I've had two concerns related to Dungeons & Dragons over the last week. I'll get to the main one shortly, as it's the bulk and main point of the post. As for the other, it seems that the copy of Avalon Hill's Outdoor Survival that I ordered has been lost in the mail. I ordered it on December 3rd, and it has yet to arrive. Yes, shipping from the US to Australia can take a long time... but Fedex tracking has no update for its location past December 12, so I don't hold out much hope. I messaged Noble Knight Games, and they've offered me a refund or a replacement, which is quite excellent customer service. I'm going to wait another couple of weeks and hope the first copy shows up (or at least gets a tracking update). But if not, I'll have to get them to send me an update. I need that game board! Gary and Dave said so!
With that out of the way, I'll move on to my second concern.
For a while now I've been reviewing the original D&D rules, finally nailing down the interpretations I'm going with, and filling in the gaps. Original D&D is more of a framework than a complete rule-set, so there are a lot of gaps to fill, especially when coming to it from the perspective of someone who's familiar with the editions that came after. I really should be getting to the creative part of the process, designing maps and keys for my dungeon and wilderness setting, but I feel like I have to figure out the rules before I get to that. One thing at a time, slow and steady, etc. etc. These are the things I tell myself as I push the hard work to the side... but seriously, without the rules there is no game, so I gotta figure those out first.
The main aspect of the rules that's on my mind right now is the "normal man". It's a term that gets used a bunch of times in the original D&D rules without ever being properly defined. One might think it refers to your average peasant, merchant, farmer, or internet blogger; a regular dude with no particular combat skills or special abilities of any kind. But in original D&D, a "normal man" is equivalent in combat to a 1st level fighter, and can be anything from a bandit to a pirate to a nomad of the steppes; pretty much any human who is part of a fighting force without actually being a fighter, cleric or magic-user. That's all simple enough, but it gets thorny when we look at the following rule for monsters:
Attack/Defence capabilities versus normal men are simply a matter of allowing one roll as a man-type for every hit die, with any bonuses being given to only one of the attacks, i.e. a Troll would attack six times, once with a +3 added to the die roll.
Translating from the arcane language known as Ye Olde ArnGaxian, what this means is that anything classified as a "normal man" is going to suffer multiple attacks per round when fighting stronger monsters (i.e. anything with 2 Hit Dice or more). In addition, there are some monsters that are said to be immune to attacks from normal men, unless they're armed with magic weapons. So it's important to figure out exactly which characters and monsters are classified as normal men, because the answer is going to be hugely relevant when it comes to fighting certain monsters (and higher-level non-player characters). The following questions must be answered:
- Can high-level player characters armed with normal weapons damage monsters that are immune to normal weapons?
- Are low-level player characters subject to multiple attacks when fighting high Hit Dice monsters?
- Which monsters are subject to multiple attacks when fighting high-level PCs?
The first place I always look to for guidance on original D&D conundrums is Gary Gygax's Advanced D&D. (Apologies to all of the B/X enthusiasts out there. At least in this case, the various Basic Sets offer no guidance, so I'm off the hook.) AD&D uncharacteristically provides some fairly simple solutions to the whole matter:
- Fighters and their sub-classes can attack monsters with less than 1 HD a number of times equal to their level. This ability applies only to fighter classes, not to monsters or any other type of characters.
- Monsters with 4+1 HD or more can hit creatures that are otherwise only damaged by magical weapons. This ability doesn't apply to PCs, who must be armed with a magic weapon to get through this immunity.
So AD&D has answers to the questions I posed above. 1) High-level PCs need magic weapons to fight monsters immune to normal weapons. 2) Low-level PCs aren't subject to multiple attacks from this rule, because they all have 1 Hit Die; the ability only applies to creatures of less than 1 HD. And 3) Yes, high-level PCs get one attack per level against weaker monsters... but only fighters and their sub-classes.
For the sake of consistency, it's tempting to go with these interpretations and call it a day. But I'm trying to operate by the original D&D rules as closely as I can, and they specifically grant this multiple attack ability to monsters. AD&D does not. Consistency be damned, I need to look elsewhere for my answers.
When AD&D fails me, the place to look is the Chainmail medieval war-game. It is, after all, what original D&D points to for its combat rules. This is unfortunate, because Chainmail has multiple combat systems, and the line between them can get a bit blurry. And how they intersect with D&D can get even blurrier... But basically, the Chainmail systems boil down as follows: there are rules for medieval soldier fighting in mass combat; there are rules for medieval soldiers fighting one-on-one; and there are rules for "fantasy combat", which come into play when wizards, powerful fighters, and monsters fight each other.
This fantasy combat system is where our answer lies as far as figuring out what counts as a "normal man". There's a list of characters and monsters that can fight on the Fantasy Combat Table; everything else fights using the mass combat and man-to-man rules for regular soldiers. I feel like finding the dividing line between the fantasy combat system and those for regular soldiers is the key to figuring out what counts as a "normal man". So which creatures fight on the Fantasy Combat Table? I'll list them below, with their D&D Hit Dice listed in brackets.
- Balrogs (10 Hit Dice)
- Dragons (5 to 12 HD)
- Elementals (8, 12 or 16 HD)
- Also includes Djinn (7+1 HD) and Efreet (10 HD)
- Ents (8 HD)
- Giants (8 to 12+2 HD)
- Heroes (4th level fighters; 4 HD)
- Lycanthropes (4 or 6 HD)
- Rocs (6 HD)
- Also includes Wyverns (7 HD) and Griffons (7 HD)
- Super Heroes (8th level fighters; 8+2 HD)
- Trolls (6+3 HD)
- Ogres (4+1 HD)
- Wights (3 HD)
- Ghouls (2 HD)
- Wizards (11th level magic-users; 8+1 HD)
- This also includes Sorcerers (9th level, 6+1 HD), Warlocks (8th level, 5 HD), and Magicians (6th level, 3+1 HD)
- Wraiths (4 HD)
And now, here are the monsters in Chainmail that do not fight on the Fantasy Combat Table:
- Hobbits (unknown HD in D&D as they have no monster entry, but presumably 1 HD or less)
- Sprites/Pixies (1 HD)
- Dwarves/Gnomes (1 HD)
- Kobolds (1/2 HD)
- Goblins (1-1 HD)
- Elves (1+1 HD)
- Elves are a bit of a special case, because they can fight on the Fantasy Combat Table if armed with a magic weapon
- Orcs (1 HD)
That seems pretty cut and dried to me: the weakest monster on the Fantastic Combat Table is the Ghoul, with 2 HD. The strongest creature outside of it is the Elf, with 1+1 HD. So it looks like anything with less than 2 HD is a "normal man" in original D&D.
I'd like to be able to apply that universally to the questions I posed above, but it has some game-play effects that I don't love. Firstly, it makes 1st level PC parties extremely prone to death-by-monster. Secondly, it means that parties of 2nd level and above won't need magic weapons to fight such creatures as Wraiths, Elementals, etc. So, as in AD&D, I think I need to apply the "normal man" term a little bit differently in each case.
Looking at original D&D, every level in each character class has its Chainmail equivalent listed. This also indicates when each class gets the ability to fight on the Fantasy Combat Table: 3rd level for Fighting-Men (3 HD); 7th level for Magic-Users (4 HD); and 6th level for Clerics (5 HD).
I'm happy to use these numbers for when the various character classes are able to fight monsters without magic weapons. If I need an explanation, I can say that higher-level characters have a certain level of divine favour mixed in with their own extraordinary capabilities.
As for monsters, I'll go with 4 HD as the threshold, as in AD&D. Wights and Ghouls are the only monsters with less than 4 HD on the Fantasy Combat Table, but as creatures of the undead they have a little extra going for them, allowing them to break the 4 HD rule. I could lower the monster threshold to 2 HD... but then it includes Horses, which seems a little silly. I'm already having enough trouble with the idea of warhorses getting multiple attacks vs. normal men...
Working out which creatures are subject to multiple attacks is trickier, because I'd really rather not have it apply to all 1st level PCs. I could just say that PCs are exempt, but I don't love that. I'd like any rule I come up with to apply to monsters and PCs equally. I could make 1+1 HD the cut-off, which would exempt 1st level fighters... but then it's inconsistent with Chainmail's Elves. I don't love that either, but for D&D gameplay I think it's the best solution. And Elves are technically on the Fantasy Combat Table... so I can justify it at a stretch.
As for who gets multiple attacks per round equal to their Hit Dice when fighting "normal men"... I'm going to say everyone. Unlike AD&D, I'm not keeping this as a special ability for fighters. In my game, fighters get it, other character classes get it, and monsters get it. It only applies if everyone you're in melee with counts as a "normal man", so most PC parties will be able to avoid it as long as they have a fighter along. But it really lets those monsters chew through henchmen... And it'll allow high-level PC parties to mow through large numbers of mook monsters very quickly.
So here are my rules outlined below:
- All characters and monsters, when fighting creatures of 1 Hit Dice or less, can make one attack per round for each of their own HD.
- Note that these attacks are all made as though the attacker was 1st level or had 1 HD. (This is my interpretation of the attacker making "one roll as a man-type for every hit die".) The attacker may choose to fight as normal if they wish (making their regular number of attacks at their full HD value).
- If there is an opponent with 1+1 HD or more within melee distance, this ability may not be used
- A full list of 1 HD or lower monsters in original D&D: Men (bandits, brigands, nomads, buccaneers, pirates), Kobolds, Goblins, Orcs, Skeletons, Nixies, Pixies, Gnomes, Dwarves
- Some monsters may only be hurt by magical weapons. The following creatures can damage them using non-magical weapons:
- Fighting-Men of 3rd level or higher
- Clerics of 6th level or higher
- Magic-Users of 7th level or higher
- All monsters of 4 HD or more, plus Ghouls and Wights
That will have to do. If I don't draw a line under it now, I'll keep tinkering with it and changing my mind. If it doesn't work at the table, then it doesn't work and I'll have to change it. It's easy to second-guess these things when you only have your own thoughts to fall back on, but the only true litmus test is play.
