Spes Magna Games

About 10 years ago, I wrote a blogpost that summarized some of medieval scholastic thought about the nature of angels as intellectual (as opposed to corporeal) beings. You can check that out by clicking here. If you don’t feel like clicking away, here’s a summary of my summary:

1. Intellectual beings have no material substance.
2. Intellectual beings do not mediate knowledge through sensory organs.
3. Intellectual beings receive knowledge immediately via the intellect without the potential errors related to physical limitations.
4. Intellectual beings are invisible, completely immaterial, and are not physically limited by time and space.

With these parameters in mind, I propose that corporeal undead in an OSRIC campaign can be treated as corpses animated by evil intellectual beings, otherwise known as demons and devils. Let’s start with a list of corporeal undead, arranged from weakest to strongest (based on XP value). I’ve left liches off the list since I think they work better as they’re normally described.

Skeleton
Zombie, Normal
Coffer Corpse
Ghoul
Juju Zombie
Monster Zombie
Ghast
Wight
Mummy
Vampire

Next, I list demons from weakest to strongest. Devils can be treated in a similar manner, but I’ll not deal directly with them in this post. I’m ignoring the demonette and demoniac since they don’t really fit into the medieval concept of demons as intellectual beings.

Kullule
Dretch
Quasit
Shub
Class A (Vrock)
Ekivu
Uduk
Babau
Class B (Hezrou)
Succubus
Class C (Glabrezu)
Class D (Nalfeshnee)
Class E (Marilith)
Class F (Balor)

When a demon inhabits a corpse, the demon animates the corpse as an undead monster. The easiest way to deal with this in game is to just treat the fact as background information. The undead monster’s abilities need not change. The more complicated (and interesting) choice is to modify the undead monster’s abilities based on the type of demon involved. Regardless, it might makes sense to say that a demon’s intelligence limits the type of undead it can animate. A semi-intelligent kullule could animate a skeleton or a zombie, but it couldn’t animate a ghoul since ghouls typically have low intelligence. The undead monster’s alignment changes to that of whatever animates it.

After the choices of demon and undead monster are made, select one of the demon’s abilities, plus one more ability for every two HD the demon has. Treat each spell-like special ability as a single choice. Also, don’t forget to look at the standard demonic suspectibility to attack forms. In all cases, a demon-animated undead monster may be turned by clerics of levels 8+ and paladins of levels 11+. Using these rules, groups of undead monsters of the same type may have different (even wildly) different abilities.

For example, let’s look at a wight animated by a shub (a 5+1 HD demon). Changes to the standard wight’s abilities are bold-faced and marked with an asterisk.

Shub Wight
Size: Man-sized
Move: 120 feet
Armor Class: 5
Hit Dice: 4+3
Attacks: 1 (claw)
Damage: 1d4 + level drain
Special Attacks: Level drain
Special Defenses: Fire resistance; silver or magic weapons required to hit; spell immunities
Magic Resistance: 40%*
Intelligence: Average
Alignment: Chaotic evil
Level/XP: 6/680 + 4 per hit point

Shub wights are undead corpses animated by shubs. Their undead power is linked to the negative material plane, and thus they permanently drain a level of experience from a victim when they score a hit in combat. Although they are not damaged by sunlight, they loathe the rays of the sun and do not emerge from their barrows and lairs during daylight. Shub wights are immune to sleep, hold, cold, and enchantment spells. Once per day, shub wights can teleport* (without fail, otherwise as the 5th-level magic-user spell). Fire inflicts one-half damage* to shub wights. They take 2d4 points of damage from holy water (per vial), and are destroyed by the casting of a raise dead spell. A human killed by a shub wight becomes a wight under the control of its maker.

Tags: Catholic, monsters, OSRIC

In Men & Magic, Gary Gygax wrote, “There is no reason that players cannot be allowed to play as virtually anything, provided they begin relatively weak and work up to the top, i.e., a player wishing to be a Dragon would have to begin as let us say, a ‘young’ one and progress upwards in the usual manner, steps being predetermined by the campaign referee”. (Nota Bene: The link above is an affiliate link.)

In some ways, 5E D&D looks back to earlier editions, and ignores the 3E/3.5 era in favor of earlier versions of the game. We see this in Volo’s Guide to Monsters, for example, which offers creatures imported from earlier D&D editions for use as player characters, specifically the aasimar, bugbear, firbolg, goblin, hobgoblin, kenku, kobold, lizardmen, orc, tabaxi, tritons, and yuan-ti purebloods. I can’t help but like the options, even if I’ve never used them as a player or DM.

(Well, never is a bit much. Way back in AD&D days, I did run an ogre as a character. His character class? Ogre. I don’t recall all of the details about him, but he had d8 Hit Dice, advanced pretty like a fighter, and attacked like a monster. If I can find his character sheet, I’ll post it.)

So, looking at OSRIC, let’s piece together what goblins might look like as a character race. Here’s an initial list of goblin racial abilities:

• -1 on attack rolls in direct sunlight
• infravision to 60 feet
• 25% chance to notice new or unusual construction
• Speak kobold, orcish, hobgoblin, lawful evil, and goblin

I also notice that a goblin chief has 12 hit points. At 4.5 hit points per Hit Die, that’s almost 3 Hit Dice. Goblins may also be shaman (7th level maximum) and witchdoctors, which are cleric/magic-users with a maximum magic-user level of 4th.

Goblins

Goblins are small, evil creatures with red eyes and a yellow to reddish skin tone. They mature quickly and have an average lifespan of 50 years. Goblins are tribal, with the strongest ruling the tribe. The tribes all owe fealty to the goblin king. Some think goblins are a distant cousin to kobolds, and like their cousins they prefer to live underground. Goblins detest direct sunlight. They are good cavers and have have a deep racial hatred of gnomes and dwarfs.

Summary of Goblin Racial Abilities

• +1 Dexterity, -1 Strength

Languages: A goblin speaks its native tongue plus kobold, orcish, hobgoblin, and the appropriate alignment tongue. Regardless of Intelligence, a goblin may only ever learn two languages in addition to those listed.

Vision: Infravision to 60 feet. A goblin’s sensitive eyes cause a -1 attack roll bonus in direct sunlight.

Mining Skills: Within 10 feet, a goblin certain facts concerning engineering, stonework, et cetera. Although no significant time is required, the character must deliberately observe his or her surroundings (i.e., the player must state that the goblin is using this particular talent to gain information).

• Detect the existence of new construction: 25%
• Detect sliding or shifting rooms or walls: 25%
• Detect traps involving stonework: 25%

Multi-Class Restrictions: The more restrictive of any two class requirements apply to multi-classed goblins for the use class abilities.

Permitted Class Options: Cleric, Fighter, Thief, Cleric/Thief, Cleric/Magic-User, Fighter/Thief

Movement Rate: 60 feet

Starting Age:

• Cleric: 10+2d4
• Fighter: 5+2d4
• Thief: 10+2d4

Racial Limitations

Minimum/Maximum Ability Scores: If, after adjustments, the ability scores rolled do not fall within these limits, then the race of goblin is not a valid choice for the character.

• Strength 5/17
• Dexterity 8/19
• Constitution 6/18
• Intelligence 3/15
• Wisdom 3/13
• Charisma 3/12

Level Limitations

• Assassin: NA
• Cleric: 7
• Druid: NA
• Fighter: 5 (STR 17), 4 (STR 16), 3 (STR 15 and below)
• Illusionist: NA
• Magic-User: 4
• Paladin: NA
• Ranger: NA
• Thief: 8 (DEX 17 or higher), 7 (DEX 16 or below)

Tags: OSRIC

Let’s take a look at cloud giants from 1981 to today, specifically focusing on the giants’ cloud castles. We start with a survey of the cloud giant across five editions and three decades, ending with OSRIC, which largely repeats 1E AD&D.

D&D Expert: “[Cloud giants] live in castles in the sides of mountains or atop masses of clouds.” Cloud giants have no magical abilities.

1E AD&D: “Unlike the commoner sorts of giants, cloud giants usually reside in crude castles built atop mountains or on magical cloud islands.” Cloud-dwelling cloud giants can levitate.

2E AD&D: “The majority of cloud giants live on cloud-covered mountain peaks in temperate and sub-tropical areas. These giants make their lairs in crude castles. Only 10% of good cloud giants live in castles on enchanted clouds. …. Cloud lairs are fantastic places with giant-sized gardens of fruit trees. According to legend, some giants mine their cloud islands for small chunks of the purest silver.” Cloud-dwelling cloud giants can levitate and create fog clouds and walls of fog.

3E D&D: “The majority of cloud giants dwell on cloud-covered mountain peaks, making their lairs in crude castles. …. About 10% of the population builds castles on enchanted cloud islands and tends to be isolated from other cloud giants.” These cloud giants have magical abilities similar to 2E AD&D cloud giants.

5E D&D: “[Cloud giants] dwell in castles on high mountain peaks, or on the solid clouds that once held their fiefs. Still gracing the skies on occasion, these magic clouds are a lasting remnant of the giants’ lost empires.” Descriptions of cloud islands include “extraordinary gardens” with giant-sized fruits and vegetables. Cloud-dwelling cloud giants “keep griffons, perytons, and wyverns” in much the same way some “nobles keep an aerie for hunting hawks”. 5E D&D cloud giants possess the most magical abilities. They can detect magic; create fog clouds and light; use feather fall, fly, misty step, and telekinesis; can control weather; and assume gaseous form.

OSRIC: “Cloud giants usually live in giant castles at high elevations. When not high up in the mountains, their castles on on clouds given substance by magic.” Cloud-dwelling cloud giants can levitate.

In 1E, 2E, 3E, and OSRIC, only cloud-dwelling giants have magical abilities, the base of which is the ability to levitate, which makes getting to and from their cloud islands a bit easier. Only one in ten cloud giants have this magical ability, and these cloud giants tend to have higher intelligence compared to their ground-bound kin. D&D Expert cloud giants cannot levitate, which means those that dwell in the clouds must reach them via more mundane means. With 5E, all cloud giants possess a range of magical abilities, most of which fit the theme of living in the clouds. (I’m a bit skeptical of telekinesis, which I’m think ought to be replaced with gust of wind.)

If we ignore secondary sources, such as material related to the Forgotten Realms, the origin of cloud islands remains undefined. Did cloud giants create them? Did cloud islands occur naturally? Did some other creature create the cloud islands for the cloud giants, or did cloud giants conquer the cloud islands? I like 5E’s idea that the cloud islands once formed a sort of feudal cloud nation; this idea probably originated with the Forgotten Realms, which is 5E’s default setting.

From Whence Cloud Islands?

Ages ago, followers of Yan-C-Bin, the Prince of Evil Air, opened gates between Elemental Air and the Prime Material Plane. Through those gates floated cloud islands, which Yan-C-Bin’s most powerful clerics and magic-users anchored to mountain peaks and then enslaved the mountain peoples of the region. Over a period of many decades, a combination of slave labor and magic built Hua-B-Nroog, a series of fortresses, monasteries, cathedrals, and towns that formed a cloud nation devoted to the Prince of Evil Air.

From Whence Cloud Giants?

Some cloud giant chieftains looked up from their mountaintop lairs and grew envious. Others looked down at the enslaved mountain people and grew angry. The disparate cloud giant clans formed an army, gathered allies, and went to war against Yan-C-Bin’s followers. After years of savage fighting, the cloud giants emerged victorious. They took Hua-B-Nroog as their own.

From Whence Civil War?

From the start of the war against Hua-B-Nroog, cloud giant chieftains had divided aims. Some fought to free the enslaved mountain peoples from the tyranny of the Prince of Evil Air. Others, however, sought to impose their own tyranny. Each side used the other as a means to their different ends. When the war ended and peace began, the tension between cloud giant factions increased to the breaking point. Civil war engulfed Hua-B-Nroog.

One freedom-loving cloud giant hero fought his way into the heart of Hua-B-Nroog’s largest cathedral. There he shattered the Calming Eye, a magical gemstone that kept Hua-B-Nroog’s various islands stable during even the most violent storms. Other good giants sundered the mountaintop anchors. Hua-B-Nroog broke apart, its cloud islands scattered by the winds.

Tags: monsters, OSRIC, place of power

It’s been a few days since I’ve written about OSRIC. My son Christopher and I were out of town visiting Clear Creek Monastery in eastern Oklahoma, and we were largely sans internet during that time. Now that I’m back home and back on summer vacation, it’s time to get to work.

Two of my favorite D&D books from two different eras of the game are AD&D’s Oriental Adventures and 3E D&D’s Oriental Adventures. (Nota Bene: Those are affiliate links; if you click and purchase, I get a few pennies.) While I just adore both of these books, they have seldom found use in any game I’ve ever participated in. I’ve used bits and pieces of both as DM, introducing OA monsters and spells into non-OA settings. Lately, I’ve been thinking I’d like do something more with the OA source material.

In the AD&D incarnation of OA, the magic-user analog is the wu jen, who “are sorcerers, men of mysterious power. They command the elements, spirit forces, and the very powers of nature.” That sounds exciting. The aforementioned elements come in five flavors: earth (including metal), water, fire, wind, and wood (including nature). A wu jen who “learns all of the spells of a single element up to the highest level of spell he can cast” has mastered that element. The 3E OA wu jen has a similar class feature.

The division of spells into five elements pretty much required modifying the magic-user’s spell lists, introducing many new spells in the process. While I’ve never played either OA enough to say for certain, my impression is that the wu jen’s spells are weaker than the magic-user’s spells. If I were putting together a group of adventures, and I had a choice between a 5th-level wu jen or a 5th-level magic-user, I’d go for the latter. Maybe.

So, what does this have to do with OSRIC? Am I proposing to convert AD&D’s OA to OSRIC?

Well, answering in reverse: No, and permit me to explain.

It might be possible to modify OSRIC’s rules a bit so that the magic-user’s spell list becomes a wu jen’s spell list. This starts with a modifier that applies to many spells:

Variable Special Effect: A wu jen’s spells do not have defined sources related to their effects. In other words, a magic missile is not “a magical energy dart”. A lightning bolt is not “a bolt of lightning” nor is a stinking cloud “a nauseating cloud of vapors”. The wu jen determines the elemental manifestation of his spells when he casts them. This might modify the effects of the spell, as determined by the DM, but most of the time the effects are cosmetic.

Next up, we must turn to the wu jen with an addendum to the magic-user’s basic class ability:

Spellcasting: At first level, a wu jen chooses one of the five elements. This is his keyed element, but he has knowledge of the other four. When a wu jen memorizes his spells, he assigns an element to each spell. This helps determine the effects of the spell when it is cast. Once per day at 1st level, a wu jen may invest a spell with additional power from his keyed element. Doing so has one of the following effects (chosen by the wu jen):

• The wu jen may ignore a spell component of his choice.
• The spell’s range and duration are increased by 25%. This does not apply to a range of Caster or Touch or to a duration of Instantaneous.
• The spell’s casting time is reduced by 50% (but to no less than 1 segment).
• Saving throws against the spell are made with a -1 penalty.
• For effects not related to range and duration, the spell takes effect as if the wu jen’s caster level were one higher.

When a wu jen gains access to a new level of spells, he gains another use of this keyed element ability. At 3rd, 5th, 8th, and 11th levels, a wu jen adds another key element to his repretoire. Thus, by 11th level, a wu jen has mastered all five elements.

So, what might this look like in play? Eric created Chen Mengjia, a 1st-level wu jen, at the start of the campaign. Mengjia can invest his spells with keyed elemental power twice per day. Through skill and luck, the wu jen has advanced to third level. He has two keyed elements: fire and wind. Mengjia memorizes his spells for the day, assigning an element to each spell.

1st-Level: magic missile (earth), shield (air)
2nd-Level: scare (fire)

During the course of his adventuring day, Mengjia encounters a group of skeletal guardians. He casts magic missile, sending two magical stones hurtling towards the targets. More skeletal guardians arrive, and these have crossbows. Mengjia fears a lengthy battle. He imbues his shield of air with fire. A shimmering barrier of magical heat appears. It has a duration of 19 rounds (the normal 5 rounds/level plus 25%). Later when facing a pair of cockatrices, Mengjia imbues his scare spell with air. A fiery, howling apparition quickly manifests and vanishes. One cockatrice must make its saving throw against scare with a -1 penalty.

Tags: Character Classes, Oriental Adventures, OSRIC

Today, I continue to explore expanding OSRIC to include narrative elements inspired by Margaret Weis Productions’ Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Game (MHRG). In the first post on this topic, I looked at how characters and monsters create assets and complications that affect Attack, Defense, Saving Throws, and Damage. It’s now time to turn to noncombat applications of the idea (“noncombat” meaning not applicable to Attack, Defense, Saving Throws, or Damage).

OSRIC does not have a skill system, and I’m certainly not proposing to add one. Instead, I’m going to start with tried-and-true idea of ability checks, which were widely used as a house rule in 1E AD&D, morphing into nonweapon proficiencies with 2E AD&D.

An ability check is simple. The player proposes a course of action, the success of which is not obvious. The DM designates an ability score that governs that action and determines the action’s difficulty. The players rolls one or more dice and compares the result to the ability score to determine success. The lower the result, the better.

Let’s formalize some of this by tying the number of dice rolled to the difficulty of the action. The harder the action, the more dice the player rolls, which leads to higher totals on average and reduces the odds of success.

Easy: 2d6
Average: 3d6
Hard: 4d6
Heroic: 5d6
Nigh Impossible: 6d6

The player rolls and totals the results of the indicated number of dice. If this total is equal to or less than the governing ability score, the character succeeds. (Nota Bene: This system assumes that no other part of the rules covers the proposed action. For example, it wouldn’t be used to open a door as that task is already governed by Strength.)

For example, Wiggles the halfling thief wants to jump up on a table in order to pull a tapestry down onto a well-armed and armored ogre. Can Wiggles make the jump onto the table? There’s no good reason why he ought not be able to try. The DM judges that Wiggles’s height compared to the table’s height added to the constricted area due to the ogre and other combatants makes jumping onto the table on Average task governed by Wiggles’s Strength of 11. Christopher rolls 3d6, totals the dice, and compares the result to Wiggles’s Strength.

But, what if there’s something in Wiggles’s background that hints he’s good at jumping? How does this factor in?

Going back to MHRG, we find the concept of Distinctions, which are “defining backgrounds, personality traits, or catchphrases that summarize important facets of the hero’s outlook and approach to life.” An MHRG hero usually has three Distinctions, one of which helps form the dice pool rolled to determine success. Applied to OSRIC during character creation, a player should write three Distinctions for his character. Of course, the DM must approve these Distinctions.

For example, Christopher wrote these Distinctions for Wiggles: Circus Runaway, Plans for the Worst, and Shy, Yet Brave

We can now see that the reason Wiggles thinks he can make the jump onto the table in the middle of a pitched melee is because Wiggles spent time with a circus. This Distinction does not require an action to get into play. It is part of the character’s background. Consequently, Wiggles enjoys the benefit of an asset die when doing things related to having worked for a circus. Since Wiggles is a 2nd-level thief, his asset die size is d4. Christopher rolls 3d6 and 1d4, and subtracts the d4 from the total (because the d4 is a benefit and goal is get the lowest possible total). He rolls 3, 4, and 6 on the 3d6 and 3 on the 1d4, giving a total of 10 (3 + 4 + 6 – 3). Wiggles succeeds!

Another thing to note is that the modifier provided by an asset or complication might apply to a task governed by a d% roll. In this case, treat each unit as plus or minus 5% to the d% result.

For example, Wiggles needs to sneak past a couple of guards. Being only a 2nd-level thief, his move silently chance is not impressive, but it’s much better than Bric’s and Brac’s chances. Since Wiggles Plans for the Worst, Christopher explains how Wiggles carefully studies the routes so as to maximize staying out of line of sight while minimizing the odds of stumbling over something or stepping on something noisy. The DM thinks this sounds a lot like creating an asset. Christopher rolls 1d20 + 2 (Wiggles’s level) – 1 (since each guard is a 0-level NPC, the DM rules they count as half a Hit Die each). Christopher rolls a 16, which yields a result well above the 11 needed to create an asset. Wiggles gets his d4 asset die, which translates into a 5-20% modifier to Wiggles’s chance to move silently.

A final caveat: Care must be exercised with Distinctions. They should probably not ever directly affect Attack, Defense, Damage, or Saving Throws, at least not without having to create an asset or complication as previously described. Distinctions can otherwise apply more or less automatically to a wide range of activities, or they can be used to create assets and complications.

Tags: 1E AD&D, Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, OSRIC