Custom Creature - Ice Maiden

[Halivar]

Hey guys, I'm trying to write up a fey creature to go in a glacial area, and this is what I have so far. Please take a look at it and help me tweak it's CR rating.

I know the AC + cold immunity is pretty tough, and the gaze attack is pretty rough, but I think it's pretty soft against fire attacks (it's got cold subtype).

Any suggestions for tweaking it's CR rating would be welcomed. Thanks!

Ice Maiden
Medium Fey [cold]
Hit Dice: 10d6 (35 hp)
Initiative: +8
Speed: 30 ft.
Armor Class: 24 (+4 Dex, +6 natural, +4 deflection), touch 18, flat-footed 20
Base Attack/Grapple: +5/+5
Attack: Touch +9 melee (1d6 cold)
Full Attack: Touch +9 melee (1d6 cold)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Abilities: Cold subtype, cold touch, icy stare, DR 15/fire and DR 5/cold iron, gaseous form, immunities, unearthly grace
Saves: Fort +7, Ref +15, Will +15
Abilities: Str 10, Dex 19, Con 11, Int 14, Wis 15, Cha 18
Skills: Balance +12, Diplomacy +13, Knowledge (nature) +15, Intimidate +10, Listen +17, Move Silently +17, Perform (singing) +17, Sense Motive +15, Spot +17, Tumble +11
Feats: Alertness, Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Weapon Finesse
Climate/Terrain: Any cold
Organization: Solitary, pair, or covey (3-5)
Challenge Rating: 9
Treasure: Double standard
Alignment: Always neutral
Advancement: By character class

This tall female humanoid looks like a life-size ice-sculpture, draped in fine white silks and linens. Her long, flowing hair is silvery white, and her eyes twinkle like diamonds. When she speaks, her crystalline voice sounds like the plucked strands of an exquisite harp.

Ice maidens are fey of the deep northern tundra of Baradon. They serve the will of the Ice Queen, and act as both her messengers and her protectors. They completely avoid contact unless they are delivering a message from the Ice Queen. Otherwise, they remain in gaseous form, in which they appear as a thin fog covering the frozen ground.
Ice maidens are known to have beautiful song voices, and it is said that the hall of the Ice Queen echoes constantly with their haunting melody. If an ice maiden takes interest in a mortal, she will readily trade favors or knowledge in exchange for news or information. Such information, of course, is always relayed to the Ice Queen's castle.

Combat
Ice maidens avoid combat unless they are acting in defense of the Ice Queen or upon her command. Sometimes ice maidens lead small bands of the Ice Queen's subjects to drive off intruders to her lands. If ambushed, an ice maiden returns to gaseous form to seek out a more advantageous position.
An ice maiden begins combat by unleashing her icy stare, turning as many of her foes as possible to ice. The ice maiden will continue this tactic unless it appears her icy stare has no effect on certain combatants. She will then direct any followers, if there are any, to engage her opponents. If the battle is unwinnable, she will flee in gaseous form. An ice maiden will only employ her cold touch attack in defense of the Ice Queen, as she will not normally want to be in melee range.
Cold Touch (Ex): The skin of an ice maiden is chill to the touch, and deals 1d6 cold damage to any creature it comes in contact with.
Icy Stare (Su, gaze attack): Turn to ice permanently, 30 feet, Fortitude DC 19 negates. The save DC is Charisma-based. An ice maiden can suppress this ability at will. A break enchantment spell will undo the effects of an ice maiden's icy stare.
Gaseous Form (Su): As a standard action, an ice maiden can assume a gaseous form at will as the spell (caster level 5th), but she can remain gaseous indefinitely and has a fly speed of 20 feet with perfect maneuverability.
Immunities (Ex): An ice maiden is made of solid crystalline ice, and only take half damage from piercing and slashing weapons.
Unearthly Grace (Su): An ice maiden adds her Charisma modifier as a bonus on all her saving throws, and as a deflection bonus to her Armor Class.

 

[ElectricDragon]

I am no good with CR's so I'll just mention the things I saw wrong.

Add the [cold] subtype to the type line.

The Saves are a little off: Ref should be +15.

Skill Points: you forgot to put skill ranks on Knowledge (nature); I'm assuming 13 ranks +2 Int=+15. This means you still have 4 more ranks to spend (Diplomacy and Balance both get +2 synergy). That could raise Balance up to +12 and Diplomacy up to +17.

Being made of solid crystalline ice could also mean a weakness to bludgeoning weapons (maybe 1.5 normal damage?).

CR seems a little high to me for a creature with d6 HD; but maybe the abilities balance it out. I'll leave that for someone else to say.

Ciao
Dave

 

[Halivar]

Thanks for pointing all that stuff out, ElectricDragon. I also forgot that Fey get DR 5/cold iron, so I added that in as well. Diplomacy only has 7 ranks, plus +4 Cha mod plus +2 Sense Motive synergy makes a +13 skill mod, so I was actually a little high there.

Now that you say the CR 10 is too high; I agree with you. The MM suggests CR should not be any highter than HD-1 for "special attack" creatures with low hit-points. In this case, that's fit a CR 9 nicely.

 

[Ferret]

Looks very cool, although the gaze is harsh, but how tough is the ice? Would it shatter if it was toppeled?

Otherwise it looks good. Very cool as well.

 

[The Forsaken One]

I'd put it at CR 3-4 or something... One power attacking lucky hit takes her out not even to mension 1 fireball taking out 10 of em.. So I'd go for 4 personally due to the decent AC.

 

[Chaos Drake]

Pretty cool, but like what Ferret says, can a creature/being that's been turned to ice be destroyed? Perhaps a song effect can be added for more flavour.

Ice Maiden.. sounds like too many gals I knew before. heh.

 

[Halivar]

Hrmm... perhaps we can say that the ice is magical, and thus harder (after all, break enchantment fixes it). Thus, it is as hard and thick as stone. That balances it with the Medusa's gaze attack.

As for song effects... hrmm... perhaps give her caster levels of bard? Maybe 3rd? Her CR is rather high for her hitpoints... she needs some more special abilities to justify the CR 9.

 

[Halivar]

I put together an iconic level 8 party (fighter, wizard, rogue, and cleric) and set them against a single ice maiden in some trial fights. She consistantly TPK's them because, even though she has low hitpoints, her DR makes her virtually invulnerable to a fighter. A rogue can do some small amount of damage to her if he can get a flank (+4d6 usually gives him enough to top the DR). The biggest challenge to an ice maiden is a fireball-casting wizard. [Take out bad rules-reading --Hal]

In most of the trial fights I ran, the fighter and rogue get iced early on, with the wizard getting it next (I always position the wizard in the back, so the ice maiden actually has to go after them). The cleric tends to last the longest, but has little they can do once it becomes a one-on-one fight.

My conclusion is that the ice maiden, as presented, is a good (and tough) CR 9. A group gets the upper hand if they can prepare flaming weapons, eagle's splendor to go round, and the wizard has prepared plenty of fireball castings beforehand. Open areas are preferrable, with ranged attacks. In close quarters a mid-level group is simply DOA.

 

[RedShirtNo5]

Very cool idea!

CRs are always a guessing game. CR 9 looks OK, but it might be CR 8. Best comparison I can think of is a bodak at CR 8. Bodak's gaze is a death attack, but with a lower DC. Bodak has more hp and undead immunities, but ice maiden has half-damage from slashing/piercing and better AC. Also, bodak has DR 10/cold iron, which is better than the ice maiden's.

As with many creatures with a gaze attack, the combat depends signficantly on whether the characters have prior knowledge of the creature's abilities.

If the creature is solid ice, should it have immunity to criticals?

One minor nit - the Icy Stare should explicitly stated to be a gaze attack, or be renamed Icy Gaze.

I definitely will steal this for an upcoming game.

-RedShirt

 

[Victim]

I put together an iconic level 8 party (fighter, wizard, rogue, and cleric) and set them against a single ice maiden in some trial fights. She consistantly TPK's them because, even though she has low hitpoints, her DR makes her virtually invulnerable to a fighter. A rogue can do some small amount of damage to her if he can get a flank (+4d6 usually gives him enough to top the DR). The biggest challenge to an ice maiden is a fireball-casting wizard. Even then, the ice maiden has the advantage, as her Icy Stare ability requires a Charisma-based Fortitude save. Characters with high Fortitude saves typically have low Charisma scores (except paladins, of course), and the wizard has both low Charisma and low Fortitude saves.
.

The Icy Stare attack is a normal Fortitude save. "The save DC is Charisma based" refers to how the creature sets the save DC, not the stat that characters use to save. So if the Ice Maiden uses a potion of Eagle's Splendor, the save DC goes up, but the characters under attack still make normal Con Fortitude saves.

A Bodak is probably a good comparison, so CR 8 probably seems about right.

Touch AC should be 18, not 14.