GHOUL
This week we move to Pathfinder 2E and look at the traditional monster, the GHOUL.
Coming in as a CR1 creature, Ghouls are not particularly challenging for higher level parties. For new groups though, Ghouls that are in groups could be a very dangerous encounter – especially with the extra abilities the Ghoul has in Pathfinder 2E.
Ghouls are immune to death effects, disease, paralyzed, poison and being unconscious – so many abilities players have me be countered by a strong Ghoul. They also have a 20 HP pool, with a 16 AC so can be quite resilient for a new adventuring party.
Normally we look to bigger creatures for Monster of the Week, but after starting Pathfinder’s Strange Aeons campaign, we couldn’t help but be compelled to write about Ghouls – especially with the way Pathfinder makes them feel a little more dangerous.
Let’s have a look at the actions available to Ghouls:
Jaws – melee attack
Starting with some simple attacks, the ghoul can inflict a bit attack with it’s Jaws (+9 finesse attack) dealing 1d6+1 piercing damage plus Ghoul Fever and Paralysis (see these below). This is incredibly scary even for a party with a little more experience in the game. Failing these saves could quickly make a mess of a low level party – especially as this attack is just one action to perform.
Claw – melee attack
The claw attack also comes with more than just basic damage. It is a +9 to hit (agile and finesse) dealing a little less damage, coming in a 1d4+1 if it hits the target. This also costs an action, however if you are unfamailir with Pathfinders action eceonmy, a player or NPCs turn has 3 actions. If you want to do more than one attack, you are free to do so but at a penalty. Normally a second attack has a -5 penalty, and a third is -10, but as the Claw attack has the agile trait, the penalty is less severe, coming in at a -4 and a -8 respectively.
That may not seem too much of a problem, but similar to the Jaw attack, a successful hit on a target with the claw requires the victim to perform a fortitude save or be paralysed.
Consume flesh – ability
This ability allows the Ghoul to regain 1d6 Hit Points, an if a creature is higher than level one, the Ghoul regains an additional 1d6 for every additional 2 levels the creature has. The main condition here is that the cadaver the Ghoul consumes must have died within the last hour.
Ghoul Fever – ability
This disease can be inflicted by players or NPCs bitten by a Ghoul and fail a DC 15 Fortitude saving throw. It’s pretty nasty! The disease comes in several stages and will eventually kill the PC after 6 days. Check out the days below to see how a target is affected by Ghoul Fever. Day:
- No effect on Day One
- 2d6 negative damage is done to the target on the Second Day. In addition, ALL healing is halfed whenever the target is healed – which I assume would be to a minimum of 1 HP.
- Day 3 is the same as Day 2.
- Day 4 has 2d6 negative damage, but now the healing benefits is reduced to zero. This is really bad for campaigns like Strange Aeons!
- Day 5 is the same as Day 4.
- Day 6 results in the target dying. When the next midnight arrives, this target will turn into a Ghoul.
This is incredibly dangerous – especially for parties with low levels. If you are running Ghouls as an impromtu event, I’d caution from inficting this on a party. However, this is a very scary and vibe-setting consequwnce that could be used to set the tone early for a group or a session 0.
Paralysis – ability
Paralysis acts similarly to the normal condition in Pathfinder and for the Ghoul, any target hit must pass a CR 15 Fortitude save or paralysed. The target can attempt a new save at the end of each of its turns, which is pretty brutal, however the olive branch here is that the DC cumulatively decreases by 1 on each attempt of this save.
Swift leap – ability
The Swift Leap is more of a mobility action, allowing the Ghoul to leap half of it’s speed without invoking an attacks of opportunity. With Pathfinders 3-action spend system for a combat sequence, this can be a good way to hop from one PC to another to inflict damage and. potentially status effects on multiple party members on a turn – making the Ghoul even more dangerous on it’s turns.
D&D has ghouls with a similar ability to paralyse prey, but within Pathfinder there are some extra things offered that can augment your game, or even turn players into Ghouls too!
Final touches
In addition to the amount of information a CR1 creature can have in Pathfinder 2E, some of the additional details really taken me with how Pathfinder does their creatures. The two extra things which are really cool are rules for turning a player character/ NPC into a Ghoul, and there are variant creatures that are basically Ghouls, but with additional abilities or strengths. We won’t talk; about variants here, or all of the ‘progression’ rules for turning a character into a Ghoul – but we highly recommend picking up a bestiary to see this and a lot more. Evenif you don’t play Pathfinder, their approach to creature design may help insprie you for your own games (regardless of system).
So that’s the Monster of the Week for this week!! Thanks for stopping by and hop you enjoyed the read. If you have any thoughts to share please get in touch below, and until next time, good gaming!
-KJ