Blog Archive

Saturday 30 December 2017

Astyral Swarm - Ghost fishes found in dungeons

An Astyral Swarm is a silvery ghost fish, they swim in a misty otherworldly fog, that comes from nowhere and goes to more of the same. They are creepily calming, and some dungeon walkers seek them out to either watch their ethereal displays or to feed on their famed succulence.


Astyral Swarm 

N Tiny Magical Beast (Aquatic) (Incorporeal)
Init +7; Senses blindsense 30 ft., keen scent, low-light vision; Perception +3

DEFENSE
AC 18 touch 18, flat-footed 13 (+1 deflection, +5 Dex, +2 size)
hp 30hp (4d10+8 con), Individual hp 7
Fort +6, Ref +9, Will +2
Defensive Abilities swarm traits

OFFENSE
Speed swim 30 ft.
Melee Individual Prime Bite +11 (1d3 dmg)
Melee Astyral swarm (3d6)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 0 ft.

STATISTICS
Str 3, Dex 21, Con 15, Int 1, Wis 12, Cha 12
Base Atk +4 CMB +2 CMD 17

Feats Improved Initiative, Skill Focus (Stealth)
Skills +17 Stealth , +16 Swim; +8 Bonus to Swim Score

ECOLOGY
Environment Dungeon and Astyral
Organization Shoal (2–5 swarms), or school (6–10 swarms)
Treasure none

Astyral Flippers are an otherworldly fish that can exist in multiple planes. They are small, thin, and silvery fish with a colourful stripe on their bellies. They swim in the Astyral, a fog like mist that while exists primarily in the Astral plane, seeps into everywhere that magic exists. For mortals, they appear like ghost fishes swimming in a mist coming from literally nowhere going to the same, strangely a calming presence.

Most times the swarm swims through an area, and if a party simply waits a few minutes, the swarm will pass back into the Astral. If the party attempts to interact with the fishes, and attacks the fish, there is a 25% cumulative chance per round the swarm will swim closer to the prime world, and then use the swarm attack damage. Once fully in the prime, they have a 10% chance (non-cumulative) of leaving. every round

The Astyral Flipper is an incredible, indescribable taste, and many foodies are willing to pay small sums (250+ gp) for the chance of trying it as it's taste is legendary. There is no known way of cultivating them, they must be caught individually and in the wild.


Saturday 23 December 2017

Ice Hag often called Ice Crone


This is the default hag on my world, as icy conditions predominate. They are usually found in icy caves, found throughout the realm in virtually every location.

Night Crone
NE  Large Humanoid
Init +1 Sense Perception +9, Nightvision 120 ft
 DEFENSE
A C 19 touch 10, flat-footed 18 (+1 Dex, +9 natural, -1 size)
hp 76hp (9d8+36 con)
Fort +10, Ref +4, Will +4
Dmg Reduction 9/Blunt, Darkvision, Spell Resistance 18
 OFFENSE
Speed 40 ft., Climb 40 ft.
Melee 2 Claws +12 (1d6+7), Bite +8 (1d8+2)
Ranged Icy Staff +6 (1d10+12)
Special Attacks Charming Gaze (DC 18)

Spell Like Abilities (CL 11th)
At will: Meld with Ice, Chill metal, Pass without Trace, Icy Sheen (+4 to AC) 
Snowball swarm (5/day, 3d8 dmg), Wall of ice (3/day).

 STATISTICS
Str 25, Dex 12, Con 18, Int 13, Wis 13, Cha 10
Base Atk +6 CMB +14 CMD 25
Feats Blind-Fight, Combat Casting, Dodge, Mobility, Vital Strike
Skills +5 Climb, +5 Perception, +2 Survival, +10 Craft (Ice)
Languages  Local Dialect, Giant, Dwarf, Elf

 ECOLOGY
Environment Icy Wastes
Organization  Solitary or Covey (3-9)
Treasure Value  Double
 SPECIAL ABILITIES

Charming Gaze (Ability Ex) Anytime a victim meets an ice hag’s gaze, they must resist their powerful trance. The will save is Will DC 18. (The save DC is Charisma based.) The hag must continually look at the victim to keep up the gaze, if the gaze is broken, so too is the powerful charming effect.

A frozen, withered crone looks at you and crackles, you know you are in deep shit.

Horrible creature found throughout the cold wastes of Nyssa, who seek to feed on the living and use the dead as zombies under their command. Hags prefer to attack lone travelers or small groups, when this is not possible, they use their ice manipulation to create scenarios to isolate individuals.

While hags live in communal cave lairs, they work together only for mutual defense. They sometimes share meals in good times, however treasure and magic are always kept hidden from the other covey members. Often one hag’s jealousy can lead to infighting. Once they have fed, an ice hag can easily be bribed with coin or magic.

Hags are similar to undead in that they are created by victims from other races. They trap victims in an icy pit, ice block or similar area, and after years of imprisonment, with both their minds and physical bodies decimated by ice - they emerge as new Ice Crones with a hunger for inflicting horror and carnage on others.

An ice hag uses their spells to weaken and separate groups before entering melee.  What many travelers in the ice often fail to reckon is the horrible, twisted crone they sometimes must face in the wild, can be a sweet, even kind elderly folk that they know. It is not a different personality but a split spirit, in some ways, something like a lycanthrope.

Thursday 7 December 2017

Tinker Faerie (Advanced Pixie)

While I was watching Peter Pan recently, I thought how great it would be for a Tinkerbell companion. I looked at the Pixie creature and wanted to buff it up a bit. I would use these as companion creatures for PCs gaining experience at half the points their companion gains.


Tinker Faerie (Advanced Pixie)

Personality: These fickle beings want to see and experience everything they can. They have a wonderful sense of humour, loving to laugh or make others do the same. While typically not loyal to anything or anyone, the few things that do earn their trust have an ally that will never abandon them. Their size means they care little about possessions, and have a fondness for beings with the same traits. Many have a fascination with children, animals or magic users. They avoid anyone that shows cruelty, regardless of the reason.

Physical Description: They are 12 inches tall and weigh around 2 pounds, smaller than the typical pixie cousins. Most have pale skin, bright blue eyes, with gossamer wings, but pixies from other lands have other skin colours. They usually wear light or green coloured clothing. Most have either tiny rapiers or bows, but tend to rarely use them. They often wear a magical ring as a belt, as this is typically the only type of magic item they can use.

Relations: They get along with other fey and children of any race with a sense of wonder or adventure. They generally shun larger mortal creatures. Some magic users, elves or rangers can earn their trust.

Alignment: Like many fae, they tend towards chaos, shunning rules and order to simply do what they want. Rarely do they desire to hurt other creatures, unless the others represent a threat to them or their fae kin.

Lands: They are found in any fae lands or mortal lands which border these areas, which can be either city or rural areas. They have never actually ruled any lands as they do not care about such things.

Religion: Their devotion is to the the fae realm. Few of them worship the gods and they do not have clerics among their own kind. Many mortal philosophers believe they do not have the intellect for such faith, this is not true, they simply do not feel the need to follow any specific one. If killed, their bodies are transformed into pixie dust and their spirit, like many other faeries, is usually reborn.

Language: Fae & the common tongue. At higher HD they learn to speak with plants, animals and any mortals

Adventurers: For Tinker Faeries they tend to zip around looking for things that capture their interests. They align themselves with mortal creatures who have similar personalities or interests. These are the ony ones who gain HD / levels.


Tinker Faerie (Advanced Pixie)
• -8 Strength, +12 Dexterity
• Tiny size: +4 bonus to Armor Class, +2 bonus on attack rolls, +8 bonus on Stealth checks, -2 penalty on CMB, lifting and carrying limits ½ those of Medium characters.
• A pixie's base land speed is 20 feet. has a base fly speed of 30 feet (Average); Fly +10
• Low-light vision.
• Racial hit dice: 1d4 ; they start with 2 hp
• +2 racial bonus on Perception checks.
• +1 natural armor bonus.
• Start with 10 skill points at 1 HD
• Gain a +1 bonus at 1 HD  if they chose any skills from the following list: Bluff, Escape Artist, Knowledge (Any 1 listed), Perception,

Special Qualities

Damage Reduction 5 plus 1 per HD /cold iron.

Spell Resistance equal to 10 + 3 X HD.

Light (Ex) : A Tinker Faerie is continuously surrounded by a 1 ft radius of light. At 3 HD they can expand it to a five foot radius, at 6 HD to ten foot radius. If their effect is dispelled, it takes 3 rounds for them to reactivate as a full round action.

Skill Selection: Acrobatics, Bluff, Craft, Disable Device, Escape Artist, Fly, Heal, Knowledge (geography, nature, local, magic), Perception, Sense Motive, Sleight of Hand, Stealth, Use Magic Device

HD Advancement
2 HD +1 AC; +5 skill points; New Feat; Minor Invisibility (3/day);  Know Alignment (at will)
3 HD +1 AC; +5 skill points; Fly 40 ft; Speak with Plants; See Invisibility
4 HD +1 AC; +5 skill points; New Feat; Fairy Dust (3 doses a day + 2/ additional HD)
5 HD +1 AC; +5 skill points; Fly 50 ft (Good); Speak with Animals; Minor Invisibility (at will)
6 HD +1 AC; +5 skill points; New Feat; Summon Insects (2/day)
7 HD +1 AC; +5 skill points; Fly 60 ft; Speak with Other; Summon Fey (1 / day)
8 HD +1 AC; +5 skill points; New Feat; Greater Invisibility (2 / Day + 1 per charisma)
9 HD +3 AC; +15 skill points; New Feat; Teleport Home (1/week)

Tinker Faeries cannot take standard classes. They always advance as per this table. They only gain hit points, skills and feats after 9 HD

Minor Invisibility: As per the invisibility spell in the PHB. At 5 HD, they can activate the spell at will. If their spell is dispelled, it takes 3 rounds for them to reactivate as a full round action.

Speak with plants, animals and other:  They must either be touching or within a five foot radius to activate these abilities. They can use each of these abilities any number of times a day but each use on a particular creature lasts no more than ten rounds.

Fairy Dust: A Tinker learns the secrets to make magical fairy dust and store them in a faerie pouch. They must have one free hand to utilize and this is a free action. These are the most popular dusts a Tinker Faerie makes, but others are possible. If they lose the pouch, the dusts will dissipate in four hours. It takes a week for the Tinker to make a new pouch. They know how to make 2 types of fairy dust at 4 HD plus another type per HD gained.

Levitate (Yellow) 1 dose for medium sized creature;
Fly (Pink): 2 doses for medium sized creatures,
Minor Healing (Blue) 1 dose @ 1d6 healing, creatures can be only healed their charisma bonus each day;
Dispel magic (Red) 2 doses as a druid at 10+their HD;
Friendship (Orange) 1 dose for chaotic alignments (DC 13); 2 doses for other alignments
Slow (DC 14) (Green) 2 doses;
Dancing lights (DC 14) (Purple) 2 doses;
Entangle (DC 15) (Silver) 3 doses
Web (DC 14) (Grey) 2 doses

Teleport Home: Their highest spell invocation. They are able to select one locale they have been to previously as a home base, and once per week they can teleport themselves and up to five others back. It is a full round action to teleport. Once they select a home base, they cannot change the location.

Tuesday 5 December 2017

Reduce Injury - Alt Damage Reduction Process

Reduce Injury: Similar to Damage Reduction except it minimizes only after basic injury is inflicted, reducing damage on a one-to-one basis until its limit. I'm kinda tired of lesser scrapes being ignored, I do like players getting less damage from a big hit, but not ignoring it completely. In my Paladin, Monk and fighter alt-classes, this is one of their features.

For example a creature with 1 RI would be affected as follows:

One damage Inflicted = One HP Dmg Taken
Two damage Inflicted = One HP Dmg Taken
Three damage Inflicted = Two HP Dmg Taken, etc


A creature with three RI is affected like this:

One damage Inflicted = One HP Dmg Taken
Two damage Inflicted = One HP Dmg Taken
Three damage Inflicted = Two HP Dmg Taken
Four damage Inflicted = Two HP Dmg Taken
Five damage Inflicted = Three HP Dmg Taken
Six damage Inflicted = Three HP Dmg Taken
Seven damage Inflicted = Four HP Dmg Taken
Eight damage Inflicted = Five HP Dmg Taken