Spes Magna Games

Back in December 2015, I wrote up the poohvian for AD&D. It’s time for an update of Myles Wohl‘s wonderful illustration.

Keepers of Bees. Poohvians are good-natured, short humanoid bears who live in small tribal bands. Pastoral and gentle, poohvians cultivate berries, nuts, and fish in hatcheries, and they always keep honey bees. Poohvians prefer to live in hilly forests, making their homes out of well-constructed burrows or within natural caves.

Rumbly, Tumbly. Poohvians love friendly contests of wrestling during social gatherings, especially after a few mugs of mead and some honeycakes. Almost always, these frequent poohvian celebrations become boisterous, even rowdy, but the grappling matches seldom result in serious injuries or hurt feelings.

Poohvian
Small humanoid (poohvian), neutral good

Armor Class 15 (breastplate, shield)
Hit Points 9 (2d6+2)
Speed 25 ft.
Ability Scores STR 12 (+1), DEX 8 (-1), CON 12 (+1), INT 8 (-1), WIS 10 (+0), CHA 11 (+0)

Skills Perception +2
Senses passive Perception 12
Languages Common, Poohvian
Challenge 1/4 (50 XP)

Keen Smell. The poohvian has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on hearing or smell.

Wrestler. Whenever the poohvian makes a Strength (Athletics) check while grappling, the poohvian is considered proficient in the Athletics skill and adds double its proficiency bonus to the check (+4) instead of its normal proficiency bonus (+2).

Actions

Multiattack. The poohvian makes two attacks: once with its claws and once with its bite. Most of the time, however, the poohvian prefers to fight with weapons.

Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 3 (1d4+1) slashing damage.

Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 2 (1d3+1) piercing damage.

Javelin. Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft. or range 30/120 ft., one target. Hit: 4 (1d6+1) piercing damage.

Sword. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 4 (1d6+1) slashing damage.

Tags: 1E AD&D, 5E D&D, monsters

It’s still May, which means all Spes Magna Games products are on-sale this month for at least 25% off their regular prices. Why? To help you help me celebrate my 25th wedding anniversary!

And now, ripped from the Dark Dimension for your D&D game…

…the Mindless Ones!

Created to Destroy. The Mindless Ones were created by the entity Plokta as unstoppable engines of destruction. Plokta is a disembodied entity who hails from the Dark Domain. He possesses the ability to warp the perceptions of creatures, granting them an illusion of their fondest desires. Such a gift comes with a price however, for each creature that accepts Plokta’s generosity must also forfeit its soul.

Primitive, Savage, Devoid of Love. The Mindless Ones cannot feel love or exhibit even the smallest degree of kindness. They live only to fight and to destroy. A Mindless One’s body is composed of dense physical matter, granting it great strength and durable, stone-like skin. Its single eye projects destructive beams of energy. Possessing no evident state of awareness, a Mindless Ones attacks any creature it sees, including other Mindless Ones. These monsters can only be made to follow commands through the use of magic.

Mindless One
Large construct, unaligned

Armor Class 18 (natural armor)
Hit Points 157 (15d10+75)
Speed 25 ft.
Ability Scores STR 22 (+6), DEX 8 (-1), CON 20 (+5), INT 1 (-5), WIS 10 (+0), CHA 1 (-5)

Damage Resistances cold, fire, force, lightning, thunder; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from magical weapons
Damage Immunities poison, psychic; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical weapons
Condition Immunities exhaustion, frightened, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned
Senses darkvision 90 ft., passive Perception 10
Languages understands all languages but cannot speak
Challenge 11 (7,200 XP)

Immutable Form. The Mindless One is immune to any spell or effect that would alter its form.

Magic Resistance. The Mindless One has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.

Magic Weapons. The Mindless One’s weapon attacks are magical.

Sunder. The Mindless One can smash through any barrier given sufficient time. It can damage Huge and Gargantuan objects. It ignores the damage threshold of big objects such as castle walls. Even magical barriers, such as a wall of force, can be destroyed by a Mindless One. If the damage inflicted by the Mindless One in a single round exceeds three times the caster level of the magical barrier, the magical barrier fails.

Actions

Multiattack. The Mindless One makes two attacks with its fists.

Fist. Melee Weapon Attack: +10 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 21 (3d8+6) bludgeoning damage.

Eye Beam (Recharge 5-6). The Mindless One projects a beam of destructive energy from its single eye in a 60-foot line that is 5 feet wide. Each creature in that line must make a DC 17 Dexterity saving throw, taking 42 (12d6) force damage on a failed save, or no damage on a successful one.

Tags: 5E D&D, monsters

As the fine folk at Gamers & Grognards remind us, “Original Edition Role Playing Appreciation Day is Saturday May 5th!” That’s tomorrow. So, here I go with some ways you too can celebrate.

First, check out my OGL OSR titles currently on sale at DriveThruRPG. I’ve got adventures, character classes, monsters, and more.

Second, click on this link to read through a plethora of posts related to Swords & Wizardry, one of my favorite OSR games. If you’ve been remiss in your OSR duties and you don’t own Swords & Wizardry, you can make amends by purchasing it today. Click here to start atoning.

And, third and most important, see that picture below? If you click on it, you can open and download a two-page PDF that presents El Mariachi de Combate, a complete character class that let’s you fulfill your long-deferred dream of roleplaying a musical luchador. Seriously, I can’t be the only person with that dream.

¡Olé!

Tags: Character Classes, Original Edition Role Playing Appreciation Day, Swords & Wizardry

May is here, which means in a couple of weeks, I’ll have been married twenty-five years to wife Katrina. That’s half my life. How humbling to think that despite my many flaws that one person would stand by me for two-and-a-half decades. To help celebrate this event, all Spes Magna Games products are on-sale this month for 25% off their regular prices.

Elsewhere on the domestic front, the tutoring goes well. Nearer the beginning of April, I had zero clients. Starting a new month, I have three, which I see for eight hours a week. I’ve one school that seems interested in hiring me for the coming school year, and for certain the home-school program administered through Our Lady of Walsingham, my parish, has work for me, albeit in this latter case not enough to pay the bills all by itself.

Speaking of home-schooling, I’ve pitched an idea to the Powers That Be in said program to run a six-week summer course for homeschoolers called “Introduction to Story Games”. I think it’s a wonderful idea that’d give me a chance to not only teach more kids how to RPG, but would also help those kids by reinforcing targeted academic and social skills. If my “Introduction to Story Games” class gets approved, I’m considering using Skill Centric Role Play by David Holmes and Hero Kids by Hero Forge Games. Who knows? Maybe this class could become something like a regular source of income.

On the movie front, I’ve recently watched 1959’s ridiculous Invisible Invaders, starring John Agar, Jean Byron, and at least the voice of John Carradine. Brace yourself as Earth is brought to its knees by highly advanced aliens from the Moon who use their vast technological superiority to possess the bodies of the dead, creating highly radioactive zombies that, while they are slow, can at least walk without dragging their feet through the dirt.

Presenting the Invisible Invader, first for Mutant Future and then for the Marvel Super Heroes Roleplaying Game.

Alignment: Chaotic
Movement: 90′ (30′)
Armor Class: 6
Hit Dice: 8
Attacks: 1 (weapon)
Damage: weapon
Save: L8
Morale: 7
Hoard Class: XV
XP: 1,060

Mutations: Animate Dead, Light-Refracting Force Screen, Sonic Vulnerability

The invisible invader is a highly intelligent (2d4+10 INT and WIL) alien creature that seeks to conquer inferior life forms. It can surround itself with a light-refracting force screen that renders it invisible to sight across the entire electromagnetic spectrum and absorbs 30 points of damage each attack made against it, unless the attack is sound-based. Not only do sound-based attacks ignore the invisible invader’s light-refracting force screen, such attacks also inflict +2 points of damage per die.

As its action for the round, the invisible invader may alter the subliminatory frequency of its physical form and merge with a recently killed creature that is approximately the size of a human. The invisible invader then animates the corpse, which becomes highly radioactive (Class 4 radiation in a 15-foot radius). Due to its imperfect control, the animated dead has its movement reduced by 25%. The invisible invader can use the corpse’s physical abilities, including mutations, but it loses its light-refracting force screen. Damage suffered by the corpse does not affect the invisible invader, unless the damage is sound-based.

In its visible form, the invisible invader resembles a squamous humanoid creature with large hands and feet with three phalanges each.

Primary Abilities: F Ty, A Ty, S Ty, E Gd, R Rm, I Ex, P Rm
Secondary Abilities: Health 28, Karma 80, Resources Rm, Popularity 0
Powers: Animate Dead (Am), Light-Refracting Force Screen (Rm)
Nota Bene: When the invisible invader uses its Animate Dead power on a recently dead creature approximately human in size, the corpse animates under the control of the invisible invader. Use the corpse’s original FASE, but apply -1CS to Fighting and Agility and +1CS to Strength and Endurance. The corpse emits Excellent intensity radiation. The invisible invader retains its own RIP and Karma. In its natural form, the invisible invader’s Light-Refracting Force Screen grants Remarkable levels of Invisibility and Resistance to all forms of damage except those based on sound. Whether possessing a corpse or in its natural form, the invisible invader is vulnerability to sound-based attacks (+1CS damage).

Tags: Marvel Super Heroes, monsters, Mutant Future