Goin' Through the Fiend Folio Part 3 (Carbuncle to Crypt Thing)

Okay truckin along through the Folio... this might be my last post this year, dunno, but it's definitely gonna be my last Fiend Folio post with no interruptions (I just wanted to do a little bit of the rule of threes and have three in a row). So without further ado, here's the C monsters!

Carbuncle

★★★☆☆

Personally, I think the carbuncle is trying to be two different monsters at once. On the one hand, it is a puzzle to get at the super valuable gemstone in its head, since the jewel will crumble to dust unless removed properly (using charm spells and the like). On the other hand, the carbuncle is also a mischievous creature that actively tries to sow discord within the adventuring party using its telepathy and empathy. These are two very different challenges to the players, and in a way I feel like the carbuncle's need to cover both of those bases ends up weakening it conceptually. I do really like that it just able to will itself to die though, thats a very interesting touch, and I think it looks absolutely adorable.

Caryatid Column

★★★★☆

Honestly the caryatid column is just a much more interesting golem than the actual original stone golem. Them using built-in swords is an incredible touch, that really feels different from the brutish vibe that golems and other constructs normally have... they feel almost agile and purposeful with violence. This vibe is furthered by how the caryatid column only ever acts in defense, or if someone commits an act that they have been tasked with prohibiting. It is a much more interesting construct than the golems are honestly, and it being a particular ancient architectural feature is really fun. I would definitely use these, they feel just right for King of Kings.

Caterwaul

★★☆☆☆

The name is great, and I think the caterwaul has some great ideas. The randomly generated AC bonus and attacks per round is an interesting idea, but I don't think it is executed very well. I wish the table was just more uh flavorful or evocative, rather than just steadily increasing bonuses. The screech is a nice touch, which makes a lot of sense since caterwauling literally means screeching, though usually it means screeching like a cat in heat so does that mean that the caterwaul is horny 24/7? I think I would just use a normal big cat here.

CIFAL

★★★★☆

I said before that I love bugs in games, and the CIFAL (capitalizing every letter because its an acronym and I just think thats fun) is a very fun bug creature. I actually one time had a hive of colonial insects as a playable character race-class in a bug-oriented game I ran, there was an NPC in that game that was that race and was a walking talking paper wasp nest where the nest paper itself formed their skin. To say the least, I really like the concept of a humanoid agglomeration of arthropods. The thing where the CIFAL only has 2 real hit dice but has 8 hit dice to draw from to regenerate as they take damage is really interesting mechanically, and incentivizes really big hard-hitting attacks if you do get into combat with it, but I feel like if combat doesn't come up then its a bit of a waste. Honestly this would be a 5 star monster if it was done a bit better or with a bit more specificity.

Clubnek

★★☆☆☆

Honestly I am much more likely to use a real world large flightless bird instead of a clubnek (or an axebeak for that matter). The clubnek is even explicitly a mutated ostrich. Just use an ostrich/emu/moa/cassowary.

Coffer Corpse

★★★★★

Now I know I said before that I wasn't into having so many variations on really simple undead monsters, but I just really like the coffer corpse. Funeral barges are generally really cool, and I actually quite like how the coffer corpse uses really quite mundane mechanics to make it feel pretty distinct from other undead. They appear to take damage and collapse if they take too much but in reality are unharmed, and a successful hit results in the coffer corpse strangling the target. Honestly, I think if this were a default undead instead of a normal zombie, it would be incredible. I might just use the "appear to take damage but really they're fine" thing for just about all undead now.

The coffer corpse was first printed in the Fiend Factory column, with this just absolutely incredible illustration that focuses much more on the boat than on the actual corpse inside of it! Mechanically, the Factory coffer corpse is identical to the Folio one, although the mention of a fear effect is different: the Factory corpse only causes fear in NPCs while the Folio corpse causes fear for anyone engaged in melee with it.

Personally, I think the coffer corpse is an incredible and very iconic yet very simple undead creature. Since they feature on funeral barges, I would readily use these as random encounters along a river, perhaps tied into a common funerary practice for notables in a society. Imagine running into a clump of funerary barges on the open sea, all filled with the unquiet dead. Maybe the coffer corpse could do with more focus on the boat even! As it stands, the coffer corpse is a very usable and very fun undead monster, and both illustrations of it are fantastic.

Crabman

★★★★★

yesyesyesyesyes I LOVE crabmen, of all sorts. Crustaceoids, just like insectoids, frequently feature in my games, and the iconic rather goofy-looking Fiend Folio crabman is a fantastic addition. Sure they look basically nothing like crabs, but personally I think that that is a-okay. They remind me a lot of 1950s creature feature monster movies. I couldn't find a large enough picture of it online, but on the page facing this one there is a drawing of a fight scene where one of the crabmen is carrying off a woman over its shoulder, just like similar scenes from alien invasion and monster movies of the 1950s and 60s, which are some of my favorite movies ever (though of course I am not very enthused by the sexist and racist tropes that ooze throughout such works, as reflected by that very image of a crabman carrying off a woman). The FF crabman is mostly just a normal humanoid enemy, but it is a very flavorful and fun one! The note about them hoarding silver is interesting, because I think it provides for potentially interesting dealings between the players and the crabmen. Trading silver spoons for passage through a partially flooded section of cavern perhaps.

Crypt Thing

★★★☆☆

Not an especially necessary undead creature, and I think it could easily just be handled as some kind of wizard skeleton rather than its own distinct thing. I honestly do kinda like how much of an asshole it is without actually killing or hurting the players in any real way. Teleporting some of the party away and claiming that they are now dead, or paralyzing them and turning them invisible simultaneously (which is mentioned as a variant in the description) is just so mean but in almost a playful way. I honestly appreciate that. I just don't think it needed to be a completely different creature from other undead.

Next up are the D monsters, of which there are a lot, so I'm looking forward to that! See you all soon, and I hope you have a lovely happy new year!

Goin' Through the Fiend Folio Part 2 (the B team)

Well time to continue this then!! Picking up where we left off, doing all of the monsters that start with the letter B.

Babbler

★★★★★

Now this is a good start to a monster review. Although the illustration looks more like a kind of dinosaur, the babbler is actually explicitly a kind of crazed mutant lizard man, which is just such a fantastic concept. The notes about it being able to move "surprisingly fast" when slithering on its belly but having to rear up on its hind limbs in combat is very good, and I think makes a potential encounter with these creatures very interesting in terms of how you engage with it. I do think that its language being impossible to analyze and learn is boring, but it is important to note that the description ends with a bit about how it can understand the common tongue. Perhaps the babbler's babbling should be a mixed-up mishmash of seemingly incongruous words and phrases, almost sing-songy in the mutant's reptilian voice, an alien animal intelligence to contend with in the marshes and swamps.

Giant Bat

★★★☆☆

It's just a really big bat, nothing much to it. Of course I'm going to use a really big bat in my games, love bats, I'm just really surprised it took until the publication of the Fiend Folio for there to be stats for giant bats in AD&D. They seem like a shoe-in for the game.

Berbalang

★★★★☆

Only our second folkloric monster in the Folio, and one that is completely opposite the rather down-to-earth al-mir'aj covered previously. I actually think it is really cool just how many Asian folkloric creatures there are in the Folio, they're not a major focus on the book by any means but it broadens the rather narrow selection of non-European legendary beings from the Monster Manual. The FF berbalang is mostly a D&D-ified version of the actual Filipino berbalang, including even the whole "traversing the world astrally" thing, though I will note that the Folio version lacks some of that beautiful folkloric flavor that the real thing has, including a supposed weakness to "coconut pearls". I like the whole thing about potentially seeking out their physical forms. Pretty well done!

Blindheim

★★★★★

HELL YEAH!!! The blindheim is one of my favorite monsters in the Folio. Just like the algoid in the last post, I also had a few blindheims in a dungeon in a game I'm currently running. The image of this blindingly bright eyed batrachian is just so so iconic, and feels right at home in deep dark dungeons and caverns. This technically isn't how they're described but I imagine them as very pale in hue, glistening from the light of their own eyes. As a side note, real frogs use their eyes to swallow, turning them inward to their throats. Wouldn't it be a great encounter to run into these seemingly eyeless humanoid frogs, only for them to open their eyes and reveal blinding light? An encounter with some blindheim would be great, plus they'd be great pets to travel underground with!

Blood Hawk

★★☆☆☆

Pretty boring not gonna lie. I'm always a fan of weird birds but this is just a normal hawk that wants you dead. Bloodthirsty birds are really fun, but I do kinda wish it was a more unusual bird... Very combat-oriented monster, doesn't really do much for me.

The blood hawk was first published in the column that preceded the Fiend Factory, so this violent avian really has some pedigree I guess. Its original art is really good! Much more evocative than the blood hawk art in the FF. Not very different from the version in the Folio though.

Giant Bloodworm

★★★☆☆

This blog is literally named after worms, I'm a huge worm fan. But not gonna lie... the giant bloodworm isn't that good. Its honestly more of a trap than a combat encounter (which I will admit is pretty cool), but not any different from a giant leech. The art doesn't do a whole lot for me either.

The giant bloodworm is our next one that originally featured in the Fiend Factory column, but there isn't any notable difference to note. It even has the exact same art as the one in the Folio.

Bonesnapper

★★★☆☆

I find the little mention of them being the last remnant of an extinct line of dinosaurs a little weird when there are plenty of dinosaurs still around in the implied D&D world, but I think in a game where dinosaurs are more sparing the bonesnapper would be incredible. They're really not that unique in comparison to other dinosaurs. But the little detail about them collecting the jaws of their prey is soooo flavorful and fun. I included the illustration mostly just to point out that the background is made of jaws. That little detail doesn't change how you engage with them, but it is really really fun. 

The bonesnapper also features in the original Fiend Factory, although with a much less interesting illustration (apologies to whoever drew it). It also isn't all that different from the one in the Folio. But I do want to point out the commentary by Fiend Factory editor Don Turnbull which mentions "The possibilities of trade between Bonesnapper and non-human player-characters are endless..." That might seem a bit strange but its important to note that the animal intelligence was only established in the Folio and it is explicit that the bonesnapper only collects human jaws! Turnbull's commentary implies an incredible scenario where a dwarf and elf trade human jawbones with this weird dinosaur. I really love that.

Booka

★★☆☆☆

The booka is alright. They're a nice mischievous house spirit, a fun little faerie creature. I'm glad to have folkloric entities like this in here, I think they're a great source of inspiration. But the booka as presented isn't that interesting, mostly just a kindly house spirit that gets angry at people that are evil and can fly and turn invisible. I'm not really inclined to use it.

Bullywug

★★★★★

Here we goooooo!!! Sure they're "just" frog people, but come on!!! They're really great and iconic frog people!! The name bullywug is just incredible, its such a fun name. I will say though, the art is honestly a little underwhelming. There has been much better frog person art in subsequent renditions of the bullywug. Their longer snouts make them look more like crocodile people than frog people honestly. Good things about the Folio bullywug that I wasn't familiar with before: they have a slight camouflage ability where if they stand motionless they will go unnoticed 75% of the time, and they are slow enough that their attacks always lose initiative and go last. I've floated the idea of having creatures that play with initiative like that before, I didn't know there were antecedents in 1e AD&D! Also, the note about the possibility of bullywug-human crossbreeds is very fun and evocative, got plenty of Innsmouth vibes there. The bullywug is one of the best monsters in the entire book, one of the best humanoid races in the whole game really. Love these guys.

Bunyip

★★★★☆

Another folkloric creature! I will admit, I'm not entirely clear on the acceptability of using Australian aboriginal creatures like this, at least other than the entirely off-limits beings like the Wandjina. I like that the bunyip presented here is a mostly noncombat encounter that just tries to tip over a boat and will only attack creatures of dwarf size or smaller. Being knocked into a river can be a hazard all its own, the creature doesn't have to like fight you or anything. It is lacking in comparison to the actual Australian bunyip in terms of its like, emotional and experiential impact, mostly just being a mundane aquatic animal. Bit of a missed opportunity really. The art is great though!

Okay well that is all of the B monsters done! Next up are the C creatures... see you all soon!

Goin' Through the Fiend Folio Part 1

The lovely Tristan over at the Bogeyman's Cave has started reviewing all of the creatures from the AD&D Monster Manual, and after some discussion with him I decided to do the same for my personal favorite of the early D&D bestiaries, the Fiend Folio! I was a bit wary at first but he said that I wouldn't be stepping on his toes at all by doing this, so I guess it's alright... 

Gonna be using his same 5 star rating system for these critters mostly just for convenience and consistency. I considered doing a thing around d12s but cuz I like d12s but I couldn't figure out how best to do that so instead just doin stars.

Oh also! Whenever possible I'm going to include a bit about the creature's original form in the Fiend Factory column in White Dwarf that originated the Fiend Folio project! A lot of the time I actually prefer the original version, but we'll just have to see as I begin with... the letter A!

Aarakocra

★★☆☆☆

Honestly kinda off to a mediocre start. I like bird-people I really do... but the aarakocra just doesn't really do it for me. They're a very generic bird-person. The illustration doesn't even follow the little detail in description of their wings being like pterodactyl wings where one of the fingers extends really far to complete the wing, though in Jeff Dee's defense it is a pretty good bird person drawing. Did the aarakocra need to be a full page? Also, the description mentions that men only hunt and do nothing else while women do all the actual work but only when they're incubating an egg? A little weird. The name is hard to say too.

Achaierai

★★★★☆

Hell yes much better. This one has such a good description... its starting line of "Though the foul motives which caused these loathsome birds to be first summoned from the infernal regions are now lost to memory" is just so so delightful. These horrid bird heads on legs feel like something out of a Hieronymus Bosch painting, they really feel hellish. I like the legs having unique hit point counters and a separate AC from the body, makes it feel like a video game boss fight... oh and they release a cloud of black toxic smoke if too hurt. These are much better infernal creatures than some of the demons and devils in the Monster Manual in my humble opinion.

Adherer

★★★★★

Okay hear me out. Yes, the adherer has an underwhelming illustration. But come on!! It is such an evocative and fascinating idea... a creature that only looks like a mummy, but its wrappings are sticky tendrils of flesh it uses to defend itself. They aren't even on human levels of sapience, these are humanoid animals who have taken on the appearance of our hallowed dead by complete accident. I'm also a fan of certain "gotcha" monsters when that gotcha is handled well and I think it is here, since there are plenty of ways to extricate your weapons from the adherer. The note about it being amicable to spiders is a lovely touch as well.

And this is the first one I get to reference an older Fiend Factory creature for!

GLUEY!!!! I think the shift to calling it an adherer may have been a decision made by Gygax when he went over the creatures sent to TSR, a move to try and make the creature a bit more serious. But this is the adherer through and through! Though the gluey has a weird resistance that doesn't feature on the adherer: the gluey is completely immune to all first level spells except magic missile which always deals 3d6 damage to it. Kinda glad that got dropped, but I think it could be really interesting, perhaps if done in a more precise way for a higher level creature... what if there was something immune to spells of levels higher than 1? Also, I think this illustration is way better, it is so beautifully goth and spooky but in a cute way, full of character.

Aleax

★☆☆☆☆

One of the most forgetful and least useful monsters in the Folio, but they could be interesting if done right. They're like, emissaries of a given god's vengeance against someone, and appear as an exact replica of their intended target, and all they want to do is kill that person. Once killed, their target loses all treasure and half of their experience points and is immediately raised from the dead at the level they would be at with their half XP and have another chance at life. That could be really cool! Buuuut the way I read it just kinda makes it feel like an antagonistic DM thing, and only really suited for high level play where losing half of your XP means losing a huge amount of levels and where your character has actually pissed off a god. Not a creature I would ever use.

Algoid

★★★★☆

I actually have some algoids in a dungeon I made for a game I'm running right now! The concept of mostly mindless humanoids made completely out of algae is incredibly evocative. Its resistances and weaknesses provide great opportunities for unique problem solving, since they are immune to edged weapons (their algae parts around the attack, making it deal no damage! that's such a cool image!) and immune to a lot of damaging spells, but they are majorly hurt by the simple spells part water and lower water. On top of that they can control trees (very cool) and use the psionic power mind blast (uh not so cool since AD&D psionics sucks and I really don't get why they have that power). Fun green guys :3

Al-Mir'aj

★★★☆☆

As a nerd for Islamic history and Middle Eastern folklore, you know I'm pretty partial to al-mir'aj. As presented in the Fiend Folio it is just a normal rabbit with a unique attack, which is fine by me. Personally I wouldn't have al-mir'aj as a combat opponent at all, and more like a piece of treasure! I might make a post about al-mir'aj in King of Kings sometime soon, this reminded me of them.

Apparition

★★★☆☆

I don't really like how much D&D taxonomizes creatures using every little variation on a word. Do we really need ghosts, spectres, wraiths, and apparitions? They're all the same thing! I guess the apparition is a bit interesting in that it cannot actually physically attack, and instead grasp the throat of a target with their ghostly fingers and force them to make subsequent INT and CON checks to see if they flee in horror. That's nice. What's not nice is them using AD&D psionics rules. They would probably have like 1.5 stars if not for the fantastic illustration by my man Russ Nicholson.

Assassin Bug

★★★★★

I love love love bugs in games (and in real life too to be honest). Especially flies and parasitoid insects, and the assassin bug is both of those things! The name is a tad bit confusing, since assassin bugs are real animals and are nothing like this critter, being hemipterans, and this creature (despite being described as resembling bluebottle flies) has two pairs of wings unlike real world flies (they're called dipterans for a reason, they lost their second pair of wings!). Sorry for going on a bit of a ramble about bugs there for a bit. The assassin bug is great not only because they look like cool bugs but also because they are parasitoids, meaning that they lay their eggs in a living creature so that their offspring can feed on the host when they hatch! As mentioned in the description their natural hosts are humans, which might be why they only have four limbs? They're also only ever encountered as a mated male/female pair which is pretty interesting, especially since they tie that into the actual mechanics of the encounter. Also there is a note about how their eggs are delicacies for trolls, troglodytes, and bugbears, which is great fodder for putting them in as a factor in a dungeon!

The assassin bug also featured in Fiend Factory but there is honestly very little different from its presentation in the Fiend Folio. The illustration and even the little note about their eggs being monster delicacies are the same!

I will say, I think there is one missed opportunity with these creatures, which is something that was mentioned by another reviewer of monsters that I've been a fan of for quite some time: their intelligence is listed as animal level, and I think that these creatures would be a much more interesting aspect of the world if they were just as intelligent as a human. They could even be rather apologetic about having to lay their eggs in humans, but being forced to because it is the only place their young can flourish. Now that would be a beautiful encounter, faction, NPC, or even player character.

Astral Searcher

★★☆☆☆

Okay okay, the astral searcher is definitely a disappointing note to end on after my passionate rambling about flies and parasitoids when I was talking about the assassin bug, but the astral searcher is at least a little bit interesting. They're repetitive when you compare this to the Monster Manual, which features creatures like the aerial servant and invisible stalker, but here the astral searcher is an accidental product of traumatic experiences the seeks out the real physical world, attacking living creatures to possess their bodies and experience physical sensation, permanently destroying the host body's mind and personality in the process (there is a note that it cannot be reversed by a spell like raise dead). If the astral searcher was the only completely invisible monster in the game, it would be incredible... sadly, it isn't the only one.

Hope I haven't been too rambly with this! Looking forward to getting deeper into the Folio with you all... some of my favorite creatures are in the next section :3

Nasts: Just Use Goblins!

Another "Just Use Goblins" post, this time taking a species of humanoid monsters from a setting I worked on in the winter and spring of early 2019. I realized that this setting shares a lot of elements and characteristics with King of Kings (which I might post about soon), and I realized that I was missing having just some good ol' grimy little buggers in King of Kings. All of my folkloric creatures and pig monstrosities didn't scratch the itch of having gross crawling scrabbling things that live underground. So here's that kind of creature I guess!

Go check out the previous post (about the Kallikantzaroi) for more about "Just Use Goblins", which was originally created by ktrey over at d4 caltrops.

Nast

Stats as goblin, except:

Regeneration: Nasts regain hit points at a rate of 3 hp per round if they disengage from combat to feed on refuse, flesh, plant matter, etc.

Feasting: Nasts gain hit points by eating other nasts. They will gain 3 hp when eating a fellow nast, with this increasing above even the normal maximum for a nast. They visibly increase in size when they eat each other in this way.

Leaders: Nasts are led by bullies who ate their way to the top. A nest of nasts will have a leader with HD of 1 +1 for every twenty five nasts dwell in the nest (3 for a nest of 50 nasts) No nast leader will have HD greater than 5. Typically they will be guarded by bodyguards with half the HD of the leader. 

Mounts: Nasts will often ride giant arthropods into combat. Typically 25% of nasts in a group will be astride a giant cicada nymph or giant centipede.

Missiles: Nasts will often throw projectiles when in combat. These include puffballs and spiked balls. Treat spiked balls as sling stones, dealing 1d6 damage.

I imagine their bones like a gibbon skeleton

The nast is a creation of the sea tyrants who dwell in the depths beneath, a creation made to crawl up into the surface world to serve as their eyes outside of water. They are a mammalian chassis of bones ensconced in a flesh of green and brown and red fungal mats, able to feed on just about anything as they crawl through the world half-mindlessly. For many of them, however, their original creators have long gone, or have wriggled into the far depths never to be seen again, abandoning their fungal children in the caves and tunnels. While some are still in service to the sea tyrants, many more have either found other overlords (dark daevas and powerful sorcerers are rather common) or fallen into infighting. They grow and grow without end from cannibalizing each other, swallowing fledgling fungoids to prompt steady growth and spread fear in their brethren. 

The nasts live in a post-apocalyptic world of their own. They struggle to survive in the deep dark depths of the antediluvian tyrants, competing with white apes and men of the deluge for food. They form furtive cargo cults which incessantly continue whatever work they were ordered to do in ages long gone, or serve new masters who claim legitimacy with reference to the ancient sea tyrants who have receded into ever deeper and further depths.

For more gameable information on them, here are some random tables:

source: yvas on DeviantArt

1d12 Puffball Projectile Effects

1. The black spores of the puffball temporarily disable the connections between your eyes and your brain. Save vs wands or go blind for 3 turns.

2. The pale purple spores of the puffball cause intense pain in the roots of your teeth. Save vs paralysis or collapse to the ground in stinging pain.

3. The golden spores of the puffball wriggle into your nostrils and take control of your mind. Save vs wands or be mind controlled by the highest HD nast.

4. The mossy green spores of the puffball take root in your skin and sprout black mushrooms. Roll 1d6 to see which part of your body they take root on:

    1 - left arm

    2 - right arm

    3 - left leg

    4 - right leg

    5 - neck/head

    6 - torso

5. The sickeningly yellow spores of the puffball befuddle your mind. Save vs wands or become confused, if in combat you will attack a random target each round.

6. The grey spores of the puffball temporarily disable the connections between your skin and your brain. Save vs wands or lose all feeling of pain, not knowing your current HP until you reach 0.

7. The orange spores of the puffball cause your tongue to swell uncontrollably. Save vs wands or lose the ability to speak, with any hirelings in your employ no longer acting in combat due to lack of leadership.

8. The crimson spores of the puffball make you feel an intense fever. Save vs poison or become delirious, unable to properly attack or disengage from combat as your fever grows.

9. The lime green spores of the puffball crawl down your throat and into your stomach. Save vs poison or begin vomiting uncontrollably.

10. The sky blue spores of the puffball cause one of your limbs to turn invisible. Roll 1d4 to determine which arm/leg is affected. If this affects an arm that is not normally invisible, save vs spells or drop whatever is held in that arm.

11. The pink spores of the puffball crawl into your nose and ears and throat and hook into your mind. Save vs wands or begin to flee from combat by running backward.

12. The burgundy spores of the puffball slide into your nose and irritate its inner folds. Save vs paralysis or begin sneezing uncontrollably.

d20 Nast Encounter Activities

1. Feeding on a pile of wet rotting plant and fecal matter.

2. Engaged in a rather elaborate ritual to show allegiance to a larger leader.

3. Playing a game with a giant insect pet.

4. Juggling puffball mushrooms and laughing very loudly.

5. Carrying empty boxes up and down a corridor.

6. Following a nonexistent quarry down the deep tunnels.

7. Tending to a patch of beautiful purple mushrooms.

8. In the middle of a bout of feasting on weaker nasts.

9. Drawing adorable things on the walls with charcoal.

10. Pulling out the teeth of a pale cave lizard.

11. Building a structure out of the bones of a long dead creature.

12. Tearing out the pages of a spellbook and tossing them in the air.

13. Creating spiked projectiles by tying metal wire and thorny vines around a stone.

14. Biting off the heads of snakes and playing with the corpses.

15. Playing a game of kickball with a puffball mushroom.

16. Tearing down a patch of spiderwebs blocking their path.

17. Operating long broken machinery to the point of exhaustion.

18. Fighting amongst themselves over some scrap of mulch.

19. Sniffing along the slime trail of a giant snail.

20. Performing an imitation jousting match on the backs of their insect mounts.

Whispers in the Night (A Potential Spellcasting System for King of Kings)

In the world of King of Kings, magical spells are uncanny unearthly whispers which crawl their way into the ears of those who open their minds to them (whether willingly or not) when they are asleep at night. The whispers in their raw form are nigh unusable, but when focused through meditation, incantation, preparation, and other such elements they become incredible powers in the hands and on the lips of sorcerers.

This explanation for the existence of magic spells was something I initially created for a different game (although I've recently been thinking that that game, and several others, are probably set in the same world as King of Kings), in part as an explanation for the "Vancian" magic system built into D&D. King of Kings has used that system thus far, though only one spell has been cast in the game... I'm just thinking about the subject and tinkering with ways to tie spellcasting more directly into the setting and my conception of how those uncanny whispers work (which has diverged a little bit from the vague pseudo-Vancian conception I started out with!)

Also you will notice that a big part of this system is a 2d6 table somewhat reminiscent of the Turn Undead table built into the Cleric class in classic D&D. This was undeniably inspired by d4 caltrops's post on using the Turning table for other mechanics, which I found absolutely fascinating. So uh, yeah I guess let's just get into it!

I just really love this DCC wizard art, its got great vibes

So, to start with: the cleric and magic-user spell lists are merged (ideally with some modifications for some spells that I'm not a big fan of) because in truth the spells of mystery cults and of sorcerers are one and the same, with only their place in society differing. However, this does not mean that a spellcaster has access to all of these spells all at once. Firstly, alignment figures into it (with alignment in King of Kings being allegiance to one side or another in a dualistic cosmic conflict, rather than a description of worth or behavior), and secondly you are only ever able to cast spells that you know. Sure, this gets rid of the cleric's ability to prepare any of the spells from their spell list but uh... don't really care.

A spellcaster aligned with law/truth can only cast spells which are whispered into their ears by the stars above. A spellcaster aligned with chaos/deceit can only cast spells which are whispered into their ears by the moon which looms over us all. A neutral spellcaster can cast spells from either source, but is more unpredictable in their casting success than a caster who has dedicated themselves to law or chaos. This doesn't affect scrolls, which can be used by anyone regardless of alignment, since their whispered words have been caged to the page.

Before you get to repeating the uncanny whispers of the sky you have to prepare your spells for the day. You can prepare a number of spells equal to your level, which you can then cast as many times as you are able to so long as you do not fail your casting roll. This follows closely with the spell slots in b/x for a magic-user up until level 7, but provides more flexibility since a spell does not immediately disappear upon being spoken into the world. This also kind of alleviates the problem some people have with level one magic-users being ineffectual once they cast their only spell; you'll still be ineffectual once you fail a spell roll, but at least that ineffectiveness comes bombastically and dramatically!

You can only prepare spells that you know, with knowledge of spells coming from two sources: masters (heads of mystery cults, sorcerous sects, teachers you are an apprentice of, etc) who will teach you certain spells when you reach certain ranks or levels in service to them, and by stealing the spells of other sorcerers, typically by stealing the records of the spells they know (grimoires, clay tablets, skin tattoos).

When you cast a spell, roll 2d6 and consult the table below. A result equal to or over the number indicated on the table is a successful casting, while a result lower than the number indicated is a spell failure.

MU Level	First Circle	Second Circle	Third Circle	Fourth Circle	Fifth Circle	Sixth Circle
1	8	10	12	--	--	--
2	7	9	11	--	--	--
3	6	8	10	12	--	--
4	5	7	9	11	--	--
5	4	6	8	10	12	--
6	3	5	7	9	11	--
7	3	4	6	8	10	12
8	3	3	5	7	9	11
9	3	3	4	6	8	10
10	3	3	3	5	7	9
11	3	3	3	4	6	8
12	3	3	3	3	5	7

(Oh yeah I'm using circle instead of level, for Flavor... they're exactly the same)

Aligned (i.e. non-neutral) spellcasters are treated as two levels higher than their actual level for purposes of spellcasting rolls. Additionally, if you have a mentor/master/guide assisting in the casting of a spell (for instance, if a jinni or daeva or more experienced sorcerer is channeling whispers with you to assist) you roll 3d6 and take the best two rolled. 

A spell failure causes the mishap associated with a particular spell to occur. From now on when I write new spells I'll include this, and I'll start writing mishap effects for spells that my players have in King of Kings. An example (just as a thought):

Shield

(By the way I am making shield a spell of the stars)

A miscasting of this spell results in the caster being encased in a glistening field which completely impedes movement, freezing them in place. They cannot be hurt while encased in this field, but can be lifted and moved unwillingly. This lasts for 2 turns, but increases by 1 every subsequent failed roll. After 6 miscasts of shield, the caster will be encased alive in a glistening force field indefinitely.

Gathering spells by examining the stars of course!

In addition, a failed spellcasting roll makes you lose the spell cast for the remainder of the day. Might change this to a failure making you lose all spells, don't really know. Also, I will add this to NPC spellcasters too, because of course they should be able to experience such esoteric mishaps! Also also, you automatically experience a mishap if your spellcasting is interrupted in combat.

That's about it really. Oh uh, here's a description of which spells I am putting in each category.

Spells of the Stars: anything which reveals secret knowledge (stuff like clairvoyance, ESP, see invisible), anything which relates to fire or bright light, anything which relates to plants, anything that just feels right to be grouped in here
Spells of the Moon: anything which causes pain (cause light wounds is the archetypal one in my mind), anything which hides knowledge (illusion spells especially), anything which relates to wild animals, anything which relates to water, anything that just feels right to be grouped in here

Hopefully I haven't been too rambly here... I might just introduce this system into my game shortly! Hope it has been a lovely read for you all.