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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: Sheens
- Thread starter Shade
- Start date
demiurge1138
Inventor of Super-Toast
Let's call it CR 4. It's going to be hell pinning one of these guys down in combat, and they've got pretty good damage output.
demiurge1138
Inventor of Super-Toast
Weight sounds good. With that, we're finished, right?
Shade
Monster Junkie
Indeed. 
Render
These terrible machines resemble monstrously swollen insects, complete with dozens of writhing metallic legs, feelers, and lethal projections good only for cutting and ripping. As if these weren’t enough, renders possess strange orifices from which they vent destructive energies at distant targets. Few Sheenchasers have encountered renders and lived, so few visual references exist. The best is a famous painting hanging in the Vital League’s Motherhouse depicting the conflict between a render and Abele, the founder of the League.
The render fulfills only one need for the machine cyst: defense. The machine has “evolved” to incapacitate and destroy organic life, and it is good at what it does. Most machine cysts contain only one or two specimens, but that’s usually enough. Sheenchasers who come upon renders are in for the fight of their lives.
Renders are sometimes sent on long-term missions by the controlling mind of the machine cyst, usually to deter groups on the verge of finding the machine cyst. Thus, renders contain an internal energy source good for several years of activity, at a minimum. All Sheenchasers are taught to respect this arcane energy source, and to leave it well alone if they should ever manage to vanquish a render in combat.
Render, machine life form (1): AC -6 (steel scales); MV 12; HD 16+1; hp 144; THAC0 5; #AT 7; Dmg 1d10 (blade arms x6) and 3d10 (rotating blade “mandibles”); SA Plasma “breath”, electrical discharge; SD Grade 3 defensive field, immune to all mind-affecting spells, spells that affect life force, and psionics; SW Magic susceptibility; SZ H (10’ diameter); ML Fearless (20); AL N; XP 19,000; Str 22, Dex 18, Con 22, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 0.
SA – Plasma “breath”. Three times per day, the render can vent superheated plasma from an anterior valve, creating a searing cone of superheated particles 90 feet long, 5 feet wide at the origin, and 30 feet wide at the terminus. Creatures struck by the plasma must make a successful saving throw vs. breath weapon or suffer 16d10 points of damage; creatures that successfully save still suffer half damage. Treat the plasma as fire for purposes of invulnerabilities and protective magics.
SA – Electrical Discharge. See similar SA for walker; renders can use this ability 5/day without depleting a render’s energy.
SD – Grade 3 defensive field. See similar SD for walker; defensive fields drain 3 hit points per physical attack. The render’s self-contained energy source allows the field to reamin up continuously without recharge.
SW - Magic Susceptibility. Machine life is unsuited to resist mage. Renders make all saving throws vs. magic with a -2 penalty. In every other regard, treat a render’s magic susceptibility as described under the walker SW.
Originally appeared in Dragon Magazine #258 (1999).
Render
These terrible machines resemble monstrously swollen insects, complete with dozens of writhing metallic legs, feelers, and lethal projections good only for cutting and ripping. As if these weren’t enough, renders possess strange orifices from which they vent destructive energies at distant targets. Few Sheenchasers have encountered renders and lived, so few visual references exist. The best is a famous painting hanging in the Vital League’s Motherhouse depicting the conflict between a render and Abele, the founder of the League.
The render fulfills only one need for the machine cyst: defense. The machine has “evolved” to incapacitate and destroy organic life, and it is good at what it does. Most machine cysts contain only one or two specimens, but that’s usually enough. Sheenchasers who come upon renders are in for the fight of their lives.
Renders are sometimes sent on long-term missions by the controlling mind of the machine cyst, usually to deter groups on the verge of finding the machine cyst. Thus, renders contain an internal energy source good for several years of activity, at a minimum. All Sheenchasers are taught to respect this arcane energy source, and to leave it well alone if they should ever manage to vanquish a render in combat.
Render, machine life form (1): AC -6 (steel scales); MV 12; HD 16+1; hp 144; THAC0 5; #AT 7; Dmg 1d10 (blade arms x6) and 3d10 (rotating blade “mandibles”); SA Plasma “breath”, electrical discharge; SD Grade 3 defensive field, immune to all mind-affecting spells, spells that affect life force, and psionics; SW Magic susceptibility; SZ H (10’ diameter); ML Fearless (20); AL N; XP 19,000; Str 22, Dex 18, Con 22, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 0.
SA – Plasma “breath”. Three times per day, the render can vent superheated plasma from an anterior valve, creating a searing cone of superheated particles 90 feet long, 5 feet wide at the origin, and 30 feet wide at the terminus. Creatures struck by the plasma must make a successful saving throw vs. breath weapon or suffer 16d10 points of damage; creatures that successfully save still suffer half damage. Treat the plasma as fire for purposes of invulnerabilities and protective magics.
SA – Electrical Discharge. See similar SA for walker; renders can use this ability 5/day without depleting a render’s energy.
SD – Grade 3 defensive field. See similar SD for walker; defensive fields drain 3 hit points per physical attack. The render’s self-contained energy source allows the field to reamin up continuously without recharge.
SW - Magic Susceptibility. Machine life is unsuited to resist mage. Renders make all saving throws vs. magic with a -2 penalty. In every other regard, treat a render’s magic susceptibility as described under the walker SW.
Originally appeared in Dragon Magazine #258 (1999).
demiurge1138
Inventor of Super-Toast
Yeah, these guys kick ass. We'll need to standardize the cone... and maybe shrink it to 60 feet?
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