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Jergmo
2014-01-22, 10:08 AM
Inspiration for the Crism struck me this morning, shortly before getting off of work, so I wanted to share it here. Please feel free to use it in your own games, and I am open to critique.

Crism
Size/Type: Tiny Elemental (Air, Earth, Native)
Hit Dice: 2d8+2 (11 hp)
Initiative: +2
Speed: 10 ft. (2 squares), burrow 5 ft., fly 20 ft. (perfect)
Armor Class: 17 (+2 Dex, +2 size, +3 natural), touch 14, flat-footed 15
Base Attack/Grapple: +1/-7
Attack: Ray +3 ranged touch (1d8 electricity)
Full Attack: Ray +3 ranged touch (1d8 electricity)
Space/Reach: 2½/0 ft.
Special Attacks: Energy ray
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft., telepathy 60 ft., elemental traits, spell-like abilities
Saves: Fort +4, Ref +5, Will +0
Abilities: Str 11, Dex 14, Con 13, Int 3, Wis 10, Cha 7
Skills: Listen +5, Spot +4
Feats: Alertness, MindsightB Lords of Madness
Environment: Underground or any hills and mountains
Organization: Solitary, pair, lithim (3-8)
Challenge Rating: 1
Treasure: 1/10th coins, 1/10th goods, no items
Alignment: Always neutral
Advancement: 3-5 HD (Small); 6-7 HD (Medium); 8-10 HD (Large)
Level Adjustment: —

The crism is an elemental native to the material plane, and is unique in that it combines both the elements of Air and Earth, allowing it to be turned as either by an elemental cleric. It appears to be a chunk of stone with protruding formations of quartz crystals, measuring an average of eighteen inches wide, as well as having dangling stone-like arms with three crystalline fingers. Crisms have a basic level of intelligence, and experience certain emotions such as anger, curiosity, fear and joy. The life of a crism is simple—when near other crisms in relative safety, they experience joy and emit harmonic noise. When encountering something unknown to them, they become curious and attempt to determine whether or not it is dangerous to them. When damaged, they experience fear, and upon seeing another crism damaged or destroyed they become angry.

Crisms collect energy from natural crystal formations or sunlight, which nourishes them and allows them to use electrical energy rays when required to defend themselves. All crisms understand Terran and are able to communicate simple words telepathically, as well as feel the presence of other minds, but they lack understanding of complex sentence structure or abstract ideas. Another of the crism's abilities is the ability to determine true north by attuning to the world's magnetosphere. Lost travelers who encounter crisms are often able to placate them into directing them north by offering an item made of material that has high electrical conductivity, such as gold or copper. Such items are left in a pile in areas where crisms congregate. Although crisms have no concept of materialism, they appear to be amused by the effect their electrical discharges have on such materials.

Crisms slowly grow until their forms become too large to remain stable (generally after reaching 10 HD), and split into many smaller crisms, which is their primary means of reproduction—they are otherwise formed as a rare and random occurrence from natural crystals. Other crisms do not despair at this occurrence, as they are suddenly surrounded by many more of their kind. Due to their inclination to wander, crism groups do not become exceptionally large. Crisms usually do not alter the stonework of their environment often, only doing so in order to carve small cubbies which they use to appear as ordinary crystal formations, which in turn allows them to absorb minerals into their bodies.

Combat
Crisms are not aggressive creatures, and treat other sentient creatures with curiosity until they have been fully examined, provided they are not met with hostility. If attacked, crisms will fly away at maximum speed if possible while attacking with their energy ray.

Energy ray (Su)
Crisms possess a special energy attack with a ray of Close (25 ft. +5 ft./2 HD), which deals 1d8 electricity damage upon a successful ranged touch attack. For every two HD beyond 1, the attack deals an additional 1d8 points of damage: 2d8 at 3 HD, 3d8 at 5 HD, 4d8 at 7 HD, and the maximum of 5d8 at 9 HD or higher. This attack requires a standard action and can only be used once per round.

Flight (Su)
Crisms have a flight speed of 20 ft.

Telepathy (Su)
Crisms possess telepathy out to a range of 60 ft.

Spell-like Abilities
At will—know direction. Caster level 2nd.

Debihuman
2014-01-23, 05:14 AM
Not bad bit needs a bit more refinement.

Energy ray should be a standard action since it is an attack. See actions in Combat. See also Arrowhawk, its ray fires once per round.

Tiny air elemental should have perfect flight maneuverability.

How does it carry its treasure w/out a Str score? It should have no treasure or you should give it a strength score. Probably Str 11 as it is a Tiny earth elemental.


A creature with no Strength score can’t exert force, usually because it has no physical body or because it doesn’t move. The creature automatically fails Strength checks. If the creature can attack, it applies its Dexterity modifier to its base attack bonus instead of a Strength modifier.

Putting elemental traits in stat block isn't enough you still have to list the following in Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft., Immune to poison, sleep effects, paralysis, and stunning.

They should be able to understand 1 language even if they cannot speak it because they have Int 3.

Note: mindsight makes no sense without telepathy and you should cite to non-core material. They need a range of telepathy.

MindsightB Lords of Madness

Debby

Jergmo
2014-01-23, 10:52 AM
My assumption of the creature's treasure is that valuables were left lying around for them by travelers - that the coins and items made of precious metals were left in a pile where the crisms congregate. I'd envisioned them being floating crystals without arms, but now the idea is sticking with me.

I did note a telepathy range of 60 ft. and the ability to understand Terran, though I neglected to mention Telepathy in their special abilities.

I'll go ahead and change the information for the energy attack; I was thinking of beholder eye rays at the time, which if I remember correctly, the beholder can move and use its eye rays simultaneously.

I don't see any elementals that have anything more than "elemental traits" listed, but I may be behind on errata.

Thanks again for your help, Debi!