Progeny
When it comes to Dungeons & Dragons, there are two immutable facts well known amongst the fandom. The first is that Wizards have no sense of right or wrong. The second is that humans will bonk anything. The Progeny was an attempt by TSR to acknowledge these facts in the splatbook "Glantri: Kingdom of Magic", part of a series of splats updating Mystara to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.
"Progeny" is the Glantrian term used to refer to humans, elves or half-elves who possess distant "monster" ancestry - which in Glantri is defined as "anything with a particularly magical nature". Whilst it can be as generic as "any shapechanged or polymorphed creature", specific examples include dragons, fey (nymphs, dryads, satyrs, sirines all specifically called out), doppelgangers, therianthropes, medusae, rakshasas, firbolgs, diaboli, hags and swanmays. The result mechanically was a kind of crude proto-template... of course, this being both an AD&D product and a Mystara product, the mechanics were kind of bullshit.
The default rules for Progeny assume that the plyer is very distantly descended from the original union, and has them roll a d100 to see just how strong their monstrous blood is... assuming you don't roll a 01-50 and thusly are faking your status as a Progeny, that is. On a 51-93, you're a thinblood; you have no powers beyond the standard Progeny attribute of increased longevity (lifespan is 1d4 times longer than normal). On a 92-95, you're a weakblood; you gain a random defect, which range from merely looking odd to actual mechanical penalties. And on a 96-100, you've got one random power... and also one random defect if you roll that 100!
All Progeny, regardless of the strength of their blood, suffer a -15% penalty to their experience growth.
Defects[edit]
- 01-10: Oddly colored eyes
- 11-15: Oddly colored skin
- 16-20: Oddly colored hair
- 21-25: Extremely hairy or furry
- 26-30: Hairless
- 31-35: Shriveled skin
- 36-40: Scaly skin
- 40-50: Warts, blotches or other markings
- 51-55: Extra digit on hand or foot
- 56-60: Causes nervousness in natural animals
- 61-70: -1 penalty to saving throws vs. spell
- 71-80: -1 penalty to saving throws vs. poison
- 81-90: -3 penalty to Reaction Rolls due to strange aura
- 91-95: -1 to random ability score
- 96-99: Roll twice on this table, rerolling duplicate results and disregarding results above 95.
- 00: DM's Choice or Special
Powers[edit]
- 01-05: +1 bonus to Strength
- 06-10: +2 bonus to Strength
- 11-15: +1 bonus to Constitution
- 16-20: +2 bonus to Constitution
- 21-25: +1 bonus to Dexterity
- 26-30: +2 bonus to Dexterity
- 31-40: +1 bonus to Intelligence
- 41-50: +1 bonus to Wisdom
- 51-60: +1 bonus to Charisma
- 61-63: +2 bonus to Charisma
- 64-65: +3 bonus to Charisma
- 66-73: Natural Armor Class of 8
- 74-75: +1 bonus to saving throws vs. poison
- 76-77: +1 bonus to saving throws vs. spell
- 78-80: +1 bonus to all saving throws
- 81-87: Roll on the Extraordinary Abilities table.
- 88-96: Roll twice on the Progeny Abilities table, ignoring rolls over 87 and rerolling duplicate results.
- 97-00: Roll thrice on the Progeny Abilities table, ignoring rolls over 87 and rerolling duplicate results.
The table in "Glantri: Kingdom of Magic" actually says that a natural AC of 8 is the result of 71 to 73... but is missing an entry for 65-71 entirely!
Extraordinary Abilities[edit]
All spell-like abilities granted by this table function as if cast by a Wizard of the Progeny's character level to determine range, duration, etc.
- 01-04: Levitate 1/day
- 05-08: Blur 1/day
- 09-12: Charm Person gaze attack 1/day
- 13-17: Endure Cold 3/day
- 18-22: Endure Heat 3/day
- 23-25: Progeny has 2 Claw attacks (1d4+1/1d4+1)
- 26-27: Progeny has 1 Bite attack (1d6)
- 28-31: ESP 1/day
- 32-34: Detect Invisible 1/day
- 35-39: Cause Fear 1/day
- 40-43: Clairaudience 1/day
- 44-47: Clairvoyance 1/day
- 48-51: Invisibility 1/day
- 52-54: Vampiric Touch 1/day
- 55-57: Dimension Door 1/day
- 58-62: Nondetection, continuous
- 63-66: Polymorph Self 1/day
- 67-72: Domination 1/day
- 73-76: Magic Jar 2/week
- 77-78: Progeny has the Breath Weapon of a chosen Dragon; it uses the stats of an Adult level dragon.
- 79-80: Shadow Walk 1/week
- 81-85: Immune to Disease
- 86-90: Immune to Poison
- 91-93: 20% Magic Resistance
- 94-96: Roll again and also double the resulting power's number of uses, if applicable.
- 97-99: Roll twice on this table, disregarding rolls above 96 and rerolling duplicate results
- 00: DM choice or special