Gamer ADD: Fiend Folio Part 7

Wandering Monster Table Level 1

Among the other members of The International League of Fiend Foliasts, Chris of Vaults of Nagoh has already done an analysis of the Wandering Monster Tables (WMT) in the FF. I am not here to duplicate his work, rather I want to refashion the WMTs of Moldvay’s Basic Edition using FF monsters.

Thus, let us take a look at the WMT for Level 1 in Moldvay. For purposes of this analysis, I am categorizing the entries rather than listing specific monsters. The number in paranthesis is the HD of the creature and an asterisk indicates a special ability (such as poison):

1. human (1)
2. human (1)
3. Insect (1+2)
4. demi-human (1)
5. demi-human (1)
6. humanoid (1-1)
7. slime/ooze (2*)
8. demi-human (1-1)
9. insect (.5*)
10. humanoid (.5)
11. reptile (3+1)
12. humanoid (1)
13. mammal (2)
14. undead (1)
15. reptile (1*)
16. insect (2*)
17. fey (.5*)
18. flyer (1*)
19. human (1)
20. mammal (2+2)

It is actually quite surprising how easy it is to find a number of choices to fill many of these categories. In particular, flyers and humanoids with similar HD are in abundance; however, creativity is necessary in order to fill the human and demi-human slots since the FF has no entries for humans (no bandits, berserkers, traders, etc.) or traditional demi-humans (only drow and svirfneblin). I am going to take a page from Holmes here, and place classes for each of the human slots using level titles. For the demi-human slots, I will use my substitute demi-human race-as-class examples here. The biggest problem is the slime/ooze slot. All the various creatures in the FF that qualify for this category have much higher HD. If, however, one considers a slime/ooze to be akin to a plant, I figure a Yellow Musk Zombie could be an interesting substitute.

The result of this scheme might look like this (again, the number in parenthesis is HD and an asterisk is a special ability like poison):

1. Seer (2nd level MU)
2. Veteran (1st level fighter)
3. Assassin Bug (1+1)
4. Dakon (1+1)
5. Kenku (2)
6. Xvart (1-1)
7. Yellow Musk Zombie (2)
8. Quaggoth (1+2)
9. Goldbug (1*)
10. Jermlaine (.5)
11. Jaculi (1)
12. Bullywug (1)
13. Witherstench (2+2*)
14. Coffer Corpse (2*)
15. Iron Cobra (1*)
16. Garbug (2+2*)
17. Snyad (1-1)
18. Giant Bat (.5)
19. Footpad (2nd level thief)
20. Death Dog (2+1)

Overall, I think this list is a tad more frightening that the one found in Moldvay (one is more likely to get poisoned, ambushed, used as a reproductive host and/or have your treasure stolen). Running away must necessarily be part of an adventuring party’s repertoire (not a bad thing, actually).

Interestingly, though, there is a weird kind of bio-diversity here that seems absent in Moldvay. Whereas the WMT of Molday seems to yield goblinoids and giant animals, this FF Basic Edition WMT yields a wide variety of things — carnivorous plants, constructs and Chaos-touched animals as well as goblinoids and giant animals. I am very tempted to find me a map and roll me up some encounters to see just what kind of an ecology this WMT produces...