Minotaur

To make a minotaur, start with clay. Form a pot in the shape of the head of a bull. The mouth must be wide enough to scrape the temples as it is pushed over the head.

Once donned, the wearer cannot eat. Their moans of hunger will echo through the pot, distorted into braying and roars. As they grow more emaciated, the remaining flesh becomes harder, turning all but the surest blows. They will be able to tear men in half.

They cannot see through the pot, and so swing their clay heads left to right, listening for you.

Now loose them into your labyrinth to stumble and squat and hunt in the dark.

This is one of the paths a man could walk to leave mortality behind.

HD 4* / AC as Unarmoured / Damage with Advantage

*Supernatural HP

Expanded, revised & collected:

US itch

A Weapon is not a Tool

fuckin about with a heavily houseruled OD&D for no particular reason.
No thieves, no clerics, magic users powered by Wonder and Wickedness
the issue is this leaves only 2 classes, and only 1 getting unique stuff on a per character basis.
so - give Fighters a reason to not just wear Plate:

• Fighters wearing no armour add 4 to their saving throw rolls vs Wand/Ray & Breath Weapons
• Fighters wearing Leather/Light armour add 2 to their saving throw rolls vs Wand/Ray & Breath Weapons
• Fighters wearing Plate/Heavy armour subtract 2 from their saving throw rolls vs Wand/Ray & Breath Weapons

and then give them choices to make with weapons - obviously, this doesn’t have to be mechanical, but i think it helps some players. they’re all meant to be broadly comparable and useful in different situations.

All weapons deal 1d6 damage - light weapons with disadvantage, heavy weapons with advantage.

• Battle-Axe - Medium - May sacrifice 3 damage from an attack to attempt a weapon/shield strip. Roll a second attack - if successful, a weapon or shield can be ripped from the grip of the opponent.
• Club - Light - Forgo damage to attempt to stun - after a successful attack, target attempts to save vs paralysis - failure results in them losing their combat round. Further strikes against them are at +2.
• Crossbow*- Medium - Ignores armour, 1 round reload.
• Dagger - Light -Throwable, usable in grapple situation.
• Flail - Medium - Ignores shields.
• Greatsword - Heavy - Upon a killing blow, the wielder can roll another attack. This effect can be triggered multiple times.
• Hand-Axe - Light - Throwable. If 4+ damage is dealt, the Hand-axe bounces, ‘attacking’ again.
• Polearm*† - Heavy - Grant a nominated adjacent ally -2 AC.
• Poleaxe* - Heavy - AC of targets treated as 7 when attacked.
• Javelin - Medium - Throwable.
• Longbow* - Medium - +1 to hit per round spent aiming.
• Mace - Medium - Increases AC of those struck by 1 to a maximum of 7.
• Quarterstaff* - Light - Opponents must save vs Breath Weapon to approach, failure resulting in an automatic hit with this weapon.
• Shortbow* - Medium - Can split move and fire (i.e. move fire move).
• Shortsword - Light - Riposte twice.
• Sling - Light - Can be used to launch grenades.
• Spear† - Medium - Wielder may choose hold their attack until someone tries to approach them - they then roll an attack first.
• Sword - Medium - Riposte once.
• Two-Handed Axe* - Heavy - If a 6 is rolled for damage, roll another d6 and add the result. This effect can be triggered multiple times. Increase the wielders AC by +1.
• Warhammer* - Heavy - Those struck are thrown backwards if unable to make a save vs paralysis. Use the damage rolled to determine distance minus the HD of the creature struck.

† denotes a weapon with reach, being able to strike from behind another

* denotes weapons requiring two hands

Riposte: Attacks against the wielder which score below 7 (before AC is applied) result in the wielder being able to attempt a counter-attack, resolved normally.

Things Goblins Do

cw: sadism, violence, cruelty to animals and children,

goblins aren’t cute. goblins aren’t fun. goblins are fucking horrible.

they live in trash and build scrap-iron shivs. they lurk and crawl and titter in sadistic glee. a goblin can fit through a hole the size of a shilling given enough time. a goblin will stab another to see if the growth on it’s face bleeds differently.

1hd / ac as armour / damage as weapon / morale 6 / 2d6 appearing

roll d66 (2d6 with the first dice being the tens and the second being the units)