D&D/OSR: Encumbrance Made Easy Redux

OK, but do you come with a cork screw?

Encumbrance is a bit of a pain in the rear, and has always been a tug of war between players and DMs, which is why most DMs hand-wave it. Players rarely track their weight, and PCs end up carrying all kinds of ridiculous equipment that apparently takes a single object interaction to get out of who knows which hole on the PC’s body.

In a previous article, I attempted to come up with a solution to the Swiss Army PC, but my players pretty quickly found the holes in the system, and I did not enforce its restrictions as I should have. Working on my BX-5 home brew rules, I’ve attempted to come up with a simpler, improved solution which can be more easily enforced.

D&D / OSR: Encumbrance Made Easy

Do your PCs look like this?

I've never really liked D&D encumbrance. It's a pain. The item weights in the various equipment tables are all over the place in terms of accuracy (i.e. - mostly inaccurate) and to make things worse, the rules on carrying capacity are ridiculously broken. In one place it reads "15 times Strength" which is so stupidly over blown that even in the text of the 5th edition rules it basically implies "Yeah, you can basically just ignore encumbrance." After that, there is an optional rule for using 5x Strength as a base for penalizing movement and such... but the math is just too fiddly and players will ignore it anyway.

So what is a DM to do?

D&D 5e: Plague Zombie Disease

After a suggestion by +Kevin Boyd and a G+ conversation with +Eric Diaz, I came up with a Walking Dead style disease to accompany the Horde Zombie variant I published at the end of October.

For the zombie plague disease, I thought perhaps it should be treated in a similar manner as a death save (i.e. - a race between 3 successes or 3 fails to recover or die respectively). Unlike Walking Dead, this disease does not automatically kill the infected, but with the exhaustion mechanic together with CON damage, it is a very deadly disease. Use with caution against your players.

Between the Horde Zombie damage mechanic and the Plague Rot disease, your players will crap their pants whenever they come across zombies in the future. Even normal zombies will be that much more frightening because they won't be able to tell them apart. 

Zombie Plague Rot

When a player is infected by plague zombie rot, they must make a CON saving throw 8 hours after the initial infection and each day thereafter. On a failure, the PC takes a permanent 1d6 CON damage (with HP maximum permanently lowered accordingly) and 2 levels of exhaustion. (The new save is made using the adjusted CON score). Due to the nature of the disease, exhaustion may not be recovered while the PC is infected (except magically). After 3 failed saves, the PC dies and will rise as a Plague Zombie in 1d12 hours.

After 3 successful saves, the PC is healed of the disease, but still suffers the effects of the CON and HP loss. A Lesser Restoration spell will not automatically cure the disease, but may be used to grant the PC one automatic save toward recovery and heal 1 level of exhaustion. Three castings of the Lesser Restoration spell may be used to cure the disease, but does not restore lost CON or HP maximum. A Greater Restoration spell will cure the disease completely and restore the permanently lost CON and HP maximum.

Narrative Symptoms 

After infection, the wound location will have a red, nasty rash around the wound (even if HP healed). It will be apparent to the PC that some kind of infection is active.

Failed save 1: Red rash spreads from site of wound to other parts of the body. PC will have fever, sweats and chills. Exhaustion level 2 effects set in. PC is tired, listless, and moving slower as energy is sapped fighting the infection. 

Failed save 2: PC will look horrible. Pale, rashy, sweating profusely, shivering constantly, and barely able to fight or perform simple tasks (Disadvantage on everything from Exhaustion level 4). 

Failed save 3: The PC will look dead. Because he is. In a short time, he will look undead.

If the PC makes their 3rd successful save, they will begin to recover exhaustion levels normally. The fever will break and the rash will recede over the course of several days.

D&D 5e: Bone Swarm Skeleton

Source: yunuskocatepe at Deviant Art

Looking for more Halloween monster treats? Here is the Bone Swarm Skeleton.

The Bone Swarm Skeleton is a hulking skeletal beast that is made up from multiple skeletons, both humanoid and animal. While it is still a medium size creature, it is larger than a typical humanoid and may stand upright or skitter around on multiple legs. When destroyed, its bits and pieces reform into small animated undead swarms that continue to fight like a skeletal version of the Terminator.

Bone Swarm Skeleton

Medium Undead, neutral evil

Armor Class 14 (bony carapace)
Hit Points  26 (4d8+8)
Speed 30 ft

Damage Vulnerabilities Bludgeoning
Immunities Poison, Exhaustion
Senses Darkvision 60 ft., Passive Perception 9
Languages  understands the languages it knew in life but can’t speak
Challenge 1/2

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
14 (+2)	14 (+2)	15 (+2)	6 (-2)	8 (-1)	5 (-3)

Bone Swarm. When damage reduces the skeleton to 0 hit points, it falls to the ground in a pile of bones. On the round following its demise, the skeletal piles form into 4 small animated bone swarms (see stats below) in any spaces where the skeleton died.

Actions

Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d8+2) slashing damage 

Swarm of Bones

Small Swarm of Tiny Undead, neutral evil

Armor Class 12 (bony carapace)
Hit Points 14 (4d6)
Speed 20 ft

Damage Resistances Piercing, Slashing
Condition Immunities charmed, frightened, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned, prone, restrained, stunned
Senses Darkvision 60 ft., Passive Perception 8
Challenge 1/4

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
10 (+0)	14 (+2)	10 (+0)	3 (-4)	6 (-2)	5 (-3)

Swarm. The swarm can occupy another creature’s space and vice versa, and the swarm can move through any opening large enough for a small creature. The swarm can’t regain hit points or gain temporary hit points. 

Actions

Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +2 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (2d4) slashing damage or 3 (1d4)
slashing damage if the swarm has half of its hit points or fewer.  

D&D 5e: Horde Zombie variant

Zombies! (...and just barely in time for Halloween).

Even as far back as AD&D, zombies have been a somewhat easy source of XP for low level parties... But even with large numbers of zombies, they've never really been frightening in the "horror" sense of the word. Even in the mists of Ravenloft, zombies left something to be desired.

Yet, in classic horror films and especially the modern day Walking Dead, zombies are a force to be reckoned. To the protagonists, they are the incarnation of fear, and they are deadly in numbers. To be pulled down into frenzied feeding of a horde is one's worst nightmare.

This Zombie variant is intended to add a little more "Aaah!" into an encounter with a shamble of zombies. They're still not excessively hard for a low level group, but the Advantage and extra damage they get when attacking en masses might give your players a case of the willies next time they run across a large group.

If you have more ideas on making zombies a bit scarier, add to the comments!

Horde Zombie

Medium Undead, neutral evil

Armor Class 8
Hit Points 22 (3d8+9)
Speed 20 ft

Saving Throw Wis +0
Immunities Poison
Senses Darkvision 60 ft., Passive Perception 10
Languages  understands the languages it knew in life but can’t speak
Challenge 1/2

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
14 (+2)	6 (-2)	16 (+3)	3 (-4)	6 (-2)	6 (-3)

Undead Fortitude. If damage reduces the zombie to 0 hit points, it must make a Constitution saving throw with a DC of 5 + the damage taken, unless the damage is radiant or from a critical hit. On a success, the zombie drops to 1 hit point instead.

Keen Sense. Horde Zombies have heightened sense of smell and hearing that add +2 to their perception and passive perception.

Horde Feed. For each Horde Zombie that has grappled a single opponent, the escape DC for the group grapple is increased by +2 (DC 14 for 2 zombies, DC 16 for 3 zombies, etc). However, a single successful escape action by the PC will break all Horde Zombie grapples on the grappled PC. Grappled creatures grant Advantage to the Horde Zombie's Bite attack.

Actions

Grab. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d6+2) bludgeon damage and target is grappled (escape DC 12, see Horde Feed). 

Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d8+2) piercing damage.  A Horde Zombie has Advantage on its Bite attack against a grappled opponent. May infect PC with Zombie Plague Rot Disease (optional - see below).

Tactics

A Horde Zombie's entire existential goal is to feed upon the living. As such, a Horde Zombie will attempt to first grab an opponent with its claw attack and feed upon the grappled opponent with its bite attack in subsequent rounds. A Horde Zombie may bite a target grappled by another zombie (or other creature) without first attempting the grap.

Zombie Plague Rot Disease (optional - updated 12/11)

When a player is infected by plague zombie rot, they must make a CON saving throw 8 hours after the initial infection and each day thereafter. On a failure, the PC takes a permanent 1d6 CON damage (with HP maximum permanently lowered accordingly) and 2 levels of exhaustion. (The new save is made using the adjusted CON score). Due to the nature of the disease, exhaustion may not be recovered while the PC is infected (except magically). After 3 failed saves, the PC dies and will rise as a Plague Zombie in 1d12 hours.

After 3 successful saves, the PC is healed of the disease, but still suffers the effects of the CON and HP loss. A Lesser Restoration spell will not automatically cure the disease, but may be used to grant the PC one automatic save toward recovery and heal 1 level of exhaustion. Three castings of the Lesser Restoration spell may be used to cure the disease, but does not restore lost CON or HP maximum. A Greater Restoration spell will cure the disease completely and restore the permanently lost CON and HP maximum.

OSR / D&D: Firing into Melee

In order to streamline D&D, rules like the penalty for firing missile weapons into melee were dropped in order to streamline combat.

However, for those of us who like some of the more simulationist aspects of D&D combat, some of those discarded rules are missed. Combat is chaotic. It should be hard to shoot an arrow at an opponent while avoiding hitting your allies when they are engaged in hand to hand combat.

Also, for those of us who like a little old school flavor, not only do we want it hard to shoot into combat, there should be a chance that you accidentally shoot your friend in the back!

Today, it came to me in a flash as I was looking at the Hackmaster rules. In Hackmaster, it's very dangerous to fire a missile weapon into an engaged combat. You are just as likely to hit friends as you are enemies. In Hackmaster, if you miss your intended target, your attack then targets every other creature in the vicinity until it hit one of them (or misses them all)

It occurred to me that D&D 5e has the perfect solution for this mechanic.

D&D 5e: Holding Actions (Delay) in 5th Edition

In order to better control the action economy during combat and speed things up, D&D 5th Edition streamlined actions that could be taken during combat. For the most part, this is a Really Good Thing because it eliminates much of the analysis paralysis that came with having a multitude of action types. However, one of the actions that was eliminated was the Delay which I believe could be re-introduced without the issues that accompanied it in older editions.

D&D 5e: Buckler Shields

+Tabletop Gaming with Juce  recently wrote a post about buckler shields. I liked his ideas, but in my opinion his mechanics made bucklers a little bit too useful for certain class builds. Here is a variation based on how I think buckler should work in D&D 5th Edition.

D&D 5e: Fixing Rapid Low Level Advancement

There has been a fair amount of discussion in the level advancement in D&D 5th Edition. One particular comment on Google+ that stood out to me is "Blink and you'll miss it." 

The comment was specifically noting that the early levels 1 through 3 fly by so quickly that you won't even notice before you are level 4. Even advancement through level 5 is fairly quick.

D&D 5e: Minions Rise Again!

In a previous article, I discussed a two-hit minion variant for both 4th and 5th Edition D&D. Today, I will take a step back to introduce the minion mechanic into the 5E rules. Although I reference 5e monsters and use the D&D stat blocks, the ideas in this article are equally applicable to any OSR system.

In 5th Edition, monsters have special traits that are denoted below the challenge rating in the stat blocks. Wizards of the Coast hasn't given an explicit name to this section of the stat block, but it corresponds to "Traits" in the 4th Edition monster stats, so I will use that nomenclature for now.

To correspond wth their 4E cousins, 5E minions have a trait that allows it to avoid damage unless it has been directly hit with an attack or a spell. They do not even take 1/2 damage where others normally would (one could tweaks this if it feels like too good of an advantage).

In terms of relative strength, I decided that a minion should not quite be as combat effective as its non-minion allies. This also roughly corresponds to the power tweaking minions get in 4th Edition D&D. If the normal creature is fairly strong or dexterous, I might step their attributes down by one level. Similarly, the grunt may not have quite as good armor as his full strength kin, so I might adjust his AC accordingly. EDIT: After some discussion, I lowered the XP from 50 to 25 for minions (25% of the original monster XP).

D&D 5e: Interrupts and Other Creative Ready Actions

There was a lot of good feedback from my last post on spell interrupts from +Wing Kearns, +Garrick Andrus, +Brian Barcus and others ... Enough so that I thought it was worth writing a follow-up article.

Please read the previous article to get the proper context for this follow up... Don't worry. I'll wait.

Getting back to my earlier example:

Ranger Rick: I'd like to Ready an action. I'm going to aim at the guy in robes, but wait until it appears he is casting a spell. Then I will shoot my bow.

DM: <Perception roll> The robed man notices you are aiming at him and ducks behind the altar (heavy cover). If you take the shot, you will be at Disadvantage. It sounds like he is casting.

Rick: Darn it. Well crap, I should take the shot anyway. <rolls Disadvantage> Arg!

D&D 5e: Spell Casting Interrupts

There's been some chatter on Google+ and the OSR blogs about spell casting interruption since 5th Edition now has a mechanic for interrupting spells which have a concentration component. Over at Semper Initiativus Unum, Wayne Rossi summarizes how different versions of D&D and other OSR games handle caster interruptions.

D&D 5e addresses the interruption of concentration spells, but inherent in its mechanics is a potential way to interrupt non-concentration spell casting using the Ready action. When a spell caster casts a 1-action spell, it is seemingly not interruptable with the rules as written. However, I believe the spirit of the rules allow for an interruption by using the reaction allowed by the Ready action.

D&D 5e: 0-level NPCs WIP

The D&D 5th Edition Dungeon Master's Guide will no doubt include all kinds of information on developing NPC's for a campaign... However, November is still a ways off and there are many of us currently playing a version of 5th Edition based on the most recent play test packets. If you haven't worked out your own house-rule mechanics for NPCs in D&D 5th Edition, I offer the following suggestions.