Garnfellow
Explorer
I recently posted to my website a conversion of a monster I've been itching to do for ages. Ever read Lloyd Alexander's fantastic Chronicles of Prydain? His Huntsmen of Annuvin are a band of cursed killers and murderers with a very special ability: whenever one of their number is killed, the survivors gain his power and become stronger.
I've always wanted to use this concept in D&D. Great idea, but hard to implement mechanically. Somewhere at my parents' house you could probably find my first attempt, circa 1982. All I remember is I had a table that showed how tough each huntsman would be depending on the number of survivors, etc.
It turns out Lewis Pulsipher thought the huntsmen were pretty neat, too. And he did a loose conversion that appeared in Dragon No. 40. Here's his take:
HUNTSMEN
FREQUENCY: Very rare
NO. APPEARING: 3-12
ARMOR CLASS: 7
MOVE: 15”
HIT DICE: 1-4
% IN LAIR: Nil
TREASURE TYPE: Nil
NO. OF ATTACKS: 1
DAMAGE/ATTACK: By weapon only
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Nil
SPECIAL DEFENSES: See below
MAGIC RESISTANCE: See below
INTELLIGENCE: Average
ALIGNMENT: Evil (neutral)
SIZE: M
PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil
Attack/Defense Modes: Nil
Huntsmen are enchanted monsters of human size and shape which can be created by an evil Magic-User by the process described below. They are a sickly grey-green in color, with pointed ears and four-fingered hands. From a distance they look like humans and can be mistaken for elves in poor visibility. Huntsmen move quietly under normal conditions and consequently have a one-sixth greater than normal chance of surprising a party. They track as Rangers and are themselves surprised only one-sixth of the time. They occasionally wear armor but in so doing lose their ability to move silently and track.
Individually, these creatures are very weak monsters, but in a group they have an ability which increases the strength of survivors when one or more of their comrades is killed. When a Huntsman is killed, its original number of hit points is transferred to others in the group within a maximum range of 10”. For example, if one of a group of three Huntsmen is killed, and the dead creature had 12 hit points gainedby survivors are always divided evenly, or as evenly as possible, between the survivors. No Huntsman can maintain more than 32 hit points for more than 24 hours, and will always drop back to that level after that much time. No Huntsman can have more than 64 hit points at any time. A Dispel magic spell will delay the transfer of hit points for two rounds, and the hit points of any creature killed during that time are lost. A scroll of Protection from magic will prevent transfer of hit points within its area of effect (5 feet), either to or from a creature.
Because of the link between Huntsmen, they cannot be charmed, held or attacked psionically unless they are encountered as single creatures. Charm monster must be used, not Charm per- son. They can be magically slept only if the Sleep spell is sufficiently powerful to put all Huntsmen present to sleep at the same time. However, each creature is treated as a monster with one more hit die than it actually has when considering the effects of Sleep. For exam- ple, only 2-8 one-hit-die Huntsmen could be slept, not 4-16.
Huntsmen usually work for some evil master, commonly a Magic-User, as guards or members of a patrol. They communicate with their master by pantomime, though they understand orders given in the alignment language of the wizard who created them. Huntsmen will not obey any master who attempts to harm them for any reason.
Wizards can create Huntsmen in large, noisome, liquid-filled vats. Aside from an Enchant an item spell to give the vat its dweomer, the wizard must gather the following materials for each huntsman: two pints troll’s blood, entrails of two bugbears, ichor of invisible stalker, 50 pounds of clay, and five gallons of water. The manufacturing process takes two weeks, but needs only three days of attention from the wizard. As many as four Huntsmen may be created at the same time in the same vat if a sufficient amount of materials and a sufficiently large vat are used.
The procedure is as follows, with each step in the creation requiring one full day of attention from the creator. At the start, the wizard must cast Mending and Animal growth on the materials. After exactly one week he must cast Shatter on the materials, and at the start of the last day of the two-week period he must cast Charm monster to finish the creation. The number of hit dice for each creature is determined randomly after ifs creation.
Neat, huh? I really like that he made them constructs, which is a nifty spin on Alexander's original.
My 3.5e conversion of his monster is posted over on my website:
The huntsman
One of the things I wanted to do with this conversion was simplify the mechanic substantially so I wouldn't need a matrix.
So what do you all think? And in particular, what about the Challenge Rating? Obviously, trying to assign a CR to a creature with fluctuating strength is pretty tricky.
I've always wanted to use this concept in D&D. Great idea, but hard to implement mechanically. Somewhere at my parents' house you could probably find my first attempt, circa 1982. All I remember is I had a table that showed how tough each huntsman would be depending on the number of survivors, etc.
It turns out Lewis Pulsipher thought the huntsmen were pretty neat, too. And he did a loose conversion that appeared in Dragon No. 40. Here's his take:
HUNTSMEN
FREQUENCY: Very rare
NO. APPEARING: 3-12
ARMOR CLASS: 7
MOVE: 15”
HIT DICE: 1-4
% IN LAIR: Nil
TREASURE TYPE: Nil
NO. OF ATTACKS: 1
DAMAGE/ATTACK: By weapon only
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Nil
SPECIAL DEFENSES: See below
MAGIC RESISTANCE: See below
INTELLIGENCE: Average
ALIGNMENT: Evil (neutral)
SIZE: M
PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil
Attack/Defense Modes: Nil
Huntsmen are enchanted monsters of human size and shape which can be created by an evil Magic-User by the process described below. They are a sickly grey-green in color, with pointed ears and four-fingered hands. From a distance they look like humans and can be mistaken for elves in poor visibility. Huntsmen move quietly under normal conditions and consequently have a one-sixth greater than normal chance of surprising a party. They track as Rangers and are themselves surprised only one-sixth of the time. They occasionally wear armor but in so doing lose their ability to move silently and track.
Individually, these creatures are very weak monsters, but in a group they have an ability which increases the strength of survivors when one or more of their comrades is killed. When a Huntsman is killed, its original number of hit points is transferred to others in the group within a maximum range of 10”. For example, if one of a group of three Huntsmen is killed, and the dead creature had 12 hit points gainedby survivors are always divided evenly, or as evenly as possible, between the survivors. No Huntsman can maintain more than 32 hit points for more than 24 hours, and will always drop back to that level after that much time. No Huntsman can have more than 64 hit points at any time. A Dispel magic spell will delay the transfer of hit points for two rounds, and the hit points of any creature killed during that time are lost. A scroll of Protection from magic will prevent transfer of hit points within its area of effect (5 feet), either to or from a creature.
Because of the link between Huntsmen, they cannot be charmed, held or attacked psionically unless they are encountered as single creatures. Charm monster must be used, not Charm per- son. They can be magically slept only if the Sleep spell is sufficiently powerful to put all Huntsmen present to sleep at the same time. However, each creature is treated as a monster with one more hit die than it actually has when considering the effects of Sleep. For exam- ple, only 2-8 one-hit-die Huntsmen could be slept, not 4-16.
Huntsmen usually work for some evil master, commonly a Magic-User, as guards or members of a patrol. They communicate with their master by pantomime, though they understand orders given in the alignment language of the wizard who created them. Huntsmen will not obey any master who attempts to harm them for any reason.
Wizards can create Huntsmen in large, noisome, liquid-filled vats. Aside from an Enchant an item spell to give the vat its dweomer, the wizard must gather the following materials for each huntsman: two pints troll’s blood, entrails of two bugbears, ichor of invisible stalker, 50 pounds of clay, and five gallons of water. The manufacturing process takes two weeks, but needs only three days of attention from the wizard. As many as four Huntsmen may be created at the same time in the same vat if a sufficient amount of materials and a sufficiently large vat are used.
The procedure is as follows, with each step in the creation requiring one full day of attention from the creator. At the start, the wizard must cast Mending and Animal growth on the materials. After exactly one week he must cast Shatter on the materials, and at the start of the last day of the two-week period he must cast Charm monster to finish the creation. The number of hit dice for each creature is determined randomly after ifs creation.
* * * * *
Neat, huh? I really like that he made them constructs, which is a nifty spin on Alexander's original.
My 3.5e conversion of his monster is posted over on my website:
The huntsman
One of the things I wanted to do with this conversion was simplify the mechanic substantially so I wouldn't need a matrix.
So what do you all think? And in particular, what about the Challenge Rating? Obviously, trying to assign a CR to a creature with fluctuating strength is pretty tricky.
