Spes Magna Games

It’s no secret I like making up new monsters or adding my own twists to classic creatures. Often, my inspiration comes from an illustration. Other times, I’ve taken inspiration from W. B. Yeats (Aengus Wandero’er in Chance Encounters III), wonderfully bad movies (the shark storm in Shallows & Sharks), and medieval bestiaries (the cinnamologus in Chance Encounters II and the bear-ape in Chance Encounters IV).

Bestiaries inspire today’s new monster. You can read a summary of the pard’s history by visting Atlas Obscura. If you want AD&D stats for the monster, they’re on my Google Drive. Enjoy!

The Pard

The pard bears a superficial resemblance to a great cat, such as a lion or leopard. From its whip-like tail to its almost-human face, from its sinuous neck to its curved talons on raptor’s feet, the pard’s unnatural origins cannot be missed. In the Nine Hells, pards roam in packs, hunting lesser creatures for sport. In the Material Plane, the pard uses its powers to mate with female great cats, especially lionnesses. Females cubs born from such a union are leopards; males are juvenile pards, which immediately abandon their mother and siblings. A juvenile pard reaches full maturity in a matter of days, at which time it plane shifts to the Nine Hells.

Medium fiend (devil), lawful evil

Armor Class 15 (natural)
Hit Points 52 (8d8+16)
Speed 50 feet

STR 19 (+4), DEX 15 (+2), CON 15 (+2), INT 10 (+0), WIS 14 (+2), CHA 14 (+2)

Saving Throws STR +6, CON +4, WIS +4
Skills Stealth +4, Perception +4
Damage Resistances cold, poison; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nomagical attacks not made with silvered weapons
Damage Immunities fire
Condition Immunities poisoned
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 14
Languages Infernal, telepathy 120 ft.
Challenge 4 (1,100)

Devil’s Sight. Magical darkness doesn’t impede the pard’s darkvision.

Innate Spellcasting. The pard’s innate spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 12). It can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components.

At will: animal friendship, detect evil and good, speak with animals
3/day each: charm person, phantasmal force, suggestion, teleport
1/day: animate dead, fear

Keen Smell. The pard has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on smell.

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

Pounce. If the pard moves at least 20 feet straight toward a creature and then hits it with a talons attack on the same turn, that target must succeed on a DC 14 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone. If the target is prone, the pard can make a talons attack against it as a bonus action.

Running Leap. With a 10-foot running start, the pard can long jump up to 25 feet.

Summon Devil (1/Day). The pard has a 20% to summon another pard.

Actions

Multiattack. The pard makes two attacks: one with its bite and one with its talons.

Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (1d8+4) piercing damage.

Talons. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6+4) slashing damage.

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

Matt Jackson is at it again, this time offering up a walled village map to kick off CoronaCon!, and you can take a gander at the map by clicking here. Shortly after I gandered at the aforelinked post, I saw one of those hybrid animal pictures. The photomanipulator had added a jungle frog’s head to the neck of a large-breed dog. Something like a mastiff. For the Facebook group in which I saw the frog hound, I added 5 D&D stats for the creature, noting that frog hounds are used by devotees of Wastri the Hopping Prophet to hunt demihumans.

Of all the minor deities of Greyhawk, Wastri is my favorite. What DM could fail to love the demi-god of bigotry, self-deception, and amphibians? According to the Dragon magazine “The Deities & Demigods of the World of Greyhawk”, penned by E. Gary Gygax for issue 71 way back in March 1983:

Wastri, the Hopping Prophet, Hammer of Demi-humans, dwells on the Prime Material Plane (now in the region of the Vast Swamp). It is he who preaches the ultimate superiority of humankind. While humanoids can serve, demi-humans are fit only to be slain — especially dwarves, gnomes, and halflings. These, with the aid of his gray-clad “Servants,” he hunts with his toad packs and exterminates whenever possible (Dragon 71, March 1983, p. 56).

I mean, seriously, that is all sorts of awesome, and it gets better. Wastri’s chief Servant, his “Immaculate Image”, is a 12th/6th-level cleric/monk who hops like a giant toad. Wastri’s “Lesser Servants” work “to breed and maintain superior toads.” And there are Wastri’s ceremonies that “involve sacrifices, strange musical instruments, and croaking chants.”

Ha!

So, what’s this got to do with Matt’s CoronaCon! map? Simple. Someone playing Swords & Wizardry has to defend the tiny village from these guys.

Lesser Servants of Wastri
Hit Dice: 1, 2, 3, or 4
Armor Class: 7 [12]
Attack (Damage): Weapon (1d8+1)
Move: 12/6 swimming
Save: 17, 16, 14, or 13
Alignment: Chaos
Challenge Level/XP: 1 HD (1/15), 2 HD (2/30), 3 HD (4/120), 4 HD (5/240)
Special: Speak with Amphibians, Spells (2+ HD)

The Lesser Servants of Wastri form the bulk of the Hopping Prophet’s clergy. A Lesser Servant casts spells as a Cleric of a level equal to the Lesser Servant’s Hit Dice. These wicked beings fight with polearms and wear leather armor. Once per day, a 4-HD Lesser Servant can jump 30 feet forward, clearing a height of up to 15 feet.

Tags: CoronaCon, Matt Jackson, monsters, Swords & Wizardry

A few days ago, I introduced the Ahmeek to 5E D&D, taking inspiration from the pages of Longfellow’s Song of Hiawatha. If you missed these evil, intelligent beavers, you can check them out here. With their tough hide and powerful build, Ahmeek warriors can be rough customers for Tier 1 characters, especially if the Ahmeek have the home court advantage. You surely noticed in that first Ahmeek-themed post that these wicked dam-builders are magical. The common Ahmeek warrior lacks magic powers. This isn’t true of the Ahmeek’s dam-leaders.

When considering magic abilities for the Ahmeek, the Song of Hiawatha shows that they can polymorph other creatures into Ahmeek form. This doesn’t seem like something that ought to pop up too often in a game. Neither does it sound like a useful attack or defense. So, I asked myself, “What sorts of magic would the Ahmeek have?”

Well, it seems reasonable that this magic ought to focus on the Ahmeek’s environment, which includes wood, trees, water, and animals found in forests and ponds. This lends itself to a distinctly druidic feel. Thus, the Ahmeek’s magic-using leaders are evil druids of sorts. I like that. I picture Ahmeek druids standing atop dam-forts, gnawing the limbs off sacrifices to their dark deities of water, wood, and ice.

Ahmeek Druid
Medium monstrosity, lawful evil

Armor Class 14 (natural armor)
Hit Points 52 (8d8+16)
Speed 25 ft., swim 30 ft.

STR 14 (+2), DEX 14 (+2), CON 14 (+2), INT 12 (+1), WIS 16 (+3), CHA 13 (+1)

Saving Throws Intelligence +3, Wisdom +5
Skills Nature +3, Perception +5, Survival +5
Damage Immunities cold
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 15
Languages Common, Giant Beaver
Challenge 3 (700)

Hold Breath. The Ahmeek druid can hold its breath for 15 minutes.

Ice Magic (Recharge 6). As a bonus action when the Ahmeek druid casts a spell, it targets a creature that it can see within 30 feet. The target must make a DC 13 Fortitude saving throw, taking 9 (2d8) cold damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful save. Also, if the target takes cold damage from this ability, the target’s speed is reduced by 10 feet until the start of its next turn.

Siege Monster. The Ahmeek druid deals double damage to objects and structures made of wood.

Spellcasting. The Ahmeek druid is a 7th-level spellcaster. Its spellcasting ability is Wisdom (spell save DC 13, +5 to hit with spell attacks). It has the following spells prepared:

Cantrips (at will): druidcraft, poison spray, resistance
1st level (4 slots): cure wounds, entangle, longstrider, thunderwave
2nd level (3 slots): enhance ability, hold person, spike growth
3rd level (3 slots): conjure animals, dispel magic, sleet storm
4th level (1 slot): control water

Swimby. The Ahmeek druid doesn’t provoke opportunity attacks when it swims out of an enemy’s reach.

Actions

Multiattack. The Ahmeek druid makes two melee attacks, one with its bite and one with a weapon.

Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (2d4+2) piercing damage plus 1d8 (4) cold damage.

Spear. Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft. or range 20/60 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d6+2) piercing damage plus 2 (1d4) cold damage, or 6 (1d8+2) piercing damage plus 2 (1d4) cold damage if used with two hands to make a melee attack.

Tags: 5E D&D, monsters, The Song of Hiawatha

With my older group of student-players in the gaming club I facilitate whereat I teach, we recently started a sort of mash-up of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (from 1986) and basic D&D. I’ve got three 8th graders involved. All three made up elves with the Career Classes of Ranger, Rogue, and Academic. Their starting basic careers are Fisherman, Hypnotist, and Thief. The trio of elves left Albion aboard the Fisherman’s boat and made their way to the land of humans, eventually arriving at Nuln. Good times.

For those unfamilar with Warhammer‘s Old World setting, it is analogous to late-medieval/early-Renaissance western Europe in many ways. It’s a very human-centric setting. Elves in particular are rather rare, which makes the student-players’ characters something noteworthy in the cobbled streets of Nuln. Typical fantasy races such as dwarves, halflings, orcs, goblins, et cetera exist in the Old World. So too do more monstrous creatures like ogres, giant scorpions, and what not. Back when I played Warhammer while stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, our games seldom involved more exotic monsters. The weirdest we encountered were the undead. Demons, devils, intelligent slimes, and what not never showed up.

In Warhammer, the other-worldliness of certain creatures results in those creatures causing Fear or Terror, which is a lot like Fear but also causes lasting psychological damage. For example, a Manticore causes “fear in living creatures under 10 feet tall.” In contrast, a mummy invokes fear in all living creatures, but causes “terror in living creatures under 10 feet tall.” Even the (in D&D terms) relative mundane undead skeleton causes fear in living creatures. In short, the idea that certain creatures are so fearsome and/or so unnatural that the characters’ minds rebel against their very presence is baked into the Warhammer world.

This sort of baking is not part and parcel of D&D. Even 1st-level characters may face a squad of undead skeletons with no more rules-induced trepidation than they’d experience facing the same number of bandits. Within the reality of the “standard” D&D game-world, walking skeletons are no more unnerving psychologically than walking people. There’s nothing wrong with this, unless you want their to be something wrong with it.

Let’s consider fear conditions for 5E D&D that work in a way inspired by Warhammer, and apply those conditions to encounters with undead of any sort. In 5E, the only condition related to fear is frightened. It’s a sort of one-size scares all condition. Moving back a couple of E’s, we find in the d20 System four fear-related conditions: shaken, frightened, panicked, and cowering (in order from least to most severe). I like these, but they’ll need to tweaked to fit 5E.

A brief digression into the 5E version of exhaustion gives me an idea. The condition of exhaustion in 5E has six levels, each one imposing a certain limitation. A character with one level of exhaustion has disadvantage on ability checks. With two levels, he has disadvantage on ability checks and moves at half speed. And so on. Fear conditions could work in a similar manner. A character with one level of fright is shaken, with two levels is frightened, et cetera.

Now I just need to decide on what each level of fright does. Since frightened is already a 5E condition, that might work as a sort of baseline. Shaken would be less severe than frightened. Panicked and cowering would be more severe. After some pondering, here’s what I came up with:

Shaken: A frightened creature has disadvantage on ability checks and attack rolls while the source of its fear is within line of sight.

Frightened: A frightened creature has disadvantage on ability checks and attack rolls while the source of its fear is within line of sight. The creature can’t willingly move closer to the source of its fear.

Panicked: A panicked creature drops anything it holds and flese at top speed from the source of its fear, as well as any other dangers it encounters, along a random path. It can’t use the attack action. In addition, the panicked creature has disadvantage on ability checks. If cornered, a panicked creature cowers. A panicked creature can use special abilities, including spells, to flee; indeed, the panicked creature must use such means if they are the only way to escape.

Cowering: A cowering creature is incapacitated, meaning the creature can’t take actions or reactions. Also, the cowering creature can’t move, and it can speak (or scream or sob) only falteringly. The creature automatically fails Strength and Dexterity saving throws. Attack rolls against the creature have advantage.

Most undead creatures cause Fear. More powerful undead cause Terror. In either case, the victim gets a Will saving throw to resist the effect. Set the DC as appropriate for the creature’s CR. All that is required for the saving throw to trigger is line of sight to the monster, at least in most cases. For weaker undead, it might be reasonable to only require the Will saving throw when the undead attacks. For undead that cause Fear, failing the saving throw imposes one level of fright, which means the character would be Shaken most of the time. Terror is more serious. If the saving throw against Terror fails by 5 or more, the victim receives two levels of fright, which means becoming Frightened at a minimum. In any case, at the end of its turn, the victim of fear is permitted another Will saving throw. If successful, the creature’s fright level is reduced by one level.

As Kelly Bundy says, “Viola!” With rules like these, I’ve taken the first step toward creating a world in which unnatural foes such as the undead are not only frightening in concept but also pose psychological risks, at least in the short term. For more horror, I could put into play the rules related to sanity loss found in the 5E DMG, attaching those rules to encounters with Terror-inducing monsters and/or against characters who reach Panicked or Cowering levels of fright.

Good times.

Tags: 5E D&D, horror, monsters, Warhammer

“Yes!” replied Ahmeek, the beaver, He the King of all the beavers, “Let yourself slide down among us, Down into the tranquil water.” — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Song of Hiawatha, Canto XVII

Last post, I updated the giant lynx from the AD&D Monster Manual for use with 5E D&D. Today, I give the giant beaver an even fully treatment, taking as my starting point the fact that beavers in Song of Hiawatha are intelligent, can talk, and have magical powers. Also, since they gave shelter to Pau-Puk-Keewis, a rather nasty character, it stands to reason that beavers are evil, which means that giant beavers would have bigger evil.

So, why are giant beavers evil? Well, they’re expansionistic and territorial, and when giant beavers expand their territory, they do by damming up rivers, which means flooding some areas and cutting off other areas from fresh water. Giant beavers control water supplies in order to bring other creatures under their domination.

Since “giant beaver” does not exactly inspire dread, let’s take Longfellow’s cue and call these new monsters the “Ahmeek”. The Ahmeek resemble human-sized beavers that have hand-like forepaws. Much of the time when on land or in their fort-dams, they amble about on all fours, but Ahmeek can waddle bipedally with comparative ease. These militaristic creatures live in fort-dams built from mostly from logs and mud. A fort-dam’s walls are seldom less than 5 feet thick, and the main points of ingress or egress are always submerged. A typical fort-dam houses about 40 Ahmeek warriors and their families, along with their leaders.

Ahmeek Warrior
Medium monstrosity, lawful evil

Armor Class 14 (natural armor)
Hit Points 26 (4d8+8)
Speed 25 ft., swim 30 ft.

STR 14 (+2), DEX 15 (+2), CON 14 (+2), INT 9 (-1), WIS 11 (+0), CHA 8 (-1)

Skills Perception +2
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 12
Languages Common, Giant Beaver
Challenge 1 (200)

Hold Breath. The Ahmeek can hold its breath for 15 minutes.

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

Siege Monster. The Ahmeek deals double damage to objects and structures made of wood.

Swimby. The Ahmeek doesn’t provoke opportunity attacks when it swims out of an enemy’s reach.

Actions

Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (2d4+2) piercing damage.

Spear. Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft. or range 20/60 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d6+2) piercing damage, or 6 (1d8+2) piercing damage if used with two hands to make a melee attack.

Tags: 5E D&D, monsters, The Song of Hiawatha