Al-Qadim Monstrous Compendium

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Al-Qadim Monstrous Compendium TSR, Inc. TSR, Ltd. POB 756 120 Church End, Cherry Hinton Lake Geneva Cambridge CB1 3LB WI 53147 United Kingdom Design: Wolfgang Baur, Steve Kurtz Editing: C. Terry Phillips Cover Art: Jeff Easley Interior Art: Tom Baxa, Mark Nelson Typography: Gaye O' Keefe ©1992 TSR, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. TSR, Inc. TSR Ltd. POB 756 120 Church End, Cherry Hinton Lake Geneva, Cambridge CB1 3LB WI 53147 USA United Kingdom ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, AD&D, FORGOTTEN REALMS, DRAGONLANCE and GREYHAWK are registered trademarks owned by TSR, Inc. AL-QADIM and the TSR logo are trademarks owned by TSR, Inc. Random House and its affiliate companies have worldwide distribution rights in the book trade for English language products of TSR, Inc. Distributed to the book and hobby trade in the United Kingdom by TSR Ltd. Distributed to the toy and hobby trade by regional distributors. This material is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. Any reproduction or other unauthorized use of the material or artwork contained herein is prohibited without the express written permission of TSR, Inc. 2129 l-56076-370-1 How to Use This Book MC13 Welcome to the thirteenth volume of the Monstrous Compen- for each type possible: if all rolls fail, no treasure of any type is dium. This book details the creatures of the Burning World of found. Treasure should be adjusted downward if few monsters Zakhara for the AL-QADIM campaign. As in previous vol- are encountered. Large treasures are noted by a parenthetical umes, all entries are in alphabetical order on removable loose- multiplier ( x 10, etc.) not to be confused with treasure type X. leaf sheets. The loose-leaf sheets can be placed in a master Do not use the tables to place dungeon treasure, as numbers en- binder and removed as needed for easy reference during an ad- countered underground will be much smaller. venture. Important Note: These monsters should not be intermingled ALIGNMENT shows the general behavior of the average with the monsters from the previous volumes of the Monstrous monster of that type. Exceptions, though uncommon, may be Compendium; keep these monsters together in a separate sec- encountered. tion of your binder. All monsters included here are typical for their type; likewise, NO. APPEARING indicates an average encounter size for a the encounter tables are guidelines for general play. Variations home plane encounter. The DM should alter this to fit the cir- of your own design are encouraged. Those DMs unfamiliar with cumstances as the need arises. This should not be used for the Land of Fate and the concepts of the AL-QADIM game will dungeon encounters. find a wealth of useful information in the Land of Fate Boxed Set and the various AL-QADIM adventure modules. ARMOR CLASS is the general protection worn by humans and humanoids, protection due to physical structure or magical CLIMATE/TERRAIN defines where the creature is most often nature, or difficulty in hitting due to speed, reflexes, etc. Hu- found. Normally, climates include things such as arctic, subarc- mans and humanoids of roughly man-size that wear armor will tic, temperate, and tropical, and terrain would include plain/ have an unarmored rating in parentheses. Listed ACs do not in- scrub, forest, rough/hill, mountain, swamp, and desert. clude any special bonuses noted in the description. However, in the Land of Fate, some of these terrain types are uncommon or nonexistant . MOVEMENT shows the relative speed rating of the creature. Higher speeds may be possible for short periods. Human, demi- FREQUENCY is the likelihood of encountering a creature in human, and humanoid movement rates are often determined by an area. Very rare is a 4% chance, rare is 11%, uncommon is armor type (unarmored rates are given in parentheses). Move- 20%, and common is a 65% chance. Chances can be adjusted ments in different mediums are abbreviated as follows: Fl = fly- for special areas. ing, Sw = swimming, Br = burrowing, Wb = moving in a web. Flying creatures also have a Maneuverability Class from A ORGANIZATION is the general social structure the monster to E (refer to the Aerial Combat rules in the Dungeon Masters adopts. Solitary includes small familial groups. Guide, page 77). ACTIVITY CYCLE is the time of day when the monster is HIT DICE control the number of points of damage a creature most active. Those most active at night may be active at any can withstand before being killed. Unless otherwise stated, hit time in subterranean settings. Active cycle is a general guide and dice are 8-sided, yielding 1 to 8 cumulative hit points each. The exceptions are fairly common. hit dice are rolled and the numbers shown are added to deter- mine the monsters hit points. Some monsters will have a hit DIET shows what the creature generally eats. Carnivores eat point spread instead of hit dice, and some will have additional meat, herbivores eat plants, and omnivores eat either. Scaven- points added to their hit dice. Thus, a creature with 4 + 4 hit dice gers dine mainly on carrion. has 4d8 +4 hit points (8-36 total). Note that creatures with +3 or more added to their hit points are considered of the next high- INTELLIGENCE is the equivalent of human IQ. Certain er hit die for purposes of attack rolls and saving throws. monsters are instinctively cunning; these are noted in the mon- ster descriptions. Ratings correspond roughly to the following THAC0 is the attack roll the monster needs to hit armor class Intelligence ability scores: 0. This is always a function of hit dice, with any exceptions mentioned in the text description of the creature. Humans and 0 Nonintelligent or not ratable demihumans always use player character THAC0s, regardless 1 Animal intelligence of whether they are player characters or monsters. THAC0s 2-4 Semi-intelligent do not include any special bonuses noted in the descriptions. Hit 5-7 Low intelligence probability bonuses due to Strength are listed in parentheses 8-10 Average (human) intelligence with the THAC0. 11-12 Very intelligent 13-14 Highly intelligent NO. OF ATTACKS shows the basic attacks the monster can 15-16 Exceptionally intelligent make in a melee round, excluding special attacks. This number 17-18 Genius may be modified by hits that sever members, spells such as haste 19-20 Supra-genius and slow, and so forth. Multiple attacks indicate several attack- 21+ Godlike intelligence ing arms, raking paws, multiple heads, etc. TREASURE refers to the treasure tables in the Dungeon Mas- DAMAGE/ATTACK shows the amount of damage a given at- ters Guide. If individual treasure is indicated, each individual tack will cause, expressed as a spread of hit points (dice roll may carry it (or not, at the DM's discretion). Major treasures combinations). If the monster uses weapons, the damage done are usually found in the monsters lair; these are most often de- by the typical weapon will be followed by the parenthetical note signed and placed by the DM. Intelligent monsters will use mag- weapon. Damage bonuses due to Strength are listed as a bonus ical items present and try to carry off their most valuable following the damage range. treasures if hard pressed. If treasure is assigned randomly, roll How to Use This Book MC13 SPECIAL ATTACKS detail attack modes such as dragon XP VALUE is the number of experience points awarded for de- breath, magic use, etc. These are explained in the monster de- feating (not necessarily killing) the monster. This value is a scription. guideline that may be modified by the DM for the degree of challenge, encounter situation, and for overall campaign bal- SPECIAL DEFENSES are precisely that, and are detailed in ance. For the creatures in this appendix, additional experience the monster description. point awards have been calculated on the basis of extraordinary spell use, spell-like abilities, and exceptional magic resistance. MAGIC RESISTANCE is the percentage chance that magic cast upon the creature will fail to affect it, even if other creatures COMBAT discusses special combat abilities, arms, armor, and nearby are affected. If the magic penetrates this resistance, the tactics. creature is still entitled to any normal saving throws allowed. With the combat abilities are listed any spell-like abilities pe- SIZE is abbreviated as: T = tiny (2 tall or less), culiar to the creature. Spell-like abilities are identical to the ef- S = smaller than a typical human (2 + to 4), fects of the spell given. Where not stated, these spell-like M = man-sized (4 + to 7); abilities are cast at 12th level of magic use. Since the spell-like L= larger than man-sized (7 + to 12), abilities of creatures are not spells, they do not require verbal, H = huge (12 + to 25), and G = gargantuan (25 + ). somatic, nor material components, and do not require concen- tration to maintain their effects, even in cases where the spells MORALE is a general rating of how likely the monster is to description says otherwise. persevere in the face of adversity or armed opposition. This guideline may be adjusted for individual circumstances. Morale HABITAT/SOCIETY outlines the monsters general behavior, ratings correspond to the following 2-20 range: nature, social structure, and goals. 2-4 Unreliable ECOLOGY describes how the monster fits into the campaign 5-7 Unsteady world, gives useful products or byproducts of the creature, and 8-10 Average presents other miscellaneous information. 11-12 Steady 13-14 Elite Close variations of a monster are given in a special section 15-16 Champion after the main monster entry.
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