Plague Hound

Rochester Bestiary miniature with dogs. — Garamantes and Dogs, Rochester Bestiary, Royal MS 12 F XIII / Wikimedia Commons.

Armor Class: 6 [13]
Hit Dice: 4
Attacks: Bite (1d6+1)
Special: paralysis, ghoul fever, undead immunities, turned as wight
Move: 15
HDE/XP: 5/240

Description

A Plague Hound is an undead canine with an affliction similar to a ghoul or ghast. It appears as a ravenous beast with patches of fur or skin sloughing off.

Those bitten by a plague hound must make a saving throw or be paralyzed for 2d8 turns; elves are immune to this effect. The plague hound's bite also carries the ghoul fever affliction, but it is even more virulent. Each bite has a 10% cumulative chance of infecting the victim with ghoul fever (roll once per bitten character, after the encounter is over, at 10% per each bite; for example, a character bitten three times has a 30% likelihood of being infected). If afflicted, the victim must make a saving throw (at a penalty of -4) or die within a day, only to rise at the next sunset as a ghoul. Any dog or wolf will return as a plague hound.

A plague hound can be Turned by a Cleric (as a wight) and it shares the common undead traits of immunity to Sleep, charm, and 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.