FRIDAY NIGHT FIGHTS: UNICORNS VS WIGHTS

OK, this fight night has been a long time coming. This time it's very good versus very evil. Unicorns versus wights. First the unicorns.

FREQUENCY: Rare

NO. APPEARING: 2-5, I rolled a '3'

ARMOR CLASS: 2

MOVE: 24”

HIT DICE: 4+4

NO. OF ATTACKS: 3

DAMAGE/ ATTACK: 1-6/1-6/1-12

SPECIAL ATTACKS: Charge (2-24), surprise on a 1-5

SPECIAL DEFENSES: See below

MAGIC RESISTANCE: See below

SAVE: Magic-user 11

INTELLIGENCE: Average

MORALE: 69%

ALIGNMENT: Chaotic good

SIZE: L

• Charge for 2-24 horn damage, but no hoof attacks

• +2 to hit when using horn

• Immune to poison, charm, hold, death spell

• Never surprised under normal conditions (sense enemy in 24”)

• Surprise on 1-5

• Teleport/ Dimension Door up to 36”

• Need a '8' to hit an AC 5 wight with the horn, or '10' with the hoof

Next the wights

FREQUENCY: Uncommon

NO. APPEARING: 2-16, I rolled a '2' and '4', for a total of 6

ARMOR CLASS: 5

MOVE: 12”

HIT DICE: 4+3

NO. OF ATTACKS: 1

DAMAGE/ ATTACK: 1-4

SPECIAL ATTACKS: Energy drain

SPECIAL DEFENSES: Silver or magic weapons to hit

MAGIC RESISTANCE: See below

SAVE: Fighter 5

INTELLIGENCE: Average

MORALE: 68%

ALIGNMENT: Lawful evil

SIZE: M

• Energy drain 1 level (or hit die)

• Silver or magic weapon to hit

• Immune to poison, paralyzation, sleep, charm, hold, and cold-based spells

• 2-8 points of damage from holy water

• destroyed by raise dead spell

• Need a '13' to hit an AC 2 unicorn

Now I need to roll up hit points, keeping careful track of unicorn hit points in case any are level-drained. I need to name them, so I need a unicorn name generator!

http://unicorn.namegeneratorfun.com/

Elm Darling Eyes (Male) 3, 1, 1, 4, +4 = 13

Burdock Pretty Hooves (Male) 3, 8, 8, 7, +4 = 30

Buttercup Silky Head (Female) 1, 6, 7, 6, +4 = 24

And now the wights, let's name them after pro baseball players:

Wighty Alperman 24

Wighty Ford 18

Wighty Guese 24

Wighty Herzog 16

Wighty Kurowski 18

Wighty Witt 25

This fight will take outside. The unicorns are on night patrol on the edge of the enchanted forest and they sense the wights, who have crawled out of their nearby barrows.

Now we go to encounter distance. The unicorns will not be surprised because encounter distance is always between 6” and 24”, which is the limit of their range. The wights roll a '3', so are surprised because the unicorns surprise them on a 1-5.

Encounter distance is 6d4 -3 for the surprise, or (rolls it) … 14”

Since the wights are surprised, the unicorns decide to charge them. They are surprised for 3 segments. The unicorns decide to close the distance because they have no missile weapons. They can move at 24” per round, or 24' per segment, so they can go 72' in 3 segments. Charging quadrupeds add another ½ bonus, for a total of 108', or about 11”. Still not enough to reach the wights. It turns out it will take 140' divided by 36' per segment equals almost 4 segments (3.8889 to be exact) to reach them.

But wait, if they each teleport, they can get there. So the unicorns start charging, teleport to near the wights and plow into them. Their AC would be one worse on the charge, but the wights never see it coming and would not be able to take advantage of it anyway.

Elm Darling Eyes targets Wighty Ford and rolls an 18 to hit, doing 12 points of damage

Burdock Pretty Hooves targets Wighty Herzog and rolls a 13 to hit, doing 8 points of damage

Buttercup Silky Head targets Wighty Witt and rolls a 12 to hit, doing 21 points of damage

So the unicorns teleported (1 segment), charged (1 segment), and now can perform another set of attacks on the last segment of surprise.

At this point, I have to decide whether the unicorns will use their hooves to fight the wights. When monks use their hand-to-hand attacks against wights, the suffer the energy drain effect (DMG p 71). Should it be the same for unicorns?

This is a tough one. I am going to go with the unicorns may use their hooves normally. The hoof material is different than bare knuckles after all.

OK, last segment of surprise:

Elm Darling Eyes targets Wighty Herzog and rolls a 16, 3, 6 to hit, doing 9 damage and destroying the wight

Burdock Pretty Hooves targets Wighty Guese and rolls a 20, 3, 20 to hit, doing 11 points of damage

Buttercup Silky Head targets Wighty Alperman and rolls a 15, 19, 16 to hit, doing 7 points of damage

OK round 1 can now start. The wights have the following hit points:

Wighty Alperman 17

Wighty Ford 6

Wighty Guese 13

Wighty Herzog destroyed

Wighty Kurowski 18

Wighty Witt 4

I have to declare intentions. The wights and unicorns will melee. The unicorns roll a 2 for initiative and the wights roll a 3.

Wighty Alperman targets Buttercup 10 and misses

Wighty Ford targets Burdock 20

Wighty Guese targets Burdock 19

Wighty Kurowski targets Burdock 16

Wighty Witt targets Burdock 15

All 4 hit on Burdock, who is level drained 4 times and dies, no need for damage rolls.

Elm Darling Eyes targets Wighty Ford and rolls a 15, 12, 14, hitting for 8 points of damage, destroying the wight.

Buttercup Silky Head targets Wighty Alperman and rolls an 8, 17, 6 to hit, doing 5 points of damage.

Here is where we stand on unicorns and wights remaining:

Elm Darling Eyes 13

Burdock Pretty Hooves level drained to death

Buttercup Silky Head 24

Burdock was not a human, so he will not rise as a half-strength wight.

Wighty Alperman 12

Wighty Ford destroyed

Wighty Guese 13

Wighty Kurowski 18

Wighty Witt 4

At this point, the unicorns have sustained a >25% loss of forces. We must roll for morale. The modifier is +5%. I roll a 32. 32+5 = 37, which is below their morale of 69%, so the unicorns continue to fight.

The wights have also lost >25% of their forces. Their modified morale roll is 25%, which is less than their morale of 68%, so they also continue fighting.

New round. We continue melee. Unicorns roll a 2 for initiative and wights roll a 4.

Wighty Alperman targets Elm, rolling an 8

Wighty Guese targets Buttercup, rolling a 12

Wighty Kurowski targets Buttercup, rolling a 5

Wighty Witt targets Elm, rolling a 3

All whiffs.

Elm targets Alperman 4, 8, 15, hitting once for 3 points

Buttercup targets Witt 16, 9, 11 hitting for 9 points, who is destroyed

End of round 2

Elm Darling Eyes has 13 hit points

Buttercup Silky Head has 24 hit points

Wighty Alperman 12

Wighty Guese 13

Wighty Kurowski 18

Wighty Witt destroyed

The wights have now lost 50% of their forces and must add +15% to their morale roll. I roll a 57 + 15 = 72, so they fail morale by 4 points. They fall back, fighting. What does that mean? It looks like I will need to interpret the answer. I suppose they will continue to fight while slowly moving backwards, let's say at half their move rate.

Let's roll another round. New round, so new intentions because for practical purposes they are still in combat even though the wights failed morale. We continue melee. Both unicorns and wights roll a 1 for initiative, so we have simultaneous combat.

Elm targets Guese and rolls 7, 7, 6 all misses

Buttercup targets Kurowski and rolls 18, 13, 17, all hits for 5 points (that's all?)

Wighty Alperman targets Buttercup and rolls a 6, missing

Wighty Guese targets Buttercup and rolls a 2, missing

Wighty Kurowski targets Elm and rolls a13, hitting for 4 points

Elm is drained 1 level, so he loses an additional 4 hit points. He now has 5 hit points and attacks as a 3+4 hit die monster.

End of round 3

Elm Darling Eyes 5 hit points

Buttercup Silky Head 24, undamaged

Wighty Alperman 12

Wighty Guese 13

Wighty Kurowski 13

OK, now the wights are fleeing and I have to decide whether the unicorns will follow them or not. I will look at the DMG page 67 for advice. It gives three criteria. The first states that the monsters will pursue if it says in their Monster Manual entry that they will. I look at the Unicorn in Monster Manual and it doesn't say anything like that. The other qualifications are for monsters of low or lesser intellect, which doesn't apply to the unicorns, who are of average intelligence.

I decide that the unicorns have to make a morale check in order to pursue. They roll a 46 and pass, so they pursue.

Let's look at the rules for evasion in outdoors:

Base chance is 80%

Pursuer is faster -20%

Terrain is edge of forest, near barrows, so I will say it counts as “rough” +10%

Pursued is less than 6 in number, so +10%

Pursuer is less than 6 in number, so -20%

Light, let's say starlight, so +20%

Ok, that's a 80% chance of evasion, seems really high, but let's roll … a 48, so the wights get away. I presume to their barrows. Not really satisfying, but it looks like the unicorns won this fight since they only lost one, while the wights lost three.