Let’s Convert the Fiend Folio: Disenchanter and Doombat

In Dungeons & Dragons and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, magic items were pretty common. That trend has not abated with Wizards of the Coast acquiring the brand. The Disenchanter was a direct response to this – it could remove some of those magic items from a group that lit up like a Christmas tree whenever detect magic was cast.

It was also, let’s face it, the ultimate “Fuck You” monster that Dungeon Masters could throw at their players. All that stuff you amassed over the last several months or years of game play? Now it’s gone. Using this monster could get you lynched. Most Dungeon Crawl Classics characters have fewer magic bits and pieces as a general rule, and are even less likely to be enamored of a judge using this creature. On the other hand, “easy come, easy go” is a real thing in DCC, and DCC is not balanced (usually) on the basis of equipment. Monsters break the rules, and perhaps a Disenchanter is what your adventure needs! Also, my first published adventure for this game included a monster that could pull out your skeleton, leaving you alive but boneless. Compared to losing a scroll, potion, or sword, the Disenchanter seems tame.

So, those are the pros and cons of using the Disenchanter. I’ve tried to make a conversion that works with DCC.

The Doombat should be quite a bit easier to slot into an adventure. On the other hand, it may offer your players significantly less shock and dismay.

 

 

Disenchanter

Disenchanter: Init +4; Atk Snout (special); AC 15; HD 5d8+5; MV 30’; Act 1d20; SP Disenchant, detect magic, magic immunity, immortality; SV Fort +3, Ref +4, Will +5; AL N.

The disenchanter – and some sages speculate there is only one such creature in existence, despite claims by some to have encountered two at the same time – appears like a pale, slightly translucent dromedary, spindly in build and electric blue in hue, with a long, flexible snout. It can extend this muscular protuberance as far as 5 feet, seeking to bring it into contact with magic items of all types. Any magic item the snout touches instantly and permanently loses its magical dweomers – this is how the creature feeds.

The disenchanter can sense a confluence of magic from a great distance; the limits of this ability have never been tested. It can consume ongoing spell effects as well as magic held by items, requiring no attack roll for large and immobile effects. Otherwise, the potential victim is allowed a Reflex save to avoid the snout. The DC depends upon the object being sought by the disenchanter – a potion in a belt pouch requires only a DC 2 save, a ring DC 3, a medallion or sheathed weapon DC 5, a weapon in hand DC 10, a suit of armor or shield DC 20. The judge must extrapolate other DCs from these examples. Likewise, the disenchanter is immune to all spells and other magics; a magic weapon striking a disenchanter is treated as though it were ordinary in all respects. If the disenchanter is reduced to 0 hp, it merely fades away, to reappear in some other part of the multiverse. The creature is thus effectively immortal.

It must be noted that magic weapons or items which strike a disenchanter do not lose their magical powers; only the snout has this ability. Damage to the snout could conceivably drive the creature away, but if a Mighty Deed targeting the snout succeeds with a magic weapon, the wielder must succeed in a Luck check or the weapon is disenchanted.

 

Doombat

Doombat: Init +4; Atk tail +6 melee (1d4) or claw +4 melee (1d4 plus grasp) or bite +2 melee (1d6) or shriek; AC 16; HD 6d8+6; MV 20’ or fly 50’; Act 1d20; SP Echolocation 200’, tail reach, grasp, shriek, light vulnerability; SV Fort +2, Ref +7, Will +0; AL C.

Doombats have a 25-foot wingspan, and are able to carry objects or creatures weighing as much as 300 lbs – either as riders or as prey. They live in dismal underground caverns, flying at night to the outer world to hunt. They have the ability to echolocate, giving them near-perfect understanding of their surroundings to a 200 foot range.

Doombat tails are lined with cruel barbs, and can stretch to strike targets as far as 12 feet away. Their claw attack grasps an opponent who fails a DC 10 Reflex save. A grasped opponent can be carried aloft, there to be taken back to the doombats’ lair…or dropped from a great height should it prove quarrelsome. A grasped opponent may free themselves with an opposed Strength check vs. +2, but once the victim leaves the ground this may be as deadly as remaining grasped.

Finally, doombats can set up a terrifyingly loud shriek, lasting 1d4+1 rounds. Any creature which can hear this within 100’ is disoriented, unable to make spell checks, and fights with a -1d penalty on the dice chain to both attack rolls and damage. The effect of several doombats shrieking at the same time is not cumulative, but they can co-ordinate these effects so that when one shriek ends another begins. There is no save against this effect.

Doombats fear, and will flee from, bright lights, but they are undeterred by torch- or lantern-light.