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View Full Version : Cerulean - [Aberration] [BBEG] [Help please]



Talanic
2007-12-10, 10:25 AM
Hi there. I posted the first draft of this a few days ago, but unfortunately got no responses. :smallfrown: I've updated it greatly, and hope that it deserves a bit more attention this time. I hope to use it in the game tonight (but, considering how scattershot my players can be, they might not even get to the point where the creature is).

Oh, and if any of you readers are my players--OUT. NOW.

What I'm aiming for is a template that can be applied to humanoid creatures with no equipment. It will probably be applied to a level 2 human monk (elite stat array) as the base creature for the initial encounter; the party will encounter more of these, scaling up in level, later on. The party is currently level 3, but may be level 4 by the time they encounter the first creature.

I'm aiming for a CR 5 encounter this time, as their most recent fights (including a level 4 kobold sorcerer, who was unfortunate enough to lose initiative after the surprise round and get hit by a thrown axe and double criticaled) have been quite easy. They've been up against kobolds and are expecting more at the stronghold--which they're going to find completely empty of living creatures. Lots of corpses, though. The party was warned that the kobolds had fought the Cerulean many times, usually with support from their ally, a young green dragon, but that ally is dead.

Cerulean are supposed to be very difficult to kill, with a 50% miss chance for all attacks and spells, plus fast healing and a flight speed (albeit a poor one). They are immune to many ways of killing them quickly, and have fast healing. Their attacks are touch attacks, but deal half as much damage as normal and, on a critical, use a Maze-like effect for 1d4 rounds.

I'm thinking of the loot being an essence that can be absorbed to gain one spell-like ability (randomly determined), usable only once.

Flavor:
When the Illithids called forth their reinforcements from the future via an epic ritual spell that required their agents to be simultaneously casting on every ley node in the world at the same time, they completed what may have been the grandest spellcasting achievement in all of history--except for the lone time traveling warrior who went back in time from their hellish rule to assassinate them. He succeeded in eliminating one of the most vital nodes, but not before casting had already begun. The results went beyond catastrophe.

Time itself BROKE. The world was cut into sections on ley lines, stretching from node to node. Within each section, time ran at a different pace; some at regular speed, some rapidly. Some stopped, some backwards--creating a retroactive continuity to explain how they got to be the way they were. Some even looped, or began to regress the age of all things that dwelled within.

Worst off were those who were standing directly on those ley lines when the event occurred. They were sucked into a space outside of time, and were warped completely beyond recognition or reason. They exist in those boundaries, the two-dimensional edges between the sections of the world. They no longer sanely perceive the places where they or their ancestors once dwelled, and occasionally stray from those walls to wreak havok in the lands that they no longer belong in.

*Special: The party was at ground zero where the ritual was disrupted, and has a shard that allows them to collapse the walls between the fragments of the world. This causes the Cerulean to have particular animosity towards them, but the catch is that the shard allows the wielder to bypass many of the Ceruleans' immunities--but they won't have the shard for the first fight. The shard holder ignores the Ceruleans' miss chance and immunity to critical hits.

Cerulean
Cerulean is an acquired template that can be applied to any corporeal creature.

The creature's size is unchanged. The creature's type changes to aberration, losing all other types and subtypes.

All hit dice become d12s. Attack bonus is 1/2 hit die or as class levels dictate. Cerulean can not cast spells.

Speed: All Cerulean creatures have a flight speed of 15, with poor maneuverability. They also have a 30' land speed. Cerulean are considered incorporeal as far as traversing terrain is concerned.

Special attacks: The base creature retains its special attacks and gains the following:
A Cerulean is automatically proficient with unarmed attacks, and uses no weapons. It deals a base of 1d12 damage (prior to halving), or its unarmed strike damage, whichever is better.
All melee attacks by Cerulean are touch attacks.
Temporal Rips: A Cerulean's attacks deal half normal damage due to their difficulty in interacting with the normal time stream. Every hit also deals one point of damage to the defender's armor. Non-epic Cerulean ignore non-epic damage reduction entirely. Epic Cerulean ignore all damage reduction.

Stasis: A Cerulean's attacks can displace an enemy entirely outside of time for 1d4 rounds on a critical hit. The enemy returns after this time. Critical hits by Cerulean creatures do not deal extra damage.

Matter conversion: A Cerulean can absorb inert matter into itself. It can only be used on nonliving material or helpless foes, and is a full-round action per 5 pounds of matter absorbed. Treat the absorbed matter as affected by disintegrate. A Cerulean's healing rate is doubled while it absorbs matter.
Special qualities: The creature retains its special qualities and gains the following:
Temporal divergence: A Cerulean is in two places at once at all times. Represent it in combat as two creatures. It rolls initiative twice; it is possible for one to use each initiative roll or for a single version of the Cerulean to take two turns. All directly targeted effects have a 50% chance to miss. Both copies have the same hit points and are affected by the same spells and abilities; for example, if one is flanked or tripped, both are. Area effect spells that have both copies in the area of effect deal damage only once, but are not subject to the miss chance.

Outside of Time: Cerulean are always treated as under the effects of Haste. This is suppressed for one round by the spell Slow, but they are otherwise unaffected by any attempt to alter their movement rate.

Variable form: A Cerulean's biology is bizarre beyond even normal aberrations. In addition to the other immunities aberrations share, it is not subject to mental effects, ability damage, ability drain, critical hits, polymorph effects or death effects.

A Cerulean has Fast Healing of two per hit die.

CR increase: ?

osyluth
2007-12-10, 11:15 AM
I think +2 CR, maybe +3.

Talanic
2007-12-11, 01:28 PM
Just an update - the fight went pretty well, and had the players freaked out. They went into it a bit cocky (except those to whom I had dropped hints) and the first hit was a natural 20 that banished their main fighter for three rounds. The cleric nearly bit the dust, and the rogue and bard were ready to flee at the drop of a hat.

Ultimately, in the same round, the barbarian's banishment ended and the wizard completed a true strike + scorching ray combo. Now the characters think their new nemesis is weak against fire...after all, that's what killed it.

Voyager_I
2007-12-11, 07:36 PM
A Cerulean has Fast Healing of two per hit die.

Is it just me, or could that little bit get ugly real fast?

I do like the "two places at once" idea, though. I think you pulled that part off quite well, representing what you wanted without bogging it down in a half page of special rules that nobody will get right for the first week...

Although I think a lot of that could boil down to "They're incorporeal, except they only have 50% miss chance and they can still punch you in the face."