BX Monsters A to Z: Boar

 At last, we come to the end of the B monsters, appropriately enough in the (B)asic Set, with the ever-popular Boar. At least, they were popular with me, being a dangerous but non-fantastic creature for when I wanted a wooded or wilderness area to seem dangerous but not too gonzo.

With 3 Hit Dice and dealing 2-8 points of damage on a successful attack, boars are tough enough to be a real threat to low-level characters; even a single one could end up killing a PC or two, and their Number Appearing is 1-6. They're also fast enough, at 150'(50'), that simply outrunning them is not a viable option for adventurers on foot. As if that's not enough, their morale score of 9 indicates a pretty tenacious foe. 

Adventurers would be wise not to piss off boars if it can be helped, but unfortunately, they're described as bad-tempered and might attack just because they don't like the look of you. Fortunately, they're animals, driven by fairly simple instincts, so they can be outsmarted. If there are trees or steep slopes around, you can scramble up and wait them out. You might also distract them with some tasty morsels from your rations, and being omnivorous, boars probably aren't overly picky.

Besides random forest encounters, a good old-fashioned boar hunt may be a possible mini-adventure, especially if the PCs are trying to impress some minor noble. If the PCs can manage it, boars are also good sources of meat on long wilderness expeditions. (Young players who might be squeamish about slaughtering Bambi and friends will probably have fewer reservations about killing angry, ugly pigs from hell.) They also seem like they'd be perfect mounts/war beasts for some humanoids. I've played at least one computer game that features dwarves riding boars, and they'd be a good fit for orcs too (pig faced and nasty-tempered.) I once ran my PCs through an orc lair, in which one particularly big and mean orc was in charge of training the tribe's boars, and bore the prestigious title of Pig Master. Hey, goblins aren't the only ones who can ride around on big aggressive animals.

There's not a lot more to say about boars. They fill their niche in the game admirably, and I wouldn't change a thing about them. 

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