Spes Magna Games

One week into the 30-Day D&D Challenge brings me to my favorite edition and another cop-out post. I don’t really have a favorite edition. I’ve played every edition of D&D up to but excluding 4E. I’ve enjoyed them all. Nowadays, if I’m GMing, I’d prefer to avoid editions later than 2E. I find them too work-intensive for game prep, and I no longer have that kind of time or energy. If I’m not GMing, but instead am actually getting to run a PC, I don’t think it’d matter to me much which edition I was playing. They all have their good and bad points.

That said, I would like to get to play in a 0E game again. It’s been more than two decades since I got to do that. I vaguely remember the last time 0E was on the table. I made up a halfling. That was it. Both his race and his class were halfling. I don’t recall the specifics about which flavor of 0E it was. I think that Jeff Dee’s picture of the long-haired human squatting to talk to one or more halflings was on the page that described what halflings could do.

Unfortunately, for the foreseeable future, I’m the GM for Man Day Adventures, so the odds of me getting another chance to play that halfling seem small.

Ah, well. Next up, here’s a new monster and a spell to go with it.

Hungry Ghost
Hit Dice: 2
Armor Class: 7 [12]
Attacks: 2 claws (1d3), 1 gore (1d4)
Saving Throw: 16
Special: Clairvoyance, teleport
Move: 6
Alignment: Chaos
Challenge Level/XP: 4/120

A hungry ghost is a horrible undead creature that appears as a humanoid with a deformed body: spindly limbs, tusks like a boar and claws, a long and slender neck, and a bloated abdomen. A hungry ghost was a person with a passion for some pleasure that ruled his life, leading him to commit all manner of crimes to sate his inordinate desires. In undeath, this inordinate desire becomes insatiable hunger, made all the more torturous since the hungry ghost cannot gulp down food through its scrawny neck without suffering terrible pain. Hungry ghosts can see through solid stone and other obstacles within a range of 60 feet. Hungry ghosts can also teleport short distances (up to 15 feet). It can do so and attack in the same turn. In most cases (75%), a hungry ghost teleports behind an opponent and attacks from the rear (with appropriate bonuses). These monsters cannot see through obstacles that have been appropriately blessed or that stand on consecrated ground. Likewise, they cannot teleport through or within such places.

Jautan’s Abhorrent Attendants
Spell Level: Magic-User, 5th Level
Range: Referee’s Discretion
Duration: 1 day

This spell conjures hungry ghosts. 1d4 hungry ghosts are conjured per level of the caster above 8th. The monsters remain until slain or until 24 have passed.

Tags: 30 Day D&D Challenge, monsters, Swords & Wizardry

First up, the 30-Day D&D Challenge about my favorite class!

Thief. Hands down. No contest. I enjoy the dichotomoy between the thief’s obvious role (the one who steals stuff) and the heroic role that I prefer the game to focus on. My thieves have often been people who want to be out for numero uno, to get rich off the sweat of other folk’s brows, et cetera, but cannot escape the nagging persistence of conscience. This has resulted in some unusual in-play situations.

Back in the day, my friend Fred and I would take turns DMing little solo adventures for each other’s characters. Most often, these involved something happening in a town, and the sessions were often ad-libbed. During one such session with Fred as DM, my most-used PC, Lord Jon Korbok, dwarven fighter/thief, stumbled past a dark alley wherein a youth was being mugged by a gang of ruffians. Korbok loudly scoffed at the ruffians’ technique. He then thrashed the lot of them to show them how a real ruffian takes care of business. After the fight, the exchange went something like this:

Fred as the Rescued Youth: Gosh! Thanks for saving me!

Me as Korbok: Shut up, and give me your gold.

Ah, good times.

And now, a dangerous quartet of alluring villains!

The Seekers of the Eternal Flame seek to cleanse the world of all forms of injustice. Unfortunately, the only way this can be accomplished is to eliminate injustice at its source, which lies within the hearts and minds of people. Those who are not perfectly just must be forced to be just. Those who cannot be forced to act justly must be destroyed. When the time is right, the Eternal Flame will reveal itself. The faithful will be rewarded. The unfaithful will be converted or killed.

There can be no other way.

Protective Aura: A magical aura constantly protects all four Seekers. This aura grants protection against attacks, which explains the Seekers’ Armor Class. It also renders them invulnerable to normal missiles (as protection from normal missiles).

Swords & Wizardry

Bahar
Hit Dice: 10
Armor Class: 4 [15] (vs. melee attacks) or 2 [17] (vs. missile attacks)
Attacks: Fiery touch 2d8
Saving Throw: 5
Special: Ignite materials, immune to fire, protective aura
Move: 12
Alignment: Chaos
Challenge Level/XP: 13/2,300

Bahar controls the fires of purification. Her fiery touch inflicts horrible burns and causes flammable materials to ignite if the material fails a saving throw (as determined by the Referee).

Gulzar
Hit Dice: 10
Armor Class: 4 [15] (vs. melee attacks) or 2 [17] (vs. missile attacks)
Attacks: Scimitar (1d8)
Saving Throw: 5
Special: Charming gaze, magic resistance (35%), protective aura
Move: 12
Alignment: Chaos
Challenge Level/XP: 13/2,300

Gulzar’s gaze subjects any living creature who meets it to a powerful charm effect (-2 penalty to saving throw, works as charm monster). Gulzar can never have more than 18 Hit Dice worth of creatures charmed at a time.

Minu
Hit Dice: 10
Armor Class: 4 [15] (vs. melee attacks) or 2 [17] (vs. missile attacks)
Attacks: Battle axe (1d8)
Saving Throw: 5
Special: Magic resistance (35%), protective aura, shriek
Move: 12
Alignment: Chaos
Challenge Level/XP: 13/2,300

Once every 1d6 rounds, Minu can unleash a shriek of terrible power. All creatures (except for the other Seekers, whose auras protect them from Minu’s shriek) within 50 feet Minu when she shrieks must make a saving throw. Those that fail are stunned for 2d6 rounds and suffer 2d8 points of damage.

Shokufeh
Hit Dice: 10
Armor Class: 4 [15] (vs. melee attacks) or 2 [17] (vs. missile attacks)
Attacks: Quarterstaff (1d6)
Saving Throw: 5
Special: Catch spell, magic resistance (35%), protective aura
Move: 12
Alignment: Chaos
Challenge Level/XP: 13/2,300

Shokufeh has the ability to “catch” spells that target her. If Shokufeh’s magic resistance would protect her from the spell, she “catches” the spell and can immediately “throw” it (even if it isn’t her turn to act). A “thrown” spell takes effect just as if the original caster had targeted whomever Shokufeh chooses as her target.

Tags: 30 Day D&D Challenge, monsters, NPCs, Swords & Wizardry

Before I get to the spell, I must thank WordPress.org forum posters lettergrade and alchymyth. My site here was acting goofy, and my site maintenance skills are far from being of the mad variety. I posted a query describing the problem in the aforementioned forums. Within not much more than 24 hours, lettergrade and alchymyth had clued me into the source of the problem. Huzzah!

And now…

Nishendei’s Bombastic Blustering
Spell Level: Magic-User, 3rd Level
Range: 120 feet
Duration: 1 hour + 10 minutes/level

The caster targets 1d4 persons (according to the same parameters as the Charm Person spell). Targets who fail their saving throws can do nothing but strut about while boasting and blustering about how wonderful they are. The caster may also target one person, in which case his saving throw has a penalty of -2.

Tags: spells, Swords & Wizardry, Vancian magic

A doppelgänger hails from Vioo, the barren, dark realm that exists on the other side of mirrors and mirror-like surfaces (which form the only passages through which light passes into Vioo). Most of the time, doppelgängers have no life apart from acting as reflections for whomever is facing the mirror (which isn’t to say that all reflections are doppel- gängers). These monsters hate their limited existences. They hate the fact that they fade in and out of being, and that their appearances change, and doppelgängers most of all hate the people their strange state of being forces them to mimic.

Rarely, a doppelgänger’s hatred becomes so great that the monster manages to transcend the limitations of its nature. When this happens, the doppelgänger can act independently of the person using the mirror, and the doppelgänger can even break through the mirrored surface to enter our world. Then, the doppelgänger seeks to murder and replace the person it almost perfectly duplicates.

Doppelgängers have enormous physical strength. As such, they enjoy a +2 bonus to attack rolls, and their weapon attacks (including unarmed attacks) inflict an extra 1d6 points of damage. These creatures are immune to sleep and charm, and they are considered magic resistant for purposes such as breaking through wizard lock and similar spells. They have a very good saving throw (5+) against magic of all kinds.

Swords & Wizardry

Hit Dice: 4
Armor Class: 5 [14]
Attacks: By weapon
Saving Throw: 13 (5 against magic)
Special: Enormous strength, immune to sleep and charm
Move: As humanoid mimicked
Alignment: Chaos
Challenge Level/XP: 6/400

Tags: monsters, place of power, Swords & Wizardry

The mamsako hunt shallow, muddy riverbanks where their natural coloration and ability to lie still for long periods of time make them dangerous ambush predators. These crocodilians grow to lengths of 20 feet, and they can lope about on their long legs at surprising speeds. For 1d4+1 rounds, a mamsako can gallop at a move of 12. After this, it must rest for a like number of rounds before galloping again. A victim struck by a mamsako’s bite must roll 1d6 per Hit Die versus the mamsako’s 4d6. If the mamsako wins this contest, it subjects its victim to a death roll. The victim automatically takes an additional 2d6+2 points of damage and is knocked prone.

Swords & Wizardry

Hit Dice: 4+4
Armor Class: 3 [16]
Attacks: 1 bite (2d6), 1 tail (1d6)
Saving Throw: 13
Special: Death roll, gallop, surprise foes on a 1-3
Move: 9/12 (swimming)
Alignment: Neutrality
Challenge Level/XP: 6/400

Stars Without Number

Armor Class: 3
Hit Dice: 4+4
Attack Bonus: +4
Damage: 2d6 bite/1d6 tail
No. Appearing: 3-12
Saving Throw: 13+
Movement: 30 ft. (40 ft. swimming)
Morale: 9

Tags: monsters, Stars Without Number, Swords & Wizardry