I've recently been experimenting with 1:20 scale combat in my own solo OD&D campaign. This experiment was prompted by a few lines of text in the 1973 OD&D draft which states that when normal-types are fighting fantastic types, "It is suggested that the 1:20 Combat Tables be used." but such an approach is not so straight forward in practice due to the Post Melee Morale system that should technically apply to any melee conducted in this manner.

The Post Melee Morale system is used to test whether one side of the melee will move back, rout, retreat or surrender. The problem with the Post Melee Morale system in an OD&D context is that it relies on specific Morale Ratings for individual types of creatures, i.e. normal troops (light foot, heavy foot, armoured foot, cavalry and so on), fantasy creatures such as elves, dwarves, goblins and of course the stronger monsters. The Morale Ratings in CHAINMAIL do not cover all the monsters and super-normal (character types) listed in original D&D. So, if we want to include the Post Melee Morale system in 1:20 combat then we need to expand the Morale Ratings to include all the relevant creatures and CHAINMAIL does offer some clues on how we may go about this.

Morale Ratings for an OD&D Post Melee Morale System

The first challenge is how to handle the super-normal types, i.e. the character types such as fighters, clerics, magic-users and so on. Of course, player characters would never check morale, but NPCs do so we still need to factor their Morale Ratings in. CHAINMAIL lists some:

Heroes (Anti Heroes)    20
Super Heroes            40
Seer                    20
Magician                25
Warlock                 30
Sorcerer                40
Wizard                  50

We can probably extrapolate from these enough to cover Fighters and Magic-Users, but there's also the Clerics to consider. We could potentially use the Fighting Capabilities of each level of Cleric and compare to the Fighters, but one thing to consider is that the armour worn by each character can vary. I'll return to this issue later.

I did come across the following paragraph in CHAINMAIL:

"Leaders: It is suggested that leaders be given a +1 on all of their dice, and that their type of armour be considered the best for their origin and period."

We might presume that figures with a Fighting Capability of  Man + 1 could be treated as leaders and would be equal to Armoured Foot (the best type of armour represented at 1:20 scale). The Morale Rating for Armoured Foot is 7. A Fighting Capability of Man could be presumed have a Morale Rating according to the armour type, i.e. Light Foot, Heavy Foot etc. At most 2 Men would be half of what a Hero is worth. I thought I was on to something with this but it doesn't translate to the magic-user as a Seer has Fighting Capability of Man + 1 but a Morale Rating of 20. The lack of convertible ratings is probably due to the fact that spellcasting is involved and spellcasting has far too many variables to quantify.

A simple approach to filling in some of the blanks for the fighter could be to treat Hero - 1, Hero and Hero + 1 as simply Hero in regard to Morale Rating. Similarly, Superhero -1, Superhero and Superhero + 1 would be considered Super Hero. A Man + 1 would be treated as a Leader and 2 Men + 1 as 2 Leaders.

For Magic-Users , if we look at CHINMAIL Morale Ratings for the listed types progress as follows, Seer 20, Magician 25, Warlock 30, Sorcerer 40 and Wizard 50. We could simply treat this progression as natural milestones, therefore a magic-user would begin as a normal type with a Morale Rating according to Light Foot (as magic-users do not wear armour) obtain a Morale Rating of 20 when they become a Seer and would stay at 20 until they reach Magician when the Morale Rating would be raised to 25. The Fighter (discussed above) is essentially being treated the same, they progress naturally from being treated as a Leader with a Morale Rating of 7, to a Hero, 20 and finally Super-Hero, 40. The good thing about this approach is we are not adding values to CHAINMAIL Morale Ratings, we are simply working out how each Super-normal Type should be classified according to what is already in the CHAINMAIL rules.

We run into difficulties when we arrive at the Cleric. We might presume a 1st Level Acolyte with no spells and a Fighting Capability of "Man" should be treated as per the armour they wear i.e. Light Foot, Heavy Foot etc. However we must take into account the fact that they already have a faith strong enough to turn away the undead. In CHAINMAIL we get the following text. "Religious Orders of Knighthood: Such troops will never surrender, and when Morale results call for such they will fight on normally. They receive a +1 on all Morale dice due to their elite nature." These religious knights are the closest we get in CHAINMAIL to the cleric class. We might presume our low level clerics to be at the very least Elite Heavy Foot and if mounted, Medium or Heavy Horse (as Knights would be).  So they would get a Morale Rating of 6 or 7 on foot or 8 or 9 if mounted, depending on how well they are armoured. An Adept has a Fighting Capability of Man + 1 so would be considered at the very least a Leader (Morale Rating 7).

For simplicity we could have out acolytes at 6 (elites) and adepts at 7 (leaders). Mounted they would be 8 or 9 respectively. If the Acolyte has a Fighting Capability of a single man with a Morale Rating of 6, we could extrapolate from their to presume that a Village Priest who has a Fighting Capability of 2 men would therefore have a Morale Rating of 12 (at the very least). Vicars and Curates (worth 3 men) would then have Morale Ratings of 16 (at the very least).

We can also presume a Cleric who has a Fighting Capability equal to a Hero would have at the very least the same amount of points in their Morale Rating score as a Fighter Hero.

Clerics are also comparable to Magic Users in regards to their spell casting abilities and this should give them some advantage in regards to Morale Rating. For example a Seer gets 20 morale points as a Man + 1 with 2 1st level spells so you might argue that a Village Priest who also has 2 1st level spells and is worth 2 men should also get at least 20 morale points. A Lama couldn't really be considered as being higher in morale than a Magician at 25 points. They both have 6 spells available, the Magicians are more powerful, but the Lama is a more capable fighter.

We should also consider that Magic-Users at their highest level of Wizard are supposed to be the most powerful class in the game. Wizards have a Morale Rating of 50, and so technically Fighters and Clerics should probably not exceed this, or even match it. A 10th Level Lord who fights as a Superhero + 1 would be considered to have a Morale Rating of 40 anyway if we take into account the milestone progressions proposed above. A 10th level Patriarch is a Superhero -1 so at the least they have 40 morale points. It makes sense to cap it there to allow the Wizards Morale Rating to correctly reflect their unmatchable power.

This heavy discussion can be boiled down to the following suggested Morale Ratings for Super-normal Types:

TYPE                   CAPABILITY         MORALE RATING

Veteran                Man + 1            7 (9 if mounted)
Warrior                2 Men + 1          14 (18 if mounted)
Swordsman              3 Men or Hero – 1  20
Hero                   Hero               20
Swashbuckler           Hero + 1 or 5 Men  20
Myrmidon               Hero + 1 or 6 Men  20
Champion               Superhero – 1      40
Super Hero             Superhero          40
Lord                   Superhero + 1      40
Lord, 10th Level       Superhero + 1      40

TYPE                   CAPABILITY         MORALE RATING

Medium                 Man                4 (6 if mounted)
Seer                   Man + 1            20
Conjurer               2 Men              20
Theurgist              2 Men + 1          20
Thaumaturgistic        3 Men              20
Magician               3 Men + 1          25       
Enchanter              Hero – 1           25
Warlock                Hero               30              
Sorcerer               Hero + 1           40
Necromancer            Wizard             40
Wizard                 Wizard             50
Wizard, 12th Level     Wizard             50
Wizard, 13th Level     Wizard             50
Wizard, 14th Level     Wizard + 1         50
Wizard, 15th Level     Wizard + 1         50
Wizard, 16th Level     Wizard + 2         50

TYPE                   CAPABILITY         MORALE RATING

Acolyte                Man                6 (7 if mounted)
Adept                  Man + 1            7 (9 if mounted)
Village Priest         2 Men              20
Vicar                  3 Men              20
Curate                 3 Men              20
Bishop                 Hero – 1           20      
Lama                   Hero               25
Patriarch              Hero + 1           25
Patriarch, 9th Level   Superhero - 1      40
Patriarch, 10th Level  Superhero – 1      40

Already it has all being very complicated trying to adjudicate these Morale Ratings but we are only just getting started! We also have the various Monsters to consider. CHAINMAIL starts us off with the following Morale Ratings:

Halflings         5
Sprites           3
Dwarves (Gnomes)  5
Goblins (Kobolds) 5
Elves (Fairies)   6
Orcs              5
Wraiths           10
Lycanthropes      20
Ogres             8
Treants           20
Wights (Ghouls)   10

A useful clue to help us extrapolate some further Morale Ratings is in the following text from CHAINMAIL. "GOBLINS (and Kobolds): Goblins and Kobolds see well in dimness or dark, but they do not like bright light. When fighting in full daylight or bright light they must subtract 1 from their Morale Rating, as well as 1 from any die rolled." The importance of this text is that it tells us that bonuses and penalties such as + 1, - 1 and so on, apply to both Morale Rating used in Post Melee Morale and Scores to Remain used in Morale brought about by Excess Casualties. This will help is in deciphering some of the monster descriptions in D&D VOL.II Monsters & Treasure.

A quick CTRL + F search for "Morale" on Monsters & Treasure brings about a lot of useful information. We can see that Cavemen fight as 2nd level fighters with a -1 Morale. Hobgoblins are large and fierce goblins with +1 Morale. Gnolls fight as hobgoblins with +2 Morale. From all this we can extrapolate a further 3 scores.

Cavemen           13
Hobgoblins        6
Gnolls            8

We could treat Nixies as Sprites as they are indeed Sprites.

Last but not least we want to look at normal-types as there are some variants given in OD&D. The basic listings applicable from CHAINMAIL are as follows:

Light Foot        4
Light Horse       6
Heavy Foot        5

Elite Heavy Foot  6
Armoured Foot     7
Medium Horse      8
Heavy Horse       9

Many normal-types listed in Monsters & Treasure simply record bonuses and penalties to this basic listing. For example Brigands have +1 Morale and would fight according to their particular type, i.e. Light Foot, Heavy Foot etc. I will use the letter A to indicate this.

We can exclude many types of monsters who are described as never needing to check morale. There are also many others who are not likely to do so. It's safe to say that Invisible Stalkers would never check morale and we can conclude Djinn, who fight as Giants would as do Giants, never check Morale either. Efreet are considered the same as Fire Elementals by CHAINMAIL standards so would also probably not check Morale because Fire Elementals do not. I don't believe any of the "Clean up Crew",  Green Slime, Grey Ooze etc would be required to check morale either. All these monsters can be ruled out.

In CHAINMAIL all undead listed are Morale Rating 10 so we could apply this to the mummy, spectre and vampire.

For the ones that cannot be ruled out but are not covered by looking at CHAINMAIL we could look at their Fighting Capability to get their Morale Score. For example, Medusae fight as 4 Light Foot because they are Armour Class 8 and have 4 Hit Dice. 1 Light Foot has a Morale Rating of 4, so we could say the Medusae have a Morale Rating of 16.

If we take all this and run with it then we end up with the following additional scores:

Brigands          A + 1
Mummies           35
Spectres          42
Vampires          42, 56 or 63 (depending on Hit Dice)
Medusae           16
Gorgons           72
Manticore         48
Hydra             40-96 (depending on # of heads)
Chimera           72
Gargoyles         20
Centaurs          32
Unicorns          36
Nixies            3
Dryads            4
Pegasi            18
Hippogriff        27

I'd be interested to know what you think of the thought process I followed here and whether you agree or disagree with my conclusions.