AD&D Monster Manual Part 41

I'm back with another post, just to assure everyone that I'm not taking another year-long hiatus.  I've also changed up the format slightly, to make the statistical changes less awkward to write about.  (I may even figure out how to format it properly by the next post.)  Let's have at it!

ROC:

Rocs first appeared in OD&D Vol. 2.  Superficially they are still the same monster (a Bloody Big Bird), but there are some changes that alter it in significant ways.  Probably the biggest is a change in demeanor.  The original Rocs were more likely to attack Chaotic creatures and be friendly towards Lawful types.  Now Rocs are Neutral in alignment and have an animal intelligence.  They really are just big birds now, and further away from the Tolkienesque eagles they resembled before.

OD&D also has notes about the likelihood that young Rocs will be found in a nest, but here that has been dispensed with in favour of a terse note about their nests containing the treasure of former victims.  Young Rocs were previously able to be trained, but that's also been omitted. Instead we learn that Rocs are tamed and used by giants.  Perhaps the giant thing is a recent development?  It could serve to explain the change in their nature: as the giants prey on them and train them, so they become more hostile and animalistic.

It also fits with the stat changes noted below.  The steep drop in Number Appearing indicates that they've been hunted extensively by giants.  The Hit Dice totals listed below are deceptive.  In OD&D, a 6 Hit Dice Roc was standard, but the possibility for larger types with double or triple Hit Dice was given.  In the Monster Manual, only the full 18 Hit Dice variety is listed.  Again, it indicates to me that the giants have hunted out the smaller varieties.

Stat changes:         Old:        New:
Number Appearing: 1-20        1-2
Move:                     6/48         3/30
Hit Dice:                 6              18
Damage:                 4-16/4-24 3-18/4-24

ROPER:

Ropers first appeared in The Strategic Review #2, and like most of the monsters Gary created for the magazines he hasn't revised it much at all.  It's still the same weird creature, with strength-draining tentacles, immunity to lightning, resistance to cold, and a weakness against fire.  And an 80% magic resistance, to top things off.  It still has a gizzard that contains treasure, but the gem count has been dropped from 20-50 to 5-20, and they've picked up a taste for platinum.  (Treasure-gizzards are awesome.)  In OD&D, characters hit by the Roper got a save vs. poison to avoid the strength drain.  In the Monster Manual, it seems that is no longer the case.  They've also lost their immunity to Charm spells.  And their alignment has changed from Chaotic to Chaotic Evil (as per Strategic Review #6).

Stat changes: None

ROT GRUB:

It's the dreaded rot grub, making its first ever appearance in D&D!  They're normal-sized grubs that live in offal and dung, and are appropriately weak.  But if any character touches one, it will burrow into their flesh and kill them in 1-3 turns, unless fire or a cure disease spell are applied to the victim immediately.  Presumably this was Gary's home-grown deterrent for PCs who spend their time searching every nook and cranny of the dungeon.  Hey, you want to stick your hand in a pile of shit looking for treasure?  Good luck with that. 

AD&D Monster Manual Part 40

I'm back, but don't get too excited, unless you happen to like manta rays and rhinos.  It's one more step forward in the interminable slog through the Monster Manual.

MANTA RAY: Manta rays first appeared in Supplement II: Blackmoor.  In their original appearance they could be up to 75' across, but here they are only about half that size. Statistical changes are as follows: Number Appearing has changed from 1-4 to 1; Armor Class changed from 5 to 6; Movement raised from 12 to 18; and Hit Dice lowered from to a range of 8-11.  Their bite attack now deals 3-12 damage instead of 1-6, and the Manta Ray has gained the ability to swallow its victim whole (this ability was mentioned in passing in the original entry, but it is only now concretely defined). It's tail attack has also been changed. In its original form, a PC hit by the tail required a save vs. paralysation, with no damage indicated (although it is said to be treated as a mace, so I guess it does 1-6).  Here the tail has been given a damage range of 2-20, and will stun its victim for 2-8 rounds if the save is failed.  Like many of the monsters from Supplement II this is a case of a hazily defined monster getting a huge dose of clarity.

PUNGI RAY: Speaking of clarity, this entry begins by actually defining what a Pungi Ray is, something Supplement II never bothered to do.  I realise that it would be easy enough to look the creature up in real-world books, but it never hurts to have the info on hand in the Monster Manual. A Pungi Ray is a ray with spines on its back that hides on the sea bottom. Anyone who steps on one might get stabbed by a spine, and must save vs. poison or die. The main difference between the Monster Manual version and the original is a matter of sanity: a character falling on a Pungi Ray in the original version would be subject to 20-30 attacks; now the number is 2-8.  Statistically, Number Appearing has changed from 1-4 to 1-3; Armor Class from 6 to 7; Movement from 6 to 12; and Hit Dice from 6 to 4. It has also lost the ability to attack as a giant leech should it get on top of an adventurer. Gary really nerfed this one.

STING RAY: As far as I can tell, this creature hasn't appeared in D&D before this. It's a much smaller ray, with a tail that can paralyse its victim.  A nice option for lower-level characters.

REMORHAZ: This monster first appeared in The Dragon #2. Statistically it has changed little: originally it could have Hit Dice of 6, 10 or 14, but now it ranges from 7-14. Its bite damage gets a minor tweak, from 3-36 to 6-36.  It retains the same whopping Magic Resistance of 75%, and the ability to melt non-magical weapons that strike its superheated back. Said back is now much deadlier to adventurers, though, as it is now said that any character touching it takes 10-100 points of damage.  The Remorhaz also gains the ability to swallow opponents whole on a natural 20, which incinerates and kills them instantly. Fighting one of these doesn't sound too enticing, but in true Gary fashion he tempts you by giving their eggs a value of 5,000 gp each.

RHINOCEROS: The common Rhinoceros has been mentioned as a possibility to be summoned by the Conjure Animal spell in Supplement I: Greyhawk, and has also appeared in the Wilderness Encounter tables in Supplement III: Eldritch Wizardry. It gets stats here for the first time.  I expected them to be tough, but 8-9 Hit Dice is well above what I was thinking. There is a single-horned variety and a two-horned variety, the latter of which deals more damage. Their main form of attack is a charge which deals double damage, and also the ability to trample "any opponent which is low enough for this action",  i.e., Hobbits.

WOOLLY RHINOCEROS: As above, but slightly tougher and significantly woollier. I believe that their only appearance has been in the Wilderness Encounter tables of Supplement III.

Tentative Plans

Hi all.

I haven't updated in a while.  I may not update in a while.  But I have plans to continue.  The blog is not dead!  Watch this space!  THE DEAD WILL RISE AND BLOGS WILL BE WRITTEN!

AD&D Monster Manual Part 39

Quasit: Quasits make their first appearance here. Quasits are small demons that are often used as familiars by chaotic evil magic-users or clerics. In addition to their magic resistance they get a whole raft of special abilities: a claw attack that can drain Dexterity, detect good and magic, regeneration, invisibility, a fear blast, immunity to fire, cold and lightning, and they can only be hit by magical or cold iron weapons.

As formidable as they are, as familiars they are even better. When the quasit is nearby, it’s masters gets the quasit’s magic resistance and regeneration, and is also considered as one level higher. It's pretty amazing stuff. It’s balanced out by being one level lower when the quasit is away, and by the loss of four levels if it is ever killed, but to me it seems like a fair trade.

The quasit can also contact the lower planes once per week to help its master, getting the answers to six questions. I remember that in OD&D this was a very useful ability, but also a very dangerous one. Having a flunky around to do it for you is pretty handy.

The main aim of a quasit is to enable its master to spread evil, in the hope that when it returns to the Abyss it will be transformed into a Type I or II demon. This is the first reference I’ve ever seen to some sort of advancement system for demons. I like it; it gives an incentive for all those souls that demons like to collect. There’s also a reference to quasits liking to destroy Lawful Evil humans to steal their souls. Could this be an early hint towards the Devil/Demon animosity?

Rakshasa: Rakshasas first appeared in The Strategic Review #5. Statistically they have changed very little; their Movement Rate has increased from 12 to 15. Their alignment has changed from Chaotic to Lawful Evil, yet more proof that Chaotic in OD&D is equivalent to evil in AD&D. Otherwise the entry is almost word for word the same as it was before, with no significant changes or additions. Except for the rad smoking jacket.

That pesky reference to India is still present. So do they hail from India in the real world, or Oerth’s India-equivalent? As before, I lean towards the latter.

Giant Ram: Giant rams first appeared in the Wilderness Encounter Tables from Supplement III: Eldritch Wizardry. They get stats here for the first time. As expected, a sheep taller than a man is well hard, with lots of hit points and some hefty damage potential. Especially the males, who can charge for double damage. They only attack when threatened. I wonder what possesses Gary sometimes. Giant sheep? I suppose giants have to eat something.

Giant Rat: I don’t know whether to believe my notes, because it’s difficult to fathom that giant rats were not detailed in OD&D. They’re mentioned a bit. There’s an illustration of one in Supplement I: Greyhawk, and their bite damage is listed in the same book. One is mentioned in a combat example in the first D&D Basic Set. But this is, unbelievably, the first time that giant rats are fully detailed in D&D. They conform to the scant details already revealed, and are otherwise monsters with low hit points and a bite that can pass on disease. Most interestingly, they have an alignment tendency towards evil

Giant rats are described here (and in the illustration from Supplement I) as "Sumatran".  As with Rakshasas above, I take this to mean the area of Greyhawk that corresponds with real-world Sumatra (aka Indonesia).

AD&D Monster Manual Part 38

Giant Porcupine: Giant porcupines made their first appearance in the Wilderness Encounter Tables from Supplement III: Eldritch Wizardry. This is the first time they get stats.  They’re quite tough, having 6 Hit Dice, and despite being described as non-aggressive unless threatened they consider any approach within 30 feet to be a threat.  Which makes the likelihood of a battle pretty high for all but the most cautious of PCs.  Their main attack form is to shoot quills from their tail, which does seem over and above the usual qualities of a porcupine.  They also have defensive quills, and any attacker within a certain range will have to deal with being impaled.  None of this is particularly interesting, but I think there would be a certain shame in having a character killed by a giant porcupine, and a certain pride in being the DM to inflict such a fate.

Portuguese Man-O-War: The Portuguese man-o-war (a type of jellyfish) first appeared in Supplement II: Blackmoor, but it has been given a total overhaul here.  Number Appearing has changed from 2-12 to 1-10; Armor Class has worsened from 8 to 9; and Hit Dice was 2, but now ranges from 1-4.  Originally, the creature was said to have 1-100 attacks a round, each with a paralysation effect, which is plainly unworkable.  Here their number of tentacles depends upon size, and ranges from 10 to 40.  Now they only get one attack a round, still with paralysation.  As in the earlier version, their tentacles can be severed with a single point of damage, and they can only be killed by damage to their central body.  Their transparency has also been given a concrete game effect, making them 90% undetectable.  So the principle behind the monster is the same as before, it has just been greatly clarified to become something that can actually work in the game.

Pseudo-Dragon: This is the first appearance of pseudo-dragons.  A pseudo-dragon is a small telepathic dragon-like creature with a chameleon-like power, and a poisonous stinger.  The poison makes its victim appear dead for a few days.  1-in-4 victims actually die, but I can imagine that a lot of survivors are still consigned to an awful fate by their fellow PCs.  They also have a decent magic resistance, and this is their most interesting feature, because they can confer it upon any creature they are touching.  It is mentioned that they may become the companion of a humanoid, and I expect that this is covered further in the Players Handbook or the Dungeon Masters Guide.  It would certainly be a most sought-after power for any PC.

Purple Worm: Purple Worms first showed up in D&D Vol. 2.  They’re a little faster than they were before, with a Movement increase from 6 to 9.  The damage from their stinger has changed slightly from 1-8 to 2-8.  Otherwise it is the same, with a poisonous stinger and the ability to swallow opponents whole.  What has been added is mostly clarifications, such as a note that the worm only uses its stinger in rear defense, or against large opponents in a spacious area. Rules are given for how large a creature it can swallow, and also for characters who want to cut their way out of the worm’s stomach. There are even stats for hatchlings.  And apparently purple worms expel such indigestible waste as “metal and mineral crystals”.  Gary doesn’t come out and say it, but that sounds like gold and jewels to me.  Even the aquatic mottled worm from Supplement II gets a mention.

AD&D Monster Manual Part 37

Pegasus: The pegasus first appeared in OD&D Vol. 2.  Its Number Appearing range has decreased from 1-12 to 1-10.  Its Hit Dice has increased from 2+2 to 4.  In addition to the two hoof attacks that it previously had, it now gets a bite attack as well (seems a little undignified for such a noble beast).  Their alignment has made the shift from Lawful to Chaotic Good.  There’s little information that is new, but Gary doesn’t disappoint me: he has once again provided the monetary value for their young and eggs.  And yes, I am very weirded out by the knowledge that pegasi lay eggs.  Owlbears sort of made sense, being half bird, but I don’t know where this is coming from for the pegasus. 

Peryton: This is the first appearance of perytons in the game, a personal favourite of mine.  They look like a giant bird with a stag’s head, and don’t really have any special abilities to speak of.  They get a +2 to hit on every attack, which I suppose is a way to make them deadlier without increasing their hit points.  And they can only be hit by magical weapons.  But most of all they just look awesome, and that’s a major factor in the popularity of D&D monsters.  They also have some of the best fluff.  They’re said to probably be the result of the same experimentation that created the owlbear, but that’s not the best part.  They tear out the hearts of their victims, and somehow use them to reproduce, but even that’s not the best part.  The best part is that their shadows look inexplicably like a human’s shadow.  I was surprised to see that this isn’t in the description.  It’s just there in the illustration, and now I’m wondering if it was even intentional.  The shadow sort of matches the peryton in the picture, and it also happens to look like a dude.  I think I prefer the idea that it was a happy accident that later designers incorporated to make the peryton more intriguing.

Piercer: Piercers first appeared in The Strategic Review #3.  They have changed very little from the monster as presented there, with the only statistical difference being an increase in Number Appearing from 2-12 to 3-18.  They also now have a 95% chance to gain surprise, whereas before it was left up to the DM.  Call me old-fashioned, but I love piercers.  They’re the sort of thing that could only have originated from D&D.

Giant Pike: As far as I can tell, the only mention of pike is in the entry for nixies in D&D Vol. 2.  (Yes, pikes are mentioned a shitload in Chainmail, but those are polearms.  Not fish.)  And sure enough, they’re presented here as a crazy big fish often tamed by nixies.  There’s not a lot else to say here, except that they gain surprise quite easily.  That seems to be a common ability applied AD&D monsters.  I'm not really sure how that affects them in play, because I have never used the AD&D surprise rules.

Pixie: Pixies first appeared in D&D Vol. 2.  Their Number Appearing has greatly reduced, from 10-100 to 5-20.  Armor Class has been improved from 6 to 5.  They’re now slower, with a Movement reduced from 9/18 to 6/12.  Their Hit Dice have also reduced, from 1 to ½.  Not only have they received a hefty statistical overhaul, but they’ve gained a lot of special abilities as well.  Their bows can now put the target to sleep, or cause memory loss that can only be restored with an exorcism spell.  They can also polymorph, create illusions, know alignment, dispel magic, cast dancing lights, use ESP, and cause permanent confusion with a touch.  1-in-10 of them can also cast Otto’s irresistible dance.  It’s a big step up for a monster whose sole previous ability was permanent invisibility.  (Don’t worry, they still get that as well.)  The OD&D pixies were probably youngsters, more physically potent but less capable magically.

Play Report: A Siege, the NPC Railroad, and Problems With Resilient Sphere

Miracle of miracles, I have managed to play some D&D.  This has been a long time coming, with a good three or four still-born attempts to organise a session since the last game, but we finally made it.  It looks as though the next game might be fair way off for a completely different reason: the PCs will probably move on to new pastures, which necessitates me designing a whole new adventuring space.  That's a different post, though.

The game went a lot more smoothly this time, as is to be expected when the time between games shrinks from three years to four months.  I didn't burn out this time, as I had made sure to get plenty of sleep the night before, and there were no non-gamers wandering about to dissuade me from general DM acting silliness.  I felt a lot more comfortable running things, and that's an encouraging sign.

The game resumed with the PCs still in a castle under siege by an army of orcs.  They had recently resurrected some serious heavy-hitting NPCs, the sort of guys that I could not justify taking a back seat, and I was sure that this was going to be a problem.  The PCs had been in charge in all but name before this, and I was concerned about leading them by the nose and having NPCs giving them orders and suggestions.  On the other hand, it was their own choice to bring these guys into the game.  If you resurrect a legendary hero, you have to expect that you're going to take a back seat.  Resurrect three, and you're lucky to have a walk-on role.

I opened the game with a warm-up battle against nearly forty elite orc warriors, dropped on the fortress roof by dragons.  This was a little more time-consuming than I would have liked.  That's what happens when you generate the numbers with a random roll, then roll high.  It was a good hour of grinding through orcs, but I have always found that a battle eases me into the game very nicely.  We got through a decent amount of other stuff this time around, so I wasn't too bothered.

At this point, after the characters had rested and healed up, they actually got to the business of figuring out which of their powerful items could break the siege.  They have an arcane warsuit, a sort of mech loaded with magic wands, but that wasn't powerful enough to tackle a whole army; a sphere of annihilation, also impractical against so many foes; the Skull of Vecna, which could be used to create and control vast numbers of undead (and with the Eternal Battlefield, where skeletal armies of the past fight endlessly, just miles away); a barrel of distilled dwarven fire oil, the closest thing to a WMD this society can muster; the Hand and Body of the Light, actual fragments of this world's dead sun god; and lots of other goodies.  In the end they opted for the use of the Ram's Horn Staff, which had the power to animate the trees of the forest to do the wielder's bidding.  It was a good choice; even though the trees were eventually beaten back by a barrage of giant-thrown boulders and dragon breath, they destroyed a third of the army, and netted the PCs a lot of Victory Points.  (I was operating on a Victory Point system here, whereby various actions taken by the PCs or NPCs would gain or lose points.  The target for reaching the endgame was 100 points, and this single action got them to 50 all by itself.  It was perhaps too many points awarded for the risk to the PCs, but I felt justified in it given how deadly the adventure where they gained that staff was.  Blink dogs with levels of rogue and evil elves who can use true strike once per day are serious business.)

Following that, the leader of the army showed up, an orc called the Reaver who was thousands of years old and wielded two axes of sharpness.  He wasn't in my original plans for the siege, but I had noted him down as the most powerful figure around in my campaign world some time ago.  So when his ancient enemy King Peramis I comes back from the dead and shouting his name from the top of the battlements while waving severed orc heads around, I figure that I'm justified in having him appear.  He challenged the king to a one-on-one duel, which was accepted.  As a way to get the PCs involved, I had another NPC suggest to them that they try to find a way to break the rules and kill the Reaver before the duel can be finished.  This worked pretty well.  They had a vial of poison, made up of a few drop's of heart's blood from the god of evil, and given that the Reaver wore no armour they had a good shot at killing him outright.  If only the elf had not stopped to cast true strike, King Peramis may have survived instead of losing an arm and then a head.

(As a side note, it was only during the game that I noticed there is no equivalent to the sword of sharpness in 3rd edition.  Yes, there are vorpal weapons, but I didn't quite want to go that far.  I fudged it by having the axes of sharpness sever an appendage on a successful critical, which worked well enough.)

(As a second side note, the PCs are seriously lucky that they killed the Reaver here.  I had no qualms about throwing a divinely powered 20th level fighter at them at this stage of the campaign, and had he made it inside the fortress there would most probably have been a bloodbath.  I was looking forward to it, but alas.)

The killing of the Reaver pushed the PCs over 100 Victory Points, at which point the orc army went bananas, the Reaver's lieutenant lead a flight of dragons to attack the fortress, and a smaller dragon force tried to retrieve the Reaver's body.  There was fighting on two fronts, with some PCs defending the fortress while others tried to retrieve the body of King Peramis (not for altruistic reasons, but to loot his corpse).  At this point I would like to point out (to the surprise of nobody) that dragons are tough.  These weren't even true dragons; they were big and they had breath weapons, but they had little more intelligence than animals.  That two claw/two wing/bite attack routine is murder, though.  There were 4th level NPCs that were getting chewed up at the rate of two a round.  The Dwarf barbarian went from 80-odd hit points to under zero almost instantly.  Again, the PCs were saved because I have been super-gonzo with the magic items recently.

During all of this, the main NPC antagonist (named Elmyr) tried to make his escape.  He was an ally of the people who lived in the fortress, but he had been needling the PCs for a long, long time.  I was working up to a final confrontation, but it got lost in the siege and the arrival of the super high-level NPCs.  It couldn't have worked out much better though.  He summoned his erinyes ally, and together they tried to fly away.  One PC tried to capture them with Otiluke's resilient sphere, and here I had to make a few judgment calls.  Can this spell enclose a creature in mid-air?  I ruled that it can, which I usually do when presented with something that isn't in the rules.  Then the question arose: does the sphere stay suspended in mid-air?  And if it falls, are those inside hurt by the impact?  I ruled that the sphere stays in the air, as I didn't want to create a precedent that could cripple airborne foes in the future.  So the PCs had five minutes to figure out how to deal with those trapped within, which they did by preparing another poisoned arrow.  One shot and the erinyes was dead, while Elmyr fell 200 feet to the ground.

At which point everyone declared him dead, but just out of curiosity I rolled damage by the book.  He survived with three hit points left, which gave him a chance to surrender, and me a chance to have him explain his motivations a bit.  Best of all, the PC that he landed next to was the one that he'd had the most friction with, and he got to deliver the killing stroke.  I couldn't have planned it more perfectly.

It was a fun game, with I feel just enough chaos to offset the NPC railroad that had come about through no planning of my own.  I have problems for the future, though.  Besides having to design a whole load of new adventuring material, I have a party averaging about 7th level with an absolute shit-ton of powerful magic items.  It was a great thing to have when running an epic finale for the first stage of the campaign, but I know it's going to cause me headaches in the future.  I'm thinking I'll just leave it as is for a while and see how things go.  I would have frowned on this kind of magic-heavy party a few years ago, but my attitudes are a lot looser about this sort of thing now.  As long as all parties are enjoying themselves, and the game is still a challenge, things will progress apace.

AD&D Monster Manual part 36

Ochre Jelly: Ochre Jellies first appeared in OD&D Vol. 2.  Their Hit Dice has increased from 5 to 6, and they now appear in groups of 1-3 instead of always being solitary.  The damage they do has changed very slightly, from 2-12 to 3-12.  The ochre jelly is an unusual case, in that it seems to have been simplified from OD&D to AD&D.  The basic monster is still the same, a giant amoeba that seeps through dungeons.  They are still split into two smaller jellies by lightning attacks, but in OD&D attacks from weapons did the same thing.  There’s no mention of that here.  (As a side note, these smaller jellies are now said to do half normal damage.)  There’s also nothing mentioned in AD&D about them being unable to eat through metal or stone, nor that they can dissolve wood (although they do eat cellulose, which I suppose could be stretched to include wood eating).  The only new ability it gets is that it can travel on the walls and ceiling.

Octopus, Giant: Originally included as a rumoured monster in OD&D Vol. 3, giant octopi first got stats in Supplement II: Blackmoor.  Their Number Appearing has decreased from 1-4 to 1-3.  Their swim speed has increased from 9 to 12.  And their Hit Dice has doubled, from 4 to 8: obviously the average octopus now encountered is much bigger than before.  Even so, their tentacles do less damage, from 1-6 down to 1-4, but their bite has gone from 1-6 to 2-12.  It has gained the ability to constrict foes, which it couldn’t do before, and there are a whole host of rules about arms being pinned and how strong you need to be to stop from getting crushed.  Another big change is that they now have an alignment of Neutral (Evil), which makes them just that little bit more sinister.

Ogre: Ogres debuted in OD&D Vol. 2.  Their Number Appearing has changed slightly, from 3-18 to 2-20.  Otherwise their stats are the same, but their description has been substantially filled out.  They now have leaders like the other humanoid races.  They get bonuses to hit and damage if using weapons.  They have females and young in their lairs, and they also keep slaves.  (But they like to eat the demi-humans, so there’s not much chance you’ll find any dwarves, elves or halflings as ogre slaves.)  They have their own language, and can also speak Troll  and Stone Giant.  They mingle with trolls and giants a fair bit, and are sometimes enslaved by demons.  They get a physical description (big, ugly and mostly yellow-skinned) and their lifespan is at least 90 years.  The biggest change is that they no longer carry as much treasure as they once did.  A wandering ogre in OD&D could be counted on to be carrying from 100 to 600 gold pieces, but now the average one only has 20 to 80 gp.  It makes sense with the law of diminishing returns, I guess.

Ogre Mage: This monster first appeared in Supplement I: Greyhawk.  Statistically, it hasn’t changed at all.  Surprisingly, they’re still extensively referred to here as Japanese Ogres.  I thought that would have been gotten rid of by now, but I do think it’s inclusion is an important pointer towards the mythological source of the creature.  They still have the same boatload of special abilities: invisibility, fly, cause darkness, polymorph into a human form (now with a limit on allowable height), charm person, sleep, cone of cold (which now does 8d8 damage instead of 8d6), and regeneration of 1 hit point per round.  The regeneration has also been altered to allow the creature to reattach severed limbs.  They also get the new ability to assume gaseous form, as if they weren’t slippery enough.  The only other additions to their entry are that they have 9 Hit Dice leaders, and that they get a physical description.

Orcs: Orcs (of course) first appeared in OD&D Vol. 2.  The only statistical change made to them is that their basic damage has increased from 1-6 to 1-8.  Orcs of different tribes are still hostile to each other, but slightly less so: there is a 75% chance of leaderless tribes attacking each other, rather than it being automatic.  There’s a list here of known orc tribes, with names like Vile Rune and Leprous Hand, and those will definitely be going into my campaign.  In OD&D orcs always had high-level NPC fighters or magic-users as leaders, but now there are tougher orc leaders to do the job.  The only other monster you might now encounter in an orc lair are ogres, which is a big step down from the possibility of trolls or dragons in OD&D. Orcs encountered outside their lair still have a chance to be escorting a wagon train loaded with treasure, but the treasures therein will be much less generous.  To balance that out, they will now have slaves.  Like the other D&D humanoids, orcs now explicitly have females and young.  Their weapons are outlined (a varied selection), they can carry a standard that makes them fight better, and they get a physical description.

Probably the biggest addition here is the half-orc.  Half-orcs were first mentioned in an article on Birth Tables in #3, but only in passing.  It’s here that they are detailed for the first time.  Surprisingly, the entry doesn’t just talk about orc-human hybrids, but also orc-goblins and orc-hobgoblins.  The idea is that orcs will breed with anything, so I wouldn’t restrict it to those three.  The only combination specifically ruled out is elves and orcs.

Giant Otter: Giant Otters first appeared in Supplement II: Blackmoor.  They’ve been given a complete overhaul.  Number Appearing has decreased from 10-40 to 2-5.  Armor Class has improved from 6 to 5.  They’ve gained a swim speed of 18”.  Hit Dice has increased from 3 to 5.  Their bite damage is still a whopping 3-18, but they no longer get claw attacks.  Gary has a tendency to demystify the monsters that are basically Earth animals, and he does it again here.  In Supplement II giant otters had a “vast native intelligence” that prevents them from falling into traps, but it’s not mentioned here.  Nor is the possibility of domesticating them.  But in true Gygax form, he does give an exact value for their pelts.

Otyugh: The otyugh makes its debut here.  It’s a large monster with ridged tentacles and a huge mouth that lives underground and eats dung and offal.  Their primary ability is that their bite will transmit disease 90% of the time.  It’s not said if there is a saving throw to avoid this, but I would say not.  The disease is specified as typhus, though no further details are given.  Typhus was detailed in Supplement II, where it gave a 25% chance of death, and a chance that any survivor will have a relapse every 5 years.  I expect that this will be further expanded on in the Dungeon Masters Guide.  Probably the most interesting thing about the otyugh is that it often lives in symbiosis with another monster, scavenging droppings and carrion.  I just think it’s a shame that they’re so often solitary; having one mid-level monster following something more powerful around seems like a waste, but a whole horde of these suckers living in the bowels of a dragon cave would be cool.

Giant Owl: As far as I can tell, giant owls have only appeared in the wilderness encounter tables from Supplement III: Eldritch Wizardry.  They get stats here for the first time, and with 4 hit dice they’re pretty butch.  Their main ability is that they have a 5-in-6 chance to gain surprise.  They’re also very intelligent and can speak their own language.  They are said to sometimes befriend other creatures, but nothing is said about the circumstances this might happen in.  And as usual, their young  and their eggs get the patented Gygax monetary value.

Owlbear: Owlbears first appeared in Supplement I: Greyhawk.  The only statistical change is that they have 5+2 hit dice instead of 5, and there are no other changes in the description either.  They still get a bear hug attack if they roll an 18 or better on a claw, and the rest of the description is just a fleshing out of what was already in OD&D.  It is postulated that they are “probably the result of genetic experimentation by some insane wizard”.  And of course their young and their eggs are given a market value.  (Does anyone else find it weird that owlbears lay eggs?)

AD&D Monster Manual part 35

Naga, Guardian: The guardian naga (and the other two types detailed below) debuted in The Strategic Review #3.  It’s a human-headed snake generally used to guard the treasures of lawful good types.  Their Armor Class has improved from 5 to 3, and their bite attack damage has improved from 1-3 to 1-6.  In OD&D they only had one attack per round, but now they can both bite and constrict.  They still have a lethal poisoned bite, as well as a spit attack, and they can cast spells as a 6th level cleric (all as before).  The only new thing we learn is that they have green-gold scales, silver triangles on their backs, and golden eyes.

Naga, Spirit: Spirit naga are the obligatory evil variety.  Their Armor Class has improved from 5 to 4 since their debut, but their Movement Rate has lessened from 15 to 12.  Their abilities from OD&D are mostly unchanged: they still have a gaze that can permanently charm their victims, and they can still cast spells.  Their spellcasting has been majorly nerfed, though: before they cast as 7th-level magic-users and 6th-level clerics; now they cast as 5th-level magic-users and 4th-level clerics.  We learn for the first time that they like to live in ruins and dungeons, and their scales are black and crimson (duh, they’re evil).

Naga, Water: Water naga are neutral, and usually don’t attack unless provoked.  Their Movement Rate, previously listed as 15, is now 9 on land and 18 in the water.  They still have a poisonous bite as before, and their magic-user spellcasting remains at 5th level.  But in OD&D, they were forbidden from using fire and lightning spells. Now the restriction is only to fire spells, so look out for those underwater lightning bolts.

The only new thing we learn is that they have emerald scales (with a whole bunch of other colours) and green or amber eyes.

There’s one big difference from their original presentation that makes them much less interesting: in OD&D they were said to live in palaces beneath the water.  Now they are said to live in places.  The former was much more magical and fun, but somewhat impractical.  And was probably a typo.

One thing that I never noticed about the naga is that only spirit naga have human heads.  The other two types just look like snakes.  I did not know that!

Neo-Otyugh: The neo-otyugh are appearing here for the first time.  The entry here references the otyugh, as these guys are a bigger and tougher version of that monster.  From what I can see here, they’re solitary and physically very powerful, with high hit points, low Armor Class, and the ability to do a lot of damage.  They’re also telepathic, which probably accounts for their ability to never be surprised.  They also carry diseases, which is not surprising from a monster that looks like a trash heap with tentacles and a mouth.  More on them when I get to the actual otyugh entry.

Night Hag: Night hags also make their first appearance here.  They rule the plane of Hades, and only ever appear on the Prime Material on solo missions to harvest the souls of very evil people.  Their primary method of capturing such a soul is to cast a powerful sleep spell (one that can affect up to 12 Hit Dice creatures) and then strangle the victim.  If that doesn’t work, the hag visits the victim in an ethereal state, invades his dreams, and then – ahem – “rides the victim until dawn”.  Each such ride drains the victim’s constitution, until he is eventually dead.

Night Hags get a whole bunch of other good abilities.  They can cast a powerful magic missile, as well as ray of enfeeblement.  They can become ethereal at will, know alignment, polymorph, and gate in other demons or devils. They’re immune to sleep, charm, fear, fire, cold, and any weapons other than silver, iron, or magic weapons of +3 or better.  There’s a nice bit with the gate ability, in that any demon or devil summoned will demand a larval soul from the hag.  I’m picturing these Night Hags as running a sort of trading post between Hell and the Abyss, with souls as the product on offer.

Every Night Hag forges their own periapt in Hades, which they can use for astral projection.  Anyone who steals one of these will be immune to disease and get a bonus to all saving throws, but it will decay in the hands of a good character.  A hag whose periapt is stolen can “leave the plane she is in at the time of the loss”.  I’m not sure what this means.  Is it just a way of ensuring that she isn’t trapped in the Astral Plane at the time of theft, or does it mean she can leave Hades for the Prime Material to hunt for the thief?

Nightmare: Nightmares make their first appearance here, and it’s surprising to me that Gary resisted the pun for this long.  Also known as Hell Horses and Demon Horses, they are black with flaming hooves and nostrils, and glowing red eyes.  They come from the lower planes, and are often used as steeds by demons, devils, night hags, and less commonly by undead such as spectres, vampires and liches.

They’re a decent mid-level opponent, having 6+6 Hit Dice, but what strikes me is their Armor Class of -4.  It’s better than all the dragons, and just about all the demons and devils.  Add the blinding smoke that comes from their mouths during combat, giving all opponents -2 to hit, and you have a monster that is terribly difficult to damage in melee.  It's Armor Class is effectively -6, and from what I can see only the Demon Princes and Arch-Devils have better defenses.

Nightmares can also fly, become ethereal, and roam the Astral Plane.  And they attack all material life, which is what I want from a D&D monster.

Nixie: Nixies first appeared in OD&D Vol. 2.  Their Number Appearing has been reduced from 10-100 to 20-80.  In OD&D they only had a Movement Rate of 12", but now they move at 6” on land and 12” when swimming.  They previously had 1 Hit Dice, but now they only roll a 1d4 for hit points.  In essence they are the same monster, being water sprites that like to charm humans to serve them for a year, but they’ve had a number of changes and additions.  The biggest is probably their ability to cast water breathing once per day, which nicely clarifies whether their charm victims survive underwater or not.  Their charm is also a little bit more powerful, with its target suffering a -2 penalty to the saving throw.  To balance that, a dispel magic now has a chance to work after the victim has gone underwater, which it didn’t before.

Nixies still have fish servants such as pike and gar, but the absurd number given in OD&D (10-100) is used for their ability to summon small non-combatant fish.  The larger types that will fight people are limited to just a few. 

Nixies have gained a Magic Resistance of 25%.  But they’ve also picked up an aversion to fire and light, which seems to be a garbled reading of the rule from OD&D.  In the old rules a flaming sword could be used to keep their fish at bay, but now it can be used that way on the Nixies themselves.  A light spell affects them the same way, but they can summon fish to block it (a lovely touch).

Other than that, we get a physical description and learn that they inhabit lakes and live in houses made of seaweed.

Nymph: Nymphs were first mentioned in Supplement II: Blackmoor, but only as a type of underwater dryad.  Here, they really are a completely new creature.  They appear as beautiful young women, and are found only in the loveliest wilderness areas.  They don’t like intruders, though.  They can dimension door once a day to escape, but they may not need to.  Not only can they cast druid spells as a 7th level caster, just looking at one may make you blind.  And that’s if the nymph has its clothes on; if it’s naked there’s a chance you’ll die instantly.  The nymph is only favourable towards good-aligned human males of 18 Charisma, and very occasionally to other good-aligned creatures.  Needless to say, nymphs were the subject of several ill-advised D&D adventures when I was a teenager.

As a final note, I would just like to call foul on Gary and TSR for not providing a picture of the Nymph.  For shame.

AD&D Monster Manual part 34

Minotaur: Minotaurs, the bull-headed men of classical mythology, debuted in OD&D Vol. 2.  Their Hit Dice has been raised slightly, from 6 to 6+3.  It seems as though they get fewer attacks than they did before.  In Supplement I: Greyhawk, it looked to me as though they could attack with a headbutt, a bite, and a weapon, all in the same round.  In the Monster Manual they get two attacks, once with a weapon and once with either the headbutt or the bite, depending on how big the target is.  They usually use a huge axe or a flail, and get a damage bonus due to strength that they didn’t get before.

Minotaurs are now harder to surprise than they were before.  They’ve also gained the ability to track by scent, which should prove a great aid in their tendency to pursue prey.  I figure that these abilities are linked; the scent not only allows the tracking ability but alerts them to attackers as well.

Minotaurs are now Chaotic Evil (formerly they were either Neutral or Chaotic).  They have their own language as well, and it is said for the first time that they live in labyrinthine places.  These can be underground or in the wilderness, and I kind of like the idea of a maze-like forest of shifting trees that is crawling with minotaurs.

The only real change to incorporate here is the scent ability of the minotaur, and I’m chalking that up to their growing familiarity with adventurers.  They’ve always had the ability, but now they’re better at figuring out what adventurers smell like.

Mold, Brown: As far as I can tell, the brown mold is making its first appearance here.  Brown mold grows underground, and feeds on heat energy.  Any creature that gets too close will suffer 1-8 points of damage for every 10 degrees of body heat over 55 degrees that the creature has.  This is a rule I’ve never spotted before, and I’m really not sure how to adjudicate it.  A human has a core body temperature of 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, so if I’m reading this correctly, brown mold deals 4d8 points of damage.  And that’s just to a person, it’s going to be more for red dragons and fire elementals and the like.

The mold grows if open flame is brought near it, so it’s not unlikely that a small patch could expand if a torch-wielding party stumbles by, or happens to cast a fireball near it.  Pretty much the only thing that can kill it is magical cold, specifically a cold wand or white dragon breath.  Ice storms and walls of ice only cause it to go dormant.  So there is literally one by-the-book option available to a party if they want to destroy this stuff.  Harsh.

Any creature that uses cold as an attack (specifically called out here are white dragons, ice toads and winter wolves) is immune to brown mold.  I’m instantly picturing a white dragon lair covered in the stuff.

Mold, Yellow: Yellow mold first appeared in OD&D Vol. 2.  The changes here are negligible.  It still causes damage to flesh on contact (which has been raised from 1-6 to 1-8) and releases lethal spores if broken.  In OD&D, if a character failed the save he was dead.  In AD&D, a character killed by yellow mold spores can be saved within 24 hours with a cure disease and a resurrection spell.  Why this is different from just using resurrection to return them to life, I have no idea.  Unless the cure disease is necessary to remove the spores from the lungs before the character can be revived?  Maybe the spores can’t be killed that way after 24 hours, and your character will just die again instantly if he is raised.  Something to think on.

I’m pleased to see that large colonies of yellow mold retain the chance to be psionic, and can attack with a powerful id insinuation.  The wording here is exactly the same as it was in Supplement III: Eldritch Wizardry.

Morkoth: Morkoths made their debut in Supplement II: Blackmoor.  They probably need a bit of explanation, because I’ve never quite sorted them out in my head.  They’re shadowy monsters that live at the bottom of the ocean in a series of spiralling tunnels.  The tunnels have a hypnotic pattern, and anyone passing over an entrance to one will be drawn inside, where the morkoth uses its powers to control its mind and eat it.  Got that?  Because I think that’s the first time that I have.

Morkoths didn’t have a movement rate in OD&D, but now they get a quite fast swim speed of 18.  Their Hit Dice has dropped from 8 to 7.  Their only attack in OD&D was listed as “Special”, but now they get a bite attack that does 1-10 points of damage. Basically, they were useless unless their charm power worked, and Gary has fixed them.

The creature gets a vague physical description for the first time, as “possibly humanoid”.  It’s nice and mysterious.  The only other additions and changes are a lot of things that clarify exactly how their abilities work.  The only thing that has been really messed with is their ability to reflect spells back at the caster.  It’s still there, but a might negate it if cast at the exact same time as another spell.  Also, a reflected spell only affects the caster, unless it has an area of effect.  In OD&D, the caster and everyone within 10 feet were affected, regardless of whether the spell had an area effect or not.  (I’m wondering if anyone has ever used this rule to their advantage?  I’m picturing a cure light wounds being cast at a Morkoth, then reflected back to the caster and the rest of the party.  It’s a loophole that’s now been closed off, anyway.)

Mule: Mules were briefly touched on in the Horse entry in OD&D Vol. 2, but this is the first time they get an entry of their own.  The first thing that leaps out at me is that their Hit Dice has increased from 2+1 to 3.  The old value was nothing to scoff at, but now the average mule could conceivably do in a small party of novice adventurers.  They also get damage ranges for their attacks for the first time ever.  They’re still agile enough to be taken into dungeons, and strange smells can still spook them.  But in direct contradiction to OD&D, they are now not panicked by fire.  The maximum amount of weight they can carry has also increased from 3500 coins to 6000 coins.  It looks like average mules are now being bred much stronger and more well-trained than before.

Mummy: Mummies appeared for the first time in OD&D Vol. 2.  Their range for Number Appearing has decreased, from 1-12 to 2-8.  Their Hit Dice has increased from 5+1 to 6+3.  I usually don’t note down any changes to the % in Lair chance, because almost every monster has a small variation between OD&D and AD&D, but mummies had a whopping increase, from 30% to 80%.  This means that any encounter with mummies is much more likely to yield some treasure.

I’m interested to see that mummies are said to exist in both the Prime Material Plane and the Positive Material Plane.  Pretty much all of the other undead creatures are connected to the Negative Material Plane.  This may very well be a typo, but I think these sorts of anomalies are more interesting than any uniformity.  I’ll need to return to this once I have a better idea of what the Positive and Negative Planes actually are.

The mummy’s rotting touch is nowhere near as crippling as it was in OD&D.  It still causes you to heal at a rate ten times slower than normal, but now it can be cured completely with a cure disease spell; before, that spell stopped you from dying, but still left you with a rate of healing twice as slow as normal.  In OD&D, there was a very slim chance you might recover without magic, but here you will die in 1-6 months, and you now lose 2 Charisma points a month on top of that.  Oh, and the rotting also now negates all cure wounds spells completely.  If someone is killed by a mummy, you will now need to cast a cure disease spell in addition to a raise dead to bring them back, and it has to be done within 6 turns.  I’m guessing here that the mummy rot destroys dead tissue pretty quickly, and past a certain point there’s nothing to bring back to life.

Mummies have gained a new ability, an aura of fear that can paralyse people if they fail a saving throw.  If you’re in a larger party you get a saving throw bonus, and for some reason humans are more resistant to this fear than other races.  Mummies are specifically said to be undead humans, so there’s probably something in that.

Mummies are still hit only by magical weapons, and even those deal half damage (rounded down!).  And they’re still vulnerable to fire.  Some specific attacks, such as torches and flaming oil, are given damage ranges, and magical fire now deals an extra point of damage per die.  On top of that they gain a whole load of immunities that they didn’t specifically have before: sleep, charm, hold person, cold, poison and paralysis.

There’s a nice touch, in that a raise dead spell can be used to bring a mummy back to life.  I don’t recall that being something that can be done to any other undead. It has to tie into the Positive Material Plane thing somehow.