Barkling
- Armor Class
- 5 [14] (9 [10])
- Hit Dice
- ½
- Attacks
- Bite or small weapon (1d6-1)
- Special
- spell use
- Move
- 6 Unarmored 12
- HDE/XP
- <1/10
Description
Barklings are diminutive furry humanoids with very dog-like faces. They stand between 2½ and 3½ feet tall and typically weigh around 45 pounds. They are pack hunters by nature, shy when encountered singly or in small groups but bold when their numbers are overwhelming. Use the higher morale figure when a barkling group outnumbers their enemies by 3 combatants to 1 or more.
Barklings can deliver a nasty bite but prefer to fight with weapons, favoring small weapons made for their stature and relative lack of strength; all such weapons do 1d6-1 points of damage on a hit.
Barklings see well in the dark, having Darkvision with a range of 30 feet, but their sense of smell is where they excel; a barkling can track almost any living or corporeal undead creature by scent, even if it has been as much as a day since it passed.
In combat barklings usually wear chainmail armor which they craft themselves (as shown in the Armor Class given above).
One out of every ten barklings will be a warrior with 1 hit die (25 XP). In barkling encampments, one out of every twenty will be a chieftain of 2 hit dice (75 XP) having a +1 bonus to damage due to strength. In villages of 50 or more there will be a barkling lord of 3 hit dice (145 XP) who has +1 bonus to damage. Barklings gain a +1 bonus to their morale as long as they are led by any of their leaders.
In addition, a lair has a chance equal to 1-2 on 1d6 of a wizard being present (or 1-3 on 1d6 if a chieftain is present). A wizard is equivalent to a 1 hit die warrior barkling statistically, but has Magic-User abilities at level 1d4+1. For XP purposes, treat the wizard barkling as if it has a number of hit dice equal to its magic-user level -1, and assign one special ability bonus asterisk.
Barklings are sometimes confused with kobolds, for whom they have a particular hatred; calling a barkling a kobold or suggesting that the two species are related is considered a terrible insult.
Source note: This creature is converted from Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game, 4th Edition Release 142, © 2006–2025 Chris Gonnerman. The Basic Fantasy textual material is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International; this page adapts that creature to White Box.