A truly ancient evil from time long forgotten crawls out from the abyss

>A truly ancient evil from time long forgotten crawls out from the abyss
>It has 120 hitpoints, does 2d10 damage, and has an AC of -5.

>AC of -5

That is pretty ancient.

> The players try to fight it soon after it emerges and fail utterly, because they don't have a THAC0.
> To fight this ancient evil, they will need to train themselves in the fighting styles of old, or find an ancient weapon that they can use to wound the monster.

For 2E DnD, that's beastly.

Druid "Whaddaya mean I can't level up because there are too many druids?"
Paladin "What's a 'tithe'?"
Wizard "My spell takes HOW many rounds to cast?"
Fighter "[SHIT-EATING GRIN]"
>later
Druid "I need to find a druid with HOW much experience to level up!?"
Paladin "I have to give up my magic items!?"
Wizard "Haste does WHAT to my age!?"
Fighter "[SHIT-EATING GRIN ON THE CASTLE THRONE]"
>Even later
Druid "My spell slots do WHAT!? Somebody find a vampire! Quick!"
Paladin "I want old lay on hands back ;.;"
Wizard "The fuck is a 'racial level cap'?"
Fighter "[SHIT-EATING GRIN ON HIS PILE OF GOLD]"

I mean you'd expect an ancient evil to be a lot weaker than a modern evil.

basic rule of fantasy: old stuff is always more powerful than new stuff

Reminds me of the thread with the ancient evil sealed ten thousand years ago. By the setting equivalent of cavemen.

I'm reminded of that episode of Buffy where a demon which could not be harmed by any weapon forged was killed with modern weaponry (since that statement was created at a time when that meant swords and stuff)

Assuming civilization still exists in a setting then that implies it has always been able to deal with [current year] or older evils, right?
So really the only problem would be a future evil travelling back in time.

>demon which could not be harmed by any weapon forged
Why wasn't he clubbed to death in the first place

Accurate summation of my AD&D adventuring

I believe he was.
Then he was torn apart and the parts were spread around but of course some vampires bring all the parts back together

>My spell slots do WHAT!? Somebody find a vampire! Quick!"

I don't get this.

me neither. I'm too young

Vamps could drain spell slots.
Which honestly i like as a threat. needs brought back

Yes, I imagined that, but I don't understand why a druid would want his spell slots drained. What did they do?

They do that in 3.5- Expedition to Castle Ravenloft had a Strahd that could fucking STEAL THEM VIA ENERGY DRAIN.

Link? Or storytime?

Im starting to think, maybe become a vampire and then drain slots to fuel yours?

A Grand Druid gets six slots for every level, but upon stepping down and becoming a heirophant he reverts to the standard spell progression.

Don't have an actual link for you, but the gist was that an neolithic BBEG, Ugh, was sealed away for 10,000 years. Party fails to prevent the unsealing, finds Ugh to be actually not that threatening, with his 'unfathomable' ability to summon three skeletons to fight for him, and his stone skin easily pierced by a +1 sword. The ritual which sealed him, which took 4 wizards, a sorcerer, and a virgin sacrifice is now a Spell level 3 ritual for a single caster.

Seeing how much technology and time has moved on without him, Ugh joins the party with the intent of growing powerful enough to resume his reign on terror. Fish-out-of-water hijinks ensue.

What's it's THAC0?

4.

Jesus christ.