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Burning embers glow between the coal-like, smoke wreathed plates that make up this insectile creature’s body.
Emberling CR 2
XP 600
N Small construct
Init +3; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +0
----- Defense -----
AC 14, touch 10, flat-footed 14 (-1 Dex, +4 natural, +1 size)
hp 26 (3d10+10)
Fort +1, Ref +0, Will +1
Defensive Abilities tempered plating; Immune construct traits, fire
----- Offense -----
Speed 20 ft.
Melee bite +5 (1d4+3)
Special Attacks forge spark, bellowing cloud
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 3rd; concentration +3)
Constant—detect magic
----- Statistics -----
Str 14, Dex 9, Con —, Int 2, Wis 11, Cha 6
Base Atk +3; CMB +4; CMD 13 (can’t be tripped)
Feats Blind-Fight, Improved Initiative
Skills Climb +9; Racial Modifiers +4 Climb
----- Ecology -----
Environment any urban
Organization solitary, pair, or colony (3-6)
Treasure standard (combustibles, magic)
----- Special Abilities -----
Bellowing Cloud (Su) As a standard action once per day, an emberling may stoke the fire within its body and surround itself with a cloud of smoke and soot. This effect is similar to obscuring mist except that it has a duration of 3 minutes and creatures within the cloud must make a Fortitude save each round (DC 11, +1 per previous check) or spend that round choking and coughing. A creature that chokes for 2 consecutive rounds takes 1d6 points of nonlethal damage. The save DC is Constitution-based.
Forge Spark (Ex) An emberling’s body erupts in an explosion of sparks when struck. Creatures that damage an emberling while adjacent to it must make a Reflex save (DC 11) or take 1d6 fire damage and become dazzled for 1 round. The save DC is Constitution-based.
Tempered Plating (Ex) Cold damage causes an emberling’s steel-like exterior to cool and harden, granting it hardness 5 and suppressing forge spark for 1d4 rounds. Dousing an emberling with water causes the same effect, though for only 1 round.
Animated by residual magic combining with creosote deposits in the crucibles of Golarion’s busiest forges, an emberling’s body consists of thick layers of carbon-rich plating that house a burning heart as hot as any forge fire. They scuttle across the ground on dozens of legs that resemble metal shavings and are adept at clinging to the walls of the exhaust vents in which they lair.
A newly formed colony of emberlings is content to bask in the heat of the flames that spawned them, though when these fires are doused and the vents begin to cool, they’ll spread across a city in search of new soot stained hearths to occupy. Vaguely aware of the process that formed them, some emberlings instinctively search out magic items to place in their lairs among other combustibles in an effort to create more of their kind. This activity, along with startled chimney sweeps and discontent residents that find they are sharing their home, is one of many reasons for district-wide fires erupting amidst an unsuspecting city populace.
Emberlings are extremely irritable, quick to anger, and attack relentlessly from a cloud of choking smoke and ash when provoked. Where magic arms and armor regularly fall between hammer and anvil, an emberling likely lies in a bed of cinders nearby.
Hi Brian, I'm Lee Hammock, the lead game designer on Pathfinder Online. Before that I did lots of d20 freelance work, but I'm probably going to be leaving mechanics to the more up to date judges and concentrating on story, overall balance, and how I could see using them in a game.
Generally I'm not a fan of monsters that punish me for succeeding in hitting them, especially when I'm already having to suffer through a radius effect, but I like that throwing a bucket of water on these helps with the problem. Nice mundane way to deal with the problem. Stats wise, to me the Tempered Plating ability is the most interesting part of the monster. The Bellowing Cloud ability is a bit annoying though as it requires player to keep track of consecutive rounds of effects and only do damage every other, which is not a huge thing but it is another thing to track.
The story of the emberling is okay, the most interesting bit being the attempts to make more of themselves and the assaulting of chimney sweeps. I wish there was something more to their birth, or where the first one came from. It's rare to see a self propagating construct. I could see using these as an interesting threat both to forges and artificers, particularly if they steal some very valuable magic item.
I'm giving this one a Should Vote For.
Hi Brian! I'll be one of the judges for this round, and I'll be looking at a couple of key points for your creature: flavor, GM usability, and how well it fits into the world of Golarion. For some background, I helped found the Wayfinder fanzine before I started working for Paizo, and these are all points that I took into consideration when selecting articles for the magazine. In addition, I oversee every third-party Pathfinder Roleplaying Game product that makes its way onto Paizo.com.
Flavor
Well now I know where all that creosote goes when my chimney is cleaned... The implication of the construct type is that *something* made it--whether it's a wizard in a laboratory or a blacksmith at the forge. Spontaneous formation strays a bit from that, and this entry isn't 100% clear on where emberlings come from (or how they're made via the appropriate feats)...but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Can emberlings create more of themselves by gathering the right magic items (again, not 100% clear in the description)? If so, that's a terrifying fantasy variation of "self-aware technology"--and I approve of that.
GM Usability
I can see a nice lower level quest where the PCs have to clear out an infestation of these from a forge, and they're a good introduction to constructs in general without being the magic-immune golem monstrosities of later encounters.
Setting
Not much working for it in the setting department, unfortunately, and nothing really restricting it to an urban environment.
Final Thoughts
It has very weak ties to the world setting, but that does not stop it from being an interesting take on constructs-turned-pests. I do recommend this monster for advancement as mechanically it works...but a heavy dose of Golarion flavor is all that's stopping this from being an excellent entry.
Developer
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Dedicated Voter Season 7, Dedicated Voter Season 8, Star Voter Season 9
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Congrats on making it to this round! May you have the luck and talent to push all the way through to the end!
When I develop a monster for the Adventure Path bestiaries, I print out the monster entry, and then go through it in a quick pass, marking up the page with notes and highlighting any problems that I need to address later when I really dig into it. Much of the time I’m circling things in the stat block or flavor text and leaving a quick note. Most often, this quick note pass is performed while I’m writing out art orders for the monsters so I can make sure that the description I give to the artist is what the final monster will be. This is where I make note of any changes I plan to make (some of which I’m sure frustrate some of my freelancers from time to time).
I’m going to judge this round in a similar manner to how I’d treat a monster I ordered from a freelancer if I asked one of my freelancers to just send me something within the same parameters that you’ve been given. My review isn’t anything personal, and since tone is difficult to communicate online sometimes, imagine my comments and critiques read in a friendly and nudging way. To heighten the experience, imagine my comments on your monster written in purple ink. :)
The blue italicized first line in my review was my gut reaction from reading the name with no context whatsoever. It was a fun guessing game I was playing while reviewing the monsters, so I included that note for everyone’s enjoyment. ()
And now to the monster!
I wasn’t expecting a construct from this name, much less one that looks like an insect. I like bugs, so I’m interested.
Its hit points are high for a CR 2 creature.
Alphabetize special abilities (everything, really).
The special abilities are cool and on mark for what the creature does, but they are right on the edge of being too strong. The wording could be a bit better.
I don’t know how I feel about a spontaneously forming construct. It seems weird.
Their behavior doesn’t seem fully congruent with a creature with an Intelligence of 2.
This is an interesting construct. It’s certainly urban, but dropping the name Golarion is barely making it a Golarion monster. This would take a bit of time to develop for print.
I don’t recommend emberling for advancement.
Name - I like the name!
Low CR and Small construct? Yes!
Can't be tripped? Why??
Spontaneous formation is odd. This would have been cool if they were made TO heat forges or fireplaces.
I really like the idea here.
Overall I like this critter and would want to spend the time developing it to get to print. Keep.
I was expecting elemental or fey with that name, not a construct. Like Adam I am not convinced by self-forming construct, at least without better backstory.
Star Voter Season 8
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This is a really neat creature. It looks like a bit of a bear to fight, but that's half the fun - too many "pack of goblins" or "throng of bandits" at low level, a nice interesting switch-up like this fellow is exactly what a low-level group could use.
Definitely looks challenging... I'd say if you don't have at least one or two Timmy Power Gamers amidst your ranks you'll be in for a beating. The ability to stay its damaging ability with cold or water is really flavorful and cool, albeit Hardness 5 can be a bit tough to overcome even at 2nd level.
The whole self-forming construct thing is fine in my book. It's almost like a vermin with a bit of intelligence thrown in. It doesn't age, breathe, or sleep so it falls in line with construct rules, and it seems like it's "constructed" from the magic items and sundries gathered by its kin. Do they magically spawn into existence? Do other emberlings build more emberlings like clockwork creatures? It leaves some up to our (and the GM's) imagination while still satiating enough for it to make sense. Personally I'd love to run these in my own campaigns - cool concept, cool execution, cool cool cool- wait, hot hot HOT!! Voting to keep!
theheadkase: it says in the description that it's got dozens of legs. I imagine a big dang firey centipede when I read this, and centipedes can't be tripped.
True but they are also Small sized. I find it weird that I couldn't kick one over on its back if I am Medium or larger.
Well, I like it enough to put it in the keep folder.
Congratulations Brian,
I am trying to keep reviews simple to get through them quickly.
Creative: OK, lots of forge-golems previously and for some reason I kept seeing SG1's replicators (resembles metal shavings maybe?) (though on a smaller scale). probably the multiple legs.
Fun to GM: Billowing cloud would be easier if it was nauseated or sickened, instead of adjudicating 'spends the round' Easy fix though. The main damage is on the attack and that staggered could be deadly at low levels. Especially if they do not have reach weapons. Of course once the party figures out reach/ranged weapons, it will be less so. Unfortunately a typical spellcaster can only throw one spell (MM) at these as they are immune to the other two 1st level spell of choice (YMMV: burning hands & color spray). Still I think this will provide an excellent threat to most PCs and teach them to be prepared.
Golarion Tie: Weak, Golarion's busiest forges (presumably magic forges) are where?
Good luck! :)
Congrats on making the Top 32!
Emberling was an instant keep. I liked the potential of the monster as a GM. I do wish they were available in greater quantities, though.
I found your descriptive writing really sold the monster. I think the idea of 'residual magic' is a nice flavor that lends itself to a low-CR creature.
And a forge plagued with these things would be a great addition to any scenario so inclined. As a GM, it offers me a chance to work in several plot elements- the local smith, of course, but also abandoned forges or smithies that might be important places of discovery or recovery for PCs, a stash of these is a great, interesting encounter.
As a player, I like encountering new things. A pile of emberlings pouring out of a lost forge yes please!
Perhaps adding a dormant or hibernating feature would make them even more accessible to lost places in Golarion.
Thanks and good luck!
I didn't have a lot of time for item reviewing this weekend, so I'm doing monsters instead. First I'll look at how the monster's basic rundown fits the monster creation table, then general theme and abilities.
= Monster meets the target statistics for its CR
+ Monster exceeds the target stats for its CR
++ Monster greatly exceeds target stats for its CR
- Monster's stats do not meet target stats for its CR
-- Monster's stats are greatly below target stats for its CR
hp: +
AC: =
Low Atk +
Low Dmg -
Primary Ability DC: -/-
Secondary Ability DC: n/a
Good save: n/a
Poor save: =/-/=
Balance here for the most part excepting the abilities, for which the DCs are sub-par. This is due to the lack of Con score, which brings us to the choice to make them spontaneously created constructs. An interesting choice, but they'd be just as interesting as native outsider elementals, which could bump up their abilities as well as saves.
Bellowing Cloud: I like it. No problems with the mechanics of the ability itself, aside from the low DC.
Forge Spark: No problem with this either, aside from the DC, as it ups the monster's damage output.
Tempered Plating: I like this one too, as it adds a layer of interaction between PCs and the monster.
I could have used a bit more Golarion lore in the description of the creature, as this would give ideas on how better to fit it into the world and possibly give more clues as to their origins. All in all, it's a mechanically sound monster that would provide for some fun encounters.
Hmm. This creature is definitely on my radar - I love bugs and I love constructs, but I'm with Adam in that I don't really understand/grok the spontaneous formation. I don't mind a bit of spontaneous formation, but why into the shape of an insect?
That said, the rest of this creature is pure awesome. I love the descriptive text, and the abilities, much like the chimney troll, roll on with the theme admirably. I love the mechanics - the Tempered Plating is absolutely inspired.
Not sure why it absolutely can't be tripped.
I'd like to see the Emberling immune to other Emberlings' Forge Spark, and I'd absolutely love an ability that makes them explode at destruction!!!
I haven't really found a straight up bruiser in this years crop yet, and this little construct definitely fits the bill! I feel the AC should be a little higher, and apart from wanting a more specifically fire/insect name for the creature, I love this submission.
I can totally see Chimney Trolls with Emberlings on leashes...
I've given this round a lot of thought. I've read over all of the monsters, done some deliberation, and come to my conclusions. That said:
Seeing "emberling" and "construct" in unison was a little peculiar, and I'm not sure I'm convinced by the entry itself. A spontaneously forming bug made out of metal seems like it could have been an elemental to me. The mechanics use the smoke rules from the Core, which is smart, seeing as they're cool rules and ever-so-rarely used.
Unlike some of the commenters above, I totally get their behavior. They like fire and they know that they "came from fire", so they hang around forges and furnaces. You've given them some good hooks for an urban infestation. I especially like the idea above about using them in conjunction with chimney trolls.
I've waffled back and forth on this particular monster in my head for a while. On the initial read, I was reluctant with the construct type and not wowed by the mechanics, but this guy has grown on me. I will be voting for this entry. Best of luck!
Doomdigger, my "-01 character" is up for pure adventure and would love to PFS-CSI where these things came from, and maybe reverse engineer the galvanizing technology as a rare new treasure for the greedy. (When attacked by cold damage doing at least 10 points, the wearer's AC increases by +2 and resists all damage (DR2) for the next 24 hours.)
In a Reduce Person Loop platform built primarily for combating Glorian threats inside the brains of Lich Artificer Androids. The Invention of Fire: Chapter One- "Something wicked this way comes" would need a featured nemesis of the mundane. When the gods forged Dwarves the splashing embers became sentient and like a moth to a flame they are drawn to the residium in magic items like all Rust Monster-kin.
Brian has created terminators to terminate exterminators. I see the 2 Int to represent a single purpose like a small brained gnat (mate-find water-avoid danger- mate). It's functional coding a mystery, like a micro-Dr. Suessian hearing of a who.
Cold resistant tech would be just another material discovery, like Cold Iron, Mith, Silver, Iron Wood.
Being a Dwarf, the unseen, maybe microscopic clues about these obvious forge threats would just be something new. Doomdigger believes that life is just a sum of your experiences, with the travel domain, the explorer has a new destination, just as vast and uncharted as space...."the small".
Conquering the world one forge at a time might seem "overlookable" to the masses, but like traffic patterns viewed from outer space what if there was a rhyme or reason, a hive code mind, an alien nest base?
The whole mod might be another Hellknight's feast scene to get funding for yet another world ending battle, but if we tend to make things in our own image, a construct army that has just arrived fueled by heat and magic would be a great introduction to something different.
I see shades of other movies where the obsessed scientist was "right". The way we do Arcana checks we need a DC40+10 Plus the creatures CR to exist. Here you go. I feel designers can use the shrink ray as least as often as they used the tapestry. I think Androids can finally be introduced for legal play.
I would play test these creatures and die, but an aberrant construct that has anti-gravity tech segmented and vulcan-magnetized weeble-wobbly anatomy bases that allow hover modes for table jumping might justify the anti-trip energy field. 83% of the game can be tripped, we need "less" flippable-trippable stuff. If you have ever seen a house mouse jump, about ten times higher than seems it should, I think these things need away to be mobile and hopping is very insectile.
If Brian can use the Core and still give us something new, I can just imagine what the next round has him presenting.
Judges do me a favor, send him through just so he can get Top 16 near his name block. Some of these items and creatures need way more work.
I'm inspired to make monsters who don't care about the PCs now.
I don't know how to vote, but I am DMFrank and I approve this monster!
Emberling
The Good: Its strong for it's CR which I actually appreciate. CR 2 doesn't mean that a 2nd level party gets to sneeze it away in my opinion.
The Bad: The insect form does absolutely nothing to enhance this. It doesn't make sense for the critter and the description is too scant.
The Ugly: There are tons of game worlds where magic runs rampant and creates new monsters, Goleran is not that world. Wrong monster for the assignment as written.
Overall: 7/10- On the bubble of the top. I might vote for this depends on the rest.
- hp: 26 (3d10+10)
where that +10 comes from?
- WHy "choking and coughing" cost the target their whole turn? Why not just the standard action like the nauseated condition?
the rules for this copy smoke inhalation from the core.
I think these are interesting. I don't mind the spontaneous generation; it's not something I want to see become common for constructs but I think it works as a concept for magic forge-spawned creatures.
Visually these guys are quite cool. I really love the tempered plating ability, both how it ties into their appearance and mechanically how it both helps and hinders the emberling.
While a combat with these guys could be annoying, I can also see it as being fun, especially once the party figures out to spam ray of frost on them.
Definitely in my top half of monsters this round. Might earn a vote. Good job, regardless!
RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16
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Star Voter Season 6, Star Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 8, Star Voter Season 9
aka JoelF847
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I'm torn on this monster. While I like the small construct and it's abilities, I'm not a fan of the combination of spontaneous creation of an intelligent construct. Both of those traits in a construct are highly unusual, and for them to be present in a single creature doesn't jive for me.
Also, as intelligent creatures, even with animal intelligence, there's not a lot of ways the text suggests other creatures can interact with them, other than to crush them like vermin. In fact, they really seem like construct vermin to me, which would work a lot better. If you keep them intelligent, what kinds of creatures do they work with, how do they communicate, can they be trained with bribes of magic or iron, etc?
I like the combo of the cloud and spark shower, especially for a monster that doesn't have a lot of direct offense. However, the cloud should probably grant the nauseated condition for a round, rather than the more generic "coughing and choking" which doesn't even allow a move action to escape the cloud.
While I like the mechanics on the monster, the weak motivation and odd construct generation and intelligence combo plus no attempt to tie to Golarion makes this a no vote for me.
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If you keep them intelligent, what kinds of creatures do they work with, how do they communicate, can they be trained with bribes of magic or iron, etc?
You tell me. An int of 2 is higher-end animal-like intelligence. You can bribe and train horses and dogs, so it would stand to reason that you could with this too (per GM discretion).
Many people are getting hung up on the minor details that, in my opinion, add to this guy's charm. An intelligent construct? Interesting and new. I'm bored of mindless automatons. A spontaneously creating construct? Very interesting and new. I would have liked to find out how the first (or even first batch) of these came to be, but the concept is open to interpretation and unique, lending itself well to the creatively-minded GM. Heck, if monsters are too specific I usually change stuff about them anyway - having some air of mystery and wonder, amidst your players and yourself, is part of this game's true magic.
Nothing the Emberling represents is bad or unplayable. As a monster it is sound, and as a story element or encounter piece it has a lot of potential. It just needs a little extra spark from a creative GM to really make it shine.
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This is neat monster that you've firmly established as a plausible urban creature. Its abilities fit its forge-born origins, and it would make for a surprising beat in an otherwise ordinary visit-to-the-weaponsmith encounter.
The emberling doesn't have particularly strong ties to Golarion, and I think it would have worked better as an elemental.
I'm considering a vote for the emberling, and I wish you luck in this round.
With the dust cleared (for now), I'm free to discuss some of the decisions I made in the construction of the emberling.
On Spontaneous Formation
I saw the creation of an emberling as being something that takes weeks or years, as busy forges accepting work from prosperous adventurers are helping to craft new and repair old/damaged magic gear. The hammer helps to shape the item, all the while sending bits of debris laden with residual magic drifting on heated currents through the forge ventilation ducts. In time, enough magic is caked into the layers of forming creosote, and an inattentive smithy ends up with an emberling on his hands. I originally wanted to call it a “forgeling,” but a Google search forced me to rethink that. When it comes to their own procreation, I wanted to indicate that they were not actually capable of reproducing on their own, making their magic pilfering a tragic exercise in futility that lands them in trouble with local adventurers, but perhaps deserving of pity more than extermination.
On Being a Construct
I’ll admit, I began the round by looking at the current distribution of monster types at the CR I was aiming for and decided there was room for more constructs. This also solved the need for it to save against its own smoke effect. I did consider the elemental outsider, but thought a construct fit the environment of a forge a little better. In hindsight, I probably would have gone with the outsider to steer clear of the puzzled reactions over the intelligent construct bit.
On Intelligence
Making them unintelligent and vermin-like would have removed potential uses for the emberling, and also made the choices PCs and NPCs make in regards to them very one-dimensional. I wanted them to be capable of more than that. Perhaps they could be used as a companion to an NPC smith. As pointed out, they could be put at the end of a leash and used alongside other monsters and villains. Though they were insectile in appearance, I thought of them more like squirrels or other rodents that nest in crawlspaces, attics and chimneys.
On Abilities
The emberling does punish players for attacking it, and in that way I had hoped to present a challenge to players who are generally a little too used to the “I run up and hit it” play style. I wanted the emberling to be a creature that promoted players to work together and develop strategies to overcome it. Tempered Plating is meant to give ray of frost and create water an effective in-combat use. I probably would reduce duration of the smoke effect to limit the chance anyone would actually die in the smoke cloud if the party all went down, but the nature of the emberling doesn't require it to press an attack once a threat is down. The emberling is meant to be a tough CR 2 creature. In further development, and with more time to playtest, I would probably rework the abilities a little to make it easier to keep track of everything the emberling is capable of. I’ll admit, it can get a little busy with the effects. But I like the idea of this little guy sitting amidst a sphere of carnage caused mostly by the ones that tried to attack it. The emberling is just as dangerous on the players turn as it is on its own, and that’s something I thought was worth exploring.
I toyed around with some additional abilities that were meant to enhance the flavor the emberling. One was that it could detect other magic items as if using scent, with the aura of an item corresponding to the strength of the scent. Ultimately this took too many words and didn't do much more than a constant detect magic did. I also thought about making it detect as magic, or having its natural attacks count as a magic weapon. This dangerously tipped it over the damage threshold for its CR, and also there's very little if any precedence for creatures detecting as magic. Finally, I though about giving it a mythic rank and saying they develop from the residual magic cast off when forging mythic gear. This introduced complications I simply didn't have time to develop, so the mythic emberling will have to wait. I thought it could be a good excuse for a GM to use though. An emberling that gained its spark of animation during the forging of a flameburst weapon might gain that ability to its attacks. There's a lot of room for customization in unconventional ways here thanks to the construct nature.
On Golarion Flavor
I simply didn't realize the extent to which we were suppose to tie in the monster. I looked back at the way the “Golarion monster” was defined in prior years, and the consensus in what I read indicated that it just meant the monster shouldn't feel out of place somewhere on Golarion. Had I realized the judges wanted the monster to be more intricately woven into the setting, I would have obliged, and will do so in subsequent rounds.
That’s everything for now. I’ll be happy to answer any other questions later. For now, I have an encounter to develop. Thank you everyone who voted for me this round. I’m truly honored that you've helped me make it this far.