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The Soulless

June 9, 2015 /

I originally started this in July 2012. I decided that while experiencing a form of writer's block caused by personal events, I would do something about the 38 drafts I started on my site. This race was originally created for ACKS, but has been ported over to Swords & Wizardry.

The Soulless

The Soulless are the result of research into transferring the soul from one body to another in the pursuit of immortality. The new body is not created from corpses, but generated by the use of alchemy. It is believed that the idea originated from early contact with the Manus and Pria.

Defenses: The soulless gain a +4 saving throws against poison due to their alien biology.

Augmented Physical Form: The body of a Soulless is augmented during its construction with a special ability. Such augmentations include regenerating 1 hp/ round (due to troll blood), the ability to pertrify a creature once a day (medusa eyes in the palms of the hands), A plus 2 bonus to Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution (physical augmentation), . Chameleon-like abilities (+10 to Hide checks). Invisibility. Throughout their lives, an individual soulless will change appearance and special abilities several times. The referee will need to approve any special ability gained by the augmentation.

Drawbacks: The act of separating the body from the soul has great consequences. While the ability to transfer the mind and its memories from one body to the next has been perfected, the separation of the soul from its initial body has consequences. Although not readily apparent, even to a soulless itself, the soul dies when removed. As such, when a soulless dies, they cease to exist on any level. Not even a wish can bring back a dead Soulless. Without a soul, they cannot perform Astral Projection and are immune to Resurrection and Reincarnation spells.

Silver Sensitivity: Soulless take double damage from silver weapons as silver is a poison to their alchemically constructed bodies.

Classes: The Soulless have no limits on level advancement as Thieves. In theory, the Soulless can be fighters, but few choose this path due to the time and expense in generating their body.  A Soulless cannot be a Cleric as they have no soul for a deity to bless, but if your campaign allows Psionic classes characters, they have no level limits in that class. The Soulless can also dual-class as Magic-User/Thieves with a limit of 6gh level for being a Magic-User.

Being alchemists, the Soulless have no level limit on such a class.

Belching Snakes

May 24, 2015 /

We were driving in the car recently and my son asks, "what would happen if snake came out of your mouth every time you burped?"

I think a normal parent would have reacted much differently than I did.

"What kind of snake?" I ask.

"Well, if you burp once, a spitting cobra comes out. If you burp twice, a king cobra comes out."

"What happens with the cobras when they are out?"

"The cobras will do whatever you say or just follow you around for a while."

"If you burp a lot, do you get a lot of cobras?

"No, you can only get three cobras no matter how many times you burp."

"What if I burp three times?"

"Nothing. One burp is a spitting cobra, two burps are a king cobra."

Thus we have the belching snakes spell for Swords & Wizardry or your favorite retro-clone.

Belching Snakes

Spell Level: Cleric, 2rd Level, Druid, 3rd Level
Range: 30 feet (after the snakes appear)
Duration: 1 hour

The caster begins belching loudly in bursts of one or two belches. If the caster belches once, a spitting cobra appears. If the caster makes a two belch burst, a king cobra appears. The snakes follow commands, but wander off at the end of the spell. If killed, they disappear into nothingness.

Spitting Cobra: HD 1; AC 5[14]; Atk 1 bite (1hp); Move 16; Save 17; AL N; CL/XP 3/60; Special: Spit poison, 30' range (Save with +2 bonus to roll or go blind for 2d8 turns).
King Cobra: HD 2; AC 5[14]; Atk 1 bite (2hp + poison); Move 16; Save 16; AL N; CL/XP 4/120; Special: Lethal poison.

Section 1 to 14 of the OGL are here

Section 15 of the OGL for this article:

15. COPYRIGHT NOTICE
Open Game License v 1.0a Copyright 2000, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
System Reference Document © 2000-2003, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.; Authors Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, Skip Williams, Rich Baker, Andy Collins, David Noonan, Rich Redman, Bruce R. Cordell, John D. Rateliff, Thomas Reid, James Wyatt, based on original material by E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson
Swords & Wizardry Core Rules, © 2008, Matthew J. Finch
Monster Compendium: 0e, © 2008, Matthew J. Finch
Pathfinder RPG Bestiary, © 2009, Paizo Publishing, LLC; Author:
Jason Bulmahn, based on material by Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, and
Skip Williams.
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Bestiary 2, © 2010, Paizo Publishing,
LLC; Authors Wolfgang Baur, Jason Bulmahn, Adam Daigle, Graeme
Davis, Crystal Frasier, Joshua J. Frost, Tim Hitchcock, Brandon Hodge,
James Jacobs, Steve Kenson, Hal MacLean, Martin Mason, Rob
McCreary, Erik Mona, Jason Nelson, Patrick Renie, Sean K Reynolds,
F. Wesley Schneider, Owen K.C. Stephens, James L. Sutter, Russ Taylor,
and Greg A. Vaughan, based on material by Jonathan Tweet, Monte
Cook, and Skip Williams.
Monstrosities, © 2012, Matthew J. Finch
Swords & Wizardry Complete Rules, © 2008-2012, Matthew J. Finch
Belching Snakes,  ©2015, Sycarion Diversions, Authors John Payne and Jasper Payne

The Question This Geek Dad Has Been Waiting to Hear

May 24, 2015 /

So Dad, when can I play D&D with you?

I leave the table up the entire two weeks with the guys' maps, dice, pencils, and the module I am running. He plays a lot near the table, but has only recently asked me about it. I think part of this was prompted by the raucous laughter that woke him up last Saturday.

For those that do not know, my son is hard of hearing. It takes a very loud sound to wake him up normally, much less when he is recovering from ear surgery with packing, stitches, and cotton plugging up one of his ears. His bedroom is a floor up and in the opposite side of the house. He sleeps in a loft six foot from the floor. For all intents and purposes, he should not have heard us.

Anyway, he came downstairs and asked me what was so funny. I explained to him the following scene:

In a cave, there is a giant punching a bunch of noisy statues. Each statue is shouting "THIS IS THE WRONG WAY, TURN BACK!" There are 1000 bats in the cave swirling around the giant.

He (pointing to one of the players) is pretending to be a 7 foot tall orc-like creature on a huge horse. They are charging down a flight of stairs into the cave. Behind him is a bear running as fast as he can. Behind the bear is a suit of armor (pointing at a second player) that can walk and talk on its own. Behind the suit of armor is a priest kind of guy (pointing at a third player) that is not sure why he is running in.

He started laughing and that struck me so funny that I was in tears from laughing so hard. After a moment to collect myself, I turn to the guys and ask, "You've charged into this maelstrom, guns blazing. What do you do?"

The character on the horse says, "Can we sneak past the giant?"

My son laughs again.

It was a week later when he asked me the question. He was looking at the table full of dice and maps. I'm sure he remembers me laughing so hard.

I ask, "Was it funny when the guy charged in on a horse with a bear running behind him?"

"Yes," he said, "but it was funnier when he wanted to sneak past the giant thing."

I think I've got a future DM on my hands.

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