Wherein your humble scribe presents a new monster for Swords & Wizardry (Core Rules), the Pyroceros.
A Pyroceros looks much like a normal rhinoceros, except that its horn is composed of a powerful, ever-burning magical blue flame. Strikes by this horn have a 50% chance of igniting any flammable material worn by the unlucky victim. Characters wearing or holding an ignited item will suffer an additional 1d6 damage from the burning for 1d4 rounds or until they rid themselves of the burning material.
Pyroceros: HD 9; AC 4 [15]; Atk 1 flame horn (3d6) or 2 trample (2d4/2d4); Move 12; Save 6; CL/XP 11/1700; Special: only take half damage from fire-based attacks, burning damage continues after successful horn attack.
Neat concept! You could let the beast shoot the flame 30’twice a day or so to soften up potential danger as well. I can see a nasty blast (oh, man, or an exploding fireball landing amidst the adventurers) causing a little mayhem. They will appreciate all “mundane” creatures from then on, especially if that flame isn’t overly obvious.
I considered having that kind of power for it, but I decided I wanted this one to be a bit more low key. That makes a great variation, though!
Hmmm, could even be BoL foe, methinks…
Fits in pretty well.
Oh by the way, I finally wrote that frank frazetta column too. I tip my hat to Conan Pizza
Hey, Gobbo (can I call you Gobbo?)! Yep, I definitely had BoL/S&S type stuff in mind when designing this one. Actually, I’d like to think that most of my S&W Bestiary designs could slide right over into BoL. Well, maybe not the Coineater, but everything else should work pretty well 🙂
Cool on the Frazetta article. Slide me a link if it’s online, I’d love to read it.
I think the Coineater would fit in very, very well in BoL – I’m actually thinking of putting together a BoL-esque setting complete with elves, dwarves and orcs, in addition to writing a Mechwarrior campaign for my regular Battletech group and thinknig over ideas for a Firefly/Traveller style game.
You can call me Gobbo anytime mate – my wife often refers to me as a Hobgoblin…
You, sir, are a busy busy man. And if the Coineater works for you, all the better! It definitely feels like a D&D monster to me in ways that some of my others don’t. But then again, that’s just subjective 🙂
Right on, Gobbo!