Fiendish Foes

Fiendish Foes is a micro-supplement by Victor Jarmusz that replaces the core monster and treasure tables with harder variants. No new dungeon-generation rules — you use the same room shapes as base 4AD, just swap the tables once your party is strong enough.

When to Use

Recommended when all characters are at least level 3. Swapping in earlier is possible but will be deadly for lower-level parties.

How to Plug In

When starting a new dungeon, replace the following base-game tables with their Fiendish Foes equivalents:

| Table replaced | Notes | |---|---| | Vermin Table | Now counts toward minion XP (see below) | | Minions Table | — | | Boss Table | — | | Weird Monsters Table | — | | Treasure Table | — | | Magic Items Table | — |

All other tables (room content rolls, traps, special events, secret rooms) remain as normal. The magic item table adds silvered-weapon options relevant to fighting wraiths and skeletal demons.

New Rules

Resting

Once per adventure, the party may rest in a cleared room (all adjacent rooms and corridors must also be cleared). Requirements:

• The room must have doors that can be nailed shut.
• One bag of nails per door is spent (4 gp each, buy between adventures).
• Characters each recover 1 Life and 1 spent wizard spell or cleric power.
• Roll once for a wandering monster during the rest — it does not cancel healing or recovery.
• Nailed doors: the monster tries to force the door, alerting the party (party gets first attack; surprise abilities fail). Unnailed doors: monster attacks first.

Bosses with Minions

If a room contains both a boss and a separate minion or vermin group:

• Split the party. Each group of characters fights its assigned enemy simultaneously, one round at a time.
• When one enemy is killed, its fighters join the other fight (no action required — the movement is part of the attack).
• Both enemy groups test morale independently.
• Gain 2 XP rolls for this type of encounter. Do not roll treasure for the minions/vermin in this situation.

XP Counting

Fiendish Foes vermin are deadlier than base-game vermin. Count vermin encounters alongside minion encounters; make an XP roll once the combined total reaches 10.

Monster Tables

Vermin (d6)

| d6 | Monster | Level | Notes | |---|---|---|---| | 1 | Spiders (3d6+3) | 3 | Webs prevent withdrawal unless a Fireball is cast; wounds require L3 poison save or lose 1 Life; crushing weapons +1 | | 2 | Stirges (2d6+2) | 4 | No treasure; wounds drain 1 Life automatically each turn until all stirges are dead | | 3 | Giant Snakes (d6+4) | 5 | Wounds require L4 poison save or lose 1 extra Life | | 4 | Giant Toads (d6+4) | 5 | No treasure; killing one barehanded requires L3 poison save or lose 1 Life | | 5 | Armored Skeletons (2d3+4) | 5 | Undead; crushing weapons get no bonus; arrows −1 | | 6 | Goatmen (2d3+1) | 6 | Morale +2; treat as Level 8 in the first combat round |

Minions (d6)

| d6 | Monster | Level | Notes | |---|---|---|---| | 1 | Orc Looters (d6+6) | 5 | Test morale after each kill by a spell; fail at −1 if spells reduce them below 50% | | 2 | Cockatrices (d3+4) | 5 | Wounds require L2 petrification save or be turned to stone (Bless reverses) | | 3 | Possessed Dwarves (d6+3) | 5 | Undead; on death roll d6 — on 3+ they attack once more next turn before dying | | 4 | Gnolls (2d3+4) | 6 | Against a wounded character, fight as Level 7 when defending | | 5 | Hobgoblin Blademasters (2d3+2) | 6 | A roll of 1 on a melee attack triggers an immediate free counter-attack from them | | 6 | Chaos Slavers (2d3+2) | 7 | Morale +1; a Bear Trap (L4) is pre-set (rogues can detect); not present when met as wanderers |

Bosses (d6)

| d6 | Monster | Level | Life | Attacks | Notes | |---|---|---|---|---|---| | 1 | Chaos Lord | 6 | 7 | 3 | Roll for power: evil eye / energy drain / hellfire blast; freeing its slaves gives 1 clue | | 2 | Skeletal Demon | 7 | 8 | 2 | Undead; each wound spawns 1 armored skeleton from the vermin table | | 3 | Hobgoblin Leader | 7 | 8 | 2 | Rattleblade: 3-in-6 chance per attack of calling hobgoblin blademasters | | 4 | Wraith | 7 | 6 | — | Undead; 2-in-6 to extinguish lanterns; wounds require L4 magic save or lose 1 level; only hit by magic, silvered weapons, holy water, or 2+ wound strikes | | 5 | Large Troll | 8 | 7 | 2 | Regenerates 1 Life per turn (not after Fireball/acid/slashing-at-zero-life) | | 6 | Young Red Dragon | 9 | 8 | 2 | First action: breath fire, L7 save or d3 damage; never a wandering monster |

Weird Monsters (d6)

| d6 | Monster | Level | Life | Notes | |---|---|---|---|---| | 1 | Doppelganger | 5 | 5 | Mimics a random character; others must succeed L4 confusion save or skip attack; targets the mimicked character | | 2 | Lurking Mantlebeast | 6 | 5 | Ceiling ambush; L3 dodge save (−1 heavy armor, +1 elf/rogue) or be pinned — pinned characters lose 1 Life per defense turn; cannot be a wandering monster | | 3 | Green Slime | 6 | 8 | Hits infect: each future Life loss deals 1 extra Life; infection cured by Bless; if infected character dies uncured, becomes a new green slime | | 4 | Acid Cube | 6 | 6 | Transparent; 3-in-6 attacks first; engulfs on L2 save (L4 if attacked with hand weapon last turn); immune to Sleep and lightning | | 5 | Flesh Golem | 7 | 8 | Immune to crushing weapons and all spells except Fireball; 2 wounds on defense roll of 1 | | 6 | Scimitar Monster | 8 | 12 | Reptilian; fights to the death if a dwarf is in the party; immune to Sleep |

Notable Magic Items

• Magic Weapon / Magic Armor — permanent +1 or +2 bonus (d6: 1–4 is +1, 5–6 is +2)
• Wand of Power — wizard only; 2d3 charges; each charge adds +1 level to any cast spell
• Enchanted Paint — draw non-magical items or doors into reality (≤15 gp); runs out on a d6 roll of 1
• Prayer Beads — d6 beads; each gives a 4-in-6 chance to not expend a cleric's Bless/Heal use
• Silvered Weapon — available on Treasure table result 3 (2-in-6 chance); effective against wraiths and skeletal demons