Dritlor (Doomed Dead)
The people of Inba Iro burn their dead, believing the soul can only return to the eternal gods if so liberated from the prison of the flesh. For this reason, the priests of Jilho the Protector deny condemned lawbreakers cremation. Through sorcery, they instead compel them to serve after execution as guardians of the upper levels of the Vaults. Only fire can permanently end a dritlor's earthly bondage or else it reanimates not long after its apparent destruction.
AC 7 [12], HD 2* (9hp), Att 1 × weapon (1d8 or by weapon), THAC0 18 [+1], MV 60’ (20’), SV D12 V13 P14 B15 S16 (1), ML 12, XP 25, NA 2d4 (4d6), TT None
- Guardians: Always attacks on sight
- Undead: Makes no noise, until it attacks. Immune to effects that affect living creatures (e.g. poison). Immune to mind-affecting or mind-reading spells.
- Reanimation: If destroyed (0hp), stitches itself back together and fights again in 2d6 rounds.
- Fire: Cannot reanimate if burned after destruction.
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| A dritlor by Zhu Bajiee |
Really love this. And the art of Zhu is, as always, superb.
ReplyDeleteLovely art. Nasty critter, that reanimation is fast enough they could easily get back in the fight if they're dropped early on and roll halfway decent. Having to kill the things several times over could be a real hassle for low level groups who aren't likely to have enough fire damage to keep them down reliably.
ReplyDeleteWhen they stand back up are they at full health? Or maybe roll their hit dice again so their HP varies? Does fire damage "stick" from one "death" to the next?
I like the idea of re-rolling the hit points. I may have to incorporate that into the final version of the description. As for the fire damage, the idea is that, if burned after being reduced to 0hp, the cycle of reanimation ends permanently. It's like the traditional D&D troll in that regard.
DeleteRight, but if the critter has taken some fire damage but not *all* fire damage when it drops and the party doesn't have time to burn it while it's de-animated, would it stand back up with full (or re-rolled, or whatever) hp, or would the fire damage "carry over" from one "life" to the next? D&D trolls regenerated like mad even while "dead" but not from fire or acid. I like the "dead for a while" mechanic better having to track HP going up from regen every round, just not clear if they can be permanently weakened with fire or if it needs to burn all at once.
DeleteGood questions! My inclination is to go with "burn all at once" for simplicity's sake, but I honestly hadn't given it much thought till now.
DeleteI love the reanimation aspect. Maybe its restored hitpoints are a function of how many rounds it takes to pull itself back together?
DeleteYou roll 2d6 and get a 7. So the monster takes 7 rounds to reanimate and it now has 7 hitpoints. If you want to get complicated, subtract from its 7hp any fire damage it had previously taken.
OTOH, if fire damage carries over and you roll randomly for HP for each time they get back up, well, maybe the fire damage that contributed to a previous "death" will turn out to have been enough to have finished them for good (assuming the new HP roll-total fire damage over time is < 0). Would also let you have "crispy" dritlor show up now and then, ones that have been badly scorched in the past and are well below average HP. That could be a good way to clue the PCs in to whether the area they're exploring is previously undisturbed (all the dritlors are "fresh") or if it's maybe been explored before (battered, half burnt dritlors all over the place, left behind by inconsiderate adventurers who dropped them but didn't burn them while they were down).
DeleteHow aware are these things, anyway? I suppose the sorcery binding them doesn't allow outright suicide (eg by marching into a campfire) to end their suffering, but are they conscious enough to be deliberately "careless" about avoiding fire while attacking intruders? Walking into burning oil puddles, attacking lanterns to spill them rather than their bearers, that sort of thing? There's some potential for super creepy weird monster behavior there, as well as giving a hint to the players what needs to be done?
Thumbs up! A low level creature that encourages players to play with fire.
ReplyDeleteMy experiences with oil flask and torch purchases suggests that most players need very little encouragement in that regard. :)
DeleteI notice that you list it as having only one special ability. I think one if the biggest errors in XP calculation has always been not counting the "Undead Immunities Suite" asa special ability for XP purposes. It takes out a large swath of the magic-user's force power, especially at lower levels. Being susceptible to Turn Undead doesn't really make up for it, either. It would be like not counting the Trolls regeneration for XP because it can be gotten around by use of acid and fire.
ReplyDeleteAnyways, something to contemplate. Ever since I noticed it, I've added in an XP bonus to Undead for their immunities.
Also, of course, they are immune to poison and mindcreading, in addition to immunity to charm, hold, and sleep, plus make no sound when moving. Very powerful suite of abilities. Should be worth XPs...
DeleteThat's a fair point. Undead is more often helpful than not, especially in the right environments - they can operate in bad/poisoned air unaffected, can't drown, generally don't care about temperatures outside of extremes that might freeze or immolate them, etc.
DeletePlus, you would think that making no sound would increase their chancec of surprise.
DeleteHmmm... maybe surprise 3 in 6? That adds in a touch if the horror,aspect, too...
Unbreakable morale is pretty nifty too.
DeleteThat said, their weakness regarding Turn Undead is a very powerful weakness. Yes, acid and fire impact a troll's ability to regenerate, so it might reduce the XP awarded for the regeneration power only. But Turn Undead doesn't negate one ability, it affects the entire creature, and so might draw down on its entire XP.