So I'm starting a new campaign in a custom setting and the enemies for the main conflict will be fire/magma and (mostly) ash oriented. I can find plenty of fire/magma-based creatures but so far I've only found an Ash Giant.
I'll probably end up creating my own creatures but I'd prefer finding ash-based creatures that are already established as well. I'm also open to suggestions on what abilities ash based creatures should have. I already have a lot of ideas but I'm always looking for more. More specifically, any ideas on how an Ash Elemental would function since I know I'll include those.
The world I've created is earth-like but mostly split up into large islands. One of the continents is highly volcanic and therefore coated in ash, and the surrounding islands are as well. Any fighting the PCs encounter will most likely be in areas where said creatures will have terrain advantage, so that should influence their fighting capabilities.
The three things I'm looking for:
1.) Ash-based creatures already created
2.) Ideas for ash-based abilities
3.) Idea for an Ash Elemental
Bonus Points: Any ideas on how a more technological population would deal with an Ash-creature invasion. The campaign setting is more Crossbows over Longbows, Alchemists over Wizards, and Muskets over +3 Greatswords.
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Edit: One last question. Devils vs Demons. Which is more likely to want to conquer mortals by force? I understand Devils want to gain your soul while demons want to torture your flesh. Devils have a heirarchy while Demons are... chaotic.
I'm leaning towards Devils for this scenario because they are cunning and prefer to utilize underlings, but it seems a bit out of character that a Devil would resort to all-out force rather than manipulation. However, a Devil could take the souls he's stolen and turn them into ash minions.
Edit: One last question. Devils vs Demons. Which is more likely to want to conquer mortals by force? I understand Devils want to gain your soul while demons want to torture your flesh. Devils have a heirarchy while Demons are... chaotic.I'm leaning towards Devils for this scenario because they are cunning and prefer to utilize underlings, but it seems a bit out of character that a Devil would resort to all-out force rather than manipulation. However, a Devil could take the souls he's stolen and turn them into ash minions.
Also, Daemons... I suppose these would be an even better fit as their only desire is to destroy life.
Well, I don't know if this will help you at all, but have you tried looking at the Ash Spawn or Ash Guardian from Skyrim?
They're obviously from a video- rather than tabletop-RPG but the idea could apply.
The Ash Spawn in particular have some good flavor if you read their wiki page. To make things easy I might start out with a zombie, re-flavor it, give it the fire subtype, and maybe add some limited fire-based abilities.
Or, you could take a burning skeleton and re-skin it, for a super quick fix.
You also might want to look at the spell Dust Form.
For an Ash Elemental, I would personally start with an Air Elemental, slow it down a bit, and give it some sort of enveloping or choking ability. If you want hot ash, adding a dice or two of fire damage to their slam attacks probably wouldn't hurt.
The question is, what mix of elements is ash? It seems like a combination of Fire and "something". Maybe Earth, maybe Air, Certainly not Water. If you go for Air, the elemental is likely going to look something like a dust-storm come to life, with Earth, maybe it'll look like an ashen gray Earth Elemental with an ember of fire at its core. If you can figure out what you want it to look like, that will likely inform its abilities.
I'm going to have to disagree with you about daemons being good conquerors, precisely because they only desire to destroy life. To conquer is to acquire by force of arms, or otherwise win something using force. Daemons don't want to take something from humans, they don't even want the humans themselves. They just want to eradicate all life.
Demons and Devils on the other hand, have a vested interest in taking mortals under their dominion. As to how that would work we need only to look at how they did it in Golarion.
The Demons have the Worldwound, a place of utter twisted evil, where their malign influence has turned the very earth and plants into flesh-hungry monsters.
On the other hand we have Cheliax, where the Devils have insinuated themselves into an existing humanoid society, turning it into an empire of slavery and crushing bureaucracy.
So do you want something like a volcano who's stomach leads into the Abyss, from which pours a constant choking smoke, and a river of fiery corruption?
Or do you want a decadent kingdom, grown fat on the backs of the enslaved races, where Hell is the real mastermind pulling the strings?
I'm going to have to disagree with you about daemons being good conquerors, precisely because they only desire to destroy life. To conquer is to acquire by force of arms, or otherwise win something using force. Daemons don't want to take something from humans, they don't even want the humans themselves. They just want to eradicate all life.
Demons and Devils on the other hand, have a vested interest in taking mortals under their dominion. As to how that would work we need only to look at how they did it in Golarion.
The Demons have the Worldwound, a place of utter twisted evil, where their malign influence has turned the very earth and plants into flesh-hungry monsters.
On the other hand we have Cheliax, where the Devils have insinuated themselves into an existing humanoid society, turning it into an empire of slavery and crushing bureaucracy.
So do you want something like a volcano who's stomach leads into the Abyss, from which pours a constant choking smoke, and a river of fiery corruption?
Or do you want a decadent kingdom, grown fat on the backs of the enslaved races, where Hell is the real mastermind pulling the strings?
I didn't express that very clearly. They (Demons/Devils/Daemons) have found a way into this world and are using the Ash to destroy everything in their path slowly, methodically, and mercilessly. In a sense, they ARE conquering and destroying at the same time as everything is being converted.
Devils seemed to fit and not fit at the same time. They seem more organized than Demons, but also usually avoid force and use coercion to make mortals destroy themselves... they also will make use of the souls they take rather than a Demon which just want to torture. Demons seemed too chaotic for what I was going for. They also don't seem to want destruction as an end, and instead as a means to get their kicks out of suffering.
Both Demons and Devils seem like the wrong fit compared to Daemons (which I only read up on after my OP). Daemons seem to have a pure desire where anything goes making them, in my opinion, a more versatile enemy to throw at the PCs. Because they don't have a desire to torture or coerce rather than outright kill, the "impending doom" vibe is much stronger. Looking at some of the Daemons, they DO capture and use souls which I thought was a Devil thing alone, meaning some of those ideas I had are still workable.
The main point being (as far as I understand it) Daemons just want to destroy, demons want to destroy as a means to fulfill their sadistic desires, and devils don't really care about destroying as much as they do controlling. Thus, Daemons should be the best choice.
Also, Pestilence, War, Famine, and Death. The Four Horsemen of the Daemons are embodied in how I envision the Ash.
Well, I don't know if this will help you at all, but have you tried looking at the Ash Spawn or Ash Guardian from Skyrim?
They're obviously from a video- rather than tabletop-RPG but the idea could apply.
The Ash Spawn in particular have some good flavor if you read their wiki page. To make things easy I might start out with a zombie, re-flavor it, give it the fire subtype, and maybe add some limited fire-based abilities.
Or, you could take a burning skeleton and re-skin it, for a super quick fix.
You also might want to look at the spell Dust Form.
For an Ash Elemental, I would personally start with an Air Elemental, slow it down a bit, and give it some sort of enveloping or choking ability. If you want hot ash, adding a dice or two of fire damage to their slam attacks probably wouldn't hurt.
The question is, what mix of elements is ash? It seems like a combination of Fire and "something". Maybe Earth, maybe Air, Certainly not Water. If you go for Air, the elemental is likely going to look something like a dust-storm come to life, with Earth, maybe it'll look like an ashen gray Earth Elemental with an ember of fire at its core. If you can figure out what you want it to look like, that will likely inform its abilities.
The only DLC I haven't played is Dragonborn, so I'll get on that. The idea of an Ash zombie should work. A burning skeleton is more like it since the idea is the same, a corpse empowered by an elemental force. I would probably mix that and a regular zombie.
I'm not positive on what an Ash Elemental is. Air, Earth, and Fire together. I think making it a mix of Ash and Earth, then giving a few fire oriented abilities that are based on heat. I'll probably give it an ember at its core surrounded by a shifting vortex of ash, yeah.
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As for the abilities of some of these (in no particular order):
1.) Regeneration or Fast Healing? Both would only function when a source of Ash is adjacent to the creature. I'm leaning toward Regeneration to make them seem like an invincible force at the start, but can be countered by removing any source of Ash or by inflicting Acid damage. The question is, should Acid be the hard counter to Ash? For the setting it makes sense as they are more technological and rely on chemicals.
2.) Poison. I do want to make an inhalation poison, but I don't want it to just be an added annoyance. I'm thinking about something like
Save: 16
Frequency: 1/round for 3 rounds
Effect: Staggered 1d4 rounds/Nauseated 1d4 rounds/Unconscious 1d4 Hours
You inhale the Ash and you have a round to cough it up or you become staggered from choking (still allowing a move or standard), then you have to make a save the next round or become nauseated (can only move), then you make a save the round after or become knocked unconscious. Opinions?
3.) Blindsense/Tremorsense. When surrounded by ash, said creature could feel vibrations through the ash or "sense" when ash that has fallen off of them is touched.
4.) DR/Resistence/Immunities. Immune to fire obviously. I'm thinking any DR should be passed by Acid, but also Blunt against any undead. Not sure about resistances.
5.) Earth Glide. In this case, Ash Glide.
6.) Heat. Attacks made with weapons or Slam natural attack should leave some additional damage from burns.
7.) Spell-Like Ability: Raise Dead. Turns fallen corpses into Ash Zombies.
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So I'm looking at Ash Elementals, Ash Undead, and Daemons as the main enemies. Some creatures like Ash Giants as normal creatures that have adapted to the Ash but have been taken control of. Fire based enemies will exist later down the line if/when the PCs make it to the volcanic continent where the Ash stems from. Fire/Magma Elementals will actually be potential allies for the PCs depending on how they play it out.
Oh yeah, if you want your evil outsider incursion to be spreading a grey, lifeless waste before them, then Daemons are the way to go. The only thing is they only have 2 uses for souls.
1. Consumption/Destruction
2. The creation of new Daemons
So any undead are more likely to be "naturally" occurring, rather than creations of the daemons themselves.
About Ash creatures,Acid doesn't strike me as quite right for the situation, but I can't really think of a good alternative. Water might work, or Wind, but those aren't really popular elements offensively. Cold maybe?
Anyway I found a couple abilities from the Tome of Horrors you might want to look at, from the Cinder Ghoul and Dust Ghoul.
Smoke Inhalation (Su) As a standard action, a cinder ghoul can attempt to force some of its smoky form into the lungs of a living opponent. To initiate this attack it must move into its target’s space. The target must then make a successful DC 18 Fortitude save or inhale part of the creature. Smoke inside the victim’s lungs burns the surrounding tissues and organs, dealing 1d2 points of Constitution damage each round. The affected creature can attempt another Fortitude save each round to cough out the burning residue. The save DC is Charisma-based.
Animate Dust (Su) Once per day, a dust ghoul can cause 1d4 ghostly humanoid-shaped creatures to materialize from an area of dust and earth within 100 feet. The dust ghoul can control and direct these creatures as long as it is “alive” and within 100 feet.
The dust creatures have a speed of 10 feet and each has only one attack; a grapple. Each has a CMB equal to 1/2 dust ghoul’s HD + its Strength modifier (+12 CMB for the standard dust ghoul). A dust creature holds but does not harm creatures it grapples. The dust humanoids are immune to all attacks and spells, except water-based spells and effects. A
gallon of water instantly destroys a dust humanoid. If the dust ghoul moves more than 100 feet away from a dust creature, that dust creature collapses into a pile of harmless dust. If the dust ghoul
is destroyed, all dust creatures it animated collapse.