Would it be possible to get a sub-forum here for posting and critiquing homebrew spells, creatures, races, rules options, etc?
I'll start things off with two things I'm working on at the moment (for a conversion of the Lost Mine of Phandelver adventure in the D&D 5e starter kit) - a Hold Person spell, and a Flameskull.
Somebody's probably already done a Hold Person spell before, but I can't find one in either HARP or CoM or Codex. The closest I've found is Force Bands from Codex, but it doesn't have the same "flavour" as H.P.
Anyway, here's my take on Hold Person & the Flameskull as built with HARP 2004 rules. Constructive comments and criticism are welcome, as are adjustments to suit the current revisions of HARP.
NAME: Paralyse (Hold Person)
PP COST: 6 PP
RANGE: 50’
DURATION: –
SPELL TYPE: Attack
RR: Will
SPHERES: Mage, Necromancer, Cleric
ACTION ASPECTS: Harm (5), Stop (2x5=10), Control (2x20=40) = 55
OBJECT ASPECTS: Body (5)
ATTRIBUTES: Range: 50’ (30), Duration: - (5), AoE: 1 target (10) = 45
DESCRIPTION: When cast, this spell causes the target to be paralysed and unable to perform any action requiring any conscious movement if they fail a Will RR. This does not affect autonomic functions such as breathing or heart-beat.
The target will be paralysed for 1 round for every 10 points of RR failure or part thereof. i.e. fail by 1-9 = 1 round, by 10-19 = 2 rounds, etc.
The target may attempt another resistance roll after every round to throw off the Paralysis. Each subsequent round is at a cumulative -20. Failure of these additional rolls does not increase the duration.
If either of the
Increase Duration scaling options are used, the frequency of these extra RRs is reduced to once every two or three rounds respectively.
NOTE: The target’s mind is still active and consciously aware of their surroundings, but they can’t move their body or even blink their eyes. They can perform any action that does NOT require movement - e.g. spells that target themselves (such as
Dispel Magic or
Long Door) or which can be targeted by gaze alone, subject to the usual penalty (-50 each) for being unable to use one or more of their Focus Styles.
SCALING OPTIONS:| Increase Targets (per extra target) | +4 PP |
| Increase Range (per 50’) | +1 PP |
| Increase Duration (to 2 rounds/10 failure) | +4 PP |
| Increase Duration (to 3 rounds/10 failure) | +8 PP |
And here's my version of a Flameskull, a nasty guardian in the final dungeon of the adventure, guarding one of the key locations:
Level: 5
Size: Tiny
BMR: 20' (Flying)
Stats: St: 75 (5); Co: 75 (5); Ag: 75 (5); Qu: 75 (5); SD: 75 (15); Re: 75 (20); In: 75 (5); Pr: 75 (5)
Hits: 125
PP: 130
Initiative: +10
RR: Stamina RR: 45; Will RR: 65; Magic RR: 45
Special abilities: Flight; Darkvision (Greater); Undead Abilities: See Below
Defensive Bonus: 35 (10 stats; 25 Survival Instinct)
Attacks: 100 S-Fire Bolt (+ Co Drain)
Important Skills: Tracking (9) 65, Flying (9) 105, Aerial Combat (9) 105, Stalk & Hide (9) 65, Ambush (9) 65, Perception (9) 65
Treasure: P2 N N3
Culture: --
# Encountered: 1
Outlook: Cruel/Prot.
Lifestyle: Undead
Flameskulls are undead guardians created by necromancers from the skulls of wizards. They are usually set to guard locations of importance to the necromancer. They're surrounded by a constant Elemental Aura (Fire) of green-coloured flames, as per the spell.
This is loosely based on the stats for a 5th-level Lesser Specter (Type II Undead) from MAFG:16, but its "melee" attack has been replaced with a +100 Small Fire Bolt instead of a Small Slash (Range 25'). This Fire Bolt attack also inflicts the Flameskull's Constitution Drain effect: Stamina RR(90) or lose 2d20 Constitution. Each use of this attack costs it 6 PP.
The Flameskull has 18 Ranks of PP Dev (66 + Re 20 + SD 15 + 30 racial = 130 PP) that it can use to cast Arcane Bolt, Fire Cloud (as Stun Cloud but crits are Fire), and Fire Ball. It knows all of these spells to 10 Ranks (OB = 50+20+15 = +85)
Unlike an actual Specter, the Flame Skull is
NOT Incorporeal. Its Undead Abilities are:
- Flight
- Darkvision (Greater)
- Constitution Drain
- Survival Instinct
- Regeneration (Minor): Blessed, Cold, Water, Silver
- Vulnerability: Fetter (Place or Thing)
- Immunity to Fire
- Constant Elemental Aura (Fire), 1' Radius
- Elemental Bolt (Fire) + Constitution Drain attack. Size: Small. costs 6 PP per use.
A Flame Skull gains the following Stat Bonuses:
- Self-Discipline +10
- Reasoning +15
my own comments:
The Flameskull doesn't generally make any physical attacks - the Aerial Combat skill is only there in case it seems like a good idea to ram someone and burn them with its Elemental Aura. And the Arcane Bolt is there because the D&D version has Magic Missile...and also to give me something else to do with it that doesn't involve draining a PC's constitution every round.
The DB is a bit low. I'm tempted to give it Tough Hide (Major) for its bony skull, or an extra +5 or +10 Qu bonus but it already has a lot of abilities for a 5th level monster.
BTW, I initially gave this the same In and Pr bonuses as the Specter, but Qu +5 and In +20 gave it an Initiative bonus of +25. I want my players to have some chance against this thing, not a 1-round TPK (in LMOP this is accompanied by 8 zombies...I'll probably reduce that to 4). I figured this beastie is an undead fire-mage skull so doesn't need huge Pr or In bonuses.
The M:AFG Specter has +32 Init, including Lightning Reflexes from being a Fighter . It's not all that unusual for a PC to have +20 or even +25 Init but +32 is almost unbeatable.
I tend to base my creatures on Rogue rather than Fighter, mostly for the favoured Outdoor & Subterfuge categories. Also, I don't want
everything having Lightning Reflexes...I can add it or Shield Training or other talents as needed.
BTW, a useful tip for anyone converting old modules: Have a text editor open while reading through the module and for each encounter location or room, note down the location
name and
number and a very brief note of any monsters, NPCs, traps, magic items, etc. Doing this results in a list of things that need to be converted. Quick & Dirty are the key words here - the aim is not to duplicate the entire module, but to create a set of notes that can be used with it while running the adventure. I tend to do something like this with published adventures anyway, just to help me understand how it all fits together.
For creatures with rough HARP equivalents, just use the HARP version - e.g. for Doppelganges, the MAFG Shape Thief is a good substitute. Sometimes the creatures need to be weakened a bit, or foe numbers reduced.
NPCs fall into one of two categories: generic mooks and named NPCs. Use generic stats for the mooks, and create an NPC character sheet for the named ones. That'll cover most of the creatures, leaving only a handful of D&D-specific monsters to convert. Sometimes I also need to write HARP versions of D&D spells that don't exist yet in HARP (like Hold Person, or Legend Lore)
I use a pseudo-markdown format when taking notes, like:
### 8. KLARG'S CAVE
* Klarg, a Bugbear, the goblin's leader.
* Ripper, pet Wolf
* 2 Goblins
This "Klarg" probably won't need a full NPC sheet. Just a short note saying how he differs from a "standard" mook bugbear - higher level, more hits, more OB, etc. On the other hand, for a major foe like Venomfang the young green dragon, I use the LO spreadsheet to make a full NPC sheet.
When I've finished the conversion, I edit the pseudo-markdown text into Latex, with both a location-by-location creature list AND a big table at the end with summarised stats, and generate a 2-column PDF from it. Then I print it so I can have both the original module and my conversion notes at the table.
