As I was driving to run errands, I thought to the homonculous my magic-user in our Sunday AD&D game on Roll20 created last week.
As per the 1e Monster Manual, these creatures are created with the aid of an alchemist who works on a pint of the magic-user’s blood and then after 1-4 weeks, the spells Mending, Mirror Image, and Wizard Eye. This creates a 18″ tall humanoid creature with wings. It shares a telepathic link with it’s creator and can be controlled up to 48″ away (480 feet underground/480 yards above ground).
In some ways it is similar to a familiar, but is more tightly bonded to its creator. If it is destroyed, it causes 2d10 damage to the creator. Unlike with the death of a familiar, these hit points are not permanently lost.
My wizard is 7th level. And has 19 hit points. To avoid discovery, Urman cast invisibility on the creature and has not told the other players about it. So far, only the DM and I know about it.
We are going into enemy territory and something to help scout ahead will do a lot to help us avoid trouble.
Now that I have buried the lede, on to my thoughts. I mulled over the idea of spell casters creating all kinds of creatures, from the simplest of somethings able to do the least significant things, to golems.
We see other kinds of experimental creatures listed in the Monster Manuals, like bulettes, owlbears, and quickwood, and other strange combinations. Not all magic users will want to make such things, yet as DMs we should keep in mind that such things are possible. Wizards may desire to make their minions so that they are guaranteed to have loyalty and control of them. Created minions don’t require pay, so gold can go to researching new spells, potions, and items. Additionally, created beings may not need to eat, so less land is needed for farming to grow food, or again less treasure need be spent on food.
Only the three creatures listed above are specifically mentioned in AD&D 1e as being possible creations of wizards, besides the homonculus. That does not mean other creatures from the manuals can’t be said to be such, or that a DM can’t create new such creatures.
I don’t recall, but it wouldn’t surprise me if there was some variant class from Dragon Magazine that creates creatures.
I don’t have all the details worked out. But a wizard wanting to create creatures would need limits. Perhaps below 7th level, any creature created will be temporary and fall to ash, or other elementary substance. At some level beyond 7th, a creature not so strongly bound to the wizard can be created to travel further, such as a spy or emissary.
A variation on this would be “corrupting” an existing creature to form it to the wizard’s desires. This might draw unwanted attention from the local group of druids.
The more powerful a creature that is desired, the more costly it will be with a greater chance of losing control of it. This is seen with golems most obviously, but owlbears and bulettes roaming free and breeding are another form of out of control. They are now invasive species.
The more hubris a mage shows in their quest for power, the greater chance their plans fall to naught. The BBEG who makes the most terrible creature is hoist by their own petard when it turns on the BBEG, or is really just like a big teddy bear and won’t hurt a fly.
I’ll let this idea percolate and will do another post once it bears fruit worth sharing.
Have you developed any rules or tables for spellcasters to create their own creatures?
