Saturday, 30 September 2017

Now in English! Yet more monsters for Épées & Sorcellerie 2nd ed.

Here are the 6th-8th level monsters. I've opted for literal translations from the É&S rulebook for the classic monsters with trademarked names, but if you want to call them by their traditional appelations, I won't stop you.


Diffracting Panther

Hit Dice: 6
Attack: +3
Armour Class: 10
Movement: 5
Alignment: Chaos

These intelligent creatures, probably beings from another planet or dimension, are also known as coeurl. They resemble six-legged black panthers with glowing eyes. Two tentacles grow out of their shoulders, and terminate in suckers through which they drain the vital fluids of their victims, inflicting horrible wounds.

This creature emits a field of electrostatic forces, able to deflect light waves or magical attacks and which makes the creature to be one metre away from its actual position. All attack rolls against it receive a -1 penalty and it gets +4 on saving throws (instead of +3). Its force field can also open locks which have been closed by a Hold Portal spell.


Flesh Golem

Hit Dice: 8
Attack: +4
Armour Class: 9
Movement: 3
Alignment: Neutral

These creatures, usually humanoid, are created by mad sorcerers using black magic upon pieces collected from various corpses of different sizes and species. This makes their misshapen appearance so terrifying, and their gait unsteady as they move their disparate parts. These deranged patchworks of flesh sometimes include parts of monstrous cadavers or even surprising mechanical additions.

The flesh golem will obey its creator without question, but its intelligence is limited, often resulting in obtuse or absurd interpretations of its orders. During combat, make a reaction roll each round; if the reaction is very bad (double 6), the golem becomes enraged, and the sorcerer must succeed in an intelligence check to regain control (one attempt per round is allowed).

The construction of a flesh golem is equivalent, in both time and cost, to that of a magic item corresponding to a fifth level spell. When its creator dies, the golem will tirelessly carry out the last task it was given, but putrefaction will attack its flesh insidiously until nothing remains but dust.


Hellhound

Hit Dice: 6 [7]
Attack: +3
Armour Class: 10
Movement: 5
Alignment: Chaos

These creatures, who look like monstrous hounds of a reddish colour, are possessed of a sort of malignant intelligence. They often serve as guards for chaotic masters aligned with fire. Their acute senses allow them to detect the presence of hidden or invisible creatures (like an 8th level warrior). In addition to their terrible jaws, they can attack thrice per day by breathing fire (1-2 on a d6 chance per round). The monster's breath has a range of 5, and inflicts 6d6 points of damage.


Mist Giant

Hit Dice: 6+2
Attack: +5
Armour Class: 8
Movement: 8
Alignment: Chaos

These unnatural giants have no real head, just two small yellow eyes on their massive torso. This notable lacuna limits their intelligence to a voracious and warlike instinct, not without cunning. Four massive, gnarled arms emerge from their back. Their skin is a chalky white, which makes them practically invisible in fog. In spite of their imposing mass, nearly 4m in height, they always surprise their enemies in their misty fens.


Morkoth

Hit Dice: 8
Attack: +4
Armour Class: 10
Movement: 0
Alignment: Chaos

This creature of the ocean abysses is without a doubt one of the most feared aquatic monsters. Occupying the centre of a mineral labyrinth of spiralling galleries carved into the abyssal seabed, this strange and incomprehensible monster waits, sometimes for centuries, amorphous and apathetic, until its ill-advised prey ventures into the depths of the ocean where it invariably makes its home.
Seen from above, the spirals of the labyrinth form a hypnotic pattern which attracts the viewer irrepressibly towards the monster unless a successful saving throw is made at a -2 penalty. Once in proximity of this unspeakable creature, a new saving throw at -4 must be attempted. In case of a failure, the prey will steer itself right into the disproportionate beak of the tentacled horror to be torn apart. It should be noted that, if it makes its saving throw, any spell cast at the morkoth will be deflected back onto the caster and any other creatures within ten metres. Morkoths are immensely ancient creatures, and concentrate fluids and other substances in their organisms necessary to cast specific spells.


Ogre, Oriental

Hit Dice: 5+2 [7]
Attack: +4
Armour Class: 10
Movement: 3 / 5
Alignment: Chaos

These monsters are much more powerful and intelligent than their occidental cousins. They keep slaves, and often have their own castles, leading chaotic armies to plunder and pillage civilised lands. Oriental ogres are versed in the dark arts of sorcery and can cast the following spells at will: Invisibility, Darkness, and Fly. Additionally, they regenerate 1hp per round and once per day can cast Cone of cold, Charm, Transformation, and Sleep.


Owlbear

Hit Dice: 6
Attack: +3
Armour Class: 9
Movement: 4
Alignment: Neutral

Reaching 3.5m tall when standing on their hind legs and massing around 450kg, this beast is as aggressive as it is formidable. It attacks on sight and fights to the death. Its hide is very thick, and covered in both fur and feathers, and its head resembles a giant owl's.


Rock Umber

Hit Dice: 8
Attack: +4
Armour Class: 11
Movement: 2
Alignment: Neutral

This burrowing monster is humanoid in form. It lurks in the darkness of underground tunnels which conceal it. It burrows its tunnels with its mandibles, which are of an incomparable hardness. Its four multifaceted eyes cause confusion in its enemies.


Serpent Man

Hit Dice: 3+1 [6]
Attack: +2
Armour Class: 10
Movement: 5
Alignment: Chaos

According to certain legends, this nearly extinct race -- known for their mastery of sorcery and illusion -- had known its zenith before the earliest origins of humanity. Their empire fell into decadence whilst the species degenerated into an ever more animalistic form. Some sorcerers amongst the serpent folk still exist in secret and plot to re-establish their former power. Serpent men have a scaly humanoid body, surmounted by a long neck and reptilian head, which they sometimes conceal beneath heavy hooded robes. They can sometimes transform at will to assume the appearance of any humanoid, with unlimited duration.

Serpent men move with the greatest silence, and surprise their adversaries on a roll of 1-4. If they hit their opponent when attacking from Surprise, they inflict 2d6 damage on the first attack. In hand-to-hand combat, they use daggers or short swords, often coated in poison. They can spit their venom into the eyes of an opponent to blind them (making an attack roll for a projectile with a range of 3). IF a saving throw succeeds, the blindness is only temporary.

Serpent men can cast three spells of each level three times per day, from the following list:

Level 1: Magic aura, Charm, Detect magic, Darkness, Hold portal, Protection from evil, Sleep
Level 2: Weakness, Detect invisibility, Illusion, Invisibility, Read thought*
Level 3: Dispel magic, Group invisibility, Paralyze


Serpent Man, Sorcerer of Set

Hit Dice: 6 [8]
Attack: +3
Armour Class: 11
Movement: 5
Alignment: Chaos

A sorcerer of Set possesses 1d3 magic items (scrolls, wands, or misc. items) which they will not hesitate to use. They may cast 1d3+2 spells of each level on the list of those available to ordinary Serpent Men, plus the following:

Level 3: Suggestion
Level 4: Secret army, Circle of protection from evil, confusion, Sorcerer's eye, Dimension door*, Undead servants, Tidal wave, Spell rebound, Rune of protection, Hallucinatory terrain, Scrying*


Sphinx

Hit Dice: 6
Attack: +3
Armour Class: 11
Movement: 4 / 8 (fly)
Alignment: Neutral

These aloof monsters, winged or otherwise, having the body of a lion and the head of a woman, often lurk in desert or mountainous regions, darkening the land with their aura of terror and devouring lone travellers. Though they especially enjoy human blood, sphinxes are happy to postpone a good meal for a contest of riddles, for they are game players as much as they are vain, confident that their ancient wisdom will carry the day and they will soon feast upon the losers.


Vampire Tree

Hit Dice: 8
Attack: +4
Armour Class: 12
Movement: 2
Alignment: Chaos

Similar in appearance to ents, these malevolent trees are able to grow blood-sucking creepers or roots for more than one hundred metres round themselves. Once they have hit a creature, they drain 1d6 hit points per round, unless the appendage is severed.


Vulture Lion

Hit Dice: 7
Attack: +3
Armour Class: 10
Movement: 8
Alignment: Chaos

Related to griffons, these creatures have the body of a lion with the face and claws of a vulture, though they lack wings. They were once summoned in great numbers during the wars between sorcerers.

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