Dragon's Dogma: Wolves
This post is part of a series converting Dragon’s Dogma enemies to GURPS Dungeon Fantasy. Please go here for links to all other posts in the series.
Not even goblins are as annoying as the wolves of Gransys. The original game’s suicidally aggressive monster AI combined with the move set of the “wolf” monster family ensures that even basic wolves remain a nuisance long after they’ve stopped being a threat. It doesn’t help that your pawns will helpfully expound on anti-wolf tactics for even the easiest such encounter. Hopefully the tabletop version will be a little better in that regard. This article covers all sorts of canine enemies, but we start with the most basic of them all:
Wolves
The southern forests and mountain passes of Gransys are home to packs of large, brownish wolves. Most of the time, they stay away from civilization and restrict their hunting to other wild animals further down the food chain. A wolf pack will only target livestock if no wild prey is available, and will only attack people if they are utterly desperate. Unfortunately, both situations have become more common ever since increased bandit and goblin presence in Southern Gransys made game scarcer.
Use the Wolf stats from p. B458 for average wolves, and the more powerful Hound and Timber Wolf stats from DF 5 p. 9 for large specimens (of which there is at least one per pack encountered).
Dire Wolves
The colder northern reaches of Gransys are home to a larger and more vicious white-furred species of wolf. The smallest of them use the Hound template from DF 5, and they frequently get up to the size shown in DF 2, p. 22. While they mostly stick to wild prey deep in the woods, they are much more confident about targetting livestock and humans who wander into their territory.
Wargs
These horrible creatures look like standard wolves from a distance, but closer inspection will reveal their true natures. Wargs are undead wolves, with rotted-through hides and infected bites. Forget any semblance of realistic behavior here - they hang out in tombs and dungeons and prefer their meals to be sapient and alive at the time of eating.
To make a warg, take a normal or dire wolf and change its class to Undead. Change DR to 4, add Injury Tolerance (Unliving), and add a 1d toxic follow-up to their bite, resisted with HT-2.
Hell Hounds
These horrors are stirred up by the coming of the Dragon, and enter the world through the same portal as it. They are even more untroubled my mundane physiology than wargs: their blood boils, and they breathe fire at will.
To make a hell hound, take a normal or dire wolf and change its class to Demon. Change DR to 5 (15 vs. Fire), add Injury Tolerance (Homogenous), and a 2d Burning Innate Attack with the Cone enhancement. The cone is three yards wide at its widest. They can use this attack at will, and are happy to do so since they don’t need to worry about friendly fire!
Wolves Hunt in Packs!
All enemies described in this article fight in a similar way. The pack attempts to surround the target, and some of the wolves will distract it with growls and feints so that others can bite from unexpected angles. They usually know their territory fairly well, and might try to herd a particularly mobile victim to a spot they can’t run away from.
All “wolf”-like enemies should have the Wrestling skill even if that’s not listed in their original stats, at a level equal to the highest of their Brawling or DX. They like to use that to grab their targets with a bite and pull them to the ground, enabling the rest of the pack to move in and gang up on the victim.