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Eighth_Seraph
2006-09-29, 06:51 PM
Guardian of the Floating Fortress

Medium Construct (Air)
HD: 10d10+20 (85)
Initiative: +8
Speed: 30 ft., Fly 30 ft. (Good; Perfect on Air-aligned planes)
Armor Class: 27 (+4 Dex, +13 Natural)
Base Attack/Grapple: +8/+8
Attack: slam +8 melee
Full Attack: slam +8 melee
Damage: slam 1d6+2d6 Bane
Space/Reach: 5 ft/5ft
Special Attacks: Elemental Warfare, Spell-like abilities
Special Qualities: Elemental Sense, Light Construction, Telepathic Web, Telepathy 300 ft.
Saves: Fort +4, Ref +10, Will +2
Abilities: Str 10, Dex 18, Con –, Int 18, Wis 10, Cha 1
Skills: Knowledge (Arcana) +15, Knowledge (The Planes) +15, Spellcraft +15
Feats: Improved Initiative, Extend Spell-like Ability, Hover, Widen Spell-like Ability,
Environment: Ielenivia's fortress
Organization: Wing guard (3-8 )
Challenge Rating: 8
Alignment: Always True Neutral
Advancement: 9-16 HD (Medium)

Spell-like Abilities: At will: Arcane Sight, Fog Cloud, Gust of Wind, Hold Portal, Lightning Bolt, Mage Armor, Scorching Ray, Whispering Wind, Wind Wall 5/day: Clairaudience/Clairvoyance, Protection From Energy, Wall of Force 3/day: Chain Lightning, Control Wind, Dismissal, Haste, Mage's Sword, Shout, Wind Walk 1/day: Banishment, Control Weather, Greater Shout, Teleport Object, Tornado Blast, Whirlwind Caster level 15th

Guardians of the Floating Fortress are reminiscent of rather short humans, standing at slightly more than five feet tall, with no facial features except for two cold blue eyes. Guardians are made primarily of mithral, with various other precious metals serving decorative purposes.
Guardians of the Floating fortress are Ielenivia's second contruct design for the elemental war, created shortly after the incredible success of her Hunters of the Wind. Ielenivia realized that simply having an offensive strike force would not be enough if she truly wanted to achieve her goals, and went about reinforcing her castle and her resources. One of her most prominent defenses was the Guardian, an intelligent construct with magical defensive and offensive capabilities meant to defend her outer walls from invasion. Ielenivia also uses them as helpers in her gathering of information, using them to alert her to dangers on the plane of air while she looks for new resources to acquire on the plane of earth.
Ielenivia also made sure that she would be promptly informed of any and all possible threats to her castle by making sure that every Guardian she built was given a Telepathic Bond to her and to every other Guardian within one mile of her castle, so that they may better work as a defensive unit. Ielenivia almost never has these leave her castle, preferring better to have them behind half walls and arrow slits, making them the ultimate defense against any attack force arrogant enough to attempt an assault on her castle. Ielenivia has also recently begun sending several Guardians through a permanent Teleportation Circle in her castle to a locale unknown to all but her...

Elemental Warfare:
Any natural attack or weapon held by the Guardian of the Floating Fortress counts as having the Bane property upon a successful hit against a creature with the Earth subtype.

Elemental Sense: A Guardian of the Floating Fortress has Blindsight out to 120 feet, except that it only senses creatures with the Earth subtype. Furthermore, the Guardian has a continuous Detect Evil effect surrounding it, except that it only detects creatures with the Earth subtype.

Telepathic Web:
Any Guardians of the Floating Fortress in or within one mile of Ielenivia's castle counts as having a Telepathic Bond effect with all other Guardians within the area, as well as with Ielenivia herself.

Equipment: Crystal ball with see invisibility

martyboy74
2006-09-29, 08:52 PM
For the treasure, is "None, plus a crystal ball with see inivisibility really neccesary?

Eighth_Seraph
2006-09-29, 09:05 PM
Well, for the Hunter of the Wind, all they have is pair of morningstars and a bag of holding to store crysmal bodies in, yet no one complained about that. Makes sense to take it off, though.

What I'm more worried about is the balanced-ness of the SLAs in respect to the challenge rating. I wanted to make it mostly abjurations and spells with the air descriptor, but there's not too much damage output or defensive benefits there. I'm thinking that four or five of these guys within a 50' wide area and 90% concealment from an arrow slit makes a nigh-inconqurable defense, especially with the several hour's notice they'll get from the crystal ball. Is the CR balanced enough to include all that?

martyboy74
2006-09-29, 09:28 PM
It seems that, considering how a party would fight this thing, they'd lose, but that's because it'd just Banish them, and keep on walking.

Eighth_Seraph
2006-09-30, 10:26 AM
That's one of the things I was worried about when making this thing. Guardians were meant to resist the enivitable assault from the plane of earth in retribution for all the stolen mithral, gold and other minerals used to build Ielenivia's castle and constructs, as well as for all hundreds of slaughtered crysmals. Dismissal and banishment are a must for that particular defense. The way I think that I managed to balance that is by making it so that every guardian can fulfill its duties without ever moving more than ten feet to get in range for a lightning bolt. Between their crystal ball at their station, the fact that they're constructs and Telepathic Web, guardians never move outside of their place defending the outer walls. A mid-teen leve; rogue with Fly cast on himself and a temporary telepathic bond with the party's arcane caster will be able to set up a Greater Teleport into the castle, where they'll only be dealing with Magical wards, Hunter of the Wind variants, Garet if he's back from a mission and/or Ielenivia herself.

This is the current the residence of a very semi-epic wizard who has active reason to fear an attack, so it would make sense that they would be difficult to get by. Now despite that overly-long and possibly pointless speach, maybe I could make it so that they can only use dismissal and Banishment against outsiders with the Earth subtype?

martyboy74
2006-09-30, 10:51 AM
That's one of the things I was worried about when making this thing. Guardians were meant to resist the enivitable assault from the plane of earth in retribution for all the stolen mithral, gold and other minerals used to build Ielenivia's castle and constructs, as well as for all hundreds of slaughtered crysmals. Dismissal and banishment are a must for that particular defense. The way I think that I managed to balance that is by making it so that every guardian can fulfill its duties without ever moving more than ten feet to get in range for a lightning bolt. Between their crystal ball at their station, the fact that they're constructs and Telepathic Web, guardians never move outside of their place defending the outer walls. A mid-teen leve; rogue with Fly cast on himself and a temporary telepathic bond with the party's arcane caster will be able to set up a Greater Teleport into the castle, where they'll only be dealing with Magical wards, Hunter of the Wind variants, Garet if he's back from a mission and/or Ielenivia herself.

This is the current the residence of a very semi-epic wizard who has active reason to fear an attack, so it would make sense that they would be difficult to get by. Now despite that overly-long and possibly pointless speach, maybe I could make it so that they can only use dismissal and Banishment against outsiders with the Earth subtype?
It'd certainyl make agood adventure; sneak past the guardians, or be sent home. Actually, in tat line of thought, these things work pretty well. Create an adventure for the elemental war, and have 4 different potental plotlines, depending on which side the PCs choose.

Eighth_Seraph
2006-09-30, 11:14 AM
That's a good idea, and the plot lines will coincide pretty often, too; the PCs would be in some major battles regardless of what element they assist, but on different sides with different reinforcements.

Now back to the Guardian: is the CR good for this thing? I'm worried that because it's largely a defensive monster, desytroying it would take some major doing after it sets up some Wall SLAs to defend itself. Also, help on construction would be helpful, especially since it has a psionic power as an SLA once per day (Tornado Blast). Could that spell be stored in a power stone and then discharged as part of the crafting tof the construct?

martyboy74
2006-09-30, 11:54 AM
That's a good idea, and the plot lines will coincide pretty often, too; the PCs would be in some major battles regardless of what element they assist, but on different sides with different reinforcements.

Now back to the Guardian: is the CR good for this thing? I'm worried that because it's largely a defensive monster, desytroying it would take some major doing after it sets up some Wall SLAs to defend itself. Also, help on construction would be helpful, especially since it has a psionic power as an SLA once per day (Tornado Blast). Could that spell be stored in a power stone and then discharged as part of the crafting tof the construct?
You could just have the stone built into the thing, and give the PCs a way to destroy it.

The CR does seem right, however; most of it's SLAs won't directly hurt the PCs, just make it harder to kill it.

Jack_Simth
2006-09-30, 01:13 PM
Party going up against this thing? Dimensional Anchor is a 4th level spell, and completely nullifies Dismissal (although it does prevent teleportation.....), and Protection from Energy is 3rd. They are both on the Cleric and Wizard list; a party of four can be completely covered at 8th, although with the 1 min/level duration on Dimensional Anchor, and the 10 min/level duration on Protection from Energy, that's only going to work for a couple of battles.

But then again, considering that once one of things things know where you are, all of them do, the battle might just be that short.

Edit: Strike that - CR not 8; a 17d6 40-foot spread, with a target taking an extra 8d6 on a touch attack, with non-elemental damage, is going to roll over many 8th level parties.

Edit the 2nd: Let's see.... average damage if you're not the target (pre-reflex) is 59.5; the primary target gets 87.5 damage. What's the average HP of a 8th level Wizard? Cleric? Fighter? Rogue? Methinks this might just be TPK territory at CR 8, if it uses it's 1/day abilities.....

martyboy74
2006-09-30, 01:14 PM
But then again, considering that once one of things things know where you are, all of them do, the battle might just be that short.
Admittedly, it would take 2 of them only 3 rounds to win against almost any opponent.