Creature Catalogue Overhaul Project Revisited

[freyar]

Sounds right. And give the revised AC line.

Skills: Bluff, Hide, Intimidate, Listen, Move Silently, Spot, Tumble?

Feat: maybe Ability Focus (poison)?

[Shade]

Updated.

Challenge Rating: 1?

Treasure: Standard?

Alignment: Always neutral evil?

Advancement: 1 HD (Diminutive)?

Level Adjustment: +3?

[freyar]

All that sounds right. Done then?

[Shade]

We probably need to work this in:

Finally, and most strangely, brambles are often found riding a peculiar selection of animals. It is not uncommon to come upon a band of brambles riding a collection of porcupines, hedgehogs, al-mi’rajs, and other creatures, looking like bizarre pixie-knights as they search for food and fights They control their mounts with a charm mount spell that each can cast once per day. When so mounted, brambles also carry barbed spears (that do 1d6 damage on a hit) that they use as lances. (Statistics for these creatures can be found in individual monster listings, under the “Mammal, Small” entry in MONSTROUS COMPENDIUM® 2 or in the Monstrous Manual.)

At the very least, I think we need to give them the Ride skill and some sort of "charm mount" ability.

[freyar]

Probably swap in Ride for Tumble. With spines and possibly half-plate, these aren't necessarily tumblers (despite their size).

Charm animal limited to Tiny animals with a duration of 1 day?

[demiurge1138]

Animals or magical beasts. Al-miraj, for example.

[freyar]

Hmm, and I guess I meant to say "Tiny or smaller." How's this?

Charm Mount (Sp): Once per day, a bramble may charm a single Tiny or smaller animal or magical beast, which serves as its mount. The charm lasts for 24 hours. This functions as the spell charm animal, except as described above. This ability is the equivalent of a 2nd? level spell. Caster level 1st.

[Shade]

Looks great.

Updated. All done?

[freyar]

If you think charm mount should really be 2nd level and drop the ?, then I think so.

[Shade]

I do, and oops.

[Shade]

Whispering Pine

Whispering Pines
FREQUENCY: Rare
NO. APPEARING: 10-100
ARMOR CLASS: 7
MOVE: Nil
HIT DICE: 1 per 2. height
% IN LAIR: 100%
TREASURE TYPE: Nil
NO. OF ATTACKS: Nil
DAMAGE/ATTACK: Nil
SPECIAL ATTACKS: None
SPECIAL DEFENSES: Whispering susurration
MAGIC RESISTANCE: 65%
INTELLIGENCE: Non-
ALIGNMENT: Neutral
SIZE: L (10-100' tall)
PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil
Attack/Defense Modes: Nil
LEVEL/XP: Not applicable

High in certain mountainous regions, there grows a species of magical pines. Every branch grows perfectly straight and carries an inherent charm. Subsequently, magic-users and manufacturers of fine bows, clubs, staves, and arrows intended for enchantment search these forests for this valuable wood (300 gp per board foot). Druids bent on preserving these pines sometimes arrange for a treant (15% chance) to be located in or around a stand of the trees.

These trees do have their own special defenses. They can sense the presence of any blade within 50 yards, and begin a moderately loud susurration which resembles the sound of many voices whispering. A character encountering these trees must save vs. spells or be compelled to listen and attempt to hear what is being “said”. The spell can only be broken by removing the affected person outside of the effective radius of the spell (50 yards); otherwise, the victim starves to death in 5-20 days. Druids of 3rd level or higher are immune to the effects of the whispering. At 12th level, druids may communicate with the pines most of the time (70%), and thus learn the passage of creatures through the vicinity. However, this is like asking a question of a treant, as the answer may take a week to complete.

Once the trees begin their susurration, a charm plants spell is the only thing that can cause them to stop. In such an event, the entire stand makes its saving throw as a group rather than each individually. Only magical blades can fell these trees, and the lumber can be worked only with enchanted tools; likewise, the wood from whispering pines can only be burned by magical fire. If struck by any nonmagical blade, the trees regenerate instantly and the tool must save vs. disintegration. The wielder must also save vs. spells or be paralyzed for 1-4 rounds, after which he must save vs. spells at -5 or be enthralled by the whispering as above.

In the fall, some druids harvest the needles of the pines with silver hand sickles, while chanting special prayers to the gods of nature. To accomplish this, they trim the ends off the lower branches, dry them for 10 days, and pluck the needles from the boughs. Druids then use these needles to create a tea which offers a state of mind which has spell-like scrying abilities similar to those of a reflecting pool (of course, no pool of water is necessary for scrying while in this frame of mind). Anyone who attempts to harvest and use the needles without the sacred chants is stricken in 1-4 rounds after consuming the tea with severe cramps (as per the magic-user spell symbol of pain). Any weapon manufactured from the wood of the whispering pines is automatically +1 in value. Also, any wand, rod, or magical scepter has one extra charge or is 10% more effective.

Originally appeared in Dragon Magazine #119 (1987).


For starters, I think these have too many monster traits to really be hazards. Thoughts?

[demiurge1138]

Agreed. But then again, an immobile monster with no melee or ranged attacks is pretty weird...

[freyar]

Well, what do we have?

Sussuration
Very high DR/magic or regeneration defeated by magic
Disintegration of nonmagic weapons & paralysis of wielder
The rest seems mostly like flavor

Really, all these things make them seem like multiple hazards put together. I guess I'd still go with hazard rather than monster.

[Shade]

If we stick with hazard, then we can probably just revise the DR and add spell resistance and call it a day.

[demiurge1138]

And add DCs. Don't forget about the DCs.

[freyar]

So what's the format? I know we've done a few hazards before, but I don't remember how we lay them out.

[Shade]

Hazards have a surprising lack of format...just a bold name, followed by CR, then paragraph description.

[freyar]

So: a bit of flavor mentioning DR on top of the usual hardness and 2 hazard descriptions (sussuration and dangers of attacking it)? I'm personally for leaving off the bit about talking to druids except maybe to mention speak with plants.

[Shade]

Let's see if we can't finish these off to get them off the docket.

[freyar]

Hmmm, you saw these in that other thread, today, too! But I couldn't remember where these were or even if we finished them.

Start by copying the 3e version into homebrews and editing? Or start from scratch?