D is also for Dalgard's Minotaurs

Well, I guess I'll give this a shot as well. Here are the S&WWB stats for Lord Dalgard's minotaurs as mentioned in a previous post earlier today.

But before that, we need an important spell for the work to follow!

Animate Dead Monsters

Spell Level: C5

Range: Referee's discretion

Duration: Permanent

This spell allows the cleric to animate one monster of greater than 3 HD for every two levels of experience the caster has. Corpses rise as zombies and have HD equal to those they had in life. In all other ways, they are similar to zombies. Skeletal remains rise with one half of the HD they had in life and in all ways are treated as skeletons.

And now, the Monsters: 

(Dalgard's) Skeletal Minotaurs

AC: 6 [13]                                                   Special: Immune to sleep, charm
HD: 3 + 2                                                    Move: 12
Attacks: Battle Axe                                      HDE/XP: 4/120

These are animated monster skeletons.

However, Dalgard also animated the tribe's leader as a special intelligent undead. It has been several decades back, but I do remember that I had to quest for some special tomes and components and the like.

(Dalgard's) Skeletal Minotaur Leader

AC: 2 [17]                                                  Special: See below

HD: 8                                                          Move: 12
Attacks: Battle Axe +3                              HDE/XP: 10/1400

This prime example of a Minotaur dwarfed even his peers in life. Now in Undeath he coldly serves his master. Clad in magical maille (+3) and wielding an enchanted battle axe (+3, +4 vs.elves), the mere sight of this colossus striding across a battle field is enough to make mere mortals (level 3 and under) flee in terror. So infused is he with the Power of the Dark Gods that magical weapons are needed to hit him; silver weapons will do half damage. Like other skeletons, he is immune to sleep and charm.

D is for Dalgard's Decomposition, Dalgard's Forked Lighting and Dalgard's Total Inversion!

The above image is a cartoon of my "main" PC Lord Dalgard drawn up for the World of Greyhawk web comic. Back in the day we really didn't play with level limits so the infamous half-elf mage and cleric of Hextor Dalgard Nolendor reached the exalted levels of Cl19/MU17! Of course, this took from 1984 to 1994, but hey, what can I say? The pic is a homage to a rather funny story (at least I think it's funny). One of our DMs had decided to try to kill us all off and so stuck us in the Nine Hells. It was like a fantasy Kobyashi Maru scenario...Pit Fiends kept showing up. We'd kill one, three more would show up; kill them, five more, etc.

We had two characters down and were trying to find a way out. Teleports weren't working etc. I was thinking furiously. "I can't banish the pit fiends, they're not extra-planar creatures..in..Hell...Eureka! I can banish the party!" The DM's jaw dropped to the floor. One well-used sanctuary, adjure, and word of recall later (which apparently did work because it was Divine magic), everybody was safe and sound.

Anyway, after reading that story, the artist decided to portray Dalgard in place of Gandalf at the Bridge of Moria. :) Note that the minotaur skeletons are Dalgard's "followers." He hunted down a tribe of minotaurs and animated them to use as his shock troops and bodyguards after he built his tower. Also, I always described Dalgard as wearing Eleven maille under black velvet robes and smelling of incense and rose petals (from his various material components).

Today's post isn't just to regale you with the typical "no shit" gamer stories. Really. No, Dalgard has 3 spells of his own that I've statted out for S&W Whitebox: Dalgard's Decomposition, Dalgard's Forked Lightning, and Dalgard's Total Inversion. Note that the original version of Dalgard's Total Inversion was a specialized version of the Finger of Death spell. Since S&WWB only goes up to 6th level in spells and Death is a bit more powerful, it has undergone yet another revision!

Dalgard's Decomposition

Spell Level: M3

Range: 30 ft. or touch

Duration: Instantaneous

This spell prepares a number of corpses (1d6 + caster level) for use as animated skeletons by removing the fleshy parts of the corpses while leaving the ligaments and tendons intact. The spell can be used against a living creature in combat as a touch attack for 1d6 points of damage per caster level, though a successful saving throw halves damage. A creature reduced to 0 hit points by the spell collapses as a pile of dust.

Dalgard's Forked Lighting

Spell Level: M4

Range: 240 ft.

Duration: Instantaneous

A variation of the Lightning Bolt spell, this spell allows the caster to split his bolt up to 4 times. The number of tines affects the length of each: 2 tines are 30 feet long each, 3 are 20 feet each, and 4 are 15 feet each. These forks still rebound. Damage is 1d6 per level of the caster, though a successful saving throw halves damage.

Dalgard's Total Inversion

Spell Level: M6

Range: 240 ft.

Duration: Permanent

A variation of the Death spell (q.v.), this spell also has the effect of turning its victims inside out.

C is for Cloaks, Clothing, and....Cloakers.

Ah, yes, magical cloaks. The first line of defense for adventurers. I think every one wants one, especially the Elven variety. Question: why does the thief always get the one the party finds? I mean, hiding in shadows and moving silently is a class ability for the thief; he shouldn't ~need~ a magic item to do it for him. And why do the elves in the party just let a ne'er-do-well thief take an item of such cultural significance? Take The Lord of the Rings, for instance. It's made quite clear that the cloaks that Galadriel gives out to the party are special. She says that never have they clothed strangers in the clothes of their kinsmen. Or something along those lines. Regardless, I think that elves might have a thing or two to say about some sweaty lowborn human gallivanting around in one of their kinsman's cloaks. Or maybe that's just me; I tend to be a prick and play both PC and NPC elves as snobs. Well-intentioned ones, to be sure, but still snobs nonetheless. Hey, if you lived anywhere from several centuries to, well, forever (depending on the world/source), I think you'd act a bit high and mighty as well. And don't forget the fact that anything a human can do, elves can do better. :)

Of course, there's more to it than just the Cloak of the Elvenkind. What about the Cloak of the Bat? After the release of the 1989 Batman with Michale Keaton, my character at the time managed to acquire one. Cut to the game and, well, I guess it was inevitable that my character grab a bad guy in a bar and say, "I'm Batman!" before head-butting the poor fellow. 

What about a Cloak of Protection for the magic user? And robes, while not cloaks, sort of fall into this whole area as well. Robe of Useful Items: sometimes comical, occasionally helpful. Robe of Stars: I can breathe! Etc, etc.

Remember, clothes can make the man! Or eat him. 

Cloakers

AC: 3 [16]/1 [18]                                          Special: Wrap attack
HD: 6                                                          Move:  1/15 (when swimming)
Attacks: Tail                                                HDE/XP: 8/800

Cloakers are a strange subterranean race that inhabits the dark places of the Underdark. They are thin and leathery with glowing red eyes and a mouth filled with razor-sharp teeth. Its back is covered in eyespots (thus negating any possibility of surprise) and it has a small club-like tail with which it can attack twice in a combat round. Cloakers are highly intelligent, but their thought processes are so alien that it is nigh impossible to communicate with them. In fact, some sages speculate that the cloakers came to this world from the Outer Dark.

Its favored means of attack is to fly at its prey and envelop it like a cloak (hence their name). Once a victim is enveloped, it uses its tail to fend off any would-be rescuers and bites the enveloped creature for 1D4 + victim's AC points of damage (1D4 + [19 - victim's AC] if using the ascending AC system). If the cloaker is attacked while feeding, damage is split evenly between the cloaker and its victim; area effect spells do full damage to both. Note that the creature's tail can be attacked; it is AC 1 [18] and can take 16 points of damage.