AD&D玩家手册-完整电子版(当然,是全英文版) Necroz Studio Forum

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Healing

Once a character is wounded, his player will naturally want to get him healed. Characters can heal either by natural or magical means. Natural healing is slow, but it's available to all characters, regardless of class. Magical healing may or may not be available, depending on the presence (or absence) of spellcasters or magical devices.

The only limit to the amount of damage a character can recover through healing is the total hit points the character has. A character cannot exceed this limit until he gains a new level, whereupon another Hit Die (or a set number of points) is added to his total. Healing can never restore more hit points to a character than his maximum hit point total.

Natural Healing

Characters heal naturally at a rate of 1 hit point per day of rest. Rest is defined as low activity--nothing more strenuous than riding a horse or traveling from one place to another. Fighting, running in fear, lifting a heavy boulder, or any other physical activity prevents resting, since it strains old wounds and may even reopen them.

If a character has complete bed rest (doing nothing for an entire day), he can regain 3 hit points for the day. For each complete week of bed rest, the character can add any Constitution hit point bonus he might have to the base of 21 points (3 points per day) he regained during that week.

In both cases above, the character is assumed to be getting adequate food, water, and sleep. If these are lacking, the character does not regain any hit points that day.

Magical Healing

Healing spells, potions, and magical devices can speed the process of healing considerably. The specifics of such magical healing methods are described in the spell descriptions in this book and in the DMG (for magical items). By using these methods, wounds close instantly and vigor is restored. The effects are immediate.

Magical healing is particularly useful in the midst of combat or in preparation for a grievous encounter. Remember, however, that the characters' opponents are just as likely to have access to magical healing as the player characters--an evil high priest is likely to carry healing spells to bestow on his own followers and guards. Healing is not, of itself, a good or evil act.

Remember that under no circumstances can a character be healed to a point greater than his original hit point total. For example, say a character has 30 hit points, but suffers 2 points of damage in a fight. A while later, he takes an additional point of damage, bringing his current hit point total to 27. A spellcaster couldn't restore more than 3 points to him, regardless of the healing method used. Any excess points are lost.

Herbalism & Healing Proficiencies

Characters can also gain minor healing benefits from those proficient in the arts of herbalism and healing. These talents are explained in Chapter 5.

Character Death

When a character reaches 0 hit points, that character is slain. The character is immediately dead and unable to do anything unless some specialized magical effect takes precedence.

Death From Poison

Poison complicates this situation, somewhat. A character who dies as a result of poisoning may still have active venom in his system.

Poisons remain effective for 2d6 hours after the death of the victim. If the character is raised during this time, some method must be found to neutralize the poison before the character is restored to life. If this is not done, then after the character rolls the resurrection survival check as given in "Raising the Dead" later in this chapter (and assuming the roll is successful), he must immediately roll a successful saving throw vs. poison or suffer all the effects of the poison in his body, as per the normal rules. This may only injure some characters, but it may kill other characters seconds after being raised!

Death From Massive Damage

In addition to dying when hit points reach 0, a character also runs the risk of dying abruptly when he suffers massive amounts of damage. A character who suffers 50 or more points of damage from a single attack must roll a successful saving throw vs. death, or he dies.

This applies only if the damage was done by a single attack. Multiple attacks totaling 50 points in a single round don't require a saving throw.

For example, a character would be required to make a check if a dragon breathed on him for 72 points of damage. He wouldn't have to do so if eight orcs hit him for a total of 53 points of damage in that round.

If the saving throw is successful, the character remains alive (unless of course the 50-hit-point loss reduced his hit points to 0 or below!). If the saving throw fails, the character immediately dies from the intense shock his body has taken. His hit points are reduced to 0.

The character may still be raised in the normal ways, however.

Inescapable Death

There are occasions when death is unavoidable, no matter how many hit points a character has.

A character could be locked in a room with no exits, with a 50-ton ceiling descending to crush him. He could be trapped in an escape-proof box filled completely with acid. These examples are extreme (and extremely grisly), but they could happen in a fantasy world.

Raising the Dead

Curative and healing spells have no effect on a dead character--he can only be returned to life with a raise dead or resurrection spell (or a device that accomplishes one of these effects). Each time a character is returned to life, the player must make a resurrection survival roll based on his current Constitution (see Table 3). If the die roll is successful (i.e., the player rolls equal to or less than his resurrection survival percentage), the character is restored to life in whatever condition is specified by the spell or device.

A character restored to life in this way has his Constitution permanently lowered by 1 point. This can affect hit points previously earned. Should the character's Constitution bonus go down, the character's hit point total is reduced by the appropriate number of hit points (the amount of hit point bonus lost is multiplied by the number of levels for which the character gained extra hit points from that bonus). When the character's Constitution drops to 0, that character can no longer be raised. He is permanently removed from play.

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Pucs

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Chapter 10:

Treasure

Hidden out there in the campaign world are great treasures awaiting discovery. Ancient dragons rest on huge hordes of gold, silver, and gems. Orc chieftains greedily garner the loot from the latest raid. Mindless jellies ooze through the bones and armor of unfortunate souls. Foul lords of darkness cunningly leave small fortunes apparently unguarded, like spiders luring in the flies. Stooped wizards assemble shelves of arcane magical items. Some treasures, like those of dragons, are gathered and horded for reasons fully understood only by their collectors. Others are gathered for more mundane purposes--power, luxury, and security. A rare few troves date from eons before, their owners long dead and forgotten. Some treasure hordes are small, such as the pickings of a yellow mold. Others are enormous, such as the Tyrant King's treasury. Treasures may be free for the taking or fiercely trapped and watched over.

Treasure Types

Treasure comes in many different forms and sizes, ranging from the mundane to the exotic. There are of course coins of copper, silver, gold, electrum, and platinum. But precious metals can also be shaped into gilded cups, etched bowls, or even silverware. Characters know the value of coins and will have no difficulty establishing their worth in most cases. However, ancient treasure hordes may contain coins no longer used. It may be that these can be sold only by their weight. Objects made of valuable metal are even more difficult to appraise. Either the characters must find a goldsmith who can value the item and a buyer willing to pay a fair price, or these too must be melted down for their metal. In large cities this is not too difficult. There are always appraisers and fences handy, although getting full value might be difficult. (Accusations of theft are another small problem.) Characters must be aware of cheats and counterfeiters though. An apparently valuable bowl could actually be base metal plated in silver. The metal of coins could be debased with copper or brass. Weights could be rigged to give false prices. Characters must find merchants they can trust.

Gems are another common form of treasure and here player characters are even more dependent on others. Unless the party has a skilled appraiser of precious stones, they're going to have to trust others. After all, those red stones they found in the last treasure could be cheap glass, richly colored but only marginally valuable quartz, semi-precious garnets, or valuable rubies. Again, the player characters are going to have to find a jeweler they can trust and be watchful for cheats and scams. However, truly tricky DMs might present your characters with uncut gems. These are almost impossible for the untrained eye to spot or appraise. Most characters (and most players) are not going to realize that a piece of unremarkable stone can be a valuable gem when properly cut.

Perhaps the most difficult of all treasure items to appraise are objects of artistic value. While gems cut or uncut are valuable, their worth can be greatly increased when used in a piece of jewelry. Gold is valuable by weight, but even more so when fashioned into a cup or pin. Dwarven craftsmen from hidden communities practice the finest arts of gem cutting, while gnomish artisans in earthen burrows labor away on elaborate gold and silver filigrees. Ancient elven carvings, done in exquisitely grained woods, stand side by side with the purest of statues chiseled by man. All of these have a value that goes far beyond their mere materials.

But artistic creations seldom have a fixed value. Their price depends on the player characters finding a buyer and that person's willingness to buy. A few large cities may have brokers in arts, merchants who know the right people and are willing to act as go-betweens. Most of the time, however, the player characters have to go to the effort of peddling their wares personally. This requires tact and delicacy, for such items are seldom bought by any but the wealthy and the wealthy often do not like stooping to business negotiations. Player characters must carefully avoid giving insult to the barons, dukes, counts, and princes they might deal with.

Finally, there are the truly unusual things your character can find--furs, exotic animals, spices, rare spell components, or even trade goods. As with art objects, the values of these items are highly subjective. First the player characters have to find a buyer. This is not too difficult for everyday things, such as furs or trade goods, but it can be a tremendous enterprise if you have a spell component that is useful only to the most powerful of wizards. Next the PCs must haggle about the price. Furriers and merchants do this as a matter of course. Others haggle because they hope the PCs do not know the true value of what they hold or because they themselves do not know. After all this, the PCs might be able to sell their goods. However, if you enter into this in the true spirit of role-playing and see it as part of the adventure, the whole process is enjoyable.

Pucs

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Magical Items

The treasures mentioned thus far are all monetary. Their usefulness is immediate and obvious. They give characters wealth, and with wealth comes power and influence. However, there are other treasures, very desirable ones, that your characters will not want to sell or give away. These are the magical items that your characters find and use.

Although priests and wizards can make magical items (according to the guidelines your DM has for magical research), it is far more common for characters to find these items during the course of adventures. Magical items are powerful aids for characters. With them, characters can gain bonuses in combat, cast spells with the mere utterance of a word, withstand the fiercest fire, and perform feats impossible by any other known means. Not all magical items are beneficial, however. Some are cursed, the result of faulty magical construction or, very rarely, the deliberate handiwork of some truly mad or evil wizard.

A very few magical items are artifacts--items created by beings more powerful than the greatest player characters. These are perilously dangerous items to use. There are only three methods to determine how to use artifacts--dumb luck, trial and error, and diligent research.

There are many different magical items your character can find, but they all fall into a few basic categories. Each type of magical item has properties you should be aware of.

Magical Weapons: There can be a magical version of nearly any type of normal weapon, although there are admittedly few magical bardiches or guisarme-voulges. By far the most common magical weapons are swords and daggers. A magical weapon typically gives a +1 or greater bonus to attack rolls, increasing a character's chance to hit and cause damage. Perhaps magical swords are quicker on the attack, or maybe they're sharper than normal steel--the explanation can be whatever the DM desires. Whatever the reason, magical weapons give results far beyond those of even the finest-crafted nonmagical blade.

A rare few weapons have even greater powers. These may allow your character to sense danger, heal wounds, float in midair, or have the most amazing luck. The rarest of the rare can actually communicate with your character and are imbued with an otherworldly intelligence. While the most powerful of magical weapons, these clever instruments of destruction sometimes seek to impose their wills on their owners.

When you find a magical weapon, more than likely you do not know its properties. Some functions, such as the advantage it gives you in combat, can be learned by trial and error. Other properties must be learned through research and spells. Ancient histories and legend lore spells can provide information on the properties of your weapon. On rare occasions, properties are discovered through blind luck. Simply commanding the weapon to activate one power after another (hoping it will suddenly spring to life) works only for the most minor abilities--detecting danger, spotting secret doors, or locating treasure. Greater abilities require that specific commands be uttered, perhaps in long-forgotten languages.

Magical Armor: Enchanted armors are the complements to magical weapons. These armors have a +1 or better bonus to their normal Armor Class, being made of stuff stronger and finer than nonmagical armor. Furthermore, these armors grant some measure of protection against attacks that normal armors would not stop. Chain mail +1, for instance, improves the character's saving throw against the fiery breath of a dragon by 1, thus providing more than just a physical shield. In rare instances, armor may possess extraordinary powers. Although such armors are generally finely made and elaborately engraved. characters can discover the armors' powers only by the same methods they use to discover the powers of magical weapons.

Potions and Oils: Magical potions and oils are easily found but hard to identify. They come in small bottles, jugs, pots, or vials and clearly radiate magic if a detection spell is used. However, the effect of any potion is unknown until some brave soul tries a small sample. The results can be quite varied. The imbiber may discover he can float or fly, resist great heat or cold, heal grievous wounds, or fearlessly face the greatest dangers. He may also find himself hopelessly smitten by the first creature he sees or struck dead by a powerful poison. It is a risk that must be taken to learn the nature of the potion.

Scrolls: Scrolls are a convenience and luxury for spellcasters. By reading the incantation written on the pages, the priest or wizard can instantly cast that spell. He does not need to memorize it, have the material components handy, or do any of the things normal spellcasting requires. Experienced and powerful wizards normally spend their evenings preparing such scrolls for their own adventuring use.

Some scrolls are usable by all characters, granting special but temporary protections from various dangers--evil creatures, werewolves, powerful beings from other planes, etc. Other scrolls bear hideous or humorous curses, brought into effect at the mere reading of their titles. Unfortunately, the only way to know what a scroll contains is to silently scan its contents. For scrolls containing wizard spells, this requires the use of a read magic spell. Other scrolls can be read by all. This scan does not cast the spell written on the scroll, but it tells the character what is written there (and exposes him to the effects of curses). Once the scroll is read, it can be used at any time in the future by that character.

Rings: Magical rings are usable by many different classes and bestow a wide range of powers, from pyrotechnic displays to wishes. While the aura of a magical ring can be detected, its properties cannot be discovered until it is worn and the command word is uttered. (The command word is most commonly found inscribed on the inside of the band.) As with all magical items, some rings can harm your character. Worse still, cursed rings can be removed only with the aid of spells!

Wands, Staves, and Rods: These are among the most powerful of standard magical items. Wands are commonly used by wizards, allowing them to cast powerful spells with the flick of a wrist. Staves can be used by either a wizard or a priest. Staves can be truly destructive, dwarfing even the potential of a wand. Rods are the rarest of all, the accouterments of witch-kings and great lords. With rods come dominance and power.

Fortunately for your character, few of these items are cursed or dangerous to handle. But all must be operated by a command word--a specific word or phrase that triggers the power within. No wand, stave, or rod shows any indication of its powers by mere sight or handling. Careful research and probing are most often needed to tap the potential stored within.

Wands, staves, and rods are not limitless in their power. Each use drains them slightly, using up a charge. There is no power gauge or meter showing what is left. A character discovers his wand is drained only when it no longer functions or suddenly crumbles into useless dust.

Miscellaneous Magic: Miscellaneous magical items are where the true variety of magical treasures lies. Each item possesses some unique power. There are horseshoes to make your horse go faster, brooms to ride, sacks that hold more than they should, paints that create real things, girdles that grant great strength, caps to make your character smarter, books that increase ability scores, and much, much more. Each item is different and not all can be identified in the same way. The effects of some become obvious the instant the item is handled, donned, or opened. Others require research and questioning to learn the command word needed to activate them. All are quite valuable and rare.

Artifacts and Relics: Finally, there are artifacts and relics. Don't count on your PC ever finding one of these rarest of all magical items. Even if your character does find one, think carefully before you decide to let him keep it permanently. Artifacts are the most powerful magical items in the game. Indeed, many are powerful enough to alter the course of history! They are all unique and have unique histories. You can never find more than one Hand of Vecna in a world. Because it is so unique, each artifact has special and significant powers. Artifacts never appear by accident; they are always placed by the DM.

Finding artifacts is always the result of a very special adventure. Your DM has placed that artifact for a reason. It is not likely that he really intends for your characters to keep it. Instead, he has something arranged in which you need that artifact for a specific purpose. The problem with keeping artifacts is that they are too powerful. Not only do they unbalance your character in the short run, they also eventually corrupt and destroy him. The magical power of artifacts is such that they destroy their owners sooner or later. There is a price to be paid for power, and it is not a cheap one.

Pucs

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Dividing and Storing Treasure

Once your group completes a successful adventure, it is almost certain to have collected some treasure. Therefore, it helps to have some prearranged agreement about how this treasure is to be divided among the different player characters and their henchmen. This is a true role-playing decision that must be reached among all the players at the table. There are no rules about how your characters should divide treasures.

However, there are some suggested methods and reasons to make or not make some agreements. If you bear these in mind, you will have fewer arguments and bad feelings between the different players and their characters in your group.

Cash treasure is the easiest. The most direct and simplest method is equal shares for all player characters and full or half shares for all henchmen. A player may argue that his character's contribution was greater than that of other characters, but these things average out in the long run. Besides, that player has no real idea of the contribution of others. A character who guarded the rear may have discouraged hidden opponents from springing an ambush on the group, something that only the DM knows.

Additional considerations include extraordinary costs. Some adventuring groups establish a special fund to pay the costs (if there are any) of healing, resurrecting, or restoring fellow player characters. Again this works on the principle that all faced the danger and therefore all should share equally in the expenses. Other groups make allowances for differing character levels (higher level characters assumedly shouldered more of the burden of the adventure, and so should be rewarded proportionately.) Some parties give special rewards to those who took greater chances or saved others. These encourage everyone in the group to take part.

Magical treasure is more difficult to divide up, since there is rarely enough to give a useful item to every character, nor are all items of equal value or power. Here you must rely more on your sense of fairness if you wish to maintain party harmony. Since magical items are worthwhile to a party only if they can be used, your first concern should normally be to get the right item into the right hands. A magical sword in the possession of a wizard is not nearly as useful as it would be in the hands of a fighter. Likewise, a wand does a fighter little good but could be a potent addition to a wizard. Therefore it is a good idea to match items to characters.

Alternatively, your party could determine the price an item would sell for, and then make it available to any PC who is willing to give the rest of the party that amount of money. If more than one player is willing to pay the price, the interested players could roll dice to see who gets the item. Or, for items that several characters could all use equally well (such as a potion of healing that is useful to all), the characters can bargain with each other and roll dice for choices. A player character may relinquish a claim on one magical item in exchange for another. A character who has already received a magical item may not be allowed another choice if there are not enough pieces to go around. If no other agreement can be reached, the players can roll dice and have their characters pick in descending order. It is a fair method (since people cannot rightfully complain about a random roll), but it can create imbalances. One or two characters could wind up with the bulk of the magical items over the course of several adventures. At this point, they would be wise to voluntarily withdraw from the selection process.

There are tactical issues to think about when distributing treasure. It is simply not wise for one or two characters to carry the bulk of the party's magical items. Successful adventurers spread their gear throughout their party. (This holds true even for explorers and special forces in the real world.) This way, if one character falls off the cliff and disappears forever or is spirited away by an invisible stalker, the party has not lost everything. To illustrate another consideration, you are better off to have the fighters, thieves, and mages carry the healing potions rather than let the cleric do it, since he has healing spells. If he has both the healing spells and the potions and should disappear into the mist, your party has lost all its healing ability. If it is spread around through the group, at worst you might lose the potions or the spells, but not both (unless disaster really strikes, in which case there is no way to prevent it anyway). In the end, you will find that it does not pay to be too greedy.

Once your characters have assembled a sizeable amount of treasure, they have to find some place to keep it. If your DM is running a fairly medieval campaign, one thing PCs are not going to find is a bank like today's. Instead, your characters must find other ways to keep their money secure. Chests with strong locks are a good start, but there are still better methods. One choice is to make the treasure small enough that you can carry it with you at all times. (Of course, one good mugging and you're broke.) There is also the difficulty of buying a drink with a 1,000-gp gem. A second choice is to place your money in the hands of someone you think you can trust. We all know what the risks are there. You could have your character give his fortune to a local lord or church and then hope to call in favors at a future date. This is not quite as foolish as it sounds. If the beneficiary of your largess refuses to honor your agreement, you'll never give him money again and neither will anyone else, most likely. If no one gives him any money, where will he find the funds to support his lifestyle? No, such a person must seriously try to honor his commitments. Of course, he may not do as much as you would like. The best solution is that used throughout history--buy goods and chattels. Land, livestock, and trade goods are harder to steal and harder to lose. If you must keep a large fortune, it is best to keep it in something that can be carried easily and is unlikely to be stolen.

Pucs

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Chapter 11:

Encounters

Whenever a player character meets an NPC (nonplayer character), fights a monster, or even discovers a mysterious fountain in the woods, he is having an encounter. An encounter is any significant thing a character meets, sees, or interacts with during the course of a game. When a player character discovers a fountain of blue flame in the midst of the forest, its very strangeness forces the character to react and the player to think. Why is it here? Does it have a purpose? Is it beneficial or dangerous? Few characters are going to pass this by as just another flaming fountain in the forest.

Encounters are vital to the AD&D game, for without them nothing can really happen to the player character. An adventure without encounters is like sitting in a room all day with no one to talk to and little to look at. It certainly wouldn't be very exciting. And who wants to play an unexciting role-playing game? Encounters provide danger, risk, mystery, information, intrigue, suspense, humor, and more.

For an encounter to provide excitement, it must also have an element of danger. A good deal of this comes from the fact that player characters don't know how the encountered beings will react to them. Your DM is not going to say, "You meet a group of peasants and they are friendly." (If he does say this, you ought to be suspicious.) Instead, he will say something like, "As you ride around the bend, you come upon an oxcart lumbering down the road. A young man in rough clothes is leading the cart. Peering over the sides are a woman and several dirty children. When the man sees you he nods, smiles, and says, "Hail, strangers. Have you news of Thornhampton-on-the-Hill?" You can probably guess they are peasants and they seem friendly, but your DM didn't come out and say so. Not knowing for sure is what keeps you on your toes. They could be anything!

When your character travels or explores a dungeon, your DM will have prepared two general types of encounters. The first are specific (planned) encounters. These are meetings, events, or things the DM has chosen to place in the adventure to build on the story of the adventure.

For example, upon sneaking into the bugbear stronghold, your characters find a squalid cell filled with humans and elves. Your DM has placed them here for your character to rescue. Of course, he could also be playing a trick and the prisoners could actually be evil dopplegangers (creatures able to change their appearances at will).

Later, while in the hallway, your group bumps into a bugbear patrol. This is the second type of encounter, a random encounter, also called a wandering encounter. In this case, your DM has made die rolls to see if you come upon something and, if so, just what that something is.

Specific encounters generally have more choices of action--your DM may want you to discover some important information or set up a particularly difficult battle. Specific encounters usually yield greater treasures and more magical items. Creatures may be placed by the DM to guard the armory or prevent the characters from reaching the throne room.

Random encounters normally involve simple choices--run away, fight, or ignore. Sometimes characters can talk to creatures in random encounters and learn valuable information, but not often. Random encounters also tend to have little or no treasure. A patrol of city guardsmen does not carry as many valuable items on its rounds as it would have in its barracks. Random encounters are most often used to weaken PCs, raise an unexpected alarm, hurry them along, or just make their lives difficult.

Sometimes encounters are not with people or monsters but with things. The fountain in the forest is an encounter, but your characters cannot fight it or talk to it (well, maybe not). So what are you supposed to do? In these cases, the encounter is more of a puzzle. You have to figure out why this fountain is here, what it can do, and if it is important to your adventure. It may be a red herring--something placed there just to confuse you; it may be a set up for a future adventure--later on your characters may learn that the flaming fountain they saw is important to their latest mission. It may be a deadly trap. To find out, though, you will have to deal with the thing in some way. You could throw stones into the pool, drink the glowing water, try to walk through the flames, or use spells to learn more. By doing these things, you may get more information from your DM. Of course, you may not like the answer! ("You drank the water? Oh, dear. Tsk, tsk, tsk.")

The Surprise Roll

Sometimes an encounter, either random or planned by the DM, catches one of the two groups involved totally off guard. This is called surprise and is determined by rolling 1d10 for each side (or only one side if the DM has decided that one of the sides cannot be surprised, for some reason). If the die roll is a 1, 2, or 3, that group or character is surprised (for effects, see the "Effects of Surprise" section). Naturally, surprise does not happen all the time. There are many easy and intelligent ways it can be prevented. The most obvious is if the player characters can see those they are about to encounter well before getting close.

For example, the characters may see the dust of a group of horsemen coming their way, or notice the lanterns of a group of peasants coming through the woods, or hear the grunting barks of a gnoll war party closing through the trees. In these cases there is no way the characters are going to be surprised by the encounter. But if a leopard leaped upon one of the group while he was intently watching the approaching riders, or if a group of goblins suddenly sprang from the darkness, then the characters would have to roll to see if they were surprised. They were unprepared for these threats and so could be taken off guard.

The DM decides when a check for surprise must be made. He can require that one roll be made for the entire party, that a separate check be made for each character, or that only specific characters check. This depends entirely upon the situation.

For example, the entire party is intently watching the band of approaching riders. Then a leopard leaps from the branches of a tree overhead. The DM knows that no one in the group was particularly paying attention to the treetops, so he has one person in the group roll the surprise die for the entire party. The roll is a 2, the PCs are surprised, the leopard gets a free round of attacks, and there is mass confusion as the clawing, biting creature lands in their midst! If two of the characters had been on a general watch, the DM could have had these characters roll for surprise instead of the entire group. If both were surprised, the entire group would have been unprepared for the leopard's attack. Otherwise, one or both of the guards might have noticed the creature before it pounced. Experienced player characters quickly learn the value of having someone on watch at all times.

The surprise roll can also be modified by Dexterity, race, class, cleverness, and situation. The DM has the listing of modifiers that apply to given situations. Modifiers can affect either your character's chance of being surprised or his chance of surprising others. A plus to your die roll reduces the odds that you are surprised; a minus increases those odds. Likewise, a minus to the enemy's die roll means that the modifier is in your favor, while a plus means that things are going his way. High Dexterity characters are virtually unsurpriseable, caught off guard only in unusual situations.

It is important to bear in mind that surprise and ambush are two different things. Surprise works as explained above. An ambush is prepared by one group to make an unexpected attack on another group and works only if the DM decides the other group cannot detect the ambush. A properly set ambush gives the attackers the opportunity to use spells and normal attacks before the other side reacts. If the ambush succeeds, the ambushing group gets its initial attack and the other group must roll for surprise in the next round, so the ambushing group may get two rounds of attacks before the other group can reply.

Effects of Surprise

Characters and monsters that are surprised all suffer the same penalty. They are caught off guard and thus cannot react quickly. The surprising group receives one round of attacks with melee, missile, or magical items. They cannot use these moments of surprise to cast spells.

A ranger on the unsurprised side could fire his long bow twice (two attacks per round) before his opponents could even hope to react. A fighter able to attack twice per round could attempt both hits before any initiative dice are rolled. A wizard could unleash a bolt from his wand of lightning before the enemy knew he was there. Of course, what applies to player characters also applies to monsters, so that the leopard in the earlier example could claw and bite before the characters even knew what was happening.

The second effect of surprise is that the surprised characters lose all AC bonuses for high Dexterity during that instant of surprise. The surprised characters are dumbfounded by the attack. Instead of ducking and countering, they're just standing there rather flat-footed (maybe even with dumb expressions on their faces). Since they don't grasp the situation, they cannot avoid the hazards and dangers very well.

Surprise can also be used to avoid an encounter. Unsurprised characters can attempt to flee from a surprised group before the other group reacts. Of course, this is not always successful, since escape is greatly dependent upon the movement rates of the different creatures.

If both groups manage to surprise each other, the effects of surprise are cancelled. For example, Rath runs around the corner straight into some lounging guardsmen. Taken by surprise, he stops suddenly and frantically looks for someplace else to run. The guardsmen in turn look up rather stupidly, trying to figure out why this dwarf just raced around the corner. The surprise passes. Rath spots another alley and the guards decide that since he's running, Rath must be a criminal. Initiative rolls are now made to see who acts first.

Pucs

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Encounter Distance

Once your character or party has an encounter and it has been determined whether or not anyone was surprised, your DM will tell you the range of the encounter--the distance separating you from the other group. Many factors affect encounter distance. These include the openness of the terrain, the weather conditions, whether surprise occurred, and the time of day, to name a few. Although you do not know the exact distance until your DM tells you, surprise, darkness, or close terrain (woods, city streets, or narrow dungeons) usually results in shorter encounter distances, while open ground (deserts, plains, or moors), good light, or advance warning results in greater encounter distances (see Chapter 13: Vision and Light).

Encounter Options

Once an encounter occurs, there is no set sequence for what happens next. It all depends on just what your characters have encountered and what they choose to do. That's the excitement of a role-playing game--once you meet something, almost anything could happen. There are some fairly common results of encounters, however.

Evasion: Sometimes all you want is for your characters to avoid, escape, or otherwise get away from whatever it is you've met. Usually this is because you realize your group is seriously outmatched. Perhaps returning badly hurt from an adventure, your group spots a red dragon soaring overhead. You know it can turn your party to toast if it wants. Rather than take that risk, your group hides, waiting for it to pass. Or, topping a ridge, you see the army of Frazznargth the Impious, a noted warlord. There are 5,000 of them and six of you. Retreat seems like the better part of valor, so you turn your horses and ride.

Sometimes you want to avoid an encounter simply because it will take too much time. While riding with an urgent message for his lord, your character rides into a group of wandering pilgrims. Paying them no mind, he lashes his horse and gallops past.

Evading or avoiding an encounter is not always successful. Some monsters pursue; others do not. In the examples above, Frazznargth the Impious (being a prudent commander) orders a mounted patrol to chase the characters and bring them in for questioning. The pilgrims, on the other hand, shout a few oaths as your galloping horse splashes mud on them and then continue on their way. Your character's success at evading capture will depend on movement rates, determination of pursuit, terrain, and just a little luck. Sometimes when he really should be caught, your character gets lucky. At other times, well, he just has to stand his ground.

Talk: Your character doesn't run from encounters all the time, and attacking everything you meet eventually leads to problems. Sometimes the best thing to do is talk, whether it's casual conversation, hardball negotiation, jovial rumor-swapping, or intimidating threats. In fact, talking is often better than fighting. To solve the problems your DM has created for your character, you need information. Asking the right questions, developing contacts, and putting out the word are all useful ways to use an encounter. Not everything you meet, human or otherwise, is out to kill your character. Help often appears in the most surprising forms. Thus it often pays to take the time to talk to creatures.

Fight: Of course, there are times when you don't want to or can't run away. (Running all the time is not that heroic.) And there are times when you know talking is not a good idea. Sooner or later, your character will have to fight. The real trick is knowing when to fight and when to talk or run. If you attack every creature you meet, the first thing that will happen is that nobody will want to meet with your character. Your character will also manage to kill or chase off everyone who might want to help him. Finally, sooner or later your DM is going to get tired of this and send an incredibly powerful group of monsters after your character. Given the fact that you've been killing everything in sight, he's justified in doing this.

So it is important always to know who you are attacking and why. As with the best police in the world today, the trick is to figure out who are the bad guys and who are the good guys. Make mistakes and you pay. You may kill an NPC who has a vital clue, or unintentionally anger a baron far more powerful than yourself. NPCs will be reluctant to associate with your character, and the law will find fewer and fewer reasons to protect him. It is always best to look on combat as a last resort.

Wait: Sometimes when you encounter another group, you don't know what you should do. You don't want to attack them in case they are friendly, but you don't want to say anything to provoke them. What you can do is wait and see how they react. Waiting is a perfectly sensible option. However, there is the risk that in waiting, you lose the advantage should the other side suddenly decide to attack. Waiting for a reaction so that you can decide what to do causes a +1 penalty to the first initiative roll for your group, if the other side attacks.

Of course, in any given encounter, there may be many other options open to your character. The only limit is your imagination (and common sense). Charging a band of orcs to break through their lines and flee may work. Talking them down with an elaborate bluff about the army coming up behind you might scare them off. Clever use of spells could end the encounter in sudden and unexpected ways. The point is, this is a role-playing game and the options are as varied as you wish to make them.

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Chapter 12:

NPCs

Player characters cannot fight, survive, wheel, deal, plot, or scheme without interacting with nonplayer characters (NPCs). Indeed, the very heart of the AD&D game is the relationship between player characters and nonplayer characters. How the player characters react to and treat NPCs determines the type of game the group plays. Although many choices are possible, players quickly find that consideration and good treatment of NPCs is the most frequently successful route.

An NPC is any person, creature, or monster that is controlled by the DM. Most NPCs are either people (intelligent races that live in local society) or monsters (intelligent and unintelligent creatures that aren't normally found in towns and villages). The term "monster" is only a convenient label. It doesn't mean the creature is automatically dangerous or hostile. Likewise, NPCs who are people aren't uniformly helpful and cooperative. As with all things, the range of possible reactions of NPCs to PCs covers the entire spectrum.

In the course of their adventures, player characters will be most concerned with three groups of NPCs: hirelings, followers, and henchmen. It is their aid that helps player characters vanquish deadly monsters and accomplish mighty deeds. As their names imply, these NPCs can be persuaded in various ways to join the player characters in their adventures. The most common methods of persuasion are money and loyalty.

Hirelings

The most frequently employed NPC is the hireling. A hireling is a person who works for money. Most hirelings have fairly ordinary skills, while others are masters of a craft or art, and a few are experts of specialized adventuring skills. Typical hirelings include the following:

Archer Architect

Armorer Assassin

Baker Blacksmith

Bladesmith Foot Soldier

Jeweler Laborer

Messenger Minstrel

Sage Sailor

Spy Thief

Hirelings are always employed for a stated term of service or for the performance of a specific task. Thus, a mercenary contracts to serve for one season. A thief can be hired to steal a named item. A sage works to answer a single question. A blacksmith may indenture himself for a term of years. A sailor works for a single voyage. Quite often these contracts can be renewed without difficulty, but the only thing that binds a hireling to the player character is regular pay and good treatment. Hirelings do not serve a PC out of any great loyalty.

Thus there are some things hirelings will not do. Most hirelings do not foolishly risk their lives. There are soldiers willing to take their chances on the field of battle, but even these courageous (or foolish) few do not willingly undertake the greater hazards of adventuring. They man castle walls, guard caravans, collect taxes, and charge the massed foe well enough, but they often refuse to accompany a PC on an adventure. Even a hireling who regularly undertakes dangerous missions (a thief or an assassin, for example) normally refuses to join player character parties. These hirelings are loners. They contract to do a job and get it done in their own way, without interference from anyone else.

Hirelings are no more loyal than human nature allows. For the most part, if paid and treated well, with opportunities to realize their ambitions, working for a charismatic leader, hirelings can be relied on to do their jobs faithfully. But poor pay, injustice, discrimination, threats, abuse, and humiliation at the hands of their masters make them somewhat less than reliable. A smart leader sees to the comfort and morale of his men before his own concerns. With less savory characters--those hired to perform dark deeds--the player character takes even greater chances, especially given the questionable morals of such characters.

Whatever their personalities, hirelings generally need to make morale checks (explained in the DMG) whenever they are faced with a particularly dangerous situation or are offered a bribe or other temptation.

Finding hirelings is not difficult. People need jobs. It is simply a matter of advertising. Under normal circumstances, applicants respond to ads. Only when trying to employ vast numbers or hire those with unusual specialties (such as spies) does the process become complicated. Just what needs to be done in this situation depends entirely upon the DM's campaign. Your character may have to skulk through the unsavory bars of the waterfront, rely on questionable go-betweens, or pay a visit to the thieves' guild (if there is one). Just employing one of these characters can be a small adventure in itself.

Employment costs of hirelings vary from a few gold pieces a month to thousands of gold pieces for an especially dangerous task. The skill and experience of a hireling has a great effect on his salary. A learned sage researching some obscure piece of lore can charge hefty sums. Costs can also be affected by the conditions of the campaign--the setting, the recent events of the world, and the reputations of the player characters (if any). Most hirelings sign on for what they think is fair. While few will turn down more money, most will drive the best bargain they can. Your DM has more information about employment costs, since he may need to alter these to fit his campaign.

Followers

More reliable than those who are motivated purely by money are those characters who, while they expect pay, were originally drawn into service by the reputation of the player character. These are followers, usually a unit of soldiers of one type or another. Followers serve only those of significant power and reputation, thus the construction of a stronghold is necessary to attract followers.

Followers have the same needs and limitations of hirelings. Most must be paid and well-treated. They also do not accompany the player characters on group adventures. They have some advantages over hirelings, however. Followers do not serve for a specific term of contract. They remain with the player character as long as their basic needs are met. They are more loyal than the average hireling and are treated as elite troops. Unlike most hirelings, followers can increase in level (although this occurs very slowly since they act only as soldiers). All followers in a unit advance to the next level at the same time. Finally, the player character need not seek out followers--they come to him, seeking out positions within his illustrious household.

Followers appear only once. Replacements do not arrive to fill the ranks of the fallen. (Massive losses of followers in combat only gives the character a bad reputation, discouraging others from flocking to his banner.) Player characters should take care of their followers, perhaps treating them as an elite bodyguard.

Some characters attract unique followers such as animals or magical beings. Although termed followers, these creatures are more properly treated as henchmen in terms of loyalty and what they will and will not do. They do not count against the character's limit on henchmen, however, since they are technically followers.

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Henchmen

Henchmen are much that hirelings are not. They are adventurers who serve out of loyalty. They are willing to risk their lives for those they respect. They are also hard to find.

Henchmen are powerful allies to a player character. Unlike hirelings, they have the nerve and ability to become powerful adventurers. Although they expect their share of treasure, they do not usually join a player character for money. They are attracted to the PC because of his reputation or other qualities he possesses. As such, henchmen cannot be expected to flock to the banner of a neophyte adventurer. He may gain himself one or two companions, but others come only when he has earned a greater reputation, met more people, and proven himself a true friend and ally to these NPCs.

Henchmen can come from any source. Most often they are at first mere hirelings or followers who, through distinctive actions, come to the attention of the player character. Some may be higher level, more skilled hirelings who develop a bond to the player character through long employment. Others may be followers who have sound advice for the player character.

A henchman is always of lower level than the PC. Should he ever equal or surpass the PC's level, the henchman leaves forever; it is time for him to try his luck in the real world. In some ways, the player character is the mentor and the henchman his student. When the student has learned as much as the teacher, it is time for him to go out on his own.

Henchmen are more than just loyal followers; they are friends and allies. Naturally, they expect to be treated as such. They have little need for those who do not trust them or treat them coldly. Abusiveness or taking advantage of the friendship quickly ends the relationship. Just as players must with their own friends, player characters must be sensitive to the needs and feelings of their henchmen. Furthermore, henchmen attach themselves to a particular player character, not a group of player characters. Thus it is only under the direst of circumstances that a henchman accepts the orders of another PC. Should his friend (the player character) fall, the henchman sees to his needs. He doesn't abandon him and continue on with the other player characters unless this is clearly the only way to aid his friend.

A PC's Charisma determines the maximum number of henchmen he can have. This is a lifetime limit, not just a maximum possible at any given time. In a world where the fallen can be restored to life, it is expected that a man would make this effort for his dearest friends, both player characters and henchmen. For example, Rupert the half-elf has had seven henchmen, but all have fallen for one reason or another. Rupert's Charisma is 15, so with the death of his latest henchman, no more come to join him. (Word has obviously gotten around that Rupert's friends tend to meet unpleasant ends, and he doesn't even have the decency to bring them back to life! Even if he had tried to raise his henchmen and failed, Rupert would still be viewed as a jinx, bad luck for those around him.)

Attracting a henchman is fairly difficult. One cannot advertise for friends with any great success. They grow and develop from other relationships. A henchman can be found by placing trust in a skilled hireling. Heroic deeds (saving the life of an NPC) can create a strong and instant bond. Love certainly can form this bond. The player and the DM must trust their own judgment to determine when an NPC becomes a henchman. There is no clear line an NPC must cross to make the transition from hireling to henchman. Instead, it is a slide from one status to the other.

Once an NPC becomes a henchman, the player gains a high degree of control over the character. He should be responsible for the record keeping for that character. It is almost, but not quite, like having a new PC for the player. If the DM allows it, the player can have all information regarding the abilities of the henchman, although the DM may choose not to reveal this information. The player is allowed to make nearly all decisions for the NPC, but the DM can overrule any action as being out of character.

There are certain things henchmen do not do. They do not give away or loan out magical items. They do not allow others free access to their spell books. They do not tolerate spell use that questions their loyalty (detect lie or know alignment cast upon them). They do not accept less than their due share. In general, within these limits, henchmen do what is desired of them. The DM can at any time dictate the actions of a henchman, since the character is still an NPC.

If a PC is not attentive to the wishes and needs of his henchmen, or if he abuses and humiliates them, he can expect the worst. This is the stuff mutinies and rebellions are made of. Should an abusive player character fall at the hands of a once-loyal henchman, he has only himself to blame.

On the other hand, not all henchmen are paragons of loyalty. The player character must always be aware that henchmen are sometimes not what they seem. They can be a means to get at the player character. Throughout history, many a cruel and cunning villain has posed as a true companion, waiting for his chance to strike or spy on his friend.

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