Hell Hound
Frequency: Very rare
No. appearing: 2-8
Armour class: 4
Move: 12”
Hit dice: 4-7 but for the purposes of tonight’s dogfight, we’ll call the average 23
% in lair: 30%
Treasure type: C
No of attacks: 1
Damage per attack: 1-10
Special attacks: Breathe Fire
Magic resistance: Standard
Intelligence: Low
Size: M
THAC0: 15 so to hit the werewolf will need a 10
In addition to their normal attack, the hell hound breathes a scorching fire up to 1” distance causing 1hp of damage for every 1 hit dice they possess in this case 5. Save vs. dragon’s breath to halve the damage.
Werewolf
Frequency: Common
No. appearing: 3-18
Armour class: 5
Move: 15”
Hit dice: 4+3, which is an average of 21
% in lair: 25%
Treasure type: B
No of attacks: 1
Damage per attack: 2-8
Special attacks: surprise on 1-3
Magic resistance: Standard
Intelligence: Average
Size: M
THAC0: 15 so to hit the hell hound, they’ll need an 11
Save vs. breath weapon 16 or better. And I'm aware that technically you need a magic or silver weapon to hit a werewolf but I reckon that hell hounds are pretty damn magic anyway, so I'm giving them that one.
And has anyone actually noticed that the frequency for Werewolves is Common – that means there’s a 65% chance of encountering them. That’s right – 65% chance. Odds like that, these things should be leaping out at you every time you go to the shops.
The numbers appearing is going to be interesting; it seems that werewolves are probably twice as numerous as hell hounds, so we’ll try and pit 8 werewolves against 4 hell hounds and see what happens. It’s going to be epic.
Round 1
To the sound of barking and howling, the fight begins. I’ll make it easy on myself and rule that each hell hound gets two werewolves.
We’ll work down the hellhounds in order, thus (and I guess we’ll see if SNFC can handle larger combats)
Hellhound 1 scores 1 on the reaction dice
Werewolf 1 scores 3 on his reaction
Werewolf 2 scores 6 on his reaction
Werewolf 1 rolls 11 and does 6 damage, Werewolf 2 a 9 and misses.
Hell Hound 1 rolls a 9 and misses.
Hellhound 2 scores 3 on the reaction dice
Werewolf 3 scores 4 on his reaction
Werewolf 4 scores 5 on his reaction
Werewolf 3 rolls a 15 and Werewolf 4 an 18 – their damage is 4 and 5 respectively.
Hell Hound 2 rolls a 7 to hit and misses.
Hellhound 3 scores 6 on the reaction dice
Werewolf 5 scores 3 on his reaction
Werewolf 6 scores 2 on his reaction
Hell Hound 3 rolls an 11 and hits, for damage of 6.
Werewolf 5 rolls a 9, as does Werewolf 6
Hellhound 4 scores 3 on the reaction dice
Werewolf 7 scores 2 on his reaction
Werewolf 8 scores 2 on his reaction
Hell Hound 4 scores a 17, for damage of 5
Werewolf 7 rolls an 18, with 6 damage, Werewolf 8 rolls an 11 and inflicts 7
End of that round – hit points are as follows
Hellhound 1 17
Hellhound 2 14
Hellhound 3 23
Hellhound 4 10
Werewolf 1 21
Werewolf 2 21
Werewolf 3 21
Werewolf 4 21
Werewolf 5 15
Werewolf 6 21
Werewolf 7 16
Werewolf 8 21
It’s Round 2 – no-one’s dead yet.
Hellhound 1 scores 1 on the reaction dice
Werewolf 1 scores 5 on his reaction
Werewolf 2 scores 6 on his reaction
Werewolf 1 rolls a 3
Werewolf 2 rolls a 20 – I’m not running the critical rule in this fight, it’s bloodthirsty enough as it is, so just normal damage of 3
Hell Hound 1 decides to use the breath weapon and directs it at werewolf 1, who fails his save and takes 5 damage.
Hellhound 2 scores 1 on the reaction dice
Werewolf 3 scores 6 on his reaction
Werewolf 4 scores 3 on his reaction
Werewolf 3 rolls a 9
Werewolf 4 rolls another 20 – damage of 5
Hell Hound 2 also decides to use his breath weapon and directs it at werewolf 3, who also fails his save vs. breath and takes 5 damage
Hellhound 3 scores 6 on the reaction dice
Werewolf 5 scores 1 on his reaction
Werewolf 6 scores 6 on his reaction
Hell Hound 3 (I think they’ll all go for breath this round and alternate with teeth) breathes fire at Werewolf 5, who manages to make his save and therefore takes 2.5, which we’ll round up to 3.
Werewolf 5 rolls an 18 and does damage of 7
Werewolf 6 rolls a 5.
Hellhound 4 scores 2 on the reaction dice
Werewolf 7 scores 2 on his reaction
Werewolf 8 scores 4 on his reaction
Hell Hound 4 breathes on Werewolf 7, who fails his save and takes 5 damage.
Werewolf 7 rolls an 11 and does 8 damage
Werewolf 8 rolls an 11 and does 6 damage.
This damage is enough to kill Hell Hound 4
At the end of that round, the hit point totals are
Hellhound 1 14
Hellhound 2 9
Hellhound 3 16
Hellhound 4 dead
Werewolf 1 16
Werewolf 2 21
Werewolf 3 16
Werewolf 4 21
Werewolf 5 12
Werewolf 6 21
Werewolf 7 11
Werewolf 8 21
Okay, round 3 – everyone keeping up?
There are now two spare werewolves, who will turn on Hellhound 2 as it’s the most badly damaged now. This round, I’ll rule that the surviving hellhounds decide to bite – it has a chance of doing more damage.
Hellhound 1 scores 5 on the reaction dice
Werewolf 1 scores 6 on his reaction
Werewolf 2 scores 2 on his reaction
Werewolf 1 rolls a 7 and misses
Hell Hound 1 rolls a 19 and does damage of 6 against Werewolf 1
Werewolf 2 rolls a 12 and does damage of 7.
Hellhound 2 scores 4 on the reaction dice
Werewolf 3 scores 6 on his reaction
Werewolf 4 scores 1 on his reaction
Werewolf 7 scores 4 on his reaction
Werewolf 8 scores 1 on his reaction
Werewolf 3 rolls a 2
Werewolf 7 rolls a 11 and does damage of 4
Hell Hound 2 rolls a 19 and inflicts damage of 9 on Werewolf 7, who is the most wounded.
Werewolf 8 rolls a 6
Werewolf 4 rolls a 4
Hellhound 3 scores 5 on the reaction dice
Werewolf 5 scores 4 on his reaction
Werewolf 6 scores 2 on his reaction
Hell Hound 3 rolls a 6 and misses
Werewolf 5 rolls a 4
Werewolf 6 rolls a 6
End of round 3, let’s see who’s up and who’s down
Hellhound 1 7
Hellhound 2 5
Hellhound 3 16
Werewolf 1 10
Werewolf 2 21
Werewolf 3 16
Werewolf 4 21
Werewolf 5 12
Werewolf 6 21
Werewolf 7 2
Werewolf 8 21
The Hell Hounds are really taking a pounding on this one, although two of the werewolves are not looking at all happy. Ah well, on with round 4
Hellhound 1 scores 5 on the reaction dice
Werewolf 1 scores 1 on his reaction
Werewolf 2 scores 4 on his reaction
Hell Hound 1 rolls an 18 and his bite inflicts damage of 5 on Werewolf 1
Werewolf 2 rolls a 10
Werewolf 1 rolls a 12 and does damage of 7, which is enough to kill Hell Hound 1
Hellhound 2 scores 2 on the reaction dice
Werewolf 3 scores 5on his reaction
Werewolf 4 scores 3 on his reaction
Werewolf 7 scores 6 on his reaction
Werewolf 8 scores 3 on his reaction
Werewolf 7 rolls a 2
Werewolf 3 rolls a 4
Werewolf 4 rolls a 6
Werewolf 8 rolls a 11 and does 8 damage on Hell Hound 2, killing it
Hellhound 3 scores 6 on the reaction dice
Werewolf 5 scores 2 on his reaction
Werewolf 6 scores 3 on his reaction
Hell Hound 3 rolls a 13 and does 7 damage on Werewolf 5
Werewolf 6 rolls a 4
Werewolf 5 rolls a 4
At the end of that round, it’s looking like curtains for Hell Hound 3. He’s got 16 hp still left, and the werewolves lining up now to take him down have the following
Werewolf 1 5
Werewolf 2 21
Werewolf 3 16
Werewolf 4 21
Werewolf 5 5
Werewolf 6 21
Werewolf 7 2
Werewolf 8 21
As the odds are overwhelming, I’ll say that four werewolves have the chance to launch their attacks; two hit, two miss. The hits do 11 damage. The hell hound replies with 6 damage against one of the werewolves; I’ll be charitable and say that the damage is against one of those who would be killed by it.
Round 6 – the final four werewolf attacks land two blows against the last hell hound, who falls to the attacks. His last bite finishes off one of the wounded werewolves.
Well, from that rather long,bloodthirsty and vicious combat, what can we deduce? The werewolves’ superiority in numbers was by far the most telling factor in their victory. Hell Hound breath, although touted as a frightening weapon, seems not to have done all that much damage – even the most powerful hounds only inflicts 7 damage in total with each breath and that’s assuming that the victim fails its save.
As we’ve already seen, the frequency of werewolves and the numbers encountered (3-18, which is on average either 10 or 11) makes them a scary opponent; granted, the concept of the werewolf is by now somewhat corny and hackneyed and needs a bit of revitalisation, rather like Neil Marshall did with Dog Soldiers. If your Dungeon Master either watched that or reads this blog, pack your wolfsbane, silver and magic. And remember that they have a 15” movement rate, so they’re probably faster than you.
Next week, if all goes well, we’ll see what happens when an ettin takes on an otyugh.
The Werewolf is considered common?!?
ReplyDeleteI have seriously under utilized them.
I suspect a lot of people have; perhaps the werewolf needs some Old School love.
ReplyDeleteI've always played that the hell hound breath is in addition to the teeth - that makes them rather more dangerous puppies....
ReplyDeletecongrats on your 100th post. we had a series of adventures where we weeded out an enormous mafia-like gang of werewolves. Thought we'd seen the back of those mutts but looking at your stat up here I think we need to stay alert!
ReplyDeleteWerewolves are always under-used!
ReplyDeleteIf you want to inject some old-school werewolf love take a look at the D&D Gazetteer for Principalities of Glantri.
@Tom - I had thought about making that ruling rather than the other; you are right about this upgrading their potential. In the end, I went for the either/or, since the Monster Manual is unclear.
ReplyDelete@Dungeonmum - thanks, my centenary is nice to achieve. Nearly at 60 followers as well. Remember it only takes one werewolf to survive and you're soon back where you started. I had an entry in my campaign history about the Wolf Wars, where wargs and werewolves overran a frontier principality and managed to infect a tribe of halflings. Can you imagine hobbit werewolves? You'd die laughing before they managed to hit you.
@Satyre - I think I've got that somewhere. I might peruse it and see if I can fillet out some ideas for my campaign.