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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cleon" data-source="post: 8299365" data-attributes="member: 57383">PowerslugFine Magical Beast (Aquatic)Hit Dice: 1/2d10 (2 hp)Initiative: –4Speed: 5 ft. (cannot run), Swim 10 ft. (2 squares)Armor Class: 14 (+8 size, –4 Dex), touch 14, flat-footed 14Base Attack/Grapple: +1/–20Attack: —Full Attack: —Special Attacks: Infestation, POWER!Special Qualities: Amphibious, blindsense 10 ft., phasing, salt vulnerability, scentSaves: Fort +2, Ref –2, Will –1Abilities: Str 1, Dex 2, Con 10, Int 1, Wis 8, Cha 11Skills: Hide +12* (+20 in jungles or swamps), Listen +1, Move Silently +6, Spot +1, Swim +12Feats: AlertnessEnvironment: Warm and temperate swamp or warm forestOrganization: SolitaryChallenge Rating: 1/10Treasure: NoneAlignment: Always neutralAdvancement: —Level Adjustment: —A nondescript slug whose black skin glistens with mucous. It has two very small eyestalks.A powerslug is a very rare parasite found in bogs, tropical swamps and jungles. The slime exuded by the slug is anesthetic: creatures may see or hear a powerslug crawl upon their skin but they will never feel it. Powerslugs can phase themselves away from the Prime Material Plane to become intangible while remaining visible. While useful for avoiding threats this serves a more sinister purpose. Once the slug finds a warm-blooded creature it uses its phasing to enter their body and parasitize them. Powerslugs never share hosts no matter how large they might be; a slug will not enter a creature if their bloodstream tastes of another powerslug's infestation.Powerslugs feed off adrenaline and similar chemicals. A slug fastens onto its host's adrenal gland and forces it to go into overdrive. The flood of chemicals enhances the host's muscles and nervous system, causing them to become far stronger and more agile than is natural as their muscles swell and their movements grow more energetic. Unfortunately, this increased performance comes with a price. The host becomes increasingly aggressive and violent, eventually fighting to the death at the slightest slight or setback. Even worse, the unnatural development of their body puts such a strain on their cardiac system that most victims of a powerslug suffer fatal heart attacks within a few months of infestation. If the host dies the slug just phases out of the corpse to seek new prey.A creature fully infested by a powerslug gains the <a href="https://www.enworld.org/index.php?posts/8519164" target="_blank">powered creature</a> template.Druids despise powerslugs for the devastation that creatures infected by these magical pests do to their environment: an outbreak of powerslugs is usually accompanied by a spate of savage animal attacks. Some brutal individuals or cultures actually seek out powerslug infection for the crude physical power it provides, not caring for the risk of heart attacks and senseless violence.Like many gastropods, powerslugs are hermaphrodites. Unlike most they never mate with each other, but fertilize their own eggs while remaining inside their victim. When the slug senses it is in a warm and humid environment suitable for their development, the eggs are laid in a phased condition to exit the host.A powerslug is a couple of inches long and has a negligible weight of around one-hundredth of an ounce.COMBATA powerslug has no means to directly injure opponents, so stays hidden and tries to sneak up to creatures it can infest. The slug spends most of its time phased, so if an enemy notices it they'll have a hard time injuring the creature.Threatened powerslugs instinctively head for cover, ideally water clogged with mud and dense undergrowth, but are so slow they are unlikely to outrun any pursuit.Infestation (Ex): If a powerslug phases inside a living warm-blooded creature, it moves to the creature's adrenal glands and attaches itself to them, unphasing into corporeality as it does so. It takes 1d10 minutes for a phasing powerslug to reach the adrenal glands of a Small or Medium creature, each size increase larger than that doubles the time (2d10 minutes for Large, 4d10 for Huge, et cetera). A creature can only be infested by a single powerslug regardless of its size.Once a powerslug has attached itself to a creature's adrenal glands it begins injecting chemicals into the glands' blood supply that enormously boost their adrenaline production and gradually alters the host's body, increasing the creature's muscle density, nervous system speed and tolerance of pain. The powerslug feeds off the excess adrenaline thus produced. The effects on the host are detailed below (see POWER!).A powerslug infestation can be removed by any of the following methods.Casting remove curse or remove disease will force the infesting powerslug to phase and leave their host if the caster succeeds at a DC 20 caster level check. A properly worded limited wish, wish or miracle will automatically expel a powerslug or both kill and expel it.A powerslug infestation can be surgically removed. Each attempt does 1d6 Con damage and requires a DC 20 Heal check to succeed, failures cause the patient to start bleeding at 1 Con damage every 1d12 rounds (roll time separately for each point of damage), a DC 20 Heal check or any amount of magical healing will stop this bleeding.The simplest method of expelling a powerslug infestation is simply exposing it to salt, since powerslugs are as vulnerable to salt as ordinary slugs. If a creature consumes enough salt to feel ill (sickened for 2d6 hours) any powerslug infesting them will phase and abandon that host. This only requires a tablespoon or so of salt for a typical Medium humanoid, an overdose of salt (an ounce or more) cause nausea for 2d6 hours and forces the creatures to succeed on a DC 10 Fortitude save or take 1d4 Constitution damage, while an extreme overdose (typically requiring three or more ounces of salt) does 1d10 Con damage on a failed DC 10 Fort save. It takes a powerslug the same amount of time to leave a host as it took to reach its adrenal glands, normally 1d10 minutes.Phasing (Su): A powerslug can become incorporeal as standard action, and shift back into corporeality again as a move action (or during a move action). Unlike a normal incorporeal creature, a phasing powerslug can entirely enter solid objects and does not have to remain adjacent to the object's exterior. However, the powerslug moves incredible slowly when phasing through objects. It takes 1d10 rounds to phase its own body length into solid material, so needs at least that much time to entirely enter an object and gain total cover from external attacks. A dispel magic spell immediately forces a phasing powerslug to become corporeal, if the slug was phased inside an object it is ejected into the nearest open space.Once fully phased inside an object or creature, the powerslug can still be attacked by other incorporeal creatures (who can simply reach in and grab it). A properly worded limited wish, wish or miracle can expel a powerslug, force it to stop phasing, or simply kill it; a mage's disjunction or antimagic field will force a powerslug to stop phasing even if totally inside an object.POWER! (Su): After 3d6+20 days of infestation by a powerslug, its host gains +2 alchemical bonuses to Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution (roll the time separately for each ability). These bonuses increase by an additional +2 every 3d6+20 days to a maximum of +8 after 12d6+80 days.Once a creature gains a bonus to Strength, Dexterity or Constitution from a powerslug infestation they become increasingly aggressive. Whenever something happens that might provoke anger, the creature must succeed at a Wisdom check or lose their temper.  For a minor provocation, such as someone spilling their drink, the DC is 5 for every +2 of physical ability bonus, so DC 5 for +2, DC 10 for +4, DC 15 for +6 and DC 20 for +8. A moderate provocation, such as being slapped without cause, adds another +5 to the DC.  A severe provocation, such as being attacked, adds +10 to the DC. Attempting to forcibly remove the powerslug is a serious provocation. All creatures infested with powerslugs hate the taste of salt, so giving one salty food is always at least a moderate provocation, whether it's a coincidence or an attempt to expel the powerslug.If the creature fails this Wisdom check they will attack the provoking object or creature in a violent frenzy. This frenzy lasts until the host dies, loses consciousness, or the provoking creature or object is either out of their sight for 1d4 rounds or destroyed; if the provoking creature flees the host will pursue them. A calm emotion spell will stop the frenzy if the host fails their Will save.Once all a powerslug host's physical ability scores gain a +8 alchemical bonus, the enormous strain on their body damages their heart. If the host performs extremely vigorous activity, such as combat, for 1d4+1 rounds, they must succeed at a DC 5 Constitution check or suffer a fatal heart attack and die over 4d4 rounds. The save must be repeated each 1d4+1 additional rounds of vigorous activity, with the DC increasing by +1 for each previous check. The rounds of vigorous activity need not be consecutive or on the same action. The accumulated strain of vigorous activity can be healed by rest down to the minimum of DC 5: a night's sleep lowers the Con check DC by –1, a full day's rest lowers the DC by 1d2, and long-term care with a DC 15 Heal check lowers it by –3 per day. A restoration or cure critical wounds spell can prevent a host dying from a heart attack, the restoration also lowers the Con check DC by –5 (minimum DC 5). A heal or greater restoration completely cures a fatal heart attack and sets the Con check starting value to DC 5.If the infesting powerslug is removed, the host creature immediately loses all the physical ability bonuses and aggressiveness from the infestation, but they continue to be at risk of a fatal heart attack, retaining the Constitution check DC they had when the powerslug was removed. The damage to their heart can be healed as described above. Once the Con check is reduced to DC 1 or lower the host's heart is fully healed and the risk of a POWER! induced heart attack ends.Salt Vulnerability: A pinch of salt does 1 point of damage to a powerslug on contact and causes it to flee, a larger amount (enough to cover the creature) kills the powerslug.Skills: Powerslugs have a +8 racial bonus on Move Silently checks. A powerslug has a +8 racial bonus on any Swim check to perform some special action or avoid a hazard. It can always choose to take 10 on a Swim check, even if distracted or endangered. It can use the run action while swimming, provided it swims in a straight line. Powerslugs use either their Strength modifier or Dexterity modifier for Swim checks, whichever is higher.* Powerslugs have a +8 racial bonus on Hide checks in their native environment (jungle vegetation or swamp water).Originally appeared in Dragon #259 (1999).</blockquote>

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