[URBIS] A new way of looking at ghouls

[jmucchiello]

This is actually D&D canon - look at the MM stats for an "average" ghoul...

He's right. I always wondered why Ghoul wasn't a template:

Ghoulish Template
This template applies to any aberration, animal, beast, magical beast, giant, humanoid or giant humanoid. Type becomes Undead.
Hit Dice: Convert to d12 and gain +1d12 hit dice.
AC: gain +2 natural
Attacks: Gain a bite and 2 claws if base creature does not already have them
Damage: (standard by size chart) and paralysis
Special Attacks: paralysis and create spawn
Special Qualities: Undead and +2 turn resistance
Ability Scores: gain Str +2, Dex +4, Int +2, Wis +2, and Cha +6. Undead have no Con.
Skills: gain Climb, Escape Artist, Hide, Intuit Direction, Jump, Listen, Move Silently, Search and Spot
Feats: gain Multiattack
Challenge Rating: +2
Alignment: always CE
Advancement: As base creature type or by character class.
------------------------
Paralysis: Fortitude save DC is 10 + 1/2 Hit Dice + Charisma Modifier. Duration: 1d6+2 minutes. Elves are immune to this paralysis.
Create Spawn: As MM
Undead: (standard paragraph)

Did I miss anything?

Oh yeah, the monster feat:

Blood of the Elves (Monster)
You ignore elven blood.
Benefits: Any ability you possess which Elves are immune to affects Elves normally.



Joe

 

[Xarlen]

Ghoulish plants? I can just see the horror of a Ghoul Assassin Vine.

 

[jmucchiello]

Ghoulish plants? I can just see the horror of a Ghoul Assassin Vine.

Looks at prior post. No, I didn't think I included Plants in the list of creatures that can be Ghoulish. But hey, it's your game. Besides, Assassin Vines are already blood suckers.

 

[Voadam]

There are a bunch of ghoulish templates out there.

Monte Cook has one on his site.

Ambient has one on their website.

The module Harvest of Darkness has one in it.

The upcoming Penumbra Bestiary has one (which I wrote) with a ghast prc made specially for ghoul's.

 

[Voadam]

And each of them seem to have a slightly different take on the base concept which is kind of neat.

 

[barsoomcore]

What's wrong with eating dead people?

My campaign has non-evil ghouls. There are a number of different classes of undead, one of which are those who devour human flesh -- those who need to eat living human flesh are vampires (not blood-sucking, flesh-eating) and those who eat dead human flesh are ghouls.

Now undead do not have a metabolism and so don't biologically need to eat. What happens, though, is that the longer they go without eating, the less rational they become. Which REALLY sucks if you've just been turned into a vampire -- you can either eat your friends (probably going mad in the process) or you can not eat your friends (and definitely go mad. And then eat them). The idea is that the magical processes that power these creatures need to be fed, and if they are not, those processes begin to warp the mind of the poor undead.

There's in fact a major rehabilitation project ongoing for a woman who was turned into a vampire long ago -- she's not a vampire anymore but she spent a long time trying to not be a horrible monster and so she's completely insane.

Back to ghouls: So these creatures call themselves the Children of the Grave and they roam about eating dead bodies. Most of them try to be civilized and don't create bodies for dinner -- they just break into crypts and chow down on beloved fathers and well-remember grandmothers. Which makes them pretty upopular in some places but for the most part they're treated the same way, for example, bears are treated in a place like Banff -- you see them around all the time, making a mess in the cemetery but just stay clear and they won't bother you. Some cultures burn their dead so as to deny the ghouls their dinner, and some cultures actually have funeral rites based around offering the deceased to the ghouls for devouring.

It's all a little wacky. I just wanted ghouls to be the good guys for a change.

 

[Tar Markvar]

In my game (Kalamar/Dragonstar), I ran ghouls as the animated bodies of humans whose flesh had been eaten. I used them in a story that involved the PCs getting a distress beacon from a nearby space station, landing there, and finding the place overrun by ghouls. The lone surviving human begged them for their help, asking them to kill the ghouls (and begging them for food). Once they did, the ravenously hungry survivor offered them a scrumptious meal of meat, vegetables, and bread. The party's impulsive barbarian was the only one to tear into the food before someone began to wonder where the meal came from, if there was no food on the station. A fortunate saving throw later, the fight began.

The villain of that story was a "wendigo," patterned after the movie Ravenous. He was a survivor of an ogre invasion on the station who ate the flesh of a dead resident to survive the time after the invasion. As a wendigo, he became stronger, more charismatic, faster, and gained a ton of hunting-type abilities, but he had to eat human flesh to survive. The humans whose flesh he ate became ghouls after death, driven by a need to replace the flesh that had been eaten.

They were just normal ghouls (save for a ghast or two mixed in), but they had a specific drive to eat flesh to make themselves complete again. They weren't the villains of the plot, but rather a red herring and a side effect. Fun.

 

[Tar Markvar]

Another thought:

Likely you've never read Everlasting, but it has a great take on ghouls, which the book calls "Ghuls." They're undead created when a mortal creates and swallows a potion of immortality. If the potion is exactly right, they become ghuls that look just like normal people. If not, thye might become physically repulsive, mentally deranged, etc., but all ghuls face degeneration over time. They have to eat flesh (only one kind of ghul needs well-rotted flesh to survive), and they have their own brand of magic based around necromancy.

It's a cool take on ghuls, but a hard book to find. Everlasting was created by a former writer for White Wolf, and it shows. The game never really sold very well, so the books may be out of print. IF you want to find the Ghuls, look in the Book of the Unliving, which also includes some great vampires, revenants, and flesh golems.

 

[Xarlen]

Looks at prior post. No, I didn't think I included Plants in the list of creatures that can be Ghoulish. But hey, it's your game. Besides, Assassin Vines are already blood suckers.

Woops! I mixed up Giant with Plant.

I have been inspired to create a villain for a low-mid level game, because this thread and paticularly the Ripper gave me the idea.

Mr. Bloody. Mr. Bloody is the Boogeyman, more or less. A tall man (atleast, he was), pale skin, black tongue, yellow teeth, stringy gray hair on a balding scap. He wears a wide brimmed hat, a dirty, tattered long coat, a tie, and dirty cloths, and fingerless gloves (like a hobo).

Mr Bloody is a mean man. He stalks children, or adults, chasing you, or coming to you in the night. Sometimes, your screams can't even be heard, other times when you run away, he chases you, and catches you easy! He will taunt you, freeze you in place, and carve you up with his dagger. Eat you while you watch. Sometimes, you can't even see him, but he's there, and he gets you. You could see him on the street at night, across the road, just watching you, or smiling at you through the window. Mr. Bloody is patient. When Mr. Bloody is done with you, your grimace is turned into a grin, because of his dagger.

A Ripper (As described above), but give him a few spell likes, or make him an Illusionist, with a litthe fighter thrown in perhaps. Perfered spells of the illusionary school (Ghost sound for footsteps, clawings), Minor/major illusion, Blindness/Deafness. Slow, Grease, Phantasmal killer, Hold Person are also suggested, as is Silence, either from a ring or a spell-like. If he's going to be fighting, a Subdual Substituted Fireball works perfect, centered on him.

Mr. Bloody could start stalking a party out of personal reasons (They went ghoul hunting), maybe they unleashed him, or saved a victim of his. Or maybe it's on a lark. But Mr. Bloody is a ruthless, cruel man. Attacking characters when they go to the privy, when they are up on watch. So cruel that he's not against paralyzing someone, taking their weapon, and killing someone with said weapon, to frame the PC. Then come to them when they are in jail.

Mr. Bloody, for you GMs, is a cross between Freddy Krauger, the Tall Man, and Jack the Ripper. A cruel, cat-and-mouse sadist.

 

[blackshirt5]

NICE YO! I like the Mr. Bloody idea, I'm running a modern horror campaign right now(in CoC), so I'm probably gonna have to steal that idea(gonna love throwing that at my girlfriend's character, she's basically playing that guy that everybody knows @ least one example of, the 'kid who never grew up', so the bogeyman coming for him would be perfect).