Maggot-man
- Armor Class
- 3 [16] (m)
- Hit Dice
- 4 (or more)
- Attacks
- Strike (1d6)
- Special
- magic weapons to hit, spells, fear, see description, immune to sleep/charm/hold
- Move
- 9
- HDE/XP
- 5+/240+
Description
Usually encountered wearing voluminous hooded robes, the Maggot-man is a strange form of the undead remains of a powerful necromancer. Should the hood be removed or otherwise its true form revealed, it appears as a terrifying writhing mass of maggots in human form. A character that sees the true form must make a saving throw (at -2 penalty) or else react as if struck by a Cause Fear spell, forcing the affected to flee for 2 turns. Anyone affected that is unable to flee will cower in place. Even those who successfully save are unnerved by the sight, and will have a -2 penalty to attacks or actions.
Even in undeath a maggot-man remains very intelligent and can cast spells as a Magic-user equivalent to twice its hit dice. If the GM utilizes the optional Necromancer supplement, then the maggot-man will usually be a Necromancer instead. In addition to spells, the maggot- man attacks by striking its opponent. Anyone struck by a maggot-man has a 2 in 6 chance (1-2 on 1d6) of being afflicted by a special form of rot grub infection. Anyone that subsequently dies from the rot grub will rise as a zombie under the control of the maggot-man for a short time as maggots strip the flesh off the bones (2d4 days). If the maggot-man is defeated while such a rot-grub zombie endures, then the maggot-man will inhabit that body. The maggot-man will usually have one such infected zombie hidden away somewhere nearby as a contingency, though this requires a fairly regular supply of fresh corpses to maintain.
A maggot-man can only be hit by magical weapons or spells. As with all undead, it can be Turned by a Cleric (as a vampire), and is immune to Sleep, charm, or hold spells.
Source note: This creature is converted from The Basic Fantasy Field Guide of Creatures Malevolent and Benign – Omnibus Edition, 1st Edition Release 4, © 2010–2025 Chris Gonnerman, R. Kevin Smoot, James Lemon, Matt Sluis, and Contributors. The Basic Fantasy Field Guide textual material is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International; this page adapts that creature to White Box.