Chainless Kyton Homebrew
Original Stats
Of course, being kept in a room locked up alone or with a body’s friends is one thing—being trapped with a kyton or two who were captured by the kamerel is another. Captured kytons can simply will themselves to die—leaving behind nothing but a pile of chains and foul-smelling ichor—but an individual kyton may wait to see what’s in store for him before he chooses that option.
Stripped of its chains, a kyton has no special abilities or weapons—except that it can still unnervingly take the appearance of a viewer’s departed loved one or friend. That won’t stop a bloodthirsty kyton from attacking fellow prisoners anyway if he’s able. A trapped kyton could, conceivably, also attempt to control the chains he once wore (if they are within 20 feet) and use them to attempt to batter down the door or attack his captors. This situation may provide a PC with a possible diversion in which to attempt an escape. Assume that all the warriors present when the PC was captured now function as his guards.
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KYTON, CHAINLESS: AC 2; MV 12; HD 8; hp 48; THAC0 13; #AT 2; Dmg pummel; SA control and even attack with any chains within 20 feet; SD +2 or better weapon to hit, immune to cold, regenerate 1 hit point a round; SW Recover from wounds inflicted from blessed or holy weapons at half normal rate, flee from blessed items; MR 25%; SZ M (6’ tall); ML fanatic (17); Int low to avg (5–9); AL LE; XP 6,000.
Homebrew Conversion
Kyton, Unchained
Medium Outsider (Evil, Extraplanar, Lawful)
Hit Dice: 8d8+16 (52 hp)
Initiative: +6
Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares)
Armor Class: 18 (+2 Dex, +2 dodge, +4 natural), touch 14, flat-footed 14
Base Attack/Grapple: +8/+10
Attack: Slam +10 melee (1d3+2)
Full Attack: 2 slam +10 melee (1d3+2)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Dancing chains, unnerving guise
Special Qualities: Damage reduction 5/silver or good, darkvision 60 ft., immunity to cold, regeneration 2, spell resistance 18
Saves: Fort +8, Ref +8, Will +6
Abilities: Str 15, Dex 15, Con 15, Int 6, Wis 10, Cha 12
Skills: Climb +13, Craft (blacksmithing) +17, Escape Artist +13, Intimidate +12, Listen +13, Spot +13, Use Rope +2 (+4 with bindings)
Feats: Alertness, Improved Critical (chain), Improved Initiative
Environment: A lawful evil-aligned plane
Organization: Solitary, gang (2-4), band (6-10), or mob (11-20)
Challenge Rating: 4
Treasure: Standard
Alignment: Always lawful evil
Advancement: 9-16 HD (Medium)
Level Adjustment: +6
Kytons are humanlike devils, wrapped in chains instead of clothing. An unchained kyton is a chain devil that has had some or all of its chains removed. This entry describes a kyton without any chains, kytons that retain a portion of their chains are described in the Partially Unchained Kytons section, below.
Stripping a kyton of its chains is no easy task, for normally the chains simply wrap themselves back around the kyton as soon as they are removed; pieces broken from a sundered chain wrap themselves automatically in a similar fashion. It is only possible to strip the chains from a kyton who cannot take any actions, not even mental ones. If a chain devil is completely incapacitated by a condition (e.g. cowering, dazed, dying, fascinated, petrified, unconscious, stunned), its chains stop moving by themselves and can easily be unwound from about the devil's body.
Most kytons would rather die than be denuded of its chains, and chainless kytons will generally kill themselves at the first opportunity unless they think there's a fair chance of them regaining their chains and wreaking revenge. An unchained kyton will do everything in its power to gain a complete set of chains, even if it has to forge them anew link by link.
A chainless kyton is 6 feet tall and weighs about 180 pounds.
Chain devils speak Infernal and Common.
Combat
A chainless kyton attacks by flailing away with its hard fists. It can still use its dancing chains power to animate any chains it comes across.
The kyton can choose to deal lethal or nonlethal damage with its slam attacks, as if it were a creature using the Improved Unarmed Strike to make an unarmed strike attack.
Dancing Chains (Su): A chain devil’s most awesome attack is its ability to control up to four chains within 20 feet as a standard action, making the chains dance or move as it wishes. In addition, a chain devil can increase these chains’ length by up to 15 feet and cause them to sprout razor-edged barbs. These chains attack as effectively as the devil itself. If a chain is in another creature’s possession, the creature can attempt a DC 15 Will save to break the chain devil’s power over that chain. If the save is successful, the kyton cannot attempt to control that particular chain again for 24 hours or until the chain leaves the creature’s possession. The save DC is Charisma-based.
A chain devil can climb chains it controls at its normal speed without making Climb checks.
Unnerving Guise (Su): A kyton can make its body and features resemble a departed loved one or bitter enemy of one of its opponent's. On seeing the kyton's unnerving guise, the opponent must succeed at a Will save (DC 15) or suffer a –2 morale penalty to all attack rolls for 1d3 rounds. The kyton is effectively camouflaged as the loved one or enemy, so gains a +10 bonus on Disguise checks if it uses this ability to create a disguise. The save DC is Charisma-based.
Partially Unchained Kytons
The unchained kyton described above has been completely denuded of chains, but kytons can also be partially unchained. A kyton that lacks a complete set of chains can rearrange its remaining body chains, using them to form spiked chains or armor as suits its needs.
The follow set of entries detail the changes that a SRD kyton undergoes as it progressively loses its chains. Any statistics that are not included are unchanged. Note that the lesser kyton of Tales From the Infinite Staircase can also be "unchained" using the same changes to its stats.
A typical kyton weighs 180 pounds and needs 120 pounds of chains to form a complete set.
A chain devil can add or remove new chains to its collection just by wrapping or unwrapping them from around its body. Its chain-manipulation powers allow it to reshape and combine broken or fragmentary chains into complete ones that it can use as weapons or to enhance its natural armor, although such chains will fall apart again once they lose contract with the kyton.
COMBAT
Partially unchained kytons will usually sacrifice defense to attack with as many chains as they can muster. They are only likely to shift their remaining body chains to natural armor if they are not in melee or they're facing an overwhelming number of foes.
Kyton, Fully Chained
A fully chained kyton is the normal chain devil presented in the SRD. Its body chains weigh about 120 pounds.
Kyton, Mostly Chained
Armor Class:
Two spiked chain 18 (+2 Dex, +4 natural), touch 12, flat-footed 16
One spiked chain 20 (+2 Dex, +8 natural), touch 12, flat-footed 18
Attack: Chain +10 melee (1d4+2/19-20)
Full Attack:
2 chains +10 melee (1d4+2/19-20);
or chain +10 melee (1d4+2/19-20) and chain-fist +10 melee (1d4+2/19-20)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft. (10 ft. with chain)
Challenge Rating: 6
Combat
A mostly chained kyton has about 90 pounds of body chains. It can choose one of the following two arrangements for its chains, switching between them as a swift action:
● The kyton has a –2 penalty to its natural armor
● One of the kyton's chain attacks becomes a "chain fist". The kyton has the same attack modifier with a chain fist as it has with its normal chains (no off-hand or two-weapon fighting penalties) and any weapon feats it has in (chain) still apply to the fist, but the chain fist does not have the chain's increased reach and does 1d4 damage (bludgeoning or piercing) plus Strength bonus
Kyton, Half Chained
Armor Class:
Two spiked chain 16 (+2 Dex, +4 natural), touch 12, flat-footed 14
One spiked chain 18 (+2 Dex, +6 natural), touch 12, flat-footed 16
No spiked chains 20 (+2 Dex, +8 natural), touch 12, flat-footed 18
Attack: Chain +10 melee (1d4+2/19-20) or chain-fist +10 melee (1d4+2/19-20)
Full Attack:
2 chains +10 melee (1d4+2/19-20);
or chain +10 melee (1d4+2/19-20) and chain-fist +10 melee (1d4+2/19-20);
or 2 chain-fists +10 melee (1d4+2/19-20)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft. (10 ft. with chain)
Challenge Rating: 6
Combat
A half chained kyton has about 60 pounds of body chains. It can choose one of the following three arrangements for its chains, switching between them as a swift action:
● The kyton has a –4 penalty to its natural armor.
● The kyton has a –2 penalty to natural armor and one of its chains becomes a "chain fist", as detailed above.
● Both the kyton's chain attacks become "chain fists".
Kyton, Quarter Chained
Armor Class:
One spiked chain 16 (+2 Dex, +4 natural), touch 12, flat-footed 14
No spiked chains 18 (+2 Dex, +6 natural), touch 12, flat-footed 16
Attack: Chain +10 melee (1d4+2/19-20) or chain-fist +10 melee (1d4+2/19-20)
Full Attack:
Chain +10 melee (1d4+2/19-20) and chain-fist +10 melee (1d4+2/19-20);
or 2 chain-fists +10 melee (1d4+2/19-20)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft. (10 ft. with chain)
Challenge Rating: 5
Combat
A quarter chained kyton has about 30 pounds of body chains. It can choose one of the following two arrangements for its chains, switching between them as a swift action:
● One of its chain attacks becomes a "chain fist" and it has a –4 penalty to its natural armor.
● Both the kyton's chain attacks become "chain fists" and it has a –2 penalty to its natural armor
Kyton, Barely Chained
Armor Class: 18 (+2 Dex, +1 dodge, +5 natural), touch 13, flat-footed 15
Attack: Chain-fist +10 melee (1d4+2/19-20)
Full Attack: 2 chain-fists +10 melee (1d4+2/19-20)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Challenge Rating: 4
Combat
A barely chained kyton has only a few pounds of body chains. It has the following changes from a normal kyton:
● The kyton has a –3 penalty to its natural armor, but it has lost so much weight of chains that it becomes more agile, gaining a +1 dodge bonus to its AC.
● Both the kyton's chain attacks become "chain fists", as described in the mostly chained kyton.
● Finally, the kyton's Unnerving Gaze special attack becomes Unnerving Guise:
Unnerving Guise (Su): A kyton can make its body and features resemble a departed loved one or bitter enemy of one of its opponent's. On seeing the kyton's unnerving guise, the opponent must succeed at a Will save (DC equals 10 plus 1/2 HD plus Charisma modifier) or suffer a –2 morale penalty to all attack rolls for 1d3 rounds. The kyton is effectively camouflaged as the loved one or enemy, so gains a +10 bonus on Disguise checks if it uses this ability to create a disguise. The save DC is Charisma-based.
Kyton, Chainless
Armor Class: 18 (+2 Dex, +2 dodge, +4 natural), touch 14, flat-footed 14
Attack: Slam +10 melee (1d3+2)
Full Attack: 2 slams +10 melee (1d3+2)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Challenge Rating: 4
Combat
A chainless kyton, unsurprisingly, is a chain devil without any chains, as described in the main Unchained Kyton entry, above. It has the following changes from a normal kyton:
● The kyton has a –4 penalty to natural armor and is so agile from being unencumbered by chains it gains a +2 dodge bonus to AC.
● Both the kyton's chain attacks become slam attacks doing 1d3 bludgeoning damage (plus Strength bonus). The kyton can choose to deal lethal or nonlethal damage with its slam attacks, as if it were a creature using the Improved Unarmed Strike to make an unarmed strike attack. Unlike "chain fists", any weapon feats the kyton has in (chain) do not apply to its slam attacks.
● Finally, the kyton's Unnerving Gaze special attack becomes Unnerving Guise (see the barely chained kyton for details).
Originally appeared in Tales From the Infinite Staircase (1998) in Tale 7: Reflections.
