Sand Devil (3.5e Monster)

Author: Sulacu (talk) Date Created: May 30, 2007 Status: Completed Editing: Clarity edits only please

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Sand Devil (Uurthugon)

A terrible, monstrous sand devil.

There are few creatures to be found in deserts so inherently vile as the Sand Devil, some of the wickedest of souls incarnate to hound the desert folk. Tales of its boisterous evil are told over fires and flagons of firewater. The sand devil’s body consists solely of sand, often of a rusty red color as it was coated with the blood of its former victims, disease ridden sand that is enslaved to its will and swirls around in a powerful sweeping wind to form a semi-corporeal body. Many travelers have met their end in the Sand Devil’s torporous vortex.

Sand Devils are creatures with whirling bodies of sand held together by an unseen force, like a self-contained sandstorm that has the shape of a somewhat monstrous torso and head. The Sand Devil is highly morphic, however, and can take on any shape that it wants; it can even stop its movement, at which point the sand it controls simply drapes down on the desert floor. They attack with multiple currents of sharp sand, dealing a gust of piercing damage. The sand that they use is tainted and dirty, making it highly contagious.

Combat

They prefer to use their spell-like abilities and their knacks for subterfuge in order to tempt mortals, often to perform a deed with the promise of a reward that benefits the Sand Devil. Sand Devils are envoys of powerful Devils, that often lurk, beyond detection, on the material plane. As such, they occasionally relegate quests at the behest of their masters or contractors to mortals. A Sand Devil is very fond of treasure, which it likes to hoard. To gain more wealth, they are tempted to enter pacts with mortals under the guise of mutual gain. A party willing to submit gold, jewelry or magical items of a high enough value (at DM's discretion) might incline the monster to let them go unscathed. A Sand Devil is considered a semi-corporeal creature.

Sand Devils speak Common, Infernal, Celestial and Draconic. They communicate by creating discernible audible oscillations in their semi-corporeal bodies, which causes a voice that sounds like howling wind.

The Sand Devil’s composite tentacle attacks deal slashing damage, due to the sharpness of countless grains of sand.

Disease (Su): Helljoint—composite tentacle and engulf, Fortitude DC 23, incubation period 1 day, afflicted creature becomes permanently exhausted. One day after contraction, the creature must save again or be dealt 2d6 Dex damage. Only a heal or greater restoration can remove Helljoint. Helljoint is considered a magical disease and bypasses immunity to non-magical diseases.

Retribution Damage (Fire)(Ex): When a Sand Devil takes fire damage from a sufficiently powerful effect, a portion of its sand is transformed into extremely sharp pieces of glass. For 2d4 rounds after the effect, it deals an additional 1d6 piercing damage when attacking or engulfing. For fire based spells, if ½ caster level × spell level (rounded down) equals or exceeds the Sand Devil’s HD, Retribution Damage is incurred. For fire based breath weapons, if the breath weapon is supernatural in nature and ½ its DC (rounded down) equals or exceeds the Sand Devil’s HD, Retribution Damage is incurred. Nonmagical fire is not subject to Retribution Damage.

Regeneration (Ex): A Sand Devil takes normal damage from good-aligned and silvered weapons, as well as from fire, and from spells with the good descriptor.

Spell-Like Abilities (Su): At will—bane, cause fear, darkness, glitterdust, greater dispel magic, greater invisibility, hold monster (DC 22), lightning bolt (DC 19), misdirection (DC 18), protection from energy, teleport, unhallow (DC 21), unholy blight (DC 20); 3/day—chain lightning (DC 22), permanent image (DC 22). Caster Level 15th. DCs are Charisma based

Summon Baatezu (Sp): Once per day a sand devil can attempt to summon 2d10 Lemures or 1d6 Bearded Devils with a 50% chance of success, 2d4 Erinyes with a 35% chance of success, or another sand devil with 20% of success. This ability is the equivalent of a 6th level spell.

Semi-Corporeal Subtype

Semi-Corporeal creatures are not completely incorporeal. A semi-corporeal creature has an actual physical presence, but more often than not that presence is comprised of countless smaller objects, like stones, dust or smaller composite creatures that move contiguously and are bound to the spirit's will. Semi-corporeals possess certain traits akin to swarms, but they have the collective consciousness of a single creature, rather than a swarm of creatures. Semi-corporeals are naturally incorporeal spirit entities that accrue matter and objects in order to take physical form. The encompassing spirit entity can be considered as intangible for the purpose of fighting the monster, and is usually unaffected by the loss of its physical body. To truly kill a semi-corporeal, the spirit sustaining the physical form must be targeted and destroyed.

Prerequisites

If you want to make your own Semi-Corporeal traits, there are a few things to consider. Not very many creature types are fit to become semi-corporeal. Most make a clear distinction on anatomy, and in most cases creature types and subtypes either have an anatomy or they don't. Unlike creatures with real physical forms, the worldly existence of a semi-corporeal may be considered empyrical at best. To manifest as a semi-corporeal, the entity thet comprises its core must be incorporeal. Most (if not all) semi-corporeals are elementals, outsiders or undead.

Semi-Corporeal Traits

The following traits and abilities are common in every semi-corporeal creature.

• Blindsight out to 60 ft.
• All semi-corporeals have a hover speed, with varying levels of mobility. See the individual creature entries for more information.
• Swarm Traits: A semi-corporeal is comprised of a large number of similar components that make up its physical form, in the same way as a swarm is comprised of creatures. These components can differ in size, from Tiny or larger (such as rocks), to Diminutive or smaller (such as pebble-sized objects, dust or sand). The former takes half damage from any physical attack that doesn't deal bludgeoning damage, whereas the latter is completely immune to any form of physical damage.

Furthermore, a semi-corporeal creature possesses any further trait and vulnerability of a swarm-type creature, except that a semi-corporeal can be of any size, and that it doesn't take extra damage from any spell or effect that affects an area.

• Immunity to vision-affecting effects (phantasms and patterns that have an effect on the eyes, gaze attacks).
• Immunity to poison, sleep effects, paralysis, stunning, disease, and death effects. These immunities are in addition to the immunities of the semi-corporeal's creature type.
• Not subject to critical hits. Immune to damage to its physical ability scores (Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution), as well as to fatigue and exhaustion effects.
• Not at risk of death from massive damage, but when reduced to 0 hit points or less, it is either dispersed or destroyed.

Attacks: A semi-corporeal is proficient with any natural or manufactured weapons disclosed in its creature entry. It further possesses a swarm attack like any normal swarm. The damage that this attack deals depends on the semi-corporeal's Hit Dice, but increases by an additional +1d6 for every size category the semi-corporeal is larger than Medium.

Spirit Entity (Ex): Regardless of its form or shape, a semi-corporeal is an entity wrought by the effort of its controlling spirit. This spirit is incorporeal, and can be a ghost or a composite soul of some kind. Semi-corporeals take normal (and lethal) damage from weapons with the ghost touch enhancement. Any attack made with a ghost touch weapon automatically bypasses any damage reduction, regeneration or other damage resisting ability the creature has, and when slain by such a weapon, a semi-corporeal creature is destroyed outright, rather than dispersed. Normal attacks, spells and effects merely disperse the creature, allowing the spirit to reform its body at full hit points within 2d4 hours.

Elusive Body (Ex): Creatures take a -8 penalty to grapple checks against a semi-corporeal creature made of objects of Tiny size or larger, but are not prevented from making an attack while grappled. Semi-corporeals formed from smaller objects cannot be grappled at all.

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