Alternates to Hit/Miss Defense for Dex-Based Characters in RPGs

Path of Exile does it, Diablo 2 does it, Torchlight does it, Last Epoch does it, Titan Quest does it, Grim Dawn doesn't do it but kinda but that's game weird so who cares. Basically; these games have miss/hit chances when you attack enemies and when enemies attack you. (And also Morrowind and pretty much all CRPGs and every roleplaying game which shares its DNA with the you-know-what dragon game.)

Characters with a lot of Dexterity; Rogues, Archers, Amazons, Tricksters, Assassins, and so on tend to primarily build their PASSIVE defense around increasing the chance to avoid hits. This makes sense both in universe (dodging attacks meaning you don't take any damage at all instead of just reducing them the way a heavily armored warrior might endure enemy attacks) and also acts as a mechanically different form of defense then simple damage mitigation in the form of armor. But there's a few issues with it. Mechanically, this defensive type is inherently less reliable then the other types as it relies on randomness. On top of this, other base systems heavily skew this system to being either overpowered or very weak, such as a minimum hit chance percentage. In a properly balanced action game this may not be an issue, but in your typical ARPG with a huge amount of character build, gear, enemy, and encounter variance this quickly falls apart. While running into a monster with a "attacks always hit" modifier should be scary for a Dex character regardless under this system; it uniquely screws over this character worse then a "purges your defensive auras" monster or a "penetrates your armor" monster since rarely do these characters have a secondary form of defense and there tends to be less secondary forms of mitigation to offset this. This makes the game for these characters much more like rocket-tag; you either kill everything in one hit or they kill you in one hit with no inbetween.

This contrasts to the other characters with their own stats and defensive schemes. In PoE, which is the one I'm most referencing in and building from; Strength based characters use Armor which reduce incoming damage by a percentage, Dexterity uses our Evasion rating described above, and Intelligence has energy shield, which simply acts as a second health bar that recharges quickly when not in combat. Hybrid classes that mix two primary attributes use both of their attribute's defenses but to a lesser extent then a pure class. ie; Strength/Dex equipment grants Armor and Evasion but less then a pure Armor value then a pure Str piece of equipment would in that slot. 

Side note: While writing this post I had a sudden sense of Deja Vu and then I remember I did write this exact same thing before. This really is the autistic hyper-fixation blog. Doesn't matter, I have new ideas to add to the pile. I won't go into detail about high Evasion characters should have it easier in dodge enemy attacks though since I covered it there and I still think it's a decent mechanical idea- for video games, of course. While I cover a lot of tabletop stuff this mechanics heavy stuff isn't as viable at the table in my opinion.

While mechanically making Dex-based evasion mechanics more interesting is the goal, passive defense is inevitable in this genre and also important for the stat and character building side. How do we make this system more interesting while keeping its theme and making it distinct from the other forms of defense, like Health tanking, armor, block, or magical shields?

Definition of Terms- Accuracy Ladder
In most games with these systems, attacks either miss or hit in a very binary system. It has its roots in tabletop gaming; which is represented on a d20 attack roll. Crits are usually a secondary calculation with its own statistic; though sometimes it can be a factor. Roughly you can think of it like a ladder of different outcomes based on the roll and possible results.

(Critical Fail -------- Miss ---- Hit -------- Critical Success)

Increasing your To-Hit, Attack, or Accuracy rating essentially weighs this table towards successful hits, where as increasing your Defense weighs enemy attacks towards missing. I should also mention in this example, "Critical Hit/Fail" doesn't necessarily mean it's enhanced in any way; just that it's the guaranteed hit or miss hard boiled into the system. Path of Exile in particular engages towards this basic system more, since crits require a "confirmation" hit roll behind the scenes to activate. This means having high Dexterity & Evasion makes crits harder to land on you (Defensive) and having high accuracy and crit chance makes your attacks hit more and are more likely to crit (Offensive). However, this basic ladder concept can be applied to more then a binary hit/miss system. A good example of this, and the exact mechanic that inspired this post, is the Pillars of Eternity accuracy vs defense ladder or Attack Resolution system.

(Miss - Graze - Hit - Critical Hit)

In Pillars; a Graze means an attack or spell deals -50% damage or has -50% reduced duration, and the opposite applies to a critical hit. This heavily incentivizes Accuracy as something to build for any character, including spellcasters. Narratively this makes sense; highly agile characters dodging attacks and magic spells at close range so they are only grazed by them and are less phased by them as a result. But having a form of mitigation that reduces the incoming negative effects is a bit of a problem for our schema; as this is very similar to what our potential concept of Armor (strength) characters already do. At this point if included in the game; the difference between a chance to negate 50% damage or having a set amount of damage reduction becomes a math puzzle and is far less interesting to me then three complete, different defensive mechanics. It's still a useful starting point for our ideas.

As you can see, this small addition of mechanical depth can change a lot about the binary pass-fail system. But what should we actually do with it?

Alternate Concept #0- Fumbles & Counterblows
Whenever you are attacked, the enemy has a chance to hit based on your dexterity score and evasion. Very high difference of scores unlock the worst result, in which case the enemy fumbles their attack.

(Fumble - Miss ------ Hit ------ Critical hit) 

Whenever an enemy fumbles an attack against the player character; they not only miss but also slow down considerably, and become vulnerable to a counter-attack. The next time the player hits the enemy within a short window they take increased damage. Ideally, this would also be animated and shown in the game, either with a whiff or stumble animation, to further sell the illusion the player-character dodged or tricked the enemy so much they lose their balance and open them up to a counter.

This concept allows for more depth and increased reward for Evasion-based builds. It also indirectly helps with avoiding damage by increasing damage output; you can kill enemies quicker to avoid them hitting you again. This concept also fits with the general theme of Dex-based character fantasies; duelists or rogues striking enemies down in a glass-cannon playstyle. However, this doesn't actually change the core mechanic being chance-based. There are other mechanics that could make it deterministic, such as the first enemy attack each enemy makes against you always misses or fumbles with an increased chance to fumble; not to mention abilities or skills that can force an enemy fumble/stun animation and so on.

The other issue with the fumble mechanic is that it gives the player-character a special mechanic or advantage the enemy doesn't have (or if you did implement it the other way, attacking certain enemies would be suicidal or just really annoying to deal with; much in the way enemies with really high evasion already are). This increases the feeling of disparity between the player and monsters in the game; a nice thing about the Hit/Miss/Crit scale concept is that the player and enemies are essentially playing by similar rules, making it a sliding scale of combat. But this isn't universally true and lots of games already don't really have enemies with random chance to crit on attack; so thinking of a fumble just as a "defensive crit" in the context of the miss/hit random chance system it's more reasonable to think only players get access to it. Obviously once again this is only counting the passive defense aspect of the game; special enemy attacks could always make a player fumble or enemies could enter a guarded stance which automatically parry a player attack is a given as a possible mechanic to spice up the combat.

Alternate Concept #1- Active Defense Enhancement
More detailed in the other rant post; essentially allowing Dexterity focused characters more mobility & active ability to dodge attacks or telegraphed AoE zones of damage is another form of damage mitigation that is unique and separate from other forms of damage reduction. However the issue with this is the implementation. If every point of Dexterity just gave you +1% faster move speed and you could use that to dodge attacks; it would quickly be totally out of control with the character either zipping around the map so fast or every other type of character being almost unplayable in terms of speed. But you can't make the investment too small; if a max level Archer or Rogue is only 10% faster then everyone else and that's all the benefit you got from Dexterity then it would feel like a massive investment for just a chance to dodge enemies more often. Of course, given how insanely powerful movement skills seem to be in every game, maybe it'd be a fair trade off, but for average players I think it'd feel weird. It also has to do with scaling and impact; for an entire game's worth of content, a system like this would only be able to increase whatever movement speed or animation speed by a tiny fraction of fraction; meaning your gear upgrades would do almost nothing as you move through the game. For standard Accuracy/Defense rating however it works well since these values can scale off each other; so small dex/evasion/attack bonuses early in Act 1 can feel impactful while still needing constant upgrades throughout the game. If these stats were just "+X% chance to dodge all attacks" they'd need to be highly constrained or limited by certain hard caps or else you'd literally be increasing your modifiers by 1% per item swap throughout the campaign by the end or can't even get this gear until way later. There's a reason why games don't really set these as passive stats you can just grind for with level.

Second? This isn't really what we're talking about. This is kinda supposed to be... passive mitigation, right? Like armor, shields, stuff like that? Plus rarely is movement speed or mobility tied to a single stat like this; it tends to be a part of an overarching character design and part of the "power budget" of a character. Like Archers already tend to have moves that either keep enemies at distance or let them get back, and being ranged means they naturally have to be weaker in melee to make them not just straight better then a melee character.

One semi-simple solution is to have this archetype have multiple levers. Perhaps every point of Dexterity does increase your movement speed, but only when using the rush skill or dodge skill every character, has, giving a slight advantage (like PoE's dodge roll), that way Dex characters aren't literally able to just freely avoid every single slow predictable enemy attack. But this is just one mechanic; you can also stack evasion to increase your block/stun recovery time, making you less likely to get stunlocked. While this mechanic is usually thematically reserved for warriors, having it for agility-type characters also makes sense. Then on top of that; you have resistance to status effects, but especially slows. ARPGs seem very hesitant to actually put slows on the characters unless from very specific enemies (curses) or elemental types that you're meant to protect yourself against (cold dmg). As such, in this hypothetical scenario Dexterity could do a little bit of all of these. Increasing your resistance to slows, decreasing the size of enemy slam attacks or reducing the amount of damage you take from them (treating you as farther from "the center" for damage calculation), increasing your general action, attack, move, and stun recovery speed; and maybe enhancing your other movement based skills like dodge rolls, sprints, dashes, and so on. Tying this all to one stat or ability score is probably not ideal for game progression but might be interesting from a design perspective. And ALL of this, just to mechanically equal a passive chance to avoid attacks because I don't like the RNG engine. Yikes.

Alternate Concept #2- Damage Threshold
The higher your "Defense" or "Evasion" rating is, you avoid all attacks that deal damage underneath that value. Any attack that does over that amount of damage, you take the full amount of damage. Effectively means weak attacks from minions or spam spells won't do anything to you and you just dodge them, but big powerful attacks from stronger monsters or AoE damage spells and slams still hurt you. Extremely simple.

Unfortunately, I don't see this one really working in practice. These types of games tend to have random damage numbers or alternate damage types (elements, magic v physical, pierce that ignores armor, etc.) and would come out to be very difficult to predict how well defended you really are. While slightly less random then Evasion rating, it would still feel very "random" in that you suddenly take big hits from enemies if enemies have randomized damage enough to slip past your DT. Secondly, becomes a huge balancing nightmare as if you can raise your DT too high enemies will just literally not be able to do anything to you, or you can still take one shots when enemies stack multiple modifiers or amplify damage curses or what have you. However, I do think it thematically fits these types of characters well; and fits with the theme of scoundrels, bards, and assassins being cocky and untouchable until they just get slapped for a million damage out of nowhere causing sudden panic and being less reliable or as tanky as an armor user who presumably has more normal damage mitigation. The argument could also be made that this actually fits armor thematically better; so perhaps switching roles (evasion reduces damage by a percent, armor has a DT value) might fit these defense classes more. Though maybe in a perfect world, PoE style the class that specializes in the Damage-Threshold-Evasion would actually be the Duelist or Str/Dex hybrid; but this category has gone on far enough.

While we're treating this damage type as an absolute value, it also doesn't have to be and could be roped in with another defensive layer or schema. Like the accuracy ladder from before;

(Miss/Bonus DT --- Hit v Damage Threshold --- Hit v Damage Reduction --- Pierce)

Your absolute threshold only applies to "good" defense rolls vs enemy attacks (equivalent to a accuracy/evasion miss), where as a smaller Damage Threshold is applied to normal attacks that "hit" you successfully or instead just reduce the damage by that flat amount (maybe these could be swapped effects?) Finally, the equivalent of an enemy crit with this system would just deal full damage regardless of how large your threshold is. However writing this out, I'm basically now realizing this is basically what hit chance vs evasion is but the "damage threshold" is just the defense vs attack rating lmao. All in all I don't like this one; the absolute nature of it means that partial investment is almost useless you make even super late game enemies have very weak attacks that can still fit under a character's normal damage threshold that doesn't specialize in evasion, and it doesn't stop the pass/fail nature of random hit chance just offloads it to a slightly more predictable outcome just based on how strong an enemy is or whatever. Still, I have to include it in this list.

Alternate Concept #3- Potential Damage & The Vulnerable State
Instead of taking the damage directly, you receive "potential" damage. This could still be tied into a Dexterity system, like a percentage of the damage you take becomes potential damage or a certain type of hit you can take (between a miss/hit/crit etc.) deals a portion of the damage immediately and the rest is deferred in this way. Think of this as a secondary form of delaying damage but instead of being over time and guaranteed its a big lump of damage you could take at some point in the future.

While this sounds a little strange at first given the fiction of the game I think it fits pretty well. It contextualizes the combat system as being slightly more story based or requiring suspension of disbelief as when the skeleton hits your character you don't actually take the damage from the hit, but instead you are put slightly off balance, or reeling, or being pushed back and starting to feel doubt essentially, to the point that the next hit may be the lethal one that ends your adventure. I also think this well fits the leather clad "dex fighter", archer, rogue, or other similar archetypes often associated with this defensive stat.

There are then a few possibilities on when this potential/stored damage can actually hit you then. Without a reliable means for this type of damage to actually hurt you, it'd essentially then be no different from damage reduction. I actually have a really fun idea on how to represent this too given the genre staples; represent it as a crack in your character's life orb that slowly creeps towards the top as you have more and more of this "stored" damage. When the amount of potential damage is equal to or greater then your life total; you enter a "vulnerable" state, where the next solid attack that hits you will kill you instantly (because you take all the potential damage at once). Of course if this could be any random generic skeleton sword slash attack it would be no different then eating a high damage crit with a chance-based dodge rating; which is why instead I would have it so regular monster attacks become potential with Dexterity or evasion scaling, but area of effect or dodgeable spell attacks can pop your potential damage. As an addition visual indicator, a DbD Terror Radius like heartbeat appears in the center of your character with a loud heartbeat sound, which acts as a useful indicator you need to back off an use a recovery ability or wait for your potential or stored damage to disappear.

Thematically, I like this potential form of damage a lot. It gives a more active form of defense and also fits with the general aesthetic of "Dex based" characters; like thieves or rogues who run in an bite off more then they can chew, and will suddenly get put in their place if they try to get too fancy with it. And it also allows you to stay in combat longer if you take the risk; perfect gimmick for a arrogant rogue type character like PoE's Shadow. I also think, contrary to first opinion, that it may actually be fine to have this NOT as a character-specific passive ability or active "smoke bomb disappear risky ninja defense skill", but as a game-wide mechanic. Why? Because characters who aren't stacking evasion/dex won't have this vulnerable state happen that often and will more likely die from normal damage; but when it rarely does happen it'd make for an interesting gameplay moment of the Warrior going into their defensive block stance to avoid taking a critical strike or a Sorcerer quickly teleporting away or using their bubble shield to avoid getting one-shot through their defenses. Certain enemies could also specialize in this kind of damage; like if you walk through spider webs or let invisible rogue enemies stay behind you too long and now have to deal with them over any other enemies to avoid getting one-shot. 

The issue with this concept is twofold though; firstly being something that may be useless for characters who don't build into it (if too low-Dex can't turn damage into potential damage then splashing a little evasion doesn't do anything for you; where as in PoE even a small amount of evasion will reduce some of the damage you take sometimes at least), or even worse it could actually be MORE beneficial for character who don't specialize in it then those who do. Like imagine if a heavily armored warrior gets enough evasion that 50% of the damage they take is deferred as potential damage; but they don't convert enough that they ever reach the "vulnerable state", meaning they essentially get a form of damage mitigation better then the evasion character who might reach multiple "vulnerable" points during a single combat encounter with a boss and therefore has more chances to actually die in the fight. Part of avoiding this is just how the vulnerability state is mechanically implemented; for example I'd have the vulnerability state only activate when you mitigate a hit large enough to actually chunk your hit points, which causes the heartbeat visual and audio warning, which then beats faster and louder if it grows to be capable of killing you in a single hit. So midway through a fight you might mitigate enough that a single hit will put you at half HP, which you have to worry about a bit, but full "balls to the wall one hit will kill you" moments are more rare and not something you get often with this form of damage resistance. The second problem I have with it, which is more nitpicky, is that this just the PoE Energy Shield in reverse. Instead of getting out of combat to recharge your temporary defensive shield, you are getting out of combat to avoid a large hit, but if this potential damage is deferred after a few seconds of safety then it's exactly the same as an ES build just more complex and harder to make a build around imo. With all this in mind; I'd keep this as a special character power or rare mechanic for certain mobs; like rare mobs with a "Heartseeker" modifier that lets them charge up a lethal crit on you if you fight them for a long time, or a method for an lifestealing vampire dexterity character to avoid death by entering a vulnerable state for 3 seconds whenever they reach 1 HP IF they can manage to lifeleech all their health back or w/e within the time limit. But this leads perfectly into the last concept...

Alternate Concept #4- Damage Deferral
The simplest, and by far my favorite of all alternate defensive stats for Hit/Miss systems is simply damage deferral. You still take some or all of the damage from the attack, but instead of taking it all at once, you take the damage over time. At first glance, this may seem really bad. Why would anyone use this? You still have to take the damage, right? Yes, but the rate of taking the damage is reduced significantly, which means you don't have to take it all at once. Instead of dying to a single bit hit or rapid series of hits, your health drops but you now have a safety net of time to use to recover your hit points, complete the combat encounter, or both.

Most of these kinds of games have some form of healing; like potions, flasks, lifesteal on attacks, life gain on kill, and so on. With damage deferral, you can simultaneously survive hits while also undoing the damage of those attacks through healing. Most of the time there is also a base health regeneration rate, which already helps greatly reduce the amount of damage you're taking, but this fully depends on the interval of time. This would have to be adjusted for the speed of the game; with slower games naturally having slower damage deferral timers, and fast paced games having much shorter ones. While this depends immensely on the theme of the game; Dexterity characters often have a lifesteal or life-gain-on-kill focus, or a focus on alchemy and self-healing. Path of Exile's claw weapons, which are a Dex/Int hybrid weapon, have a base ability of restoring life or mana on hit. Already the ability to defer damage would go hand in hand with this archetype; but it's even better with the Armor/Evasion/Energy Shield scheme as you could essentially be taking damage to life while regenerating or blocking damage with energy shield acting as an extra barrier. Same as all games with healing; healing over time with a shield is doubly effective since you are essentially restoring the health and preventing further health damage with the ablative effect of a barrier or bonus HP or whatnot.

Of course, the exact amount of damage deferred and how/when it is applied is important. If evasion is a pure damage deferral tool; then all attacks would be damage over time which for whatever reason rubs me the wrong way. Instead you could use the accuracy ladder, but instead with damage being deferred or immediate being the outcomes instead of attack roll. For example, you could still have misses, but a very high evasion role could mean enemies hit you with a slower damage over time effect (100% of the damage taken over 12 seconds) where as a medium hit or lower evasion score results in taking half the damage now, and the other half over a shorter time period. (like 50% and the rest of the damage over 4 seconds). In this protocol the player is less actively managing the damage deferral in the shorter term, instead more relying on the life steal/regen/other damage mitigation effects to sustain them. You could also apply a secondary reduction of damage to just the overall amount as a new modifier to items, character skills, or to other abilities. Like "75% of the damage taken is taken over 4 seconds" with whatever is leftover just being lost, but this is starting to get back to the realm of pure mitigation and damage reduction, which is more armor's thing. I think having a character with just a flat amount of damage mitigation built in to their evasion mechanic is fine though, since it helps a lower HP/armor character survive who doesn't have those sorts of magical/ranged defenses Wizards might get in our potential game.

(Miss - Graze (100% deferred) - Glance (50% deferred) - Hit - Critical)

I also believe this concept really thematic fits the Dexterity characters and their style of defense; they "dodge" attacks to make themselves bleed or avoid the damage for a short time, but still have to mitigate the damage as a high risk/reward kind of defensive mechanic, and adds a decent amount of active management to the system. If you see your life draining from hits, drink a health potion or use your defensive options; perhaps even moves that delay the damage even further, though once again this could be more of a character-building thing over an active part of the combat system.

However there are a few negatives to it. Firstly; it's much harder to tell exactly how dangerous or to differentiate monster types if they're all dealing delayed and mitigated damage. For example, in an RPG where you can go to high level areas early, your first warning sign to leave is usually coming up to an enemy that deals half your life in a single hit or something similar. Even if you manage to defeat the opponent or run away, this subtly tells the player they need to improve their gear or level up more. While rapidly losing all your health from a powerful enemy attack is similar, I don't think it has quite that punch. In the same vein, running into a pack of enemies in Diablo 2 and being chain smacked by several powerful melee enemies reminds the player to keep their sorceress or whatever back and reinforces the combat style; where as an Evasion character might wade into big groups of enemies not realizing they're "playing it wrong" since they're mitigating the damage and not seeing the immediate effect of their actions. These are just gut reactions though, and I think players could learn to adapt to this new system. Along with this; I do think a game where almost every enemy deals damage over time could be really annoying just from a player perspective, but hopefully this would mostly only matter to our evasion/dex player and they'd see it as a positive and a result of their hard work building their character.

Secondly; what to do with lethal damage over time damage? This is trickier then it seems. I can easily see a situation where a player has frustration over running into monsters, killing them easily, but taking a lot of deferred damage and dying right after because they don't have the healing or lifesteal to sustain their build. Or even worse, standing there awkwardly watching their health tick to zero as they realize they have nothing in their inventory or try to rush to open a town portal scroll and go back to town before they die (this could also be extremely fun however).

If you do something like make healing more effective for "overflow" damage to your life total or make it so healing always ticks before damage (ie; you can't die from damage over time while you have a healing effect active) then it might be too easy to cheese. However I feel like this might be completely fine, since presumably players have limited healing resources. The second solution to this is to just make the damage from mitigated hits nonlethal; which means you can't actually die from pure deferred damage. Similar to poison in a lot of games; this means it just lowers your survivability but won't actually kill you. I also like this solution from a possible action game perspective, as this would also fit the character fantasy of high risk high reward Dexterity rogue archetype we like; but once again this might be too easy to cheese encounters by just getting really high evasion and disengaging from packs and waiting for your deferred damage to go away or returning to town after every fight for a heal; which is certainly not what is intended. Still, I think this solution is a really interesting way to represent a Dex-build evasion type character in a game that doesn't have to rely on a static hit/miss chance.

(Rant) The CON score fiasco + Some Fixes

Art @Linay Art

 
So for the longest time in D&D, one of my biggest grievances and little nitpicks is about the Constitution score, mostly, in how it grants extra health. There's obviously nothing wrong with it on the surface, it makes logical sense and gives an extra little bonus for your character. Some people will naturally be tougher then others and have more or less hit points; and in a dangerous place like a dungeon having a higher Constitution score and more hit points is a useful metric to have. Plus, latter games and editions added on to this with saving throws; especially against disease or poison, as Fortitude saves are among the most common kinds to be introduced if we're using a stat based metric.

However, I have a few issues with it purely based on the math. Even more baffling is how it was ever implemented in the game in this metric, which is a separate topic, and every retroclone and homebrew shitbrews also continued this trend- which is the crazy part. How does nobody else see a problem with this?

The Bonus Hit Point Problem
In D&D, Hit Points are determined by dice, your hit dice. Classes tend to have different amounts of hit dice, or more commonly, different sized hit dice. Part of the fun of the game is seeing what you get- you can roll some levels and get 6 or more hit-points, which is really good, or you can get only a 1 or 2, which is still an improvement over all but feels like you're getting robbed. Your Constitution modifier grants you either more or less Hit-Points per Hit-Dice equal to the modifier. Meaning if you have +1 CON, you'll get an extra Hit-Point every level or so.

It's fine. It's simple, easy enough, though I don't think it's as elegant as it could be. But here is where the problems crop up, at least for me.

Now of course, disclaimer, "balance" doesn't matter in a TTRPG. We get it. But there's an issue where one stat is SO much more desirable then any other. If you had an option to swap two stats at character generation, you'd be a fool not to put your highest stat in Con, regardless of what character you are playing. Obviously, that's powergaming, but you can't fault people for it based on RAW.

Think about it. While other modifiers grant bonuses in other areas; they have a rough equivalency. +1 Strength grants +1 to hit, which is a 5% increased chance to hit. Dex grants AC, which is once again a +5% chance for opponents to miss on an attack. Even the strongest character classes, Barbarians or Fighters, who have hit dice of d8 or higher, are still getting a much higher benefit out of hit points in terms of raw numbers out of their maximum potential health; a +10% increase to total hit points or more. And this is only going on maximum rolls; average rolls of 4.5 for a d8 or 5.5 for a d10 are actually being improved by 20% or higher, granting a MUCH bigger benefit for the same random chance to have a higher Con or a higher Strength or Dexterity with random character stat generation.

With that said; I am a very strong believer in random stat generation. Rolling 3d6 down the line to determine your character's attributes is fun to me, and my preferred method of both GMing and generating my own characters. Given the OSR scene, the fact you can sometimes get weak or strong characters is part of the fun of the game and this method is popular as well, at least when compared to more standardized stat arrays for 5e homebrew and such. Of course, this is mitigated by high character lethality, low impact stats, and strong linear advancement in classes meaning a bad stat spread isn't necessarily a huge deal- and if your character dies anyway, you can just make a new one lickety split.

But once again, you can't tell me that you aren't more disappointed from getting a bad CON roll then any other stat. And there is a second problem with the above; rolling for stats before choosing a class.

How I tend to do character generation is to roll for stats, then select a class that fits. This is the most fun method for myself; and I assume a very standard practice. While I can't be 100% certain, the fact that OD&D and other retroclones have minimum stat roll requirements to play the more "special" classes like Elves or Paladins and the like indicate to me this is how people tend to do it. This is the optimal method of random character generation; because you have to roll your stats randomly but you get to pick a class, giving you a strategic choice based on your roll. Part of this is the understanding that, while you aren't necessarily trying to minmax, you are going to pick something that fits your stats and attributes. If you have high strength, probably a Fighter. High wisdom? Probably a Cleric. Intelligence but low physical stats? MU for sure. I like the implied character background and generation of this method; almost implying your character is choosing their career based on what they are naturally good and gifted with; or feeling a sort of implied backstory and baggage that affects your characters starting attributes. Low Dex and High Con can means somebody is fat and out of shape; an ex-merchant down on his luck, or a cloistered monk thrust out into the wider world- these are great character concepts made by just two rolls of the dice created in about fifteen seconds.

But here comes the problem- what kind of character should you make if you get a good CON roll? In my mind, you would mentally imagine someone tough; and in an effort to contribute to the team and party- you'd pick a roll that benefits the most from this. So a frontline Fighter, Barbarian, Paladin, Dwarf, Cleric; which is great, because these characters thematically fit what you'd imagine a high Constitution, beefy or stocky warrior would fit. But once again, here's the problem; if you pick a class with a big Hit-Dice, you are actively getting less benefit from your Constitution score. Your d10 or d8 hit dice is objectively and unquestionably less impacted by a +1 flat bonus then a d4 or d6. In fact, its so badly designed, that you are actively encouraged to play a class with a big HD if you have a low Con score. It is objectively the most optimal and best choice to play a Fighter if you have an average stat spread but terrible Constitution. And conversely, who benefits the most from a big Con score? The Wizard. The guy with the smallest hit dice; to the extent that a +2 Con score is going to pretty much double his maximum hit points.

This is one of the most ass-backwards tabletop mechanics and things I have every encountered. I figure most people just never give it much serious thought; because it drives me up a wall. Once again, it's not necessary to have everything in a game be perfectly designed, balanced, or every playstyle given some kind of benefit- bonus hit points is simple enough, but it's just so bad. It feels like an incorrect rule; something dreamed up and then tossed away after the most preliminary play testing before put to paper. And yet despite this, this is how D&D works from the first editions to now, how Swords & Wizardry works, how LotFP works, and how all these other retroclones work. I feel like a conspiracy theorist noticing the big lie that all the sheeple just consume without thought or question. What the hell is going on?!

Sidenote: Obviously, the above doesn't matter if all characters have the same size hit die. I know there are some retroclones like this; in which case hit points remain a simple bonus for everyone, with the classes most exposed to danger and/or classes that get the most hit dice total being the ones who benefit the most from it. This solves the issue handily- but is the minority.

But anyways; enough whining. Now its time for the solutions.

New Constitution Modifier Benefits
You can see my attempts to change this in various rule-posts I've made on this blog before. Personally, I don't much care about sharing my homebrew rules anymore, mostly because actually playing a campaign is a treat at this point- and I feel like sharing rule fixes and ideas is basically wasted space. Everybody already has their own game or their own homebrew they like to tweak- I'm not going to be changing any minds with my own rants and solutions. But frankly? I hate the Con score bonus hit point thing so much, I'm gonna do it anyway.

Oh, and all of these assume a relatively wide spread of Con modifier ranges. Most games go from +1 to maybe +3 at a score of 18 or -3 at a score of 3, which are really uncommon at character generation. I like to use a maximum spread of +2 to -2 at character generation for stats. While most characters will be about the same and have a lot of +0 stats, a few will be exemplary enough for attribute bonuses to actually be noticeable.

Solution 1 - Rerolling
Whenever you roll your Hit Dice, roll it a number of extra times equal to your Constitution modifier, positive or negative. Then, take the highest number (if positive) or lowest (if negative). This means if you have a -1 Con score, roll your HD twice and take the lowest one. If your Con is +2, roll three Hit Dice and take the biggest.

This method bounds HP to a certain range based on the character's class or Hit-Dice size. So a level 3 Fighter with a Hit Dice of d10 is going to have between 3 and 30 Hit Points no matter what their stats are like. This is useful for getting a general feel for total resources a character could have, regardless of stats. Secondly, it makes any permanent hit points gained or lost through various magical means or equipment feel more "supernatural" and impactful, because it breaks them out of the very concrete range of hit points anyone could have. Finally; it also has the benefit of making more "swingy" (bigger) hit dice being more benefited from this, as it adds some consistency. You won't get as many results of 1 or 2 on a big ten sided dice, making characters with good CON scores have higher and more constant gains per level. While I'm not gonna do the math on this one, I get the feeling that the Fighter with the big hit dice will enjoy having a high Con score but be even more crippled by having a low Con then maybe he should be; at least compared to something like the MU. I get the feeling they'd mathematically shake out to be the same, but somebody with -2 Con may as well just play an MU and go up by one hit point every level and just be happy with that. Feels fair enough.

The problems with this solution? Firstly; it makes Con way too important. Arguably even worse then just a flat +1 or -1 added to your health scores. We're far and away from a small little +5% bonus to hit or avoid damage. Secondly? It's arguably way too good at first level too, because instead of just getting +1 or +2 to your piddly starting health pool; you now have two chances to max it out. While the potential maximum isn't as high as a flat bonus, you're basically never going to have characters starting with really low and dangerous hit point values. (But the opposite is true for those with negative Con, who now get the worse of their only two hit dice rolls!). I used to use this solution for an old homebrew, but decided to change it by just giving everyone a minimum starting Hit-Point value. So no more 1 hit point Magic Users, you'll start with 2 Hit Points no matter what, so take the shitty Con score and live with it. It's not that bad.

Also; perhaps most obviously, this entire rule becomes totally and completely unusable if characters can gain or lose their ability score values during a campaign. What are you going to do if someone finds a +1 Belt of Constitution and now their modifier goes up by one? Are you going to have them reroll all their Hit Dice and take the new one if its higher? Remember the last individual hit-dice roll they made and have them redo it with an extra roll? No way. that's a nightmare. At least the bonus HP per HD is easy to adjust on the fly; just multiplying the Con modifier with the characters HD, positive or negative, and adjusting the total accordingly, which is probably the reason the oldschool games actually use it.

Solution 2 - Starting HP Total Only
Your Con bonus adds or subtracts from your total maximum hit points, but only once. So at first level, if you have +1 Con, you get +1 Hit Points and that's it. If you increase your CON score later, you get +1 more max HP, or -1 less, and so on. You just adjust your Hit Point total by your CON modifier, it's that simple.

There is only two issues with it. Firstly, it may be hard to remember 100% what your actual Hit Point total is. You may increase your Constitution score and gain a point, then level up, then the DM hits your character with a curse that reduces your maximum HP by -1d6 points until you slay the Wampus Cat, and then you lose the magic item that granted you that CON bonus, so now you gotta reduce it by one again. I'm sure you can keep track of it all with some proper notetaking, but it seems like it could slide around and be annoying. At the speed of how Tabletop Games run at however, I don't see this being an issue.

Second; it feels a little underwhelming, especially if you're coming from more classic retroclones. Everyone has been gaining all the bonus Hit Points per level, now it's just once period. That could feel like a serious downgrade if you've playing characters with high Con before and now feel much weaker. However, overall, this change makes the Constitution score more in line with other stats, but doesn't fix the problem of Constitution being THE number one stat overall at character generation. It also doesn't pair up with the HD gain of the various classes in the game, meaning you won't have anyone picking to be a Fighter just because they rolled high Con, but at least it isn't backwards like the old method. This also means that your bonus HP from your Con score becomes less and less relevant as time goes on- actually making the Constitution score less "endgame viable" then Strength, Dex, or another stat. However it's worth noting that most characters who use stat modifiers (like a Fighter with a high strength score) are also gaining bonuses from their class along the way; meaning that  +1 from a high Strength score matters a lot less when they have two attacks per round with +3 To-Hit at a certain level then at first level, when it was the only thing changing how likely they were to win a combat encounter. I don't think it's necessarily bad that one stat gets more or less valuable as time goes on; after all Charisma often grants a bonus to starting gold which only matters once in the whole campaign, but it's a fair point to consider.

Solution 3 - Percentile
You gain or lose maximum hit points by a percentage; based on the Con score. So if you have a +1 Con, you gain +5% or +10% maximum hit points. This solution is simple, though math heavy, and puts it in line with all the other stats in the game. If +1 Strength gives you +5% chance to hit, then +1 Con gives you 5% maximum hit points. This is the one I ended up using for these old rules; but it was kind of a last second band-aid choice that I didn't really stick with.

Two problems; first, given the nature of randomly rolled stats, this solution could potentially do a lot more or little to two separate characters just given what they rolled. If you're using round up or round down is an extra point of confusion. Given how small this bonus could actually be, an overage or mistake could easily cost or gain an entire extra hit point and end up making a big difference; but only mathematically speaking. The actual effect on the game is very, very minimal. Even at a 10% bonus, most OSR/DIY characters aren't going to get over 30 to 40 Hit Points total, so it acts as a small bonus that can maybe absorb one small attack. Of course, even one hit point could mean the difference between life and death, so this feels about right for how Con score bonus should work.

The second problem is ease of use. Most people are only going to write down one hit point total for their character. This will mean it will include their bonus Hit Points in their character's HP total. So if you gain or lose Constitution later, do you take the entire total, which includes the bonus hit points, and use 5 or 10% of that to determine the next increment or bonus of hit points? Like if you go from Con +1 to Con +2 and get +5% bonus hit points, you're not just calculating your character's base Hit-Points into the new total, but including the previous bonus Hit-Points into the equation, which could easily round up to an extra +1 hit points based on how you want to round it out. It's not just a +5% from going up a modifier tier, but a +5% of another +5% from before. I wouldn't even trust myself not to fuck up this math, much less other people I'm playing with. Without really good notekeeping, this could become a serious problem. While most campaigns don't see characters changing their attribute modifiers that much; if someone finds a magic item or catches leprosy or something and the setting is adjorned for the week; nobody is going to remember exactly how much hit points they actually rolled for their level when they added it on to their character sheet as opposed to how much the Con modifier gave them. The only way to solve this would be to write the Con modifier's bonus hit points as a separate amount; at which point the player is basically keeping track of two health pools and doing twice the work for minimal gains in the gameplay department. It's just a hassle.

Solution 4 - Soak
Your Constitution modifier grants a number of temporary hit points or damage reduction applies to the first hit you take in combat. Meaning if you have a Con modifier of +1, you take -1 damage from the first hit you take in combat. If you have a Con modifier of -2, however, you'd take 2 more damage from the first hit in combat.

This solution makes Constitution a much more fight-centric stat, and also pairs well with Flesh/Grit systems, as while Con itself is your "Flesh" stat, Grit could be boosted by especially tough characters. It also makes Con very beneficial to fighters, who not only have the most maximum HP but also will take less per combat, multiplied by the number of times they get to use this bonus. Characters with poor Con, on the other hand, will be in an even more perilous position because of this.

Second idea; instead, you could make your Con modifier added to healing gained on something akin to a second wind or Short Break mechanic. In a more action-focused game, a Short Break could restore 1d6 Hit Points to every party member (or just their class HD), which you add your Constitution modifier to every time you roll it. This has the knock on effect of, once again, making Constitution once again more important for low maximum HP classes then higher ones, and also makes it more of a sustain stat as opposed to making high Con characters feel actually tougher to kill, which is arguably the only and entire purpose of the stat in the first place.

Solution 5 - Armor Class
Your Constitution Modifier is added to your Armor Class. Dexterity no longer increases or decreases your Armor Class; instead, it's Constitution.

This is the easiest one, and the one I went with. It also makes people the most mad. Yeah, I know. Here's the thing; Dexterity is already a great score with a lot of uses. Stealth, Ranged Attacks, Finesse weapons if your game has those, prime requisites for Thieves, and is probably the stat called upon the most for random roll-under or "DM looks at your character sheet to see if your stunt works usually" kind of calls. Dexterity is already well represented enough. Plus, making Con the AC bonus instantly puts it in line in usefulness with Strength/Dex/other stats, giving a roughly 5% increased chance to avoid damage.

Now you may be saying; but what about my dexterity fighter!? What about my monk, my survivability, my light armor user archetypes! And those are fair criticisms of this change. But most of the above is based on roleplay, equipment choice, and character class- having a high dexterity doesn't let you attack multiple times and only increases chances for enemies to miss slightly, and rarely impacts things like dodging spells (only indirectly; which still works within this ruleset). Second, by using this method, you could decouple the idea of a fast or agile character away from AC- AC could become the mostly toughness and damage-absorption related statistic; as in "taking hits but not really getting hurt by them", and Dexterity fully moved into the heroic swashbuckling, thieving, and agility-based conceptual space. For example; instead of having Dex grant AC, just using certain weapons like rapiers increase it instead, which already fits the type but doesn't make Fighters (who are already most affected by having bad or good stats) need Dexterity in addition to Strength and Constitution to feel "powerful" in their role. (Though as we've seen above, Constitution already is the least useful on them, if we go by the rules everyone else seems to use). In my mind, I'd prefer a high Dex rolled character to want to go towards being a Thief over wanting to be a Fighter when deciding on your class- which was part of the purpose for this entire change in the first place.

If you really, really still want Dexterity to be directly useful for combat; make Dexterity a bonus To-Hit, Strength to damage (melee only? melee and bows? You pick.) and Constitution a bonus to Armor-Class. That way you have the trifecta of useful physical stats; damage, accuracy, and toughness all in one place.

I almost put this on a Vagueposting for how long it got, but it certain fits into the Rant corner. Either way, if you stuck with it this long, thanks for reading.

[ToM] The Cat

Art @Jenna Barton

The Cat (5+2 HD, AC +2, Claws at 2d6, Bite at 1d8, Instant Reflex, Cannot be Surprised)
Morale- 6

The Cat is the name the brownies of the savanna have given this creature. Take the picture with a grain of salt; you'll certainly never find The Cat indoors.

The Cat is a predator and is opportunistic. It is a man eater but is a coward and has a low morale score- however its morale score doubles when attacking someone alone. In addition, the first time the creature it hit with an attack each combat, it instead dodges it instead. Roll a morale check after the first attack is dodged; on failure, it runs away and stalks for its next ambush. The creature cannot be surprised, but can pretty easily creep up on you if you aren't keeping watch.

The brownies mock the cat and throw stones at anyone who is a cat-person or has a cat on their heraldry- they laugh it off. However, if they actually know the cat is around, they run and hide. They are afraid of The Cat- as should anyone here who is a halfling, gnome, dwarf, or any other creature that the cat would consider its most ideal prey.

[Class] Crow Reaper

Crow Reaper
HD- d6
Max AC- 14 / Minimum Hit-Points- 2

You are a Crow from another world. The bipedal birds are swift, dexterous fighters- though not as tough and durable as other races. When generating a character, roll 2d8+6 for your Dexterity score. Otherwise, roll your stats as normal. You start with +1 To-Hit and AC from passive evasion.

Your job is to harvest the souls of beings from other worlds. Most beings will simply pass on when their time runs out; but especially powerful souls have ways of extending their lifespan. When souls get too old and powerful, they begin to go insane and become demonic, hence the need for specialists when a Soul gets too tough to pass along on its own. This is where you come in.

Crow Reapers gain +1 Damage at 4th, 5th, 7th, and 8th level.

Crow Reapers gain +1 To-Hit at 3rd, 6th, and 9th level.

You can also cast spells. You have no ability to learn or prepare spells yourself, but if you are ever granted spellcasting abilities, magic dice, or other elements of magic you can use them yourself- use your To-Hit bonus as your effective caster level when you cast a spell.

At 1st level, you are assigned to collect the soul of a powerful immortal being in the setting. This could be an immortal lich or vampire, an elder dragon, an aboleth, or any other powerful being that has lived far beyond when it should. Technically, you are an immortal yourself; but your aging is "unpaused" as long as your "door" remains open.

You come from the Land of Doors. When a soul is assigned for collection, a door will open- this is your door. Your character will appear from seemingly thin air- a magical locked door that keeps the riff raff out of the Lord of Door's domain while you do your business in this living realm. When you collect the soul, you will need to bring it back through this door before it can manifest itself a body again, or fly away from you when you're not paying attention!

Upon reaching 10th level, you become a Gray Crow and can now retire to the Land of Doors as a secretary or manager role. Besides becoming almost immortal, this will grant you the ability to call in some favors and open doors between worlds. Anyone entering a door will enter into the Land of Doors, a safe neutral zone where no wandering monsters exist, and can exit out of a different door to rapidly travel between places in the campaign world. You are also free to explore the living world yourself; but the longer your door remains open, the more you will age.

While the power of the Lord of Doors is awesome, it comes with limitations. Doors cannot be placed in an area where the crow has not been, except for the first door that begins their contract. Also, doors aren't placed within random chambers, but instead at crossroads. You couldn't place a door in the treasure room of a dungeon to easily haul it all out, but you could place one at the mouth of the dungeon and one at the town, thus bypassing the need to carry it back home.

Note- Is this overpowered? Almost certainly. However, I kind of like the idea of a 1st level character being told they have to kill a giant monster or demigod and the whole campaign they're kind of gearing up and preparing for it. I think that's fair in exchange for something a decently high level magic user can just do multiple times per day anyway.

Whale People & Their Magical Hotsprings

In the frozen cold north, the people who live there are whales. Big, bipedal whale people. They can hold their breath for a long time, and are excellent in the cold, but are big and fat and clumsy on land as anyone would imagine a whale to be.

The Monads are whale people. They look like Belugas or Narwhals. They live in tribes with semi-permanent fishing grounds. You can't grow anything up here, so they survive pretty much just on fish. No wood, so they just use bones and metal for everything. But to supplement their health- they have their magical hotsprings. Also, some of them are magic. You can play as one if you want.

Monads
Base AC- 11
You are large sized.

• Generate Strength & Constitution as 2d8+1d6
• Generate Dexterity as 2d6
• Generate all other stats as normal
• You are Resistant to Cold. (Take half damage from cold attacks or spells)
• You can hold your breath for two exploration turns (20 minutes)
• When you reach 3rd level, you have a 1 in 6 chance to grow a Horn. The Horn grows out of your head, and can be used as a Holy Symbol. You don't get anything if you don't grow a horn, but hey, at least you can fit through normal people doorways without craning your neck and can wear hats.

Monad Culture
Highly nomadic and sociable, the Monads live in loose groups and fit in well in almost any culture, including human and other foreign races. They can be found in almost any port town or sleazy pirate haven. Even an inexperienced Monad is likely to get hired if just for their size and strength- and not to mention their inherent abilities in the water.

Monads tend to gyrate between extremes; they want all the physical comforts and luxury in the world and to be surrounded by company in one moment, and in the next, crave solitude in a very cold or very barren place, as though to test their own limits. Part of this spiritual desire for hardship and self growth may be the result of their magical horn. Monads subjected to many life experiences may end up falling more towards the side of spirituality, and grow a horn.

The horn is a symbol of potency and wisdom among the Monads. It is their witch-mark, though for the whale people, it is a purely positive connotation. Because the horn is only in a small number of their population and it has an inherent use as a Holy Symbol, those with it are often promoted to higher ranks among their society- usually mystics or priests to keep watch over the dead.

Of course, those with horns are free to be adventurers if they so chose. But one should know that a Monad's horn makes for a very fetching prize in many kingdoms as a magical material or aphrodisiac. As such, Monads with horns are more distrusting of outsiders- else they get harvested for their ivory.

Magical Hotsprings
The Monads live in the north. While many camps and places there are within glaciers and ever-frozen ice flows, some of the places there are sparse, green covered arctic lands. While the land and water is cold, the space between the earth may be very hot; the energy underneath the earth churning magma or gas. Upwards it rises to create geysers, pits of burning tar, and more comfortable hot springs.

The Monads use these hot springs as gathering places and holy sites. As they are more comfortable in the water then on the land, these are their "thrones" to where the most comfortable among them may sit. Most homes are built over a hot spring or pool. But deepest inland and most secretive of them all are the magical hot springs; water from the earth enchanted with ancient magic that gives its waters a unique property.

These hotsprings have magical potency when drank or spilled over the body. However, the magic of the hotsprings loses its potency as it cools- only a fraction of it remains once removed from the pool. Due to the difficulty and cost of traveling rapidly depreciating liquids; little industry exists around these hotsprings except for the adventurers within the local area. As long as one has not offended the head-horn around these parts; a quick dip for a guest is never out of the question.

Each tribe of Monads will have one magic hotspring- roll on the table to find out what it does. The "Hot" Effect happens only if the water is still warm from the spring itself; one turn if you soak in it and get out, one hour if carried in a waterflask, and a constant effect if you're in the spring. The "Cool" effect is what the water does once cooled off- has unlimited shelf life.

Magic Hotspring Table - Roll 1d6
[1] Toughness Spring
Hot Effect: AC of 16 to all wet.
Cool Effect: Adds +1 AC for one combat encounter (turn) if dumped on a person, protects wood or cloth equipment if soaked from a single Destruction effect or until dried.

[2] Sidhe Spring
Hot Effect: Charm Effect (to anyone not in the Spring)
Cool Effect: Adds +1 Charisma modifier for one roll if mixed in with makeup- usually lasts about a day until it is sweat away or cleaned off.

[3] Healing Spring
Hot Effect: Restores +1 Hit Points per Hour Soaked
Cool Effect: Can heal a minor wound (stubbed toe, cat scratch, etc) that it is poured on. If you drank a barrel of this it would act like a minor health potion.

[4] Cleansing Spring
Hot Effect: Reverses 1 Day worth of disease progression per day soaked. Curses are put on hold if you bathe here at least one hour per day.
Cool Effect: Can be splashed on one undead creature; creature is Turned for 1d4 rounds.

[5] Arcane Spring
Hot Effect: Allows the Magic User to prepare a spell one spell level higher then their highest possible. This spell is prepared for up to 1d6 hours after leaving the Spring.
Cool Effect: Drink a beer stein's worth to recover a 1st level spell.

[6] Prophetic Spring
Hot Effect: Advanced knowledge of who will appear before the spring to whoever is sitting within. Can see the next result on an Encounter table.
Cool Effect: Adds +1 or -1 to your next roll, declared before you make it.

Lich Generator

All liches begin with;

• 5 HD
• AC of 12
• Morale of 14
• +3 To-Hit
• One Death Touch attack per round. Save vs Death to avoid.
  
• Immune to Necrotic Damage / Death-Spells
  
• Casts Spells x2 (Has Twice as many spells as its HD should)
• One Signature Spell
  
• Immortality - Returns after Death (Can only be slain permanently if its Phylactery is destroyed)
• Powerful Numen - Treat HD as 10 for purposes of Magic Spells/Special Moves/Etc.
• Undead Minions (10x1d4 HD worth of Undead encountered with the Lich if not surprised)
  
• Alignment of Lawful Evil

The Death Touch - Roll d6 to determine what kind of Death Touch this Lich has
[1] Dark Flame (Deals 3d6 fire damage on hit, cannot heal naturally) Cold, black fire.
[2] Black Bolt (Deals 2d8 shock damage on hit, attack chains to next nearest enemy with zero To-Hit bonus until an attack fails) Crackling, life-seeking lightning jumps from the lich's fingers.
[3] Cruel Ice (Deals 2d6 Ice damage on hit, save again or limb touched is frozen solid. If limb is struck with blunt weapon; shatters and is destroyed. Limb must be dethawed with warm fire, or a torch that has had Healing Potion drizzled over it) Freezing touch that locks joints into place.
[4] Necrotic (Deals 3d6 damage, save again on hit or have 1d6 levels drained) The power of the dead, sapping life from the living. Each time this death-touch hits, the Lich looks more whole and alive as he saps your life force, but it quickly rots away within mere hours. It is a living black hole.
[5] Corrupting (Deals 4d4 damage on hit, save again or shift alignment one step towards Evil, if Evil save or be Dominated by the Lich) The Lich's body pulses with the centipedes and unholy creatures crawling underneath its skin. The lich's touch sends them into your own body, corrupting you.
[6] Aging (Ages victim 2d20 years on hit, rusts and spoils equipment that isn't Magic) This Death-Touch doesn't deal direct damage, but ages the victim. Everything they're carrying also ages at the same rate; food spoils, potions go flat, metal rusts to nothing. Only eternal items are safe. has no direct effects but characters of advanced age for their species will probably take stat penalties, or just fall over dead.

Decaying Form - Roll d8
[1] Skull Face (+1 AC, +1 Morale) Living body with a bloody skeletal face, as though flayed.
[2] Corpulent (+1 HD, Can Float out of melee; hit by reach) Filled with corpse-gas.
[3] Mummy (Roll a 2nd Signature Spell) Bandages adorned with arcane symbols
[4] Rotten (+2 To-Hit, Inflicts Random Disease on hit with Death Touch) Rotting flesh.
[5] Wraith (Ethereal - Can only be hit with Magic weapons. Turn Undead is twice as effective) Not a physical form, but a smokey, cloaked wraith with glowing eyes. More vulnerable to the spirit.
[6] Cancerous (Resistant to Elements; takes half damage from Fire, Shock, Frost) Its bulbs and tumors are filled with all sorts of pus; arcane experiments on this disposable shell.
[7] Skeleton Jelly (Doesn't lose its body after dying- instead just regenerates from the single smallest remaining piece of itself. Phylactery gives it memory, Alignment to Neutral Evil) The Lich is a skeleton jelly- a skeleton with a goopy outer shell containing everything it was and is.
[8] Grafted (+3 Hit Points, has Sword attack at 1d6, doesn't count as Undead until harmed) Body is made up of many borrowed limbs, surgically attached. Detects as a living person until some of its stitches are split and ichor spilled. May be disguised as a regular person or adventurer.

Dark Artifact - Roll d10
The Lich carries the Dark Artifact on its person at all times. If killed, the artifact will drop with the Lich, and the Lich will become very angry at it being stolen- it will attempt to recover it with whatever means necessary. All Dark Artifacts are cursed; living beings who touch them must save or die unless its wrapped in white cloth.
[1] Sacrificial Dagger (1d4+1 Magic, steals one prepared spell on hit) Cruel wizard killer.
[2] Vial of Pure Darkness (All light sources dimmed nearby) Trapped primordial darkness.
[3] Chaos Medallion (Generate a Chaos Medallion) This Lich is a champion of evil gods.
[4] Witch Finger (Enemies get -2 to spell saves, Increase die size for all dice of Death Touch) Worn around the neck like a talisman.
[5] Capirote (Has two Necromancer apprentices at 4 HD / level- they cast Spells) Tall conical cap, black, like a cultist. Enslaves the minds of the foolish, and promises immortality through death.
[6] Flask of Unholy Water (Deals 1d6 damage if splashed on Good beings, restores 2d6 hit points to undead creatures) Dark, stagnant water. Water placed within becomes unblessed in 1d6 turns.
[7] Yew Wand (Spells deal +2 damage, Gains 1d6 Magic Blast attack at range - Requires To-Hit roll and deals damage typed as Necrotic) The Yew tree is poison and associated with dark magic.
[8] Stained Ring (Grants 25% Magic Resistance, alignment shifts toward Chaotic while worn) Golden ring that can never seem to be cleaned. The stains change every time you inspect it.
[9] Turnkey Raven (Delivers messages to minions; can carry things weighing less then 1 pound, indestructible) Lifelike raven with a turnkey slot. One crank lets it fly anywhere in the world.
[10] Skull Staff (1d4+1 Magic Staff, Necromancy spells deal +2 damage, can rattle the staff and raise up a corpse into a basic 1 HD skeleton or 2 HD zombie depending on its condition) Generic humanoid skull on a black wood staff. Charged with necromancer's power.

Signature Spell - Roll d8
[1] White Legion
The caster raises both their arms above their head and commands their army to rise. Every round, 1d10 skeletons (1 HD with 1d6 decayed weapons) rise from ancient soils- this effect continues even after the round the spell began, it's a constant effect, allowing the caster to fight while the ancient dead pour in from below.

This lasts until 100 skeletons have been raised or the ground is sanctified by a Holy Sword being shoved into the soil to stop the spell.

[2] Dispel Hope
Caster holds out their hand and strikes all within the range of their vision in front of them in the moment of casting. All struck become filled with despair, and loses a part of their will to live. Everyone hit by the spell has -2 to all saving throws. In addition; anyone under its effects automatically fails saves vs death if they have 50% of their hit points remaining. All Hirelings struck by this wave must also make a morale check to flee. On success, they stand their ground but lose -1 Loyalty.

This spell lasts until a rowdy fireplace song, a strong religious experience, or an exhilarating celebration of life.

[3] Electric Blue Tendrils
When cast, electric tendrils appear. Breaking free requires a supernatural level of Strength (+3 or greater) or several cuts with an axe or sword with a rubber handle. Each round you are trapped you take 2d8 shock damage. Trying to cut the tentacles with something not insulted will shock your hand instead, dealing 1d8 damage. The spell can target up to three human sized targets, or two significantly larger targets- assume each target has 1d4+2 tentacles wrapping around them- consider the tentacles as 1 HD creatures. This spells lasts for 3 rounds, or until all the tentacles are dead.

Most Lich spells are based on the dark arts of necromancy, or at least are powerful curses. Not this one. This spell conjures tentacles from random places they can crop up in the area; out from sand, poking up from sewer drains, out of boxes and bags, etc. These tentacles are being pulled in by an otherworldly entity, and are charged with unusual energies.

[4] Finger Beam
This spell is a ranged, nigh-inescapable version of the Death Touch attack the Lich has. The Lich's finger glows and fires out a beam that curves, sweeps, and spirals towards its target in a flashy rainbow lightshow. Save vs beams with disadvantage, or else you are hit with its effect.

If a PC or somebody else learns this spell, then the finger beam will do the same damage as their finger possibly could on a hard poke- so one damage if you aim for the eyes or something. You need to already have badass dark magic powers for this to be good, sorry.

[5] Pillars of Zircon
Conjures forth 2d6+2 pillars made of a strange, dull silvery metal. They rise from the ground, and are just about round enough for a man to stand on. The caster can ensure one appears under them on the round the turn this spell is cast, letting them ascend upwards.

These pillars can block an attack- consider each to have an AC of 14 and 2 HD in terms of raw durability. They are also totally immune to corrosion, and acidic or corrosive powers nearby them fail and weaken. You take -1 damage from acid attacks and spells if you're in the same room as the pillars, half damage if you are touching or standing on a pillar, and no damage from acid at all if you're standing among the pillars. Acidic liquid would turn to nasty water if splashed into the pillars, and the acid breath of a dragon would just turn into harmless wisps of vapor.

Note: These pillars don't do anything for the Lich's own Death Touch- as the only corrosive effect comes from magical aging. It does however seem to work against effects that speed up or create effects of advanced decay on undead creatures. Spells that putrefy are cancelled by these pillars.

[6] The Backwards Arm Curse
The target of this spell has all of their arms turn around backwards. The joints snap back (but don't cause damage). The arms will attack enemies of the spellcaster, and the victim of this spell is helpless to control his arms- the first round this spell is cast the arms will likely attack whoever was behind the target of this spell- stabbing and slashing with their own weapons- the cursed arms get the same attack bonuses, special moves, and magic items or weapons that the hands could have used. This means a powerful Fighter having their arm cursed means they'll attack with full strength to anyone who gets close enough- Meanwhile, the target of this spell loses their attacks or abilities that require hands, but still controls their voice and legs, so they can move others and warn them about their loss of control.

If the victim of this spell focuses all of their energies, they can make a saving throw vs spells to snap one of their arms back into place and regain control over it. Each arm takes a round to bring under control in this way.

[7] Orbs of Torment
This spell conjures forth three balls of dark energy; flashing with red lightning. The three orbs are summoned at the casting of this spell, but can be flung one orb per round by a simple point of a finger or order by the spellcaster. The orbs move slow enough that they can be avoided by running your full combat round away from them; no save otherwise.

These orbs are magical orbs of Torment. When they hit a living thing, they cut their current hitpoints by half. Getting struck by Torment feels like a mix of torture and exhaustion all over.

[8] Grotesque
This spell can be cast on anything within a stone's throw. Intelligent and living targets of this spell inherently resist it automatically if they are unwilling, as pretty much any living thing would object to being made into a Grotesque. If you are currently Dominated by the Lich, they you cannot resist the transformation. 

This spell utterly warps the subject, turning it into something loathsome and grotesque, hence its namesake. If this spell is cast on inanimate matter, it would turn it into a roughly animated golem or animated object(s) with stretched smiles, wrinkled faces, and cartoonish and frightening expressions. Living things are similarly made cartoonish, but always somewhat offensive and a sort of innate frightfulness like things that are scary to children. The Grotesque also acts like a caricature; its assumed and actual traits from before it was transformed taken to a absurd degree. For example, a Nobleman turned into a Grotesque would be very fat, lazy, and scream at everyone to pay taxes or order his "guards" (other monsters nearby) to take off their heads. All Grotesques are assumed to be Chaotic Evil, but will serve a more powerful master- a creature with higher HD. Remember; the Lich that made this thing counts as 10 HD for spells like this; so it will serve the Lich even if the Lich is more feeble then the Grotesque.

The subject of this spell becomes a 6 HD Grotesque, with stats befitting its nature. If it had a higher HD before, then roll 6 HD and keep whichever Hit-Point Total is higher. The Grotesque gains a few magic attacks, can cast Spells, and has an AC and other stats/resistances based on its composite material, or once again based on whatever it had before it was transformed in the case of a living thing. For example, a Grotesque made of a pile of bricks would be slow, but have high AC, and can throw bricks at 1d4+1 damage at range, twice per round. Grotesques are not undead, but are considered supernatural evil creatures and can be Turned / Exorcised as undead can.

The Grotesque also has innately has three abilities;

• Aura of Cowardice which unnerves the weak willed; retainers must make a morale check or flee the first time they are hit by one of its attacks or spells.
  
• Aura of Hate, which makes enemy spells and attempts to Turn Undead or cast holy magic have a 50% chance to fail within its presence, which lasts until it dies.
• Black Speech, which just means the Grotesque is constantly speaking, insulting, and generally saying awful things. Every round, it has a 1 in 6 chance to send a Curse at you, based on what it says.
  

Turning someone or something into a Grotesque is permanent. If you slay a Grotesque and are of Lawful or Good alignment, the Gods will reward you by curing any curse or disease you are suffering from in that moment for your service in smiting something so awful, or hopefully remove some of the curses you got for fighting it.

What are this Lich's signature kind of undead minion? - Roll d10
[1] Plague rats. Like thirty thousand. Not really undead, but can swarm and fill rooms like water.
[2] Skeletons. The Lich is constantly frustrated by their bumbling antics and awful bone puns.
[3] Zombies. Specifically, ones with iron parts, tools, and weapons nailed into their flesh.
[4] Mummies. Desiccated corpses raised on mass from ancient evil desert tomb.
[5] Corpse-Golem. Roughly stitched together, raised in an industrial assembly line.
[6] Animal skeletons. You don't see this as much as you think you should. Bone birds still fly.
[7] Black Puddings. Has one really big one that ate most of the others, named Princess.
[8] Ghosts. "Keeps" all of them in one really cursed mirror. Don't break it, seriously.
[9] Tomb-Golems. Always in the forms of religious figures; animated creatures but technically undead as the souls and blood are infused within the stones. Can't move while you look at them.
[10] Grotesques. Just a few handfuls of them, each a totally unique bastard to deal with. Normally these "fluff" tables at the end don't change the monster stats- but you should probably give the Lich the Grotesque spell if you get this option so it makes sense.

How has this Lich been spending its Centuries in Undeath? - Roll d8
[1] You know, catching up on chores, reading, taking some time to itself. Still.
[2] Plotting world domination, of course.
[3] Uncovering arcane secrets. It's Signature Spell is one of many prototypes they've invented.
[4] Involved in a complex string of plots with another immortal creature; friendly rivals.
[5] Becoming the absolutely uncontested master in a game that nobody plays anymore.
[6] Learning how to play musical instruments. All of them.
[7] Opening tiny accounts in all the world's banks, accumulating massive interest over centuries, and starting wars by sending out chain letters and fake notices of inheritance over them.
[8] Mapping of the next life. Every time it "dies" it has some time to explore around the next hill or talk to the next weird angel spirit-guide thing. Isn't mad when you kill its body.

What is the Lich's Phylactery? - Roll d20
[1] Pin stuck in a stuffed heart stuffed in a doll stuffed in the belly of a stuffed dog.
[2] Really old tortoise. May or may not be undead; hard to tell.
[3] One shard of a broken magic sword in a museum owned by haughty nobles.
[4] Its diary from when it was alive. Protects it for embarrassing secrets more then anything.
[5] The old church bell that hasn't rung right for over a century.
[6] Its soul inhabits its manse. Burn the house down; the lich's soul burns with it.
[7] Tarnished silver coin; face of a queen with a cheeky wink. In some random bank vault.
[8] Jet gemstone. Dodecahedron cut.
[9] Looks like an owl chick with glowing red eyes, cowers in an old oak tree's hollow center.
[10] Very old, fat blind koi in the lich's serene garden pond.
[11] Vial of pure spring water. Drink it and the Lich will hunt you down before you can piss it out- which is what actually counts as destroying it. Otherwise, your blood will go in the next vial.
[12] Magic necklace with a glowing purple amethyst. Gives sweet magic bonuses, to dissuade people from destroying it.
[13] Black ooze in a shadowy corner. Takes the form of a viper with a poison bite if you approach it. Cut off its head to slay the lich for good.
[14] Ceremonial golden plaque on the cornerstone of a castle, which the lich helped fund for a good king a long time ago. Too arrogant to use a pseudonym.
[15] One black scale on a white dragon. The dragon knows about it- and keeps it on its body in exchange for a lot of juicy treasure.
[16] Eternal flower kept in a glass case. One petal falls off each time the lich feels any remorse for its actions; it will also die permanently if all the petals fall off. 1d6 petals are left.
[17] Golden tooth kept in its body. Most people take it and sell it- its enchanted to be totally immune to fire so if people try to melt it down the lich can just retrieve it later when they reform.
[18] Electrified heart, in a box. If you touch it or bring a metal weapon within an inch; shocks you with 1d8 damage as a kind of defense mechanism. Stab it with wood, or just shoot it with an arrow.
[19] Tiny little 3 year old, blonde w/ pigtails, totally innocent villager girl. Enchanted to be eternally young and continually orphaned when her adoptive parents die of "random undead attacks". It's supposed to be a moral conundrum to kill her to stop the lich but if you just get her to drink some holy water it kills the lich's soul inside while she is totally unharmed.
[20] The Moon. Fuck you.

Anten the Murderer

Anten is a murderer. He has killed three hundred and twelve people. He's done these killings over the last ninety eight years. He's also been executed for his crimes five times.

Anten is a seemingly normal human. He is moderately charming (+1 Charisma modifier) but average in every other way. Set all of his stats to 10. Anyone with a Wisdom modifier of +1 or greater can tell there is something "wrong" with him. Anten prefers to lure his victims away, and then kill them. Anten prefer victims smaller and weaker then himself; usually killing women, or children, though occasionally he will kill travelers or drunkards. Not included in his body count are the large number of stray animals, livestock, and pets he has also killed. Worst of all, none of Anten's abilities seem to revolve around his killing in any way. His apparent immortality, as well as skill with magic, have seemingly nothing to do with his murderous appetite. As far as everyone can tell, he just does it because he enjoys it.

Anten (3 HD, +2 to hit, 1d4+1 knife attack, spells)
Morale- 8 in the open, 11 in Lair

Anten the Immortal
Unlike many others beings with immortality, Anten's doesn't give him youth or any kind of special supernatural resistance to anything. He's a regular human who can be killed by anything a human could be killed by- the problem is he comes back.

Whenever Anten is killed, whoever killed him begins to experience delusions, antisocial behavior, and becomes more and more isolated and irritable. The strongest willed can last many years, but eventually, they go out and kill just like Anten did. They chop apart their victims into pieces, and eventually, they turn into Anten. This isn't like a sudden or instant physical transformation, its just something that happens. Eventually the person is gone and Anten is back, leaving behind no body or trace of the unfortunate host.

In an attempt to circumvent his ability to come back; the last time Anten was executed, he was bricked into a stone tomb with plenty of water but no food, so he would slowly starve to death as his punishment. He complained quite a bit about that, saying its "less fun this way", but it seemed to work for a while. Until one day, the mason who bricked Mason in smashed his wife's head in with a brick, and soon he was gone, and Anten returned.

It is believed that, perhaps, a being of incredible will and of moral good nature could slay Anten and if they were to die of old age he would be gone for good. Nobody knows what would happen if someone were to kill themselves or be killed by another after ending Anten; but it is believed that any violent death can return him back to life. This includes the PCs, of course.

Anten's Magic
Beyond his uncanny ability to return to life, Anten is also a magician. He only knows a handful of basic spells any Wizard may know, but also has invented a few of his own which aid him in spellcasting. As Anten is not known as an especially powerful magician, he can cast up to three spells a day, but casts every spell as though he was a caster-level lower then he is, meaning his spells are more easily countered and resisted. Secondly, all of his home made spells are designed poorly and weak; and require the supernatural energy of a lair to function.

For the purposes of Anten's spells, a lair is any place where the spell-caster has murdered someone in cold blood. Their body must be hacked apart into pieces and spread apart to the four corners of the room; just like how Anten does it. Each killing can add about a room or 20 feet worth of area to your "lair" space, which essentially grows more powerful the more kills are done there.

You can learn Anten's spells, if you were to somehow help him escape or evade the law. Some Wizards may also be able to read these spells out of Anten's skull after he is killed, but will likely be infected by his evil and be replaced like him at some point once corrupted by his taint.

Anten's Spells - Roll 1d4 for a random spell
[1] Anatomical Dummy - 1st level
This spell is a minor necromantic ability. If it wasn't for the fact that Anten is a poor magician, this could be used like a level 1 cantrip for any skilled necromancer.

This spell allows a corpse to be posed and stand on its own power, much like a dummy or mannequin. It's similar to an animate dead spell, but grants the body no intelligence or ability to move, just enough to support its own weight. The more full and complete the corpse is, the more stable it is on its feet. Corpses missing several body parts or with hollowed out body cavities can be shoved over with a stiff push, but fully corpses with only minor injuries take a powerful weapon hit to knock to the floor, ending the spell.

Anten sometimes decorates his lairs with several standing dummies, especially around the chair, bed, or table where he straps his victims, as though an audience for his activities.

[2] True Cut - 1st level
This spells makes a knife or short-bladed weapon act as a +1 magic weapon for a single cut or attack. This adds +1 to hit and damage like a normal magic weapon, and is not consumed until it hits a target. It cuts straight and true, leaving a very clean, surgical slice. Anten doesn't know or hasn't been able to learn more common spells that are similar to this one, but better. 

Perhaps unintentionally, the energies infused into a blade or blade-point by this spell can be used to leave magic marks into whatever is cut, as long as its done in a single "cut" or long stroke. You could scratch your name in cursive on a wall, or your wizard's mark, for instance.

[3] Freeze Grasp - 1st level
This spell is intended to pin down and bind victims when more reliable restraints are not available. It requires a melee to-hit roll with an open palm. The caster must slam or push a target's body part into a solid object or surface. When successful, the spell creates a small frozen patch of ice, as though wetness was present and rapidly froze when the two bodies collided. So if you took someone's hand and slammed it into a wall with your own hand, the back of their hand would suddenly be frozen to the wall, as though glued on with ice.

By struggling free for one round, you can pull yourself away, leaving behind a small amount of clothing or skin on the surface you were stuck to. The ice will also melt after one exploration turn, unless in a place that's below freezing in temperature to being with. Also, any fire spells or warm water can be used on the ice to melt it away prematurely.

[4] Body-Burn - 2nd level
When cast, this spell creates a magical blood-red flame that grows fast and only consumes corpses. It will follow trails of flood or entrails like a fuse or line of gasoline. When it reaches a body part, it rapidly consumes it and explodes. Small body parts like hands or feed deal one damage, where as a full corpse would deal 1d4 damage to everyone adjacent. Large piles of corpses (or a room full of Anatomical Dummies) would likely deal Fireball levels of damage, consuming the corpses. However, nothing harmed by this spell will actually burn unless they were killed by it, just an explosion of heat and force.

This spell is Anten's most powerful creation, something he made to destroy large amounts of evidence if he needed to. Even after casting it, he gets winded and loses -2 to his AC for the rest of the combat encounter, as though drained of something fundamental to his being. More experienced spellcasters will not have this problem when casting the spell.