The
adventurers round a corner and see 3 ghouls feeding on a fresh kill. Cleric Cleo steps forward holding high the
symbol of her faith and the stricken ghouls cower and run from her presence…
That’s
the sort of scenario I’ve always played when a cleric rolled a successful Turn
Undead. But, perusing the topic on the
web, it becoms immediately obvious that a lot of gentle folk have expressed
dissatisfaction with the Turn Undead mechanic, including, apparently Gary
Gygax.
The
feeling seems to be that undead fleeing in terror or simply falling to pieces
before a Cleric makes the encounter just too easy and overpowers the Cleric. All sorts of houserules have been
proposed. Even Gygax crafted turning
resistance amulets or banned the power of turning altogether from his Dangerous
Journeys game.
It’s
all very curious. The general belief is
that the Turn Undead ability arose in the Blackmoor campaign, where we known
the cleric was created, so priests could function as vampire hunters.
If
it is true the turn undead ability was a Twin Cities thing, it would explain
why the normally verbose Mr. Gygax said virtually nothing about turn undead in
the 3lbb’s. In fact, and very curiously,
no mention of the power is made in the clerics’ description at all in either
the print version or the 1973 Dalluhn/BtPbD draft. There are separate prices for silver or wooden
crosses, which might mean something as might a possible reference in the vampire
entry where “…the smell of garlic, the face of a mirror, or the sight of a
cross. They will fall back from these if
strongly presented.” It is very unclear
if this is a separate thing altogether from Turning, or what.
What
we do get in Men and Magic is a
little 2d6 table, of exactly the sort one might expect from Arneson, along with
some brief notes explaining T=turned and D=destroyed, from 2-12 in number. It is easy to imagine some version of this little table or perhaps a simple note along the same lines scribbled or typed on a piece of paper among the various pages of material sent
to Gary by Dave; material that Gary complained was often vague.
I
don’t know if that’s truly the case, but since there seemed to be confusion and
disillusion amoung gamers about it, I
thought I’d see if there was anything different to be found in the Twin Cities
side of things, under the ASSUMPTION that the turn undead table was indeed Dave’s
and some of those guys knew how it was intended to work. In particular, I wondered how often the power
could be used; how long it lasted; and what exactly happened.
Dave
Arneson doesn’t seem to have addressed the topic much himself, but there’s a couple
clues. On the ODD74 message boards
Arneson was asked about classes in early Blackmoor. In one of his responses, Dave seemed to confirm the origin of at least the idea of Turning Undead when he wrote “…clerics were added to heal up players more quickly. The plague
of undead, like sir Fang, gave clerics additional powers to help eliminate that
threat.” (Was Arneson's Blackmoor Classless?, Jun 10, 2008)
In
the FFC (77:43) Arneson describes the uber Vampire Sir Fang – who may have been
the whole reason for the turn undead ability to begin with. Sir Fang is special, of course, and said to
be “x5 in value”, but he also “can use a saving throw versus Crosses (as
against a Spell of Magic)”.
Hmmm. A powerful undead is given a saving throw
against “crosses”.
Chronologically next, the main rulebook of Arneson
& Sniders’ Adventures in Fantasy
says nothing about turning undead and there is no cleric class at all. However, the Vampire entry has this: “Silver.
Garlic, and Crucifixes may be used to some effect against the Vampire. When the use is attempted, the Vampire is
allowed a saving throw versus 1 point magic (for silver and garlic) or 3 point
magic for the crucifix. If the throw is
failed, the Vampire is turned away from the person who used it, i.e. he may not
attack that person on that turn. In any
encounter where the Vampire fails THREE saving throws he will attempt to flee
unless the encounter takes place within 50 feet of his grave.” (AiF, Book of
Creatures and Treasure, p24)
Bingo.
Being turned in Twin Cities lingo means “turned away from the symbol “
not “turn and run”. It means only that “he
may not attack that person”.. “who used (the crucifix etc.)” Only when the vampire is “turned” three
rounds/turns in a row will it attempt to flee.
For
fun, I followed Richard Snider to his next work, Powers & Perils. Snider was of course one of the original
Blackmoor players and worked closely with Arneson on AiF and other
projects. Again there is no “turn Undead
per se., but in his book of Chaos creatures he writes “Vampires and Lamia can
be repelled by the stench of garlic or religious symbols. Unless the item used
is specially enhanced or magic this is not automatic. Roll BL2 on the Magic
Table. Success repels.” (p3&4)
The
term repel is used a couple more times in the paragraph but not defined. My trusty Funk & Wagnels dictionalry has “Repel:
1. to force or drive back, repulse…. 5. To push or keep away, esp. with
invisible force.”
So
Snider has a roll, which, if successful will keep away the vampire from the
person with the religious symbol or garlic, much the same as the turning effect
in AiF.
All
of these helped me make sense of the next bit, which, took me several readings
to grok. It comes from the short section
on turning undead in a handbook Fred Funk (the original Blackmoor player famed for
construction of the Orcian Way in Blackmoor dungeon) prepared for Cleric players
in his long running Fred’s World campaign, sometime during the 2e era. “Additionally, beginning at 7th
level, the creatures that are affected, either by a successful roll, or natural
talent, give ground at the rate of 5 ft./level of cleric, a radius on the
cleric. As an example, when Macduff
reaches 7th level, the Skeletons and Zombies that he turns will stay
at least 35 ft away from him at all times, and so would a Specter, on a roll of
16 or better. This enables him to extend
protection to members of his party.”
Okay,
note that last bit about extending protection to his party. That means, that not only do turned undead
not run away, they can potentially reach and attack any member of the party other
than the cleric, until the cleric reaches 7th level and is able to
keep them at a safe distance more than 30’ away.
That
distance is significant. Thirty feet is the
range in which a figure can close in for combat in CHAINMAIL™.
So
here we have similar rules from Blackmoor players, separated by time and
distance, yet with the same basic understanding of “turning”, i.e. turned
undead are held away from the person turning them whom they may not attack, but
are free to move about and attack anyone else they can get to. Obviously Turn Undead is not like a Morale check as it often come to be seen. The undead have not failed Morale.
Since
being within 1” (10 feet) is considered to be in combat, turned undead must
remain at least 10’ away from the person turning them, but that could well mean much
of the party remains vulnerable.
Lets
see if we can summarize a minimal twin cities approach:
·
The player may use a cross to attempt to turn or repel a vampire
·
If
a die roll indicates success, the vampire is turned away from any attempt to
attack the character, being held back from them beyond striking distance, i.e
10 feet.
·
The
vampire can attack anybody else.
·
A
high level vampire may get a saving throw against a successful turning roll.
I wrote vampire because that’s the only
creature mentioned by Arneson & Snider, but presumably turning is turning, so while only vampires can be affected by garlic, mirrors and crosses held by any character the above would apply to all undead in D&D when turned by clerics.
Now,
if we wanted to roll all the above together and expand on the Freds World rule,
Turn undead could be explained as follows:
In
any given round of combat, a Cleric may attempt to use a religious symbol to
turn away an attack from up to 12 undead creatures (2d6). Certain bane objects specific to the undead
creature (such as garlic to vampires) may also be used.
The
Cleric must present the object or holy symbol firmly and the creatures must be
able to see the Cleric. A roll will then
be made on the Turn Undead table and if success is indicated and more than 2
undead are present, 2d6 will be rolled, to determine the number of undead
repelled from the Cleric. Those so
affected must remain beyond striking distance (10”) and may in no way attack
the Cleric that round. The undead may
still move or attack other characters, however, as normal.
Additionally,
beginning at 7th level, Clerics are able to extend protection to
others. Creatures that are affected,
either by a successful roll on the Turn Undead table, or natural talent, give
ground at the rate of 5 ft./level of cleric, in a radius centered on the
cleric. As an example, when Macduff
reaches 7th level, the Wraiths and Mummies that he turns will stay
at least 35 ft away from him that round, and so would a Specter, on a roll of 7
or better.
Undead
creatures which have been repelled three rounds in a row will attempt to flee
from the area as fast as they can. Those
unable to flee will be dissolved or dispelled as if a result of D on the Turn Undead
table had been obtained.
For
undead of stronger than usual level, or use of non-silver holy symbols, or for
any result of D on the table, referees may allow the undead a Saving Throw vs Spells.
Note:
vampires are a special case in that any character may attempt to turn them from
an attack with a mirror, a cross, or garlic.
The attempt succeeds only if the vampire fails a Saving Throw vs
Spells. The vampire will fall back, out
of striking distance (10”) from the character wielding the offending object,
but may otherwise move or attack other characters as normal. Clerics of 6th level and greater turn
vampires using the table.
4 comments:
Hi SR, Thanks for all the info. Very interesting. Yeah, the Hammer films were a big influence on Vampires in Blackmoor. As for the turn and run idea, that's what I'm saying is exactly not what is happening in the three games cited above. It may be most apparent in the Fred's world quote, but what those rules are envisioning is a kind of circle of protection surrounding the person holding the cross, preventing them from being attacked. The turn and run version was pretty well established in the broader D&D world by 1979, so I'm not surprised its how your DM's handled it. Pretty much everybody did and does it that way. By then AD&D was out, Dragon mag had been around for a few years and D&D was becoming a national phenomenon.
Very cool. Yeah that does sound like pretty much exactly the same thing. In fact, I'd wondered about whether a cleric was considered safe from behind, so it's very interesting to hear you say they weren't in the games you remember.
Now that is a great article! Especially to those of us who don't have access to those early Arneson/Snider works. You've got me totally convinced that is a much more coherent ruling (temporarily warding the undead from attacking the bearer round-by-round), it's more in line with the movie mythology, it's better game balanced, and it explains why there's a gap in that rule in D&D's LBBs (and thereafter). Great explanation for that.
One more great discover for rpg archeology!
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