the
darkhold grimoire
a tutorial and reference
manual
to be used with
the advanced dungeons
& dragons™
role–playing game
a
PhaseOfTheMoon© product
DARKHOLD™ RELEASE X5.0
3 January 1991
Darkhold™ is a trademark of PhaseOfTheMoon Software, Inc.
AD&D™ is a trademark of TSR, Inc.
Dungeons &Dragons™ is a trademark of TSR, Inc.
Advanced Dungeons &Dragons™ is a trademark of TSR, Inc.
the "Player's Handbook" is a publication of TSR, Inc.
the "Unearthed Arcana" is a publication of TSR, Inc.
the "Oriental Adventures" is a publication of TSR, Inc.
the "Dungeon Master's Guide" is a publication of TSR, Inc.
the "Deities & Demigods" is a publication of TSR, Inc.
contents
Introduction.......................................................................................................... 7
miscellaneous notes.................................................................................. 8
cast of characters used in examples.......................................................... 8
Chapter 1 — Creating a Character...................................................................... 9
Guidelines................................................................................................ 9
Rolling up ability scores........................................................................... 9
An example.............................................................................................. 10
Filling out the character............................................................................ 13
Chapter 2 — Character Classes.......................................................................... 28
General Information................................................................................. 28
"Dual Class" characters............................................................................ 29
The Acrobat.............................................................................................. 30
The Assassin............................................................................................ 31
The Barbarian........................................................................................... 32
The Bard.................................................................................................. 33
The Bounty Hunter.................................................................................. 36
The Cavalier............................................................................................. 37
The Cleric................................................................................................. 39
The Druid................................................................................................. 41
The Fighter............................................................................................... 43
The Houri................................................................................................. 44
The Illusionist.......................................................................................... 45
The Magic-User....................................................................................... 46
The Monk................................................................................................ 47
The Paladin.............................................................................................. 51
The Ranger............................................................................................... 52
The Thief.................................................................................................. 53
The Witch................................................................................................ 54
Chapter 3 — Skills............................................................................................. 57
General Discussion.................................................................................. 57
Skills by Class table................................................................................. 59
Skill Descriptions..................................................................................... 65
Acrobatics.................................................................................... 66
Acute Hearing.............................................................................. 67
Alertness...................................................................................... 67
Animal Noise............................................................................... 67
Armory......................................................................................... 68
Art................................................................................................ 68
Barbery........................................................................................ 68
Basketry....................................................................................... 68
Blacksmithery.............................................................................. 68
Boating......................................................................................... 69
Boatwright.................................................................................... 70
Bookkeeping................................................................................ 70
Brewery........................................................................................ 71
Business Sense............................................................................ 71
Calligraphy................................................................................... 71
Carpentry/Woodcrafting.............................................................. 72
Cartography................................................................................. 72
Climbing...................................................................................... 73
Cooking....................................................................................... 73
Coopery....................................................................................... 74
Courtly Graces............................................................................. 74
Disguise....................................................................................... 75
Diving.......................................................................................... 77
Engineering.................................................................................. 77
Expert Horsemanship................................................................... 78
Falconry....................................................................................... 78
Farming........................................................................................ 79
Fire Building................................................................................ 79
First Aid....................................................................................... 79
Fishing......................................................................................... 79
Fletching/Boyery.......................................................................... 80
Foreign Language........................................................................ 80
Forester/Naturalist........................................................................ 80
Forgery........................................................................................ 80
Gaming/Gambling........................................................................ 80
Glassblowing............................................................................... 80
Gold/Silversmithing..................................................................... 80
Heraldry....................................................................................... 81
Horsemanship.............................................................................. 81
Horticulture.................................................................................. 81
Hunting........................................................................................ 81
Husbandry................................................................................... 81
Jewellery/Gemcutting................................................................... 81
Linguistics.................................................................................... 82
Literacy/Cyphering....................................................................... 82
Locksmithing............................................................................... 82
Magistry....................................................................................... 82
Map Reading................................................................................ 82
Master Armory............................................................................. 83
Mechanics.................................................................................... 83
Mining......................................................................................... 83
Mountaineering............................................................................ 83
Navigation.................................................................................... 83
Netting......................................................................................... 83
Perfumery.................................................................................... 83
Piloting......................................................................................... 83
Pottery.......................................................................................... 84
Public Speaking........................................................................... 84
Recognize Value........................................................................... 84
Religious Knowledge................................................................... 84
Rope Use..................................................................................... 84
Running....................................................................................... 85
Sailing.......................................................................................... 85
Scholarship.................................................................................. 85
Seamanship.................................................................................. 85
Service.......................................................................................... 85
Sex Appeal................................................................................... 86
Silent Movement.......................................................................... 86
Sleight of Hand............................................................................ 86
Spell Recognition......................................................................... 86
Spying.......................................................................................... 86
Swimming.................................................................................... 86
Tailoring....................................................................................... 87
Tanning/Leatherworking.............................................................. 87
Teamster....................................................................................... 87
Two Weapons.............................................................................. 87
Ventriloquism............................................................................... 87
Weaponsmith............................................................................... 87
Weather Recognition.................................................................... 88
Chapter 4 — Combat......................................................................................... 91
The Segmental System............................................................................. 91
Hand Weapons........................................................................................ 91
Missile Weapons..................................................................................... 91
Surprise.................................................................................................... 92
Dexterity Effects table.............................................................................. 93
Multiple Attacks....................................................................................... 96
Monk's Attack.......................................................................................... 96
Parry........................................................................................................ 96
Disarming................................................................................................ 97
Entangling................................................................................................ 97
Critical Hits and Fumbles......................................................................... 97
Class Allowance....................................................................................... 98
New Weapons.......................................................................................... 98
Exceptions................................................................................................ 99
Multiple Proficiencies.............................................................................. 99
Weapons.................................................................................................. 101
Weapons Capabilities table.......................................................... 101
Movement................................................................................................ 103
Calculating Movement.................................................................. 103
Chapter 5 — Spell Casting................................................................................. 107
Memorizing Spells................................................................................... 107
Hit Points................................................................................................. 108
Intelligence & Wisdom Immunities......................................................... 108
Illusions causing damage......................................................................... 113
Chapter 6 — Darkhold — the World................................................................. 114
Geography............................................................................................... 114
Religions.................................................................................................. 114
History..................................................................................................... 114
Astronomy............................................................................................... 114
Chapter 7 — Darkhold — the Legends.............................................................. 117
Black Razor.............................................................................................. 117
the Darkhold............................................................................................ 117
Island of the Prince with No Arms........................................................... 117
Isle of the WitchBlade.............................................................................. 118
the Book of Took..................................................................................... 118
the Esper Citadel...................................................................................... 118
the Road of the Dead................................................................................ 118
the Shrinking Disease.............................................................................. 119
the SoulForge........................................................................................... 119
the WitchBlade......................................................................................... 119
Chapter 8 — Darkhold — the People................................................................ 121
countries................................................................................................... 121
Countries & Other Political Entities......................................................... 121
Military Forces......................................................................................... 122
Aeserd, the Grand Jarldom of................................................................... 123
Augustinian Empire, the........................................................................... 124
Blackmoor, the Kingdom of..................................................................... 126
Caprice, the Princedom of........................................................................ 127
Deerhart, the Kingdom of......................................................................... 129
Duland..................................................................................................... 130
Eagle's Nest, the Free City of................................................................... 131
Elfheim, the Kingdom of.......................................................................... 132
En, the Duchy of...................................................................................... 133
Gnollwood, the......................................................................................... 135
Gods' Cup................................................................................................ 136
Greyhawk, the Republic of....................................................................... 137
Iron Hills, the Kingdom of the................................................................. 138
Joe's Place................................................................................................ 139
Katana...................................................................................................... 140
Keeli, the Protectorate of.......................................................................... 141
Kosala...................................................................................................... 142
Leensport, the County of.......................................................................... 143
Mark's Town, the County and City of...................................................... 144
Martine, the Duchy of.............................................................................. 145
Midgard, the Jarldom of........................................................................... 146
Nestle, the Kingdom of............................................................................ 147
Ra, the Theocracy of................................................................................. 148
Saladin, the............................................................................................... 150
Seahawk, the CityState of......................................................................... 151
Stormgate, Citadel of................................................................................ 152
Vanir, the Shining Kingdom of................................................................ 153
White Dragon, the True Province of......................................................... 154
Index.................................................................................................................... 159
INTRODUCTION
WHY THE DARKHOLD GRIMOIRE?
I started playing D&D as a freshman at Northwestern University. It was very relaxing to bash monsters on the weekends as a way to relieve the accumulated tension of having professors bash on me all week. (For those who think Role Playing Games are bad, I could have been doing a lot worse things than saving Fair Maidens from the Evil Hordes.) As I and my fellow gamers got more experience with the game, we tinkered with some rules that didn't seem to make much sense. My sophomore year the AD&D system came out and we tinkered with those rules too. By the time I was ready to graduate, we had a whole system of variant rules for the AD&D game that we spread by word of mouth. It wasn't that the AD&D rules were bad (they must have done something right for me and millions of others to squander our laundry money in favor of buying some very thin books), it's just that we came up with some rules that filled in some gaps, streamlined play in some areas, and expanded on some certain fields.
Now it's over a decade since I learned to play and I (and several others) decided it was time to write down some of our accumulated "wisdom". The DARKHOLD GRIMOIRE reflects the cumulative creativity of quite a few people. The idea of the DG is the same as the idea behind the AD&D system - to play fair and have fun. If you find that the DG helps, that's great. But I won't be too offended if you pick and choose, and modify these rules.
Bobby Mitchell
Author
January 1991
<future rebuttal goes here>
David P. Murphy
Editor
January 1991
miscellaneous notes
1. When used in measurements, the character " will always mean doublemark, never inches. If inches are to be specified, the word "inches" will be used.
2. The notation L indicates level of experience.
3. Items are sometimes grouped into three lists: one for things to ignore completely from TSR books, another for changes to items in TSR books, and a third for brand new additions (mostly darkhold-oriented).
cast of characters used in examples
strength con dexterity intelligence wisdom charisma
Frito the Human Fighter 18 /00 18 17 5 4 10
Guido the Human Cleric 13 17 15 12 18 12
Rocky the HalfElf Ranger 18 /00 18 17 18 18 18
Gimme the Dwarven Assassin 13 18 18 /52 12 7 9
Bimbo the Halfling Thief 10 17 18 /95 12 12 13
GunSight the Grey Elven Magic-User 7 16 15 18 15 12
Flash Bazbo the Psychedelic Dragon 22 18 16 12 9 10
1
creating a character
Guidelines
check the various combinations that race/age/sandbagging could bring. While the "Racial Benefits/Disadvantages" & "Ability Effects by Race" tables are rather necessary for deciding the race, the age is considerably easier: choose "Mature", unless you have chosen a spellcasting class, in which case you might want to choose "MiddleAge" - see the "Accumulated Age Ability Effects" table. Note that the original charisma and comeliness are saved for encounters with other characters of the same race.
WHAT SHOULD A CHARACTER BE LIKE?
As is noted in the various game books, the typical adventurer should be several cuts above the typical peasant. After all, the character is destined to be the subject of folk songs and tall tales. However, a character with all 18's probably would have died in childhood as a result of jealousy. The system detailed below will typically yield at least one 18 and one or two other scores in the 15 and over range without making everyone a SuperDuperMan.
rolling up ability scores
1. Roll 4d6 eight times.
2. Drop the lowest score from each set.
3. Drop the worst set.
4. Roll 1d6 seven times, indicating each time which particular die score you are trying to replace.
5. Assign the seven values to the desired attributes. You will want to consider very strongly at this point the race and class (or classes) you would like to play.
6. Roll percentile for strength and dexterity that are 18.
7. Now check the various combinations that race/age/sandbagging could bring. While the "Racial Benefits/Disadvantages" & "Ability Effects by Race" tables are rather necessary for deciding the race, the age is considerably easier: choose "Mature", unless you have chosen a spellcasting class, in which case you might want to choose "MiddleAge" - see the "Accumulated Age Ability Effects" table. Note that the original charisma and comeliness are saved for encounters with other characters of the same race.
8. Adjust for race - add the values from the chosen category from the "Ability Effects by Race" table. When rising above 18, the rate is 1 line on the strength/dexterity table per point added.
9. Adjust for age - add the values from the chosen category from the "Accumulated Age Ability Effects" table. When rising above 18, the rate is as described for race adjustments.
10. "Sandbag" at the rate of two points for one. No more than four points may be taken off any one characteristic (or else every Fighter would be ugly and graceless). When rising above 18, the rate is .10 per point bought - e.g., if you have an 18/18 strength and trade 4 charisma points for 2 strength, your strength jumps to 18/38 - which means you do not move at all on the strength table and you are uglier to boot. If you sandbag charisma or comeliness, the saved values drop correspondingly. Also, sandbagging can not push a score past 18/51.
11. Calculate whether the character has a special ability: the chance is equal to 1%, plus (the number of points above 16 in all attributes) / 2 percent. Round all fractions up. If the roll is made, assign a small, non-balance threatening, special ability. Examples would be infra- or ultra- vision in a character that would not normally have them, a free weapons proficiency, or something else that is nice to have but definitely minor-league.
an
example
(STEP 1)
"Roll 4d6 eight times." Mike started out ok but plummeted quickly.
6 6 2 2
5 5 3 1
5 1 1 1
4 3 3 3
5 3 3 2
6 3 2 1
3 3 2 1
3 3 2 1
(STEP 2)
"Drop the lowest score from each set."
6 6 2 = 14
5 5 3 = 13
5 1 1 = 7
4 3 3 = 10
5 3 3 = 11
6 3 2 = 11
3 3 2 = 7
3 3 2 = 7
(STEP 3)
"Drop the worst set." Note that Mike cleverly dropped set #8 as opposed to set #3, for although they are apparently similar (both add up to seven), having two "1"s in a single set offset by a high value for the third member (the "5") offers much more room for improvement in the next step.
6 6 2 = 14
5 5 3 = 13
5 1 1 = 7
4 3 3 = 10
5 3 3 = 11
6 3 2 = 11
3 3 2 = 7
(STEP 4)
"Roll 1d6 seven times." Mike got very good rolls here, changing the "2" in set #1 to a "5", the "3" in set #6 to a "4", the "2" in set #6 to a "6", the "2" in set #7 to a 3, and all three scores in set #3 to sixes, the lucky guy.
6 6 5 = 17
5 5 3 = 13
6 6 6 = 18
4 3 3 = 10
5 3 3 = 11
6 4 6 = 16
3 3 3 = 9
(STEP 5)
"Assign the values to the desired attributes." You will want to consider very strongly at this point the race and class you would like to play. Mike had a fighter (no particular race) in mind, so he chose:
strength 18
dexterity 17
constitution 16
wisdom 13
intelligence 11
charisma 10
comeliness 9
(STEP 6)
"Roll percentile for strength and dexterity that are 18." Mike made 23 for his strength roll.
strength 18 /23
dexterity 17
constitution 16
wisdom 13
intelligence 11
charisma 10
comeliness 9
(STEP 7 AND 8)
"Check the race/age/sandbagging combinations." "Adjust for race." After careful deliberation (a 50 cent piece), Mike chose dwarf as his character's race. Racial adjustments for dwarves are +1 constitution and -1 charisma and comeliness. Note that the original charisma and comeliness are saved for encounters with other dwarves.
strength 18 /23
dexterity 17
constitution 17
wisdom 13
intelligence 11
charisma 9 (10)
comeliness 8 (9)
(STEP 9)
"Adjust for age." Mike decided that his character, now named Flint, would be 123 years old, which is "mature" for a dwarf, resulting in age adjustments of
YOUNG ADULT: +1 constitution -1 wisdom
MATURE: +1 strength +1 wisdom
for an actual total of
flint: +1 constitution +1 strength
Note that the +1 for strength bumped him to the very bottom of the next line on the Strength table (not just 10%).
strength 18 /51
dexterity 17
constitution 18
wisdom 13
intelligence 11
charisma 9