Swords & Wizardry Monsters: The Crocotaur, the Ichortick and the Sicklewing...

Good Afternoon, All:

Today's post includes three new monsters for Swords & Wizardry: the crocotaur, the ichortick and the sicklewing. These creatures are designed for use in the Madlands Campaign, but are easily usable in other campaigns as well. While the ichortick and the sicklewing make for good general purpose random encounter monsters, the crocotaur will have a special place reserved in the game for guarding an abandoned temple in the Blood Marsh. I think I have enough monsters now, or almost enough monsters, to generate a nice set of Random Encounter tables for the region.

But enough of this rambling. I'm sure you'd like to see the monsters:

Crocotaur
The crocotaur has the lower body of a crocodile, the torso of a man, and a reptilian head. Known for its regenerative abilities, the crocotaur makes for a vicious enemy in its native swamps. Hiding in the water, the crocotaur leaps upon unsuspecting victims, striking hard and fast.

Crocotaur: AC 5 [14]; HD 5; Atk: bit (1d8), two claws (1d6), tail slap (1d8), by weapon (1d6); ST: 12; SP: regenerates 2 hp per round (except from electricity); MV: 15, swim 15; CL 7; XP 600.

Ichortick
Ichorticks are giant ticks that have been transformed by exposure to the divine blood of a god, creating a savage monstrosity with a voracious appetite. While ichorticks will hunt anything that moves, they have a special hunger for the enemies of the god that created them. Ichorticks are very sensitive to vibrations in the earth, so they tend to bury themselves and wait for prey to come along. Due to this "tremorsense", invisibility does not prevent an ichortick from detecting the location of any target in contact with the earth. When a target is directly overhead, the ichortick will erupt from the earth and attack with surprise. Ichorticks are immune to poison, sleep, paralysis and illusions.

Ichortick: AC 2 [17]; HD 7; Atk: bite (2d6), four claws (1d8); ST: 9; SP: immunities (illusions, paralysis, poison, sleep), tremorsense; MV: 12, burrow 6; CL 9; XP 1,100.

Sicklewing
Related to falcons, the sicklewing is a devastating hunter. The most notable feature of the sicklewing is a bony ridge along the length of its wings that grows into a razor-sharp edge. The sicklewing will often dive at great speeds towards its intended targets, striking with its scythe-like wings in a flyby attack as it flies past the target before completing its movement further away. (Sicklewings do not suffer any attacks from their target for "retreating" in combat based on this flyby attack.) On a natural 20 on the wing's attack roll, the target must succeed at a saving throw or lose half their total hitpoints as they lose a limb, head or other extremity (chosen randomly; loss of a head generally results in instant death). Once the target has lost a limb, the sicklewing will often scoop up the lost limb and return to its lair to feast upon the newly acquired prize. While magic can sometimes regenerate lost limbs, any magical rings and other items attached to the stolen limb can only be recovered from the aerie lair of the sicklewing.

Sicklewing: AC 5 [14]; HD 2; Atk: claw (1d3), wing (1d6); ST: 16; SP: dismemberment, flyby attack; MV: 6, fly 30; CL 5; XP 240.

Enjoy,
Flynn