Most sand devils fight as reavers. Driven by bloodlust, they leap among their terrified prey, their ancient iron blades painting the air with arcs of bright crimson. They kill quickly when they must, slowly and painfully when they can, sending the souls of their victims on their way with hissed prayers to the dark master of the tiefling race.
Some reavers - usually the younger and less experienced members of the clan - hang back, showering the prey with darts from their blowguns. The sand devils coat these darts with the sticky sap of a rare black blossom that grows only in the darkest of caves, beyond the reach of the red sun. This venom causes excruciating muscle spasms, leaving the sand devils' prey unable to flee.
Even those foes who manage to wound the leaping, spinning reavers suffer for their defiance, as the sand devils respond to their own pain with a vicious psychic attack.
Sand Devil Night Stalker
Some sand devils prefer to hunt at night and delight in the sowing of terror, rather than the crude infliction of mere physical pain. These are the night stalkers, who consider themselves a breed apart from their tiefling kin. Indeed, they differ physically, having smaller horns and skin that varies in hue from the dark crimson of dried blood to the light-drinking black of obsidian. They often fight naked apart from their distinctive hooded cloaks, trusting to their own stealth and the embrace of the night to protect them from harm.
Night stalkers look down upon their kin as crude torturers and butchers, knowing that fear and panic are more potent than pain when it comes to preparing a soul for their lord's platter. They strike suddenly from the darkness, crippling a single target and sowing panic among his or her companions before vanishing back into the night. If the prey ventures after them, they isolate each one in turn, tormenting each victim with mocking promises of the terrors to come. A wounded night stalker lashes out with a psychic attack that paralyses the prey with an instant of uncontrollable terror.
Clicking on the image will take you to a full-size version.
Still to come are the Sand Devil Master Of Pain (a level 9 elite controller/leader) and the Sand Devil Soul Hunter (a level 10 soldier), as well as Soul Trauma (a disease-like effect that can afflict the survivors of a Master Of Pain's attacks).
By the way, is there a template like you used to show the monster's statistics available? did you get it from dnd insider tools?
I recognize the format, it's a printed pdf (probably done with cutePdf) from the Monster Builder, later exported as a bitmap, I do it everytime
Yeah unfortunately, I don't know how to do that..... but thanks for pointing me in the right direction.
If you already have the Monster Builder, here is what you need to do:
- Download CutePDF here: www.cutepdf.com/Products/CutePDF/writer....
- After you installed it, you will basically have a new virtual printer in Windows, and it means you can print (export/save) really anything into a pdf file. So go into the Monster Builder, build your monster (beware, if it's a monster you already saved, its numerical values might have been corrupted, double check in the editing section), and then print, with the button you find in the main editing window. You'll see at least CutePDF printer among the options, choose it.
- Open the new pdf you created, if CutePDF didn't already open it for you. If you're using Adobe Acrobat, you just have to go to the Edit menu and click "Copy into the Clipboard" or "Copy file into the Clipboard". Not sure because I don't have the English version.
- Open Microsoft Paint from the Accessories in the Start Menu. Use the Paste fucntion, either from the Edit menu or the toolbar.
- There you have it. Save it as a PNG file if you don't want to loose quality.
- You can then upload it into your personal photo gallery here in the community website by going into your profile.
About the Tieflings, I love the mechanics, DuskWeaver! The different Wraths are dead-flavorful (dead-flavorful?? oh well, you get the point
) and the 2 attacks, 1 hit, 2 effects of the Lurker is reminiscent of the Assassin in a sweeet way. So much that maybe the guy is not actually doing enough damage for a striker? I wonder, must be compared with another (Dark Sun's) 9th level Lurker.Bravo, really.
Wow, you must like Tieflings.
Yes. Yes, I do. They've been my favourite playable race since Planescape.
I am planing on writing up some Gith soon, more based on 2E Gith.
I look forward to seeing them.
By the way, is there a template like you used to show the monster's statistics available? did you get it from dnd insider tools?
The Monster Builder has a 'copy as image' function. I just pasted the image into Photoshop (though MS Paint works just as well) and saved it as a jpeg, then uploaded it to my photo gallery here. Much less complicated than what LordArchaon suggested.
About the Tieflings, I love the mechanics, DuskWeaver!
I'm glad you like them. These versions are actually simplified from how I initially designed them. I have a tendency to give my homebrew monsters far too many powers, then end up having to go back and strip several of them out or condense two powers into one in order to make it possible to run the damn thing in an encounter without having a nervous breakdown. The Night Stalker originally had nine different powers and traits, which would have been a lot for an elite monster, never mind a standard!
The different Wraths are dead-flavorful (dead-flavorful?? oh well, you get the point
Yeah, I tried to adapt the tiefling's normal racial power to make it fit better with my interpretation of Athasian tieflings. As they are creations of Rajaat instead of the products of a diabolic pact, the strong association with (hell)fire that 'regular' tieflings have didn't make as much sense. I felt a more psionic-themed power worked better. The Master Of Pain will have his own unique 'Wrath' power that afflicts the target with crushing despair (psychic damage plus you fall prone and are dazed for a round
). I haven't decided what flavour of 'Wrath' the Soul Hunter will have yet, but it will probably be similar to the version my tiefling gladiator has, since they share a strong melee focus.and the 2 attacks, 1 hit, 2 effects of the Lurker is reminiscent of the Assassin in a sweeet way. So much that maybe the guy is not actually doing enough damage for a striker? I wonder, must be compared with another (Dark Sun's) 9th level Lurker.
It's actually 2 attacks, 2 hits (each with its own damage roll), 1 extra effect. If the Night Stalker hits you with both her Iron Daggers attacks, for example, you take 1d4+6 damage twice (2d4+12 total), plus ongoing 10 damage. When you also consider her potential to roll critical hits twice as often as most standard monsters, and the fact that she should have combat advantage with all or almost all her attacks, her damage output should end up being quite respectable.
Also, unlike some lurkers, a Night Stalker should generally be attacking every round, using Night-Shrouded Step to avoid getting bogged down by strong melee characters (slowing them with her ranged attacks also helps) and to re-establish combat advantage for her next attack (she loses invisibility when she attacks, but retains CA from that invisibility until her attack is resolved). She shouldn't be using it to jump out of the encounter altogether and hide for a round or two like some lurker monsters do. Hence, she doesn't need such a high 'nova damage' potential as those lurkers. In a way, the Night Stalker is halfway between a 'true' lurker and a skirmisher.
It's also important for the DM to set any encounter with Night Stalkers at night (or in their dark cave lair). They don't stand much of a chance in bright light, since neither Night-Shrouded Step nor Terror In The Dark will work. If the PCs do the sensible thing and stick close to their campfire when attacked, the Night Stalkers will probably benefit from having a Master Of Pain with them to scatter the PCs with his controllery attacks.