| Douglas Muir 406 |
This little guy watches over some treasure IMC. The PCs haven't met him yet, so I'd be interested to hear comments on him.
Harbinger Archon Oracle 4
CR 4 LG Tiny outsider (archon, extraplanar, good, lawful)
Init +9; Senses darkvision 60 ft., detect evil, low-light vision; Perception +11
DEFENSE
AC 19, touch 18, flat-footed 13 (+5 Dex, +1 dodge, +1 natural, +2 size)
hp 31 (3d10+3d8-3)
Fort +1, Ref +9, Will +9; +4 vs. poison
DR 5/evil; Immune electricity, petrification
OFFENSE
Speed fly 50 ft. (perfect)
Melee 3 blades +13 (1d4-1) or Power Attack +11 (1d4+3)
Space 2-1/2 ft.; Reach 0 ft.
Special Attacks wrath
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 6th; concentration +7)
Constant—detect evil
At will—dancing lights (duration lasts until dismissed)
3/day—cure light wounds, protection from evil
1/week—commune (CL 12th, 6 questions)
Oracle curse Tongues
Oracle Mystery Heavens (revelations: Awesome Display, Coat of Many Stars)
Oracle spells
1 (7x day): Blessing of the Watch, Color Spray (DC 14), Read Weather, Shield of Faith
2 (4x day): Eagle's Splendor, Hypnotic Pattern (DC 15)
Spells
STATISTICS
Str 6, Dex 20, Con 9, Int 10, Wis 15, Cha 16
Base Atk +6; CMB +6; CMD 18
Feats Dodge, Improved Initiative, Power Attack, Weapon Finesse
Skills Diplomacy +11, Fly +20, Knowledge (planes) +8, Knowledge (religion) +9, Perception +11, Sense Motive +11 (+13 with ioun stone)
Languages Celestial, Draconic, Infernal; truespeech
SQ disassemble, minor archon
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Blades (Ex)
A harbinger can extend blades from its body to strike with as primary natural attacks. These blades possess a +1 enhancement bonus on attack and damage rolls, and are treated as both magic and good-aligned for the purposes of penetrating damage reduction.
Disassemble (Su)
As a move-equivalent action, a harbinger can break apart into its components. This is treated as gaseous form, except the archon retains its full flight speed and DR, and cannot fit through gaps smaller than 1 inch in diameter. Reforming into an orrery is a standard action.
Minor Archon (Ex)
Harbinger archons lack the aura of menace and teleport abilities of more powerful archons.
Wrath (Su)
Once per minute, a harbinger archon can emit a blast of energy that deals 2d6 points of force damage to adjacent creatures. A DC 12 Reflex save halves this damage. The harbinger can choose to omit any target from this blast that it desires, damaging only those foes it chooses. The save DC is Charisma-based.
He lives in a Lawful Good noble''s private apartments. Possibly he used to be someone's familiar, but whoever it was has long since died. Now he's a friend and ally to the noble. He sits on a table in the noble's audience chamber, looking very convincingly like an ordinary (if beautiful and complex) mechanical orrery. However, he's constantly casting Detect Evil and running Sense Motive checks on anyone in the room. He has several other useful functions: he provides a weekly Commune, he throws Blessing of the Watch regularly on the guards outside the noble's apartments, and he also reports every morning on what the weather will be.
If thieves or other dubious characters break in, and he has time to prepare in advance, he'll cast Eagle's Splendor and Shield of Faith. Once combat seems imminent, he'll cast Protection from Evil (if evil is detected), otherwise Coat of Many Stars, or both if time allows. This means he doesn't get a surprise round, but +9 on initiative means he isn't overly concerned about going first. His opening action will be to cast either Color Spray or Hypnotic Pattern, depending on how the invaders have arranged themselves. (Note that his Awesome Display revelation means that targets of these spells are considered to have two hit dice less than they actually do. So, his Color Spray will knock creatures of up to 4HD unconscious, blind creatures of 5 or 6 HD, and so forth.)
If he has to melee, he uses Power Attack to get some reasonable damage, or withdraws to a little distance and uses his Wrath ability. He's really not a melee creature, though; if reduced to half hit points or less, he uses Disassemble to flee. If he can't get help, he'll cure himself as best he can and return. He'll fight to the death to protect his mortal friend and her possessions.
His Tongues curse means that in melee he can't speak any known language while in melee. (He just makes lovely chiming noises.)
For gear, he's had his blades sharpened to be Masterwork (they could be snapped off to make knives for a small-sized creature), and a Cracked Magenta Prism Ioun Stone is incorporated into his works. This provides a +2 bonus to any skill; it's currently on Sense Motive, but he can switch it to another skill once/day. Note that with this he can get a respectable +9 on Stealth, even though it isn't a class skill. Dissecting him requires a DC 12 Disable Device check or a DC 17 Dexterity check; success gives the ioun stone, the blades, and 2d4 gems worth 50 gp each. Failing by 5 or more causes a small detonation identical to its Wrath power (2d6 force damage, 5' radius DC 12 Reflex for half), ruins the gems and the blades and turns the ioun stone dull grey.
Doug M.
| XMorsX |
Power Attack is illegal, swap it with Piranha Strike or even better Arcane Strike, if it is legal to take it (prereq is being able to cast arcane spells, I guess your spells from the base monsters are arcane).
Your revelations are fine. Your spells are also fine. Read weather is for RP reasons, right? Otherwise you could have Obscuring Mist, Sanctuary or SMI for a celestial eagle instead.
I would probably change the stats like the one below.
STR 8
DEX 20
CON 13
INT 10
WIS 11
CHA 16
| Douglas Muir 406 |
Of course Power Attack is illegal -- my bad. Piranha Strike does the job just as well.
Read Weather is indeed for RP reasons. Realistically, he's unlikely to last more than a couple of rounds against a like-leveled party of PCs, so giving him an RP spell instead of something useful probably won't make much practical difference. Also, I like throwing in the occasional odd spell or skill choice for RP purposes. He's a combination alarm clock, weather forecaster, fortune teller and guard-buffer. Who could ask for a better friend and companion?
Dumping Wis seems like an odd choice for a celestial, but possibly his years among the mortals have left him slightly addled. (Or maybe he was a bit weird to begin with, to want to come down and keep company with the meat monkeys.) I think your distribution makes sense. Thanks! I'll wait a bit to see if anyone else comments, then post an updated version.
Doug M.
| XMorsX |
No problem. So he is more of a neutral / possible companion NPC and not an antagonist you say? With the info about about dissection I thought that the PCs would eventually fight it.
Yes the stat distribution was mainly to fix the Con. Lowerting wisdom can have rp sence as you say, what kind of celestial messes with mortals so openly?
| Douglas Muir 406 |
It's likely he'll fight alone on the first encounter. But he's not supposed to be a serious threat to the PCs. And if he delays them significantly, that'll effect things going forward -- they'll probably be in a situation where every round counts. And since he can escape any time as a move action, he can join up with other antagonists; the only way the PCs can prevent this is by killing him fast. Which of course they may...
As to Obscuring Mist, I think it would shut down his two offensive patterns. Mind, I'm thinking of adding one more Oracle level... although formally he's CR 4, he's not really that powerful.
Doug M.
| XMorsX |
I see. I am just thinking that an spell like read weather will go to waste if the archon is going to be an antagonist. That being said, there is no particularly good 1st lvl spell left to take. Murderous Command is amusing but is probably not good thematically. Ray of sickening is hard to miss but your DC is mediocre.
You know better about the power level you need for your campaign.
| Douglas Muir 406 |
Okay, here's the amended version.
Harbinger Archon Oracle 4
CR 4 LG Tiny outsider (archon, extraplanar, good, lawful)
Init +9; Senses darkvision 60 ft., detect evil, low-light vision; Perception +9
DEFENSE
AC 19, touch 18, flat-footed 13 (+5 Dex, +1 dodge, +1 natural, +2 size)
hp 37 (3d10+3d8+3)
Fort +3, Ref +9, Will +7; +4 vs. poison
DR 5/evil; Immune electricity, petrification
OFFENSE
Speed fly 50 ft. (perfect)
Melee 3 blades +13 (1d4) or Power Attack +11 (1d4+4)
Space 2-1/2 ft.; Reach 0 ft.
Special Attacks wrath
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 6th; concentration +7)
Constant—detect evil
At will—dancing lights (duration lasts until dismissed)
3/day—cure light wounds, protection from evil
1/week—commune (CL 12th, 6 questions)
Oracle curse Tongues
Oracle Mystery Heavens (revelations: Awesome Display, Coat of Many Stars)
Oracle spells
1 (7x day): Blessing of the Watch, Color Spray (DC 14), Read Weather, Shield of Faith
2 (4x day): Eagle's Splendor, Hypnotic Pattern (DC 15)
Spells
STATISTICS
Str 8, Dex 20, Con 13, Int 10, Wis 11, Cha 16
Base Atk +7; CMB +7; CMD 19
Feats Dodge, Improved Initiative, Piranha Strike, Weapon Finesse
Skills Diplomacy +11, Disguise +5, Fly +18, Knowledge (planes) +8, Knowledge (religion) +9, Perception +9, Sense Motive +19 (+11 with ioun stone)
Languages Celestial, Draconic, Infernal; truespeech
SQ disassemble, minor archon
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Blades (Ex)
A harbinger can extend blades from its body to strike with as primary natural attacks. These blades possess a +1 enhancement bonus on attack and damage rolls, and are treated as both magic and good-aligned for the purposes of penetrating damage reduction.
Disassemble (Su)
As a move-equivalent action, a harbinger can break apart into its components. This is treated as gaseous form, except the archon retains its full flight speed and DR, and cannot fit through gaps smaller than 1 inch in diameter. Reforming into an orrery is a standard action.
Minor Archon (Ex)
Harbinger archons lack the aura of menace and teleport abilities of more powerful archons.
Wrath (Su)
Once per minute, a harbinger archon can emit a blast of energy that deals 2d6 points of force damage to adjacent creatures. A DC 13 Reflex save halves this damage. The harbinger can choose to omit any target from this blast that it desires, damaging only those foes it chooses. The save DC is Charisma-based.
Considered adding another oracle level, but that would just make him a bit harder to kill without making for a more interesting encounter.
In addition to the changes discussed above, I moved a couple of ranks into Disguise. An unusual skill for an Archon, but this is to disguise himself as an ordinary orrery or other complex piece of machinery. Since he has long since taken 20, anyone encountering him for the first time would need to roll a DC 25 on Perception or Knowledge (Planes) to recognize that there's something unusual about him. (Well, unusual other than being a beautiful and complicated mechanism of some sort.)
Doug M.