This week we continue an exploration of the creature types in the Menagerie, highlighting a few of the more interesting examples from each as we go. So far we've looked at Aberrations & Chimeras, Angels, Demons & Devils, Animals, Beasts & Insects, and Axiomites & Constructs. This week we'll take a look at some of the more fickle and unusual creatures, Fey & Proteans.
Fey are often nature spirits, and their moods are typically as swift and changing as a rushing river. Not all Fey are hostile to other creatures, although some darker varieties can be. Relations with even friendly Fey can quickly turn sour, however, if those that make their acquaintance provoke their often short tempers, even by accident. Hailing from the deathless Positive Energy Plane, these creatures often simply do not understand the hurt they can cause mortals in other planes. Proteans, by contrast, are outsiders from the Chaotic plane. As beings literally composed of primal chaos itself, they can be even more temperamental than Fey. Indeed, while many Fey are at least somewhat consistent in their inconsistency, Proteans have the disconcerting habits of completely changing their entire selves and personalities quickly and without warning.
As we look at these creature types, and some examples from the Menagerie, it's important to be refreshed on some of the conventions that the book uses in order to maintain its level-agnostic format. Important statistics like attacks, skill, saves, or the DCs for special abilities do not list a number. Rather, they simply call out a difficulty level from the challenge table. For a DC, this is always whatever the number is directly. For an active roll, such as an attack or saving throw, this is the number on the table minus ten. Hit Points are given as a multiple of the monster's level, and damage is typically listed without a number of dice included. When listed this way, damage dice are assumed to be one die base, plus another die for every five levels the monster has. For example, one of the monster's we'll highlight later, the Boggart, would deal 1d4+1 bludgeoning damage with its fist if level 1-4, 2d4+1 if level 5-9, 3d4+1 if level 10-14, and so on.
FEY
Mischievous beings from the positive energy plane, fey are a source of mystery and fear for those that encounter them. Often having an incomprehensible perspective on morality as a result of their inability to understand the concept of death, even fey that mean well can be dangerous to others in ways that they do not intend. Fey are therefore creatures of paradox, somehow simultaneously good and evil and chaotic and lawful, and yet none of those.
Fey are nearly as diverse as the creatures of the material plane, and many resemble prototypical versions of animals or insects. What superstitious cultures tend to think of as nature spirits are often actually fey which have migrated to the material plane, and their natural deviousness usually leads to fully embracing the role in return. Fey are especially well suited to such disguises, as their capricious natures mimic the changing of seasons and environments in the cycles of mortal life.
Despite their incredibly varied nature, most fey share several characteristics that can be used to recognize them as such. Most resist physical damage, but all share an allergy to iron. All fey are uncomfortable touching iron in any form, even steel, but pure or cold iron physically burns them. Fey are also physically unable to lie outright, though they will twist and warp the truth when it suits them or just for fun.
This creature type is commonly associated with the natural world. As such, those at least trained in Nature can use that skill as a Knowledge Specialty when attempting to identify fey.
BOGGART FEY
Role: Balanced (+Defense)
[Fey, Outsider, Small]
Senses: darkvision; Perception: [hard]
DEFENSE
Armor Class: [hard]
Hit Points: 15x[level]
Fort: [med], Ref: [hard], Will: [med]
Resist: physical
Weak: cold iron
Defensive Abilities: (1 Reaction)
{R} Attack of Opportunity
Unnerving Presence: A creature that only senses a boggart must attempt a [med] Will save at the start of its turn.
Success: Increase the target’s scared value by 1.
Success (+10): The target is bolstered.
Failure: The target increases its scared value by 2.
Failure (-10): As failure, and increase the scared value by 1 more.
Unpleasant Aroma: A creature within hex 2 at the start of its turn must attempt a [med] Fortitude save. This effect has the scent trait.
Success: No effect.
Success (+10): The target is bolstered.
Failure: The target increases its sick value by 1.
Failure (-10): As failure, and increase the sick value by 1 more.
OFFENSE
Speed: hex 6
Melee Attacks:
{A} fist [hard] (d4+1 B; agile, disarm, finesse, grab, reach 2, shove, trip)
Special Attacks:
{AA} Torment: A creature that can only sense the boggart must attempt a [med] Will save.
Success: As failure, but half damage.
Success (+5): As success, and 5 less damage.
Failure: The target takes d10 mental damage and increases its scared value by 1 per 10 damage taken. The boggart recovers 5 Hit Points per value of the scared condition the target has after this ability, in total.
Failure (-10): As failure, plus 10 more damage.
STATISTICS
Str: +1, Agi: +3, End: +1, Int: +1, Wis: +1, Cha: +2
Languages: Sylvan (fluent)
Incredible Skills: Stealth
Hard Skills: Acrobatics, Deception, Intimidation
Special Abilities:
Strange Allergies: A boggart cannot pass through a doorway with an iron horseshoe nailed to its lintel, nor can it cross or reach across a line of salt. If a creature says a boggart’s name out loud, or even the word “boggart,” the boggart immediately Enters Rage and will not choose to stop raging until every creature that said the words, or heard them, are dead.
Telltale Presence: A boggart is never more hidden than sensed to a creature with greater than animal intelligence.
ECOLOGY
Appearing as squat, smelly humanoids with clammy hands at the ends of uncannily long arms, boggarts adopt a building or a family and torment it for fun and sustenance. One of a boggart’s favorite tactics is to hide under a bed, especially that of a child, and use its unnaturally long arms to reach up and touch it with its clammy hands. Some suspect that there is some relationship between boggarts and bogeymen, since they exhibit very similar behaviors, though all bogeymen ever asked have denied this claim.
Boggarts are scary little tricksters, and simply being around them can be deeply unpleasant. Many families have dealt with these creatures without knowing it, but these encounters typically do not result in enough violence to be fatal. Removing a boggart can be difficult, and even seasoned adventurers can find themselves quailing as a result of exposure to these Fey. Many of the superstitious behaviors found in rural towns are, consciously or unconsciously, attempts to ward away these nasty critters to prevent them from settling in for the long term.
BOGEYMAN FEY
Role: Juggernaut (Boss)
[Epic, Fey, Large, Outsider, Shapeshifter]
Senses: darkvision; Perception: [hard]
DEFENSE
Armor Class: [hard]
Hit Points: 25x[level]
Fort: [med], Ref: [hard], Will: [hard]
Resist: physical
Immune: fear, mental
Weak: cold iron
Defensive Abilities: (5 Reactions)
{R} Attack of Opportunity
Dreamlike Antagonist: If a creature attempts to assess the status of a bogeyman, it immediately recovers 20 Hit Points.
Fear Aura: If a bogeyman’s hunted target starts its turn with hex 5 must attempt a [med] Will save. This ability has the emotion, fear and mental traits.
Success: Target increases its scared value by 1.
Success (+10): No effect.
Failure: Target increases its scared value by 2.
Failure (-5): As failure, and increase the scared value by 1 more.
OFFENSE
Speed: hex 7
Melee Attacks:
{A} unarmed [hard] (d8+2; Special)
Special Attacks:
{A} Behind You: The bogeyman Steps adjacent to its hunted target from any distance, and its hunted target must attempt a new save against its Fear Aura. This ability has the teleportation trait.
{A} Hunt Target: The bogeyman chooses a creature it can see or sense. It has a +1 un-typed bonus to checks against this target and the first time each turn that it deals damage to the hunted target, it deals one more weapon die of damage.
{AA} Torment: If the bogeyman’s hunted target is within hex 5, it must attempt a [med] Will save.
Success: As failure, but half damage.
Success (+10): As success, and 5 less damage.
Failure: The target takes d10 mental damage and increases its scared value by 1 per 10 damage taken. The bogeyman recovers 5 Hit Points per value of the scared condition the target has after this ability, in total.
Failure (-10): As failure, plus 10 more damage.
STATISTICS
Str: +2, Agi: +3, End: +3, Int: +2, Wis: +2, Cha: +2
Languages: Sylvan (fluent)
Hard Skills: Acrobatics, Athletics, Deception, Intimidation, Legerdemain, Nature, Stealth.
Special Abilities:
Epic Initiative: When this monster rolls initiative it is only used to determine the first time it acts. After it has taken its first turn in combat, its next turn is always inserted into the initiative order after two party members have acted consecutively. Party members that choose to delay their turns do not count toward triggering this monster's next turn.
Fatal Fright: If a creature’s scared value is ever equal to the sum of its Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma modifiers, it is slain.
Nightmarish: A creature that sees a bogeyman in its Phobia Form is subjected to recurring nightmares, as the spell, except the effect is not magic.
Phobia Form: When a bogeyman chooses a hunted target, it automatically transforms into the form of whatever the target fears the most. If this form has unarmed attacks or special attacks, the bogeyman can use those abilities, though unarmed attacks always use the listed damage dice. If its hunted target takes damage from a special attack or special ability gained as a result of this form, it also increases its scared value by 1.
ECOLOGY
The stuff of actual nightmares, these shape-shifting fey delight in scaring those they encounter, literally to death. In their home plane, this is usually nothing more than an aggravating annoyance, and the bogeyman moves on to torment a new target while the deceased regenerates somewhere else. In the material plane, however, people do not typically recover from death so easily. Whether bogeymen understand this or not is unclear, but it does not seem to change their behavior. A bogeyman prefers the pure fear of children, but will happily torment anyone if its preferred victims are not available. Curiously, a bogeyman is quite sociable and downright friendly to people that are not its current target, though pleas to just stop always fall on deaf ears.
These boss Fey take the scary antics of the Boggart, and ratchet it up to eleven. While it can be argued that Boggarts don't really mean to cause the trauma they inflict, the same cannot be said for the Bogeyman. Their ability to appear exactly as a foe's worst fear makes any encounter with one of these malevolent fey a grueling test of nerves. Their persistence in hunting and their ability to get stronger as one tries to figure out if you're even hurting them make these bosses truly terrifying, as does the rapidity with which they take turns in combat. In true Fey confusion, however, the fact that these terrible Fey are not always automatically hostile makes encounters with these creatures a deadly game of Russian Roulette.
PROTEANS
Outsiders from the chaotic plane, proteans are very difficult to pin down. Most can change form at will, and do so regularly for no particular reason. Worse, each new form often radically changes a protean’s abilities, making being prepared against them an almost futile endeavor. The one constant when it comes to proteans is their strong desire to remain entirely unfettered in thought and deed. They cannot abide order or consistency, and should not be expected to hold to any bargains if called by a spellcaster over the long term.
As beings composed of pure alignment energy, most proteans have physical resistance, and many further resist other types of energy damage as well. Which other damage types a protean resists can change rapidly over the course of moments, which makes repeating tactics against them frustrating. All proteans have a weakness to lawful damage. Some that hail from the regions of the chaotic plane where it metaphysically overlaps with the good or evil plane might also resist and be weak to those opposites, but this is comparatively rare.
Proteans can be tricky to use effectively as a GM, as their chaotic nature can easily be confused for sheer randomness. Like the alignment they are composed from, chaotic does not translate to such insanity, but flightiness and sudden mood swings should be expected. Proteans often refrain from planning ahead, and whether an encounter is friendly or hostile will often depend on the whims of the moment.
This creature type is commonly associated with chaotic deities. As such, those at least trained in Religion can use that skill as a Knowledge Specialty when attempting to identify proteans.
AHUIATETEO PROTEAN
Role: Balanced (+Defense)
[Chaotic, Large, Outsider, Protean]
Senses: darkvision; Perception: [med]
DEFENSE
Armor Class: [hard]
Hit Points: 15x[level]
Fort: [hard], Ref: [hard], Will: [med]
Resist: physical, poison
Weak: lawful
Defensive Abilities: (3 Reactions)
{R} Attack of Opportunity
{R} A Round For The House!
Trigger: A creature the Ahuiateteo can see drinks a potion or elixir
Effect: The Ahuiateteo and all creatures it can see or sense gain the effects of the triggering elixir or potion.
Armored: Ahuiateteo use armor or magic for defense. The difference between [med] and [hard] AC is an item bonus or a spell bonus.
Hangover Aura: A creature that starts its turn within hex 5 of an Ahuiateteo must attempt a [hard] Fortitude Save.
Success: The target increases its sick value by 1 if has used a consumable item within the last minute.
Success (+10): The target is Bolstered
Failure: The target takes d4 mental damage and increases its sick and dizzy values by 1 if it has used a consumable item within the last 24 hours.
Failure (-10): As failure, plus 10 more damage and increase each value by 2 more.
Indulgent Aura: A creature that starts its turn within hex 5 of an Ahuiateteo must attempt a [hard] Will save. This effect is a mental compulsion.
Success: The target increases its dizzy value by 1 if it does not use a consumable item on its turn.
Success (+10): The target is bolstered.
Failure: The target takes d4 mental damage and increases its dizzy and sick values by 1 if it does not use a consumable item on its turn.
Failure (-10): As failure, plus 10 more damage and increase each value by 1 more.
OFFENSE
Speed: hex 5; hex 5 fly
Melee Attacks:
{A} fist [hard] (d4+3 B; agile, disarm, finesse, grab, shove, trip)
{A} weapon [hard] (varies with weapon)
Ranged Attacks:
{A} weapon [hard] (varies with weapon)
Special Attacks:
{A} Swap Aura: An Ahuiateteo cannot have both a Hangover Aura and Indulgent Aura active at the same time. It uses this ability to change which aura is active, to suppress both auras, or to activate one aura if both have been suppressed.
Divine Powers: ([hard] DC)
At Will – bacchanal, bit of luck, charming touch, enhance victuals, hero’s feast, rules of acquisition, sudden shift, take its course
3/day – captivating adoration, instant potions, lucky break, make it rain, master’s illusion, Midas touch, swipe spell, windfall
STATISTICS
Str: +1, Agi: +2, End: +1, Int: +1, Wis: -1, Cha: +2
Languages: Abyssal, Celestial, Sylvan (fluent)
Hard Skills: Acrobatics, Deception, Diplomacy
Special Abilities:
Sympathetic Affliction: If an Ahuiateteo increases its sick value, all creatures that can see it or sense it also increase their sick values by the same amount. If an Ahuiateteo contracts a poison or disease, all other creatures that can see or sense it also contract the same affliction, at the same stage.
ECOLOGY
These beings embody both the positive and negative aspects of hedonism and excess. Unlike demons, which only fixate on the harmful aspects of one specific vice, the Ahuiateteo each represent all of the aspects of all of them, but not all at the same time. Sometimes benevolent and sometimes malevolent based on whether they are channeling a positive or negative aspect for that moment, encountering an Ahuiateteo might be one of the best parties of a person’s life, something like the worst hangover ever, or both.
These Proteans are especially difficult for those characters that prefer to hoard their consumables for emergencies. Their flip-flopping auras of indulgence and hangovers can seem to give emotional whiplash to their friends and foes alike. The ultimate partiers, friendly encounters with Ahuiateteo make for legendary and memorable tales. Unfriendly encounters can quickly become the worst after-party comedown imaginable, from which no hair of the dog can save you.
HIGHROLLER PROTEAN
Role: Balanced (Boss)
[Chaotic, Large, Outsider, Protean]
Senses: darkvision; Perception: [hard]
DEFENSE
Armor Class: [hard]
Hit Points: 20x[level]; Regeneration (misfortune)
Fort: [med], Ref: [hard], Will: [hard]
Resist: physical
Weak: lawful
Defensive Abilities: (5 Reactions)
{R} Attack of Opportunity
{R} Blatant Cheating
Trigger: The Highroller would fail a saving throw
Effect: The Highroller treats its result as one step better instead.
{R} Turn Die
Trigger: A foe rolls higher than natural 10 on a d20 roll
Effect: The triggering roll’s natural result is treated as 21 minus the actual result instead. This is a misfortune effect.
Armored: Highrollers uses armor or magic for defense. The difference between [med] and [hard] AC is an item bonus or a spell bonus.
High Roller: A Highroller cannot roll less than a natural 11 on a d20. If it would roll less than 11, the natural result is 21 minus the actual result instead. This is a fortune effect.
OFFENSE
Speed: hex 5
Melee Attacks:
{A} fist [hard] (d4+4 B; agile, disarm, finesse, grab, shove, trip)
{A} returning anarchic boomerang [hard] (d8+4 B; exotic, thrown 7, volley)
Ranged Attacks:
{A} returning anarchic boomerang [hard] (d8+4 B; exotic, thrown 7, volley)
Special Attacks:
{AA} Boomerang Throw: The Highroller makes a ranged Strike with its boomerang with the following enhancements. All attacks made during this ability are at the same multiple attack penalty, and count as one attack. The Highroller’s boomerang returns to its grip once there are no more attacks to resolve.
Success: The Highroller makes a boomerang Strike against another target within the first range increment from this target. This bonus attack has these same enhancements. The Highroller cannot repeat targets with this ability.
Success (+10): As success, but the Highroller can repeat a previous target with this next attack.
Divine Powers: ([med] DC)
At Will – bit of luck, chromatic bolt, lucky break
3/day – mirror image, unnaturally lucky, windfall
1/day – prismatic spray
STATISTICS
Str: +2, Agi: +3, End: +2, Int: +2, Wis: +0, Cha: +2
Languages: Abyssal, Celestial (fluent)
Hard Skills: Acrobatics, Athletics, Deception, Diplomacy, Legerdemain, Stealth
Special Abilities:
Divine Weaponry: A Highroller’s weapon is an extension of itself and is treated as an unarmed attack for determining damage dice.
Lucky Regeneration: A Highroller’s Regeneration is suppressed for 1 minute if it is subjected to a misfortune effect. This is the only way to suppress a Highroller’s Regeneration.
ECOLOGY
A deity like The Gambler does not make or keep divine servants in the same way as other deities, but that does not stop its influence from imprinting on already chaotic proteans. Such proteans can gain aspects of that deity’s personality and agenda, or at least an imitation of such. One such known category of proteans that follow The Gambler are Highrollers, proteans whose personality and abilities revolve around rolling dice, and rolling well. Incorrigible cheaters, Highrollers are tricky to deal with unless one has ways of simply removing luck from the equation entirely.
These boss Proteans warp the very fundamentals of the rules by which the universe operates. Able to manipulate luck itself, even rolling well against a Highroller is a misfortune. Highrollers also have one of the most unusual circumstances required to stop their regenerating. Misfortune effects are not easy to come by, but they are the only way to truly kill one of these embodiments of pure luck. Fortunately, if you can get a misfortune effect to stick to one of these Proteans, it gives you a very significant window to finish the job. Otherwise, the best you can hope for is a draw.
Fey and Proteans are important parts of the Menagerie, although many of them can be difficult to utilize. These chapters lean heavily on the idea that not all encounters are automatically hostile, though the speed with which they can turn hostile makes any interactions with these creatures inherently dangerous, even when friendly. Next week we'll continue our tour of the Menagerie with some of the more iconic fantasy staples: Dragons & Elementals.
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