An Orcish Conversion

Here’s the stat block for a standard 3.5 orc:

Orc, 1st–level warrior: CR 1/2; LA +0; Medium humanoid; HD 1d8+1; hp 5; Init +0; Spd 30 ft.; AC 13 (+3 armor), touch 10, flat-footed 13; Base Atk +1; Grp +4; Atk Falchion +4 melee (2d4+4/18–20) or javelin +1 ranged (1d6+3); Full Atk (same); Space/Reach 5 ft./5 ft.; SA —; SQ darkvision 60 ft., light sensitivity; AL CE; SV Fort +3, Ref +0, Will –2; Str 17, Dex 11, Con 12, Int 8, Wis 7, Cha 6.
Languages: The language an orc speaks varies slightly from tribe to tribe, but any orc is understandable by someone else who speaks Orc. Some orcs know Goblin or Giant as well.
Skills and Feats: Listen +1, Spot +1; Alertness.
Possessions: Falchion, studded leather, javelin.

When converting our orc to Fencing & Firearms, these are the areas that need to be addressed:

* AC: Armor works differently in F&F. It has a lower armor bonus, but converts lethal to nonlethal damage. Also, BAB adds to AC.
* Grp: F&F uses a combat maneuver system. The orc gets two new stats as a result.
* Atk: The attack bonus is changed to a DC.
* Fort, Ref, Will: These are changed to DCs.

Here’s the adjusted orc (the changes are in bold):

Orc, 1st–level warrior: CR 1/2; LA +0; Medium humanoid; HD 1d8+1; hp 5; Init +0; Spd 30 ft.; AC 13 (+1 BAB, +2 armor), touch 11, flat-footed 12; L2N 3 points; Base Atk +1; CMS 15, CMAC 14; Atk Falchion 15 melee (2d4+4/18–20) or javelin 11 ranged (1d6+3); Full Atk (same); Space/Reach 5 ft./5 ft.; SA —; SQ darkvision 60 ft., light sensitivity; AL CE; SV Fort 14, Ref 11, Will 9; Str 17, Dex 11, Con 12, Int 8, Wis 7, Cha 6.
Languages: The language an orc speaks varies slightly from tribe to tribe, but any orc is understandable by someone else who speaks Orc. Some orcs know Goblin or Giant as well.
Skills and Feats: Listen +1, Spot +1; Alertness.
Possessions: Falchion, studded leather, javelin.

Let’s examine these changes:

* AC: The orc’s BAB is added. This counts as a dodge bonus. In F&F, studded leather provides a +2 armor bonus.
* L2N: Studded leather also converts 3 points of lethal damage to nonlethal damage. This might seem like extra bookkeeping for the DM, but it isn’t. When running F&F fights, I don’t track nonlethal damage for most foes. Instead, I adjudicate on-the-fly whether the foe is dead, dying, or just unconscious once its hit points are gone.
* CMS: This is the orc’s combat maneuver score. If the orc attempts a combat maneuver against a PC (such as a bull rush), the orc’s CMS is the DC the player must equal or beat using his PC’s combat maneuver defense bonus to resist the maneuver.
* CMAC: This is the orc’s combat maneuver AC. It is the DC a player must equal or beat to affect the orc with a combat maneuver used by the player’s PC.
* Atk: Each attack has an attack score. When the orc attacks a PC, the player makes a defense check. If he equals or exceeds the orc’s attack score, the attack fails.
* SV: Each saving throw is a DC. When using a spell that permits a saving throw against the orc, the player must make a magic check against the appropriate saving throw score. If the player equals or exceeds the score, the spell takes affect.

So, you ask, how long did it take to convert the standard orc to an F&F orc? Well, it took me about two minutes including the time to add the bold-face formatting codes. For my face-to-face group, I converted all of the monsters on the first level of The Lost Vault of Tsathzar Rho in about 15 minutes, including the time it took to type up a quick reference table that summarized the changes on one easy-to-use page.

 Any questions?

December 30th, 2009  in RPG No Comments »

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