30 Day OD&D Challenge - Sahuagin and Other Creatures -(Part Two)- Day Twenty-One

Today's Topic is "Sahuagin and Other Creatures, Part Two" as we continue our celebration of International Original Dungeons and Dragons Month! Today we will delve further into the Blackmoor Supplement for OD&D looking at Aquatic Elves and Mermen.

The Blackmoor Supplement presents Aquatic Elves this way:

AQUATIC ELVES: Also called sea elves, they are akin to mermen as land elves are to men. Found almost exclusively among heavy weed beds in quiet sheltered waters, they are great friends of the dolphins. They fashion great caverns in lagoon bottoms and reefs, where they establish shops that fashion fishing and seaweed harvesting equipment from indigenous materials (bone, weed, wood and sinew). These they trade with land elves for metal goods (they are unable to forge underwater) as well as rare metals found in the sea. For every 60 sea elves, there is a 50% chance that they are accompanied by 3-6 friendly dolphins. They are humanoid in appearance, with gill slits on the throat. Seaweed affords little or no hindrance to their movement. They are invisible in weeds or on reefs. They are mortal enemies of sharks and sahuagin, and will attack either if they outnumber them. They are friends to dolphins and land elves, and neutral to all others, except for fishermen, whom they dislike due to the number of sea elves snared in nets and killed mistakenly as sahuagin by ignorant humans

Aquatic elves are mortal enemies of sharks and sahuagin we find out here and a couple of things to keep in mind at movement of 12/18 for the elves vs 18/30 for the sahuagin running away is not much of an option for them.  The only thing the elves have going for them is that they live in shallow what water near coastlines, while the sahuagin have to keep below 100' except at night or in storms, so the elves are at a big disadvantage. 

What I did was add spell use with both mages and clerics reaching up to 8th level and fighters up to 7th level. I did the numbers of higher levels similar to how I previously did for the reptile* men. I also gave them telepathy in common with their allies the dolphins, with a 25 mile range so that other clans in the areas could be summoned to help fight off a sahuagin raid. 

The other change I made is that aquatic elves can wear elven chain mail (mithril) and swim unhindered by it with mithril being of neutral buoyancy. Some of those rare metals they trade to the land elves includes mithril. 

They get a single attack of 1-10 or by weapon type. 

Their allies the dolphins are also at a disadvantage versus the giant sharks that ally with the sahuagin. Dolphins move at 15/21 vs a move of 24 for giant sharks. Hit Dice of 2+2 vs 4-9 for sharks. So I increased the pod size for dolphins from 2-20 to 6-24. Their own telepathy has a range of 50 miles along with detect magic with the same range and they are magic resistant equal to dwarves. I gave them a common telepathy with their allies the aquatic elves. The dolphins can be fitted with a harness that allows them to attack with spears attached to the harness.

The Blackmoor Supplement presents Mermen this way:

MERMEN: More intelligent than lizardmen, these aquatic creatures use weapons as men do. They hunt fish, their primary food source. They maintain regular underwater communities where schools of fish are kept penned with nets for food. Giant seahorses are used extensively for transportation. In many ways, the civilization of the mermen rivals that of humans. When out of the water, they will take one die damage per turn during daylight, and one die per four turns during darkness, as well as quadruple damage from fire weapons. Spells and special suits are usually used when out of the water (to retain their moisture) but further limit their movement and combat abilities, as if affected by a slow spell. The first two turns out of the water, they will not sustain damage, and on the third turn will seek to return to it if not protected, or suffocate from the lack thereof (hence the damage). When attacking surface vessels, they may grapple from up to 1" distant. For every ten mermen on a grapple, the ship's speed is reduced 1". If the grapple is cut while they are holding on. the mermen are forced back 1". and unable to move or grapple on the next turn.) One merman out of ten carries a grapple. When surfacing to grapple or board, mermen are subject to normal missile fire with "soft" cover. When they board a ship, they start at a level lower than the ship. Seahorses may be harnessed to the grapples, with the strength of three mermen. Mermen are armed with slings and crossbows as missile weapons, and can surface and fire from seahorseback. They are generally neutral.

Mermen get three attacks, 1 bite and 2 hands (claws) for 1/8 and 1-4 each.  I gave mermen Mages and Clerics of up to 6th level each and Fighters up to 6th level. I did the numbers of higher levels similar to how I previously did for the reptile men.

There is a standard Sea Horse that the aquatic elves use, but here it is noted that they use Giant Sea Horses. The standard Sea Horse get 1 butt of 1-6 HPs. Now over in this post  I noted that before I had the Blackmoor Supplement and only the Greyhawk Supplement I said this about a Giant Seahorses, in regard to Tritons: They ride Giant Sea Horses of 5 HD, AC 6 and they bite for 1d4. 

So what I did is alter this just a bit, I changed the bite to 1d6 and they use the butt on the initial charge and thereafter they bite. They move at 18 inches instead of 12 inches with the AC being one step better that the standard seahorse.

Tomorrow I will take a look at some of the other monsters in the Blackmoor Supplement.

* Yes I am aware that reptile is a broad category that includes lizards, for my game I separated them with reptiles being water breathing and lizards being air breathing.