Digging Into the Monster Lists

This analysis refers to my own Monster table which I talk about in my previous post.

Here is a link to the Excel spreadsheet. It is definitely a work in progress, but most of the dungeon tables are done.

Does not appear on these random tables!

Mathematically, only about 3% of overland encounters will be with Men. This seems very low. So I think I will add in a preliminary roll for overland play: on 1d6, a result of 1 goes directly to the Men subtable (not to be confused with the Man-Type table which includes all the common Demi-men as well as some normal-type monsters.)

The Men subtable will have the several kinds of Men of course. That means 20% of overland encounters will be with bandits, brigands, dervishes, whatever.

This feels better to me. The world is strange but it should be a world of Men.

UPDATE: 

After hearing from some of the fellows in the several D&D-themed G+ groups, I think the proper number should be 1-3 on a d6, or just shy of 53% (plus the 3% from the proper monster tables.) Some fellows said higher and some lower, but they got me thinking about the right answer for me, and that's what I was hoping for. Thanks, guys!

That makes Men the creature of predominant number in the Realm and keeps things feeling a little more Medieval-fantasy and not weird fantasy. Nothing wrong with weird, but it's not what I'm going for.

Something else that just came to me is I want Cyclopes and Titans on my Giants subtable so I'm going to go do that too.

My Own Monster Manual

Wandering monsters.

Wouldn't you love it if there was a little book with all the tables laid out properly in order to get what you need to generate a spontaneous monster encounter, without flipping around to ten different pages? Boy howdy, I would!

A rust monster ate my monitor

Since I’m doing a DM screen, I want an easy way to roll up any ol’ random dungeon room. And that means, in part, rolling random encounters - on the fly. And that means having charts with all the key monster stats by environment all on one page.

The myriad Monster Manuals make for great reading and many of them are truly excellent works. However, none of them lend themselves to idiot-proof and time-efficient use at the table while you're running the game. There just ain't such an animal in dead-tree form.

THIS, I NEED

So I started by looking at how it’s done in B/X. That system is very similar to what I decided on for Treasure Hunters. In B/X, there are a couple of different procedures. 

First, dungeons. There are a couple is rolls to find the monster. The first to determine the correct table (roughly but not precisely corresponding to dungeon level), and then on the particular table to find the right monster. Then you have to go to the appropriate monster listing, generate the particulars, and then run it.

Overland is a little easier. Just roll on the appropriate table for the terrain. But again, there are at least six kinds of terrain, and more if you like to differentiate terrain more. The first roll tells you the category of monster (such as man-types or giants or dragons.) The second roll is on a table by monster type to give you the correct monster.

That’s a lot of information. Way more than you can put on a single panel on a DM screen!

The first thing I did was gather all the key info on all the monsters I want to use in one place and put it in a spreadsheet. Thanks to the excellent prep work of +Simon Bull, this was trivial.

It looks like this, only much longer.

The second thing I did was put together the master charts for dungeons. They're not laid out yet. But you can see them here:

Dungeons' Master Charts

The third thing I did was make up charts for overland monsters; first by terrain type and then by monster category. I used the same method that +Michael Thomas did in his his excellent BLUEHOLME rules.

Overland Master Charts

The next step, which I'm working on now, is to lay out one page for each of the dungeon levels and terrain types with the key monster stats for each one on its own page. Then I can make a note on the master charts which page to turn to in order to generate the specific encounter. For instance, here's Dungeon Chart 1:

I can then put the page number where it appears next to the correct listing on the Master Chart.

The only thing I've not decided on is how to generate NPCs. 

I think NPCs will have to come from their own section because each one is more than a stat block - he has spells and magic items, too, and these need to be recorded in longer form. Additionally, high-level parties will have their own henchmen and hench-animals to record.

So my sense is that one page (or more) will be devoted to detailing an entire NPC party, in order of appearance. In a practicum I did last year, it takes 15-20 minutes to generate even a bare bones NPC party (without spells), so it's not something you can really do on the fly. I will use the rules in B/X to generate them and record them in the book as well in their own section.

Sine this is just for me and not something I intend to sell or give away, I won't add art or worry too much about layout and formatting. It's an interesting problem and I'm enjoying tackling it, slowly but deliberately.

The Order of the Brass Dragon

My son, Nate, plays a hobbit who is a member of the Order of the Brass Dragon. It's very mysterious and people seem to take him more seriously because of it. The secret is that his local pub is called The Brass Dragon and the Order is his darts team.

Here are a couple of items he has commissioned to enhance his mystique.

Ring

Bracer

What kind of cool backstory elements have you seen?

Making a DM's Screen Part 2

You can find Part One here. 

This is a link to the Excel workbook where all the charts reside.

When last we left our DM's screen, we had decided that there would be one DM-side panel that is permanent. Here it is:

Here is the PDF file.

Here is the Word file.

Now I started to lay out the player's side. The first panel, one that goes sort of in the middle, will be the basic info: Attack matrix, Save matrix, and the steps for Exploration Turns, Combat Rounds, and Wilderness Days.

Here is the PDF file.

Here is the Word file.

The next panel will begin the listing of all the common equipment that will be available in the village or little town. All the stuff adventurers might need (as opposed to want, which might only be available in the Big City.

Panel 2 has adventuring equipment, transport, and tack and harness.

Here is the PDF file.

Here is the Word file.

Panel 3 has arms and armor. 

Here is the PDF file.

Here is the Word file.

I have a terrible sense of color, so maybe someone can suggest to me what colors to use for these panels?

There is a 4th panel for the player's side, but I haven't decided what to put on it yet. It has one item so far: an Alchemical Items shopping list.  

Here is the Word file for reference. It is not done. When it is done, this link will lead to it.

So those are the four panels that go on the player side!

In the next few days, I'll take some pictures of the physical prop as I construct it and give a step by step actual build report.

Making a DM's Screen Part 1

Something like this.

After all these years of reffing without one, I'm going to try out using a DM screen. Here's why.

I've been playing in Steve's game. He has used a DM's screen. What I like about it is that there are vertical surfaces for him to clip things to, and he can hide the map from us. I think this makes him a better DM. 

And when I ref for my son and daughter and their friends, I feel like I'm a little scatterbrained even though I've boiled the rules down to where I can keep them all in my head. Additionally, I would like to provide the info to the players that they need but is not on their sheets.

I like the vertical surfaces, both ref-facing and player-facing, for these reasons.

So what do I put on my DM screen?

The first decision to make is, should it have three panels or four? Or more? Or less? So let's work through that.

DM Side Panel 1:

• Monsters Attack Roll Matrix
• Characters Attack Roll Matrix
• Saving Throw Matrix
• Exploration Turn Steps
• Combat Round Steps
• Wilderness Day Steps
• Quick Reference for a couple of rules that come up all the time
• Wilderness Table: Encounter Chance, Lost Chance, and Mounted Travel Distance per day versus Terrain Type

Luckily, all this can fit on one panel. And with the marvels of modern desktop publishing, even a duffer like me can make it look presentable.

Here's a link to the PDF.
Here's a link to the Word file.

The other panels on the DM's side will be modular. 

DM's Side Panel 2: The map

DM's Side Panel 3: The key

DM's Side Panel 4: Wandering monsters by dungeon level; wandering monsters for the terrain outside the dungeon.

So, that's four panels. Cool. 

I've also decided to do them portrait-layout, but I don't know if that's the right way to do it. I may end up doing 4 12" by 12" panels so I can lay things out portrait or landscape as necessary.

Now I know I have four panels to work with on the Players' Side too. What do I want to show them?

The first thing is that the charts I show them must be larger so that they are legible 6-8 feet away. The fonts need to be bigger.

Player's Side Panel 1: Let's keep the same pattern as we did for the DM's side. Panel 1 for the players needs less info. 

• Characters Attack Roll Matrix
• Characters Saving Throw Matrix
• Exploration Turn Steps
• Combat Round Steps
• Wilderness Day Steps

Here's a link to the PDF.
Here's a link to the Word file.

Player's Side Panel 2:

• Adventuring Equipment
• Armor and Shields
• Weaponry

This might actually have to be two panels. There's a lot of stuff to buy in town. I want to keep the stuff you can only buy in a city separate, and only give that as a handout when they get into The Big City. This includes exotic mounts, warships, and most alchemy items. 

I haven't worked all that out yet either.

However, here is a link to the Excel spreadsheet I am using to lay out all the charts. Maybe they will be of use to you. I will update this spreadsheet while I work on it.

In the next few days, I will share with you the several panels on the players side. I will lay out a generic wandering monster table for the dungeon, per Holmes. I think he did a good job with that.

I am interested in seeing example wandering monster tables for the several terrain types. Do you have any that you've made up, or can you direct us to where we might see the ones you took for your home game?

Odo, Commanding

In which Imogene is reunited with the fair Bishop Odo.

Atop the room, enchanting up some waiting ladies there whilst perching on the throne, was Bishop Odo of Bayeux. His face was wry and puffed it just a soche. His teeth where wrought of ivory and ghostfire light a-shining. His eyes of blue were like October skies, they twinkled up so; always were they light and smiling. His nose were long and manly. His chin, clean-shaven, were it manly too, and had it an adorable scau^[1] dimple in the middle of the thing. His hair was thick short, and colored like the richest earth, and had it but a little hint of curl to it. Even when beheld he of a man or child he right in the eye, he did appeareth to look up to precious Heaven with great optimism and delight. His shoulders, were they broad, and hips were narrow, and his calf was turned quite pleasingly as well.

Wore the Bishop of a simple cowl and habit, made it of the finest linen white and red; withunder, hose of white, and boots of red with silver buckle, bistered down to sable, on the mat. Wore he only two adornments: one, his simple signet ring of station, in the place a wedding band might be; and two, a large but simple wooden cross, washèd it to white, and marked with “Για τον Ιησού”^[2] be writ in gold, from ancient Greek to read.  He saw his co-conspiratress, and rose away from present company. A sunbeam fell across his face, and showed his happy visage evident.

“What gentle zephyr blows it open through the gate? How fair, the Elanora’s Falcon in the summer sun, she golden under wing, from Brittany she flies to me!” He glid across the room, he holding hands clasped o’er his joyful breast, and took up in his hands her own. Drew his breath and close in to her ear, “But naught’s the nights I’ve passed, perchance to liken up belike you weres’t with me, beneath the light of fair Selene upon your milken cheek. Within mine’s mind, woulds’t harken me your voice as I recall it. It’s been so long, my passerine; my raptor of the Duke.”

Imogen were flushed right then and grinning like a hound with marrow-bone to chew. “My holy Father, Odo, has it been so arduous a fortnight since? Pray tell, lord, have your nights been filled with firm and vigorous reclasion?^[3] Hath time been bleak and painful to your carriage? Dost thou melancholy up, but then to slake upon my memory? For you make betoken surely of the plainness of your hardship, hold it close and firmly, bitterly you mark your struggle up against it, ere the time we were apart.”

“The muse, she comes and goes, and she alights for momentary, and away. Away, she damns. For nary can the heart, of muse, demand. And here, she has returned and lit again upon my hand. My Imogene!”

Imogene took back and blushed again, and then reported to the Bishop of Bayeux, “For master, scabarous and some wearisome my ride to Maine and fro again. But hath this trip upon some worth, for I’ve collected up a sergeant of some prospect for our pretty war!”

Odo’s eyes befell upon the bastard girl, she chatting up the men, her marks of five, at hazard dice a-playing. “My brother said that it would be a girl.”

“Look closer, Odo, for our William spaketh true. See the turn of hip? She woman, this is true. Even now, she blooms.”

Odo squinted, made he up a show, but were he drinking up her springtime flowering anon. Nary did his hands relent in holding close to Imogen. Presently, he turned his fair reflection back to Imogen. “You’re right! That woman be! She young? Perhaps thirteen?”

“Aye, thirteen.”

“And she a sergeant fit for stripes, to run a company in valor time? Forgive me as I balk, my falconette. Besatisfy my inquisition on this matter. How?”

---

[1] Scau-- Miniature, small

[2] Για τον Ιησού : For Jesus

[3] Reclasion -- Remembering

A Scau Spotted Doe

Medieval monks often doodled rabbits and snails
in the margins of manuscripts.

A short fiction. Apologies to you if you were looking for gamable content!

GUYTONNET did mind the coneygarth, the home to rabbits was it be. Fed the rabbits, he, and cleaned the coneygarth, bringing all the rabbit shit and mess to compost there behind the second barn, the one that’s painted grey. His secret joy, with rabbits did he linger after that. He then returned, and stroked the doe that he had named Biche-Tachetée[1] (for she was brown with adorable white spots.) She was his pet and he’d be sorely gutted when to kill, to clean and dress her when her time became; but she would be delicious nonetheless.

In these three ages of the life this handsome doe, did Guytonnet did reflect upon the days and nights and seasons of the World, and the birth and death a man, and the rise and fall of kings and even nations. Rise and fall, did all these things to do.

Only God Eternal be.

Today would be the Service of eld St. Addai, he of Edessa were. He was a faithful servant of Our Lord, He Jesus Christ whilst Christ was still a man who trode the World. This were a thousand years ago! There in Edessa, ere the goodly king who was named Abgar, had he fallen ill with horrid malady; the Scriptures don’t record its name. Abgar sent his messenger to St. Thomas begging for Lord Jesus to come heal him. Jesus could not be spared, but he vested into St. Addai the power to heal sick and feeble men. Addai did heal King Abgar, also called Abgar the Black, and Abgar was overcome by the miracle. Then and there did Abgar convert to Christianity and his people likewise converted when they heard about the miracle St. Addai had performed with the power of Lord Jesus.

In those days, there were many great miracles that did inspire men around the realm to convert to love and fear of Christ. But in our days there are miracles as well, Father did he shew. An instance close at hand is that the simple rabbit in the coneygarth: She creates the fertile earth, to feed the case of men. She dost provide good counsel to the heart while she does breathe. She, when she in good season, issues forth a myriad of kits to bring her linage to forth. And in her noble end, she does make a hasenpfeffer dish with leafy dress to satisfy a king, and feed the men again. And all these things did God put upon the Earth for Adam and his issue to enjoy.

Multiplying out these miracles of life and death and of the time and season, Guytonnet could scarcely understand how anyone across Creation coulds’t deny the Lord our God His due. These miracles, of petty scale but great repeatability, were easily a measure of eld St. Addai’s great work!

Guytonnet, already on his knees, he offered up a quiet prayer: “Lord Jesus, help me recognize that all my life’s miraculous, and me help appreciating You in every detail of every moment in all my earthly days. Amen.”

Were there but the will that Guytonnet could bring the Word to pagans overseas, he might take up on it! So it this he mused, over Biche-Tachetée, as morning grew about them there within the coneygarth. Perhaps this was the head-strong hubris of Guytonnet’s insouciant youth? Perhaps, however, did he feel a Hand of greater power than his own come thereupon his own ears as his own hand fell on the doe’s.

Lord Jesus did himself admonish his: no miracle exists that independently can call a man to God. No miracle can turn the mind or heart of nonbelievers. For even miracles require Faith in God. That’s true. Nor does true Faith in God require’st miracles to see it grow anew.

Even so, the Church and Lord require of each man to shew his faith abroad through the good he do: Temp’rance, Wisdom, Good Cheer, Humility, Love of Life and Altruism are the marks of Benedict. Faith alone shall get thee but to Peter; Good Works are require’st to get thee into Heaven.

---

[1] Spotted Doe

Miracle Man for the Welsh Marches

When I thought up this kind of person for Welsh Marches, I was thinking of Miracle Max from The Princess Bride movie. 

A Miracle Man (or Wise Woman)  is a strange foreign person who comes from a tradition other than pagan, Cymric and Christian. Someone who might be from the Levant, the Orient, or darkest Africa. He has different secrets and wonders to share.

This kind of person doesn't get his powers from God, but rather from the secret knowledge of his people and traditions. He is a very foreign person in this time and place and usually keeps to himself. He does not get on well in Christian society due to fear and superstition about people who are different. But unlike a Monk or other holy man, his miracles can be purchased for money.

Furthermore, many of these miracles are not available immediately. It takes one day for the miracle worker to prepare them. They usually come in the form of a device or medicine, such as a pill or elixir, or involve some sort of surgery. They might even be put into single-use magic items that the PCs can use when the time is right.

The weapons allowed to a miracle man vary by cultural background. Any cultural background you develop should reflect the realm the miracle man comes from.

Here are the Wonders a miracle man can perform.

Here are some sample backgrounds and their associated Virtues and Vices. You are welcome to change these to better reflect your concept of peoples and cultures or invent your own. The main thing is that they should reflect a culture which is alien to Christendom of the early Middle Ages. This reflects the inherent distrust and superstitious nature of people from most every culture at this time.

Note that in this case, Oriental refers to people from the Near East rather than Asia. If you wish, you could make up an Asian miracle man or even one from the New World or Australia who somehow got back to Europe.

This should be an NPC class - it's not balanced in the same way as a Holmes Monk is. He can conceivably mass-produce magic items, which is a bad idea for a PC character, along with having all the abilities of a normal Monk.

Oh My Glob Would You Just Listen!

This is going to be kind of disjointed. It’s not really an essay. Just collecting thoughts. 

So many modules have missed the mark, and continue to miss the mark, because it’s impossible to write down what’s really good about D&D in a module! The magic that happens at the table requires some minimum amount of planning and structure, which a map and a key can give. But the magic part of D&D that keeps us coming back? You can't write that down and sell it. It's gotta just happen. It comes from the table interactions and from what’s inside us. 

I just read a really cool essay over on the Classic RPG Realms blog here. One thing I learned (or re-learned I think) is, Dave Arneson left thousands of pages of notes and documents which he created over the years. They’re a mess and not a lot has come from them. The real magic was inside his head and it stayed in there. 

Even - and I feel like such a heretic saying this - even Supplement II was really a huge mess. It was bad. I love Arnesonian D&D, but Supplement II was the pits.

Anyway.

Things don’t necessarily have to make complete sense to the referee when he plans the adventure and brings it to the several players. The players will make sense of things and follow the leads the ref didn’t even know were there. The ref will come up with fun stuff on the spot. Everyone will.

New conclusion I just thought of: therefore I would say that one of the skills of a great DM is he LISTENS TO HIS FELLOWS, and HAS A CONVERSATION INSTEAD OF A LECTURE, and puts the building blocks down for the several players to use to build their world. He says “yes, and...” far more than “no, no, no.” This has probably always been obvious to you but it just hit me. 

As for my own reffing style...

Like this, but with more explosions

...I have tried to reduce the mechanics down to almost board game simplicity without losing the essential elements that make D what it is. That way I can use my brain’s remaining computing power to play make-pretend at the table.

I’ve never played a campaign that was memorable because of what was planned. They’re all memorable because of what was spontaneous. All the best moments are unscripted and impossible to script.

But that means the players have to be thinking and creating too. They can't just be content tourists, like they're playing the single-player story in a video game. They gotta work at it, too.

Here are two ways that I encourage people to be active, to think, to bring ideas to me while we're at the table.

1) No thieves. Why is this a part of that? It means that everyone is trying thief stuff instead of just rolling percentile dice. It means they are imagining and asking questions - questions maybe I didn’t think of! That way we build the world together. 

2) I assume general competence among adventurous types and I tell them so. So they’re always trying new stuff regardless of whether their character has the skill written down or whatever. They also think up fun new gear to bring and new uses for that gear. 

These two elements get players thinking about what they themselves bring to the environment. And then thinking about it leads to actually bringing new things. 

What other ways can you think up to help make refereeing a game into a two-way conversation?

Holmes-Style Monks of Different Traditions

Hard at Work

I'm working on this Welsh Marches setting for OSR D&D which I would make compatible with my Mythical Journeys game, and it's starting to come together in my head. The setting is the borderlands between England and Wales in the aftermath of the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

Here are some of the ideas I have had about this setting.

• I want Druids. If Merlin had a character class, it would be Druid. And he was from Wales. You can even go to the town where he was born.
• I want it to be low-magic without a bunch of crazy miracle workers running around. At most 1-2 spell casters per party and none necessary.
• The same characters can do both military campaigns and dungeoneering.
• The story should be dynastic and generational and capture the broad sweep of history in the 11th to 13th century in England and Wales.

A lot of these ideas are coming together in my head as I discover or develop associated mechanics.

Thanks to Father Dave and some inspiration from commentor Starbeard this last week, I had the idea of a Holmes style Monk who does simple miracles rather than spells. You can see the base Monk class I developed here.

By re-skinning the class and changing the Wonders he can do, I've developed a number of different shaman-style classes from various cultures you might find in the realm. 

The first thing is that I'm nicking the Pendragon system for Virtues and Vices. I think this is a great system for enforcing the cultural norms and traditions of different cultures and making culture matter.

Click to Enlarge

Once you have this, then you can switch out the Wonders to make them line up with the appropriate culture.

In this setting, the Outlaws (those who have been removed from society by decree) end up acting a lot like Pagans because they are allies against the civilized peoples. Therefore I grouped Outlaw monks and Druids together even though they are coming from different racial stock.

Here are the different kinds of Monks I have come up with, with their spell lists. 

Click to Enlarge

Furthermore, the skins will change slightly to differentiate the several holy men a little more.

Roman are Roman Catholic Monks - clergymen who have been ordained and take their orders from Rome (Or Canterbury) rather than an Abbot in the countryside or directly from God. They are allowed to use the Mace, Lucerne Hammer (a bludgeoning pole arm) and Sling.

Pagan Tradition has Outlaw Monks and Druids. Outlaws use the Quarterstaff, Guissarme and Bow (the best weapon selection overall.) Druids use the Quarterstaff, Dagger, and Spear.

Additionally, Outlaw Monks are always Chaotic and Druids are always Neutral. Both kinds are arrested on sight and usually sent to the gallows to put on a thrilling show for the peasantry.

Brthonic Tradition Monks are called Shamans. They use the Spear and Hand Axe and fight in a similar manner to other Saxon and Pictish warriors.

Holmes-Style Priests for the Welsh Marches

Usual caveat: posting on my phone. Will make big improvements to this post going forward.

Update: very busy day. Family dominated computer time. Usually I would post now but I have to be up early. Will update tomorrow.

In the Holmes Monk comment section, Starbeard made an observation that is such genius, it’s completely obvious in hindsight. You ever see that happen? The kind of thing that makes you smack your head and wonder how you didn’t see it before? Well, Starbeard made me smack my head.

His take is that you can totally change the Monk around by changing the spell-like effects on his Wonders table. It’s very true!

So #1, I’m going to fix the AC bonus progression to favor the Monk a little more.

#2, I’m going to give him a conditional Smite ability to go along with his Guided Hand.

But the big #3, and thank you Starbeard, is that I can use this chassis to make up the holy men from the several cultures in the Welsh Marches setting!

A Druid, a Monk, a Saxon shaman, and even a couple of different types of Christian monks - one from each estate and one from the outlaw background.

This feels awesome and I owe it to a Starbeard. Thanks!

I’ll present the spell lists and skins for the monks as I make them. It will be soon.


Also: stay tuned for the Thief-type for this setting, which I will present shortly as well. It’s called the Rat-Catcher. It’s based on a concept by Simon Bull who did Delving Deeper.

OSR Class: Holmes-Style Monk

A fun coincidence: I have been thinking a lot about medieval monks, and so has Father Dave over on his blog.

Based on discourse he has begun on his blog, Blood of Prokopius, (which I recommend,) I connected the dots he laid out to create a different kind of Monk class. This Monk is informed largely by content from Holmes D&D and B/X D&D rather than that in 0e and in later editions. As such, it relies on a re-imagining of the Turn Undead table in place of spellcasting.

This class is strictly inferior to the Cleric class in many ways, but it also has a favorable XP progression. The concept is part Friar Tuck and part Cadfael. It could be re-skinned as an Eastern-style monk as well.

If you intend to play in a low-magic campaign or if you otherwise don't like the idea of a traditional Cleric, this might be a good choice for you to try out.

Here is a link to the Word file

Here is a link to the PDF

Here is a link to the XLS file

Here is the text of the class:

The Monk

A Monk is a holy warrior who uses his faith in God to explore the realm and to make it safe and sound for Men and their allies. He cannot use any weapon with a point or edge, for he has taken an oath against causing excess bloodshed. Furthermore, since he owes his strength to a higher power of some kind, he must act within the Lawful alignment, or be sanctioned in some way by that higher power. This means he must work on behalf of Mankind and its allies whenever appropriate. On the other hand, his faith in God protects him from attacks, lowering his Armor Class while unarmored and he performs special, powerful miracles called Wonders.

These are not always priests, but rather special individuals from inside and outside the Church who receive— and answer, a special calling from God. A monk is infused with God’s power in order to undertake great and necessary tasks here in the mortal realm such bringing succor to remote communities, solving mysteries, questing for holy relics, and assisting pilgrims.

The Prime Requisite of the Monk is Wisdom. He uses the Cleric’s Attack and Saving Throw charts.

Arms & Armor: The Monk may use Leather armor and carry a shield, but doing so negates his natural Armor Class bonus. He may wear a helm without penalty. He may use the following weapons: Quarterstaff, Footman’s Flail, Club and Sling.

Magic Items: The Monk may use any magic items available to the Cleric, so long as they are not kinds of magical weapons or armor they are forbidden to use. He may read Cleric scrolls, but not write them.

The Monk’s Class Abilities:

Wonder Working: Monks have the powerful ability to perform special actions called Wonders. As the Monk gains experience levels, he will be able to perform more kinds of Wonders.

Wonders have effects that are identical to spells cast by Clerics, or Magic-Users and Elves, but they are not spells.  Rather, they are extraordinary abilities. Anti-magic and Dispel Magic do not work against these Wonders, and they cannot be disrupted by hit point damage like a spell can when it is being cast. Use the spell descriptions to adjudicate these Wonders.

In order to work a Wonder, the Monk rolls 2d6. The Wonder works if this number meets or exceeds the target number for the Wonder in question (see Table 2.) More powerful Wonders are available at higher experience levels, and the ones granted become easier to use.

The Monk may attempt to work a Wonder once per Turn (10 minutes.) He may use each Wonder once per day. If the Monk attempts to work a Wonder and is unsuccessful, he may attempt to work the same Wonder later in the same day until it is successful.

Monks require some object of religious significance like a mirror, a cross or other holy symbol to use their Wonder ability; but the power to it is invested in he himself and not the object.

The Guided Hand: A Monk may substitute his Wisdom score for his Dexterity score at any time.

Smite: Starting at Level four the Monk may attempt to Smite. Three times per day, the Monk may make a special attack. This attack must be declared prior to rolling the attack roll. This attack gains a +4 to hit that stacks with any other bonuses, and deals double damage if it hits.

Armor of God: A Monk is a special creature, watched over by God. He has a naturally better Armor Class than other characters and that Armor Class gets better as he gains experience levels. However, if he wears armor or uses a shield, that bonus goes away.

Monster Hunting: Upon encountering a kind of monster for the first time, the Monk may make an Intelligence check on 1d20 to see if he has learned something about it in his catechism or travels.

Read Languages: The Monk has a 10% chance per experience level to read any non-magical writing. At level 8, he gains the ability to use Magic-User and Elf scrolls.

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