While the previous article may be applied
to the official pernicon found in the FIEND
FOLIO® Tome, hopefully making it easier
to integrate into your campaign, several
problems remain with the original monster.
It is awkward for a DM to handle in com-
bat, particularly if the monster appears in
large numbers?; and its hit points, damage,
and constitution drain are extremely great
and powerful characteristics for a two-inch
insect to have.

Herewith is presented the revised perni-
con. Parts of the following description are
taken directly from the FIEND FOLIO
Tome (p. 72) and credit for these portions
(and, of course, the original idea) goes to
the original author of the pernicon, Mary
Patterson.

FREQUENCY:  Rare
NO. APPEARING:  4-40 (in lair or moving
ARMOR CLASS: 3
MOVE: 12" (plus jumping)
HIT DICE:  1 hit point
% IN LAIR:  20% (1% chance of the en-
colony, 300-3000)
counter being with a moving colony)
TREASURE TYPE:  See below
NO. OF ATTACKS:  1
DAMAGE/ATTACK:  1 hit point
SPECIAL ATTACKS:  Continuous damage
SPECIAL DEFENSES:  Nil
MAGIC RESISTANCE:  Standard
INTELLIGENCE:  Semi-
ALIGNMENT:  Neutral
SIZE:  S (2 inches long)
PSIONIC ABILITY:  Nil
    Attack/defense modes: Nil/nil
LEVEL/X.P. VALUE:  I/7  +  1/hp

A brightly colored insect rather like a
grasshopper about 2 inches long ? red,
yellow, ochire, and light blue ? the perni-
con inhabits the outer regions of deserts. It
is much prized by the nomads of these
regions, because the antennae on its head
are water-diviners, vibrating and giving off
a low hum when within 120? of a large
quantity of water.

capable of doing 6 hp damage total), at
which point they are quite bloated and will
drop off the victim to crawl away.
hp of fluids in that manner (thus being
Normal pernicons are capable of draining 5
The pernicon is usually inoffensive, but it
attacks in large numbers if disturbed, acci-
dentally or otherwise. It leaps on its victims
and grips exposed flesh with the set of pin-
cers at the rear of its abdomen. The pincers
themselves do 1 hit point of damage and
then begin draining the fluids of the victim
at the rate of 1 hp per subsequent round,
without requiring further ?to hit? rolls.
Normal pernicons are capable of draining 5
The pernicon is usually inoffensive, but it
attacks in large numbers if disturbed, acci-
dentally or otherwise. It leaps on its victims
and grips exposed flesh with the set of pin-
cers at the rear of its abdomen. The pincers
themselves do 1 hit point of damage and
then begin draining the fluids of the victim
at the rate of 1 hp per subsequent round,
without requiring further ?to hit? rolls.
Normal pernicons are capable of draining 5
hp of fluids in that manner (thus being
capable of doing 6 hp damage total), at
which point they are quite bloated and will
drop off the victim to crawl away.

A pernicon attached to a victim has an
armor class of 10. However, on an attack
against it that misses and is a roll of 4 or
more under the number needed to hit it, the
victim is hit and receives half-normal
weapon damage (rounded down). If the
insect is slain while attached, the pincers
remain in the victim and continue to drain
hit points (fluids) at the rate or 1 point per
round. Removing the pincers, which can be
done easily in 1 round by the victim or a
companion, inflicts an additional 1 hp
damage but stops the fluid loss.

Leader pernicons: In each colony of
pernicons, there is one extraordinary leader
pernicon, whose main functions are deciding
when it's time to leave the lair, choosing
where to establish a new lair, and breeding.
Leader-type pernicons are different from
normal sorts as follows: AC 2, 2 hp, 4"
length, low intelligence, and the capability
to drain up to 10 hp of fluids (at 1 hp/round).
A leader-type pernicon invariably
has its own chamber in the lair, and there is
a 25% chance that the chamber's walls are
of saliva-glued gold dust (value 2-12 gp
if melted down). In mass combat (see below),
the leader is treated as an individual monster,
never as part of a swarm.

Combat:  Since pernicons are small crea-
tures that attack in large numbers, they are
difficult to manage in a conventional com-
bat manner. The following suggestions
should help.

The main pernicon swarm always divides
into small swarms of relatively equal size for
each opponent. A swarm may then be in
some ways treated as if it was a single crea-
ture (similar to the cifal; see the FIEND
FOLIO Tome, page 19). Each pernicon has
1 hp, so the collective ?creature? has as
many hit points as there are pernicons
within it. A victim is more likely to attack
successfully against such a large number of
insects, so the swarm?s opponent receives
+1 ?to hit? for each ten pernicons alive
and lighting him when the attack is made.

The number of pernicons that can actu-
ally attack depends on the clothing or armor
of the opponent, as noted below.

Armor/Clothing	Pernicons able to attack
Bear	200
Cloth	100
Leather	50
Studded leather	40
Ring mail	30
Scale mail	20
Chain mail	15
Splint mail	15
Banded mail	15
Elfin chain mail	12
Plate mail	10
Field plate	5
Full pllate	3

Shields affect armor class (they can bat
away insects), but not the number of crea-
tures able to attack.

Combat is carried on in a fairly normal
manner. When there are very large num-
bers of pernicons, it is recommended that
the DM take a percentage (20 minus the
number required to hit a pernicon, times
five) of the number of pernicons able to
attack as the number of successful hits.
Each hit does 1 hp damage, and once perni-
cons are attached, they remain so for up to
five more rounds. The number of pernicons
attached to a victim reduces the number of
pernicons able to make further attacks —
thus, a person in full plate with three perni-
cons attached is effectively immune to fur-
ther attack until the three drop off, though
he takes only 3 hp damage per round from
them.

Sample combat:  Colonel Endrivan (9th-
level fighter, 55 hp, STR 17,  chainmail +2,
shield,  longsword  +1) and his henchman
Vandren of Agenelia (2nd-level fighter, 13
hp, STR 14, studded leather, shield, broad-
sword) have the misfortune of encountering
40 pernicons. The larger swarm divides into
two swarms of 20 each.

The pernicons attack. Chainmail allows
all 12 pernicons remaining in Endrivan’s
swarm to attack, and they need a 19 to hit.
The DM rolls a d20 twelve times, and three
hit with rolls of 19 or 20, thus reducing the
Colonel to 52 hp. Vandren does not fare so
well. The DM does this the easy way; since
a 15 is needed to hit Vandren and there are
twenty pernicons, the DM judges five to
have hit. Vandren is down to 8 hp.

Second round:  The pernicons gain the
initiative. For a start, the three pernicons
attached to Endrivan and the five on Van-
dren take their toll, leaving 49 and 3 hp to
the fighters, respectively. The nine perni-
cons swarming around Endrivan attack,
and one hits. Five more of Vandren’s at-
tackers hit and he loses consciousness (at
-2 hp) from blood and fluid loss. The ten
pernicons attached feast to their capacity,
and the ten that aren’t attached now move
toward Endrivan, to fight him the next
round.

Colonel Endrivan fights back, receiving
two attacks this round. Since there are only
eight in his swarm, he needs a 7 to hit, but
he misses twice with a 3 and a 4.

Third round:  Once again, the insects
gain the initiative. The four pernicons on
Endrivan reduce him further to 44 hp.
Those leaving the body of Vandren bring
the number of attackers to eighteen, and
two hit. Endrivan now needs a 6 to hit, and
rolls an 8; the damage roll (a 6, plus adjust-
ments) indicates that he has slain another
eight pernicons.

Fourth round:  Endrivan gains the initia-
tive, and attacks twice; he needs a 6, and
rolls 19 and 17, killing all “swarming”
pernicons. Those attached do another 6 hp
damage, leaving Endrivan at 36 hp.

Fifth round:  The Colonel, having some
knowledge of pernicons, attacks one of the
more recently attached ones and removes it.
He also removes the pincer, but is down to
30 hp at the end of the round.

Sixth round:  Endrivan removes another
pernicon, and the three who attached in the
first round of combat fall off, bloated. The
Colonel has 25 hp left.


Seventh round:  Endrivan removes the
last pernicon and pincer, and kills as many
of the horrid, crawling beasties as he can
find. He emerges from the encounter with
24 hp out of his original 55.

As can be seen, large numbers of perni-
cons are formidable even to high-level fight
ers. Of course, a wand of fire or cloudkill
can do much to counteract an unwanted
swarm of the pests. . . .
 

Dragon magazine	Monster Manual III	-	Pernicon (Ecology)	Dragon #108
Leader pernicons	-	-	-	Combat