Dying Stylishly: Let's roll up an undead monster~

A little system to randomly generate horrible undead freaks. I'm assuming LotFP for the system, but you can probably use it for other stuff just fine.

You'll want to roll the following dice, all at once: A d6, a d8, a d10, a d12 and a pair of d20s. Then check the charts below to see what these produce.

For the d6:

The monster is a reanimated...

...human corpse. 2 hit dice.
...body part. Roll a d4. 1= head, 2= hand, 3= arm, 4= leg. 1 hit dice.
...child's corpse. 1 hit dice. Roll a d4. 1= baby, 2= toddler, 3= young child, 4= older child.
...animal corpse. Roll a d4. 1= bird (1 hit dice), 2= wolf (2 hit dice), 3= horse (3 hit dice), 4= rat (1 hit dice)
...collection of stitched-together body-parts, roughly approximating human form. 3 hit dice.
...collection of stitched-together body-parts, with no rhyme or reason to their placement. 4 hit dice.

Saves are as a Fighter (hit-dice = level). Armour class starts at 12, as normal for unarmoured creatures. All undead are immune to things like poisons, pain, starvation and so on, and are vulnerable to things like Turn Undead and holy water.

For the d10:

The monster's body is...

...skeletal. Hit dice is a d12.
...mummified. Hit dice is a d10.
...bloated with corpse-gas. Hit dice is a d8. On death, explodes dealing d4 damage to everything nearby (save vs breath avoids).
...fresh, but horribly diseased. Hit dice is a d8. On encountering, save vs poison or contract some horrible disease unless precautions are taken.
...infested with maggots and writhing horribly. Hit dice is a d8. On a hit, save vs breath or take d4 extra damage as the maggots surge forth.
...papery and dessicated. Hit dice is a d6.
...rotten and squishy. Hit dice is a d8.
...crushed down, hard and brittle. Hit dice is a d6. +2 armour class.
...waterlogged and boneless. Hit dice is a d10. Gets +1 per hit dice to wrestling attempts.
...flayed, wet and oozing. Hit dice is a d8.

For the d8:

The monster attacks...

...completely unarmed, for d2 damage.
...with horrible claws or fangs, for d4 damage.
...with improvised weapons, for d6 damage.
...with a rusted sword, for d8 damage, and wears chain armour, increasing AC to 16.
...by hurling itself bodily at the enemy, for d4 damage but knocking it prone on a hit.
...with a horrible miasma of decay. No roll to hit, those nearby save vs magic or take d4 damage.
...by ripping parts of itself off and throwing them at the enemy. Roll a d2 to a d12 on a hit, but the monster takes that much damage too.
...with a concealed blade, for d4 damage. Double damage against unaware or surprised enemies.

For the d12:

The monster...

...hunts in snarling, howling packs like a wild beast.
...lurks somewhere hidden, lashing out at those who come too close.
...believes it is still alive, acting like its living counterpart would. Potentially perfectly friendly.
...is a skilled warrior. +1 to hit per hit dice.
...hates its undead state, and charges at its enemies, sobbing and wailing and begging for them to kill it. +1 to attack and -1 to AC per hit dice.
...is a mindless automaton that obeys the last instruction it was given.
...is a frenzied killer that mindlessly seeks to destroy all life. +1 to attack and damage per hit dice.
...is a cold, inhuman genius. Saves as a Magic User (level= double hit dice)
...is empty and hollow. Will sit uselessly until interfered with, at which point it will attempt to destroy everything that disturbs its rest.
...is filled with endless, bottomless hunger, and has been driven mad by the compulsion to feed on raw flesh.
...seeks only to protect some place or thing that is important to it.
...serves the cause of entropy and oblivion with almost religious devotion. Saves as a Cleric (level= double hit dice).

For each d20:

The monster...

...drains a level whenever it deals damage.
...can devour raw flesh, and regenerates d12 hit points when it does so.
...causes any victims killed by it to raise from the dead as a similar being.
...can walk up walls like Spiderclimb was cast on it.
...is invisible in 'natural' light like sunshine or moonlight. It only shows up by the light of candles, lanterns and so on.
...paralyses victims that it deals damage to, for a full turn (save vs magic resists).
...hovers above the ground by a few inches, and so isn't slowed by rough terrain and leaves no tracks.
...is intangible, requiring magic weapons to hit and capable of passing straight through solid objects.
...causes victims that it deals damage to to age by 2d10 years.
...returns from the dead, completely intact, whenever it is killed unless given proper Last Rites by a priest.
...can't hurt the truly innocent, such as young children or certain religious hermits.
...is blind, and must grope around sightlessly to locate its enemies or else track them by sound.
...can, once per victim, produce a horrific scream. The victim must save vs magic or die of fright.
...causes any weapon that strikes it to crumble to dust, destroying it. Unarmed attacks are fine.
...leaves a trail of foul ectoplasm behind it that will attract more of its kind unless burned away.
...can mimic the voices and appearance of victims it has killed.
...has a shared hive-mind with all other undead of its kind.
...cannot hurt anybody who is not afraid of it.
...causes, without any concious choice, strange effects around it; milk curdles, animals whimper in fear, mirrors reflect things that aren't really there and unattended objects move when nobody is watching them.
...is shrouded by a thick fog that seeps from the ground wherever it goes.

For the hell of it, I've rolled up a couple of undead to test this out, and this is what I got:

Attempt 1:

The d6 is a 4 (rolling another d4 and getting a 4. The d8 is a 6. The d10 is a 10. The d12 is an 8. The d20s are a 2 and an 19. This gives us an undead rat, flayed, wet and oozing, that attacks with a miasma of decay. It's a cold genius, can regenerate by eating raw flesh and must make its victims afraid before it can hurt them. Let's put this together...

The Corruption Under The Floorboards.

These creatures are the undead remains of rats that died in traps in certain cursed manors. Prior to their deaths, they had, simply by feeding, absorbed the horrible energies of their homes, and this is what drives and animates them in their undeath - they are as much a manifestation of the mansion's curse as anything else. Their heads are crushed in by the traps that killed them, and their skin has peeled away. Beneath this, the oozing foulness of their nature is revealed, a sticky black puss that produces horrible fumes.

The rats can be heard sometimes, scurrying blindly about behind elegant wallpaper or under sumptuous carpets. Though sightless, they know the layout of their mansions perfectly, and find places where they can lurk unseen, oozing their miasma into the air around them. They prefer not to kill indiscriminately with this method, and instead pick on isolated victims they judge most likely to traumatize the dwellers in their cursed manse. Visiting young débutantes, newborn babies, and priests brought in to exorcise the building all fall victim in the night as they sleep, and when the rats can hear no more breathing, the emerge from cracks in the skirting boards and behind light fittings, feeding on the body in their masses, leaving only a rat-gnawed corpse behind to be found in the morning.

One hit-dice, d8 hit-points. AC 12. Saves as a level 2 Magic User. Those nearby that are already unnerved must save vs magic each turn or take d4 damage. Can regain up to d12 hitpoints by feeding on raw flesh.

Attempt 1:

The d6 is a 4 (rolling another d4 and getting a 4. The d8 is a 6. The d10 is a 10. The d12 is an 8. The d20s are a 2 and a 16. This gives us an undead rat, flayed, wet and oozing, that attacks with a miasma of decay. It's a cold genius, can regenerate by eating raw flesh and is blind. Let's put this together...

The Corruption Under The Floorboards.

These creatures are the undead remains of rats that died in traps in certain cursed manors. Prior to their deaths, they had, simply by feeding, absorbed the horrible energies of their homes, and this is what drives and animates them in their undeath - they are as much a manifestation of the mansion's curse as anything else. Their skin has peeled away, and beneath the oozing foulness of their nature is revealed, a sticky black puss that produces horrible fumes.

One hit-dice, d8 hit-points. AC 12. Saves as a level 2 Magic User. Those nearby must save vs magic each turn or take d4 damage. Can regain up to d12 hitpoints by feeding on raw flesh.

Attempt 2:

The d6 is a 5. The d8 is a 7. The d10 is a 7. The d12 is a 9. The d20s are a 9 and a 12. This gives us a vaguely humanoid mass of rotten body-parts, that attacks by pulling parts of itself off to throw at the enemy. It just wants to be left alone, causes its victims to age, and is blind. Let's put this together...

The Forlorn Autopsy.

This creature is the remains of some mad dissectionist's work. The bodies of various people, taken apart out of morbid curiousity and casually stitched back together in a new form. Empty sockets with no eyes, teeth pulled from its gums, too many fingers on its hands and mismatched limbs. Left abandoned in the laboratory's cellar, going mouldy and putrid, it spontaneously twitched its way into unlife one night, and is thoroughly miserable about this fact.

It loathes its horrible form, desperately wishing it could return to the constituent parts that made it and fondly remembering the empty nothingness from before it returned to life.. When it does nothing, it finds that the dark, cold silence of the cellar approximates the oblivion it craves. When this nothingness is disturbed by noise and heat, its fits of self-discussed overcome it, and it tears hunks of rotten flesh from its body, hurling them at the hated stimulus that reminds it of its own existence. Those struck by its flung entrails are overcome by the same entropic energy that animated it, visibly withering and ageing.

Three hit-dice, 3d8 hit-points. AC 12. Saves as a level 3 fighter. Attack bonus +1, thrown. Damage is between d2 and d12 (monsters choice) but deals that much damage to the monster too. Enemies hit by the monster's attack also age by 2d10 years.

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Friday, 22 April 2016

Let's roll up an undead monster~

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