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NOW LIVE! Into the Woods--new character species, eerie monsters, and haunting villains to populate the woodlands of your D&D games.
Special Conversion Thread: Finishing off the fey
- Thread starter Shade
- Start date
Shade
Monster Junkie
Halloween is approaching...
BOGEYMAN
FREQUENCY: Uncommon
NO. APPEARING: 1 or 1-4
ARMOR CLASS: 10
MOVE: 12”
HIT DICE: 2
% IN LAIR: Nil
TREASURE TYPE: Nil
NO. OF ATTACKS: 2 claws
DAMAGE/ATTACK: 1-3
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Illusion, scare
SPECIAL DEFENSES: Darkness
MAGIC RESISTANCE: Standard
INTELLIGENCE: Semi-
ALIGNMENT Chaotic evil
SIZE: S
PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil
Attack/Defense Modes: Nil
LEVEL/X.P. VALUE: II/44 + 2/hp
A truly despicable creature, the bogeyman is a type of psychic leech that feeds on the fear and terror it creates in its victims, who are usually young children. The bogeyman attacks at night when its victim is alone in a darkened room. It surrounds itself with a form of continual darkness with a radius of 5 feet and uses phantasmal force and audible glamer to create night terrors out of familiar objects in the room. If the intended victim proves resistant to the illusion, the bogeyman will use its ability to scare, causing the target to fall into a trembling fit and allowing the creature to feed on the fear that the victim exudes.
The bogeyman does not confine its choice of victims to children. Lone travelers journeying through deserted woodlands or desolate moors, or a solitary person walking along a dark city street, may also find themselves victimized by this creature. A bogeyman usually appears alone, but in the city there is a 5% chance that 1-4 of these creatures will gang up on some unfortunate target.
Anyone attempting to attack a bogeyman will do so at -4 “to hit” because of the sphere of darkness surrounding the creature. Infravision and ultravision are useless against this magical darkness, but the bogeyman can see through it to the area beyond. When forced to fight, the bogeyman can attack twice per round with its claws. It uses each of its innate spell-like abilities (phantasmal force, audible glamer, scare, and continual darkness) at the 5th level of ability, and can employ each type of magic twice per day.
If its darkness aura is dispelled, the bogeyman is revealed as a puny-looking, 3’-tall creature with a bulging head, staring eyes, and dead-white skin. Because of its cowardly nature, the bogeyman will flee immediately from any strong opposition or upon losing its protective darkness. It will head for the nearest large patch of darkness and attempt to conceal itself until it can reuse its continual darkness ability.
Originally appeared in Dragon Magazine #101 (1985).
BOGEYMAN
FREQUENCY: Uncommon
NO. APPEARING: 1 or 1-4
ARMOR CLASS: 10
MOVE: 12”
HIT DICE: 2
% IN LAIR: Nil
TREASURE TYPE: Nil
NO. OF ATTACKS: 2 claws
DAMAGE/ATTACK: 1-3
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Illusion, scare
SPECIAL DEFENSES: Darkness
MAGIC RESISTANCE: Standard
INTELLIGENCE: Semi-
ALIGNMENT Chaotic evil
SIZE: S
PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil
Attack/Defense Modes: Nil
LEVEL/X.P. VALUE: II/44 + 2/hp
A truly despicable creature, the bogeyman is a type of psychic leech that feeds on the fear and terror it creates in its victims, who are usually young children. The bogeyman attacks at night when its victim is alone in a darkened room. It surrounds itself with a form of continual darkness with a radius of 5 feet and uses phantasmal force and audible glamer to create night terrors out of familiar objects in the room. If the intended victim proves resistant to the illusion, the bogeyman will use its ability to scare, causing the target to fall into a trembling fit and allowing the creature to feed on the fear that the victim exudes.
The bogeyman does not confine its choice of victims to children. Lone travelers journeying through deserted woodlands or desolate moors, or a solitary person walking along a dark city street, may also find themselves victimized by this creature. A bogeyman usually appears alone, but in the city there is a 5% chance that 1-4 of these creatures will gang up on some unfortunate target.
Anyone attempting to attack a bogeyman will do so at -4 “to hit” because of the sphere of darkness surrounding the creature. Infravision and ultravision are useless against this magical darkness, but the bogeyman can see through it to the area beyond. When forced to fight, the bogeyman can attack twice per round with its claws. It uses each of its innate spell-like abilities (phantasmal force, audible glamer, scare, and continual darkness) at the 5th level of ability, and can employ each type of magic twice per day.
If its darkness aura is dispelled, the bogeyman is revealed as a puny-looking, 3’-tall creature with a bulging head, staring eyes, and dead-white skin. Because of its cowardly nature, the bogeyman will flee immediately from any strong opposition or upon losing its protective darkness. It will head for the nearest large patch of darkness and attempt to conceal itself until it can reuse its continual darkness ability.
Originally appeared in Dragon Magazine #101 (1985).
demiurge1138
Inventor of Super-Toast
OK, the darkness aura is plainly some sort of concealment, either standard or full. The phantasmal force and audible glamour can be replaced with major image. Do we want to keep it at just scare, or ramp things up to fear? They are pretty weak, so I think scare is still appropriate.
Cleon
Legend
I'd go for a Small-sized Fey.
I'm thinking it would have stat similar to a Nixie or Pixie, except for being only Semi-intelligent. That's pretty unusual for a fey.
So, something like Str 7, Dex 16, Con 11, Int 3, Wis 13, Cha 16 for its ability scores?
Also note that the -4 AC it gets from its Darkness Aura is the same AC benefit as invisibility gives in D&D/AD&D, so I'm thinking the Aura makes it effectively invisible in dark and shadowy conditions. Doesn't the Shadow Demon have something similar?
demiurge1138
Inventor of Super-Toast
I like the 20% miss chance and a huge bonus to hide in dark conditions. Fey is very appropriate.
Cleon
Legend
I started out thinking 20% concealment and a big Hide bonus in darkness was the way to go to, but then I thought that there are a lot of small fey that have full invisibility at will, so giving the Bogeyman something on par made sense.
It also seemed to fit their modus operandi. If they spend a lot of time lurking in bedrooms terrifying kids they have to have some highly reliable way of escaping the parents' attention.
Still, if it's a big enough Hide bonus to render them effectively undetectably to a 1st-3rd level NPC it would work. Maybe they can take 10 on Hide checks when in their Aura of Darkness? Or it could just require a Spot DC or 25 or so to notice a Bogeyman in its Darkness Aura.
Anyhow, I'll agree on 20% concealment.
Oh, and freyar I don't remember AD&D or BECMI D&D using miss chances much at all, except for a couple of supernatural effects.
Shade
Monster Junkie
Added to Homebrews.
The really low Int does seem a bit off...how about boosting it to at least 7? Even the brutish redcap has Int 11!
So is scare going to be an SLA, or a Su ability?
The darkness aura seems a no-brainer, but we might consider this as well...
Shadow Blend (Su): In any condition of illumination other than full daylight, a shadow mastiff can disappear into the shadows, giving it total concealment. Artificial illumination, even a light or continual flame spell, does not negate this ability. A daylight spell, however, will.
Also, see in darkness like a devil?
The really low Int does seem a bit off...how about boosting it to at least 7? Even the brutish redcap has Int 11!
So is scare going to be an SLA, or a Su ability?
The darkness aura seems a no-brainer, but we might consider this as well...
Shadow Blend (Su): In any condition of illumination other than full daylight, a shadow mastiff can disappear into the shadows, giving it total concealment. Artificial illumination, even a light or continual flame spell, does not negate this ability. A daylight spell, however, will.
Also, see in darkness like a devil?
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