New Oe/BX/1E Monster: Striga (Roman-inspired)

After a brief blogging hiatus, William over at Ramblings of a Great Khan has continued his string of themed adventure design contests with a Roman-themed adventure design contest. And 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place will be receiving a PDF copy of 43 AD, a recently released RPG set in Roman Britain (William helped edit and playtest it).

He's really opened up the restrictions on this one, so I'm hoping it will be easier to tackle than the Mongol contest. I got so sucked into my ideas for that one; what was supposed to be a 2-page wilderness adventure is quickly turning into a 20-page wilderness module/setting.

I'm going to keep my thoughts on the Roman thing to myself for right now, but suffice to say I'm going to try to steer clear combat-driven encounters. So why am I posting a roman-themed Monster of the Week? Because (1) I've been wanting to stat this one up for a while (I have another place I want to use it), and (2) I thought it might help you guys kickstart some ideas.


STRIGA

DESCRIPTION Strigae (sing.=“striga”) are a type of vampire akin to harpies. They have an owl-like body and a woman’s head, and are particularly fond of stealing small children left unattended, returning to their lair, and feasting on the delicacy. As undead, strigae are immune to the effects of sleep, charm, and hold, and can only be hit by magical weapons (+1 or better). Strigae attack with their two claws and powerful bite. The bite of a strigae does 1-6 points on its initial hit. Each round thereafter, the strigae will continue to drain the victim’s blood, doing 1-6 points of damage per round until the victim dies, the striga is killed, or the striga abandons its attack. Strigae speak their own language. They are only capable of understanding common when it is spoken by a lamia, and are incapable of speaking it. Furthermore, lamias are capable of understanding strigae when they speak their own language.

Oe/1E STATS FREQUENCY: Rare NO. APPEARING: 2-8 ARMOR CLASS: 6 MOVE: 6”/15” HIT DICE: 3+4 % IN LAIR: 25% TREASURE TYPE: C NO. OF ATTACKS: 3 DAMAGE/ATTACK: 1-4/1-4/1-6 SPECIAL ATTACKS: Drain blood SPECIAL DEFENSES: See below MAGIC RESISTANCE: See below INTELLIGENCE: Average to very ALIGNMENT: Chaotic Evil SIZE: M PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil Attack/Defense Modes: Nil BX STATS ARMOR CLASS: 6 HIT DICE: 3+4 MOVE: 60’/150’ ATTACKS: 2 claws/1 bite DAMAGE: 1-4/1-4/1-6+special NO. APPEARING: 2-8 SAVE AS: Fighter:3 MORALE: 8 TREASURE TYPE: C ALIGNMENT: Chaotic