The Element of Surprise

Random, silly thought which I have decided to transform into gamable material: A surprise elemental. A being of pure, raw unexpectedness which hails from the elemental plane of Surprisingness (few have been there, but they report that it certainly was not what they expected).

The stats here are for a "large" Surprise Elemental, bigger and smaller versions exist.

Pathfinder

Large Surprise Elemental
2,400 XP
N Large Outsider (elemental, extraplanar)
Init +10; Senses: Darkvision; Perception +11
AC: 19, Touch 16, Flat Footed 12 (+6 Dex, +1 Dodge, +3 Natural, -1 Size)
HP: 52 (8d10+8)
Fort +7, Ref +12, Will +4
defenses: DR 5/-, Elemental Traits, Cannot be surprised
Speed: 80 ft.
Melee: 2 Slams (1d8+2)
Special Attacks: Shocking Slam (1d8), Very Surprising, Sneak Attack (+1d6)
Space: 10 ft; Reach: 10 ft
Str-14, Dex-23, Con-12, Int 6, Wis 11, Cha 11
Base Atk +8; CMB +11; CMD 27
Feats: Dodge, Improved Initiative, Mobility, Spring Attack, Weapon Finesse
Skills: Acrobatics +15, Climb +9, Escape Artist+13, Intimidate +9, Knowledge (The Planes) +5, Perception +11

Special Abilities:

Very Surprising: Surprise Elementals cannot be surprised. No matter how prepared anyone is for the appearance of the elemental they are not actually ready for it. Surprise elementals automatically receive a surprise round during which no one else may act, except other surprise elementals. This occurs even if the elemental joins combat already in process, they receive an immediate surprise round then combat is resumed as normal. During this surprise round all other combatants are flat footed.

Shocking Slam: The surprise elemental's fists are very shocking, so obviously they inflict bonus electrical damage.

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Savage Worlds

Agility d12+1, Smarts -d8, Spirit-d8, Strength-d4, Vigor-d6
Climbing d8, Fighting-d10, Notice-d6, Shooting-d8
Pace: 6; Parry: 7, Toughness: 5
Special Abilities:

• Elemental: No bonus from called shots, fearless, immune to disease and poison. 
• Invulnerability: Surprise Elementals take half damage from all non-magical attacks. 
• Shocking Touch: Str+1d6 
• Very Surprising: Surprise Elementals automatically get "the drop" on opponents when they enter combat, they also cannot be surprised. 

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PDQ

Good [+2] Large; Good [+2] Body Of Surprise; Good [+2] Surprising Movement; Expert [+4] Being Unexpected; Good [+2] Shocking Attack; Poor [-2] Large, Poor [-2] Body of Surprise

Body of Surprise: The elemental is composed of raw surprise, this Quality can be used to overcome any attempts to be prepared (defensive spells or powers, screwing with plans, laid traps, etc).

Surprising Movement: The elemental teleports, disappearing and reappearing somewhere unexpected.

gallery of rejection 4

My second attempt at Piazo's RPG superstar came to an end yesterday as I didn't make through the initial harrowing process. No hard feelings, the contest has 1000+ entrants and making it into the top 32 is a pretty long shot even if you're a game design genius. Anyway, as before I'll share my entry this year:

Boots of Trailblazing

Aura: Faint Transmutation; CL 5th
Slot feet; Price 15,000 gp; Weight 3 lbs.
Description
These heavy, travel-worn boots warp terrain around the wearer creating a smoother, flatter path for travel. Beneath the soles of the boots muddy ground dries and firms, dead wood and branches decompose and living plants shrivel or squirm out of the way.

This trail forms immediately in front of the wearer's feet and extends 10 feet to both sides. The trailblazing affects any areas of undergrowth, rubble or bog making them one level less difficult (for example, heavy undergrowth is treated as light and light undergrowth is removed). This effect is permanent until reversed by outside forces such as plant growth or natural erosion but it is impossible to blaze the same trail over again (so you cannot walk over Heavy undergrowth twice to remove it completely). The trailblazing effect does not provide any protection against magically created growth or barriers such as entangle or wall of thorns and will not alter man-made terrain features.

When traveling overland the wearer treats all Trackless terrain as though they were traveling along a trail. Since the trail is permanent any companions benefit from this as well so long as the wearer takes the lead.
Construction Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, Diminish Plants, Stone Shape; Cost 7,500 gp

The Tomb of Horrors: Ultimate Edition

After the failed attempt to run the Order through the Tomb of Horrors I decided to do something constructive with all the conversion material I had created. So I slapped together a PDF of the Tomb of Horrors converted to Pathfinder rules. Also included are rules for running it with Savage Worlds and PDQ.

You can download the PDF right here

Podcast of Magnitude: part 1

So here's part of the recording from the game last Sunday. I'm splitting the audio into chunks to help speed things up. This is the first part of the game where we wait for everyone to show up and then battle a giant rust monster in the jungles of Xendrik. By the way if you want to skip straight to the gameplay that starts about 20 minutes in. 

I've made some effort to bleep the dialogue but it's always possible some profanity slipped through so be warned if that's something you find offensive. I also apologize for the fan noise in the background. In future I'll try and make sure we don't have that in the same room as we are. 

Here we go!

[Pathfinder] Fun With Templates

In my recent eberron-based games with the Order I played around with the templates available to produce one of the most dangerous and annoying critters they've faced so far. They've managed to deal with them so far when just fighting just one along with some mook backup but in tonight's game I'm going to be throwing about 5 of them at the Order at once. 

The Hounds of Karnath.

Magebred Fiendish Vampiric Worgs (CR 5)

Medium Undead; HD 4d8+12 (30 hp); Speed: 50 feet; AC 26 (+10 natural, +5 dex, +1 dodge); Initiative: +9; Attack: Bite +13 (1d8+12, plus trip plus energy drain); CMB +13 CMD 28 (32 vs trip); SA: Blood Drain, Children of the Night, Create Spawn, Dominate (DC 16), Energy Drain (2 negative levels); Smite Good 1/day SQ: Undead, Change Shape, Gaseous Form, Spider Climb, Fast Healing 5, DR 10/magic and silver, Cold Resistance 10, Electricity Resistance 10, Fire Resistance 5, Turn Resistance +4, SR 10; Saves: Fort +4, Ref+11, Will+4; Str-27, Dex-21, Con--, Int-8, Wis-16, Cha-14

Skills: Perception +22, Stealth +12, Survival +6

Feats: Alertness, Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Improved Initiative, Lightning Reflexes, Toughness, Run, Skill Focus (perception), Improved Natural Attack 

These were created by the Karnathi government for "internal issues", hunting down traitors, spies and anyone else the government or the church of Vol wanted to make an example of. There would be a night full of howling and the next morning corpses with their hamstrings ripped and their blood drained would be found in the dirt. The emerald claw gotten hold of a pack of them as well and has recently sent them after the Order, so far just one at a time with the support of a few Karnathi skeletons or Zombies but tonight they'll face most of the pack.

Now normally a group of CR 5 monsters, even vampires, would not be that big a deal to a 9th level party like the Order. Especially considering they've defeated a vampire before (and boy is that a story for another time). But unfortunately they've got no cleric or paladin, no silver weaponry and only one character has a weapon that's powerful enough to overcome their DR. That, combined with the Hound's constant tripping, energy draining and healing means that it's been a tough fight for them dealing with just one. Hopefully I'll record everything tonight and you can share experience. 

EDIT: Unfortunately, although there was much panicking when the full pack of Hounds descended on the party, the Hounds of Karnath fell victim to the main weakness of monsters with more Templates than Hit Dice: Their saving throws. Jack, the Order's sorcerer, pulled out a scroll of halt undead and managed to lock 3 of the 5 hounds right out of commission. Two escaped via mist form but the rest were staked.

Even more unfortunately the recording of tonight's session was screwed up. However sometime in the next week or so I'll begin recounting the stories of the current incarnation of the Order of Magnitude to get everyone caught up.

Order of Magnitude Sound!

In preparation for plans to record playtesting for PDQ-Fu I've done some experimental recording with the Order. Although the cheap microphone I purchased for this turned out to be amazingly bad at picking up anything I did find that the tiny, built-in microphone for my mp3 player is actually fairly impressive. 

So, just to share here's a snippet (ran out of memory storage on the player) of our last game session. You'll get to see what I have to put up with. Just a word of warning there's some swearing. This is my first attempt at any audio editing so hopefully I'll learn bit by bit how to make higher quality recordings for the future.

Click here for the madness