2020 - The Year of Blackmoor - 50th Anniversary - Day Eighty-Six

Celebrating 2020 - The Year of Blackmoor - 50th Anniversary of Blackmoor and of Role-Playing!

Today is Part 31 of my series of looks at OD&D starting with Monsters & Treasure Volume 2.

**For those coming in, in the middle of this series I am giving you my take on OD&D during my first exposure starting in Sept of 1975. For this first part it is just the first three books of the original woodgrain box set and prior to obtaining the Greyhawk, Blackmoor and later Supplements.**

So on with the monsters - today the Undead:

SKELETONS/ZOMBIES: Skeletons and Zombies act only under the instructions of their motivator, be it a Magic-User or Cleric (Chaos). They are usually only found near graveyards, forsaken places, and dungeons; but there is a possibility of their being located elsewhere to guard some item (referee’s option). There is never any morale check for these monsters; they will always attack until totally wiped out.

Skeletons per the movie inspirations of Ray Harryhausen use weapons, at least the humanoid ones of human size do. Remember that skeletons can be any creature both animals and monsters. An elephant graveyard could be a deadly peril.

Zombies we assumed were the dead who had not been dead long enough to be reduced to skeletons and so these were rotting corpses with a stomach turning smell and a source of every imaginable disease. If you were near a graveyard you would get both, an old battlefield you would get skeletons, a very recent battlefield you would get zombies and so forth.

GHOULS: As stated in CHAINMAIL for Wights, Ghouls paralyze any normal figure they touch, excluding Elves. They otherwise melee in the regular fashion and are subject to missile fire. Any man-type killed by a Ghoul becomes one.

If you throw in ghouls several times over several games, it is amazing how many people decide their next character will be an elf. Ghouls are self-motivated and have their own agendas unless under the direct control of a Magic-User or Cleric (Chaos).

WIGHTS: Wights are nasty critters who drain away life energy levels when they score a hit in melee, one level per hit. Thus a hit removes both the hit die and the corresponding energy to fight, i.e. a 9th-level fighter would drop to 8th level. Wights cannot be affected by normal missile fire, but silver-tipped arrows will score normal damage, and magic arrows will score double hits upon them. Magical weapons will score full hits upon them, and those with a special bonus add the amount of the bonus in hit points to the hits scored. Men-types killed by Wights become Wights. An opponent who is totally drained of life energy by a Wight becomes a Wight.

As silver-tipped arrows will score normal damage, I ruled that any silver or silver coated weapon will score normal damage. Players hate level drain. Wights are self-motivated and have their own agendas unless under the direct control of a Magic-User or Cleric (Chaos).

WRAITHS: These monsters are simply high-class Wights with more mobility, hit dice, and treasure. Hits by silver-tipped arrows will score only 1/2 die of damage, and magic arrows only score 1 die of damage when they hit.

So any silver or silver coated weapon will score 1/2 die of normal damage and magic weapons will score 1 die of damage when they hit. Wraiths are self-motivated and have their own agendas unless under the direct control of a Magic-User or Cleric (Chaos).

MUMMIES: Mummies do not drain life energy as Wights and Wraiths do, but instead their touch causes a rotting disease which makes wounds take ten times the usual time for healing. A Cleric can reduce this to only twice as long with a Cure Disease spell if administered within an hour. Only magic weaponry will hit Mummies, and all hits and bonuses are at one-half value against them. Note, however, that Mummies are vulnerable to fire, including the ordinary kind such as a torch.

Mummies are self-motivated and have their own agendas unless under the direct control of a Magic-User or Cleric (Chaos). Magic Swords which are purpose swords against Undead will do full damage both hits and bonuses. Select other powerful magical weapons, may also do full damage.

SPECTRES: These monsters have no corporeal body which makes them totally impervious to all normal weaponry (but can be struck by all magical weapons), including silver-tipped arrows. They drain two life energy levels when they score a hit. Men-types killed by Spectres become Spectres under the control of the one who made them.

Any silver or silver coated weapon will score normal damage. Wights are self-motivated and have their own agendas unless under the direct control of a Magic-User or Cleric (Chaos). With the drain of two life energy levels per hit, defeating these monsters quickly is a high priority. My players learned to use silver coated tridents or silver coated spears with a boar guard set versus charge to good effect. A couple of years later, which I am not covering right now, one Magic-Users researched a Disruption Spell to target Spectres and Vampires.

VAMPIRES: These monsters are properly of the “Undead” class rather than Lycanthropes. If they are exposed to direct rays of sunlight, immersed in running water, or impaled through the heart with a wooden stake they are killed; otherwise they can be hit only as Spectres, but such hits do not kill them but only force them to assume gaseous form if they lose all hit points. Vampires drain two life energy levels as do Spectres when they hit an opponent in combat. They regenerate during combat as do Trolls, but they do so immediately upon being hit at the rate of three hit points per turn. Vampires can command help by calling to them from 10 to 100 rats or bats or from 3 to 18 wolves. They can polymorph themselves into either a huge bat or into a gaseous form, doing either at will. They Charm men-types merely by looking into their eyes (treat as a Charm Person spell with a minus 2 for the object’s saving throw against magic). Vampires cannot abide the smell of garlic, the face of a mirror, or the sight of a cross. They will fall back from these if strongly presented. They must always return to a coffin whose bottom is covered with soil from their native land during the daylight hours. Men-types killed by Vampires become Vampires under the control of the one who made them.

Vampires are self-motivated and have their own agendas unless under the direct control of a very powerful Magic-User or Cleric (Chaos).If under the control of a Magic-User or Cleric (Chaos) they get a saving throw twice per day as they will never stop trying to break free of control.  As I did for Trolls, Vampires also regenerate at 1 hit point per melee round or 10 hit points per turn. 

Players learned that you can pin a Vampire down with a minimum of three magical or silver coated spears(with boar guard) or tridents that all hit the same round allowing a wooden stake to possibly be driven through the heart the same round, so the stake wielder must be ready to pounce. The stake wielder has a +4 to hit in such cases; however, there is a 50% chance that the Vampire will turn gaseous before the blow may be struck. 

The aforementioned Disruption Spell also works on the gaseous phase Vampire, but as I said that came later on and not in this initial period. We also added a Ghost to the list, but that also came a little later on.

Clerics and temples do a brisk business in areas that have vampires.

Of course if you can find the coffin, carry it out into full daylight and then open it, that works very well too.

Tomorrow we will continue on.