#Dungeons and Dragons 1e

[universe-in-the-void-in-the-cube]

D&D and Pathfinder RPers tell me what you think.

[3d34-2]

These are available in August!

[adndmonsteraday]

A wyvern (pronounced: /ˈwɪvɜːrn/ WIH-vurn or: /ˈwaɪvɛrn/ WY-vern) was a large winged lizard, distantly related to the dragon, with a poisonous stinging tail and sharp teeth.

These creatures varied in length from 15​ to ​35 feet (4.6​ to ​11 meters), weighed around a ton, and were covered in dark brown or grey scales. They typically had either red or orange eyes and their jaws were filled with long and sharp teeth.

Unlike true dragons, wyverns only had a pair of hind legs instead of a set four. Their wingspan could get over 50 feet (15 meters) in length. And their tails were often quite long, comprising almost half of their bodies, yet very mobile. These ended in a thick cartilage knot with a stinger protruding out of it, not unlike that of a scorpion.

Wyverns can be both solitary and group animals. They did not have a strong odor, although their lairs often could be tracked by following the smell of their recent kills.

Cloud giants kept griffons, perytons, and wyverns, akin to what humans did with hawks and other birds of prey. These tamed wild creatures could also be often encountered patrolling the cloud giants' gardens, together with other tamed predators like owlbears.Dragons, griffons, and wyverns had a fierce rivalry over hippogriff meat. Manticores, chimeras, griffons, perytons, and wyverns were territorial rivals.

Source: https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Wyvern

Have you added wyverns to your game? Talk to us about it!

[aaronmcfocks]

Some late little lunar new year piece with Lixin

[silvercompassmaps]

My Ancient India campaign setting is live on Kickstarter!

This setting features 6 new races, a plethora of historical weapons and armor, 20+ monsters inspired by Indian folklore, and much more.

Check it out here.

[aethira]

“You think that I’m weak because I wasn’t trained like you. You’re going to regret underestimating me.”

Some post-campaign stuff with Seren ✨

[pumaloafing]

For Comparison:

In Pokemon, when you are paralyzed, you have a 25% chance to be unable to act on your turn and your speed is lowered by 50% (speed only determines who acts first, and not number of actions, so it's not too bad).

In D&D 5E, paralysis prevents you from moving or acting, you automatically fail strength or dex saves, attacks against you have about 20% more accuracy, and melee attacks against you automatically crit (if they hit).

In Pathfinder, paralysis also prevents you from moving or acting, and you are considered 'helpless'. Helpless means your dexterity is 0 (tanking your evasion) and in addition melee attacks against you get a +4 to hit (equating to a 20% increase in chance to hit). More importantly, though, if someone is adjacent to you they can make a coup de gras attack. A coup de gras is an automatic hit, an automatic crit, and then the character must make a fortitude save of 10+damage dealt to not instantly die (this is often very difficult, nearly impossible if the coup de gras was done by an actual fighter).

[eldrxtch]

I've been working on this reference for the past week, and it's finally finished \o/

[chronotsr]

No. 1 - G1, The Steading of the Hill Giant Chief (July 1978)

Author(s): Gary Gygax Artist(s): Erol Otus, Dave C. Sutherland III (cover), David A. Trampier Level range: Average of 9, preferably 5+ players Theme: Standard Swords and Sorcery Major re-releases: G1-3 Against the Giants, GDQ1-7 Queen of the Spiders, Against the Giants: The Liberation of Geoff, Dungeon #197, Tales from the Yawning Portal

I'm not sure if G1-G3 are the most remastered adventures of all time, but it's gotta be competitive. I think Tomb of Horrors might have it beat, but I haven't counted. The 4e conversion [the Dungeon #197 one] is really weird in particular because…4e feels like the edition least interested in the legacy of DND? It was boldly doing its own thing. A good quality, actually.

Anyway, it's time to slag off* on a beloved adventure. Note, I am using the earliest copy of G1 I can find, which is from waaaay later when D3 was complete. I apologize.

*And by slag off, I mean "be critical of at all". In practice, this module is actually showing some unusual acumen compared to its contemporaries.

EDIT: I forgot to mention a rather important thing when this was made live -- note the title there! We are officially in ADND land now, so put away your little brown booklets and switch over to the fuck-off awesome player's handbook with the iconic Moloch statue!

Somehow I had gotten my whole life at this point never really…understanding what this structure was supposed to look like? It looks like this.

I honestly think exterior shots of dungeons are critically underrated. Handouts are amazing and being able to flash the back cover art to safely show the party "like this" is actually great, I deeply wish that….any? of the previous modules had done that? I think the only one that did was Tsojconth. Weirdly, the interior drawing is very subtly different. Look at how the logs face:

Not a huge deal but, a kind of weird inconsistency that top one looks like a stockade and the bottom one looks like a log cabin. Side note, we know that the long dimension of this is using 210 feet tall logs, which is to say, the size of an average redwood. These are some big fuck-off trees -- which could be a very interesting detail about the local area.

Now the setup is pretty simple. You were hired to go beat up the giants because they've been raiding the local humans, figure out why they're raiding, and comeback posthaste. The locals have kitted you out with horses, guides, maps, et c -- but no compensation, they have simply omitted a finder's fee (cheap bastards). Also, if you fail, they'll execute you. With friends like these, who needs Giants?

Gary starts with some mild railroading (you accepted the job already, you are already kitted out, you already walked to a nearby cave, you waited til dusk to approach, you notice two guards are missing, and the cave is guaranteed to be moderately hidden. Sure, whatever, I'm going to ignore that if I run this tho. Gary notifies us of a few critical details:

Don't run this stock, that's immoral

Any surviving giants will flee to G2 if they have the opportunity (which, kind of inherently punishes clever play that avoids combat?)

There is a 2% chance per round that the wooden structure will be lit on fire due to chronic rain (why is this a dice roll??)

If you will permit me a tangent, player arson is truly the bane of interesting scenarios everywhere. Whenever a player wonders, "why are all the GM's dungeons underground or in stonework buildings?", it's because doing anything else invites arson as the default and best answer to all problems. Magic items are fireproof and most metal items will not get hot enough to be destroyed, so very often the best solution is to burn the place to the ground and loot it the next day. So, yeah. No wood buildings. Gary's fix is to have all the giants flee into the basement, then waste a week of the PC's time for daring to use arson. Kind of sucks!

Tangent complete.

Here's some random interesting bits:

Gary explicitly states that you can pass yourself off as hill giant kids, which is extremely funny. Minus the implicit child murder.

Naturally there are giant moms doing giant housemaid shit in several rooms. Presumably they have giant curlers too.

The secret door is, literally just a doorway covered by a pelt. I have to hand it to them, that'd trip up most players in 2024 AND make them feel stupid for not figuring it out!

The big reveal that Eclavdra the Drow is secretly behind it all is so lightly teased that it feels downright tasteful.

A giant that uses a ballista as a crossbow (based) and spears for arrows (also based) -- between the prevalence of lightning spears and greatarrows, one starts to think of a certain famous video game. Genuinely I think it'd be a fun exercise one day, for someone who is more knowledgeable than me about Japanese fantasy roleplaying culture, to talk about how anglophone fantasy works made their way into Japan and were interpreted.

One of the cloud giants has hidden a sentient giant slaying sword that speaks all the giant languages, it feels like there's a hell of a story going on there that is only alluded to!

To my knowledge, this is the first official depiction of an orc in DND? Which implies that Gary is team pig-orcs, which is cool. Frankly, I love porcine orcs, or even better just pigfolk in general, they're great.

I think it is actually a rather bold early stance for Gary to hold that, even here in 1978, Chaotic aligned creatures are not automatically friends. Granted, that's how it is in Elric, so it's not THAT bold, but clearly everyone else missed the memo. The orcs are willing to side with you at least in the short-run, and in our previous modules it was very rare to have groups of chaotic-aligned creatures fighting one another. It was always just personal beefs. In fact, the overall theme of G1 so far is that despite the boxy-ass dungeon design, there's already a command of naturalism that even modern dungeons really struggle with. Factionalism truly is the gift that keeps on giving for the GM!

So the big reveal internally to G1 (just think of that -- a reveal internally to G1, and externally to the GDQ supermodule -- we're already getting pacing!) is that the orc slaves have rebelled. And -- hey -- good for them. There's also a kind of…built-in companion refill system going on here? So in oldish DND the way it works is, the expectation is the party is not just 5 guys with swords. You've got companions to help fight, and you've got hirelings to do other stuff (test suspected traps, if you're evil). And you can only hire so many of these guys from town, but attrition is going to happen. So the modules simply provides, automatic replacements should you negotiate worth a quarter of a shit. A dwarf slave here, an orc slave there. Maybe a giant dissenter if you're really clever. One of the potential "rewards" you can get is more dudes to throw at problems.

More interesting bits

There is, what I can only really call an abortive idea going on here where there's a scary temple in the basement? But no one worships there and no information is provided. It is merely a fucked up altar. I think I vaguely recall that it's retconned Tharizdun in one of the remakes? They always retcon things to be Tharizdun. Busy man, Tharzy.

Gary, Gary no. Stop it. Stop this 78 guys bullshit. I thought we had established that giant rooms of giant clumps of guys was bad. I know you have terminal Napoleonics brain but stop.

Wait, Steading is a noun? I always thought it was a verb. Yknow, like "Steading those hill giants", taking 'em down a notch. Apparently, a Steading is a small farm -- same etymology as Homestead. I guess mark that as our first Gygaxism?

Our second Gygaxism is gill, which is "a quarter pint of an alcoholic drink", which is to say a few mouthfuls

Always end your adventures with weird, ominous non-diegetic text. On the flip-side, absolutely do not do what the adventure does, and end on a teleporter that takes you to the next dungeon. That is the worst option.

Anyway, that's the whole Hill Giant situation. Honestly, it's better than I remembered, but in proud module tradition up to this point it gets weirdly filler-y in the basement. There's just something about basements that makes dungeon designers stop giving a shit, I swear. I do need to give the man his due, even though he was a shitass person: Gygax wrote an 11 page module that is of noticeably higher killer-to-filler ratio than any of his contemporaries. G1 is better than any of its predecessors, pound for pound. It is way, way shorter which is I suppose a plus to me and a minus to others, but -- there is a clear internal logic to this place that is tragically missing from (say) The Dwarven Glory. And that internal logic is the beginning of good adventure design. Anyway, we have two fun tidbits to discuss before we end for the day.

First up, we have an of-the-time account of events in Dragon #19! It turns out that in Origins '78 they played G1-G3's prototype. The account is of the winners (mostly West Virginians, a few Michiganders), who used their magic extremely liberally to hide what they were doing as well as to scout. They did opt to light the place on fire, good for them! If you want to check this out, it's on page 3. I will mention G2 and G3 here as relevant later.

Second up, there's a weird interquel hiding in Dungeon #198! Hanging out as an informal G1.5 is "The Warrens of the Stone Giant Thane!" I will not review it in full because my understanding of 4e is, basically just skimming the PHB and reading the DMG, but essentially the Stone Giants are hypothetically aloof and not particularly loyal to their Fire Giant superiors, but someone gave them The Rock That Makes You Crazy and so now they are. Smash the rock!

Man, map design in the 4e era was so fucking bad. It looks fine, but like, this is four circles. And downstairs is, of course, cave as far as the eye can see. Aren't stone giants supposed to be skilled carvers? Anyway, If you feel like G2 would be too big of a jump mechanically compared to G1, this exists. I'm sure you could use it if you liked, and certainly there is a Genre of Grognard who would be kinda tickled at the thought of finding "lost content" for el classico GDQ.

Next week, we cover G2, which was also in July. So was G3! They're triplets!

[inbarfink]

[ninjasylveon]

Another artfight revenge for the lovely @sadincae! I wanted to make them something SUPER nice after their attack on Lily, so I animated their blorbo Keeva! My computer did not like this, though I got it to work and this was the result!

I'm fighting for team stardust on artfight here!

[tenmeithesinisterminister]

highlights from the first three sessions of my pathfinder 1e campaign:

The Inquisitor LITERALLY CHOPPED OFF THE INVESTIGATOR'S FOOT IN SESSION ONE? (with a bastard sword, no less.)

The Wood Elf Healing/Community Cleric killed an orc, and apologized with each hit.

Obligatory Fool's Gold reference

"I will die on the hill that this book is worth something!" "Then die." - A merchant successfully avoiding being swindled and the Investigator's response

The Chess Guild? The Chess Guild.

No Name Elf Boi joined the party in session 3

The entire party wanted the Kobold Chieftain and the Orc Chief to kiss.

"RELEASE THE AUTISM"

Discussions of eating kobolds and the ethics of doing so, for some reason?

*little elf fella waving at the Orc Chief who just slaughtered a kobold infront of everyone*

Ooze

"Oh god, this music is making me tense" - me, the GM who *intentionally picked the dungeon music to be scary* (It's wesker's theme from the og ps1 resident evil) Anyway, they're 3 sessions in and 2ish sessions away from finally making it out of the dungeon. They are in for a wild ride.

[adndmonsteraday]

Gnolls were a humanoid race that most closely resembled human-hyena hybrids within Faerûn. They were carnivorous humanoids, known for their savage culture and warlike ways.

“If you should find yourself the object of gnollish pursuit, burn your corpses, cover your scent, and pray to whoever might aid you, for there is no bribing, begging, or reasoning with hunger incarnate.”

— Excerpt from The Lords of Madness.

Gnolls were extremely tall, with the average member of the race standing on average between 7′0″‒7′6″ (2.1‒2.3 m). Though gnolls were relatively lean for their height, weighing in usually between 280-320lb (127-145kg) , they cut an impressive visage. In part because of their height and lean musculature, gnolls were very quick compared with many other races such as humans. Gnoll skin was greenish-gray, and their furry hide a light or dark brown hue, sometimes marked with spots or stripes. Many gnolls also had a dirty yellow to a reddish-gray crest-like mane that stood on end when they were angry.

Sub-Races Flind: These gnolls were shorter, broader, and stronger than others. They were often found leading a tribe or settlement of gnolls. Flinds used a primitive flail-like weapon called a flindbar, which consisted of a pair of metal rods linked together by a chain.

Half-gnoll: These were halfbreeds born from a human and a gnoll parents.

Witherling: Gnolls who were killed and devoured by their war band companions, and whose skeletons were then raised through a ritual to Yeenoghu. These undead gnolls traveled with the band killing and destroying as they did in life, but did not eat, leaving more food to the rest of the band.

Source: https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Gnoll

[sarpalida]

Finally, the first chapter!

[thecreaturecodex]

Mind Flayer, Elder Brain

Image © Wizards of the Coast, by Daarken. Accessed at Art of MtG here

[In writing up the mind flayers, my goal has been to make a version of the elder brain that I actually like and would use. The obstacles are numerous. As I've previously said, I do not like the 2e innovations that made both beholders and mind flayers eusocial species, because it strips them of their main attributes (independence and xenophobia for beholders, extreme intelligence for mind flayers) and makes them into pawns, slaves and dupes. The elder brain specifically was said to be lying to all other illithids about how their personalities would remain intact inside of them forever. Mind flayers are geniuses; not one of them ever saw through this? It definitely plays into the 2e directive that evil should be self-sabotaging, but it just makes one of the coolest monsters in D&D seem like rubes.

The second problem was more mechanical. In D&D 3.5, a mind flayer was a (weak) CR 8, but an elder brain was a CR 25! That meant that only epic level characters could encounter an elder brain and hope to survive, but at that level, the mind flayers would be utterly useless, unless the DM gave them a bunch of class levels, which is even more work. 5e keeps the power differential between them much saner, which I have striven to maintain here.

The third problem is probably my most nitpicky, but I've never much liked the look of the elder brain as just a brain with tentacles. The recent art for Magic the Gathering gives them a more alien appearance which I much prefer.

See my post on mind flayers in general for more information about the mind flayer subtype]

Mind Flayer, Elder Brain CR 15 LE Aberration This creature resembles a distorted humanoid brain, leathery and swollen to the size of a rhinoceros. Tentacles grow from underside like an unraveled brain stem. Despite a seeming lack of sensory organs, it seems perfectly aware of its surroundings.

An elder brain is the hub of a mind flayer colony, as they are both its most typically powerful member and the source of its future. The elder brain is the reproductive female equivalent of the mind flayers, and they birth the tadpoles that will be the next generation. They are incredibly knowledgeable, and illithids and ulitharids consult them for their plans and assist with the elder brain’s schemes in return. An elder brain can access the memories of any brain it has consumed. Most illithids consider it a civic duty to have their brains fed to the elder brain when they die in order to preserve their knowledge and experiences.

Few elder brains move much, as their bodies are bulky and slow on land. They can fly magically, but find this tiring, preferring instead to stick to water. Mind flayer colonies are built around brood pools, which act as a comfortable habitat for the elder brain and the various illithid tadpoles alike. Illithid tadpoles receive relatively little care or consideration until they are implanted into a host body, but are fed various secretions that ooze from the elder brain’s glands. An elder brain on the move is much more likely to be an astral body than the actual creature. Some elder brains regularly explore the planes and other planets in astral form, often with a few privileged mind flayers as students.

Elder brains are horrifically powerful combatants, combining the magical gifts of other mind flayers with great size and strength. Each elder brain is a talented spellcaster, having learned magic as part of their extended adolescence as ulitharids. They can also dominate any kind of creature, and few elder brains are ever encountered without a few monstrous bodyguards to absorb damage. Elder brains typically fight from the safety of their brood pools, dragging enemies into the depths to have their brain extracted after having neutralized resistance through mind blasts and spells.

An elder brain is about 10 feet in diameter, with tentacles that can reach another 15 feet beyond that.

Elder Brain            CR 15 XP 51,200 LE Huge aberration (mind flayer) Init +6; Senses all-around vision, arcane sight,blindsight 120 ft., creature sense 500 ft., darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, Perception +28 Defense AC 28, touch 10, flat-footed 26(-2 size, +2 Dex, +10 natural, +8 shield) hp 210 (20d8+120) Fort +14, Ref +12, Will +17; +4 vs. emotion effects DR 10/adamantine and magic; SR 30 Defensive Abilities affectless; Weakness light blindness,sunlight sickness Offense Speed 10 ft., fly 30 ft. (good), swim 30 ft. Melee 8 tentacles +20 (1d8+7 plus grab) Space 15 ft.; Reach 15 ft. Special Attacks constrict (1d8+12), mind blast, pith (tentacle) Spell-like Abilities CL 15th, concentration +23 (+27 casting defensively) Constant—arcane sight, mental barrier III At will—charm monster (DC 22), confusion (DC 22), dominate person (DC 23), detect thoughts (DC 20), dimension door, mind thrust IV (DC 22), suggestion (DC 21), telekinesis (DC 23) 3/day—plane shift (DC 23), greater scrying (DC 25), quickened suggestion (DC 21) 1/day—astral projection, dominate monster (DC 27), project image (DC 25), veil (DC 24) Spells CL 14th, concentration +22 (+26 casting defensively) 7th (4/day)—mass inflict pain (DC 25) 6th (6/day)—disintegrate (DC 24), greater dispel magic 5th (8/day)—mind fog (DC 23), mind probe (DC 23), wall of force 4th (8/day)—detect scrying, dimensional anchor, enervation, fear (DC 22) 3rd (8/day)— aversion (DC 21), clairaudience/clairvoyance, lightning bolt (DC 21), protection from energy 2nd (8/day)—blur, eagle’s splendor, glitterdust (DC 20), paranoia (DC 21), scorching ray 1st (9/day)—déjà vu (DC 19), mage armor, magic missile, mindlink (DC 19), ray of enfeeblement (DC 19), unseen servant 0th—acid splash, arcane mark, dancing lights, ghost sound (DC 18), mage hand, mending, read magic, resistance, touch of fatigue (DC 18) Statistics Str 24, Dex 14, Con 22, Int 29, Wis 21, Cha 27 Base Atk +15; CMB +24 (+28 grapple); CMD 41 (cannot be tripped) Feats Arcane Strike, Combat Casting, Combat Expertise,Combat Reflexes,Defensive Combat Training, Improved Initiative, Lightning Reflexes, Psychic Sensitivity (B), Quicken SLA (dominate person, suggestion), Spell Penetration Skills Appraise +29,Bluff +28, Diplomacy +28, Fly +25, Intimidate +31, Knowledge (arcana, dungeoneering, planes, religion) +42, Perception +28, Sense Motive +25, Spellcraft +32, Swim +16, Use Magic Device +28 Languages Aboleth, Aklo, Common, Draconic, Elven, Qualith, Undercommon, telepathy 500 ft. SQ eldritch knowledge +10, no breath, psychic potency Ecology Environment underground Organization solitary, field trip (1 plus 2-12 illithids and/or ulitharids) or colony (1 plus 10-200 illithids and 1 ulitharid per 10 illithids) Treasure double standard Special Abilities Creature Sense (Su) An elder brain can detect the presence of all creatures within 500 feet and communicate telepathically with them. A mind blank spell prevents this detection, and the elder brain must make a caster level check with its SLA caster level to detect creatures under the effects of a nondetection spell. Eldritch Knowledge (Ex) All Knowledge skills are class skills for an elder brain, and it can make Knowledge checks untrained. It gains a bonus to all Knowledge checks equal to ½ its Hit Dice. Flight (Su) The fly speed of an elder brain is a supernatural ability. Mind Blast (Su) As a standard action, an elder brain can create a 60 foot cone of mental energy. All creatures in the area must succeed a DC 26 Will save or be stunned for 3d4 rounds. A creature that is stunned may attempt to recover from this condition as a full-round action with an additional DC 28 Will save. A creature that fails its save is considered to be feebleminded, as per the spell, for 1 minute after recovering from the stunning effect.  After 1 minute, the creature can attempt a second DC 28 Will save in order to avoid being permanently feebleminded. Mind flayers are immune to the effects of a mind blast. An elder brain can use a mind blast at will, but must wait 1d4 rounds between uses. This is a mind-influencing effect, and the save DC is Charisma based with a -2 racial penalty. Psychic Potency (Ex) An elder brain gains Psychic Sensitivity as a bonus feat. If it can use psychic magic, it instead gains Psychic Virtuoso as a bonus feat. Spells An elder brain gains spells as a 14th level sorcerer, oracle or psychic. It does not gain any other class abilities for that class, such as a bloodline or mystery, unless it takes levels in that class. Tentacles (Ex) An elder brain’s tentacles are treated as primary natural weapons.