Death Nettle

Death Nettle
Tiny Plant, Neutral, Forest

No. Appearing: 1d4+1 (1d6+1)
Armor Class: 12
Hit Dice: 1+2 (6hp)
Move:  Once it uses all of its stings it takes 2-5 days to regrow new ones.0’
Attacks: 1-4 stings
Damage: 1d4 piercing
Save: 15
Morale: n/a
Treasure Type: Nil
Intelligence: 1
XP Value: 25

Death Sting: target stung must Save vs Paralyze or be incapacitated for 1-4 days.

Appearing as harmless plants growing in fields among other normal vegetation, until a tasty target comes within range. The Death Nettle unfolds its barbed tentacles and reveals its skull-like face and attacks.

Once it stings an opponent and incapacitates them the Death Nettle will slowly envelope the creature and start digesting it over the course of 1-4 days. Once it uses all of its stings it takes 2-5 days to regrow new ones.

Death nettles were cultivated by the monks of Nakari, goddess of death and darkness, while they were bored trying to fill time between their mediations.

Warduke Wednesday

 

Cosmic Wanderer

Cosmic Wanderer
Medium Humanoid, Chaotic, Extra-Planar

No. Appearing: 1 (1)
Armor Class: 17
Hit Dice: 6+2 (26hp)
Move: 90’ (60’)
Attacks: Touch
Damage: 2d6+1 Necrotic
Save: 15
Morale: 6
Treasure Type: V
Intelligence: 16
XP Value: 500

Necrotic Touch: target touched must Save vs poison or take an additional 1d6 necrotic damage. Limb will rot away within 2-5 days unless cured.

Etherealness: 3 times per encounter can become ethereal for a round and cannot be touched or affected except be effects that can affect ethereal things.

A Cosmic Wanderer is a lost soul condemned to wander the cosmos in search of a home it will never find. Whether an explorer who lost his way, a wizard experimenting with magic he didn't understand, or a cursed individual tossed into the ether, they have been traveling for so long that they've lost all comprehension of time and space. Their physical bodies are deteriorated and barely recognizable as human. 

They have also developed a malevolence and hatred of all mankind and will seek to take the life from anyone they encounter with no remorse. It is possible that under some circumstances a remove curse spell cast by a powerful cleric could restore their humanity.

Blighted Grimalkin

Schrödinger's cat was neither live or dead...it was UNDEAD!

Blighted Grimalkin

Small Undead, Chaotic, Urban

No. Appearing: 1
Armor Class: 13
Hit Dice: 4 (16hp)
Move: 120’
Attacks: 1 bite or 2 claws
Damage: 1d6+1 piercing, 2d4 slashing
Save: 14
Morale: 8
Treasure Type: M
Intelligence: 9
XP Value: 95

Depending on how the Grimalkin was made determines its special abilities, it has one of the following as well as Poison Immunity:

• Bloodcurdling Howl: up to 3 times per encounter. Opponents within 15’ must Save or take 2d4 Thunder damage.
• Necrotizing Claws:if a target is struck by the Grimalkin’s poisonous claws they must Save vs. Poison or a limb will rot off in 2-5 days unless cured with Cure Disease or Remove Curse.
• Regeneration: it quickly recovers hit points at the rate of 1d4 per round unless the damage is done by fire, lightning, or acid.
• Resistance: Fire
• Immunity: all Grimalkin are immune to Poison

Blighted Grimalkin are familiars that have been separated from their witch, they are a disturbing omen that foreshadow grim events. Plagues, crop failures, still borns are said to be caused by their presence. They appear as undead cats, with matted fur, hollow eyes and a nauseous stench.

If slain on a full blood red moon in autumn, in the presence of its witch it can come back as a blighted grimalkin with a Bloodcurdling Howl.

If it is buried in a cursed graveyard, it may come back as an undead with Necrotizing Claws.

If the witch it is bonded to dies by decapitation the grimalkin also dies, and comes back with the power of Regeneration.

If the witch it is bonded to dies by fire the grimalkin dies of a heartbreak, and comes back with the fury of hell in its eyes and it is Resistant to Fire.

 

Cities on Mars

 Using AI to generate cities on Mars.

I've become quite fascinated with using this tool to create concept art and ideas to use for reference, but many of them are compelling images on their own with little or no corrections and refinement in Photoshop to fix the weird little artifacts.

Arson Roach

Arson Roach

Small Beast, Neutral, Underdark

No. Appearing: 3d4+1 (3d6+1)
Armor Class: 7
Hit Dice: 2+2 (10hp)
Move: 30’ (60’)
Attacks: 1 bite or special
Damage: 1d4+1 slashing
Save: 14
Morale: 6
Treasure Type: Nil
Intelligence: 1
XP Value: 25

• Radiate Heat: up to 3 times per encounter. Opponents within 15’ must Save or take 1d4 Fire damage.
• Burning Gore: when killed body explodes 20’ radius, Save vs. Breath or take 1d4 Fire damage.
• Resistance: Fire
• Vulnerability: Cold

Arson roaches are dog sized creeping crawlies with flaming hot internal organs. They can spew out liquid fire and are nearly impervious to heat. They also spread disease and pestilence. 

Rakshasa Beast

Rakshasa Beast
Medium Beast, Chaotic, Extra Planar

No. Appearing: 1d4 (1d4)
Armor Class: 16 (Natural Armor)
Hit Dice: 7 (28 hp)
Move: 120’ (40’)
Attacks: 1 bite or 2 claws
Damage: 1d8+1 piercing, 1d6+1 slashing
Save: 11
Morale: 9
Treasure Type: C
Intelligence: 6
XP Value: 750

• Savage: once per encounter can go into savage mode for 1d4 rounds, +2 attack and damage, -4 AC. Will be fatigued for 1d4+1 rounds after.
• Illusions: can appear as a less threatening form such as a harmless housecat, the illusion dissapates in combat.
• Immune: non-magical weapons.
• Resistance: weapons less than +3.
• Regenerate: recovers 3hp per round.
• Limited Magic Resistance: has +4 on saving throws against spells and magical effects.

Certain conditions can cause a rakshasa to go feral and turn into a wild uncontrollable beast. They forget their civilized nature and revert to pure animal form.

A rakshasa is a human-feline hybrid, fearsome and hardy in stature. They have fangs, claw-like fingernails, and fierce malevolent eyes. Their features often resemble a tiger or other fierce feline beasts. They give a bestial growl and are known to consume the flesh of their prey they particularly enjoyed hunting.

Originally rakshasa are evil spirits in mortal flesh, who escaped the infernal realms into the material world long ago. Many of them become high ranking royalty by using their powers of illusion. Some go mad and become Rakshasa Beasts.

- - -

This is the beginning of a series on creating monsters with AI. The images are created using Midjourney and other AI image manipulation tools, and a bit of retouches in Photoshop. The descriptions are then written up.

Warduke Wednesday

 

Cool Warduke fan art by Tone Rodriguez. 

Artificial Intelligence Art

 

Recent Artificial Intelligence image making tools have hit the art community like a flaming meteor crashing into our world. Previous programs were interesting gimmicky little toys, but the new crop of AI art creators have become mind-blowingly good.

For those of us who make a living as illustrators it is somewhat alarming. Will art directors be able to just generate the art they need by typing in a few keywords into a program? Well, not yet, but it is clear that this technology is going to have a huge impact. Like all technologies this is only the beginning, in a decade or two artists may become more curators than creators. Meaning they will use AI to draw hundreds of images, directing the process, and choosing the best images for a project rather than actually drawing and painting.

There was a time that artists who worked digitally in programs like Photoshop were accused of "just pushing buttons and the program creates the art" but nothing was further from the truth. It still took a lot of skill and craft to create illustrations digitally. Years of practicing learning how to draw anatomy, composition, design, etc. went into digital image making. These AI tools however may actually live up to that accusation.

It isn't hard to imagine that this will gobble up the art market from the bottom up. Clip art and beginning artists will be replaced, then mid-tier artists (like myself) will feel the competition, finally as the technology matures it will be able to create masterpieces with full control from the user. Already it is impressive.

I've used it to help complete the art for Saints, Gods, & Relics. And I'm using it for the next Beasties monster book I had already mostly written, but was just waiting to draw the creatures, then in just a couple of days I was able to use AI to create dozens of stunning (and disturbing) monsters and characters to fully illustrate the book (which I'll be previewing here soon). It still required my skill as an artist to do post-processing, clean up weird artifacts, and fix things. But the results I think are quite amazing.

I believe over the coming months we are going to see a virtual flood of AI images filling the pages of independent tabletop games.

More Options for Clerics

 The cleric is one of the most interesting additions to the original edition of DnD.

In many ways the militant holy man is a bit of an odd fit among the general swords & sorcery genre that informed the early development of the game. There is really nothing quite like it among the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Fritz Leiber, Robert E. Howard, JRR Tolkien and so on. Even CS Lewis doesn't have anything resembling the Cleric anywhere in the Chronicles of Narnia.

We have to dig back into history and lore to find warrior monks. Friar Tuck, the orders of Knighthood like the Templars, and further back perhaps to Old Testament times with some of the Judges of Israel. The most likely inspiration was Dr. Van Helsing, particularly as he was portrayed in the Hammer Horror films that Gygax and Arneson enjoyed so much.

While you could argue that the entire booklet Gods, Demigods, & Heroes is specifically for the Cleric, the class itself is a bit neglected in the early Little Brown Books. The Monastic Knights class treatment I made a while back was an attempt to fill that gap. Though with that class my intention was to revise the cleric from less of a priest and more into a holy warrior. A niche between clerics and paladins. A less restrictive paladin if you will. 

I was having this conversation with David Pulver about the cleric and he mentioned he had written an entire treatment for the Cleric for his homebrew campaign. I was immediately intrigued and we soon agreed to publish it as an OD&D supplement. That was two years ago.

This project has been sitting on my backburner that long. I'd pull it out dabble with it, work on layout, and sketch some art, then put it back. I'm sure David was wondering if it would ever get made. Well, that time has come. It is a book that fleshes out the cleric class without breaking game balance. We'd joked that we could call it Old School Religion, OSR if you will, but ultimately Saints, Gods, & Relics was a more fitting title.

The book is now available in PDF & Print, and as a bundle.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/401377/Saints-Gods-and-Relics