• The VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX is LIVE! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!

Gek-a-gek

demiurge1138

Inventor of Super-Toast
Just an early Christmas gift: one new monster, coming right up. I've playtested these several times, but all comments, suggestions and comments are appreciated. The background is for a Forgotten Realms campaign, but it can be tweaked.

Gek-a-gek
Name and appearance blatantly ripped from Clive Barker's Imagica
Medium-Size Monstrous Humanoid
Hit Dice: 8d8+16 (52 hp)
Initiative: +11 (+7 Dex, +4 Improved Initiative)
Speed: 60ft, climb 40ft.
AC: 21 (+7 Dex, +4 natural)
Attacks: 2 claws +15 melee, bite +9 melee or rake +11 melee
Damage: Claw 2d6+3, bite 1d8+1 or rake 2d8+3
Face/Reach: 5ft by 5ft/5ft
Special Attacks: Jagged rake
Special Qualities: Damage reduction 20/+1, fast metabolism, translucent, piercing resistance, evasion
Saves: Fort +4, Ref +15, Will +7
Abilities: Str 16, Dex 25, Con 15, Int 14, Wis 13, Cha 10
Skills: Climb +17 Hide +17, Jump +17, Listen +9, Move Silently +13, Spot +9
Feats: Dodge, Improved Initiative, Lightning Reflexes, Multiattack, Weapon Finesse (claw)
Climate/Terrain: Any urban, desert or underground
Organization: Solitary, pair, or pack (3-10)
Challenge Rating: 8
Treasure: Double standard (see society)
Alignment: Often neutral evil
Advancement: By character class
ECL: +14 (?)

Gek-a-geks are shadowy creatures that lurk in cities, waiting to ambush and devour unsuspecting victims.
Gek-a-geks are narrow creatures with little flesh on their bones. Their heads are wedge shaped, with beady eyes and a vicious jaw. Their arms are long, and end in three fingered hands with a huge claw on the thumb. Their legs are even longer, and their feet have a bony “middle toe” composed of two toes fused together, and a serrated claw on either side. Most unusual is the fact that their skin is clear, making it difficult to see them. In bright light, a gek-a-gek’s pink bones are visible, making for a ghoulish sight. A gek-a-gek would stand 6 feet tall, if they stood up straight. Instead, they alternate between a two legged and four legged stance, but this is a moot point when they are climbing. Although their natural habitat is in caves and deserts, many gek-a-geks have moved into cities, where food is plentiful. They live in dark alleys, abandoned warehouses and in broken down buildings, where they sleep, socialize and store their gems. Gek-a-geks speak their own language, Common and Undercommon.

Combat
Gek-a-geks prefer to ambush their prey, hiding until they can get close enough to pounce. They know to attack wizards and sorcerers first, and then go after any opponents they see without much armor. They tend to avoid targets in plate mail. After they kill their victim, they skin and eat them.
Jagged rake (Ex): A gek-a-gek’s back claws are deeply serrated. All rake attacks made by a gek-a-gek cause jagged wounds that can’t be healed without a Heal check (DC 15) or a healing spell.
Fast Metabolism (Ex): A gek-a-gek can take an extra partial action every round, as if under the effects of a haste spell. They do not gain any other benifits from haste, such as a bonus to armor class.
Translucent (Ex): A gek-a-gek’s translucent skin refracts light at odd angles, making them difficult to hit. Any melee or ranged attack directed at it has a 20% miss chance unless the attacker can pinpoint the creature by means other than sight. True seeing allows the user to see it, but see invisibility has no effect.
Resistance (Ex): Due to it’s skeletal composition, piercing attacks made against a gek-a-gek do only half damage.
Evasion (Ex): Like rogues, gek-a-geks that make their reflex save to take half damage avoid damage completely instead.
Skills and Feats: A gek-a-gek receives Lightning Reflexes as a bonus feat. *Gek-a-geks in shadowy conditions receive a +10 circumstance bonus to Hide checks.

Society
Traditionally, gek-a-geks live in family units, led by the strongest or fastest individual. Fights for dominance are common. Although they have opposable thumbs and are intelligent, most gek-a-geks use no tools. The only forms of crafts they make are large pouches, made from the dried skin of their prey and woven together with the sinews of their victims. These pouches are used to store the individual gek-a-gek’s gems. Gek-a-geks collect gems and minerals with a passion, taking them from their fallen foes. As a result, a gek-a-gek’s treasure may consist of gems, the pommels and hilts of ornate swords, rings and staffs with gems set into them, and all sorts of psionic items containing crystal.
However, in recent years, more and more gek-a-geks have become less animalian and more "civilized". They still eat human flesh when they can get it, but live in homes instead of ruins and caves. Most of the civilized gek-a-geks possess an item that allows them to appear as human, and often work as hired killers.
A gek-a-gek's favored class is rogue. Many gek-a-geks become assassins when they meet the prerequisites.

In the Realms
Gek-a-geks are one of the many by-products of the war between the Netherese and the phaerimm. Phaerimm sorcerers created them as an elite race of assassins by magically combining a human, a hook horror and a species of subterranean shark. These bodies were then imbued with various adaptations through lost magic, and then set upon the Netherese. When the floating cities were destroyed and the phaerimm banished, the gek-a-gek were left in the desert to adapt or die. Adapt they did, and they slowly migrated by means of the Underdark out of Anauroch and into the cities of Faerun. Notable colonies of gek-a-gek live in Waterdeep, Calimport, and Westgate, where they are under the payroll of the Night Masks.

Demiurge out.
 

log in or register to remove this ad


demiurge1138

Inventor of Super-Toast
Frog Slime said:
Also, if you want a picture, look in Barlowe's Guide to Fantasy.
Actually, I've never read Imagica, but I was so taken by Barlowe's illustration that I created stats and a new background for the creature.
So...
Any comments? Please?

Demiurge out, pathetically.
 


DnDChick

Demon Queen of Templates
Well done! All your math adds up right, and that is one nasty critter!

I really like that "jagged rake" ability. Very nasty! :eek:
 

Frog Slime

First Post
Well, gee, sorry, Demiurge, but I couldn't find any purely statisical mistakes so I didn't really bother to say anything. Really, though, from the way they're represented in Imajica, I'd say they were more animalstic predator than a creature with a 14 intelligence would be. But that's just my opinion, and I'm sure someone else who has read the book might argue with me.
 

demiurge1138

Inventor of Super-Toast
Well, Frog Slime, I know that in Imagica the gek-a-gek was animalistic and unintelligent, but Barlowe's illustration just conveyed too much feral intelligence to pass up the oppurtunity.

Demiurge out.
 

Psychotic Jim

First Post
Here's an idea to give the creature a weakness: since they have such a fast metabolism, poisons and potions might work faster than they do for normal creatures. Poisons could require only one round instead of one minute for secondadry damage to be applied. Potions and intoxicants might only last half as long. Also, rakes are typically listed as seperate special attacks and given under what conditions they may be applied, like in the MM.
 
Last edited:

demiurge1138

Inventor of Super-Toast
Psychotic Jim, the rake isn't a rake in the traditional "grab 'em and rip with the back claws" like on a lion or tiger. It's more akin to the "rake" of the deinonychus, which is just attacking with the back claws.
And I will be using that potions and poisons idea.

Demiurge out.
 

Voidrunner's Codex

Remove ads

Top