Hyrael
2006-10-03, 01:00 PM
Since there seems to be little critiquing in the contest thread pre-judging, I felt that I need some opinions on this entry. Im not sure if the concept is as great as i think it is, and I have no idea about the CR, and the name still bugs me. Im also not sure about my rules-lawyering.
Quencher
Medium Aberration (extraplanar)
Hit Dice: 6d8+6
Initiative: +9
Speed: 50 ft (10 squares), climb 30 ft, swim 50 ft
Armor Class: 26 (+10 dex, +6 natural) dodge
Base Attack/Grapple: +4/+10
Attack: Bite +14 melee (1d6, 18-20/x3, plus wounding)
Full attack: Bite +14 melee and 3 claws +9 melee (1d4)
Space/Reach: 5 ft/5 ft
Special Attacks: Wounding Bite
Special Qualities: Darkness Aura, Immunities, Telepathy 20 ft, Blindsight 100 ft, serpentine form, augmented critical
Saves: Fort +3, Ref +11, Will +7
Abilities: Str 10, Dex 30, Con 12 , Int 14, Wis 14, Cha 14
Skills: Hide +19, spot +15, listen +15, move silently +23
Feats: Dodge, Mobility, Spring Attack, Weapon Finesse (B)
Environment: Any urban or underground
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 5
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always Neutral Evil
Advancement: 7-9 HD (Medium); 10-18 HD (Large)
Level Adjustment: -
At first, nothing is visible. Then, barely able to been seen in it’s shadowy aura, a lithe, serpentine shape forms. It’s hide is matte black, and brights to mind smooth, thick leather, beetle carapace, or dense rubber. One end of it is a writhing mass of tentacles, pressed together to form one long tendril, while the other has a ovoid bulb, as though the bulb is it’s actual body and all the rest is tail. From the bulb jut at random points three single-jointed pick-like limbs. The head is blunt and devoid of features, except for a the thin bisecting line of the mouth. As you watch, the creature rears up like a cobra and draws back it’s lips, revealing rows of silvery white teeth like piano keys. There is a blur of movement, and-
the predatory creatures known a Quenchers are interlopers from some other reality. The quencher’s home plane is reported to consist of a lightless void filled with huge, cavern-ridden lumps of rock, floating weightlessly.
Combat: The quencher is a quintessential stealth predator. When it becomes aware of living things in it’s territory, it moves to a point where it can intercept them, preferably where a small side passage abuts a main path. It then makes use of it’s Spring Attack feat to strike out at a target, then retreat and let the lingering wounds produced by it;s bite do their work. If attacking a group, it bites one member at a time, forcing the others to leave their wounded behind or be slowed down. It relies on it’s aura of darkness and high initiative modifier to allow it to strike without reprisal. It enjoy's toying with it's victims, stalking them as they weaken and filling their minds with images of it's lost home and alien whispers.
Darkness Aura: the quencher’s strange hide absorbs light around it, creating a permanent Darkness effect, as the spell, at all times. The effect only ends when the quencher is killed.
Immunities: a quencher’s utterly alien physiology operates temperature-independent, and is not based on carbon or H2O reactions, making it immune to cold. it's alien psychology makes it immune to mind-affecting spells and abilities, and it's lack of eyes makes it immune to vision-related effects.
Blindsight: It is not known how quenchers perceive their enviroment; they lack any of the traditional sensory equipment. They simply know where everything is. A quencher has blindsight out to 100 ft.
Augmented Critical: a Quencher’s teeth are unnaturally sharp, lacerating flesh like a knife through jell-O. 18-20/x3
Wounding: a creature struck by a Quencher’s bite attack continues to loose one hit point per round indefinitely until they receive at least 10 points of healing or a DC 20 heal check. Even then, the subject looses one point of constitution every 10 minutes from the Quencher’s foreign salival fluids unless he makes a DC 14 every 10 minutes. This constitution loss is treated as though it were a poison for determining immunity and curing. The constitution loss persists for 1d3 hours, and is then regained at a rate of one point per hour.
Serpentine Form: a quencher's sinuous body allows it to move through constricted spaces as if it was one size smaller, and grants it a +6 bonus on grapple checks
A quencher has a +4 racial bonus on spot, listen, and move silently checks.
Voice from Beyond: when a quencher speaks telepathicaly to anyone, they must make a DC 15 will save or take 1 point of wisdom damage each minute the quencher continues to communicate. someone who sucessfuly saves is immune to the Quencher's voice for 24 hours.
Quenchers are intelligent, but do not speak. they can communicate telepathicaly with any creature that has a language, though they must be within twenty feet. when they wish to communicate, most quenchers grapple their target, and threaten to kill them if they struggle.
This was a bottom-up design. I wanted something stealthy that could strike, and then retreat into the darkness, and was very hard to hit. Im not yet satisfied with the name, and the CR is a bit up in the air. additional abilites were added to heighten the otherworldlyness and terror of the beast, though I doubt thats what I acheived.
The quencher hails from a reality completely removed from the standard cosmos. It is unknown how they find there way into this universe; some think they slip by accident through natural one-way rifts that occur on their world. The few quenchers who have been persuaded or coerced into communication speak of their home as a cold void filled with floating hunks of stone ridden with caverns. This dark world contains numerous one-way portals to other locations in the multiverse, making it a crossroads for super-powerful planar travelers. Actually getting to this world requires artifact-level magic, but once there, travel is easy, save for the lighlessness, the airlessness, the minimal gravity, and the residents, among which the quencher is merely an average example.
Quenchers who find themselves on the material plane regret their mistake instantly, and spend the rest of their existance futilely trying to get home. They may seek out powerful spellcasters and planar sages and pump them for information. some quenchers of exceptional ability even take up spellcasting or psionics in their quest. Most, however, end up sitting in the dark (gollum style), mulling over their lost home, their dark, alien minds becoming even more malignant and twisted as they try to adapt to the "real" world.
Quencher
Medium Aberration (extraplanar)
Hit Dice: 6d8+6
Initiative: +9
Speed: 50 ft (10 squares), climb 30 ft, swim 50 ft
Armor Class: 26 (+10 dex, +6 natural) dodge
Base Attack/Grapple: +4/+10
Attack: Bite +14 melee (1d6, 18-20/x3, plus wounding)
Full attack: Bite +14 melee and 3 claws +9 melee (1d4)
Space/Reach: 5 ft/5 ft
Special Attacks: Wounding Bite
Special Qualities: Darkness Aura, Immunities, Telepathy 20 ft, Blindsight 100 ft, serpentine form, augmented critical
Saves: Fort +3, Ref +11, Will +7
Abilities: Str 10, Dex 30, Con 12 , Int 14, Wis 14, Cha 14
Skills: Hide +19, spot +15, listen +15, move silently +23
Feats: Dodge, Mobility, Spring Attack, Weapon Finesse (B)
Environment: Any urban or underground
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 5
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always Neutral Evil
Advancement: 7-9 HD (Medium); 10-18 HD (Large)
Level Adjustment: -
At first, nothing is visible. Then, barely able to been seen in it’s shadowy aura, a lithe, serpentine shape forms. It’s hide is matte black, and brights to mind smooth, thick leather, beetle carapace, or dense rubber. One end of it is a writhing mass of tentacles, pressed together to form one long tendril, while the other has a ovoid bulb, as though the bulb is it’s actual body and all the rest is tail. From the bulb jut at random points three single-jointed pick-like limbs. The head is blunt and devoid of features, except for a the thin bisecting line of the mouth. As you watch, the creature rears up like a cobra and draws back it’s lips, revealing rows of silvery white teeth like piano keys. There is a blur of movement, and-
the predatory creatures known a Quenchers are interlopers from some other reality. The quencher’s home plane is reported to consist of a lightless void filled with huge, cavern-ridden lumps of rock, floating weightlessly.
Combat: The quencher is a quintessential stealth predator. When it becomes aware of living things in it’s territory, it moves to a point where it can intercept them, preferably where a small side passage abuts a main path. It then makes use of it’s Spring Attack feat to strike out at a target, then retreat and let the lingering wounds produced by it;s bite do their work. If attacking a group, it bites one member at a time, forcing the others to leave their wounded behind or be slowed down. It relies on it’s aura of darkness and high initiative modifier to allow it to strike without reprisal. It enjoy's toying with it's victims, stalking them as they weaken and filling their minds with images of it's lost home and alien whispers.
Darkness Aura: the quencher’s strange hide absorbs light around it, creating a permanent Darkness effect, as the spell, at all times. The effect only ends when the quencher is killed.
Immunities: a quencher’s utterly alien physiology operates temperature-independent, and is not based on carbon or H2O reactions, making it immune to cold. it's alien psychology makes it immune to mind-affecting spells and abilities, and it's lack of eyes makes it immune to vision-related effects.
Blindsight: It is not known how quenchers perceive their enviroment; they lack any of the traditional sensory equipment. They simply know where everything is. A quencher has blindsight out to 100 ft.
Augmented Critical: a Quencher’s teeth are unnaturally sharp, lacerating flesh like a knife through jell-O. 18-20/x3
Wounding: a creature struck by a Quencher’s bite attack continues to loose one hit point per round indefinitely until they receive at least 10 points of healing or a DC 20 heal check. Even then, the subject looses one point of constitution every 10 minutes from the Quencher’s foreign salival fluids unless he makes a DC 14 every 10 minutes. This constitution loss is treated as though it were a poison for determining immunity and curing. The constitution loss persists for 1d3 hours, and is then regained at a rate of one point per hour.
Serpentine Form: a quencher's sinuous body allows it to move through constricted spaces as if it was one size smaller, and grants it a +6 bonus on grapple checks
A quencher has a +4 racial bonus on spot, listen, and move silently checks.
Voice from Beyond: when a quencher speaks telepathicaly to anyone, they must make a DC 15 will save or take 1 point of wisdom damage each minute the quencher continues to communicate. someone who sucessfuly saves is immune to the Quencher's voice for 24 hours.
Quenchers are intelligent, but do not speak. they can communicate telepathicaly with any creature that has a language, though they must be within twenty feet. when they wish to communicate, most quenchers grapple their target, and threaten to kill them if they struggle.
This was a bottom-up design. I wanted something stealthy that could strike, and then retreat into the darkness, and was very hard to hit. Im not yet satisfied with the name, and the CR is a bit up in the air. additional abilites were added to heighten the otherworldlyness and terror of the beast, though I doubt thats what I acheived.
The quencher hails from a reality completely removed from the standard cosmos. It is unknown how they find there way into this universe; some think they slip by accident through natural one-way rifts that occur on their world. The few quenchers who have been persuaded or coerced into communication speak of their home as a cold void filled with floating hunks of stone ridden with caverns. This dark world contains numerous one-way portals to other locations in the multiverse, making it a crossroads for super-powerful planar travelers. Actually getting to this world requires artifact-level magic, but once there, travel is easy, save for the lighlessness, the airlessness, the minimal gravity, and the residents, among which the quencher is merely an average example.
Quenchers who find themselves on the material plane regret their mistake instantly, and spend the rest of their existance futilely trying to get home. They may seek out powerful spellcasters and planar sages and pump them for information. some quenchers of exceptional ability even take up spellcasting or psionics in their quest. Most, however, end up sitting in the dark (gollum style), mulling over their lost home, their dark, alien minds becoming even more malignant and twisted as they try to adapt to the "real" world.