Spes Magna Games

Did you know that Matt Jackson is creating Old School maps that you too can support and own and cherish via Patreon? Well, he is, and you can. The map to to the right is a sample of Matt’s work. If you click the map, it embiggens. If you click this link right here, you can download a short 5E adventure using the map. It is written for 3-5 characters with an average level of three. The adventure features an oldie-but-goodie from 1983’s Monster Manual II, which I’ve posted below after some self-serving promotional stuff.

Did you know that I’ve released two new for-sale PDFs so far this year? Amazing, huh? If only I could be this productive every month.

Chance Encounters II expands your campaign using the fifth edition of the World’s Greatest Roleplaying Game. Revel at College of Cheer and Good Tidings. Gain a blessing from mulled wine. Be more alert in the glow of a guiding light. Fight side-by-side with a champion toy against an abominable snowman in cursed Arktinis. With five new character options, two new spells, seven new monsters, three new magic items, two new places, and an essay about cinnamon, Chance Encounters II offers something for almost everyone.

The war against the Axis Powers just got weird. World War Weird Classes presents 10 character classes from Demi-God to Gremlin to Zombie. Augment a team of commandos with something supernatural, or put together a Nazi-fighting monster squad. A huge thanks to Pete Spahn not only for WWII: Operation WhiteBox but also for being a class act and offering me numerous suggestions and corrections.

And now for that new monster!

“This carnivorous beast likes human and demihuman flesh. A zorbo has poor armor class and attack damage when first encountered, but it can absorb the natural armor class of its surroundings….” (Monster Manual II, p. 131)

Zorbo
Small monstrosity, unaligned

Armor Class 10
Hit Points 22 (4d6+8)
Speed 40 ft., climb 30 ft.
Ability Scores STR 13 (+1), DEX 10 (+0), CON 15 (+2), INT 3 (-4), WIS 13 (+1), CHA 8 (-1)

Skills Athletics +3
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 11
Languages —
Challenge 1 (200 XP)

Item Absorption. When the zorbo hits a creature with its claws, the zorbo absorbs the Armor Class (including magical bonus) or magical quality of a random protective item worn or carried by the creature hit, even if the net result reduces the zorbo’s Armor Class. The creature can resist this effect with a Wisdom save against DC 13. If the protective item is magical, it loses its magical functions for 1 minute. The zorbo acquires an Armor Class equal to what it would have if it were using the protective item.

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

Actions

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

Nature Absorption (Recharge 6). The zorbo can absorb the natural armor class of whatever natural material it touches. This grants the zorbo an improved Armor Class, depending on the material: Armor Class 20 for stone, Armor Class 17 for metal, Armor Class 15 for wood, or Armor Class 13 for earth. The zorbo also gains a bonus on melee attack damage rolls: +5 damage for stone, +3 damage for metal, +2 damage for wood, or +1 damage for earth. The new Armor Class and damage bonus lasts for 1 minute.

Tags: 5E D&D, Matt Jackson, micro-adventure, monsters

I used to have several issues of Dungeon from the late 80s to early 90s. I don’t have all of them now, but I do still have the issue the cover of which you see to the right. In it, one finds a fun little adventure by Jon Bailey titled “The Moor-Tombs Map”. It’s written for AD&D, specifically for 4-6 characters of 2nd to 4th level. Let’s take the middle road through those two ranges and assume 5 characters, all of which are 3rd level.

Now let’s shift gears as I think out loud (so to speak). In 5E D&D, the DM creates a combat encounter by first determining the adventuring party’s “XP Threshold” (DMG 82). Our party of five 3rd-level characters would look like this:

Easy 375 XP, Medium 750 XP, Hard 1,125 XP, Deadly 2,000 XP

Back to “The Moor-Tombs Map”. Not to give too much about it away, but the first combat encounter encountered on the road away from Moorwall is with a wolfwere and six wolves. A quick-and-dirty estimate of the wolfwere’s CR in 5E? It’s AC 3 (or 17 in 5E), has 5 Hit Dice, can attack twice per round for 2-12 plus weapon, has a magical song that causes slow, cannot be harmed by weapons unless they are magic or cold iron, and has magic resistance. A 5-HD monster had a THAC0 of 15, which is roughly equivalent to a +5 attack bonus.

For 5E, that’s a great AC, but pretty low hit points. It’s got good damage, however. Assume a d8 for weapon damage, and that’s 7 plus 4, or 11 on average. AD&D didn’t have save DCs, so fixing the save DC for its slow is a matter of taste. As an estimate, if I were building a 5E wolfwere using these stats, I’d aim for CR 3 (700 XP). Six wolves come in at 300 XP total. An encounter with seven monsters has an encounter multiplier of 2.5. The XP threshold total for the wolfwere and its wolves comes in at 2,500 XP. That’s a potentially deadly encounter for our adventurers.

Later on, the adventurers encounter 10 giant vultures (threshold 4,500 XP), 6 lizard men (threshold 1,200 XP), as well as a few other encounters, and this is all before reaching the actual moor-tomb.

Obviously, the differences between AD&D and 5E D&D make running an AD&D adventure as-is tricky. It’d be a real bummer if less than half way to the actual adventure one or more of the adventurers died in combat against what is pretty much a random encounter. 1E and 5E are not the same game. They have different assumptions, different maths, et cetera.

Let’s consider in more detail those half-dozen lizard men. As DM, I don’t really want to subject my players’ characters to a hard encounter that is at best tangetial to the main story. I could just remove the encounter, but that takes away from some of the “local color” of the adventure. The players could evade the lizard men or convince them to not attack, but if things go sideways the resulting fight could go badly for the adventurers. I could reduce the number of lizard men, of course. Halving the number drops the threshold XP to 600, making it a much more manageable threat, but I also like fights that involve larger numbers of enemies. That was a feature of AD&D that I miss.

What to do?

Well, instead of using bears (see previous post), I could use kobolds. I take the standard kobold, change its size to Medium, its Hit Points to 7 (2d8-2), and add a swim speed as per lizardfolk. Voila! My newer, weaker lizard men are now a threshold 300 XP encounter. That ought to be a cake walk for the adventurers. It also establishes in my game world that there are levels of lizard men. Sure, today you bumped into a group of lowly hunter-gatherers, but tomorrow you might run afoul of young warriors (goblins as lizard men) supervised by a more experienced fighter (a standard lizardfolk).

Just using bears is an idea with wide-ranging utility that can help a DM come up with new monsters or variations of old monsters almost on-the-fly.

“Inhabiting out of the way places, the hated and feared wolfwere is the bane of humans and demihumans alike, for it is able to take the form of a human male or female of considerable charisma. In either its true shape or that of a man, the wolfwere slyly hunts, slays, and devours its favored prey — men, halflings, elves, etc. … It must be noted that a great enmity exists between wolfwere and werewolves.” (Monster Manual II, p. 127)

Wolfwere
Medium fey (shapechanger), chaotic evil

Armor Class 17 (natural armor)
Hit Points 27 (5d8+5)
Speed 40 ft.
Ability Scores STR 16 (+3), DEX 18 (+4), CON 13 (+1), INT 14 (+2), WIS 14 (+2), CHA 17 (+3)

Skills Deception +5, Perception +4
Tools musical instrument
Damage Immunities bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks not made with iron weapons
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 14
Languages Common,Sylvan, Worg
Challenge 3 (700 XP)

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

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

Shapechanger. The wolfwere can use its action to polymorph into a human or back into its true form of a human-wolf hybrid. Its statistics are the same for either form. Any equipment it is wearing or carrying isn’t transformed. It reverts to its true form if it dies.

Wolvesbane Sensitivity. If the wolfwere starts its turn within 15 feet of wolvesbane, it is poisoned and thus has disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks.

Actions

Multiattack. The wolfwere makes two attacks in its hybrid form: one with its bite, the other with a weapon. In human form, the wolfwere makes one attack with its weapon.

Bite. Melee Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d6+4) piercing damage.

Sword. Melee Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d6+4) piercing damage.

Call of the Wild (1/Day). When outdoors, the wolfwere magically calls 2d6 wolves or 1d6 worgs. The called creatures arrive in 1d4 rounds, acting as allies of the wolfwere and obeying its spoken commands. The beasts remain for 1 hour, until the wolfwere dies, or until the wolfwere dismisses them as a bonus action.

Lullaby (1/Day). The wolfwere has a magical song that causes listeners to fall into slumber. A total of 22 (5d8) hit points of humanoid creatures within 90 feet of the wolfwere are affected. Creatures are affected in ascending order of their current hit points (ignoring unconscious creatures), and a Wisdom saving throw against DC 13 negates this power’s effect. Starting with the creature that has the lowest current hit points, each creature affected by this power falls unconscious for 1d4+4 minutes. A sleeping creature remains unconscious until the sleeper takes damage, or until someone uses an action to shake or slap the sleeper awake. Subtract each creature’s hit points from the total before moving on to the creature with the next lowest hit points. A creature’s hit points must be equal to or less than the remaining total for that creature to be affected. Undead and creatures immune to being charmed aren’t affected by this power.

Tags: 5E D&D, adventure design, monsters

GMs love new monsters. Gaming blogger-folk love posting new monsters, writing about monsters, et cetera. I’ve posted quite a few new monsters over the years.

But there’s a secret about monsters, namely that I really don’t need very many new ones. Other people have already worked out the stats for all of the monsters I could ever need, and many of the new ones are really just variations on old ones, reskinned with new descriptive bits. In truth, when I think I need a new monster, I could just use bears.

Consider the 5E D&D brown bear:

Now let’s just use bears three different ways. In each case, I made minor tweaks to the brown bear’s stats.

The enormous humanoid shuffles into view. Twisted knots of fibrous tissue cover its muscular body. Its gait rolls, totters, due to legs of unequal length. Its powerful arms end in four-fingered hands that almost reach the ground. One meaty fist clutches the end of a greatclub. Its block-like head juts forward atop a thick neck. Ridges of bone grow from its brow.

Arth
Large giant, chaotic evil

Armor Class 11 (natural armor)
Hit Points 34 (4d10+12)
Speed 40 ft., climb 30 ft.
Ability Scores STR 19 (+4), DEX 10 (+0), CON 16 (+3), INT 4 (-3), WIS 13 (+1), CHA 7 (-2)

Skills Perception +3
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 13
Languages Giant
Challenge 1 (200 XP)

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

Actions

Multiattack. The arth makes two attacks: one with its headbutt and one with its greatclub.

Headbutt. Melee: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (1d8+4) bludgeoning damage.

Greatclub. Melee: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6+4) bludgeoning damage.

The crack of a twig was the only warning of the monster’s sudden attack. Roughly humanoid, seemingly comprised of intertwined branches and vines, the monster rushes forward, flailing with a thorn-covered vine and a heavy branch.

Baavgai
Large plant, unaligned

Armor Class 11
Hit Points 34 (4d10+12)
Speed 40 ft., climb 30 ft.
Ability Scores STR 19 (+4), DEX 12 (+1), CON 16 (+3), INT 2 (-4), WIS 10 (+0), CHA 7 (-2)

Skills Stealth +3
Senses passive Perception 10
Languages —
Challenge 1 (200 XP)

Woody Stealth. The baavgai has advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks in forests.

Actions

Multiattack. The baavgai makes two attacks: one with its thorn-covered tendril and one its club-like limb.

Tendril. Melee: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (1d8+4) slashing damage.

Club. Melee: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6+4) bludgeoning damage.

Like a creature born from a nightmare, part monitor lizard, part mountain lion, its single green eye flashing in the torchlight, the monstrosity drops from the treetop. It lashes out with its serpentine tail that ends with a spiky knob of bone.

Iomair
Large monstrosity, unaligned

Armor Class 11 (natural armor)
Hit Points 34 (4d10+12)
Speed 40 ft., climb 30 ft.
Ability Scores STR 19 (+4), DEX 10 (+0), CON 16 (+3), INT 2 (-4), WIS 13 (+1), CHA 7 (-2)

Skills Perception +3
Senses passive Perception 13
Languages —
Challenge 1 (200 XP)

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

Actions

Multiattack. The iomair makes two attacks with its tail.

Tail. Melee: +5 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d6+4) bludgeoning damage plus 2 (1d4) slashing damage.

Tags: 5E D&D, adventure design, monsters

See that you despise not one of these little ones: for I say to you, that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father who is in heaven. (The Gospel According to St. Matthew 18:10)

Not all angels are celestial agents “sent forth into the planes to further” some god’s agenda for weal or woe. Not all angels “are destroyers”. The guardian angel’s task is simple: to protect some mortal from harm. Most often, the guardian angel watches over a child. The guardian angel spends much of its time observing both unseen and unheard its charge. When it needs to intervene, it does so carefully so as to have the least direct influence on events. This does not mean the guardian angel cannot take direct action when necessary. While it lacks the power of, say, the deva, the guardian angel is not a foe to be trifled with lightly.

Guardian Angel
Medium celestial, lawful good

Armor Class 16 (natural armor)
Hit Points 105 (14d8+42)
Speed 30 ft., fly 60 ft.
Ability Scores STR 16 (+3), DEX 16 (+3), CON 16 (+3), INT 15 (+2), WIS 18 (+4), CHA 18 (+4)

Saving Throws Wis +7, Cha +7
Skills Insight +7, Perception +7, Persuasion +7, Stealth +6
Damage Resistances poison, radiant; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks
Condition Immunities charmed, exhaustion, frightened, poisoned
Senses truesight 60 ft., passive Perception 14
Languages all, telepathy 120 ft.
Challenge 7 (2,900 XP)

Angelic Weapons. The guardian angel’s weapon attacks are magical. When the guardian angel hits with any weapon, the weapon deals an extra 3d8 radiant damage (included in the attack).

Innate Spellcasting. The guardian angel’s spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 15). The guardian angel can innately cast the following spells, requiring only verbal components:

* At will: detect evil and good, detect poison and disease, sanctuary
* 1/day: dispel evil and good

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

Actions

Multiattack. The guardian angel makes two attacks using its spear, or one attack with its fire bolt.

Holy Fire. Ranged Spell Attack: +7 to hit, range 120 ft. Hit: 27 (6d8) fire damage plus 13 (3d8) radiant damage.

Spear. Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft. or range 20/60 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d6+3) piercing damage plus 13 (3d8) radiant damage, or 7 (1d8+3) plus 13 (3d8) radiant damage if used with two hands to make a melee attack. As a bonus action, the guardian angel can teleport the spear back to its hand. It can do this in between attacks with the spear.

Superior Invisibility. The guardian angel magically turns invisible (as invisibility but requiring no concentration). Any equipment the guardian angel wears or carries is invisible with it. While invisible, the guardian angel has advantage with Stealth checks.

Tags: 5E D&D, Catholic, monsters

The warlike servants of Vlaakith, the lich-queen, strike fear into the hearts of most creatures. Githyanki knights who distinguish themselves in Vlaakith’s service may be chosen for a horrifying honor. Through a sinister ritual that reportedly no mortal creature can witness and remain sane, the lich-queen transforms the knight into a githyanki doorkeeper, a twisted undead monster that towers above the tallest human. Gaunt, even withered, its flesh hardened and torn, the githyanki doorkeeper’s fingers end in keys that serve to focus its psionic abilities.

Githyanki Doorkeeper
Large undead, lawful evil

Armor Class 16 (natural armor)
Hit Points 97 (13d10+26)
Speed 30 ft.
Ability Scores STR 21 (+5), DEX 14 (+2), CON 15 (+2), INT 18 (+4), WIS 19 (+4), CHA 17 (+3)

Saving Throws Con +6, Int +8, Wis +8
Skills Arcana +8, Intimidation +7, Investigation +8, Perception +8
Damage Resistances cold; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks
Damage Immunities necrotic, poison
Condition Immunities charmed, exhaustion, frightened, paralyzed, poisoned
Senses darkvision 90 ft., passive Perception 18
Languages Gith
Challenge 12 (8,400 XP)

Incorporeal Form. At the beginning of its turn as a bonus action, the githyanki doorkeeper and its necrotic greatsword can become incorporeal. It remains incorporeal until the beginning of its next turn. While incorporeal, the githyanki doorkeeper can move through other creatures and objects as if they were difficult terrain. It takes 5 (1d10) force damage if it ends its turn inside an object. While incorporeal, some of its characteristics change, as shown below:

* Armor Class 12
* Speed 0 ft., fly 40 ft. (hover)
* Ability Scores STR 1 (-5), DEX 14 (+2), CON 15 (+2), INT 18 (+4), WIS 19 (+4), CHA 17 (+3)
* Damage Resistances acid, cold, fire, lightning, thunder
* Damage Immunities necrotic, poison; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks
* Condition Immunities charmed, exhaustion, frightened, grappled, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned, prone, restrained

Innate Spellcasting (Psionics). The githyanki doorkeeper’s innate spellcasting ability is Intelligence (spell save DC 16, +8 to hit with spell attacks). It can innately cast the following spells requiring no components:

* At will: mage hand (the hand is invisible)
* 5/day: knock (touch range only), plane shift (self only)
* 3/day each: invisibility (self only), jump, misty step, nondetection (self only), tongues
* 1/day each: plane shift, telekinesis

Actions

Multiattack. The githyanki doorkeeper makes two attacks, using its necrotic greatsword and/or its withering blast if corporeal, or its withering touch and/or its withering blast if incorporeal.

Necrotic Greatsword. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 15 (3d6+5) slashing damage plus 7 (2d6) necrotic damage.

Withering Touch. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 16 (4d6+2) necrotic damage plus 7 (2d6) cold damage.

Withering Blast. Ranged Spell Attack: +8 to hit, range 120 ft., one target. Hit: 15 (3d6+4) necrotic damage plus 7 (2d6) cold damage.

Tags: 5E D&D, monsters, undead