Help me converting two Horrors from 1st ED to 4th ED

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Indragnir
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Joined:Sun Sep 03, 2017 10:57 am
Help me converting two Horrors from 1st ED to 4th ED

Post by Indragnir » Sat Jul 20, 2019 7:07 am

Hi,
I'm heading my players to Parlainth. I want to GM Parlainth Adventures so I want to convert old horrors from 1st ED to the wonderful 4th ED. I'm not sure what and how to change to I ask your ideas. Here they are:
Note: if posting those stats is against the rules I will delete them.
Edit: Forgot to add intended Challenge and background description

Horror number 1 Challenge 3-4 circle. 3 to 5 PC
The Horror is a large, melon-shaped creature the color of spoiled cream. Its body is covered with open wounds and sores, which the Horror has inflicted on itself so that any who attack it risk coming into contact with its dangerous blood. The Horror has many eyes and several mouths placed at random around its body; it can see in all directions and can speak through any one of its bleeding maws, though the blood that bubbles and froths on its lips makes the horror's words a bit hard to understand. The Horror uses its four powerful arms to propel itself. Each arm ends in a large spike, which the Horror uses both to move and to attack. Before making a spike attack, the Horror coats the spikes in its own blood. If a bloodied spike hits a character, the Horror can use its Soul Trap power to engulf the victim's mind (see Soul Trap below). In addition, the horror can use a few Wizard spells.
The horror nesting in Parlainth was trapped within that city for the duration of Parlainth's retreat from the world. Ever since Parlainth's magical return to Barsaive, the horror has been slowly creeping closer to Haven, anticipating a glorious feast on the great number of minds ripe for the harvesting that it senses in the town. It has fed-on many adventurers in the past ten years or so, but it constantly desires more minds to toy with and destroy.
The Horror lastest ploy has been to Horror-mark and torture any adventurer unfortunate enough to stumble on the Horror's lair.

DEX: 4 STR: 14 TOU: 18 PER: 15 WIL: 20 CHA: 12
Initiative: 6 Number of Attacks: 4 Attack: 10 Damage: 16 Number of Spells: 3 Spellcasting: 18
Physical Defense: 13 Mystic Defense: 10 Social Defense: 12 Physical Armor: 12 Mystic Armor: 7
Death Rating: 72 Unconsciousness Rating: 65 Wound Threshold: 15 Knockdown: 28 Recovery: 6
Combat Movement: 25 Full Movement: 50
Karma Points: 19 Karma Step: 16
Powers:
Corrupt Karma, Damage Shift 20, Horror Mark 15 Soul Trap 18
Spells:
Blood Boil
Crushing Will
Razor Orb
Seeking Sight
Thorny Retreat
Vines
Legend Points: 4,725

Soul Trap
In order for the Horror to use this power, the Horror's victim must first come into contact with a spoon-sized drop or larger of the Horror's blood. Once the blood touches the victim, the Horror makes a Spellcasting Test against the target character's Spell Defense. If the Spellcasting Test is successful, the Horror may trap the victim's spiritual and intellectual essence within its own mind. When this occurs, the victim's body falls into a coma and the Horror can begin feeding off the trapped mind in its grasp. The Horror feeds by sending various mind-creatures from the victim's past, usually from his or her childhood, to attack the victim. These mental phantoms do no actual physical damage to the victim, but can cause his physical self to die by shattering his mind. As extensions of the Horror's mind, the mind-creatures have the same attack abilities as the Horror's physical form.
All damage done to a victim in the Horror's mind disappears if the Horror is killed before the victim's soul dies. If the victim receives enough mental damage to kill him, however, his inmost self dies of terror. On occasion the bodies live on for up to a month, but the victim remains catatonic even if the Horror is killed before the victim's body dies. The essence of the victim's mind is ripped into pieces and no known methods of healing can cure such wounds.

Horror number 2 Challenge 5 circle, 3 to 5 PC
The Horror was captured by the mages of Parlainth and used in an experiment they believed would give them at least some of the knowledge they needed to effectively battle the Horrors threatening their city. Unfortunately, the experiment's failure weakened the bonds that held the Horror captive. To prevent the captured Horror from escaping into Parlainth, the wizards created a spell to merge one of their number -a wizard named Malgim Mortaka-with the Horror. They believed that if the merging wizard had sufficient magical protection, he could prevent the Horror's entrance into the world and perhaps even overcome and destroy it. Unfortunately, the Horror took over the wizard. The two of them remained locked in a dreaming
combat for hundreds of years until the Horror finally won. It then awakened and began to take control of the people of Haven. The mage has remained within the Horror, tortured by the creature.

DEX: 15 STR: 14 TOU: 16 PER: 17 WIL 18 CHA: 20
Initiative: 18 Number of Attacks: (3) Attack: 18 Damage: 12 Number of Spells: 2 Spellcasting: 20
Physical Defense: 15 Mystic Defense: 18 Social Defense: 15 Physical Armor: 20 Mystic Armor: 20
Death Rating: 100 Unconsciousness Rating: NA Wound Threshold: 20 Knockdown: 35 Recovery: 5
Combat Movement: None Full Movement: None
Karma Points: 30 Karma Step: 12
Powers:
Horror Mark 12
Thought Worm 18 (see below)
Unnatural Life 15
Spells: Circle 8 wizard spells
Legend Points: 20,730

Special: If anyone calls out the wizard's full name, can distract the Horror for 3 rounds by disrupting the Horror's ability to use its spells or powers. This little breathing space may be enough to give the characters a decisive edge.

Thought Worm: Unlike most Horrors, this horror possesses a unique Thought Worm power. It need not see a target to infect it with a Thought Worm. Thought Worms from this horror appear in the form of semi-sentient, magical threads with a Full Movement of 40. The threads seek out and attach themselves to targets. Once this happens, this Horror makes a Spellcasting Test as for a standard Thought Worm. If the test is successful, the target is infected by the Thought Worm. All standard Thought Worm abilities apply as well. This Horror can create and send up to 5 of these Thought Worm threads per day

Bonhumm
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Re: Help me converting two Horrors from 1st ED to 4th ED

Post by Bonhumm » Sat Jul 20, 2019 12:17 pm

Looking at it quickly I don't see much to convert.

I'd use those stats as is with just 2 modifications:

1- Reducing the movement rate: since movement was drastically reduced in 4th edition, if you keep the same movement rate for any 1st/2nd edition creatures then they are gonna run circles around your PC.

2- (Possibly) also reduce the amount of karma since those were also drastically reduced in 4th edition.

Other than that, everything seems ok. If any spell or power does not exist in the 4th edition book, I'd take a look to see if they do in 3rd. Otherwise, just use them as described in first edition; pretty much the only difference would be missing results for extra successes and/or threads.

Indragnir
Posts:25
Joined:Sun Sep 03, 2017 10:57 am

Re: Help me converting two Horrors from 1st ED to 4th ED

Post by Indragnir » Mon Jul 22, 2019 3:47 pm

Stats related first Horror is way too strong for circle 3 or 4 PCs. Armor is much more important than previous editions. 4 attacks are too many and Karma Step 16 is attrocius. Seeking Sight have no use for this Horror since it doesn't have any ranged attack. Damage Shift 20 for this challange is too much.
Both Horrors lacking Harvest Energy.

I'm not even going into Horror number 2 (circle 5 challenge) but for Thought Worm no longer exists.

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