Iosue
Legend
MONSTER LIST: Acolyte to Zombie
On to the Monsters of Moldvay Basic!
On the first page we have the Acolyte and the Bandit, essentially monster versions of PC classes. Acolytes have an AC of 2, which seems to suggest they are wearing plate and carry shields. Bandits, in the meantime, have an AC of 6. Leather armor and implicit Dex bonus, perhaps? Both still use the standard d8 monster Hit Die. Also, this page is the first with art in a while! An Erol Otus depiction of an Ape, White. Can't find a pic of it on the Internet, though...
The next page features two kinds of Bat ( Normal and Giant ), four kinds of Bear ( Black, Grizzly, Polar, and Cave), and three kinds of Beetle, Giant (Fire, Oil, and Tiger). IMO, this page demonstrates two things. One is the succinctness of Moldvay's rules. On one page we have essentially nine monsters of various level and abilities. The other is what may now appear to be the curious decision to include monsters far beyond the level of Basic characters. The four bears go from HD 4 to HD 7. The HD 4 Black Bear might appear on the 3rd level of a dungeon, but it seems highly unlikely that the HD 7 Cave Bear, with its vicious 1-8/1-8/2-12 claw/claw/bite routine, would do so. It's certainly one thing that reinforces the idea of challenges that players would not necessarily be expected to defeat by straight combat.
The next page lists the Beserker, Boar, Bugbear, Carrion Crawler, and five kinds of Cat, Great (Mountain Lion, Panther, Lion, Tiger, and Sabre-tooth Tiger). There's a Diesel LaForce pic of the classic Carrion Crawler. This (and the Mentzer DMB's one) is how I always picture them; I never really cared for the green-skinned WotC versions.
Next we have Cave Locust, Centipede, Giant, Doppleganger, and...Dragon! These are, of course, the most powerful monsters in Basic, possibly in Expert, as well, with low ACs, high HD, and dangerous Breath Weapons. But there's something else I want to draw attention to here. Dragons were given a huge upgrade in BECMI and AD&D 2nd Ed, in order to make them more powerful, dangerous foes for the PCs, and this trend has continued in subsequent editions, including 5e. And to be sure, at first glance this does seem somewhat necessary. Even the mighty Gold only has AC -2 (which 10th level fighters can hit with a 14 or better, without any STR bonus or magic weapons), and 11 HD averages out to only 50 HP. Certainly, a dragon is not an epic foe for a party of name-level PCs. But there's one line in the stat block that I think gets really overlooked. No. Appearing! All dragons have a No. Appearing of 1-4, in both dungeon and wilderness! That means you only have a 25% chance of encountering a solo dragon, and a 75% of encounter multiple dragons at a time! To an extent, I think No. Appearing being overlooked is true not just of dragons, but other D&D monsters as well. Most are designed to be encountered in groups, but it seems like only the old standards such as kobolds, goblins, orcs, gnolls, and lower level undead are really thought of being encountered in groups.
Other than the Gold Dragon, none of the other metallic dragons are included in Basic, with the chromatics of White, Black, Green, Blue, and Red making the cut. However, while Golds are of course Lawful alignment, and Blacks, Greens, and Reds are Chaotic, Whites and Blues are Neutral, suggesting that in B/X they may not necessarily be evil. The Dragon entry takes up most of the next page, as well, with sub-sections for Breath Weapon Damage (up to 3 times, randomly decided, damage equal to the dragons current HP), Shape of Breath (includes the iconic pic of breath weapon shapes), Saving Throws (for breath weapons: save for half-damage), Talking (clarifies that only talking dragons can use spells, but the chance of talking only goes up to 50% for Reds, except for Golds who always talk and cast spells), Sleeping Dragons (basically a free attack round, since you only get a +2, and they wake after the first attack; no coup de grace here!), Subduing Dragons (all attacks made with "flat of the sword", no magic or missiles; subdued dragons must be sold at a maximum of 1,000 gp per hit point), Age (younger dragons up to 3 HD lower, older dragons up to 3 HD hire), Treasure (only in lair, and 1/4 to 1/2 less for younger dragons), and Gold Dragons (always talk and use spells, can also change shape, and can use both fire and chlorine gas breath weapons). The page ends with an entry for the surprisingly tough but somewhat anti-climatic Driver Ant. (That said, 6' long and never fails morale when hungry! Yipes!)
The next page has many of the classics: Dwarf, Elf, Ferret, Giant, Gargoyle, Gelatinous Cube, Ghoul, Gnoll, and Gnome. The next page has even more: Goblin, Gray Ooze, Green Slime, Halfling, Harpy, and Hobgoblin. Interestingly, the Elf gets 1+1 HD, while the Halfling gets 1-1, despite PC elves and halflings using the d6 Hit Die.
The next page contains Insect Swarms, Killer Bee, Kobold, and Living Statue, with the last being unique to B/X and BECMI. Living Statues come in Crystal, Iron, and Rock. This page also has an Erol Otus kobold picture.
The next page contains four kinds of Lizards, Giant (Gecko, Draco, Horned Chameleon, and Tuatara), Lizard Man, and five kinds of Lycanthropes (Wererat, Werewolf, Wereboar, Weretiger, and Werebear). While werebears were Chaotic Good in AD&D, their D&D counterparts were the decidedly more uncertain Neutral. However, their description notes them as intelligent even in animal form, and possibly friendly if peacably approached. I suspect this reflects the vagaries of the single-axis D&D alignment. Werebears are obviously inspired by the perilous, grumpy, but ultimately good Beorn of the Hobbit. In AD&D, this could be relatively easily mapped to Chaotic Good, but since in D&D Chaotic often maps to "evil", Neutral was used to better express Beorn's ambiguity.
The next page contains another PC-class monster with the Medium, followed by the Medusa, Minotaur, Mule, Neanderthal (Caveman), and Noble.
The following page has Normal Human (weaker than PC-class characters), NPC Party, Ochre Jelly, Ogre, Orc, and Owl Bear. Interesting the owl bear is two words instead of a compound! The orc gets four paragraphs of description, much more than goblins, kobolds, and the like. It also notes that they may often be hired as low cost soldiers!
The next page has the Pixie, two kinds of Rat (Normal and Giant), Robber Fly, Rock Baboon, Rust Monster, and Shadow. A Bill Willingham pic does double-duty for both the pixie and the rust monster.
Next come Shrew, Giant, Shrieker, Skeleton, and five kinds of Snake (Spitting Cobra, Pit Viper, Sea Snake, Giant Rattler, and Rock Python). The snakes are rough. Relatively easy to kill, but four of them are poisonous (pit viper, sea snake, and giant rattler are lethal; the spitting cobra's poison only blinds), and on a successful hit, the Rock Python does bite damage and immediately begins doing 2d4 squeezing damage per round. Thanks to the lack of damage types in D&D, swords suffer no damage penalty vs. skeletons. However, with 3-12 appearing, immunity to sleep and charm, and with perfect morale, skeletons are relentless and scary.
The next page offers three kinds of Spider, Giant (Crab Spider, Black Widow, and Tarantella), Sprite, Stirge, Thoul, and Trader. That's actually "tarantella", not "tarantula". These are huge, hairy magical spiders, whose poison causes a painful, but non-damaging, non-lethal spasmodic "dance". Here's a pic. The thoul is another D&D original, not found in AD&D or WotC D&D. It's a magical combination of ghoul, hobgoblin, and troll. Apparently, they look like hobgoblins, paralyze like ghouls, and regenerate like trolls. I'm definitely statting these bad boys up for 5e once the DMG drops!
Our last page of monsters contains Troglodyte, the final PC-class NPC with the Veteran, Wight, two kinds of Wolf (Normal Wolf and Dire Wolf), Yellow Mold, and the Zombie wraps everything up. The troglodyte has a Bill Willingham pic that I've always remembered. Unlike the other PC-class NPCs, the Veteran gets variable HD: 1-3, to represent sergeants and the like.
Coming up next, Treasure!
On to the Monsters of Moldvay Basic!
On the first page we have the Acolyte and the Bandit, essentially monster versions of PC classes. Acolytes have an AC of 2, which seems to suggest they are wearing plate and carry shields. Bandits, in the meantime, have an AC of 6. Leather armor and implicit Dex bonus, perhaps? Both still use the standard d8 monster Hit Die. Also, this page is the first with art in a while! An Erol Otus depiction of an Ape, White. Can't find a pic of it on the Internet, though...
The next page features two kinds of Bat ( Normal and Giant ), four kinds of Bear ( Black, Grizzly, Polar, and Cave), and three kinds of Beetle, Giant (Fire, Oil, and Tiger). IMO, this page demonstrates two things. One is the succinctness of Moldvay's rules. On one page we have essentially nine monsters of various level and abilities. The other is what may now appear to be the curious decision to include monsters far beyond the level of Basic characters. The four bears go from HD 4 to HD 7. The HD 4 Black Bear might appear on the 3rd level of a dungeon, but it seems highly unlikely that the HD 7 Cave Bear, with its vicious 1-8/1-8/2-12 claw/claw/bite routine, would do so. It's certainly one thing that reinforces the idea of challenges that players would not necessarily be expected to defeat by straight combat.
The next page lists the Beserker, Boar, Bugbear, Carrion Crawler, and five kinds of Cat, Great (Mountain Lion, Panther, Lion, Tiger, and Sabre-tooth Tiger). There's a Diesel LaForce pic of the classic Carrion Crawler. This (and the Mentzer DMB's one) is how I always picture them; I never really cared for the green-skinned WotC versions.
Next we have Cave Locust, Centipede, Giant, Doppleganger, and...Dragon! These are, of course, the most powerful monsters in Basic, possibly in Expert, as well, with low ACs, high HD, and dangerous Breath Weapons. But there's something else I want to draw attention to here. Dragons were given a huge upgrade in BECMI and AD&D 2nd Ed, in order to make them more powerful, dangerous foes for the PCs, and this trend has continued in subsequent editions, including 5e. And to be sure, at first glance this does seem somewhat necessary. Even the mighty Gold only has AC -2 (which 10th level fighters can hit with a 14 or better, without any STR bonus or magic weapons), and 11 HD averages out to only 50 HP. Certainly, a dragon is not an epic foe for a party of name-level PCs. But there's one line in the stat block that I think gets really overlooked. No. Appearing! All dragons have a No. Appearing of 1-4, in both dungeon and wilderness! That means you only have a 25% chance of encountering a solo dragon, and a 75% of encounter multiple dragons at a time! To an extent, I think No. Appearing being overlooked is true not just of dragons, but other D&D monsters as well. Most are designed to be encountered in groups, but it seems like only the old standards such as kobolds, goblins, orcs, gnolls, and lower level undead are really thought of being encountered in groups.
Other than the Gold Dragon, none of the other metallic dragons are included in Basic, with the chromatics of White, Black, Green, Blue, and Red making the cut. However, while Golds are of course Lawful alignment, and Blacks, Greens, and Reds are Chaotic, Whites and Blues are Neutral, suggesting that in B/X they may not necessarily be evil. The Dragon entry takes up most of the next page, as well, with sub-sections for Breath Weapon Damage (up to 3 times, randomly decided, damage equal to the dragons current HP), Shape of Breath (includes the iconic pic of breath weapon shapes), Saving Throws (for breath weapons: save for half-damage), Talking (clarifies that only talking dragons can use spells, but the chance of talking only goes up to 50% for Reds, except for Golds who always talk and cast spells), Sleeping Dragons (basically a free attack round, since you only get a +2, and they wake after the first attack; no coup de grace here!), Subduing Dragons (all attacks made with "flat of the sword", no magic or missiles; subdued dragons must be sold at a maximum of 1,000 gp per hit point), Age (younger dragons up to 3 HD lower, older dragons up to 3 HD hire), Treasure (only in lair, and 1/4 to 1/2 less for younger dragons), and Gold Dragons (always talk and use spells, can also change shape, and can use both fire and chlorine gas breath weapons). The page ends with an entry for the surprisingly tough but somewhat anti-climatic Driver Ant. (That said, 6' long and never fails morale when hungry! Yipes!)
The next page has many of the classics: Dwarf, Elf, Ferret, Giant, Gargoyle, Gelatinous Cube, Ghoul, Gnoll, and Gnome. The next page has even more: Goblin, Gray Ooze, Green Slime, Halfling, Harpy, and Hobgoblin. Interestingly, the Elf gets 1+1 HD, while the Halfling gets 1-1, despite PC elves and halflings using the d6 Hit Die.
The next page contains Insect Swarms, Killer Bee, Kobold, and Living Statue, with the last being unique to B/X and BECMI. Living Statues come in Crystal, Iron, and Rock. This page also has an Erol Otus kobold picture.
The next page contains four kinds of Lizards, Giant (Gecko, Draco, Horned Chameleon, and Tuatara), Lizard Man, and five kinds of Lycanthropes (Wererat, Werewolf, Wereboar, Weretiger, and Werebear). While werebears were Chaotic Good in AD&D, their D&D counterparts were the decidedly more uncertain Neutral. However, their description notes them as intelligent even in animal form, and possibly friendly if peacably approached. I suspect this reflects the vagaries of the single-axis D&D alignment. Werebears are obviously inspired by the perilous, grumpy, but ultimately good Beorn of the Hobbit. In AD&D, this could be relatively easily mapped to Chaotic Good, but since in D&D Chaotic often maps to "evil", Neutral was used to better express Beorn's ambiguity.
The next page contains another PC-class monster with the Medium, followed by the Medusa, Minotaur, Mule, Neanderthal (Caveman), and Noble.
The following page has Normal Human (weaker than PC-class characters), NPC Party, Ochre Jelly, Ogre, Orc, and Owl Bear. Interesting the owl bear is two words instead of a compound! The orc gets four paragraphs of description, much more than goblins, kobolds, and the like. It also notes that they may often be hired as low cost soldiers!
The next page has the Pixie, two kinds of Rat (Normal and Giant), Robber Fly, Rock Baboon, Rust Monster, and Shadow. A Bill Willingham pic does double-duty for both the pixie and the rust monster.
Next come Shrew, Giant, Shrieker, Skeleton, and five kinds of Snake (Spitting Cobra, Pit Viper, Sea Snake, Giant Rattler, and Rock Python). The snakes are rough. Relatively easy to kill, but four of them are poisonous (pit viper, sea snake, and giant rattler are lethal; the spitting cobra's poison only blinds), and on a successful hit, the Rock Python does bite damage and immediately begins doing 2d4 squeezing damage per round. Thanks to the lack of damage types in D&D, swords suffer no damage penalty vs. skeletons. However, with 3-12 appearing, immunity to sleep and charm, and with perfect morale, skeletons are relentless and scary.
The next page offers three kinds of Spider, Giant (Crab Spider, Black Widow, and Tarantella), Sprite, Stirge, Thoul, and Trader. That's actually "tarantella", not "tarantula". These are huge, hairy magical spiders, whose poison causes a painful, but non-damaging, non-lethal spasmodic "dance". Here's a pic. The thoul is another D&D original, not found in AD&D or WotC D&D. It's a magical combination of ghoul, hobgoblin, and troll. Apparently, they look like hobgoblins, paralyze like ghouls, and regenerate like trolls. I'm definitely statting these bad boys up for 5e once the DMG drops!
Our last page of monsters contains Troglodyte, the final PC-class NPC with the Veteran, Wight, two kinds of Wolf (Normal Wolf and Dire Wolf), Yellow Mold, and the Zombie wraps everything up. The troglodyte has a Bill Willingham pic that I've always remembered. Unlike the other PC-class NPCs, the Veteran gets variable HD: 1-3, to represent sergeants and the like.
Coming up next, Treasure!
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