Oathbreaker Rat
Fiend · Crown of Apostasy
T1d4Minor
Mangy grey rats with clay-colored teeth and cracked-pottery eyes that smell of old incense, Oathbreaker Rats are drawn irresistibly to places where vows are taken - injecting a toxin that makes keeping oaths physically agonizing without forcing victims to actually break them.
Tier 1 · Role Minor · Pool Vigor 2 · AC 10 · ATK +4 · Save DC 11 · Dmg 1 (flat)
| Stat | Score | Mod | Die |
|---|---|---|---|
| Body | 8 | - | - |
| Mind | 12 | - | - |
| Sense | 14 | - | - |
| Heart | 6 | - | - |
| Cunning | 14 | - | - |
| Fate | 16 | - | - |
A Minor has no attribute mechanics: the scores describe the creature, they do not roll.
Passives
Drawn to Devotion
Smells sworn vows; arrives within hours at any place where a binding oath was taken within 1 mile.
Pack Betrayal
No loyalty whatsoever: when one rat takes damage, every other rat scatters in a random direction.
Maneuvers
Oath Toxin
A creature the rat has bitten this round makes a Body save or its oldest sworn vow turns painful: each round it acts to uphold that oath it takes 1 Vigor damage and is wracked with nausea. Lasts until the next full rest.
Tactics
GM tactics
Oathbreaker Rats swarm sacred sites and bite as many oath-bound creatures as possible, then scatter. They do not fight to the death - they have no loyalty to each other or anything else. Their purpose is to inject Oath Toxin and make faithfulness hurt. A colony in a garrison can destroy unit cohesion within a month.
Running it
Rules
- One Vigor pool of 2 x Tier, no Vitality. It breaks and flees with 1 left, and dies at 0. The pool does not regenerate.
- A hit deals a flat 1, no roll. A crit (natural 20 only) rolls d4 and never lands below 1.
- Crits on a natural 20 only.
- Minor: no stat modifiers or dice in play; its scores describe the creature, they do not roll.
- With 1 Vigor left it breaks and flees, out of the fight but alive; Fanatics fight on to 0 instead.
- At 0 Vigor it is dead: 2 total damage, and a single blow of 2 or more kills it on the spot.
- Vigor damage is simply damage against a Minor: its whole pool is Vigor.
- Group morale: when its group loses half its number, fled or dead, the rest check morale.
- NPCs never take wounds.