Kinder-Toten


Climate/Terrain: Any
Frequency: Rare
Organization: Pack
Activity Cycle: Night
Diet: Humanoid intelligence
Intelligence: Low (5-7)
Treasure: Nil (see below)
Alignment: Neutral Evil

No. Appearing: 1d4
Armor Class: 7
Movement: 12
Hit Dice: 3
Thac0: 17
# of Attacks: 1
Damage/Attack: 2d4
Special Attacks: Drain Intelligence, final guilt
Special Defenses: See below
Magic Resistance: Nil
Size: S-M
Morale: Steady (11-12)
XP Value: 420
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Appearance: These wicked undead monsters (suitable for Ravenloft especially) look like sad, confused, malnourished children with staring eyes, pale skin, and tattered, dirty clothing.

Combat: The kinder-toten appear to be non-threatening, and will cry out in order to get attention. Their goal is to get an adult to pick them up or comfort them. While this is happening, the kinder-toten will touch the character who comes to their "aid", each touch (1 per round) draining 1 pt. INT. The character is allowed a WIS check with a -2 penalty in order to sense the INT drain happening. If the check is successful, the character receives sudden sharp pains in his head. If the character fails, he does not notice the drain. This check occurs each round the character is being touched by the kinder-toten. This INT loss can be restored only by a restoration, regeneration, or heal spell. If a victim is drained to zero INT, the victim becomes a zombie.

If attacked, the kinder-toten will fight as best they can, each clawed hit doing 1d4 damage. On any successful hit, the victim must also save vs. spell or lose 1 pt. INT.

Any character of good alignment must save vs. spell each time he tries to hit a kinder-toten. Failure means the victim temporarily sees the kinder-toten as a normal child and is unable to force himself to attack it that round. A dispel magic spell will allow the victim to overcome his hesitance and attack.

Any character of LG alignment who destroys a kinder-toten must roll a WIS check. Failure means the character has fallen victim to the dying kinder-toten's last attack...the character suffers great guilt and depression for having "killed a child". This guilt acts as a symbol of hopelessness spell. This disabling guilt can be only be alleviated by casting dispel evil, bless, or attonement on the afflicted character.

Habitat/Society: Found anywhere children were slain or died suddenly, as in a disaster or plague. Certain horribly evil and twisted necromancers keep small packs of these cruel things to send against their enemies.

Ecology: The Kinder-Toten attack with their INT drain only in an effort to understand their death and undead state. Since they died so young, they cannot comprehend the changes that dying entailed. This desire for understanding is what allows them to drain INT.

Variants: None.



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