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unosarta
2011-05-01, 03:48 PM
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The Usora (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zanZFMqG75o)
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Dream Sights:

http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs26/f/2009/252/6/7/67d0039b113a3e56562747818c115044.jpg
http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs42/f/2009/138/f/3/Dream_to_Nightmare_by_circus_usagi.jpg
http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2010/348/3/4/mr_tambourine_man_by_jerry8448-d2wxn77.jpg
http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs20/f/2007/280/d/9/Lithunicas_Dream_by_chib.jpg
http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2010/224/f/a/The_Dream_Detective_by_PsychedelicMind.jpg
http://th05.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/f/2011/049/a/0/neither_dead_nor_alive_by_manganiac-d39ksh0.jpg

The True Form:
http://th07.deviantart.net/fs28/PRE/i/2008/099/a/6/Darkly_Dreaming_v2_by_Redface.jpg
Medium Undead
HD 6d12 (39 hp)
Speed 40 ft. (8 squares)
Init: +7
AC 18; touch 16; flat-footed 15 (+3 Dex, +3 Deflection, +2 Natural)
BAB +3; Grp +0
Attack Slam +6 melee (1d6-3), or Dream Ichor +6 ranged touch (1d4 Wis)
Full-Attack 2 Slams +6 melee (1d6-3), or Dream Ichor +6 ranged touch (1d4 Wis)
Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
Special Attacks Sanity Stealing, Wake the Dreamers, Poison in the Mind, Devour the Nightmares
Special Qualities Dreamborn, Damage Reduction 4/Piercing, Ever-Dreaming, Undead Traits
Saves Fort +2 Ref +5 Will +8
Abilities Str 5, Dex 16, Con -, Int 16, Wis 16, Cha 12
Skills Spot +12, Listen +12, Sense Motive +12, Hide +12, Move Silently +12, Bluff +10, Knowledge (Arcana) +12
Feats Weapon Finesse, Improved Initiative, Ability Focus (Ever-Dreaming)
Environment Anywhere
Organization Solitary
Challenge Rating 5
Treasure Standard
Alignment True Neutral

The Usora is a strange, gangling, oddly shaped creature, in its true form. It appears to be a roughly 6 foot tall man or woman, or some strange combination thereof. Its eyes are clear and iridescent, a pure sickly white. Its skin is of a similar color, completely devoid of the sun or sunlight. Its mouth is stained with blood, not from some sort of macabre snacking, but because a sort of sanguine substance constantly drips from its mouth. Its fingers are long, much longer than those of a normal humanoid, and its finger nails are sharpened to a point.

The Usora, however, is never seen in that form. The Usora is a person who died or was murdered while dreaming. The powerful energy oft associated with dreams empowers them and courses through them, allowing them to walk once more, and giving them the power to force dreams upon the awake. The Usora does not do this intentionally, but rather projects their thinking consciousness upon the world around them, into the minds of sentient creatures.

The Usora are hardly recognizable as creatures, oft being mistaken for a strange spring breeze, a flickering of the light, or a strange presence in the mind. They only manifest themselves when they are spotted, the rest of their time being spent in their own mind, deeply instilled into their own delusions.

The Usora often live tortured lives, never seeing anything of sentience, never speaking to anything other than the shattered fragments of their dream torn mind. Although this would drive many a mortal mad, it leaves the Usora relatively untouched, free to wander the land.

The Usora are very, very rare, and highly sought after by collectors, such as necromancers or other controllers of the undead. If controlled correctly, they can be especially powerful tools, useful for concealment and infiltration. They can even serve as spies, of a sort.

They are said to be able to tell the future in their mad, dream filled delusions, but no one has ever caught, detained, and experimented enough with one to be sure.

When an Usora is killed, their souls are put to rest. Unfortunately, this does not truly heal their broken and shattered mind, which can never be truly fixed. The Dreamers from the Wake the Dreamers ability are truly the souls of fallen Usora, who have been summoned back from the afterlife, since their twisted and tortured souls could never really make it there in the first place. The Dreamers are especially feared by the Usora, in a sort of primal way. Their existance is something of an ultimatum to the Usora, something they will inevitably reach, when they die. This is part of why they are constantly invisible; they fear death. They fear death more than any mortal could ever imagine doing so; for while their minds and souls are twisted, their knowledge of what is to come as a Dreamer is all encompassing.


Combat
The Usora spends most of combat using illusions to confuse and disorient opponents. They strike out against opponents who come near them, and use Dream Ichor on opponents who seem to be especially dangerous. They will use Wake the Dreamers only at the last possible moment, being unable to control the dreamers. They often are able to defeat opponents just by using Illusions on them and waiting for Sanity Stealing to force them unconscious. After defeating opponents, unless that opponent was killed by the Usora’s Dream Ichor, the Usora leaves the opponents alone.

Sanity Stealing (Su): Whenever a creature interacts with an illusion created by the Usora and fails their will save, they take 1d6 points of non-lethal damage.

Wake the Dreamers (Su): Once per day, as a full round action, the Usora may summon 1d4 Shadows (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/shadow.htm) who are not under their control. They appear within 30 feet of the Usora, in locations chosen by the Usora. They attack indiscriminately, killing and eating any who are closest to themselves. The Shadows disappear after 5 rounds.

Poison in the Mind (Su): As a standard action, the Usora may spit a blob of Dream Ichor, which is a mind corroding poison, at a target within 30 feet, as a ranged touch attack. If the Usora hits the target, that target takes 1d4 Wisdom damage, and another 1d4 Wisdom damage 1 minute later, as the Dream Ichor makes it all the way to their brain. They may make a Fortitude save (DC 16) to avoid the damage from this effect. A successful save nullifies the secondary damage. The DC is wisdom based. A creature may only be affected by this ability once every 3 rounds. The secondary damage does not stack.

Devour the Nightmares (Su): The Usora may, over the course of one minute, eat any creature that has had its Wisdom score reduced to 0 by the Usora’s Dream Ichor. For every round the Usora spends eating a victim, it can transfer up to 5 hit points from the victim in order to heal itself. The Usora cannot gain hit points in excess of its full normal total. Creatures consumed in this manner cannot be raised. The Usora may use this ability on a sleeping creature, and instead of transferring hit points, the Usora simply heals themselves for 5 hit points every round eating dreams. The Usora must eat at least one dream worth 25 hit points per night, or go ravenous, forced to eat the flesh of a living creature that has had their Wisdom score reduced to 0 by the Usora's Dream Ichor.

Dreamborn (Su): The Usora is literally born from the dreams that it had just before it died. It is surrounded by surreality wherever it goes, and the insanity and brittle mind that it possesses do not want it to be killed. The Usora’s dreams unconsciously push attacks away from the Usora, leaving it unharmed. The Usora gains a Deflection bonus to armor class equal to its Wisdom modifier. Also the mad dream-twisted mind of the Usora can infiltrate the minds of those who read their thoughts. As long as a creature attempts to read the thoughts of the Usora or communicate mind-to-mind (as with Telepathy), they are Confused, and do not read the mind of the Usora or communicate with them. They may cut off the connection to the Usora as an Immediate action, getting rid of the communication or mind reading, but also removing the Confused condition. Any creature that was made Confused by this ability for longer than 2 rounds takes a -3 penalty to all Will saves for 24 hours.

Ever-Dreaming (Su): The Usora unconsciously projects the subconscious dreams it constantly views to others around it. The Usora creates a figment every round, the figments it creates only visible to those within 30 feet of it. It may only have a number of figments in this way equal to its hit dice. In addition, the Usora is constantly surrounded by a Mirage Arcana effect, as the spell. This only affects terrain within 30 feet of the Usora. Any creature that interacts with a figment from this ability is allowed a Will save (DC 18) to disbelieve the figments. This DC is wisdom based, and includes a +2 racial bonus to the DC. This is a mind affecting ability. Like a dream, they are also intangible and hard to find. Any creature that sees the Usora must make a Will save (DC 18), or ignore their presence, and act as if the Usora is Invisible, as the spell. This effect is removed in combat. A natural twenty does not automatically defeat the effect. The DC is Wisdom based, and includes a +2 racial bonus to the DC.

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Plothooks

A town has been infested with nightmares. People complain of seeing strange lights and weird images late at night, and often complain of bad sleep, with terrifying nightmares of death and macabre things. The town has been infested with Usora, who are all drawn to the location by the powerful necromancers guild, who are performing rituals of negative energy that is unknowingly attracting undead to the town. As the Usora fill the town up, they eventually start becoming ravenous, and attacking the townspeople directly, thirsting for blood and flesh. The party has been sent in to stop the Usora, either by killing them, or stopping the necromantic ritual.

A wealthy lord and his family have trapped a creature inside of their huge manor. They have locked every door and every window, and seek to understand what has been giving their children nightmares, and stalking through the house. As it turns out, they locked an Usora in. This Usora was the owner of the manor, before it was killed in its sleep by the current owner’s great grandfather. Now ghosts of the servants who lived in the house and the former owner haunt it, feasting on the dreams of the occupants. The party’s job is to kill the Usora and make the house once again habitable by the current owner.



This was originally posted as an entry to the Monster Competition, and I really liked the creation, so I am reposting it, with a request for additional feedback on what everyone thinks about the monster, what are ways that I could improve it, and any numbers that might be off.

Podonis
2011-05-01, 04:01 PM
Hello Unosarta,

Interesting creature you've come up with! I really like the description because it actually tells enough about the creature to be useful. Some of the monster manuals entries give very little details about the creature before jumping right to combat.

I don't have any true advise for you, as I'm completely new to Homebrewing and get pretty confused about monster making. I just wanted to say that I think your monster is awesome!:smallsmile:

unosarta
2011-05-01, 04:12 PM
Hello Unosarta,

Interesting creature you've come up with! I really like the description because it actually tells enough about the creature to be useful. Some of the monster manuals entries give very little details about the creature before jumping right to combat.
I generally like to describe the creature in depth before the abilities, in order to better explain their importance to the creature, and how the creature thinks and reacts in general, rather than just in combat. Because if you ever actually do manage to have a conversation with an Usora, I want that conversation to be as easy as possible for the DM to facilitate (not to mention as trippy as possible).


I don't have any true advise for you, as I'm completely new to Homebrewing and get pretty confused about monster making. I just wanted to say that I think your monster is awesome!:smallsmile:
Oh, no problem. Monster making is a pretty difficult thing, although it can be much more formulaic than writing prestige classes, there are still a lot of things to do and make sure are balanced.
Thank you for your comment! :smallsmile::smallsmile:

I changed the fluff ever so slightly, to explain what the Dreamers specifically are. Also, I added the detail that the Usora must eat the dreams of one creature each night worth at least 25 hit points, or go ravenous. This leads to extra plot hooks, and more of a reason for the Usora to actually be fighting the party.

unosarta
2011-05-01, 04:50 PM
Plothooks are up. The first plot hook is mainly fun if the party has access to True Seeing, and uses it within the city, to see the vast number of Usora therein. The second is because the Usora is just perfect for haunted mansion type adventures, especially with all of their illusions.

Any plot hooks you guys can think of? Feel free to post them (my imagination has run dry, too tired/cold for my brain to work correctly).