What kinds of monsters/races are attracted to magic?

[Roaan]

I have a campaign idea that involves a world of very low magic. The idea is that the world was so magically rich at some point in its history that it attracted unwanted attention from beings that "feed" or "desire" large quantities of magic. In an effort to drive these beings or monsters away all the high level characters of the world have sealed away their magic and are constantly seeking out new magic users so that they never become powerful to draw unwanted attention again. So my question is:

Q: Are there any monsters that are attracted to (or consume) magic?

Maybe creatures from another plane that can feed off magic or maybe absorb it.

[Valdor]

I know somewhere(fiendfolio??) there is a creature that can sense out magic items and can feed of of the item destroying it. If i can recall correctly it was a decently high CR.

[Feytalist]

I seem to remember Pseudodragons being attracted to magic, according to their fluff. (No wait, am I thinking of the Portal Drake? I always get them mixed up).

There is also the Retriever demon that does something similar, I think.

[Rhaegar14]

Dragonkin (Draconomicon) are attracted to magic items and have detect magic as an at-will SLA.

[faceroll]

MMII has the spellweaver, a 6 armed enigmatic monstrous humanoid that covets magic items, and the spellgaunt, an intelligent arachnoid magical beast that feeds on arcane energies.

[BobVosh]

Beholders eat it, at least at one point they did.
Ethereal filchers are as well I believe.

[Keneth]

I've seen a few of them over the years but the only thing that spring to mind are Dweomer Cats (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/magical-beasts/dweomercat) if you're not opposed to using Pathfinder.

[faceroll]

MM3 has the Arcane Ooze.

In one of the monster books, there are a race of magic item stealing giant intelligent catepillars. Can't find then, though.

[Psyren]

At low levels, Pathfinder has the Disenchanter (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/magical-beasts/disenchanter) - basically a magic-eating elecamel. Shouldn't be too hard to port back to 3.5.

[Palthera]

The Aoa in the Fiend Folio. Looks like a giant blob of mercury and is very attracted to magic, comes in handy CR sizes too.

Disenchanter is also in 3.5, but I can't remember which book...

[Zaq]

Beholders eat it, at least at one point they did.
Ethereal filchers are as well I believe.

They don't quite eat it, according to Lords of Madness. They more . . . study it and absorb it. Slowly. Very slowly. Slowly enough that they're basically saying "GMs, if the party beats a beholder in its own lair, it should be full of useful magic items, not drained ones."

But yeah, beholders.

[cattoy]

Munchkins.

[Diarmuid]

They don't quite eat it, according to Lords of Madness. They more . . . study it and absorb it. Slowly. Very slowly. Slowly enough that they're basically saying "GMs, if the party beats a beholder in its own lair, it should be full of useful magic items, not drained ones."

But yeah, beholders.

You're both thinking of Maugs or Gauths, cant remember name...with are a beholder-kin I believe. They actually eat magic items.

[Zombimode]

Well, theres the Nishruu in Monsters of Faerun. It eats magic.
In 2e there was also a Nishruu+, called Hashe... Hakesh... damn, cant remember.

[KillianHawkeye]

Lords of Madness has the tsochar, which iirc like to bodyjack spellcasters. They're aberrations that come from another planet or something. Creepy as hell, too.

[veven]

MM IV has a favorite of mine. The CR 10 Balhannoth. It is blind but has an ability called Dweomersight that allows it to see magical auras. It also eats magical auras to sustain itself. Anything the creature grapples is subject to an AMF. It's awesome and spooky.

[Prime32]

Low-magic is already a pretty big change, so you might as well do some refluffing of existing monsters.

Namely dragons. In this world, true dragons are Always Chaotic Evil and can only advance in age categories by consuming magic. Originally most dragons were small and not much of a threat, but raiding the old civilisation allowed them to evolve to unprecedented new levels of power.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

I would refluff some existing monsters to fill this role. Just add a continuous Arcane Sight onto something, which as per Detect Magic can reveal lingering auras, thus allowing the creatures to sniff out an old magical effect and possibly track down the source. Give them Track as a racial bonus feat and Survival ranks, and a special bonus (+4) when tracking by magical scent.

Some of the best creatures to use for this would be the Ethereal Filcher and Marauder and the Phase Spider in the Monster Manual, plus the Ethereal Slayer in MM2. Creatures can see into the material plane from the ethereal plane, including detecting magic and tracking down someone, and can move about both undetected and unaffected by most denizens of the material plane. They can pick up a trace of magic, track down the source, and spend days stalking their prey waiting for the one who produced the effect to reveal himself with another display.

If you want to mix it up a bit, give one the ability to use the Devour Magic warlock invocation a limited number of times per day, and/or give one an ability similar to the Arcane Ooze's Spell Siphon ability. Don't let either of those abilities work on material plane targets from the ethereal plane though, as that would be a bit unfair to the players.


I'd just like to take this opportunity to point out that the Ethereal Slayer in the MM2 was built specifically to track down someone who travels to the ethereal plane often (i.e. who uses the Blink spell quite often) and Dimensional Anchor them on the ethereal plane, thus separating them from their party so it can slaughter and devour them. It's a great way to deter players from abusing (Greater) Blink, especially if they use persistent spell to keep it running all day every day.

[Marnath]

Mageripper swarm from MMIV. They're cute, too.

http://i1138.photobucket.com/albums/n539/marnath1/MageRipperSwarm-640x250.png

[Gensh]

Dragon 339 has the incantifier arcane caster PrC, which makes a character immortal in exchange for having to live off residual spell energy generated by spells failing to penetrate their resistance - or by draining items.

[Demonic_Spoon]

The Aoa in the Fiend Folio. Looks like a giant blob of mercury and is very attracted to magic, comes in handy CR sizes too.

Disenchanter is also in 3.5, but I can't remember which book...

Disenchanter is also from Fiend Folio iirc.