Eldritch Wizardry

Eldritch Wizardry
Authors	Gary Gygax and Brian Blume
Editor	Tim Kask
Artists	Deborah Larson (cover), David C. Sutherland III, Tracy Lesch, Gary Kwapisz
Game	Original Dungeons & Dragons
Content type	Various rules and game content
Publisher	TSR, Inc.
Publication date	1976
Language	English
Product code	TSR 2005
Pages	60

Eldritch Wizardry, also known as Supplement III: Eldritch Wizardry, is a supplementary rulebook by Gary Gygax and Brian Blume, written for the original edition of Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fantasy role-playing game, which included a number of significant additions to the core game. Its product designation is TSR 2005.

Contents

Eldritch Wizardry introduced psionics and the druid class. The sixty-page supplement added several other new concepts to the D&D game, including demons (and their lords Orcus and Demogorgon), psionics-using monsters (such as mind flayers), and artifacts (including the Rod of Seven Parts and the Axe of the Dwarvish Lords). The over twenty artifacts and relics included have tremendous powers unknown to the players, who must rely on rumor or trial and error to discover them.

Any human of any alignment or any character class, except monks and druids, may have a chance to have psionic ability. Each of the character classes has its own list of psionic abilities which it may gain, and the book offers psionic attack and defense modes of various types. The druid, first introduced in the Greyhawk supplement as a monster, is expanded in Eldritch Wizardry as a clerical sub-class, a priest of a neutral-type nature worship. The book introduces seven distinct types of demons, as well as creatures that have psionic attack capabilities and/or astral or ethereal creatures, such as brain moles, thought eaters, su-monsters, and intellect devourers.

Eldritch Wizardry includes a modified combat system that takes into account a player character's armor type, readiness of weapons, encumbrance, level of spell being used, and more. The book adds new wilderness encounter charts encompassing the new monsters and character classes introduced in the previous supplements and in several issues of The Strategic Review.

Featured creatures

Information about monsters and creatures is presented in a similar manner as that in the 1974 boxed set booklet. Page 27 contains an index of the monsters presented in the book, and pages 27-40 contain descriptions of each monster. Additions and corrections to several monsters from previous books in the series are included in this book from pages 27-29.

Creature	Page	Other Appearances	Description
Demons --	29-38		Demons are chaotic and evil
-- Type I	30		Among the weakest of their kind, they resemble a cross between human and vulture
-- Type II	30		Looks like a gross toad with human arms in place of forelegs
-- Type III	32		Has a ghastly appearance, broad and strong-looking, with a head like a goat-horned dog, pincers instead of hands, and human arms protruding from its chest
-- Type IV	32		Combines the worst features of ape and boar, with small wings for their ponderous bodies
-- Succubus	33		Appears like a tall and very beautiful human woman, and drains energy by a kiss
-- Type V	33		Female demon with a multiarmed torso atop the body of a great snake
-- Type VI	33		Highly intelligent demons with great magical power
-- Orcus	35		Grossly fat demon lord with goat-like head and legs, holds the wand of death (Orcus' Wand)
-- Demogorgon	37		This gigantic reptilian demon prince is awesome in power, has body and legs of a giant lizard, twin snake-like necks and two heads which bear the visages of evil baboons
Couatl	38		Winged, feathered serpents found in jungles, with exceptional intelligence and powers
Ki-Rin	38		Aerial creatures that dwell amongst the clouds, of the highest intelligence and completely lawful (and good)
Shedu	38		Similar in appearance to lammasu, human-headed winged creatures with bull-like bodies
Intellect Devourers	38-39		Chaotic and evil monsters, highly malign with regard to sentient life
Mind Flayers	39		Super-intelligent, man-shaped creatures of great (and lawful) evil, tentacles penetrate to the brain and draw it forth for food
Su-Monsters	39		Evil and chaotic beings resembling wasp-wasted, great chested hounds
Brain Moles	39		Small rodent-like creatures that are attracted by psionic activity
Cerebral Parasites	39		Tiny creatures that attack psionically endowed creatures
Thought Eaters	39-40		Unintelligent ether dwellers attracted by psionic-related energy use

Publication history

Eldritch Wizardry was written by Gary Gygax and Brian Blume and published by TSR in 1976 as a sixty-page digest-sized book, and was the third supplement to the original D&D rules. The supplement was part of the continued expansion of D&D in 1976, which also included Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes and Swords & Spells.

It bears the designation Supplement III, following the Greyhawk and Blackmoor supplements, which were released the previous year, and its product number was TSR 2005. Illustrations were provided by David C. Sutherland III, Tracy Lesch, and Gary Kwapisz, with a cover by Deborah Larson. The booklet was edited by Tim Kask.

John Eric Holmes' 1977 Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set was a revision of the original Dungeons & Dragons plus the Greyhawk, Blackmoor, and Eldritch Wizardry supplements. Some of the anti-D&D Satanic Panic started with the 1976 publication of Eldritch Wizardry.

The Eldritch Wizardry supplement was reproduced as a premium reprint on November 19, 2013, as part of a deluxe, premium reprint of the original "White Box" which featured new packaging in an oaken box. Each booklet featured new cover art but was otherwise a faithful reproduction of the original, including original interior art.

Reception

Glen Taylor reviewed Eldritch Wizardry in The Space Gamer No. 7. He felt that, like Greyhawk and Blackmoor before it, Eldritch Wizardry introduces new material to the basic D&D game system "for a more intricate, complex playing experience. Like the other supplements, the new material in EW is organized around the original format for easy absorption into the basic structure of the game." He notes psionic abilities as the first major addition in the book: "The list of psionic abilities is long and varied, and most of them are very useful." He felt that some players may find the modified combat system "too cumbersome, but I find them much more logical than simply rolling a die to see which side gets to strike first". He felt that the section on artifacts was "designed to put some of the mystery and danger back into D&D. I feel they have succeeded admirably." He felt that the wilderness tables were "an element sorely-needed" and "produce the very desirable effect of having some types of monsters substantially more common than others, and since this is achieved by duplication of types on the same table, players can freely alter anything with which they don't agree, as well as insert their own fiendish monster types into the charts". Taylor called the physical qualify of Eldritch Wizardry "excellent" and the artwork "superb", and felt that the book was "well worth the admittedly high price", concluding that it is "as good as Greyhawk, and that's saying a lot. It should put the spice of danger and unpredictability back into D&D, and partially satiate that hunger for new material that typifies D&D enthusiasts everywhere."

RPGnet reviewed the book in 2001 as vintage nostalgia rating it with a 4 for style ("Classy and well done"), and a 4 for substance ("Meaty"), and saying "From the depths of RPG history, it's one of the books that started it all."

External links

• Eldritch Wizardry at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
• Review of Eldritch Wizardry at RPG.net.