Northman Barrows and other such places

[Hermes Serpent]

The barrows of the Northmen in Western Mirkwood (HotW) and the Avar tombs in Northerne mirkwood (not shown) are, it sems to me, prime locations for the Shadow to install evil spirits as part of the increase in the overwhelming of Mirkwood completely. To that end I've been statting up some suitable evil spirits.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwzePB ... sp=sharing is the lesser version and uses Dreadful Spells - Stupefy (A hero who fails a Corruption check (TN16) due to Dreadful Spells falls under the thrall of the Barrow-wight, and walks straight into the nearest barrow. The companion loses his next action and is automatically captured.) based on the spider Tyulqin's power.

[Rich H]

Hi Hermes... That link doesn't work for me; is it correct?

[Hermes Serpent]

Please have another go. It's on my G drive and I just checked the permissions are ok and reposted the link.

I may have topost the pic somewhere else to make it function if this flops.

[Rich H]

Works now, just one adversary stat-block, yes?

[Hermes Serpent]

Yep, I wanted to see what people thought as I felt the Wood-wight to be a not quite fearsome enough adversary. I did do a Greater version but that really just ups the AL and Endurance.

[Láthspell]

These Barrow-wights actually seem less threatening to me than the Wood-wight. True, they aren't Craven which means this will come down to a slugging match, but with a Hate score of 2 they will be quickly Wearied and unable to use those Hate dependent Special Abilities in the face of Intimidating Heroes.

Personally, I'd add Craven and Denizen of the Dark back to the mix, as well as raising the Hate back up to 8. This gives the Heroes a way to avoid a long drawn out fight, while at the same time time giving the Wights more staying power themselves. It also fits more thematically, as they are more threatening in the dark places they are likely to be found, but purely animated by their Hate, which gives them their power.

[Hermes Serpent]

Thanks for the input. I don't like the Craven mechanism mostly because the Intimidate Combat Action is so poorly defined (is it 1, 2 or 3 points vs. the whole enemy force or 1, 2 or 3 vs. one target? it's never been properly clarified but much discussed). Having a lower hate score and just two Special Abilities powered by hate gives the right feel as does having their Hate reduced by Fire. As LM I can choose to have the wight retire when faced by a fire wielding hero rather than be forced to flee by a Craven label.

Strike Fear with TN16 gives anyone with 2 ranks in Valour around a 1/3 chance of not failing the Fear test. Following up with Dreadful Spells - Stupefy, a TN16 Corruption test where any hero that failed the Fear test cannot use a Heart Attribute bonus makes the Wisdom/Corruption test that much more difficult, plus the hero gets a Shadow point.

I looked at the Denizen of the Dark ability, but unless I made the primary attack favoured it is of little utility (+10 to hit and +10 for a rolled tengwar on damage seemed too much for a relatively low level evil creature).

I also considered using Bewilder to confuse the heroes, but thought Stupefy gave more of the feel of the book's barrow-wight

Fell speed was also an ability that I considered, but a lower level evil creature with too many abilities makes progression of nastiness more difficult. My Greater wight option with 4 hate and AL7 has that spot reserved.

It was a bit of a toss-up between Strike Fear and Thing of Terror. Test Fear every turn until you fail or pass with a great or better success vs. forced Fear test by using a Hate point was a choice that tipped in favour of Strike Fear as the lesser wight is the low level version.

[Otaku-sempai]

If it is of any help, the Rivendell suppliment will doubtless have additional examples of Barrow-wights. I realize that we won't see this for some months yet, but it should clarify what the Wights' abilities and weaknesses should be.

[Hermes Serpent]

No, I can't wait

Actually it's an interesting examination of the underlying design of the game adversaries looking at potential Special Abilities and seeing why one was chosen or why one was written when another, already written, could have a similar result.

The Wood-wight from Heart provides a sort of base line but why stick with one version of evil adversary when you could have one that has no officially published stats. I know from many years of gaming that there is a certain tendency to meta-game amongst some players where they know the strengths and weaknesses of a creature and can shape their response, even unconsciously, to suit.

The tropes of Tolkienesque fantasy are so widespread that we can make certain assumptions and know that most players will follow those like a bloodhound follows a scent. On the other hand we have people who have never read the corpus of fantasy material contained in the almost mythic Appendix N and are flummoxed by something that hasn't turned up in their gaming since the mid 90's or assume that the FRPG depiction is the original.

Example, I offered to run a fantasy game set in Lankhmar and about eighty percent of the gamers in a group of about 30 people had never heard of it and those that had were mostly the ones over 45. The others had never read any of the classic fantasy of the period of the pulps through the sixties. In another example I proposed running a game set in a universe inspired by Clark Ashton Smith, again very few had even heard his name despite the association with the doyen of pulp Horror authors, H.P.L himself.

[Láthspell]

Note that the Wood-wight also doesn't have any favored skills that would benefit from the attribute boost. In this case, however, the main purpose of Denizen of the Dark seems to be to prevent intimidation as it boosts the TN to 20 when it's hiding in the dark. If the TN is only at 15 then it because far more likely that the heroes could declaw your wight in the first round of combat before it even has a chance to use Strike Fear or Dreadful Spells.