I would *strongly* suggest that you not try to convert this one on the fly.
Kate the Short, k7gb2t8f9ujtc7ad94h9lkjdb1f5a46s4i@4ax.com
This article is mostly based on Aardy's emails and newsgroup posts.
First, electrum pieces are gone from 3rd edition (in 2e, one of these is worth half a gold piece), and 2e platinum pieces are worth five gold, not ten. (2e Player's Handbook, p. 66) Aardy suggested, "you'll probably want to either dump the electrum pieces or convert them into sp or gp long before the PCs come anywhere near a treasure hoard." I would convert the electrum and platinum pieces for modern, upper-level hoards; but in older and deeper levels, I would keep to the 2e standard (and remember that it IS in the 2e standard), and make clear to the player that these represent an ancient generation of coinage. This should help the atmosphere.
Convert the treasure XP into story XP. You don't have to do it directly (that is, add an exact amount of story XP as the treasure they've found), but generous story XP is a must for this one. (Or lots of side adventures + the ability to easily re-equip after each, to make up the difference.)
[in a later email - ed.] Major warning to DMs: If
[when! - ed.] the party reaches 9th level or higher before reaching the Derro ... there's a major problem from that
point forward: The PCs will get no XP for most of the opponents they'll
face, even though they'll be constantly knee-deep in them. Derro are CR
1, Kuo-toa are CR 2; thus PCs stop getting XP for them when they reach
levels 9 & 10, repectively. Given the numbers each creature is
encountered in, ad hoc XP awards (as outlined in the DMG3) will almost
always be warranted, but that means DMs had better be prepared to junk the
DMG XP table and just start pulling XP totals out of thin air when the PCs
reach that area.
Good luck converting some of the monsters; some vital ones aren't in the
MM3.
[the rest of the para is from email - ed.]
Now that Monsters of Faerun is out, DMs running 3rd ed. Night Below
(or planning to) should run out and pick it up, as most of the "missing"
monsters are there: Shadow Dragon, Quaggoth, Deepspawn, etc. I think
grell & hook horrors are still on the MIA list, but there's a web page out
there with suggested 3rd ed. stats for both of those and many other MIA
critters.
TSR has since updated the rogue sort of Worker Grell. Monte Cook started the process in Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil and it is now in Monster Manual II, along with the Hook Horror. The Tome of Horrors fills in the gap for Gloomwing, Tenebrous Worm, and Tunnel Worm - although it neglects that a Tunnel Worm is two feet high. I'd advise picking up all the above because they kick ass. As for the websites:
To give the real authors their due, the Fiend Factory conversions are the work of Scott Greene and Erica Balsley rather than Noah himself. I took the opportunity of the Creature Catalogue migration to fix the Aboleth Savant and to write up the Philosopher Grell (and the Tunnel Worm, then). I felt a need to keep the Savant, because the CC's variant duplicates NB material, and mistakenly.
Ditto for magic items
, says Aardy. Kate adds (0v6o2t0p6mbjbgjgsjjcv1k6gcmongs36a@4ax.com): Some of
[the spells] are in the book, only accessible at slightly different
levels. Others don't exist at all. If you want to give someone one of the
spells that didn't keep, I'd strongly suggest flipping through the original
spell and the new spells and make sure that the radius of effect or the
durations or whatnot make sense. Rounds and segments and turns are all
different things in 3e...
Look to Invisibility and related Concealment rules for a classic example. "Shadow door" has nothing to do with Shadow, but is an illusion of a 10x10 room behind a door followed by Invisibility - it's the 5th level substitute for "mislead". "Shadow magic" is "shadow evocation" now.
11 September 2002, fixed up Grell and Tunnel Worm. 6 January 2003, got rid of the ToH monsters.
20 February 2001, added Paddock's page. 24 June 2001, Creature Catalog, on Aardy's recommendation (thanks for directing me to it!). 31 July 2001, linked more specifically to Aboleth & Derro savants. 22 August 2001, changed link to derro-savant & added link to Tenebrous Worm. 26 August, added Grell, which really weren't in RttToEE. 26-31 August, added observations on 3e spell nomenclature, fixed up Grell, and reorganised my comments on the Creature Catalog move.
I'm treating the second half of August 2001 separately here, because then this page was quite the hive of activity. Only two weeks after I discovered Eric Noah - 17 August - he quit the fanboy scene. This site immediately took over his aboleth savant & hook horror conversions, after some worrying about whether the authors would be pissed (I'd changed parts of the savant which I felt contradicted NB). On 19 August ENWORLD assumed responsibility for the Creature Catalog but without links to the creatures I'd reposted. On 24 August, the Hook Horror was back, but I'd noted NB's use of the Tenebrous Worm (and Gloomwing) - since they, too, were not yet moved I downloaded them from the old site - right before the old site went down for good. I got complacent, though, and deleted the Horror from my own drive. I felt a right fool a few days later when all ENWorld went down. On 31 August the CC was back, in its own server - hopefully permanently.