Tuesday, June 26, 2012

New Oe/BX/1E Monster: Tangleworm

DESCRIPTION

Tangleworms appear as tangles of rotting vines but are in actuality 3' long worms that appear in large numbers. In their dormant state (75% chance) they appear simply as a bed of tangled, leafless vines, but in their "awake" state, the tangleworms will still appear as vines, but will seem to be "writhing" as the worms twist and squirm among one another.

The true danger of a tangleworm lies in stepping on them (knowingly or accidentally), at which point their natural reaction is to coil themselves around an intruder and contract. In a dense area of tangleworms, one sq. ft. will include (wholly or partially) 3-12 tangleworms, and a light area will include 1-4. For every hit point of the tangleworms in a 1 sq. ft. area (even partially), there is a 5% chance (-5% per pt. of DEX above 12) that the intruder being grappled will fall, taking 1-4 points of damage, causing tangleworms in the area of the fall to react as the initial grapple. For any victim of a tangleworm attack lying prone on the ground, there is a 5% chance per tangleworm touching the victim that the tangleworms will being to suffocate the victim (killing the victim per normal suffocation rules).

Tangleworms share a similar physiology with trolls and, like trolls, begin to regenerate (even if dead) after 3 melee rounds at a rate of 1 hit point per round. Additionally, separate pieces of a single tangleworm (e.g., if a single tangleworm has been cut in two pieces with a sword) will create completely new tangleworms. To be permanently killed, tangleworms must be burned or immersed in acids.
Oe/1E STATS
FREQUENCY: Rare
NO. APPEARING: 20-200
ARMOR CLASS: 7
MOVE: 3"
HIT DICE: 1-3 pts.
% IN LAIR: 95%
TREASURE TYPE: Nil
NO. OF ATTACKS: 0
DAMAGE/ATTACK: Nil
SPECIAL ATTACKS: See below
SPECIAL DEFENSES: Regeneration
MAGIC RESISTANCE: Standard
INTELLIGENCE: Non-
ALIGNMENT: Neutral
SIZE: S (3' long)
PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil
Attack/Defense Modes: Nil


BX STATS
ARMOR CLASS: 7
HIT DICE: 1-3 pts.
MOVE: 30'
ATTACKS: See below
DAMAGE: Special
NO. APPEARING: 20-200
SAVE AS: Normal man
MORALE: 7
TREASURE TYPE: Nil
ALIGNMENT: Neutral

2 comments:

  1. This is a really awesome monster! Even better is the fact that it is a low level monster. We certainly need more interesting low level monsters!

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  2. Thanks. It's an idea I've had for a while. Just finally got around to refining it.

    ReplyDelete