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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ilgatto" data-source="post: 9807214" data-attributes="member: 86051">What was I thinking!?Because I’m getting the feeling that I’m getting nowhere fast, I’ve started to think that using Appendix E as a starting point to try and find out what they were thinking when they made Appendix E may have been the wrong choice.Why? Well, for one thing, because it lists “Special Attacks” and “Special Defenses” as being separate things. But are they?Special attacks? Special defenses? Or special abilities?Let’s do some delving.CHAINMAIL, you say?CHAINMAIL, Appendix D lists the following “special abilities” for monsters:[ATTACH=full]423158[/ATTACH]The way I see it, there are several things pertaining to the “Special Attacks” and “Special Defenses” in Appendix E to be gleaned from this:1) A monster has “special abilities” rather than “special attacks” and/or “special defenses”. This is interesting because the XPV table on p. 85 in the DMG uses the same term before the footnotes mentions “special attacks” and “special defenses” as separate “special abilities”.2) The ability to become invisible/hide in terrain (A) is a thing, as is the ability to detect hidden invisible enemies (F).3) Judging by the monsters that have it, the ability to cause the enemy to check morale (D) might explain why “fear” is sometimes a thing in Appendix E. Though it doesn’t mention the fear aura of dragons…4) The ability to “assume the shape of and gather like animals” (H) is a “special ability”. In my book, this may explain at least in part why the Monster Manual often treats a monster’s ability to appear as something else as separate from its ability cast spells or use spell-like abilities (e.g., gold dragon).5) The balrog’s ability to change to flames and immolate by touch (J)—the type VI demon’s “whip & immolate”—may lie at the basis of the elemental’s ability to “burn inflammables”, and perhaps even the salamander’s “heat (1-6)” and “heat”, suggesting that folks are actually set on fire by these attacks. I guess this has become a bit muddled in AD&D because there aren’t really any rules for that.6) The ability to cause trees to move and fight (K) is a thing.7) The ability to transport figures of man-weight (L) is a thing8) The ability to cast fire or similar substances or stones (X) seems to suggest that fireball, hurling rocks, and breath weapons are the same thing “special ability”-wise. While this may seem moot, it does provide a solution for the “minor breath weapons” left after I defined the “major breath weapons.”I’d say that this lays the groundwork for a number of special abilities that are also mentioned in Appendix E, the XPV table, and the Monster Manual, being: being invisible in one way or another; fear; detecting creatures that cannot readily be seen; paralysis; being a lycanthrope; regeneration; immolation and burning things with fire and/or heat; controlling trees; lifting creatures off the ground; discharging missiles; and fiery breath weapons and similar exhalations.Exceptional abilities?Some more delving nets me the following:Which is followed by this table:[ATTACH=full]423159[/ATTACH]Two things:First, interestingly, this suggests that even an “exceptional ability” is actually a “special ability”.Second, while I was hoping that this table would explain some of the weirder xp values in Appendix E, it doesn’t.Special abilities it isWhile all of this may have been glaringly obvious from the beginning, I suppose the main takeaway for me is that a monster can have “special abilities”, which can include “special attacks” and “special defenses”.Which rather takes the sting out of whether a special ability is listed as a “Special Attack” or a “Special Defense” in Appendix E—it’s just a special ability, and therefore worth an SAXPB, or an EAXPA, if the XPV table lists it as such.What does that mean?Let’s assume that, according to the XPV table, a monster gets an SAXPB if it has a “special ability”, regardless of whether that is a “special attack” or a “special defense”. Then, if one of these special abilities is “exceptional”, it gets an EAXPA instead, whereby an “exceptional special ability” is one that leads to some “exceptional effect” as it is mentioned in the XPV table.So, does each “exceptional special ability” have a “base special ability”?[ATTACH=full]423160[/ATTACH]Yeah, not really, with the exception of the cold touch of some undead, and perhaps the breath weapon and the phenomenon of “resistance (and/or immunity) to specific spells”. However, there is no proof for the latter—as there isn’t for the rest of them. However, I may have a point by making a distinction between “d6’s” and “dice” of damage in the massive damage category, for that just might explain some weird EAXPAs some monsters have in the inflicting damage department (e.g., Baluchiterium, giant snapping turtle). But, as I’ve said before, this isn’t about me.Well, not muchSo, all of this doesn’t get me anywhere other than getting rid of not much more than a handful of the “unknowns” in the “Results, expanded and revised” table, such as the camels’ “spitting”, which would be an SAXPB just because it is a “special ability” regardless of whether it’s a missile weapon or not, and the fact that “minor breath weapons” are worth an SAXPB just because they are “special abilities” and not “exceptional” ones. And that is way, way to little.So what, exactly, are special abilities anyway, or: Let’s do some more diggingI’m afraid this rather means that that there seems to be no pre-AD&D “definitive list” of “special abilities”.As we can see above, Holmes just repeats what we already know at this point in time.However, Swords & Spells does shed some light on the subject, among which:1) There’s a difference between breath weapons that inflict half damage on a saving throw and those that inflict no damage on one2) The phenomenon of missile weapons is mentioned as a “special attack form”3) There is such a thing as a “touch weapon” being a “special attack form”4) And, finally, a “gaze attack” is a “special attack form”, which is actually quite the find.5) Oh, and interestingly, it gives us an area of effect for a “gaze attack”Since I’ve been digging in non-AD&D sources, let’s do some moreThe B/X Basic Rulebook, p. B29-30, B34, B36, mentions a number of special attacks, being:[ATTACH=full]423162[/ATTACH]Next is the B/X Expert Rulebook[ATTACH=full]423163[/ATTACH]And then there’s the BECMI D&D rules[ATTACH=full]423164[/ATTACH]re blindness: Looks like blindness may originally have been a lot worse than it is in AD&D. Also, it suggests that to hit penalties in darkness is a thing, which may mean that to hit penalties in general may be a thing?And the BECMI Expert rules[ATTACH=full]423165[/ATTACH]And the BECMI Companion rulesThe Dungeon Masters Companion Rulebook, p. 28, lists the following under “Special Attacks” and “Special Defenses”:[ATTACH=full]423166[/ATTACH]All of this is repeated in the BECMI Master DM’s Book.And the BECMI DM’s Guide to Immortals is just weird.So what?The problem with all of the above is that most all of it is based on pre-AD&D sources (CHAINMAIL, OD&D), which sucks when you want to make sense of an appendix made for AD&D monsters. However, I would argue that these sources lie at the basis of said appendix, which makes them relevant. In like fashion, I’d say that B/X and BECMI are also based on these pre-AD&D sources, which can help me in determining what OD&D considered to be special abilities in some form or other.AD&D sourcesSo, with that out of the way, I suppose it would only be prudent to list what the various AD&D sources have to say on the matter of “special abilities”, “special attacks”, and “special defenses” (and then some), even if that means repeating myself. So here goes:That’s a lot of text, so does all of that get me somewhere?Why, yes.First, it allows me to make a list of what OD&D, AD&D, B/X, and BECMI consider to be what we shall call “special abilities”, some of which may be “exceptional abilities” in AD&D.Second, it explains why Appendix E list numerous weird things as “Special Attacks” or “Special Defenses” (e.g., “rear attack 75%” for the blink dog, “noise” for the shrieker).Third, there was obviously a difference between dragon breath and “other breath weapons”; and between breath weapons that would cause half damage on a saving throw and those that would cause no damage on a saving throw. Not sure what all of that means, but it may have some bearing on the phenomenon of a “major breath weapon”.Fourth, it suggests that superior senses and a greater chance to surprise are not “special attacks”, “special defenses”, and not even “special abilities”. In fact, Appendix E is the only bit of text I know that list them as such. Well, and Dragon #89, but my little experiment does not allow me to us that as a source, and I suppose it could be argued that article tries to explain Appendix E.Fifth, there’s more, such as that gaze attacks, touch attacks, gaseous discharges, summoning/gating, immunities, spell immunity, spell use, spell-like abilities, and then some, are all things.Sixth, it allows me to suggest that an attack only gets an xp value if it does more than inflict “regular damage”, or if it inflicts massive amounts of them. Thus:an aerial servant has #AT 1, which either allows it to seize (and restrain) its quarry, or in special circumstances, to inflict massive regular damage on its summoner, wherefore it has the “special ability” to inflict massive damage—and perhaps the “special ability to seize and restrain” (it’s complicated)a soldier ant has #AT 2, one of which injects poison, wherefore it has the “special ability” to inflict poison damagea carrion crawler has #AT 8, all of which cause paralysis, wherefore it has the “special ability” to paralyzea ghoul has #AT 3, all which inflict regular damage, and two of which can paralyze, wherefore it has the “special ability” to paralyzea lich has #AT 1, which inflicts cold damage (drains energy) and can paralyze, wherefore it has two “special abilities”: to inflict cold damage, and to paralyze, each by touchAppendix E, or: The main takeawayCutting this short, all of this means that Appendix E does not list “Special Attacks” and “Specials Defenses” because they are worth xp, but because it tries to inform the reader of the options/advantages a monster has in combat, offense- and defense-wise.Though that may have been obvious to just about anyone else but me, this means that a “special attack” or “special defense” listed as such in Appendix E need not necessarily be worth any xp.Which I will get to <s>once I get my head around all of it</s> if I ever get my head around all of it.</blockquote>

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