streakster
2007-07-09, 08:32 PM
This is my first monster, so muchas criticism, please.
Originally Posted by Lord Iames Osari
Announcement: With polls disabled, votes should be posted in the threads themselves or PMed to myself and Fax. Format your votes like this so that it will be easier to pick them out from the rest of your post: MitP Vote: Yes or MitP Vote: No. Thank you.
Up to 8! Woot!
Grimoire
Small Construct
4d10 (22 hp.)
Fly 20 ft. (4 squares) Good Maneuverablility
Init: 1
AC 11; touch 11; flat-footed 10
BAB +3;
Attack: none
Full-Attack: none
Space 5 ft.; Reach 0 ft.
Special Attacks: Devour Knowledge, Read, PapyrCraeft, Spells
Special Qualities: Construct Traits, Damage Reduction 2/slashing, Fire Weakness, Running Ink
Saves Fort + Ref +1 Will +5
Abilities Str 1, Dex 12, Con 10, Int 18, Wis 16, Cha 10
Skills: Knowledge (All) 5, Decipher Script 10, Spellcraft (Max Ranks)
Feats: Hover, Silent Spell, Still Spell, Eschew Materials
Environment: Any
Organization: Solitary, Anthology (2-4), Encyclopedia (10-12).
Solitary Papry Slave, Papyr Sheaf (2-6), Papyr Ream (8-10).
Challenge Rating 9
Treasure: Magic Scrolls, Spell Pages
Alignment: True Neutral
Advancement: 5-7 HD (small), 8-9 HD (medium)
"In DND, book reads YOU!
Apprentice wizards often wonder why their masters take so much care when writing their spellbooks. Rare, magical inks to ward the pages, hours spent scribing glyphs and runes of protection - "Why not simply write the spell," they say, "instead of going to all that extra trouble?" True wizards know better. The extra care is not to protect the spellbook - it's to protect against it.
Magic - even when reduced to ink on paper - is powerful, and when the protections in a spellbook are broken or improperly placed, or crumple under the weight of far too many spells, the result is a book subject to hundreds of simultaneous enchantments - and with enough magical energy to just maybe achieve a degree of sentience. A Grimoire.
Grimoires are batteries of arcane power, and imbued with hundreds of spells. Their most deadly and feared ability, however, is their ability to "read" a creature or object - transforming it from reality to words, and then drawing it into itself. Old Grimoires are swollen with pages that once were sentient beings, now reduced to descriptions of themselves. Old or new however, a Grimoire is a terrifying sight.
Grimoires cannot hear nor speak, but if one is offered paper and devours it, it will know what was written. Grimoires can also sense nearby words, so scratching a message in the dirt or scribbling on a wall can be used to communicate with one as well. Often, the book will use passages of its text, sent by sending or dream spells, or by sending one of its pages to hover in front of the target, to reply. Grimoires gravitate to sources of magic (using their detect magic spell) to feed, making them a threat to wizards.
Grimoires often reflect their contents - a Grimoire whose creator stored mainly Necromantic spells will delight in death, for example. Some of the personalities that may result from a Grimoire's contents are:
Evocation: Delight in battle, love of destruction, courage
Necromancy: Love of murder, solemness, curiosity about death and undead
Divination: Curiosity
Conjuration: Love of creating things, delight in command, patience
Abjuration: Cowardliness, Resoluteness, Love of quiet life
Enchantment: Manipulative, Friendly,
Illusion: Liar, Show-off, Love of Applause
Transmutation: Love of experimentation, love of change
Grimoires all desire more spells - whether they get them by killing wizards, adventuring (to find them or gold to buy them), or - more rarely - creating them. Many Grimoires also desire strong servants - meaning that they will systematically hunt down and Read strong opponents. Grimoires are often contemptuous of those that they feel are not as smart as they are - a Grimoire that wants something that a villager owns might simply Read the villager, and never consider its actions murder. In contrast, they have only the highest respect for intelligent beings, though this does not mean they always get along - but a Grimoire will generally at least listen to a genius. Grimoires are determined beyond belief, never stopping once they have set a goal until they have achieved it, regardless of any obstacle. Their goals can be ineffable at times, however...
Notable Grimoires:
The Book Of the Dawn: A tome written by a paladin/wizard, this Grimoire considered it its mission to remove every undead and necromancer on Earth. It destroyed thousands before being stopped by a mighty lich, who burned it to ash. Some say that one of it's Papyr servants, a paladin who volunteered to be Read, still tries to find method to make it whole again.
The Red Tome: a spellbook that was originally a transmutation text, the Red Tome embarked on a 40 mile journey straight north, changing everything in its path to suit itself, before being stopped by a party of its fellows.
The Library: an assemblage of Grimoires that wished to be treated as normal citizens, and tried to become a political party. Disbanded after pressures from wizards.
Malkus: A bulging tome that threatens to split his covers, Malkus runs a very successful spell shop in a tiny town, drawing visitors for hundreds of miles. It has purchased so many books with its profits that it is considering being rebound in order to hold all its new pages. His creator, one Darigus Finch, is now Papyrcrafted, and lives happily with Malkus as a friend and advisor.
A Grimoire will never result from a spellbook with less than 24 spells.
Devour Knowledge:
A Grimoire can rip spells and pages from lesser books, drawing them into itself.
Any book within 10 feet of the Grimoire can be targeted by this ability. The book takes 1d6 damage, and if it is a spellbook, loses one of its spells. The Grimoire gains the damage it does with this ability as HP. When this ability destroys a book, the Grimoire gains 1 rank in any Knowledge skill.
Read:
This attack is treated as a gaze attack. Once per round, the Grimoire may open its pages in an attempt to get a foe to read them. Should the target look at the pages (they need not understand them), they are partially transformed into pages in the Grimoire. They lose 1d4+1 points of Constitution, negated by a DC 15 Will save. The Grimoire gains the number of points of Constitution damage it does as HP. Should a Grimoire kill a target with this ability, it may add the defeated creature to its PapyrCraeft list. A creature killed by this ability may not be resurrected unless a spell such as remove curse, wish, dispel magic, or similar has been used on the defeated (and intact) Grimoire, to restore the person to normal form. When this ability destroys a being, the Grimoire may select one of the destroyed creature's Knowledge skills that is higher than its own, and replace its rank in that skill with the creature's.
PapyrCraeft:
A Grimoire may turn the creatures it has read into servants, with parchment flesh and inky veins. The creature must be one that the Grimoire has slain with the Read ability. The Grimoire takes 1d10 of damage, and loses 1 point of Constitution, whenever this ability is used, as the pages of the servant must come from the Grimoire. Most Grimoire's enter combat with at least 1 or 2 creatures already read. Creatures created by this ability use the Papyr template, below. A Grimoire commands its servants telepathically, by changing
some of the words in their pages from afar (The page that describes their goals in life might be changed to the single line, "Kill the dragon", for example.) Effects that block magical effects in an area also block the Grimoire's control over any servants in that area.
A Grimoire may also use this ability to reabsorb one of its servants, gaining back the point of CON spent on it. If a Papyr servant dies, the point of CON may be regained by repairing (with mending, wish, or any other suitable spell) the servant's remains to serviceable paper, then reabsorbing the paper.
Spells:
This monster can prepare any amount of spells (no duplicates) of any spell from level 7 or under, save those that require XP or materials worth more than 1 gp. For any spell that requires a level - this spell lasts 1 minute per level, this spell goes 5 ft. per level, etc., - the level number to use is eight.
Running Ink:
When exposed to water while its covers are open, a Grimoire loses 1 rank in a random Knowledge skill permanently.
NOTES: "Spell Pages" in the Treasure line means pieces of paper with spells on them. They can be copied into spellbooks, or used to learn spells by sorcerers and such.
Challenge Rating is way, way off base, most likely. It's a guess.
Still figuring out Spellcraft ranking.
Papyr Template:
Type changes to construct.
Hit Dice are all changed to d4, and rerolled.
Creature loses any fire resistance, and gains fire weakness.
Creature's movement increases by 10 ft. (2 squares).
Creature takes a -4 Strength penalty.
Creature loses all CON (CON changes to " - ").
Creature gains the Origami ability. Origami allows the creature to change its size down one level, or back to normal.
Creature gains +10 to Jump, Climb, Tumble, and Balance checks.
Originally Posted by Lord Iames Osari
Announcement: With polls disabled, votes should be posted in the threads themselves or PMed to myself and Fax. Format your votes like this so that it will be easier to pick them out from the rest of your post: MitP Vote: Yes or MitP Vote: No. Thank you.
Up to 8! Woot!
Grimoire
Small Construct
4d10 (22 hp.)
Fly 20 ft. (4 squares) Good Maneuverablility
Init: 1
AC 11; touch 11; flat-footed 10
BAB +3;
Attack: none
Full-Attack: none
Space 5 ft.; Reach 0 ft.
Special Attacks: Devour Knowledge, Read, PapyrCraeft, Spells
Special Qualities: Construct Traits, Damage Reduction 2/slashing, Fire Weakness, Running Ink
Saves Fort + Ref +1 Will +5
Abilities Str 1, Dex 12, Con 10, Int 18, Wis 16, Cha 10
Skills: Knowledge (All) 5, Decipher Script 10, Spellcraft (Max Ranks)
Feats: Hover, Silent Spell, Still Spell, Eschew Materials
Environment: Any
Organization: Solitary, Anthology (2-4), Encyclopedia (10-12).
Solitary Papry Slave, Papyr Sheaf (2-6), Papyr Ream (8-10).
Challenge Rating 9
Treasure: Magic Scrolls, Spell Pages
Alignment: True Neutral
Advancement: 5-7 HD (small), 8-9 HD (medium)
"In DND, book reads YOU!
Apprentice wizards often wonder why their masters take so much care when writing their spellbooks. Rare, magical inks to ward the pages, hours spent scribing glyphs and runes of protection - "Why not simply write the spell," they say, "instead of going to all that extra trouble?" True wizards know better. The extra care is not to protect the spellbook - it's to protect against it.
Magic - even when reduced to ink on paper - is powerful, and when the protections in a spellbook are broken or improperly placed, or crumple under the weight of far too many spells, the result is a book subject to hundreds of simultaneous enchantments - and with enough magical energy to just maybe achieve a degree of sentience. A Grimoire.
Grimoires are batteries of arcane power, and imbued with hundreds of spells. Their most deadly and feared ability, however, is their ability to "read" a creature or object - transforming it from reality to words, and then drawing it into itself. Old Grimoires are swollen with pages that once were sentient beings, now reduced to descriptions of themselves. Old or new however, a Grimoire is a terrifying sight.
Grimoires cannot hear nor speak, but if one is offered paper and devours it, it will know what was written. Grimoires can also sense nearby words, so scratching a message in the dirt or scribbling on a wall can be used to communicate with one as well. Often, the book will use passages of its text, sent by sending or dream spells, or by sending one of its pages to hover in front of the target, to reply. Grimoires gravitate to sources of magic (using their detect magic spell) to feed, making them a threat to wizards.
Grimoires often reflect their contents - a Grimoire whose creator stored mainly Necromantic spells will delight in death, for example. Some of the personalities that may result from a Grimoire's contents are:
Evocation: Delight in battle, love of destruction, courage
Necromancy: Love of murder, solemness, curiosity about death and undead
Divination: Curiosity
Conjuration: Love of creating things, delight in command, patience
Abjuration: Cowardliness, Resoluteness, Love of quiet life
Enchantment: Manipulative, Friendly,
Illusion: Liar, Show-off, Love of Applause
Transmutation: Love of experimentation, love of change
Grimoires all desire more spells - whether they get them by killing wizards, adventuring (to find them or gold to buy them), or - more rarely - creating them. Many Grimoires also desire strong servants - meaning that they will systematically hunt down and Read strong opponents. Grimoires are often contemptuous of those that they feel are not as smart as they are - a Grimoire that wants something that a villager owns might simply Read the villager, and never consider its actions murder. In contrast, they have only the highest respect for intelligent beings, though this does not mean they always get along - but a Grimoire will generally at least listen to a genius. Grimoires are determined beyond belief, never stopping once they have set a goal until they have achieved it, regardless of any obstacle. Their goals can be ineffable at times, however...
Notable Grimoires:
The Book Of the Dawn: A tome written by a paladin/wizard, this Grimoire considered it its mission to remove every undead and necromancer on Earth. It destroyed thousands before being stopped by a mighty lich, who burned it to ash. Some say that one of it's Papyr servants, a paladin who volunteered to be Read, still tries to find method to make it whole again.
The Red Tome: a spellbook that was originally a transmutation text, the Red Tome embarked on a 40 mile journey straight north, changing everything in its path to suit itself, before being stopped by a party of its fellows.
The Library: an assemblage of Grimoires that wished to be treated as normal citizens, and tried to become a political party. Disbanded after pressures from wizards.
Malkus: A bulging tome that threatens to split his covers, Malkus runs a very successful spell shop in a tiny town, drawing visitors for hundreds of miles. It has purchased so many books with its profits that it is considering being rebound in order to hold all its new pages. His creator, one Darigus Finch, is now Papyrcrafted, and lives happily with Malkus as a friend and advisor.
A Grimoire will never result from a spellbook with less than 24 spells.
Devour Knowledge:
A Grimoire can rip spells and pages from lesser books, drawing them into itself.
Any book within 10 feet of the Grimoire can be targeted by this ability. The book takes 1d6 damage, and if it is a spellbook, loses one of its spells. The Grimoire gains the damage it does with this ability as HP. When this ability destroys a book, the Grimoire gains 1 rank in any Knowledge skill.
Read:
This attack is treated as a gaze attack. Once per round, the Grimoire may open its pages in an attempt to get a foe to read them. Should the target look at the pages (they need not understand them), they are partially transformed into pages in the Grimoire. They lose 1d4+1 points of Constitution, negated by a DC 15 Will save. The Grimoire gains the number of points of Constitution damage it does as HP. Should a Grimoire kill a target with this ability, it may add the defeated creature to its PapyrCraeft list. A creature killed by this ability may not be resurrected unless a spell such as remove curse, wish, dispel magic, or similar has been used on the defeated (and intact) Grimoire, to restore the person to normal form. When this ability destroys a being, the Grimoire may select one of the destroyed creature's Knowledge skills that is higher than its own, and replace its rank in that skill with the creature's.
PapyrCraeft:
A Grimoire may turn the creatures it has read into servants, with parchment flesh and inky veins. The creature must be one that the Grimoire has slain with the Read ability. The Grimoire takes 1d10 of damage, and loses 1 point of Constitution, whenever this ability is used, as the pages of the servant must come from the Grimoire. Most Grimoire's enter combat with at least 1 or 2 creatures already read. Creatures created by this ability use the Papyr template, below. A Grimoire commands its servants telepathically, by changing
some of the words in their pages from afar (The page that describes their goals in life might be changed to the single line, "Kill the dragon", for example.) Effects that block magical effects in an area also block the Grimoire's control over any servants in that area.
A Grimoire may also use this ability to reabsorb one of its servants, gaining back the point of CON spent on it. If a Papyr servant dies, the point of CON may be regained by repairing (with mending, wish, or any other suitable spell) the servant's remains to serviceable paper, then reabsorbing the paper.
Spells:
This monster can prepare any amount of spells (no duplicates) of any spell from level 7 or under, save those that require XP or materials worth more than 1 gp. For any spell that requires a level - this spell lasts 1 minute per level, this spell goes 5 ft. per level, etc., - the level number to use is eight.
Running Ink:
When exposed to water while its covers are open, a Grimoire loses 1 rank in a random Knowledge skill permanently.
NOTES: "Spell Pages" in the Treasure line means pieces of paper with spells on them. They can be copied into spellbooks, or used to learn spells by sorcerers and such.
Challenge Rating is way, way off base, most likely. It's a guess.
Still figuring out Spellcraft ranking.
Papyr Template:
Type changes to construct.
Hit Dice are all changed to d4, and rerolled.
Creature loses any fire resistance, and gains fire weakness.
Creature's movement increases by 10 ft. (2 squares).
Creature takes a -4 Strength penalty.
Creature loses all CON (CON changes to " - ").
Creature gains the Origami ability. Origami allows the creature to change its size down one level, or back to normal.
Creature gains +10 to Jump, Climb, Tumble, and Balance checks.