New Roman-themed Oe/BX/1E Monster: Cacus

I know I mentioned in Monday's post about Roman-themed adventure design ideas that today's post would be yesterday's post, but yesterday's post was precluded by my announcement of my prize contribution to William's Roman-themed adventure design contest at his Ramblings of a Great Khan blog. Today's Monster of the Week entry is actually one that's been slated for inclusion in the Creature Compendium for quite a while. The fact that it's Roman in origin is just serendipitous.

DESCRIPTION Cacuses are a race of fire-breathing giants that live in the caves of hilly or mountainous areas. They are thieves and robbers by nature, and will usually travel under the cover of night robbing travelers or stealing unguarded property (like cattle.) When attacking under the cover of night, cacuses surprise on a 1-3 (on 1d6.) Additionally, they are able to hurl rocks from 10’-30’ distances, causing 2-20 hit points of damage (on a successful “to hit” roll.) They are also able to catch similar rocks hurled against them 50% of the time. Though normally armed with clubs (doing 2-16 points of damage), cacuses are also able to breathe fire in a cone that is 20’ long and 5’ across at its widest point (doing 3-18 points of damage on failed saving throw.) Though bandits by nature, cacuses fancy themselves as shepherds, raising sheep both for their wool and their meat. When encountered in their lair, there is a 75% chance there will be a herd of 10-40 sheep nearby. If there are 6 or more cacuses are present in their lair, there is a 50% chance that one of them will be female. If there are 7 present, 1 of them will be female. If 8 are present, there will be at least one female, and there is a 50% chance there will be an additional female.

Oe/1E STATS FREQUENCY: Rare NO. APPEARING: 1-6 ARMOR CLASS: 3 MOVE: 12” HIT DICE: 11 % IN LAIR: 20% TREASURE TYPE: B, C NO. OF ATTACKS: 1 DAMAGE/ATTACK: 2-16 or by weapon type SPECIAL ATTACKS: Breathe fire (3-18) SPECIAL DEFENSES: Nil MAGIC RESISTANCE: Standard INTELLIGENCE: Very ALIGNMENT: Chaotic neutral SIZE: L (12’ tall) PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil Attack/Defense Modes: Nil BX STATS ARMOR CLASS: 3 HIT DICE: 11 MOVE: 120’ ATTACKS: 1 breath or 1 weapon DAMAGE: 3-18 (breath) or by weapon type (2-16) NO. APPEARING: 1-6 SAVE AS: Fighter: 11 MORALE: 10 TREASURE TYPE: B, C ALIGNMENT: Chaotic