Saturday, November 15, 2014

5e Thoul

I was screwing around with the 5e system, to get a better understanding of the mechanics. For most people, its about CharGen and character-building, but I also like to toy around with custom monsters. So I decided to make a Thoul (from Moldvay's Basic rulebook) based on the Ghoul, Hobgoblin, and Troll stats form the free Dungeon Master’s Basic Rules (version 0.2) file. Here is what I done:


Thoul
Medium humanoid (goblinoid), lawful evil
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Armor Class 16 (natural + chain mail)
Hit Points 33 (5d8+10)
Speed 30 ft.

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-STR --- DEX --- CON --- INT --- WIS --- CHA
14 (+2) - 13 (+1) - 12 (+1) - 8 (-1) - 10 (+0) - 8 (−1)
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Skills Perception +1
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 11
Languages Common, Goblin
Challenge 1 (200 XP)

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Keen Smell. The thoul has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on smell.

Regeneration. The thoul regains 3 hit points at the start of its turn. If the thoul takes acid or fire damage, this trait doesn’t function at the start of the troll’s next turn. The thoul dies only if it starts its turn with 0 hit points and doesn’t regenerate.


Actions______________________________
Thouls can ether be armed or unarmed.

Longsword. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d8 + 2) slashing damage, or 7 (1d10 + 2) slashing damage if used with two hands.

Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (2d4 + 2) slashing damage. If the target is a creature other than an elf or undead, it must succeed on a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or be paralyzed for  1 minute. The target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.


A Thoul is a magical combination of a ghoul, a hobgoblin, and a troll. It is rumored that they are the result of a twisted experiment by an unknown wizard trying to create an army of inhuman super-soldiers. To all but goblinoids, thouls look exactly like hobgoblins. Anyone who are familiar with goblinoids could tell them apart. They usually from into bands of mercenaries, but sometimes they serve as bodyguards of a powerful hobgoblin ruler.

2 comments:

Brutorz Bill said...

Nice write-up! I had fun with these back in the day. Weren't they the result of a typo originally on a wandering monster table?

Malcadon said...

Why yes, they where the product of a typo with Trolls, being between Gnolls and Ghouls.

*hands out cookie*

If not for their relative obscurity, and their creation as an in-joke, I would pass them off as a lazy write-up for a beefed-up Hobgoblin with additional powers -- I see similar way too much in video game monsters. And yet, that is why I used the Thoul: it is the easiest monster to convert. Being a combo-hobgoblin/troll/ghoul creature, I could start with a hobgoblin, then add the abilities of a troll and ghoul. (The hardest part was figuring out the attributes and the Challenge level, and it did not take me long to figure them out.)

Don't get me wrong, I really like them. Being dyslexic (and a lot less so after reading that tome called the DMG), I knew off the bat that the creature was the product of a simple spelling error. I make spelling errors all the time (thank you spellcheck features), but it was nice to see someone make something unique with one.