BX Monsters A to Z: Blink Dog

 Crikey! Today on The Dragon Hunter, we're going in search of the elusive Blink Dog from the wild outback of the D&D Expert Rules! 

In case you didn't know, blink dogs are magical canines that look just like Australian wild dogs, i.e. dingoes. 

Me, eat your baby? But I'm Lawful! *Lawful hungry...*

The first thing that jumps out at me from the stat block is that blink dogs are surprisingly tough for slender-looking canines, with AC equal to chain armor and 4 Hit Dice, comparable to black bears and dire wolves. Chalk it up to their magical nature, I guess. Another thing is that they're rather slower than their sleek physiques might suggest, a leisurely 120'(40') compared with 180'(60') for normal wolves and 150'(50') for dire wolves. Maybe they just haven't developed their conventional movement that highly due to their reliance on teleportation abilities?

Of course the blink dog's namesake ability is to "blink" in and out of existence from one point to another, 10-40 feet away, without risk of reappearing inside a solid object. They attack by blinking in next to their target and then blinking away, and if they have initiative that round, the target can't attack in return. They don't do a ton of damage (1-6) but could prove to be a frustrating encounter if the initiative dice consistently roll in their favor. If seriously threatened, the entire pack (1d6 creatures) can blink out and not reappear, which given their skittish morale score (6) is pretty likely. Whether they have actually blinked back in to some safe spot out of sight, or they just hang out in hammerspace together until the threat is gone isn't specified.

Other bits of blink dog lore are murkier. The description states that they are highly intelligent, but whether that means relative to other animals and animal-like creatures or on a human scale is unclear. No mention is made anywhere in the books of their having a formal language, so it's probably safe to say they aren't having intellectual discourses on philosophy or abstract art, but the Lawful alignment seems to point to at least some level of awareness of moral and ethical concepts. Again, what that means in practical roleplaying terms is hazy at best. To what law do they adhere? Does their Lawfulness mean their social order and interactions among individuals and between packs are particularly peaceful and honorable (as opposed to the often savage territorial squabbling of lesser canines), or are we meant to see them as benevolent and helpful to other Lawful beings too? Do they speak their alignment language? Are they wild-roving packs of Littlest Hobos, doing random good deeds for folks in need? It wouldn't be too ridiculous to play them as having the same innate judgment of human character that dogs are sometimes believed to have in the real world, so maybe they can tell the good guys from the bad and actively take sides. I can think of far less inspiring cavalry-to-the-rescue scenes than a pack of blink dogs swooping in to the aid of a beleaguered adventuring party. 

Another point in favor of their intelligence is that they actually collect treasure (Type C). That's more than the incidental few coins or gems sometimes found in the lairs of predatory non-intelligent monsters, suggesting purposeful hoarding, and thus that blink dogs may have some concept of its value in trade and social interactions.

It's also worth noting that their mortal enemies are the (felinesque) displacer beasts, who are curiously Neutral of alignment, rather than the Chaos to the blink dogs' Law. Apparently the ragged old trope of dogs vs. cats is enough to justify this rivalry without bringing metaphysics into it. 

If I were redesigning the Blink Dog, I would probably make them a little less robust in the AC and HD department, maybe AC6 and 3 HD, and a fair bit speedier, 150'(50') or so. I'd also increase the number appearing to make for larger packs, say 2d4, to play up the confusion factor in a battle with wild canines blinking hither and yon willy-nilly. 

All in all, they're a very weird entry in the D&D bestiary, and if anyone has any insights into how exactly they came to be, I'd love to hear them. 

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