Somewhere in the DMG theres a section about changing a monster just by changing its description. Anyway I’ve “designed” Half Giant NPCs you can use.
Introducing the Half Giant Thg, Bludgeoneer, Savage, Skirmisher and Warhulk. They’re on page 199 of the 4th ED monster manual. What do you think apart from I’m lazy?
Gith could be medium sized Goblins or maybe Hobgoblins (stat wise anyway).

Reasonable and valid approcaches. Regardless of edition.
Personally, I’m on the fence as to wether or not HGs should be made into a playable race, instead of just left as monsters. I still shudder consdidering how brutal half giants are to deal with, in combat, and how utterly ineffective they are outside of combat.
The “ineffective outside of combat” bit is taken off the table, because there are no more ability penalties.
In combat, I still worry about. We can’t very well retcon them down to a “big medium” size like the minitaurs are, and saying that they are “less large than large” which is essentially what “give them reach as a feat” is doing—I don’t think that’s what’s meant by “exceptions that make the rule” ... doesn’t feel right to me.
So, from that regard … Ogres as half-giants works for me, for the moment.

Yeah Half Giants are the one race you can’t really dumb down that much and still ahve them as a playable PC race in 4th ed. Muls stat wise can resemble Orcs.
I played 4th ed for the st time last week and I DMed a game. Basic goblins for example are quite interesting and I started to think of the as Gith for some reason as long as you upsize them to medium.
Maybe you could make Half Giants plaabel by just giving them _4 strength and making them large with no racial power or skill bonus’s. Kinda boring I suppose but if they have +2 str and +2 con they’re not going to be that different from a Mul as most people are thinking of giving Muls +2 con/str it seems.

List of Monster from 4E that do not need conversion on Athas:
Monster Manual, Athasian List
Archon (No Ice)
Balhannoth
Basilisk
Bat
Battlebriar
Bear
Beetle
Bulette
Cambion
Carrion Crawler
Cyclops
Demon
Devil
Drake
Dwarf
Elemental
Efreet
Elf
Ettercap
Ettin
Flameskull
Galeb Duhr
Golem
Githyanki
Hound (no wild hunt)
Magma Beast
Rat
Salamander
Scorpion
Shambling Mound
Skeleton
Snake
Spider
Vine Horror
Wyvern
Yuan-ti
Zombie

Nice list Falleakriel. How many nore monsters would make suitable critters just with a cosmetic change- Ogre=Half Giant for example.
I didn’t see a normal elemntal when I looked through the books

Normal elemental are gone due to the Elemental Chaos in 4E, but they have basic Fire and Air Elemental stats.
Well all Athasian plants are now Hazards (natural traps) and the majority of athas undeads are only monster template.
Generic stats useable for Athas monster:
Hill Giant and Earth Titan = Desert & Plain Giant
Medium Goblin or Hobgoblin = Gith
Azer
Behemoth
Berbelang
Boar = Baazrag or Sand Howler ?
Choker
Chuul
Dark One
Destrachan
Red Dragon = Fire Drake with no Breath ?
Drake
Fomorian = Giant with Psionic
Foulspawn = a lot of psychic powers
Giberring beast = Psurlon?
Gnoll = Slig without claws or bite but they have like a pack attack
Grick
Grimlock
Guardian
Helmed Horror
Homonculus (Clay Scout)
Hook Horror = Dune Reeper
Horse = Kank
Warhorse =
Grell = Floater
Kruthink = Desert Antloid
Lizardfolk = Ssurran?
Umber Hulk =
Wererat = Tari
Nightwalker = Shadow Giant?
Ogre = Half-Giant
Orc = Tarek
Otyugh = Silt Spawn
Panther = Psionic Cat
Purple Worm = Sink Worm
Roper = Cistern Fiend
Troglodyte = Dray
Wraith & Specter

List of Athasian Hazards:
Bramble Weed (similar to pit with spike but wall)
Bramble Tree (club/mace)
Burnflower
Dune Trapper (Level 10)
Esperweed (Level 1)
Blossomkiller
Dew Fronds (Dragon 364, level 4 Obstacle)
Poison Weed
Strangling Vines
Sand Cactus (Dragon 364, Level 6 Obstacle)
Sand Vortex (level 11+)
Spider Cactus (Dragon 364, level 3 Obstacle)
Zombie Plant (level 10, dominate power)
Bloodgrass (paralysis)
Hunting Cactus (cause paralysis)
Rock Cactus (level 2? similar to spider cactus)
Brain Seed (dominate power, level 10?)

I don’t know if you guys all follow this thread but trust me when I say I don’t spam much but this link is so relevant to our current discussion I could not pass it up. http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b119/savageca…

It Seems to me almost all the monsters in 4thed MM can easily fit into DS. Some superficial changes like changing keywords to “psionic”, etc, And there we go. Converting the old DS monsters seems a lil more involved.
Lets say 200 monsters (in both DS Mcompendium 1+2) and another bucketload from 4thed MM (around 300?) And we have a lot of monsters to convert.