Celebrating 2020 - The Year of Blackmoor - 50th Anniversary of Blackmoor and of Role-Playing!
Today is Part 55 (Part B) of my series of looks at OD&D, 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.**
Continuing with Miscellaneous Magic:
It can be a lot of fun finding out that "Word of Command" and note that it will come to the owner from a distance of 24" away. This makes it a very useful item. The ability to carry a passenger is also useful in crossing rivers, chasms and other obstructions.
Every Magic-User wants this item and I have see some real bidding wars between players for this item, as each tries to buy the others off.
It can be dangerous to try to read the thoughts of very powerful creatures. Examples would be Vampires, Dragons and Ents.
One must remember that the Teleportation Spell has a chance of failure. I reduced the chance of failure by 1/3 with respect for the various situations detailed for the spell. For instance, if no certain knowledge of the location being teleported too, then instead of rolling less than 75% being failure and death, it is now rolling less than 50% being failure and death. And so on with normal rounding to two digits.
An Artifact version of this exists that makes the change permanent (can only be reversed with a wish) and it can be used on person after person after person. (more about Artifact tomorrow)
This is the speedster of the magical flight items. It will come to the owner from 30" away instead of 24". This item also requires a "Word of Command."
If your adventuring party cannot fit within that 1" radius you have a problem. This also tends to prevent them from being used when moving, depending on the size of the party. This does not give the range of effect, so I used a 36" radius as the area of effect minus the 1" radius at the center. For Duration I used 5 Turns for the length of time they will flee.
I interpreted this as a cone with a base of 2" (i.e. wear the user is standing), The 10" in length and 5" wide at the maximum distance.
Also added were Gauntlets of Troll Power which operation in similar fashion to the Gauntlets of Ogre Power.
There was one of these for each type of Giant. There was also one for the Cyclopes, a super strength giant with poor depth perception which affects the hit probability.
I love Magic Mirrors and I put a lot of them into the game that all did various things. Also had mirrors that were Artifacts, more on that tomorrow.
Tomorrow we look at Magical Items' Savings Throws and there is a surprise in that which most people miss. and then we will talk about Artifacts a bit.
Today is Part 55 (Part B) of my series of looks at OD&D, 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.**
Continuing with Miscellaneous Magic:
It can be a lot of fun finding out that "Word of Command" and note that it will come to the owner from a distance of 24" away. This makes it a very useful item. The ability to carry a passenger is also useful in crossing rivers, chasms and other obstructions.
Every Magic-User wants this item and I have see some real bidding wars between players for this item, as each tries to buy the others off.
It can be dangerous to try to read the thoughts of very powerful creatures. Examples would be Vampires, Dragons and Ents.
One must remember that the Teleportation Spell has a chance of failure. I reduced the chance of failure by 1/3 with respect for the various situations detailed for the spell. For instance, if no certain knowledge of the location being teleported too, then instead of rolling less than 75% being failure and death, it is now rolling less than 50% being failure and death. And so on with normal rounding to two digits.
An Artifact version of this exists that makes the change permanent (can only be reversed with a wish) and it can be used on person after person after person. (more about Artifact tomorrow)
This is the speedster of the magical flight items. It will come to the owner from 30" away instead of 24". This item also requires a "Word of Command."
If your adventuring party cannot fit within that 1" radius you have a problem. This also tends to prevent them from being used when moving, depending on the size of the party. This does not give the range of effect, so I used a 36" radius as the area of effect minus the 1" radius at the center. For Duration I used 5 Turns for the length of time they will flee.
I interpreted this as a cone with a base of 2" (i.e. wear the user is standing), The 10" in length and 5" wide at the maximum distance.
Also added were Gauntlets of Troll Power which operation in similar fashion to the Gauntlets of Ogre Power.
There was one of these for each type of Giant. There was also one for the Cyclopes, a super strength giant with poor depth perception which affects the hit probability.
I love Magic Mirrors and I put a lot of them into the game that all did various things. Also had mirrors that were Artifacts, more on that tomorrow.
Tomorrow we look at Magical Items' Savings Throws and there is a surprise in that which most people miss. and then we will talk about Artifacts a bit.
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