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[demiurge1138]

I'm a little unsure of the CR of these guys. Although their AC is low and so are their hit points, they're really really fast, putting them out of reach of a lot of attackers, and have good defensive abilities to boot. I could easily be convinced to elevate them to a CR 8. What do you think?

Lightning Drake
In the blink of an eye, it appears. A biped, it runs on muscular legs with a long stiff tail stretched behind it. Its neck is long, and its head is mostly mouth, with two rows of long teeth. The creature has wings, but they have atrophied into little more than stumps. Its scales are dappled yellow and brown. The air around it crackles palpably with electricity.

Lightning Drake CR 8
Usually CE Large Dragon (Electricity)
Init +4 Senses darkvision 60ft, Listen +10, low-light vision, Spot +10
Defense
AC 18, touch 13, flat-footed 14, Dodge, Mobility, 20% miss chance for ranged attacks
(-1 size, +4 Dex, +5 natural)
hp 82 (11d12+11)
Fort +8, Ref +11, Will +9
Defensive Abilities electric body, lightning shield; Immune electricity, paralysis, sleep
Vulnerability rapid metabolism
Offense
Spd 90ft
Melee bite +16 (1d8+9 plus 1d6 electricity plus stun)
Space 10ft; Reach 10ft
Morale
Before Combat A lightning drake prefers to attack from ambush, trying to sneak close to prey before being spotted.
During Combat Lightning drakes make hit and run attacks against the target with the least armor, hoping to stun it quickly. If multiple lightning drakes are present, they will split up their attacks until one opponent is stunned, and then gang up on the defenseless victim.
Morale Lightning drakes are ferocious, but not too stupid to run. They retreat if reduced to less than 15 hit points, relying on their speed to leave difficult prey far behind.
Statistics
Abilities Str 22, Dex 18, Con 13, Int 7, Wis 14, Cha 13
Base Attack +11; Grapple +21
Feats Ability Focus (stunning bite), Dodge, Mobility, Spring Attack
Skills Balance +18, Hide +8*, Jump +44, Listen +10, Move Silently +12, Spot +10, Tumble +18
Languages Draconic
Ecology
Environment Warm plains
Organization Solitary or pair
Treasure none (but see below)
Advancement 12-22 HD (Large), 23-28 HD (Huge)
Level Adjustment—
Special Abilities
Electric Body (Su) A creature striking a lightning drake with a melee weapon must make a DC 16 Reflex save or take 2d6 electricity damage from the charge that constantly surrounds it. A successful Reflex save halves the damage. Creatures striking a lightning drake with a metal weapon take a -2 penalty to this save. The save DC is Constitution based.

Lightning Shield (Su) Any ranged attack targeting a lightning drake suffers a 20% miss chance, as per the entropic shield spell. Effects that work at a distance, like area of effect spells, do not suffer this penalty.

Rapid Metabolism (Ex) A lightning drake requires three times the food and water as a normal creature its size, or else it begins to starve or dehydrate. In addition, lightning drakes suffer the secondary damage of a poison 1 round after exposure instead of 1 minute. The incubation period for any disease infecting a lightning drake is 1 round, and a lightning drake must make saves to avoid taking damage every hour instead of every day.

Stunning Bite (Su) A creature bitten by a lightning drake must make a DC 18 Fortitude save or be stunned for 1d3 rounds. The save DC is Constitution based.

Skills A lightning drake gains a +4 racial bonus on all Balance, Jump and Tumble checks.
*A lightning drake gains a +8 racial bonus to all Hide checks made in tall grass or heavy undergrowth.

Fast and voracious predators, lightning drakes are a scourge on the environment, despised by true dragons and druids alike. A lightning drake is fifteen feet long on average, with half of that length their stiff tail. They are light for their size, weighing 400 pounds.

Ecology
Lightning drakes are strict carnivores. Although they are skilled at ambush, they often rely on their incredible speed to run down fleeing prey. Their wings, seemingly useless, are in fact very useful, acting as stabilizers while the drake is running and creating lift to aid their jumps.

Although a lightning drake will kill and eat just about anything larger than a rat, they prefer big game. This often puts them in conflict with humanoids, as both livestock and humanoids themselves fall into this range. Their rapid metabolism makes them unwelcome additions to the savannas they inhabit; lightning drakes either kill and eat or chase away other predators, destroy populations of herbivores and drink water holes dry before moving on to a new territory to ravage.

Lightning drakes have no natural enemies, but plenty of unnatural ones. Dragons, ashamed because of their rumored connections to the blasphemous and blood-polluting grey dragons, view them as dangerous vermin, and exterminate them as they do all drakes. Druids consider lightning drakes a blight on the landscape, and do their best to kill them to protect ecosystems. They compete with gnolls for food resources, and gnolls hate lightning drakes because they have a nasty tendency to eat their slaves before the gnolls get a chance to.

Habitat and Society
Lightning drakes live in warm plains and savannas, although these places tend to desertify in the wake of a traveling lightning drake. Their constant hunger means that they usually view other lightning drakes as competition rather than partners, although if hunting is especially rich they may travel in pairs. They are not caring parents, but they hardly have to be. A lightning drake hatchling is already ready to run, and grows to full maturity in about 8 months. Their exhausting lifestyle leads to a short lifespan; most die by five years of age, and ten year old lightning drakes are very rare specimens (and may be greatly advanced in Hit Dice).

Lightning drakes are too stupid for a complex society—they tend to think like an animal predator, albeit an especially cunning and dangerous one. The closest they come to culture is a vague veneration of The Kill, and they are known to say a quick prayer before eating. Their faith is enough to make them occasional allies of more intelligent evil clerics, especially those that follow Rovagug and Lamashtu, whose dominion over destruction and monsters appeals to these dim creatures. A cult of one of these evil gods gains a powerful ally indeed in a lightning drake, albeit one that requires a lot of investment in food and water.

The Lightning Heart
The heart of a lightning drake crackles with electricity, and it can invest one that eats it with a temporary echo of the lightning drake’s power. If the heart of a living lightning drake is torn from the creature (on a successful coup de grace) and consumed within one round, it grants the one that eats it the benefits of a haste spell for the next 24 hours. During this period, the user of the lightning heart has the rapid metabolism quality of the lightning drake, and when the duration elapses, must make a DC 16 Fortitude save or be exhausted, regardless of how much sleep she has received.

A lightning heart can be preserved with a gentle repose spell and will sell for 3,000 gp. Many good communities find this practice distasteful, but their sale is rarely banned.

Copyright 2008 Nicholas Herold. The Pathfinder Chronicles Campaign Setting is copyright 2008 Paizo Publishing.