Sunday, October 19, 2014

Zibbine


Tome of Horror IV
This bloated, corpulent man has a bald head, a maniacal look in his burning red eyes and a mouth full of pointed and crooked teeth.

Source: Dunes of Desolation (Pathfinder/Frog God Games)

Cool Factor: Eunuchs are known to be entrusted to protect or watch over a man's harem. Being a eunuch helps relieve the temptation of this important duty. In very rare instances during the process of becoming a eunuch things go wrong and a young boy is transformed into a Zibbine. The process is almost instantaneous. Within a few hours of the botched procedure the young boy turns into a full grown adult with corpulent features, yellow eyes, and crooked pointed teeth.

     This monstrous humanoid removes itself from society and lurks in subterranean lairs. There they plot revenge against those who were responsible for their current state and against men who flaunt their romantic escapades. The Zibbine are known to be excellent grapplers and have the ability to neuter their foes.

Combat: The Zibbine is a chaotic evil monstrous humanoid who specializes in unarmed combat and the ability to grapple its enemies. He's a CR 6 creature. The most signature ability of the Zibbine is detailed below.

-Neuter: The most interesting ability of the Zibbine is the ability to neuter its foes. When a Zibbine bites an enemy they must make a fort save or lose it's gender. The effect is temporary and only last 1d4 minutes. However if the creatures saving throw is a natural 1 the effect is permanent. Yep you just lost your manhood(or womanhood). Also the abrupt lost of gender is greatly disturbing and requires a will save. Failure leads to a -2 penalty to attack rolls, weapons damage, and saving throws for the duration of the transformation. The effect of the neuter ability are considered curse based and can be removed with spells that cure those conditions.

Verdict: I don't think I've ever encountered a creature with the ability to neuter a character. The role-playing implications are pretty priceless. Having your brave fighter losing his most prized possession even if only for a few minutes is rather entertaining. The Zibbine provides an interesting monster background that ties in nicely with a entertaining monster ability.


 



Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Tooth Fairy

Pathfinder Bestiary 4



This gaunt fairy has tattered ears, black eyes, and a huge mouth filled with mismatched teeth. It carries an oversized pair of pliers.

Source: Pathfinder Bestiary 4

Cool Factor: When a willful child tooth or in some cases a whole child is buried in an area with a strong fey connection a Tooth Fairy is born. These fey are not your typical benevolent beings. Gangs of Tooth Fairies stalk humanoid settlements with their potent magic and their bloody pliers ready to extract teeth for their own delight.
     The Tooth Fairies use their abilities to lull you to sleep or maybe put you in a state of paralysis to collect their reward. A tooth to replace their own or maybe just something to decorate their dwelling. These evil mischievous fey are sure to create quite a commotion once they infest a community.

Combat: The Tooth Fairy has a robust array of special abilities to perform their mischief. However these diminutive fey are not strong combatants and work well in pairs or a gang. Having challenge rating of 1/4 the Tooth Fairy are more of a nuisance when encountered solitary.

-Ability to fly.

-If bitten you have chance to become paralyzed.

-Spell-Like Abilities: Able to cast mage hand and open/close at will. Once per day can cast invisibility and sleep. All work in conjunction with their ability to sneak around town and cause their mayhem on the down low.

-Death Throes: When killed the Tooth Fairy explodes in a cloud of sparkling white fairy dust. This causes a glittery substance to cling on adjacent foes. The substance has a horrible stench and causes sickness.

-Pliers: Each fey owns a pair of pliers that can be used to extract teeth. These bloody instruments function as +1 medium daggers. If destroyed it stuns the Tooth Fairy.

-Tricky Thief: The Tooth Fairy can perform two maneuvers with their pliers. One is to pinch an opponents fingers to cause dexterity damage. Another is to steal an opponents tooth. This causes charisma and bleed damage. If the tooth is not reattach within 10 minutes with a cure spell that tooth is lost. After 10 minutes best to find a caster with the regenerate spell if you care about preserving your full set of teeth.


Verdict: Tooth Fairies are a nice change of pace to low level encounters. An alternative to your typical goblin or kobold incursion. The thought of having a combat with a gang of Tooth Fairies can be quite amusing. The potential to put player characters to sleep or paralyze them in combat can be frightening. Then add in the ability to extract teeth for damage. It can turn your typical encounter into a rather dangerous affair. I'm looking forward to using them in the future.


Sunday, October 12, 2014

Tooth Beast

bear

An ursine creature the size of a polar bear lumbers into view. Instead of fur, thousands of sharp teeth of various types and sizes stud its hide. Teeth of every kind cover its entire body, including its head, which has teeth for eyes. The raw flesh between the teeth is pink and has the moistness of gums. Despite its apparent blindness, the creature seems to sense the presence of prey, turning suddenly toward a creature that has passed and emitting a terrifying moan.

Source: Tome of Magic 3.5

Cool Factor: It is basically a giant bear with skin that has gum like consistency and teeth of various sizes clinging to it.It has no eyes and has a great sense of smell. This Tooth Beast is known to search the caverns of the Underdark for prey.
     The Tooth Beast is associated with the Vestige Dahlver-Nar, the tortured one. Vestiges are once powerful beings trapped between life and death. Dahlver-Nar is rumored to have been a Binder(kinda like magic user who makes pacts with powerful entities) who collected the teeth of other Vestiges. In the process he would rip his own teeth out and put another Vestiges tooth in it's place. By doing so he became a Vestige himself.

There is also a magic item called the Teeth of Dahlver-Nar which consist of the teeth of various other Vestiges. Each one grants different magical powers. The teeth are similar ioun stones. For example the tooth of the Vestige Paimon would grant you +4 enchancement bonus to dex. It does require you rip your teeth out to implant the item in your mouth.

Combat: The Tooth Beast has an interesting mix of mechanics behind it.

-The Tooth Beast is blind and uses blindsight to survey it's surrounding.

-It has the pounce and rake ability. Pounce in 3.X allows a creature to charge and get it's full complement of attacks off. In this case claw, claw, bite. Rake allows additional attacks when an enemy is grappled.

-The Tooth Beast has frightful moan. All within 30ft need to make a will save or be frightened for 1 round and shaken the round after. Once an opponent is under a fear effect the Tooth Beast has another ability called Sprint after Fear that allows it to increase it's movement speed to 60ft and charge for 120ft. The Tooth Beast initially only has a 10ft movement which is rather slow but once opponents are under any fear condition it gains battlefield mobility.

-It's Challenge Rating is 7.

Verdict: The Tooth Beast is interesting creature that can turn your standard cavern encounter into something unique. Maybe as the group is exploring the Underdark they notice dead bodies spread about. As they examine the bodies they find the lack of teeth quite disturbing. This leads to the creature causing this bodily thief.

Another option would be finding the teeth of the various Vestiges. Each of these otherwordly being carry unique powers. Maybe one of the Vault holding a powerful tooth it guarded by one of these beast. A whole campaign could be based around the Teeth of Dahlver-Nar.