Creatures-By-Poll: Fey #5 (recovery effort)

[Shade]

I think adding the "flying star bear" form would just be a bit too much on an already ability-heavy critter. Cool concept, though.

 

[BOZ]

OK, i accept your criticism.

any thoughts on the breath weapon or spell-likes? we don't need to get very deep into the SLAs, but we ought to know what the breath weapon can do.

 

[Shade]

I'm cool with the breath weapon effects suggested, and kinda like the cloud shape.

I like life and death themed SLAs. I really think reincarnation would be preferable to any other raise dead-like SLAs, if we are going that route at all.

 

[BOZ]

so, in attitude, more like a druid than a monk?

 

[Shade]

...or a monastic druid, or a druidic monk.

 

[Conaill]

This neutral fey creature claims to be the guardian of the world's poles, though its true purpose remains a mystery to most. In reality, this creature is the appointed guardian of the aurora borealis, which is used as a pathway (or signal?) for the spirits of other fey to reach the afterlife. This creature's task is to guide the spirits to their destination, and to protect these holy places sacred to fey.

Hm... I definitely like the "guardian of the poles" idea better than the "guardian of the aurora", so I wouldn't want one to be presented as a false and the other as true.

Presenting them as guardians of two seperate and unrelated things is confusing. Besides, the "guardians of the aurora" aspect is a *lot* more visible, so it's unlikely this "true purpose" would remain a mystery, no matter how much they are chatterboxes about claiming to be the guardians of the *poles* instead...

We could just say "others claim that..." or "scholars claim that...", and leave both purposes speculative. That way it's up to the DM to decide what they *actually* do...

 

[BOZ]

they are the guardian of the pathway for the dead - whether that pathway is the poles or the aurora or something else, is irrelevant because the bear's purpose remains the same. the average creature encountering the bear/littleman will not know what it is doing standing there in the snow; i assume the fey would not want others to know what it was doing, so i picture it saying "oh, i'm just guarding the north pole..." and trailing off and staring into space. some creatures, however, would know that our magical bear is really a guardian for the dead so there's no fooling them.

what is the best way to state that, if what i wrote doesn't get the idea across?

 

[James Heard]

"The <creature> guard hidden and ancient sites, pathways to the dead known in modern times only to certain obscure scholars. Concerning their purpose the creatures are mostly cryptic or false, often stating that they seek to guard things unrelated to their actual purposes, leading to many false conclusions around the world regarding their true nature.

<insert text concerning Knowledge DCs>" ?

Also uploading my silly reference sketch again.

 

[BOZ]

heh, actually, that's a pretty fine sketch. you make that yourself?

i'm fine with that description. i'll shorten it up a bit, do some rewriting for clarity, and insert it back into what i've written.

the last major item of business: we need to solidify just exactly what it is that the breath weapon does. a number of suggestions have been posted so far. what *exactly* does everyone think the breath weapon(s) should do? i'm fine with, for example, having more than one separate breath (the way that some dragon types have), or having more than one effect tacked on to the same breath.

 

[James Heard]

There's a new spell in the PHBII called Prismatic Mist (Sor/Wiz3) that might be interesting to sit a base effect on and then add a more CR appropriate kicker onto. Plus it ties in with new books, and who doesn't like excuses to buy new books? Well, besides people who can't afford them...The attached effect would probably have to be evil as heck to make up for the low level of that one.

Or, alternately I like the idea that it blinds, dazes/shaken/whatever, and does Con damage too. Maybe a low DC 15 save for permanent blindness, makes you helpless no matter what, and causes Con drain to allude to the death thing. Or level drain, level drain would be outstanding and different too. Something to make sure that the wussiness of being a fey doesn't nerf the "big scary bear" thing. If it can attack players and make them helpless THEN engage in melee...

Or, it breathes a cone of anti-magic that sucks up spell-levels. I don't know how you'd rationalize that, but it sounds like something fey would do.

After that, and including earlier suggestions of mine, my stream o consciousness brainstorm stops.