TheDoctor's page

Recently my party stumbled upon an interesting little minor artifact. Roughly the size of a human heart, apparently this ensorcelled bit of golden craftsman ship acts as an engine or portal for a metal elemental. When activated, this device allows an elemental to draw loose coins into a body. We found it in a dragon's (adult black) hoard and active. 128,000 gold pieces later, the party mage has what the DM believes is a merely a new toy. The party mage is double specialized in divination and conjuration and is my follower, and we haven't spent any gold for four levels. The mage hacks the artifact and I have an evil idea: what if we could turn this little engine into a pet dragon, a Draccoin.

Recipe:
1 Portable Hole (I couldn't find a big enough pot)
150 k gp (to be fair a mixture of copper, silver, gold, temple coinage, and brass/bronze/iron scrap metal)
1 set of matching adamantian steak knives (for claws and teeth)
1 Scroll of Limited Wish
1 Scroll of "Summon the Twilight Defender"
1 Mage who can turn any knowledge or craft check into a 45, minimum
lots and lots of metallic dragon scales

Now, the two things that might be racing through your mind are (1) why the heck would your DM allow you that (i.e., how are you going to get yourself screwed over), or (2) what are the stats for this beastie. To answer the former, my group is effective but aint no power gamers. That is to say, we have an understanding that so long as we the PCs don't abuse our toys then the DM won't abuse us of them. To answer the latter, I've suggested filing off the numbers of the clockwork dragon and earth elemental dragon and combing the two.

The Draccoin
N Huge outsider (earth, elemental, extraplanar, dragon, swarm)
Init +0; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +28

DEFENSE

AC 26, touch 8, flat-footed 26 (+18 natural, –2 size)
hp 252 (24d10+120)
Fort +13; Ref +14; Will +15

Defensive Abilities: DR 10/adamantine; Immune elemental and swarm traits

OFFENSE

Speed 20 ft., fly 100 ft. (poor), burrow 20 ft.

Melee bite +35 (2d8+18), 2 claws +35 (2d6+12), 2 wings +32 (1d8+12), tail slap +32 (2d6+18)

Space 15 ft.; Reach 10 ft. (15 ft. with bite)

STATISTICS

Str 35, Dex 10, Con 20, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 10
Base Atk +24; CMB +38; CMD 48 (52 vs. trip)

Feats Ability Focus (breath weapon), Blind-Fight, Cleave, Flyby Attack, Great Cleave, Hover, Multiattack, Power Attack, Snatch, Vital Strike, Weapon Focus (bite), Weapon Focus (claw)

Skills Fly +19, Intimidate +27, Knowledge (nature) +27, Knowledge (planes) +27, Perception +28, Survival +28

Languages Common, Terran, Dragon

SQ distraction, coin mastery, freeze, travel via hoard

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Distraction (Ex)

A creature with this ability can nauseate the creatures that it damages. Any living creature that takes damage from a creature with the distraction ability is nauseated for 1 round; a Fortitude save (DC 10 + 1/2 creature's HD + creature's Con modifier) negates the effect.

Coin Mastery (Ex): An elemental earth dragon gains a +1 bonus on attack and damage rolls if both it and its foes are touching a dragon's hoard or large pile of coins. Further, it effectively has blind sight against anything on or in the hoard or coins.

Freeze (Ex): A draccoin can hold itself so still it appears to be a statue. An observer must succeed on a DC 20 Perception check to notice that the draccoin is really alive.

Travel Via Hoard (Sp): This works like the Druid's "Travel via Plants" except through Dragon's hoards.

Note Bene: Technically the beastie would scale depending on the amount of treasure available, but that is going to be a pain to stat out. Second, the thing acts a bit more like a construct than an elemental in that the "metal heart" is programmable, but the DM wanted this to be an elemental and not a construct.

What do you guys think?

I have had to deal with players wanting to send spies in other campaigns. Simplest way is to ask what information the 'spymaster' was seeking, the amount of time and money they wish to devote, who they would send (each had chosen a known NPC so skills were easy). I divided the money spent into the time given before a report was due as a bonus to the NPC's dice roll. If the information desired was basic the roll was easy, specific it was harder, detailed it was extremely costly in time and gold to get a shot at it. The spy was discovered on a fumble and got special information on a critical. Only one player devoted enough thought to answer the question of what information he wanted, spent enough money to get good current information and kept track of the answers he received. Most could not be bothered. The player would give me the 'questions' one session and I would 'answer' in a later session when the spy reported. He called one group of spies Rovers, the traveling merchants, bards, thieves etc and another group the tailors; those that moved into an area or were recruited and reported only when it changed or made a good enough roll to find out something special. The player built up maps of rover routs supporting tailors and was able to create good maps and information of the land being spied on. It was great for fleshing out an area before they went there or getting them to go to an area. When he wanted more he had to come up with a way to get it and then pay for it in game time and money. He even figured out how to get the spies to pay for themselves by selling some information.

In short get the player to do the work, you just give consistent answers based on his notes. Keep the rolls simple and make the player pay for it.

Maknak +1 to your player and for your DM'ing.

The nice thing about the Sandbox feel of KM is that I think players and DM's tend to be willing to be more collaborative, which they should have been doing anyway. Regardless, to the OP:

http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/paizoPublishing/pathfinder/adventurePa th/kingmaker/homebrewIntelligenceNetworkRulesFeedbackRequested

http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/paizoPublishing/pathfinder/adventurePa th/kingmaker/treatySystem

If you choose to use Maknak's elegant system, may I suggest a small twist. BP = Bonuses to the roll. The more specific/secretive the information, the higher the DC. Applying BP to a question has is the equivalent of setting up networks and creates bonuses to the roll. Roll for each country. Okay, maybe that was two suggestions.