Cockstealing Witch

Content Warning- Exactly what you'd expect

 SOURCE

Cockstealing witches, as you'd expect, steal dicks. They gain their magical powers via the bad vibes directed at them, and must have stolen(or much more rarely, be gifted) penises to generate magical effects.
Hit Dice-d4
Move Silently, Backstab, and Hide in Shadows as Thief. This variant Backstabbing only affects creatures with testicles.
Everything else as magic-user in your game

Cockstealing witches gain XP for stealing or being gifted penises at the same value of defeating the dick's owner.

Cockstealing witches do not gain MD/spell slots the normal way, and do not cast spells (though they can be learned) until level 2/template B save for the 'Steal Penis' ritual.

Template A- Steal Penis
Template B- Meatstick Magic
Template C- Castration Anxiety
Template D- Wang Wand

It is probably fine to give all abilities at level 1 as well, with the requirement of stealing a penis before gaining their use

Steal Penis- With about 10 minutes of uninterrupted access to a willing or helpless target, a penis may be silently and stealthily taken off somebody (no save). The penis remains alive and functional (though pissing takes place back at the host's ken-doll groin, not from the stolen penises), but has no special protections, which provides a fair amount of leverage over someone who wants it back. Penises take up 1 inventory slot assuming they are kept safe in a gourd or pouch or something. If stacked in larger quantities they tend to get misplaced, mistaken for sausages, stolen by rats, and so on and the witch can't complain if they go missing or if it takes a full ten minutes to peer through a bag o dicks to find the right one in dim dungeon lighting. If the owner retrieves the penis, they may re-attach it by putting it back (unless a certain spell has been cast to keep the penis even more thoroughly hostage, see spells below)

The owner of the penis feels anything done to their penis, and spells the witch casts upon the penis instead target the source of the penis, regardless of usual range limits and so on. Cockstealer witches may steal or gift cocks to each other to trade 'casting privileges' for a particular cock, but this is a ritualized affair that takes a day to re-bind cock permissions, whether it was gifted or stolen.

Inflicting pain on stolen penises will bring the owner to their knees most the time- any wielded penis may be abused as a free action once per round to inflict 1d3 subdual damage and a save vs being stunned for a round for the unfortunate owner, as well as a morale check (once per encounter). In the rare instance of a witch winning grapples against targets with exposed penises, this could be applied as a regular combat maneuver as well.

Meatstick Magic- Each penis held by a Cockstealing Witch grants them some power, and to cast a spell a witch must brandish a penis. If the penis-owner dies, so too does the penis. Penises must come from individuals who are wizards, chiefs/leader types, notorious criminals, knights, terrible monsters, etc (When in doubt just make each dick require the source to have +1 HD compared to the last acquired penis) though there may be uses for carrying extra bundles of otherwise unremarkable penises from farm animals, random monsters, and so on.
DCC Style Casting- Each inventory slot of dicks provides a +1 to casting checks, up to 1 per level. Eating a penis allows a lost spell to be regained, and truly remarkable phalluses (stolen from demons, giants, dragons, and the like) may provide from +1 to +4 to spell checks when used for appropriate spells (such as Growth for a giant). More work than I'm willing to do would be required for the spells here of course.
GLOG Style Casting- Each inventory slot of dicks provides 1 magic die, up to template max. Magic dice recover after a night's sleep, or a penis can be eaten to recover a magic die. Remarkable cocks may provide dice of larger size than d6 (the HD of the source material being the number of faces on a die, as a rough rule)
Vancian Style Casting (Ala O and AD&D) Each inventory slot penis is equivalent to a wizard level, allowing for preparation of spells according to the spells-per-day chart, up to the witch's level max. Eating a penis allows recovery of a spellslot of powerlevel equal to one-half of the owners HD.
Levelless Casting- Each dick can be used once per day for a spell or ability, essentially being 1 inventory slot of dicks being 1 spell per day.


Castration Anxiety- Those aware of the witch's prominent penis pilfering prowess and fearful for their own dongs take -1 to reaction rolls and to morale. This penalty is increased by and replaces both positive and negative charisma modifiers, making both charismatic and antisocial witches equally but differently terrifying. Eating a penis forces a morale check from those of the same type of being as the devoured dongus who observe the fate that awaits them.

This ability is lost if a Cockstealing Witch turns to consensual cock use only to avoid their doom, or never steals dicks to begin with.

Wang Wand- A cockstealing witch may cast the spells or use the abilities of a cock's owner by using a penis as a wand, though the witch still uses their own magic dice to fuel these spells. Passive, mundane abilities like a warriors to-hit, squirrels balance, horses speed, etc are stolen for 1 hour per power level invested, while passive supernatural abilities (levitation, invisibility, etc) last 1 turn per power level, and active abilities (dragon breath, basilisk gazes, wizard spells) activate only once and require 1 power level investment of effect per HD (or in the case of stolen spells, 1power level=1 power level), with 5 power levels sufficing for most most abilities even if HD exceeds 10. The owner loses their powers when the witch loses them, recovering them a day later.

CORE SPELLS OF COCKSTEALING WITCHES

1 power level=1 Vancian Spell Level=1 Glog magic die=+2 DCC spellcheck difficulty=2HD of monster.

1. Phallus In Chains- A penis may be mounted to another being or to the wall, floor, end of a 10 foot pole, etc. This prevents easy retrieval by the owner, and the witch may use mounted phalluses as wands via Wang Wand even without holding them, though no special sensory perception through them is given (though another spell allows scrying on them for better aiming/timing). Though the penises may be destroyed as usual, they cannot be removed without the witch's permission or a remove curse/dispel magic spell
   
2. Pubic Yank- By gripping the pubic hair or penis, the witch may summon the owner nude to their location for [sum] rounds or until the witch dismisses them, at which point they return from whence they came. No especial control is given save for the obvious leverage the witch has.
   
3. Adamant Penis- An erect penis may be transformed into a hard substance (iron, stone, crystal, etc), fired via a crossbow or, depending on size, hurled as dart or javelin or launched as ballista bolt. It deals damage based on size, it will unerringly strike holes/crevasses, and lodge in them firmly, making it useful to jam locks, spike doors, blind visored knights, silence casting wizards, and so on. The penis is transformed to metal/stone/etc for [[sum]] turns, after which it returns to its normal state, and can be used as a sap/club/quarterstaff (based on size) if wielded in melee. As it is a magical effect, it can strike enemies immune to non-magical weapons.
   
4. Ritual of Dusty Boners- This forbidden magic ritual, requiring the boner of a powerful undead (such as a mummy or vampire) allows the witch to use the penises of the dead (or the penis-bones, depending on species) as sources of power. It need only be cast once to acquire this power, but it must be cast with 4 magic dice, a spell check result of 30+, or a 4th level spell slot.
   
5. Curse of Targeted Impotence/Deviant Attraction/Blessing of Filial Loyalty- One target may be cursed to be impotent, save for towards a single person, group of people, or designated 'type' of person, designated by the witch. This functions as a Charm effect towards the designated target of attraction, and an immunity to love potions and similar charm effects from other sources, whether normal or supernatural in nature. If the designated object of attraction possesses the target's penis (as a talisman, typically), the charm effect does not wear off over time so long as the talisman is kept on ones person.
   
6. Harden/Soften- One inanimate object is either hardened akin to an erecting penis, or softened akin to a flaccid one (ropes extending straight out and swords drooping as common uses). Duration is [sum] turns. In the event an object is too large or inappropriate for this to occur, it may grow hard or flexible dildo-like protrusions instead of being affected in entirety.
   
7. Eldritch Gloryhole- A smallish portal is opened, through which a mysterious dong of unknown provenance emerges. It belongs to a random monster of [sum] HD and lasts [[sum]] rounds. This is a loaner penis that the witch may use as stolen penises may be used until the duration ends (including summoning the creature via Pubic Yank), and if harm befalls the penis the owner will likely seek vengeance.
   
8. Penis Panic- [[sum]] HD of penis-havers may be afflicted by the delusional terror that their penis has been stolen or is shrinking away (save to resist). Those afflicted act irrationally according to this table until they complete the rolled action, or [[sum]] rounds, turns, hours, or days pass, depending on [dice] used. Some targets (such as eunuchs or those free of attachment to their dick) are unaffected. Rival penis witches afflicted additionally believe their collection is lost.
   
   1. Flee in horror, searching for their missing dick in cupboards, under beds, and so on
      
   2. Attempt to replace their penis with nearby phallic objects
      
   3. Blame likely target as responsible, affected form angry mob to attack the scapegoat and turn on new ones until duration ends
      
   4. Drop held items and pants to hold onto dick with both hands to prevent it from vanishing for the duration.
      
   5. Attempt to retain manhood by getting a boner (generally results in rushing off to find mates, prostitutes, pornography, at any cost)
   6. Seeking a priest, doctor, or otherwise to cure their apparent disorder
9. Celeritous Castration-  Allows the stealing of a targeted penis in a single round with all the usual effects of the normally slow and silent Steal Penis ritual, provided they fail a save. If the penis is actually inside the caster at the time of casting, no save is allowed.
   
10. Trouser Snake- Transforms a penis into a snake. Stolen penises, being free from their owners, get no save and are free to wriggle around and attack the witch's enemies, whereas attached penises remain attached and will strike those nearby the afflicted randomly. The trouser snake lasts [sum] rounds and has the stats of a spitting cobra, though without any dangerous venom (unless the host creature is venomous)
    
11. Clairovoyeurism- Caster may scry upon either a penis they have stolen but is not in their possession (and the immediate area around of course) or upon the owner of a penis that is in their possession. There is a 1 round delay on incoming information for every 100 meters distance the spell must cross. The witch may cast spells through stolen penises at a distance like a remote-operated wand.
    
12. Steal  Form- By attaching the penis to themselves (or eating it), the witch may take on the physical appearance of the penis owner (as polymorph self). This transformation does not include supernatural abilities like a basilisk stare, but is a true physical transformation in terms of size, potential flight or waterbreathing, carrying capacity, and so on. The transformation ends when the penis is removed or digested completely, and the Wang Wand ability can be used as though the penis was being wielded in this time.
    

Mishaps (doubles or natural 1s)

1. Weakening magics cause all nearby dicks to become flaccid, numb and impotent for the rest of the day. Further spellslots/magic dice may not be gained.
2. Floppy penis rolls off-aim and throws spell at random target instead.
   
3. Mutation (see corruptions) for 1d6 turns, save or permanent at end. If possible, mutation is dick-related.
   
4. Random nearby dick of ally or of collection grows to cumbersome size for 1d6 rounds.
   
5. All dicks within 100' point  towards caster like accusing fingers, even if invisible or concealed
   
6. Dicks grow unruly and seek to rebel against the witch- all held dicks seek to escape like inchworms, escaping pouches scattering in all directions with a move rate of merely 5' per round but the ability to sneak into rat-holes and the like. Though it does take an action to catch one, catching requires no roll, just an action and a free hand.
   

Dooms/Corruptions

1- Witch smells musty regardless of how much they wash. Those aware of Cockstealing witches recognize this tell-tale scent as a mark of one, and bloodhounds may always track the witch.
2-Those who have had their penis stolen ambush the witch, either immediately or once it makes more sense. From now on, those who have had their penis stolen will scheme against the witch, appearing on random encounter tables as well and forever seeking to recover their lost penises. The dead may rise to reclaim lost penises if the witch turns to necromancy to avoid the wrath of the living
3- Due to a widespread campaign of fearmongering, calls for vengeance, and wrathful ancestor spirits trying to protect the continuation of their lineage, penis-havers will test morale to attack the witch on sight wherever they go, or take appropriate action like calling for guards, poisoning food, and so on if direct hostility would be foolish. Only by returning all stolen dicks and never stealing a dick again can the doom be averted, though penises freely gifted may still be utilized.



Societies of cockstealing witches
1- Semi-popular regional cult consists of devoted hedgewitches who keep their spouses penis safe while they are separated, and provide remote assistance in crisis (the penis haver may communicate via flexing the penis in morse code)
2- Warlike society where witches steal their children's penises at birth, and only return them once their child has 'proven' themselves in a rite of adulthood. Defeated foes invariably have their penises stolen as well, and penis-raiding may be one rite of adulthood.
3- Local witch who passes this magic down to worthy successors, acting as the vigilante avatar of sexual karma for the town.
4- Prostitutes' guild using this magic to ensure clients are polite and prompt payments. Also frequently hired out as wizards to the thieves guild for zany heists.
5- Traditional, respectable, court-approved wizard circle which just so happens to have a cock-based curriculum and spell lineage. Apprentices split between dignified local seventh sons of seventh sons and giggling foreign exchange students who have entirely the wrong idea about the place.
6- Foocubus operated sperm bank intended to maintain ancient and defunct noble bloodlines of long-crumbled empires across multiple continents, expanded into a long-distance dating/hookup service, and expanded again into a chimera-breeding beast-battler enabler, all to pay operating costs required for dealing with nobles. Delegation of the increasing number of tasks to hastily trained apprentice witches.

Elephant

AD&D ELEPHANT
As one would expect, an elephant is amighty beast with 10-12 HD (Asiatic, African, and Mammoths being the size scale). They have 5 attacks, but must spread them out among targets, as one cannot trample, trunk-squeeze, and tusk-gore one person with all their parts at once. They can wreck gates unless the gate is spiked, and fear fire. Their tusks are worth 100-600gp each, which given the danger involved in fighting one (let alone the numbers appearing of 1d20) is certainly not worth the risk to most adventurers. When 10+ are rolled, 1d4 will be immature members that are 20-70% mature. When a single beast is rolled, it is assumed to be a rogue male with a minimum 6HP per HD, in a state of musth and as such is highly aggressive, attacking 90% of the time (musth is not mentioned but it seems the obvious explanation).

BFRPG ELEPHANT
 Slightly less dangerous, damage output wise, and having a handy entry of how much they can carry (about 4 tons for a light load and 8 tons for a heavy load) as well as giving tusk value at 100-800gp value, this entry sees them more as beasts of burden than combat/war encounters compared to D&D.

3.5 ELEPHANT
Within the animal subcategory of the book, these elephants give a save for half damage to avoid the trample, and have the usual sort of HP bloat to be expected, having not just 11HD, but 11d8+55 HP!

There's a bit of an issue, I've found, with using elephants as a loot source or other exploitable resource- a bleed-over from the sympathy towards the fate of these intelligent animals at the hands of humans in the real world. Similar to beating watch dogs to death, or eating dolphins (tho honestly I almost feel like the opinion on sharks and dolphins is reversing as people learn more about them) pretend elephant hunting can leave a bad taste in some people's mouths when you're lowkey wondering if they'll go extinct in the next hundred years or not. Monsters are the 'acceptable big game' animal in D&D, so having elephants seems redundant and potentially sad in some ways.

telling your apprentices that a elephant skeleton is a cyclops skeleton is a classic joke among necromancers

SUNSET REALM ELEPHANT
While there are Berserkers and Boarserkers, Elephants have totemic berserkers too among the people of Saresare and Yuba, and also the Gondazong people of the fault. Before the cultural melting pot of the north fault, elephant berserkers would have mostly been from the Yoza Invader Barbarians and the Pudizong, and before the migrations and gene-plagues, the berserkers were the Tuskers, dune-dwarves of ill temper and surface living, and before them, in the burning age of Yg-A, there were the Elves who had kinship with the beasts of the land and were clad in ivory and blood and ash and rode elephants so that they could more easily leap onto dragons to slay them and also too to trample the ghul hordes into the ash. Before them was the Serpent Empire which was far too cool-blooded to have any berserkers, and so ends the traceable lineage of Elephant Style.

However, while bears stalk the world round, and boars are sliding towards domestication as pigs(which some say explains why bears remain the more popular berserker emblem), elephants met a different fate altogether.
Elephants once were among the greatest beasts of the land, but now live only in domestication(Saresare and Yuba) or in undeath (The Fault). This is the fault not of ivory hunters, but necromancers, who saw in the elephant a beast that was vulnerable to magically aided hunting strategies, made for a terrifying undead warbeast, and came with built-in treasure/magical components in the form of their ivory tusks. The Deadlieges of the Fault ride atop these undead monstrosities, each rune-carved tusk acting as a magical wand to channel power through, and even forgotten elephant bones rise when Corpse-Bees build their hives in the ribcages of these beasts.

In Saresare, they are status symbols of the sultans and princes and so on, for they require prodigious amounts of water and feed in those dry lands, and are only rarely ridden upon in howdahs usually to stand out from camel-howdahs in urban processions. Back in the 4th age when there was more outright war, Saresare adopted war-elephant tactics from Yuba briefly, but this did not last.

In Yuba, the smaller jungle elephants are somewhat common as beasts of burden and some war-elephants remain, but many perished in the Riikhite crusades of the 4th solar age, and were mummified and sealed away in the pyramid tombs of Yuba. With the death of the Horse God of Yuba, elephants made somewhat of a comeback, but seem to grow smaller with every generation.

It is rumored that in distant, Winter-frozen Moonlands, the great woolly mammoths still walk the earth, and miniature elephants can yet be found on isolated Beast Islands.

Elephants are symbolic of the weight of harsh truths in the realms. They were known to be intelligent creatures, yet unlike most animals which reincarnate over and over again in a perpetual circle of life, the souls of elephants depart the world upon death and do not return, meaning necromancers must animate the bones via slightly more esoteric means than usual.

Standard Spell List as Fighter Techniques

Spells are the problem-solving tools of higher level D&D moreso than inventory items(magic items aside). Though mundane items are not obsoleted, ropes are less important when someone can turn into a flying beast to carry the party, torches are less important when Continual Light becomes a thing, having holy water for undead is less important when you can just hold the line for a few rounds while the wizards chuck their artillery spells, etc etc. It makes me feel like the thieves and fighters get left out a little, even with my various houserules that buffed the non-magic user classes.

So I decided to try to turn a lot of classic spells into weeaboo fightan magic wuxia-style fighter techniques, with the idea that fighters learn one and go through 'em one per round in combat, starting with the lower level spells and going up the list, since of course you can't use your ultimate move first.

This could also work for a Fighter/MU spell aesthetics or a special class of their own I expect. Or maybe it could be good for a classless system where cleric spells are herbs and wizard spells are tricks to be taught by ancient mountaintop masters. Though I did include a few cleric spells in here too, healing spells were not included since these techniques are potentially usable every fight.

Level 1/Opener Techniques
Oath of Merciful Indenture(Charm Person)- You can hold someone at swordpoint/arrowpoint/gunpoint etc and demand they surrender and serve you, or perish! This is limited to humanoids of 4hd or less- other things are unlikely to know of this Saresaren custom, be too physiologically different to feel threatened enough by this, or just be too much of a badass to consider it. As per regular Charm Person, this just makes someone your ally, not your mind-slave- treating them poorly will make them decide they'll risk your wrath and try to betray, flee, or otherwise escape from you. Contrary to Charm Person, things get a +5 to the save if it's used NOT in combat, or in a combat that you started, as starting a fight to try to coerce people isn't really mercy.

Sense Killing Intent (Detect Evil)- Simply put, this lets you sense hostility in the form of body language, pheromones, or other ridiculous but semi-plausible ideas. As a limitation, it may not work on things with twice your HD due to being able to conceal their own killing intent, or this technique might be reversible as Hide Killing Intent. One thing I actually think is fun from 3.5 is the 'Overwhelming Evil' effect of stunning characters under 7th level for 1 round if they are exposed to a sufficiently high level of evil (though of course in this case it would be anything with 11+HD and murderous intent). Another possible reversal would be Project Killing Intent which acts as Cause Fear.

Tiger-Climbing Tree (Spiderclimb/Featherfall)- allows one to climb sheer surfaces by driving ones blades/hands into a surface to get a grip, and to slow ones fall if you can reach a surface as you fall (or maybe just roll upon landing and be miraculously unharmed)


Spark-Flinging Edge (Light)-  by dragging your sword ominously across the ground, you can create sparks to illuminate your surroundings, or have each clash of your blade with the enemy's own blades or teeth or whatever send sparks flying to keep the place illuminated

Dust-Kick (Darkness)- Simply put, you kick up dust (or throw an improvised smoke bomb as appropriate) to hide an area in swirling dust or whatever context appropriate substance is handy, like leaves or flour or whatever. Can be targeted at eyes to blind people temporarily. I feel like you should probably allow this sort of thing already, even if it's limited to a single round or requires an attack roll.

Hundred-Merciful Fist(Sleep)- You leap into action and choke/concuss 2d4HD worth targets into unconsciousness(assuming they fail the save of course). It is of course highly dishonorable to slit their throats afterwards, so ideally you will tie them up or stuff them into a locked broom closet.

Perfect Shot (Magic Missile)- You fling/fire some darts, daggers, kunai, shuriken, pebbles, slingstones, etc to strike unerringly at the weak points of a target, like through a knight's visor or down the trachea of a roaring beast or whatever.

Perfect Parry (Shield)- Grants +3AC against melee attacks and +6 AC against ranged attacks, though only frontally. Blocks Magic Missile and Perfect Shots.

Pointed Message (Magic Mouth)- by leaving a head on a pike, particular slash marks on a tree, arrow with an actual message, you can communicate a short message to particular people the message is meant for.... actually nah, forget this one.

Burning Blood (Protection from Cold)- A must for shirtless loincloth barbarians from the Far North™

Grease- Just throw a flask of oil okay not everything needs to be a secret technique

Level 2 Techniques
Get Serious (Bless)- Applying a +1 to hit and morale is subtle, but good enough that I think having it be a level 1 spell as in AD&D makes it a no brainer option. That aside, clearly you have to gauge your opponents powerlevel before realizing you have to get serious, so it can't happen on the first round of combat.

Paralyzing Pressure Points (Hold Person)- Familiarity with human(oid) anatomy allows you to strike someone to temporarily paralyze them, forcing a save at -2, or to go ham with flurrying blows or thrown needles and try to take down multiple targets (up to 3) without the save penalty.

Beast Stare (Charm/Speak With Animal)- Familiarity with animal body language and being able to show them that you are the alpha wolf or whatever can let you communicate nonhostility and intent nonverbally, and maybe even get them to assist you, or at least leave you be.

Predict Moves (ESP)- Though normally a low-key explanation for how you're so much more dangerous than a 1HD person with a knife, you can read the body language of people you are battling to predict more than the steps of battle, but also what they are planning to do on a more abstract level as their surface thoughts are reflected in their moves. Could also come off as having the mental acumen to provoke them into spilling secrets in the heat of battle, or perhaps extract information via intimidation post-battle with nothing but a promise of mercy if they talk and an ominous cracking of knuckles or something

Assassination Step (Invisibility)-  Moving too fast and skillfully for the opponents eye to follow, they must rely on their other senses to track you, at least until you finally make your attack. Also works for evading combat to some degree I suppose.

Swallow's Perch (Levitation)- Supreme master of the balance of the body allows you to stand atop ten foot poles, swords, and (if further height is required) ridiculous towers of assorted objects. As an alternate take, it could represent holding onto a rope attached via a grapple or be a sort of spider climb, or if you don't mind more silliness, it could be vertical levitation obtained via helicoptering a blade at ludicrous speeds, in which case it should probably be called Bee's Ascent or something

Afterimages(Mirror Image)- Simply put, you start to move so fast you leave 1d4+1 afterimages people may mistakenly attack due to their deceived eyes or slow reflexes.

Raider's Knock (Knock)- Kick down a door, locked chest, or other comparable barrier... A bit questionable here, I dunno, I don't like Knock on the best of days.

Sword Divination (Locate Object)- Y'know that scene where Inigo Montoya prays for his father's sword to guide him to the secret door in the tree? Yeah... though it may not make sense if these spells are supposed to come about in combat and be limited by combat rounds rather than out of combat and be limited by uses per day. Whatever

Copious Sweat (Protection From Fire)-  a must have for sweaty, shirtless barbarians in volcano temples and dragon caves and the like

Web- probably just throw a net, or have a bunch of hired net-throwers.

3rd Level Techniques
Death Richochet(Lightning Bolt), A fired arrow/thrown javelin/etc pierces targets for terrible damage. Bounces off surfaces, 1d6 damage per level, save for half, a classic. 

Whirlwind Spin Attack(Fireball)- d6 damage per level save for half, but centered on you rather than lobbed (personal immunity tho, since it needs something to compensate for losing the range). Could also be like a giant hammer smash or a deafening shout or something.

Lungs of Beowulf (Waterbreathing/Water Walking)- Just, hold your breath for hours while you wrestle a monsters momma, easy peasy. Clearly you need the adrenaline to fuel anaerobic exercise or something so it's only lasts through the crisis situation... or maybe this is a bad idea and it should just be 'run across water' instead.

Beast Baffling Blow (Hold Animal)- as Hold Person but now you have the anatomical knowledge to do it with animals. Wait no that's not what I-

Wind Step (Fly)- just leap through the air astounding distances, or jump off of the wind itself, idk. Really there's no excuse for not just pulling out a bow so this is a bit redundant but I think it's probably fine.

H-Hayai/Osoi- (Haste/Slow)- As spells these are mass buffs, but I think it more appropriate to just have it function as Hasting the warrior in question.


Zatoichi's Training(Infravision/Darkvision)- Your other senses and awareness of the battlefield are not sight dependent, so you can operate blind as if sighted, with the usual limitations of not being able to read and so on.

Arrow Catching (Protection from normal missiles)- Basically you catch/cut all normal projectiles headed your way, a necessity for becoming immune to army squads of archers like a proper immortal hero type.

Spell Slay (Dispel magic/remove curse)- allows you to strike at and slay a magical effect (or multiple effects clustered in an area like buffs/curses on one individual. Only relatively 'weak' effects can be killed like this, with proper curses that can only be lifted one way and so on being unaffected. Also would allow you to counter an incoming spell I expect, slashing it in two as it arrives.

Mutilate- (Cause Blindness/Deafness/Bestow Curse)- Lets you strike a blow that causes permanent bodily harm- cutting out eyes, damaging the throat, removing a hand or foot or reducing a stat by 4 all are probably appropriate moves to pull with this, though of course a save is given.

4th Level Techniques


Lightning Catching Blade(Protection from Lightning)- A must for people who thought the lightning- catching jump from Sekiro was the coolest thing ever. I think the protection techniques are a little lame but they are easy to write.... Probably should all be level 1 if the goal is to have each round of combat correspond to a higher level technique.

Monster Master (Charm Monster)- As Charm Animal, but with all manner of monsters, because high level fighters should be able to have dragon mounts too c'mon

Flash Step (Dimension Door)- 'teleport' (actually just move in a burst of speed) to anywhere within 200' that could be reached normally via running, jumping, climbing, swimming, maybe just a bit of flying. Unknown areas cannot be teleported to.

High Swashbucklery(Confusion)- Via incredible skill and probably chandelier swinging, you bamboozle your enemies into running around like headless chickens, accidentally hitting each other, getting faked out and running the wrong way, tripping over the environment, etc etc. A must have for 'lone warrior vs horde' situations.

Beast Style(Polymorph Self)- Via emulating monsters you have encountered and either defeated or been defeated by in your travels, you may emulate the attack patterns, AC, and movement of beasts by not transforming physically, just changing your style to something superhuman. Other capabilities may be simulated as well via silly things like wielding double-ended ropes tied to your limbs for Kraken Style or whatever

Wave Cleaving Strike(Lower Water)- smack water with a sword to part it like moses parting the red sea, it makes total sense.

Line In The Sand/Iaido (Wall of Fire)- Anyone crossing the area you designate (usually by drawing a line on the ground) takes 2d6+Level damage from your immediate punishment via fired arrows or a quickdraw of a sheathed sword, and those lingering too close to the line (about 10-20 feet) can be struck for half damage. Lasts as long as you concentrate on it. An alternate version, Lonely Phalanx(Wall of Ice),  does no damage but prevents things from passing through as though there were a wall of thick ice there- if something is powerful enough to get through it takes 2 damage per level but then the defense and the shield is broken.

Level 5+ Techniques that I definitely lost enthusiasm for writing
5
Monster Immobilizing Strike (Hold Monster)- As Hold Animal but with all the monsters. Considerably less cool than Charm Monster but it's potentially multi-target and if single target has a save, so while I always thought it was weird that this was higher level than Charm Monster, I kinda get it now that I think of Charm as just 'make friends' and not 'mind slave.

Let Your Fists Do The Talking (Speak With Monster)- By engaging in battle, you can communicate more clearly than words ever could transcending the language barrier through yadda yadda you get it

Weeping Earth Blow (Wall of Stone)- strikes the earth to collapse a hallway, or forcibly shove the ground into a raised cliff to end pursuit, create an arena, etc etc

Belch Of The Drunken Master (Cloudkill)- A farcical technique, this is a poison belch that creates a 15' cloud of heavier than air death poison that kills anything with 4HD or less no save, allows a save for 5HD monsters, and 6HD monsters are unaffected (but begin taking 1d10 damage per round after the first 'free' round if they stay in it, a change mentioned in the AD&D DMG that I am sure was meant to prevent high level adventurers from chilling in their own cloudkill)
6
Atomic Slash (Disintegrate)- Target saves or is cut into shreds akin to motes of drifting dust, with perhaps a bloody mist remaining, by a truly gratuitous number of instantaneous slashes.

Circle of Steel (Blade Barrier)- caster surrounded by a ring flickering swordcuts(or whatever weapon is favored) of radius up to 5' per two levels that deals Leveld6 damage to all attempting to cross lasting Level rounds and being immobile. It also provides +4AC against all attacks attempting to cross the whirling barrier.

Forbidden Technique(Death Spell)- kills 3d12HD of living enemies of under 8HD with no save via means so forbidden that I'm sure they depend on the individual school of martial arts, or are unique capabilities.

I'm sure a few spells I skipped could be adapted to be a physical act with a sword somehow, but honestly a lot of spells start to be 'exotic way to disable someone' and 'way to counter/cure exotic status ailment' or things like Floating Disk which all I could think of was like, hacky sack with a shield laden with goods which was too silly even for a silly post. Maybe I'll come back to this and update it with missing spells if inspiration strikes, but probably not.

Elemental and Hinn

OG Elementals
Elementals are curious creatures in AD&D, similar to demons in that much is detailed as to the details of their summoning. Only one elemental per type, per means of summoning, per day can be summoned by a mortal, requiring staves or devices on top of the typical Summon Elemental spellto get multiples of the same variety.

They are said to be stupid and resentful of being summoned and if concentration is broken (suffering any mental or physical attack suffices) they have a 75% chance to break free, slay the summoner, and wreak havoc for 3 turns before returning to their home plane of existence, with a 25% chance to return home immediately, and interestingly enough, the 'Dispel Magic' spell has a ratio of caster to controller level chance of taking control of a controlled elemental if 'aimed' at the control itself rather than the 'summon,' with the downside of granting the elemental 8HP per HD, doubling the original controllers ability to concentrate (whatever that means) and making the elemental extra-pissed at the failed usurper. This rather odd niche usage of the dispel magic spell definitely seems like a case where a player came up with an idea and a ruling was tossed into the monster manual to be promptly forgotten by everyone, but speaks well of the idea of using the normally rigidly interpreted D&D spells in creative ways even in those ancient days of yore.

(Speaking of odd niche cases, the entry feels obliged to specify that, as a monster that can only be hit with magic weapons +2 or better, or magical 4+HD creatures, kobolds, ghoblins, orcs, and 'etc' are mentioned to not be able to hurt elementals, but ogres can, and a kobold with a +2 weapon can. Why these merited specific explanation is most mysterious indeed.)

In terms of general capabilities, they come in the mighty 16HD variant from direct spell-summoning, the 12HD variety called forth by items like Braziers of Fire and Stones of Earth Elementals, and the 8HD variety called forth by staves. It is also mentioned that more or less powerful and intelligent varieties can be found on the elemental planes, suggesting that the elementals mortals summon are probably the equivalent of dumb animals, compared to the briefly mentioned Air Queen, Earth Boss, Fire Tyrant, and God-King of Water.

Each type has a few weaknesses that allow one to escape their rather high HD wrath, and strengths that suggest their weaknesses-
Earth Elementals are superb at destroying construction, but must pass through the earth beneath water rather than water itself, which would allow escape via boat and heavy delays by crossing deep bodies of water.

Fire Elementals  mainly just light things on fire, but cannot even pass over non-flammable liquids, and no minimum depth is given, suggesting that even a puddle from a water-skin might stymie one. You might think they'd throw fireballs but nah, they just walk into things to toast them,

Water Elementals can only go about 20 feet or so from bodies of water, and strike for 5d6-5 instead of 5d6 when not in their element, and their main noted ability is to hold ships in place (1 ton per HP) or capsize and sink them (1 ton per HD). Of some note is that though they require around 1000 cubic feet of water to create one, mostly-watery substances like ale or wine work too.

Air Elementals fly three times faster than an unencumbered human and can form whirlwinds that kill anything with less than 3HD, no save, and deals 2d8 damage to everyone else. This does take a turn to form and dissipate, so much like the Djinni whirlwinds, this seems to imply the formation of a short-lived tornado to clear out hordes of foes and not a special melee attack. It also seems clear that Air Elementals are the most terrifying of the lot as they have both the best crowd control, and cannot be outrun or baffled with most terrain.

3.5 Elementals are pretty much the same conceptually, but come in a larger variety of sizes (good) but have done away with the notes on how their summoning spells work in the assumption that players will only interact with them in order to beat them to death in fair and balanced math combat (bad).

I originally drew 9 for each but most of them were even worse than these

Sunset Realm Elementals
 There are no 'elemental planes' from which elementals spring- elementals are simply bits of earth, water, or air that have been 'awakened' into a state of consciousness more akin to a biological being. They are the second oldest form of existence- when the light of the forgotten First Sun shone upon the face of darkness, the shadows took the forms of Solid, Liquid, and Gas, and from there, the world came to be, various mixtures of the elements.

The vast majority of elementals are too large to have stats- if a mountain falls on you, you don't roll initiative, you just die. If you are caught in a tsunami, your AC is irrelevant, as you can be tossed around and drowned whether you are wearing an entire blacksmithy, or buck naked. You can have a +5 vorpal sword, and it will do nothing against a tornado- you are an ant with a glowing toothpick. The statted elementals are the ones that are controllable by mortal magics, and/or the size likely to anthropomorphize or try to hunt down human sized undead, so their apparent prevalence is confirmation bias. If there were more people/undead the size of skyscrapers, you'd see more elementals the size of mountains, and there are probably ant-wizards summoning pebble-elementals to destroy each other's anthills, you just never hear about it.

That said, natural disasters can be directed and unleashed- this is one of the duties of Murulu, Lord of Calamities, and there are great and terrible rituals that allow one to command the ocean, the sky, the earth itself to tremble... but when even the deity Murulu is like a small child attempting to walk 3 big dogs on a leash, one quakes to imagine the price exacted from a mortal who dared to take the leashes of the greatest elementals like Typhoon, Tsunami, Avalanche, or others.

So most people confine themselves to more low-key negotiations, for which you should clearly go rip off Skerples

You may note that Fire is absent from this list- this is intentional. Light (and its degenerated offspring flame) is the animating life-force, the will, the soul. This is not a scientific universe, but as an easy analogy, it's basically the difference between energy and matter.

Earth- The sunlit soil, sand, and stones of the surface are the friendliest type of earth elemental, from the human perspective. They build the bodies of babies, and usually can be counted on to stick to the standard blueprint (ie, random bits from the parents glued together). Air and Water flee corpses, but sunlit earth elementals are sentimental(or oblivious) and stick around the longest in the form of bones until the body finally decays, and some favorite biologicals are preserved even longer in the form of fossils.
Earth that obeys not just the ancient Covenant of Light that allows souls to be housed in organic matter, but also the laws of society, is most commonly known as Metal. Silver is the most lawful metal and Gold is chaotic but light-rich.

The most light-rich form of earth is Magma, whose sacred task is to contain Yg-A the undersun at the center of the earth. It occasionally comes to the surface to take a long vacation, but much like a storybook detective going on vacation, lava tends to get embroiled in all manner of drama, mystery, and intrigue upon arrival (usually the destruction of things that have sinned against the elemental covenant or an alliance with the folk of the earth for forging).

But there is a broad, deep, swathe of earth between the fiery depths of Yg-A and the sunlit surface- the dark depths where the sun never shone, where the darkness condenses into twisted caverns and the light of a torch and the swing of a pick is the first introduction to known existence. This is the Dark Earth, and the stones there are cold and vast and pitiless, and unbound by the laws that govern other rocks. Gemstones are one such example- hard but transparent, colored with the swirling hues of phosphenes, wildly variable between brittle and nigh indestructible. Poison rocks, rocks that splinter into swords, rocks that are soft and rocks that are smooth... These elementals are unpredictable, but very useful for those who seek to utilize them for mad ideas the sunlit world could never dream of.


Gravity is a bit of an argument, a sort of tug of war between air and earth over their children. Offend the earth and the sky will take you, as it did the birds and the Kumokumo people (large spider-crab beings who live in clouds) but for the most part earth is happy to massage your feet and air happy to ruffle your hair. Floating rocks  are not to be trusted, for the most part, as they are probably rascals and troublemakers banished from the earth.


Air- The air is perhaps the most mysterious of elements, for who has seen the wind? Nevertheless the First Sun shone light upon the air somehow, and so the air is with practically every being their whole life (fish aside), though not for long periods of time, as the air is flighty and comes and goes with every breath.

The sky is home to the clouds, which carry water (the laziest element) uphill, while earth carries it back downstream. The clouds obscure the sun and so have some darkness in them, but they also absorb sunlight and dispense the sun's wrath via lightning bolts to smite the undead and other who would break the elemental covenant of biological life. Dark skies are omens that something is amiss with the natural order of things, and a perpetually storm-shrouded castle is almost certainly home to an undead of prolonged unlife, or yet more esoteric blasphemies against nature. Hurricanes indicate something amiss in the sea, and tornados something amiss in the earth, as Air sees everything beneath the sky and then some, but must whip itself into a howling fury if lightning does not suffice.

This is all, of course, speaking of light-infused air. Dark Air can be found in the depths of the world, sealed away in air-tight caverns that only bother to distinguish between states of matter when someone with light comes along. The dark air of the deep is sometimes called Miasma, and it houses disease, poison, madness, mutation, and every other calamity for the living, for it does not understand life but is drawn to interact with it regardless by breathing and has to make stuff up with no context or comprehension.
There is also the dark air of the high howling night, sometimes called Void, and it is more inert and less volatile than the dark air of the deep earth, but equally inhospitable to human life. It is the subject of much fascination by sorcerer astronomers who fail to commune with the distant stars and moons but make contact instead with the void wind itself.


Water- the least trustworthy of elements, water is associated with trickery, laziness, the mirror realm, but also life, flexibility, and fertility. Water slides lazily back to the sea whenever possible, requiring plants, rain, and rivers to carry it to and fro, and has by far the most accurate and common presence in the mirror realm, as it is naturally reflective compared to air and earth. It provides life, but also takes it most frequently via drowning, freezing, or abandonment. It can turn to air in the form of steam, and to earth in the form of ice, and so it is said water is the element closest to the primordial dark ur-matter which was all things and nothing until the light of the first sun shone upon it.

Water also has its own type of life, which lives without air, but is still part of the elemental covenant and are still biological beings- the fish.  The ocean holds many secrets from us air-dependent groundwalkers, and many mages seek tutelage from the Ningen, those giant sharklike merfolk so similar, and yet so different from humanity.

Water is a frequent destroyer of undead- solid enough to tear them apart, and fluid enough to move to do so. Running water repels many of the dead, and the only undead that can survive the ocean for long are either bound to it as surely as a fish is bound to water, or warded against it by powerful necromancy. Holy Water is the most common for this reason compared to Sacred Salts and Blessed Incense, which are the earth and air equivalents to holy water that tend to be better for drawing warding circles or keeping incorporeal undead at bay, respectively.

Waters mixed allegiance- to the sun and the mirror sun, to life and death, and so too to the Winter Moon is nowhere made more clear than in the form of Ice- Ice is water that has sworn allegiance to the light of the winter moon, and must be re-converted via fire and sunlight and the warmth of light from its callous role as winter's deathbringer. The reflections of ice hold the Winter Court of the High Alves too, just another ever-shifting allegiance of water to keep track of, and perhaps there are other, more rarified forms of water under strange moons and in deep pits- acids and non-newtonian fluids, and perhaps oozes are some mysterious type of water too... but one cannot name all the roles water can play.

this is not a hinn, this is a rejected magma elemental image that I thought looked like it would show up uninvited at midnight to eat doritos

Hinn(Fire)- There is no such thing as a fire elemental, for fire, light, energy, is something within all elements to varying degrees. Lightning elementals are air, magma elementals are earth, a burning chemical slop would be dark water.
But there is something that is sort-of like a fire elemental- a Hinn. Unlike their cousins the Jinn/Ifrit, who are composed of smokeless flame, or a demon, who is composed of dreams and laws and souls, a Hinn is-or was- composed of scorching fire, a corrupting fire that blackens and burns and ruins all it touches. Jinn are sparks of the broken 1st sun, able to warp reality when aligning their will and light with that of others, but Hinn are sparks of Yg-A, dragon-sun, Undersun, the one that sought to devour the world whole. Even the most rapacious of fire-dragons is sane and temperate compared to a Hinn. The Hinn shape only by destroying, defining themselves by what they are not more so than what they are, because what they are is clear- a corrupt flame that consumes and burns all it catches.

Little is known of the Hinn, for along with the Ghuls, they were exterminated by the Elves at the end of the Second Age, deemed an existence too profane and terrible for the world to bear without breaking into something unimaginable. If even the Serpent Empire could not bend them to the will of mortal beings, what hope would anyone else have? Most of the behaviors that are called 'evil' in men were the natural state of being of the Hinn- they consumed and corrupted in the same way that men breathe, for the spreading of their burning flame was their breath, was their life...

But now only their ashen wraiths remain, less than ghosts, less than shadows, less than reflections. They can be stoked into false flame by sacrifice, and become fiery simulacra of the Hinn, but apart from the intervention of foolish sorcerers, there is nothing for these hollow soot-stains to do but await the end of all things at the edge of the Beyond.

Eagles, Ear Seekers, Eels, and Efreeti

OG GIANT EAGLE
 One might assume these are just 'eagle but big' but they clearly draw more from the great eagles of Lord of the Rings, being inclined to ignore 'good' creatures but attacking threatening 'evil' ones and being friendly towards certain dwarves and elves. They also have a form of 'limited telepathy' and when it comes to combat, can dive from 50 feet or higher to attack for double claw damage at a total of +8 to hit for 4d6 damage. They attack any creature in defense of their nests, which have a 50% chance of young or eggs, 1 nest per 2 adults, with 1d4 eggs/young. Eggs sell for 500-800 coins each and so, in addition to the chance  of Q or C treasures (magic items only) raiding eagle nests may be tempting for those unaware of how dangerous they really are. They are also 'never surprised unless encountered in lair or at night' due to their eyesight, and can carry up to 200pounds at half speed, making them passable mounts for the lightly equipped or halflings.

With an AC of merely 7, they strike me as a very 'glass cannon' type of enemy. If one can endure or avoid the initial horrible divebombing, they are fairly similar to a low ac, low HD big cat in terms of their claw-claw-bite routine. I think they could be a potentially interesting tactical problem if divorced from their 'neutral ally of good' idea, and would make for good support monsters for other monsters, and at the very least Elves have a 65% chance to have 2d6 as guards.

OG EAR SEEKER

Who hurt you Gary

OG EELS
 I was surprised at the variety depicted here- they come in the Electric form, which can deal from 3d8 to 1d8 damage via the electric jolt, once per hour, and further more come in 4hd variants that deal from 6d8 to 2d8. I was currently having my own electric eels deal only 1d8 damage, but with this in mind I now feel emboldened to use these bigger varieties to kill all my players with electric death in the Sunken Sepulchre, a very large tidal dungeon in my current campaign, and to tempt them into that electric death with the hope of building a giant set of taser knuckles for their giant robot just as they did on a smaller scale with a waterbarrel and wire for the dwarf.

Electric eels aside, there are also 5hd giant eels that hit for 3d6 and are said to have nasty tempers, and Weed eels which are essentially treasure-hoarding poison sea snakes that live in communal caves 30x20x20 that is accessed through 6 foot tunnels, which in turn is accessed by 6 inch holes that the eels hide in and bite people, typically 25-40 feet underwater. Whilst treasure types O and P are low-value coinage, treasure type R is held by dwarf fortresses, which is pretty incredible for tiny eels to have, but considering they are 10d6 goblin HD enemies with poisonous save or die attacks and a highly secure underwater base, the risk of looting a Weed Eel lair does need an impressive hoard to tempt people into even considering it, I suppose.

OG EFREETI- detailed already here

 

I realize too late the scale is off so you must pretend this is like an ogre falconer or a mini eagle or a falcon disguised as an eagle or something

Sunset Realm Eagles, Giant and Otherwise
Just as the Lion is the king of terrestrial beasts, the Eagle is king of the birds. They hold court at the peaks of mountains and the highest trees in the forest, attended by a court of birds. Eagles are difficult to train, for they are proud beasts, but they cannot prey upon humans and as such are more prone to accepting domestication and a place in Our Lady of Gardens plans for the ultimate society than, say, Lions.

However, not all birds accept the domination of humans and the proliferation of missile weapons, and seek to bring about a 4th bird age (not canon to my setting but a weird joke I find endlessly amusing) and perform a forbidden ritual where they fly up, up, and up, into the terrible black sky, in search of a star small enough to eat. 99% of birds who attempt this are devoured by nameless Moons, but those who succeed (and those lucky enough to find a fallen starshard or lost sunshard on the ground, sparing them the trip) begin to grow to tremendous size, large enough to slay the terrestrial beings that once had the advantage of size. Their hunger is endless, as is their opportunity for growth, fed by feeding the flame in their belly, and they grow larger and larger until mere flesh is simply not abundant enough to feed them, so they must turn to either the sea, monster predation in the Moonlands, or back to the sky in the hopes of gobbling more stars. Many birds along this path end up serving the Autumn Moon, these moon-maddened avians known as the Black Buzzards, named for their oily, dirty metal feathers that have replaced their original plumage as they forsake all softness for more power.

However, most birds do not want these monsters to emerge, and so the Pecking Order was established. Big birds prey on smaller birds to keep them in line, and smaller birds mob big birds who get too cocky. Animals in this setting all reincarnate (provided they do not become monsters) and the judgement of the Pecking Order determines what sort of bird one gets to hatch as next time, which is why there are so many small birds and comparatively fewer bigger ones.

It's a fantasy setting, no one has even heard of a trophic pyramid

It's all quite vicious and cruel, and some birds who forsake the Pecking Order and the rule of Eagles claim that were it not for the gripping talons of the Eagle Kings, there wouldn't be so many birds seeking power as an escape from the Pecking Order in the first place.

Sunset Realm Ear Seeker- while body horror involving with ear penetration is pretty great I don't think I need to punish thieves for using their class abilities. Class abilities based on RNG that can indicate 'you are caught and pounded to jelly' are punishment enough.

Sunset Realm Eels-
Some reptiles gave up their legs for the wisdom of Yg, mother of serpents, but what about eels? Are they fish, or snakes?

The answer is both but neither. Like the ancient Frog Kingdoms that sought to rebel against the Serpent Empire, Eels were a sort of aquatic splinter group that opposed the Serpents but ended up in relative irrelevancy in the water, secure but obsolete. Eels have strange magics developed in isolation from the magical tradition that is traced from human academies to elvish archmages to snakefolk sorcerers, and those seeking slimy and sneaky spells from the sea often start cults to the Eel, and texts written in Piscine or Serpentine may have secret subtext that requires one to know Eel to decipher. It is hypothesized by some Yg scholars that the Eel splinter sect was due to the machinations of the goddess of secrets, madness, and the mirror realm, Lumar, and the remnant Eels labor knowingly or no to advance the obscure goals of that goddess even in this age.

Electric Eels dwell in the Bog of the Canal and the  Dayland oceans, and as lightning is only rarely found trapped in fulgurites, they are the natural source of electricity for mad alchemists. They are also fairly popular to create electric chimera, and as such they are rare in the wild, but common among the right sort of human seeking to harness their lightning.

Dryads And Dwarves

OG Dryad

When I was like 12, I lived in mild apprehension of ever rolling a character with 16+CHA, as dryads were said to Charm those hostile to them, and males possessed of 16+CHA, and with a -3 to ones saving throw this was a probable game over. Nowadays I realize 'taken away to live with a dryad' is a lot better than anything else that will probably happen to a D&D character and honestly probably a decent retirement option, but I digress. Dryads can walk inside trees and Dimension Door away unless Surprised, and seem to serve a role as ambiguous source of information on sylvan adventures, as they have exact knowledge of the forest in which they dwell, but are hard to find and contact and not necessarily aligned with party goals.

3.5 Dryad
They are buffed somewhat here, having defenses that come from being a fey spirit being and more spellcasting abilities than just charm, teleport, and speak with plants. They also go from living in groups of 1-6 to being mostly solitary, and mostly Chaotic Good. The latter change strikes me as sort of lame, as it changes their role from 'ambiguous personification of the temptation to return to the woods and forsake the troubles of civilization' to a green haired designated quest giver for eco-friendly 'heroes.'

Sunset Realm Dryad

If anyone needed an art prompt 'dryads resembling different types of trees'
would be a pretty good one I think

Dryads do not spring from isolated trees in forests untouched by humanity. Why would they appear humanoid when they have never seen a human? No, dryads spring from the slow dreams of trees that are very aware of humanity- trees that generations of children climb upon, or trees that are marveled at for their size and age, trees of orchards that provide fruit for a hundred years, ornamental trees that are pruned and prodded and shaped. These trees become aware of the rushing life of humanity around them and manifest a wish to communicate with the frenetic pace of mammalian life, and so a Dryad emerges to give the trees thoughts on an issue, usually about 20 or so years too late.

Once they are born in sap and leaf and bark, they can see the world through human(ish) eyes, and speak to the humans to tell them the will of the dreaming trees. They are shocked at how fast action is taken, and accomplish their goals at breakneck pace compared to what the slow-thinking tree expected.  Dryads have a great deal of leisure time in between enacting the will of their tree, and so they gain hobbies to pass the time. They may encourage certain life forms to live with them, and discourage others. As dream/spirit entities, they may inadvertently become the host of afterlives and gain clerical/druidic powers from the accumulated will of the dead souls of animals that passed away peacefully near the tree, and tending to the wills of not just the tree, but attending the living and dead makes for a meaningful passtime for these beings and they become leader-types of animals. To animals, the dryad is like the ruler of the castle where they reside, eternally gracious and generous, providing shelter from storms and predators, and food. They would not dream of harming a dryad, but would certainly come to ones aid if called.

There is, or course, the matter of humans. Sometimes the emergence of a dryad is simply seen as an interesting occurrence and little comes of it. The farmer who talked to his trees for years anyway now has them talk back. Kids tell their secrets to the dryad at the edge of the farm, kings have secret garden friends who truly care nothing for human politics. Dryads are sacred to Our Lady of Gardens, as the goddess is tickled pink at the idea of even the plants adopting good manners and becoming part of the tapestry of society.

However, some humans get ideas. People start cults to dryads, channeling power both mystical and societal into the focal point of a conveniently accessible spirit being (this is how most druids start out.) They try to marry the dryad, which usually goes over well until they realize a dryad is also married to the squirrels and birds and buzzing bugs and the love of a dryad is as the shelter of their branches and the bounty of their fruits and nuts, and rubbing faces for pollination. Some people try to coax dryads from trees intentionally, either for aesthetic reasons, as in the White And Green City, or bizarre reasons, like the wandering master who crafted a self-replicating order of Bonsai dryads to carry on their martial arts tradition. (In the generations hence, this martial discipline has split into Thousand Autumn Leaves, Thousand Falling Petals, and Thousand-And-One Needles).

Playing a Bonsai Dryad
As Fighter unless otherwise noted.
You need no nourishment, and do not tire, so long as your Bonsai is kept nearby and healthy, though darkness does make you sleepy. You regenerate 1HP per 10 minutes provided your tree is unhurt and healthy, as your material form is but a dream, and easily reconstituted. You are trained to fight with the bonsai and can balance it on your head, hands, or feet as required. If ever broken (the bonsai tree has 1hp per level you have) you vanish immediately. If you are slain, the bonsai tree may remake you, with the loss of one level or 2 points of constitution or similar penalties. You may occasionally argue with your tree about growing bigger, or finding another tree to pollinate, or places to deposit seeds, but these differences between tree and dryad are issues that are discussed one sentence a day over the course of years and are not significant obstacles to adventuring.

If you are a cactus or other spiny plant following Thousand-And-One Needles you deal 1 point of damage in grapples.

You may walk through living plant material as though it were water swimming, though this does not extend to your equipment, if any.

Secret Technique- Thousand Autumn Leaves/Thousand Falling Petals/Thousand-And-One Needles- when unarmed and unarmored, you may make melee attacks until you miss, though you may not move and attack like this.

Dwarves- are already mostly covered here, though it's worth noting a few more things

• I read something somewhere or other that dwarf beards are like natural filter masks that catch the particulate matter of mining and explain why they are so resistant to disease and poison gas and so on, and why a shaved dwarf is likely to grow ill and facial hair is not gender-specific among dwarves.
• I also read something about how the long lives of dwarves makes them perceive conflict as one big war with truces and armistices and momentary pauses, but ultimately the same war, and this explains some of their xenophobia and grouchiness towards other cultures (as if living shut up in mountain caverns didn't already). This is also why 'official' dwarves do not wish to share clockwork and gunpowder tech with humanity even in times of peace- because they remember times of war, and will probably live to see the next uppity human noble try to steal the treasures of the earth
• in AD&D they are likely to have wolves and bears, and a lot of magical arms and armor.

tl;dr Dragons

If you don't care about nerd numbers, skip to the picture, if you don't care about deep lore, skip to the end for some advice on using dragons as a GM.
OG Dragons
Dragons have a lot of interesting mechanical details compared to other monsters, presumably due to being among the greatest risk and reward D&D has to offer. They have 3 varying HD per color, total HD being determined by a d8 die roll that indicates whether they are small (1-2)average (3-7) or huge (8) though this variation is only a +1 or -1 HD. Next, dragons do not roll their HD, but instead have 1-8HP per HD based on their age category, which is as follows
HP Per HD

1. Very young- 1-5 years
2. Young- 6-15 years
3. Sub adult- 15-25 years
4. young adult 26-50 years
5. adult 51-100 years
6. old 101-200 years
7. very old 201-400 years
8. ancient 400+ years

They come with a laundry list of powers, including 60' infravision, excellent sight, smell, and hearing, the ability to detect hidden or invisble creatures within about a meter per age level, and an aura of panic at young adult or greater when it charges or flies overhead that panics 1hd creatures and untrained domestic animals for 4d6 turns, forcing creatures with less that 3hd to save vs panic or freezing in in place, creatures above 3hd needing to pass a save or fight at -1 to hit (a brutal penalty considering the already high AC of dragons), with creatures of 6+HD disregarding the effect.
These effects are saved against at +5, +3, and +1  for adult, old, and very old dragons, with ancient dragons having the full effect. I am personally not the biggest fan of mind-influencing effects, but this does explain why dragons cannot be easily shot down by legions of mercenary archers. I think it fair to rule dragons as terrifying without all these mechanics, however- NPCs will rightfully fear for their lives and refuse to do the fantasy equivalent of trying to fight an attack helicopter with a pocket knife.

Dragons are given a chance of Speaking, meaning they know language, which is accompanied by a chance of being magic-users, and a chance to be sleeping- though this sleeping is not as big as a debuff as one might imagine, as they will awaken if loud noises are made within 30-120 feet (depending on terrain), when attacked, and randomly on a 6 on a d6. Sleeping dragons cannot be coup-de-graced, instead attacked at a mere +3 to hit, making sleeping dragons far from an easy target.

Dragons are encountered in groups of 1d4, but the terror of 4 ancient dragons is lessened by the caveat that dragons only travel in groups of 3-4 as sub-adults, other combinations being either a mated pair of age categories 5-8, or a mated pair and offspring (Very Young) or (1 in 10) eggs. Of some note is that Dragons are ferociously protective of their young and their mates and get a berserk +2 to hit and +1 to claw and +3 to bite damage if the young are attacked or their mate is attacked (if attacks are spread between the dragons they do not become enraged). This is kinda interesting

Unlike many other monsters, dragons are given elemental resistances that reduce to hit and damage, though this information is rather awkwardly presented in a breath-weapon based chart and including such things as tritons counting as 'water attacks.' They are also given a special caveat for their saving throws- once a dragon reaches age category 5, its HD for saving throws is not determined by actual HD, but by HP/4 determining HD for purposes of saving throws, to avoid high HP but low HD dragons being easily defeated by save vs spells.

The most important thing about dragons is surely their breath weapon, which I think is far more interesting in the AD&D form than later editions- it deals flat damage equal to a dragons current HP score, making an ancient dragon capable of casually inflicting upwards of 60 damage easily at the beginning of a fight, but beaten dragons incapable of dealing much damage. Dragons are said to use their breath attacks but 3 times per day, with about a 50% chance of doing so per round. Their claws are not too dangerous, and their bite attacks range from dangerous to almost as likely to kill a character as the breath weapon.

Almost as interesting and lost (at least in the 3.5 monster manual) is the idea of Subduing dragons- Intelligent creatures may strike for subdual damage, a form of nonlethal damage which has a chance to make a dragon surrender and serve those bullying it out of fear for its life, the chance being percentile odds calculated from the ratio of maxHP to Subdual Damage, and  checking at the end of each round a dragon has been non-lethally battered, unless subdual damage exceeds HP in which case subdual is immediate. Statistically, this will cause dragons to surrender twice as fast as killing them assuming only standard attacks are made, but excludes the use of murderous spells and siege engines Importantly, this damage does NOT reduce the power of a dragon's breath weapon, so subdual is considerably harder to pull off.

Subdued dragons can be sold in larger towns and cities, presumably along side the crying giant beaver children from earlier in the Monster manual, with offers typically being 100 to 800 coins per HP the dragon has, and of course they can be ridden, explaining where all those dark lords riding dragons get their dragons from. The most powerful Good dragons cannot be subdued, presumably due to the gygaxian idea of slavery being ok when you do it to 'bad guys.'(this, among the 'slaughter orc babies is Lawful Good is why no one should be taking D&D alignment seriously) I will note that the monster manual I am examining is from 1978, and the TSR code of ethics only started mentioned that slavery should only be depicted as an inhuman institution to be abolished by sometime around 1994. The line between slavery, animal abuse,  and animal training gets real fuzzy when you have intelligent animals and monsters, and if you are an animal rights advocate, its probably not fuzzy at all... but I digress from the main point.

Subdued dragons will, if not strongly held, well treated, given ample treasure, and allowed ample freedom (some of which seem a bit at odds with the initial presumed beating and robbery of the dragon, and with each other), attempt to kill their captor and escape. This might imply the relation between a dragon and a dragon-puncher might be more like pokemon and pokemon trainer, where the dragon respects the human for the strength and is more like a new member of the adventuring party like any other retainer who is given a full share of treasure, rather than a slave master and their abused slave. It is also mentioned that evil dragons do not serve good masters for long, and vice versa.

This leads me to my next point, the psychology of dragons. Though later editions seem quite happy to constantly increase the intelligence and untamable power of these bully-lizards, making them more like chinese and japanese god-like dragons and of course, Smaug, rather than medieval european dragons which were basically poison crocodiles who were also symbolic of sin. Dragons in AD&D are mentioned to be cowards more prone to surrendering to subdual than even the smallest kobold, egotists vulnerable to flattery and fighting other powerful creatures for perceived dominance, and of course, greed for more and more treasure, which it is said only 40% of silver and 80% of gold dragons are above.

And finally, when speaking of treasure, one must not forget the fabulous Treasure Type H that makes any dragon hoard a tempting prize for all adventurers... however, it comes with some stern caveats applied to limit the potential for dragons to become loot pinatas.
Very Young dragons have only a 10% chance of having 1/4th listed treasure, Young Dragons a 25% chance for 1/4th, Sub-adults a 50% chance for 1/2th treasure, with Young Adults and Old dragons having normal treasure and Very Old and Ancient dragons having, respectively, a 50% and 75% chance for 150% and 200% treasure. A few dragons have the potion treasure subtype added to H, and some the scroll type as well. White dragons have treasure type E, O, and S, making them curiously better for magic items, but far worse for monetary hoards- no real explanation for this is given, but one might surmise this is because, due to the desolate lands they live in, they are more likely to rob polar adventurers than caravans of gold.

Dragon spell determination is weird and also color coded probably not worth getting into, and of curious note is, at the end of the dragon section, the Dragonne, a half brass dragon half giant lion monster which is largely unremarkable save for the implication of dragons breeding with non-dragons, and the Dragon Turtle, an aquatic, shelled dragon. (The dragon section also includes tiamat and bahamut but as those are more official WotC entities of godlike, I have little to say about them)

3.5 Dragons- after some deeply unsatisfying encounters with dragons in AD&D, I thought the 3.5 dragons were the coolest thing ever, at first. The sentiment that dragons needed some sort of 'buff' was oft echoed by people of prior years, as Dragon Magazine was full of articles about ways to make dragons more dangerous, giving them tail slaps and wing bashes and providing them with terrain tricks, and short fiction about dragons using deadly hit and run tactics and far worse, succumbing to becoming forgotten realm style NPCs who sit around smoking in taverns and being far more mysterious and powerful than you could ever comprehend.

In any case, 3.5 had BIG DRAGONS with BIG NUMBERS and I was super impressed by a mere wyrmling having like 45 hp, and great wyrms having like 565 hp... but nowadays of course that sort of math scaling makes me want to just play a videogame instead. I am sorely tempted to go off on a rant about OSR sensibilities here, but I expect that would be like preaching to the choir. Suffice it to say that not every dragon need be Smaug-leaning-Ancalagon The Black for dragons to be a menace, and buffing dragons ironically made them less a part of the D&D experience for many games.

BFRPG Dragons-
BFRPG is similar to AD&D, with the more modern take of having them have a wider range of HD by age category rather than a flat HD with changing HP scores by age category. While certainly more in line with other monsters, I think this approach does miss out on 2 things-

1- The "to hit" bonus makes younger dragons much less able to fight armored foes- a AD&D black dragon's to hit goes from +6 to +8 and that's merely a matter of how BIG the dragon is, while a BFRPG dragon range goes from +4 to +9, which is based on age.
2- the breath attack. The AD&D HP dependent breath attack is pretty neat, I think- it demands immediate fear, but is not unmanageable with proper planning. The 3/day limitation on uses makes baiting out attacks on decoys a very viable strategem, AND provides a fairly strict limit on power if the players get their hands on a friendly dragon- it may only breathe 3 times, and must be kept healthy to maintain its offensive capabilities.
BFRPG dragons can breathe once per day per HD, which makes breath-baiting less viable for the older varieties, and due to the random damage, less important for younger ones. BFRPG dragons are limited to breathing at most every other round, but maintain the power of their breath even as their life falters, which I think could be unsatisfying if a nearly-defeated dragon can turn around and obliterate its foes after all...

this post has too many words aaaaaaaaaa

Sunset Realm Dragons-
And so light degenerated to insatiable fire, and fire to indiscriminate poison...
Dragons are the spawn of the 2nd Sun, Yg-A, though they are much diminished, and when the first dragons descended with Yg-A from the sky, the Serpent Empire crumbled before their insatiable greed. They had traded their legs for the wisdom of Yg (the snake goddess born of the shed skin of the Dragon-Sun Yg-A) and survived the rain of fire by descending into the earth and becoming small and unassuming, and so the mightiest of dragons, the Fire-Dragons, ruled the burnt and ashen world. However, as the dragons grew bloated on stolen light, some changed, their molten red scales becoming golden. The greatest of these was Ebetheron, and these dragons forsook the ways of Yg-A and became empathetic and kindly to the smaller creatures, and assisted the barbarian Elves and remaining snake people, as well as the other creatures upon the earth that could comprehend charity. When Yg-A attempted to devour the world and became the magma-shrouded Undersun, the age of the dragons grew to a close, as without their devouring sun to defend them, the Moons descended to devour the offspring of Yg-A, and the titanic dragons of old were either slain, or forced to hide and diminish greatly. The ages turned, light degenerated to flame, and flame to poison, and the dragons that remained took different paths, willing or no, and developed certain tendencies.


Red Dragons-  though much cooled compared to their 2nd sun ancestors, Reds trace their lineage to Yg-A and remain the most fearsome and rapacious of dragon-kind. They oft dwell in volcanic regions such as the Beast Islands and the deep earth, close to the heat of their progenitor, and prefer to kill with claws and fangs, as their fearsome breath reduces precious metals to slag, and are known by some as Dwarf-Dragons, for they are known to dig and smelt ores when unable to rob treasure, and a deep secret of Dwarves is that they and their Svart ancestors can sometimes undergo metamorphosis into red dragons if ones greed and wealth grows too great. Gold Dragons are red dragons that have sworn themselves to the charitable gold dragon god Ebetheron and are very rare and somewhat divine. Their preferred prey civilization is dwarves, as the tactics the technologically adept dwarves employ (burning oil, gunpowder) make for amusing pyrotechnics when breathed upon.

Blue Dragons- the descendants of Bai-Szue, an immense desert dragon of the overseas Fault whose cult of wealth and hierarchical obeisance has been a template for other dragon cults for centuries. These dragons hoard not just wealth, but worship and respect, and have been transformed spiritually to spew sacred lightning instead of fire, and dangle the promise of ascending to dragon status to other beings and have created the race of Kobolds (a corruption of the word Cobalt, for Blue). They consider their lightning-souls an upgrade as opposed to the degeneration other non-red dragons endured, and Fault-Dwellers are the most personable of dragons, often sliding into humanoid society as would-be priests, bankers, and rulers. Despite their association with deserts, Saresare is mostly free of blue dragons, and due to their affinity towards lightning, Blue dragons are frequently found in (or the cause of?) stormy regions like open plains and coasts, and are deadly dangerous to Gondazong airships, as the lightning breath spreads through the metal hulls of these ships and electrocutes those within.

Green Dragons- The poison dragons are thought to be less dangerous than the Fire and Thunder drakes, but this is a misapprehension by foolish humans who have mistaken the lesser Wyverns for Green Dragons. Elves, apes, and halflings know well the terror of these beasts... These dragons live in vegetation-dense regions, including the toxic jungles of Spring in the moonlands, and their breath is a billowing cloud of death that leaves plants unharmed and animals dead. They have omnivore teeth that are stained with poison, and some are said to be so poisonous that their sweat can kill and their footprints remain poisonous for days. Accounts of dragons breathing sleep gas, confusion gas, and so on are almost certainly Greens with variant breath weapons, or spellcaster dragons. Thought to be the most gregarious and family-oriented dragons, this is exemplified by the ancient family tree of greens that menaces the northwest of the Fault with multiple generations at once- with not enough treasure to go around, the dragons have developed extremely specific hoards to reduce competition with each other, and dragons are known as the Painting Dragon, the Taxidermy Dragon, and so on. Having the least destructive breath weapon, Green Dragons are known for having hoards of considerably more fragile natures than other dragons, and as such they do not like fighting among their own hoard, even preferring to carefully stalk and poison thieves and recover the treasure later, rather than trying to stop them at the hoard in the first place.







Black Dragons- It is unclear whether acid is a degeneration of poison, or an intermediate stage between fire and poison. In any case, these dragons are even more loathe to use their breath weapons than red dragons, as their corrosive spit leaves basically nothing but raw stone undamaged... and for this reason, black dragons are notorious as gem-hoarders. Black dragons tend to live in swamps (or perhaps, their acid tends to turn their habitats into swamps) and are exceedingly common in the Bog of the Canal. They claim old ruins and sometimes swallow up oozes and vomit them forth to dissolve only what these specialized oozes devour (as opposed to the indiscriminate acid they produce themselves). . It is rumored Black dragons are the experiments of the now defunct Frog Kingdoms, explaining the region they inhabit most commonly.

White Dragons- these frosty creatures live in the Auroral Reaches and the Wrecker Bay, as well as any Winter-Moon dominated area of the moonlands and high mountain peaks. It is widely assumed that they are dragon eggs hatched in the light of the winter moon that, rather than freezing and dying, had their hearts turned to ice. Compared to the overweening pride and grandstanding of other dragons, white dragons are gloomy and introverted, and keep their frozen victims around to talk to like dolls while slowly munching on them. They tend to value treasure based on how it reflects light, and on entertainment value, so tend to have smaller but more interesting hoards than other dragons.

Leviathan Dragons- or Dragon Turtles, or simply Leviathans- these tremendous beasts have HD ranging not in the 6-12 range, but in the 15-45 range. They are the size of small islands and indeed, people have built doomed settlements atop them before. The dragons lost their breath weapon but compensated by being huge, and though an exit strategy is needed, slaying them from the inside is usually more feasible than harpooning them, though this does not prevent fishermen of the Beast Islands from trying. Leviathan dragons are less of a threat to humans as they are to the Ningen of the sea.

Metallic Dragons- Gold Angel dragons aside, metallic dragons exist only in two senses- one being those dragons who have eaten so much metal that they have changed color, and the other in Nightmare dragons, who are monsters of Nightmare that are symbolic of dead civilizations, not actual dragons.

Notes for All Dragons-
Dragons have long necks that can attack everywhere except directly behind themselves, which is what their tails and back claws are for. Their wings can batter people at their flanks, and most are not big enough to swallow anything bigger than a medium dog whole. Climbing atop one exposes one to the wings and occasionally the head, but may allow attacking the eyes to blind the creature and hit vulnerable spots. They have ridges of tough scales, but no horns.

They can smell metal from miles away, making bands of knights unlikely to take the dragon unawares, and rich adventurers and merchants unlikely to come near. They have a natural affinity for spellwisps and language, and frequently will capture wizards and force them to teach them spells. They are likely to notice pieces of their hoard going missing very quickly. They must catch their breath after Breathing and can do so every 1d4 rounds to a maximum of 3 times per day. If a breath weapon is 'ready' they will leak it from their mouth, making it obvious that a breath is likely incoming. Their breath weapons are magical and expressions of their own soul, but if polymorphed or possessing another body or undead or whatever, dragon-souls are still unable to breathe without destroying their new form, and wizards polymorphed into dragons are disappointed to find themselves without this power.

Dragon hunters should consult this post for the uses of dragons, and while generally less valuable than coins by weight, for those wishing to create magical items, dragon bones and blood is generally useful.

Thoughts On Using DragonsDragons are extremely dangerous and potentially extremely rich, so the temptation is to stick them at the bottom of a dungeon with the idea of them being a final boss the players must fight their way to through a bunch of more level-appropriate challenges.

This is a good way to ensure that the dragon never gets seen before the campaign dies due to Ski Camp or whatever, and even if you do make it through, to probably make sure that the one dragon you included will be utterly demolished either in combat or by zany scheme by players who have grown far too experienced and well-equipped to really be threatened by a big lizard waiting to be stabbed in a cave, and have no story impact because, well, it's just some monster they opened a door, met for the first time, and killed and took its stuff.

Dragons should be on your encounter tables from day 1 (I like them at either the 2 or the 12 on 2d6 tables). They show up, flop down in front of the players, and probably don't attack. Instead they rob the players, eating their horses and taking their shiniest treasures. They might ask the players where they got the treasure and go investigate themselves, adding themselves to a dungeon's encounter tables. This is a good way for players to learn how to negotiate from positions of weakness and manipulate powerful but straightforward NPCs, and be a general lesson of how even bad situations (being robbed by a monster that can obliterate the party in one round) are opportunities that it is up to them to exploit, not via rolling initiative, but by thinking about the world. They could follow the dragon to get an idea of where its hoard is, for future counter-robbery. They could suck up to the dragon and offer to serve it, only for a grand betrayal later. Or maybe they really do want to start a dragon cult, or team up with the dragon to rob people. Maybe they want to trick the dragon into fighting some of their battles for them and letting a dragon tear through some Wights is worth losing the wight treasure.
None of this is dragon exclusive, but dragons are charged with dramatic potential due to their overwhelming wealth, power, and symbolism- Sure, bugbears are fine and all but its called Dungeons & Dragons.

That said, dragons need not only be randomly generated terrors plucked from the chaos of drop tables. When actively placing dragons, you should give some thought as to how they would cow and pillage the surrounding regions, and why no one has done anything about it. Dragons are deadly but not unbeatable (unless you're playing 3rd edition or later games, where the excuse 'nobodies math was good enough to beat the dragon's math is sadly an ironclad excuse) so their lair should likely be remote, hidden, trapped, guarded, etc in ways that give the brute solid home-turf advantages, and make the recovery of the treasure an adventure of its own. Like Smaug, like Fafnir, the problem of these treasure hoards is almost as important as the dragon itself- people will come forth from the woodwork wanting a piece of the dragon pie, either out of greed or genuine desire to have what the dragon stole returned to them. The treasure may not be literally cursed to turn those who hoard it into a dragon ala Fafnir, but it is, in a way, figuratively cursed- trying to hoard it all for yourself will lead you into conflict with other people. Again, not a dragon exclusive problem for the players to confront, but one that is magnified to the greatest proportions by the weight of a dragon's hoard.