The barbarian pushed open the swinging doors of the desolate tavern, holding the door long enough for his companions to follow after. His eyes narrowed as he scanned the interior, which was devoid save for one other patron who sat at the bar, grumbling to himself. Bloated body perched atop the stool, he grumbled to himself as he lifted a bottle over his mug, shaking it but receiving only droplets. With an enraged growl, he hurled the bottle at the empty shelves shattering it. He spun in his seat, reclining against the bar as he regarded the party through a single the bleary eye – the other had been gouged out along with a considerable portion of his skull, revealing rotted flesh and brain matter.
“Yah bring more beer?” His speech slurred and echoed in his mug as he brought it to his cracked lips, desperately draining its dregs.
The party exchanged looks before the sorcerer stepped up. “No, but we -”
“Then yah brought this fight on yerselves!” He hurled his mug as he launched himself from his stool, charging the neophyte adventurers who jolted at the movement.
This week features another original creature with the rotgut! This is a low-level undead built as a brute – it has a moderate Armor Class, high Hit Points, but then substantial weaknesses to fire and slashing damage. Their Strikes use a moderate attack bonus, but these wild winos wield quite the wallow with the extreme damage of their fists, eking out a little bit more with its backstabber trait in reference to the monk’s Stumbling Stance.
Conceptually, these are undead who may not even realize their pitiable state after dying deep in the dredges of a bout of drunkenness. Death came so quick that they passed before they realized it, which has led to them returning in pursuit of their preferred pastime – drink! And as long as they have it, these undead can even be benign, aside from their offensive Stench. But when the drinks run dry or when they’re denied, they quickly grow violent. When this happens, the rotgut can use Spew as a fairly standard damaging area effect that includes the ability to inflict sickened, which is a fairly prevalent condition in the rotgut’s kit. With its aura also penalizing saves to reduce the sickened, I decided to put a cap on the sickened value it can inflict to keep it from getting too brutal. When the rotgut wants to get up into the fight, it can use its Staggering Rush, running down an enemy as it desperately tries to stay on its feet. Because of its sloppy movements, it makes an Acrobatics to confuse foes and leave them flat-footed to its own attacks, but this can end up with it on the ground if it’s not careful.
When it comes to damaging the rotgut, slashing and piercing damage can open up fresh wounds in its rotting flesh that unveil new stenches with its Reeking Wound. This again has the chance to inflict sickened and features some punishment for trying to take advantage of its weaknesses. Its final ability, Booze-Soaked Flesh, does the same thing but for attempting to use fire damage against it. Killing a rotgut with fire damage ignites the booze soaking it and causes it to explode. This deals above limited use area damage because it doesn’t get more limited than this with a pretty standard DC. Like with its Staggering Rush, there is some humor to this ability. Aside from just blowing up the rotgut, it could potentially trigger a chain reaction if there are other rotguts nearby.
Pathfinder 2e:
The First Edition version of the rotguts are pretty simple with Throw Anything replacing the thrown tankard Strike that they had in PF2e. Given the differences on how sickened works between the two editions, it’s a little rougher to have that interactivity but Spew partially includes it. If a creature is sickened by its aura and is then hit by its spew, that creature becomes nauseated, which is pretty brutal and part of the reason for the shorter durations on the effects.
Pathfinder 1e:
Blue’s D&D 5e:
ENCOUNTER HOOK
Bar Brawlhalla: The adventure begins, as most do, in a tavern. But unfortunately for the heroes, before they can meet their contact, the bar is beset by another group of adventurers that got so drunk after their first successful adventure, they feel into a nearby lake and drowned. They have returned as rotguts, hoping for a slightly more glorious send-off by coming to the tavern and starting a bar brawl. These raucous revenants are looking for a good send-off so they don’t take the fight too seriously, but do want to give a good show for their final fight.
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