FREQUENCY: Very rare
NO. APPEARING: 3-12
ARMOR CLASS: 7
MOVE: 15"
HIT DICE: 1-4
% IN LAIR: Nil
TREASURE TYPE: Nil
NO. OF ATTACKS: 1
DAMAGE/ATTACK: By weapon only
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Nil
SPECIAL DEFENSES: See below
MAGIC RESISTANCE: See below
INTELLIGENCE: Average
ALIGNMENT: Evil (neutral)
SIZE: M
PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil
Attack/Defense Modes:
Nil
LEVEL/X.P. VALUE: <??>
Huntsmen are enchanted monsters of human
size and shape
which can be created by an evil Magic-User
by the process described
below. They are a sickly grey-green in
color, with pointed ears and
four-fingered hands. From a distance they
look like humans and can
be mistaken for elves in poor visibility.
Huntsmen move quietly
under normal conditions and consequently
have a one-sixth greater
than normal chance of surprising a party.
They track as Rangers and
are themselves surprised only one-sixth
of the time.
They occasionally wear armor but in so
doing lose their ability to move silently and
track.
Individually, these creatures are very
weak monsters, but in a
group they have an ability which increases
the strength of survivors
when one or more of their comrades is
killed. When a Huntsman is
killed, its original number of hit points
is transferred to others in the
group within a maximum range of 10”. For
example, if one of a
group of three Huntsmen is killed, and
the dead creature had 12 hit
points to begin with, the survivors each
gain 6 hit points. The hit
points gained by survivors are always
divided evenly, or as evenly as
possible, between the survivors. No Huntsman
can maintain more
than 32 hit points for more than 24 hours,
and will always drop back
to that level after that much time. No
Huntsman can have more than
64 hit points at any time. A Dispel magic
spell will delay the transfer
of hit points for two rounds, and the
hit points of any creature killed
during that time are lost. A scroll of
Protection from magic will
prevent transfer of hit points within
its area of effect (5 feet), either to
or from a creature.
Because of the link between Huntsmen, they
cannot be
charmed, held or attacked psionically
unless they are encountered
as single creatures. Charm monster must
be used, not Charm person.
They can be magically slept only if the
Sleep spell is sufficiently
powerful to put all Huntsmen present to
sleep at the same time.
However, each creature is treated as a
monster with one more hit die
than it actually has when considering
the effects of Sleep.
For example, only 2-8 one-hit-die Huntsmen
could be slept, not 4-16.
Huntsmen usually work for some evil master,
commonly a
Magic-User, as guards or members of a
patrol. They communicate
with their master by pantomime, though
they understand orders
given in the alignment language of the
wizard who created them.
Huntsmen will not obey any master who attempts
to harm them for any reason.
Wizards can create Huntsmen in large,
noisome, liquid-filled
vats. Aside from an Enchant an item spell
to give the vat its dweomer,
the wizard must gather the following materials
for each huntsman:
two pints troll’s blood, entrails of two
bugbears, ichor of invisible
stalker, 50 pounds of clay, and five gallons
of water. The manufacturing process takes two weeks,
but needs only three days of attention
from the wizard. As many as four Huntsmen may be created at
the same time in the same vat if a sufficient
amount of materials and a
sufficiently large vat are used.
The procedure is as follows, with each
step in the creation
requiring one full day of attention from
the creator. At the start, the
wizard must cast Mending and Animal growth
on the materials. After
exactly one week he must cast Shatter
on the materials, and at the
start of the last day of the two-week
period he must cast Charm
monster to finish the creation. The number
of hit dice for each
creature is determined randomly after
ifs creation.
OUT ON A LIMB
Lew Pulsipher’s huntsmen is one of the best
monsters I’ve seen in some time! I recommend it
to all AD&D players. If Lew gives
his permission, it
will certainly be included in a future monster
manual-type work.
E. Gary Gygax
Lake Geneva, WI
(Dragon #43)
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