Morpheus Unbound |  House Rules |  D&D

In August 2004 I met with some friends at our local game store to play out regular game sessions.  Unfortunately, the game had just fallen apart when the GM and his player wife split.  So, we had three players total and I was really in the mood for a game. So, naturally, I volunteered to GM.  Out local game store has some fantastic diorama pieces for wargaming.  And Rhiannon does some gorgeous paint jobs on her metal minis, so I convinced Rhi and Aubrey to do a pick-up minis game with 7th-level PCs.  Aubrey hasn't played much, so she used her Ftr2 from our regular game and a Sor7 I had in one of my notebooks.  Rhiannon has played a lot and jotted down some notes for some of her 7th-level PCs that had been left at home (Clr7 and I think the other was Rgr7).  So, my players were ready, now I needed to get ready.

Now, I do not own the 3.5 books, I use the RSRD. I have printed*some* of the monster pages, and had those with me that night.  My "story" called for an evil conjurer who had moved into the area, summoned some minions, and set himself up as the local bully-lord extorting resources from the populace.  The poor villagers recruited the PCs to drive the wizard away.

I raided Rhi's box of minis and found some

• fearsome "lizard-man" like figs, that became "spell support dudes",
• some small dinosaur like figs that became "tracker lizards",
• a couple ugly giants that became "elite thugs" (I had originally planned to opportunistically use some Warhammer 40K figs I found under the table, thinking they were also provided by the store, but apparently the owner of the figs came by while I took a bathroom break and removed them from the table *shrug*)
• a half-dozen humanoid adventurer types that became "thugs",
• and a wizard-like fellow that became my criminal mastermind "Vaysh Valmoth" (looking back, IIRC "Vaysh" is a name from the Storm Constantine book "Wraethu" (I like to give credit where due when I borrow ideas))

The "spell support dudes" -- lizard-man-like figs -- used the hell hound stat block, and because the figs had that "I'm a spell-caster" pointy-finger thing going and I knew my villains needed some magic power, I gave them spell-like abilities:  3x/day - burning hands, cure moderate wounds, dispel magic, fireball, magic missile, dispel magic. Caster level Sor5.  Int 11, Cha 13. I added the skills Concentration +5, Handle Animal (for the tracker lizards) +5 and Spellcraft +5. I have not bothered to review their skill ranks, but I probably will when I actually make time to write them up as full creatures and port them to my campaign setting.  These guys are not all that tough by themselves (28 hp), but they did their job as spell support extremely well keeping themselves alive (cure wounds), softening their foes (fireball after the tracker lizards engaged in melee) and notifying the other villain groups that the PCs were in the area (message).

The small dinosaur figs became "tracker lizards".  The used the stats of crocodiles with the additions of Fire Resistance 15, Fast Healing 1, and Scent. 

The "thugs" have stats:  Medium Humanoid (human), Ftr2, Rog2, AC 17 (+6 armor, +1 Dex) (banded mail, I think, since I didn't record that detail), All stats 14, Atk (+1 masterwork weapon, +2 ability score, +3 BAB, weapon focus), +7 melee (damage as whatever weapon the fig was holding +2 for Str), Atk +7 ranged (1d4+2 dart), skills all at +3, HP 24, HD 2d10+2d6+8, Fort +5, Ref +5, Will +2, evasion, sneak attack +1d6, MV 20 ft.  I could actually have gotten by with even less info than this as the PCs' Sor7 made really short work of them with repeated fireballs.

The "elite thugs" have stats:  Str 20, Dex 14, Con 20, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 10. Medium Giant, HD 7d8+35, HP 50, Move 30 ft, fly 60 ft, Fort +8, Ref +4, Will +4, Resistance Fire 5, Cold 5, Electricty 5.  Atk +11 melee (adamantine bastard sword).  AC 21 (+8 armor, +1 Dex, +1 natural, +1 deflection) (full plate and natural force field or something). As these were originally intended to be represented by WH40K figs, they had flight (jet packs) and deflection (personal magnetic bottle force field or whatever) and I left the stats when the figs changed because it made it interesting.

As I was in a hurry, the "wizard" was represented by Hound Archon stats, the same spell-like abilities of the "spell support dudes", HP 60, summon monster III at will, Fast Healing 2, and DR 10/good.

Naturally the PCs won and drove off the wizard.  In the end, the PCs killed all the minions and the villain teleported away to return another day. (That and I was in a rush to get out the door because it was late at night.)