Rat

Armor Class
9 [10]
Hit Dice
1 hp
Attacks
Pack bite (1d6)
Special
disease
Move
6 Swim 3
HDE/XP
<1/10

Description

Rats are omnivorous pests found in all climates where humans live.

Normal rats attack as a swarm; each point of damage done to the swarm reduces their numbers by one animal.

Giant rats are scavengers, but will attack to defend their nests and territories. A giant rat can grow to be up to 4 feet long and weigh over 50 pounds. A single giant rat, or a small group of up to four, will generally be shy, but larger packs attack fearlessly, biting and chewing with their sharp incisors.

Any rat bite has a 5% chance of causing disease. A character who suffers one or more rat bites where the die roll indicates disease will sicken in 3d6 hours. While sick, the victim loses 1 hit point per hour and suffers a -1 penalty on attack rolls. After each hour of fever, the victim may make a saving throw, adjusted by Constitution bonus or penalty if the Referee uses such adjustments; success breaks the fever and ends the disease. Cure (Cause) Disease also ends the disease. A victim reduced to 0 hit points by the fever dies; otherwise, normal healing may begin once the disease ends.

* Note: The XP award for normal rats is for driving away or killing an entire pack of normal size. If the adventurers are forced to flee, the GM should award 3 XP per rat slain.

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.