#basic d&d

"Elephant Warriors" © ArtStation user CY, accessed at their gallery here

[The pachydermions appear in the Basic D&D Creature Catalogue and never again, seemingly memory holed in favor of the loxo from Forgotten Realms. Nowadays, with corporate synergy at an all-time high, the loxodons from Magic the Gathering are the elephant-people most associated with D&D. But I like the pachydermions, partly because they actually have a culture associated with them (you may notice I've complained about that not being the case for a number of these Basic D&D sapients) and partly because the three-weapon style with the trunk is such a cool mental image]

Pachydermion CR 6 LN Monstrous Humanoid This giant humanoid has the head and hide of an elephant. It wears ornate armor and carries three weapons, one in each hand and one in its long, flexible trunk.

Pachydermions are elephant-like humanoids found in warm regions of the world. It is said that a pachydermion never forgets, and while this may not literally be true, they have a deep respect for knowledge and long, detailed memories. Pachydermions never write any of their lore down, keeping it instead in the oral tradition, and storytelling is a common pastime for both entertainment and education. Pachydermion lore may contain secrets thousands of years old, and pachydermions charge a premium price to share their knowledge with members of other species.

Pachydermion culture includes a proud tradition of masonry, and pachydermions tend to live in stone cities in jungle clearings or carved into cliffsides. Living is communal, with all members of the clan sleeping in a central fortification that can be defended if necessary. Outbuildings are used for work or for storage. There is almost always a central pavilion in a pachydermion city, used for martial practice and oration. Pachydermions are herbivorous, and their cities are surrounded by food forests where edible plants are grown in high concentration. Their culture is matrilineal, and male pachydermions typically leave the city of their birth in order to marry into a new clan upon reaching adulthood.

Although they are not typically aggressive, pachydermions fight fiercely to defend their cities. Their long memories also accumulate long grudges, and they have been known to go to war to avenge some slight long forgotten by the other party. Pachydermions have thick hides, but tend to supplement them with metal armor. The trunk of a pachydermion is as strong and flexible as an arm, and they can and do wield weapons with their trunks. A three weapon style, with the trunk being used as the dominant “hand”, is common, and pachydermions prefer to use bludgeoning weapons in their trunks to make the most of their crushing strength. Some pachydermion warriors instead wield a two-handed weapon in both hands and a shield in their trunk, often making use of shield bash techniques to combine offense and defense.

Pachydermions advance by character class. Fighter and monk are common classes, and pachydermion spellcasters are often druids, focusing on the Earth or Plant domains, or psychics, harnessing the depths of the pachydermion mind to greater ends. They have lifespans equivalent to dwarves, with individuals surviving more than 400 years if not slain by violence.

So for anyone interested in the differences of earliest DnD, I found this thread and made it visually easy to access.

Game night! David C. Sutherland III, cover illustration for the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set (TSR, 1977). Acrylic on board, 24 5/8 x 22 inches. Showcased in the exhibition Enchanted: A History of Fantasy Illustration, Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, Mass., summer–fall 2021.

Have you ever tried to play the Mentzer version of Basic Dungeons & Dragons? I don’t mean just the red Basic Box. I mean like a mid-level game that requires at least two or three of the five boxes. If you have, you know what kind of nightmare that is. It would be one thing if you had to just navigate two or three players booklets, but if those booklets are each poorly organized? Ugh.

The Rules Cyclopedia (1991) corrects this by collecting the four main D&D boxes (Basic, Expert, Companion and Master) into one nicely organized and indexed hardcover. Everything you need — player or DM — to play D&D in one book. When has that ever happened, before or since? Until Old-School Essentials superseded it, this would be my go-to for running a basic game (and, as much as I love the cleanness of OSE and B/X, there is so much weirdness in BECMI that it will always be my true fave).

Though it isn’t branded as such, the Cyclopedia is the foundation of the Challenger line. The big box basic sets I covered last month released in parallel and were the new on-ramp, with those players graduating to Challenger and the Thunder Rift adventure series. In a couple years, when the line was shuttered, Challenger players would be absorbed into AD&D Second Edition version of the campaign world, Mystara. It’s kind of confusing!