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Sunday, March 25, 2012

The Polyhedroids [New Monster]

Two of the creatures that proved popular in my best.monster.ever poll were the modrons and the slaad. Since neither is open content, I've had to create my own versions for inclusion in Blood & Treasure. The polyhedroids fit the role of "agents of absolute law".

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POLYHEDROID
The mechanisms that regulate the clockwork movement of the cosmos are unseen, but they do exist. And while sages and theologians may argue and fight over who designed and put them into motion, they rarely worry over who maintains them. More importantly, when the cosmos needs an upgrade such as a new moon, who builds it, puts it in place and sets it off on its merry way? The who in question are the polyhedroids. The polyhedroids are like organic constructs. They are creatures of absolute law and order; every polyhedroid has a place in the scheme of things and every polyhedroid wants nothing more than to perform the task they have been assigned. They oppose chaos because it is an opposing force, not out of any love or comprehension of virtue, and since they see all living and non-living things as mere gears of the cosmos, they have no compunction about using these gears as they see fit to maintain cosmic order.

Spheroid
Spheroids are the least of the polyhedroids. They have a single eye, which can seemingly travel around the surface of their body as they like, and a small mouth that always sits at the bottom of the sphere. Once given a task, a spheroid works at that task until it is complete and then become idle, waiting for a new order from a more complex polyhedroid.

Spheroid, Small Outsider, Lawful, Low Intelligence: HD 1; AC 13; Atk 1 tentacle (1d4); Move 20; Save F 13, R 13, W 14; XP 100 (Basic); Special: Immune to enchantment and illusion, surprised on 1 in 4, resistance to electricity, spells (at will-levitate), telepathy 100 ft.

Tetrahedroid
Tetrahedroids are the engineers of the polyhedroids. They look like triangular pyramids turned on their points. From each of their four vertices, they sprout a tentacle. On three of their four faces, they bear a single large eye. On the fourth face, that which points up, they have a mouth. They are capable of balancing and moving on a single tentacle and attacking with the other three. Tetrahedroids often work alone or in small groups on major tasks or command a work crew of four spheroids.

Tetrahedroid, Medium Outsider, Lawful, Average Intelligence: HD 4; AC 15; Atk 3 tentacles (1d6); Move 30; Save F 11, R 11, W 11; XP 400 (Basic); Special: Immune to enchantment and illusion, resistance to acid and electricity, magic resistance 10%, spells (at will-levitate, mage hand), telepathy 100 ft.

Hexahedroid
Hexahedroids are employed to command work details of spheroids and tetrahedroids or to fight in polyhedroid armies when chaos threatens the cosmic order. They appear as cubes turned on their points, with eight tentacles sprouting from their vertices. Three of their faces bear great eyes, while the other three bear mouths. Hexahedroids attack with four tentacles and can cast spells as 6th level clerics. They can cast one spell per round, even while attacking. Hexahedroids command crews of six tetrahedroids.

Hexahedroid, Medium Outsider, Lawful, Average Intelligence: HD 6; AC 17; Atk 4 tentacles (1d8 + constrict); Move 40; Save F 10, R 10, W 10; XP 600 (Expert); Special: Immune to enchantment and illusion, resistance to acid, fire and electricity, magic resistance 15%, spells (at will-levitate, mage hand; 1/day-magic missile, shield), telepathy 100 ft.

Octahedroids
Octahedroids are governors among the polyhedroids. They appear as octahedrons (or 8-sided dice if you please) lying on their horizontal axis. They have six tentacles sprouting from their vertices. Those that ring their center are used for movement, while the two on the ends are used for attack and manipulation, though technically they could use two of their central tentacles for attack if need be. They have four eyes and four mouths and cast spells as 8th level clerics. They are capable of cast two spells per round, even while attacking. Each octahedroid has a bodyguard of 8 hexahedroids.

Octahedroid, Large Outsider, Lawful, High Intelligence: HD 8; AC 19 [+1]; Atk 2 or 4 tentacles (2d6 + constrict); Move 60 (Fly 180); Save F 9, R 8, W 8; XP 4000 (Master); Special: Immune to enchantment and illusion, resistance to acid, cold, fire and electricity, magic resistance 20%, spells (continuous- detect lies, protection from evil; at will-levitate, mage hand, telekinesis; 3/day-command, detect invisibility, detect magic, magic missile, shield;1/day-interposing hand, wall of force), telepathy 100 ft.

Dodecahedroids
Dodecahedroids are lords among the polyhedroids. They appear as dodecahedrons (or 12-sided dice if you please) sprouting 20 tentacles. They have 6 eyes and 6 mouths spaced around their bodies, and cannot be surprised. They cast spells as 12th level clerics and are capable of casting three spells per round even while attacking. Each dodecahedroid commands a council of 12 octahedroids.

Dodecahedroid, Large Outsider, Lawful, High Intelligence: HD 12; AC 21 [+2]; Atk 10 tentacles (2d6 + constrict); Move 90 (Fly 270); Save F 7, R 4, W 6; XP 6000 (Master); Special: Immune to enchantment and illusion, resistance to acid, cold, electricity, fire and sonics, magic resistance 30%, spells (continuous-detect invisibility, detect lies, protection from evil; at will-command, detect magic, detect thoughts, levitate, mage hand, telekinesis; 3/day- dimension door, magic missile, shield, wall of force;1/day-dispel magic, force cage, forceful hand, interposing hand, teleport), telepathy 1,000 ft.

Icosahedroids
Icosahedroids are kings among the polyhedroids. They appear as icosahedrons (or 20-sided dice if you please) sprouting 12 tentacles. They have twenty complete faces consisting of an oblong eye and mouth. They cast spells as 20th level clerics and are capable of casting four spells per round even while attacking. Each icosahedroid commands a kingdom of 20 dodecahedroids, 240 octahedroids, thousands of hexahedroids, millions of tetrahedroids and untold numbers of spheroids.

Icosahedroid, Huge Outsider, Lawful, Super Intelligence: HD 20; AC 23 [+3]; Atk 6 tentacles (3d6 + 1d6 electricity + constrict); Move 120 (Fly 360); Save F 3, R 3, W 3; XP 10000 (Epic); Special: Immune to enchantment and illusion, resistance to acid, cold, electricity, fire, negative energy and sonics, magic resistance 50%, spells (continuous-detect invisibility, detect lies, detect thoughts, protection from evil; at will-command, detect magic, dimension door, levitate, mage hand, telekinesis; 3/day- dispel magic, magic missile, planeshift, shield, teleport without error, wall of force;1/day-clenched fist, crushing hand, force cage, forceful hand, grasping hand, interposing hand), telepathy 10,000 ft.

6 comments:

  1. Your PDF plugin is busted; it only shows whatever "You might also like" posts you have showing.

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  2. Cool! I'd been looking forward to yourtake on these guys.

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  3. Not much I can do about the plug-in. You'll just have to copy/paste the old fashioned way I'm afraid.

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  4. Seems to me you need to relocate a widget or something. As it stands, there is absolutely no reason to have the PDF button right now. You can't copy paste to use it. It just sits there mocking us.

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  5. I ditched the Print Friendly widget. Hated to do it, but it apparently doesn't work with the Link Within widget, and given how many posts I have, I think the latter might be more useful than the former.

    PS - It occurs to me that I learned the former/latter stuff from reading the DMG. God bless you Gary Gygax.

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  6. Their boss should be a giant sphere ... or perhaps a living planet ... zero sides equalling an infinity of sides.

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