The Ghoulish Touch in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons

How long does ghoul paralysis last in 1st Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons?

That depends on which book you look at.

By R. Nelson Bailey

Older editions of Dungeons & Dragons have many odd quirks. Some players find these idiosyncrasies endearing, while others find them frustrating. One such quirk is that information on how an item, spell, monster ability, or other mechanic functions is often scattered throughout the text of a book — or even across multiple books.

A specific example in the first edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) is the duration of ghoul paralysis. This detail was left out of the Monster Manual and has vexed Dungeon Masters for the last forty years. However, the duration was addressed on several occasions in various sources. They are:

1. T1 The Village of Hommlet (1979): 3–12 turns.

2. Sage Advice, Dragon #37 (May 1980): 24 hours, or left to each DM to decide.

3. Sage Advice, Dragon #39 (July 1980): 3–12 turns.

4. AD&D Monster Cards, Set 1 (1982): 2–12 turns.

5. “A Touch of Evil,” Dragon #126 (October 1987): 2–12 rounds.

6. REF5 Lords of Darkness (1988):

“The duration of the paralyzation depends on the victim’s Constitution. Subtract the victim’s Constitution from 20 and add 1d6 if the attacker is a ghoul and 2d6 if the attacker is a ghast. The result is the number of rounds that the paralysis lasts.”

By comparison, other editions of Dungeons & Dragons present different rulings:

1. Original D&D “brown books” (1974): no duration listed

2. Basic Rules (Holmes version, 1977): no duration listed

3. Basic Rules (Moldvay version, 1981): 2–8 turns

4. Basic Rules (Mentzer version, 1983): 2–8 turns

5. Second Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: 3–8 rounds

Dave Sutherland's cover art from the module T1 The Village of Hommlet.

Ghoul Touch Duration

For Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, there appear to be three contradictory “official” rulings on the duration of ghoul paralysis (see items #1, #4, and #6 from the first list). The Dragon magazine Sage Advice articles are not considered official rulings for AD&D, but they do provide useful insight. This leaves a Dungeon Master with a conundrum: which ruling is best?

The strongest answer comes from the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monster Cards set. The reason is that TSR staff members who created the cards “took the opportunity to make some corrections and clarifications on the material.” (Dragon #61, May 1982, “New AD&D Aid: Monster Cards,” p. 51). This suggests that the cards corrected omitted or erroneous information from the Monster Manual.

Conclusion

While several contradictory rulings exist, the Monster Cards set likely represents the most authoritative correction. Dungeon Masters can, of course, choose whichever interpretation best suits their campaign, but the weight of evidence suggests that the official intent was a duration of 2–12 turns for ghoul paralysis.