The first kind of ghoul I encountered and loved to hate was the old AD&D kind, the kind that is a major terror to low-level parties due to its overpowering ability to Paralyze with a touch. A paralyzing touch power combined with its claw, claw, bite triple-attack and lack of any need for a morale check (undead traits) left many a 1st-level fighter seizing on the dirt floor while the beast took its time to kill off the weaker members of the party (except the elves, who were somehow immune and able to run away). Of course anyone killed (but not totally devoured) by a ghoul becomes a ghoul. And if that wasn't enough, those nasty bastards traveled in packs of 2d12! Yipe!
There's the Call of Cthulhu ghouls who are goat-legged dog-headed beasts who only eat dead bodies and prefer not to mess with the living. In fact, if you disturb them in a tomb where they're feasting on freshly-exhumed corpses they scurry away into the darkness. This paints a much more interesting picture in my mind, because as you explore the tomb you know they're out there. How long until they get fed up with your interference before they decide to take back their territory? How long do you have to find the crucial clue you need hidden amongst the ruined sarcophagi? Will they come back when your back is turned? These ghouls are even semi-intelligent and can even speak under the right conditions. Not only that, some of them are actually people who're just so depraved they live amongst the ghouls and feast with them! Spooky stuff, and even though they sound weaker in stats, they are much more foreboding and interesting than just a pack of two-legged carrion crawlers.
But I've since found a third type of ghoul. The "ghul." This is the desert-dwelling creature that takes the shape of the person it most recently devoured, and likes to lure children to abandoned places and slay them. I like the idea that the ghoul actually changes form into the person it ate last. Like, not a perfect copy, its still all dead and zombified-looking, but perhaps in a low light setting could pass for your friend...until its too late! You can imagine this somehow being more horrifying than actually encountering a ghoul-ified version of your friend, because then you'd be at least "putting them to rest." But if you kill a ghul that just looks like your pal, you realize that their body is still out there somewhere, just be rotting in some mud pit not at rest, or possibly even being eaten by other ghuls...
Of course my favoirte undead is the good ole, 2nd edition ghoul/ghast pack. The picture you have right at the top. I got real comfortable "roleplaying" those, that it's one of my standard monsters. It's pretty much a sprinting zombie that is very coordinated. And this was before all those fast zombie movies came out.
ReplyDeleteFrom a stat perspective, they're just so formidable. I like the 8 ghoul, 2 ghast pack. For anyone that doesn't know ,a "ghast" is just a super ghoul. They hit a little harder, can paralyze just like your standard ghoul, But they're stinky. That's their special power. Stench. Sure their stinky-stench comes from rotting flesh, and whatnot, but mostly it comes from their strong connection to the negative plane. They're rotten to the core, and their existence is like a greasy black peel, which your soul can recognize as just revolting. Your brain doesn't know how to register this wrongness, so it's perceived as smell. It's so awful that if you get close to one, you start retching and puking. You can't act, (or properly defend yourself) because you're doubled over with involuntary stomach-emptying. Which is a nice opening for the ghoul pack to swarm you.
If there are 6 around you, that's 18 attacks, all at a +2 because of retching. And the 3 behind you get an additional +4. And if even one of those attacks get through, you might get paralyzed. Then the fun really begins.
I also run them as tactically sound. They will try to hide and ambush, and once they paralyze someone, they don't stop to eat the eyes. They swarm the next person, until the party is wiped out.
Your best chance is to have 4 or more players, so you prevent them from completely swarming any one player. Kill the stinky ones first. And if anyone does go down, move the fighting circle to envelop them, so there's no way they can be eaten, or dragged elsewhere. Another simple solution is to have a priest who can turn undead, so it breaks up the pack.
The Quinn and Badass-Jerome combo works very nicely. Did Jerome end up with the nice Bonecrusher mace?
Yeah, they were a force to be reckoned with in your games. With the level of tactical skill they showed, combined with their evil super-powers, serious damage capabilities, ghast leaders, and the general capability of your average guard NPC, there is no reason a good size pack of 10 of these guys don't just take over the every village and town in the Realms wherever they go.
ReplyDeleteNo reason except for a relentless Quinn hunting them down wherever they appear, that is. You're welcome, Forgotten Realms.
And yeah, Jerome (Quinn's NPC cleric sidekick) used Bonecrusher (Morningstar +3) once Quinn got his mits on Blackflame (Longsword +1/+4 vs. undead). Can't beat the one-round combo of two +4 longsword attacks followed up by a +3 morningstar smack when fighting ghouls.