RUST MONSTER

This is the second in my series of conversions of classic D&D monsters.  The Rust Monster is interesting as thematically it seems to fit well with Forbidden Lands, and it is less about inflicting damage on players but more about being a nuisance by degrading weapons and armour.

As usual I have a WIP post that can be found here - Rust Monster WIP

The Rust Monster

Towards the end of the Fourth Alder War Zygopher was becoming desperate, performing many strange and powerful experiments to get any advantage. This hideous hybrid creature was the outcome of one foul experiment, created from combining the essence of insectoids and something else that has never been fully identified.  The creature was engineered for sole purpose of sniffing out Dwarven mines and their treasures littered across the Forbidden Lands as the Dwarves retreated from Zygophers forces.  Zygopher had planned to re-purpose any metal found, or excavated, as the base material to create new weapons and armour for his forces in the war against Alderland.  Unfortunately for Zygopher the rushed experiments failed.
     Instead of just locating metals for its master, the creatures also needed to consume metal for nourishment, and did so with unrestrained enthusiasm.  Although the Order of the Rust Brothers hailed this new creation as potent symbol of their God, and named them Rust Monsters, Zygopher was furious and attempted to cull the ravenous beast before their diet caused mayhem for his troops.  This was one of the few times that the Rust Brothers actively disobeyed Zygopher, releasing these newly created creatures into the wilderness.  They continue to cause disruption to this day, often found feeding in long abandoned mines or dungeons. There are rumours that temples to the god Rust keep these creatures in wooden pens as sacred animals, the rusty chainmail worn by the Rust brothers being “blessed” (slightly touched) by the beast when ordained. Some Rust Brothers even have the creatures as pets, although keeping them contained and fed is a challenge welcomed by few.

ATTRIBUTES

STRENGTH 6, AGILITY 4

MOVEMENT: 2

ARMOR RATING: 4 (natural armor)

IRON SCENT: The Rust Monster can pinpoint, by scent, the location of ferrous metal within SHORT range of it. The Rust Monster will always target the tastiest food source within range, ignoring all others unless attacked. To determine the metal rating of each adventurer combine the Gear Bonus or Armor Rating of all metal weapons, armor or equipment.  Add to this total a value for each coin: gold adds 2, silver adds 1 and copper coins add .5, treasure adds an amount equal to its coin value halved (as treasure has value in its presentation as well as materials).

RUST METAL: Any nonmagical weapon made of metal that hits the Rust Monster corrodes. After dealing damage, the weapon permanently loses a Gear Bonus, the weapon can never be repaired to its full Gear Bonus. Ammunition made of metal that hits the Rust Monster is destroyed after dealing damage.

MONSTER ATTACKS

D6	ATTACK
1	BITE ATTACK! The Rust Monster reacts violently to defend itself from its last attacker, or the closest adventurer, taking a snapping bite with its sharp mandibles Make an attack with six Base Dice and Weapon Damage 1 (blunt force). If the attack hits, the victim must make a MOVE roll or be knocked prone.
2	ANTENNAE SWIPE! The Rust Monsters corrosive antennae stretch out, searching for the nearest source of metal to consume.  Make an attack using four Base Dice.  If the attack hits, each  ⚔️ will reduce the Gear Bonus/Armor Rating of the metallic weapon/armor/equipment by 1. This attack can be parried but the Gear Bonus or Shield Rating will be reduced by up to the original number of ⚔️ rolled, unless a non-metal weapon/shield is used.
3	TAIL BASH! The Rust Monsters large bony tail flicks out, striking the adventurer with the highest metal content within NEAR range.  Make an attack using five Base Dice and Weapon Damage 1 (blunt force). If the attack hits and the victim is wearing metal armor, the Armor Rating is reduced by the number of ⚔️ rolled. This attack can be parried but the Gear Bonus or Shield Rating will be reduced by the original number of ⚔️ rolled, unless a non-metal weapon is used.
4	RUSH THROUGH! The Rust Monster barrels into the nearest adventurer within NEAR range, searching for nourishment.  Make an attack using five Base Dice and Weapon Damage 1 (blunt force).  If the attack hits, the victim is knocked prone. If the victim has the highest metal content that the Rust Monster can detect (see Rust Scent above), they will pin their victim and attempt to feed from them next round, the victim is considered GRAPPLED. If the victim is not the tastiest snack, the Rust Monster will move on to a new victim next round.
5	DISARMING BITE! The Rust Monster attempts to grab the most succulent weapon within NEAR range, targeting the adventurer holding the weapon with the current highest Gear Bonus.  Make an attack using six Base Dice, if the attack hits the creatures mandibles grab onto the weapon reducing Gear Bonus equal to the number of ⚔️ rolled. The weapon will then be pulled from the adventurers grip by using four Base Dice.  The victim may roll MIGHT to oppose this, each ⚔️ rolled will eliminate one ⚔️ from the Rust Monster's roll, this does not cost an action.
6	FEEDING FRENZY! The Rust Monster takes advantage of the overabundance of food within reach, using both its antennae and tail to lick at all adventures within ARM'S LENGTH, tasting any and all metal armor and weapons.  Make each attack using three Base Dice. If any attack hits, each  ⚔️ will reduce the Gear Bonus/Armor Rating of the metallic weapon/armor/equipment by 1. Each attack can be parried but the Gear Bonus or Shield Rating will be reduced by up to the original number of ⚔️ rolled, unless a non-metal weapon/shield is used.

Making the Rust Monster - WIP

The Rust Monster

Over the next few days I will type up my work converting the D&D rust monster. I will start by looking at the 5E stat block, found here - 5E SRD - Rust Monster

I will again rely heavily on my conversion formulas found here as a spreadsheet - 5E to Fbl conversion guide.

STEP 1: STRENGTH - As always the first question: Is it a monster? Well, it has MONSTER! as part of its name so definitely a monster. This means we use the Rust Monsters HD to determine its Fbl Strength. Because of this we also need to look for any immunities or resistances as this will affect the conversion multiplier. No immunities so 5D8 +5 converts to 5 * 1 (as a D8 hit has a conversion multiplier of 1) + 1 (the creatures Constitution Modifier) Giving a total of 6, which is quite low for a monster but this critter has additional protection with its rust ability, so it should be fine.

STEP 2: AGILITY - Agility is pretty straight forward, take the creatures Dexterity score and plug into my conversion table. 12 converts to 4.

STEP 3: WITS AND EMPATHY - Its a monster, and its 5E Int, Wis and Cha are too low to worry about, so lets skip this.

STEP 4: SKILLS - No skills listed, so we can move on.

STEP 5: MOVEMENT - 60ft / 30 = 2, its quicker than an average human, as it should be.

STEP 6: ARMOR RATING - The Rust Monsters AC is 14, subtract 10 gives us 4. This is the point where 5E head scratching comes in, as the armor rating could be modified by the creatures Dex modifier of +1, or it might not be, depending on how the AC is calculated. As we want the Rust monster to be a bit of a threat, lets just keep the full 4.

STEP 7: TYPICAL GEAR - Rust Monsters don't generally carry items, so we can skip ahead.

STEP 8: IMMUNITIES, RESISTANCE AND VULNERABILITIES - Nothing listed for any of these, which means it will take damage from all attacks but anyone using metal weapons is in for a surprise (unless they are old school D&D players, then they should not be surprised at all).

STEP 9: SPECIAL ABILITIES - The Rust Monster has two special abilities -

• Iron Scent: The rust monster can pinpoint, by scent, the location of ferrous metal within 30 feet of it. 

This is pretty easy to translate, just change 30ft to SHORT range, this is a bit longer as its up to 25m but that should be fine. I might add a description about how it would choose a target amongst a group of adventurers.

• Rust Metal: Any nonmagical weapon made of metal that hits the rust monster corrodes. After dealing damage, the weapon takes a permanent and cumulative -1 penalty to damage rolls. If its penalty drops to -5, the weapon is destroyed. Nonmagical ammunition made of metal that hits the rust monster is destroyed after dealing damage. 

This one is a bit trickier due to how weapons work in Fbl. My instinct is to make this immediately reduce Gear Dice but there is a little bit of me (probably my left eye) that wants me to only reduce Gear Dice if a 1 is rolled when attacking. For now I will go with my initial thought. I will add that the weapon also cannot be repaired to recover this lost Gear Dice.

STEP 10: CONVERT ATTACKS - The Rust Monster has two actions listed that can be converted to attacks. I will work through this tomorrow.

• Bite: Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d8 + 1) piercing damage. 

This one is easy to convert. The range is ARM’S LENGTH because of its 5ft reach. Cross reference the creatures Strength attribute of 13 with the conversion table to find the Base Dice increase, in this case it’s 3, and add this to the +3 to hit. The creature rolls six Base Dice to bite, and as it’s damage average is less than 20 it does Weapon Damage 1 in Fbl. Although it states piercing damage, in Fbl bites are usually slash wounds. The reason for this I think is that a bite has the ability to severe limbs, but a stab would only pierce a specific hit location.

• Antennae: The rust monster corrodes a nonmagical ferrous metal object it can see within 5 feet of it. If the object isn’t being worn or carried, the touch destroys a 1-foot cube of it. If the object is being worn or carried by a creature, the creature can make a DC 11 Dexterity saving throw to avoid the rust monster’s touch. If the object touched is either metal armor or a metal shield being worn or carried, its takes a permanent and cumulative -1 penalty to the AC it offers. Armor reduced to an AC of 10 or a shield that drops to a +0 bonus is destroyed. If the object touched is a held metal weapon, it rusts as described in the Rust Metal trait

This one is slightly more complicated as it’s not written up as an attack in the 5E version. Usually for something like Poison or Disease I make the strength of it it equal to saving throw DC -10, and I think this fits to show how accurate the attack is. But rolling one dice for an attack is pretty pointless in Fbl, so I will add in the creatures adjusted Strength as well (as above). This gives a total of four Base Dice for the attack. The damage is something special that I need to think about, it probably causes 1 point of Gear Dice damage per success for whatever object it attacks, armor or weapon. I would also think this attack can be parried but that just specifically damages the weapon.

STEP 11: ATTACK DESCRIPTIONS - This is where your imagination comes in, try to make the attacks sound interesting. For the bite I think it would have mandibles, due to being insectoid. The antennae attack is going to be a frenetic rubbing type of attack.

STEP 12: NEW ATTACKS - The first thing to decide here is how many attacks should it have? Animals or small creatures can have just a couple of attacks that are described in the main stat block, large creatures always have six but my rule of thumb is that monsters with less than 8 Strength have three attacks, modelling the Stone Raven from the Bitter Reach. This is just a general guideline and depends on how creative I can be with the attacks, if I can come up with six I will use six. For the Rust Monster I had two immediate ideas.

• The Rust Monsters tail is said to also corrode but I think that does it by hitting the target, I would say it is somewhere between the bite and Antennae attacks in regards to base dice, so let’s put it at five Base Dice and Weapon Damage 1 (blunt force) due to the way it can club its target. It also looks quite long, so let’s increase the range to NEAR. It will also corrode like the antennae.

• I did think the Rust Monster would barrel through anyone not carrying metal to get to a target it could feed off, with the ability to knock the target prone as well whilst knocking them aside. Let’s call this RUSH ATTACK! until I can come up with something better, it has the same attack chance and damage as the bite but as (blunt force), the target also needs to make a MOVE roll or end up prone.

• Maybe a disarm attack versus anyone brandishing a metallic weapon, same base dice as the tail but it grabs the weapon and the victim must make a MIGHT roll or the weapon is pulled from their grip, the rust monster will then stop and devour the weapon.

• To be honest I’m now struggling a bit for the last attack, any thoughts? It could use its tail to swipe at all adventurers within NEAR range, maybe?

STEP 13: FINISHING TOUCHES - I think it is pretty much done now but I think adding something to the description to fit it in with the setting would be good, I will see what I can do.

I will post up next week.

New, old, monsters for Forbidden Lands

New, old, Monsters for Forbidden Lands

A while back I put a poll up on FB - Old School Monster Poll and also asked questions on Reddit about what classic monsters people would like to see written up for Forbidden Lands RPG.  My original intention was to start writing these up weekly, but life got int he way. But bow I have a bit more time and new enthusiasm for this project.

I think D&D has a lot of interesting, weird and dangerous monsters to pit against adventuring parties.  Forbidden Lands has a good crop of monsters but has a finite list of monsters for the GM to fall back on. I am not aiming to recreate all of the Classic Monster Manual entries, but provide a good crop of monsters, creatures and critters to surprise your players.

Here is the art from the original AD&D Monster Manual -

Here are the monsters currently on my list, I will update this as I post up my versions.  If you would like to add to the votes, or suggest other monsters you would like to see then please drop me a comment below.

MONSTER

GOLEM converted to Fbl (37 votes)
RUST MONSTER converted to Fbl (20 votes)
GIANT SPIDER converted to Fbl (20 votes)
MIMIC converted to Fbl (18 votes)
GELATINOUS CUBE converted to Fbl (17 votes)
BULETTE/LANDSHARK (4 votes)
OTYUGH (4 votes)
OWLBEAR (2 votes)
ACTAEON (2 votes)
VAMPIRES (2 votes)
BEHOLDER (1 vote, from Reddit)
MIND FLAYER (1 vote from Reddit)
SHAMBLING MOUND (1 vote from Reddit)

There has been other work on creating and adapting monsters to Forbidden Lands.  This excellent Monster File by SpandexAndy on the forbidden Lands Forums has guidance for creating monsters and has a lot of creatures to just drop into your game.  The file can be found here - Monster File.  If you have your own monsters you would like me to feature drop me a message.

CONVERSION GUIDELINES

A while back I worked up some conversion guidelines for converting 5E Monsters to Forbidden Lands, I will be using this as I work through the conversions.  Here is the file - 5E to Forbidden Lands Conversion Guidelines - I will work this up as a post over the coming weeks.

And here is a quick converter (also created by SpandexAndy), using my conversion guidelines.  I might work this up to cover monster attacks as well but that will take some working out. - To use it you will need to save a local copy - 5E to Fbl Conversion Spreadsheet.

QUICK AND DIRTY MONSTERS

For quick and dirty monsters I created this random monster generator - fl-monster-generator. It uses the monster creation rules in the Legends and Adventurers pamphlet with a few additional attacks to make it more varied.