splint mail+3)
Hit Points: 247 (29d8 + 116)
Speed: 30 ft.
Str 20 (+5) Dex 13 (+1) Con 18 (+4) Int 14 (+2) Wis 20 (+5) Cha 14 (+2)
Saving Throws: Str +11, Dex +7
Skills: Athletics +17, Deception +8, History +8, Perception +17, Persuasion +8, Religion +11, Survival +11
Senses: passive perception 27
Languages: Common, Celestial
Challenge: 21 (33,000)
Blind Fighting: Being unable to see a creature doesn't impose disadvantage on Rowan Darkwood's attack rolls against it, provided the creature isn't hidden from him.
Legendary Resistance (3/day): If Rowan Darkwood fails a saving throw, he can choose to succeed instead.
Slayer: Rowan Darkwood does an extra two dice of damage with every weapon attack (included in the attacks).
Spellcasting: Rowan Darkwood is a 17th-level spellcaster. His spellcasting ability is Wisdom (spell DC 19, +11 to hit with spell attacks). Darkwood has the following spells prepared:
Cantrips (at will): Guidance, Light, Mending, Resistance, Spare the Dying
1st level (4 slots): Cure Wounds, Fog Cloud, Hunter's Mark, Shield of Faith
2nd level (3 slots): Darkness, Protection from Poison, Spiritual Weapon
3rd level (3 slots): Dispel Magic, Remove Curse, Spirit Guardian
4th level (3 slots): Freedom of Movement, Death Ward, Stoneskin
5th level (2 slots): Greater Restoration, Hold Monster
6th level (1 slot): True Seeing
7th level (1 slot): Symbol
8th level (1 slot): Holy Aura
9th level (1 slot): True Resurrection
Equipment: Rowan Darkwood's longsword is a +2 longsword with a special giant's bane ability (included in the attacks). His longsword attacks are magical.
Actions:
Multiattack: Rowan Darkwood makes three longsword or longbow attacks.
Longsword: Melee Weapon Attack: +13 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 20 (3d8+7) slashing damage, or 23 (3d10+7) slashing damage when used with both hands. When this weapon hits a giant, the giant must make a DC 17 Constitution saving throw or die.
Longbow: Ranged Weapon Attack: +11 to hit, range 120/360 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (3d8 + 1) piercing damage.
Legendary Actions:
Rowan Darkwood can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from the options below. Only one legendary action option can be used at a time and only at the end of another creature's turn. Rowan regains spent legendary actions at the start of his turn.
Land's Stride: Rowan Darkwood can move up to his movement speed. This movement does not provoke attacks of opportunity.
Attack: Rowan Darkwood makes a longsword or longbow attack.
Spellcasting (Costs 2 Actions): Rowan Darkwood casts a spell of 5th level or lower with a casting time of 1 action.
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CR calculations: Assuming a pre-cast spiritual weapon (at 4th level, for 2d8 +5 damage, which is the highest damage he can get with a spell slot he has multiples of) and a first-turn hunter's mark application (for the sake of simplicity of the CR calculations) gives us a per-round damage of 161 at an attack bonus of +13, which results in an offensive CR of 23 and a defensive CR of 18 (thanks to legendary resistance). CR 21 is right on the money for where we'd want the Duke to sit. CR calculations fail to take into account the many tactical implications of spellcasting, but for the most part the Duke won't need them anyway; savvy DMs, however, might want his first legendary action to be a casting of Fog Cloud, so that his blind-fighting can enhance his brutal physical damage. In any case, an example of how a memorable AD&D 2e character can be "projected" to the 5e dimensions, and get something resembling the original that your party can break some teeth on.
Hope you enjoyed my thought processes, and please post any conversions you may do: there's always someone looking for it!