Friday, October 15, 2010

Really Old School Monster

Taking a small break from Castlevania monsters to bring you one of the oldest of old school video game monsters, for D&D:

Many of you are, like me, old enough to remember this guy.  What a pain in the butt he was!

Robber Bat *
Armor Class: 4 (16)
Hit Dice: 2*
Move: Fly 150 (50)
Attacks: 1 grab
Damage: nil, see below
No. Appearing: 1 (1-4)
Save As: Fighter 1
Morale: 6
Treasure Type: Special
Alignment: Neutral
XP: 25
Robber Bats are nasty pests that tend to follow adventurers in order to steal their loot.  They have large black bodies, with a 10' wing span.  Normally encountered singly in dungeons, they do not attack adventurers to kill them, but instead attempt to steal magic items or treasure.  If they hit an opponent in combat, instead of dealing damage, their inherent magic causes the most powerful magic item the target possesses (or most valuable non-magical item if no magic items are carried) to be drawn to the Robber Bat, who then flies away at top speed and drops the item in a random location.
There are rumors that adventurers with nothing of value have been picked up by the beasts and dropped in random dangerous locations. 
Robber Bats are not particularly powerful, but magic weapons or spells are needed to damage one.

5 comments:

  1. Sweet! I hated that friggin' bat! Gonna do giant dungeon ducks next?

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  2. Like it! Helps explains the weird places in dungeons that treasure ends up in...

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  3. I really like this.

    Sort of along the lines of pesky dungeon critters (like the rust monster or carrion crawler) that are not lethal but fit a niche.

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  4. Loved that game. Hated that bat.

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  5. I would like to note that the Carrion Crawler is obscenely lethal.

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