Veles Serpent (3.5e Epic Spell)
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| Conjuration (Summoning, Creation) [Water, Earth, Force] | |
| Spellcraft DC: | 200 |
|---|---|
| Components: | V, S, M, F/DF, XP |
| Casting time: | 2 minutes |
| Range: | 150 ft. |
| Effect: | Colossal water serpent made of numerous earth and water elementals |
| Duration: | 60 rounds + 1 round/level (D) |
| Saving Throw: | None |
| Spell Resistance: | No |
| To Develop: | 1,800,000 gp, 36 days, 72,000 XP. Seeds: summon (DC 14), armor (DC 14), fortify (spell resistance) (DC 27), fortify (damage reduction) (DC 17). Factors: summon elemental (+10 DC), CR partially based on caster level (ad hoc +50 DC), summon amalgamation (ad hoc +10 DC), summon special creature designed by spell (ad hoc +70 DC), +45 natural armor (+41 DC), increase duration by 200% (+4 DC), increase duration by 1 round/caster level (+4 DC), increase range by 100% (+2 DC), +20 bonus to caster level checks against dispelling (+40 DC), +25 spell resistance (SR 50) for summoned creature (+100 DC), +20 damage reduction for summoned creature (+38 DC; first point of DR provided by fortify seed), damage reduction upgraded to epic and adamantine (ad hoc +25 DC), slow self-recharging artifact alternative material component loses all charges instead of being consumed (ad hoc anti-mitigation +8 DC). Mitigating factors: increase casting time by 1 minute (-2 DC), expensive material components worth total 120,000 gp (-48 DC), burn 12,000 XP (-120 DC), exclusive to followers of a specific deity (ad hoc -100 DC), summoned creature is allied to caster but is able to disobey orders (ad hoc -5 DC). |
Invoking the name of Veles and holding the god's holy symbol aloft, you toss forth the slab of meat with the embedded rudy and sapphire to call forth the primal elements he commands - the water and the earth - to create a gigantic snake made of water and earth elementals. The snake hisses ominously, then proceeds to violently smother your foes. You smirk as you watch the carnage unfold, witnessing Veles's pet obliterate the infidels who defy his will.
You summon a Colossal serpent (Elemental type), well over 150 feet long, made of numerous water and earth elementals. (It takes up the standard amount of space for a Colossal creature (a 30-foot-area space, 30 feet high) when coiled up, and can uncoil, take two move actions or a move action and standard action, and recoil in the space of 1 round.) This monster is essentially an exemplar of Veles's power, dispatched to aid the caster, and as such, it has numerous unique characteristics. The level of your Veles serpent is equal to your caster level, so factors that are dependent on level (like base attack bonus, ranks in skills, and base saving throw bonuses) aren't included or factored into the statistics block. You'll have to calculate those for yourself. (The Veles serpent prefers to take ranks in Spot, Listen, Hide, Move Silently, Swim, and Bluff, but Climb, Spellcraft, and Intimidate are also considered class skills for it.)
The Veles serpent will attempt to aid the caster to the best of its ability (its preferred strategy is to immediately attack the caster's most dangerous or hated enemy before they can react, then begin to constrict). The caster can direct the serpent not to attack, to attack particular enemies, or to perform other actions, but while the serpent generally defers to the caster's wishes, it might disobey if it deems a different course of action to be more tactically sound. The serpent never outright betrays the caster, and always acts in what it perceives to be the caster's best interest. (For example, it may prioritize attacking somebody engaged in melee combat with the caster over attacking whomever the caster ordered it to attack, especially if the designated target is not likely to be defeated quickly or the caster is being overwhelmed by immediate direct threats.)
| Veles Serpent | |
|---|---|
| Size/Type: | Colossal Elemental (Water, Earth) |
| Hit Dice: | N/A (number of hit die treated as being equal to caster level) (Same as caster ×3 hp) |
| Initiative: | Same as caster |
| Speed: | 50 ft. land, 70 ft. swim, 30 ft. burrow |
| Armor Class: | 52 (-8 size, +5 Dexterity, +45 natural), touch 7, flat-footed 47 |
| Base Attack/Grapple: | N/A (use elemental progression)/+50 (size +16, Strength +30, Improved Grapple +2; use elemental progression for base attack bonus) |
| Attack: | bite +22 melee (1d12+30) (add base attack bonus) |
| Full Attack: | bite +22 melee (1d12+30) (add base attack bonus) |
| Space/Reach: | 30 ft. (coiled)/30 ft. |
| Special Attacks: | Improved Grab, Constrict (2d12+30 plus suffocate opponents of up to Large size plus 1 point of temporary Constitution, Dexterity, and Strength damage; ability damage goes away after 1 minute if not continuously inflicted), Swallow Whole, Water Mastery, Drench, Vortex, Earth Mastery, Push, Serpentine Strike |
| Special Qualities: | Darkvision out to 120 ft., tremorsense out to 300 ft., elemental traits, Earth Glide, damage reduction 20/epic and adamantine, spell resistance 50 |
| Saves: | Fort +30, Ref +7, Will +17 (add base save bonuses) |
| Abilities: | Str 60, Dex 20, Con 60, Int 12, Wis 30, Cha 20 |
| Skills: | N/A (determine those for yourself!) |
| Feats: | Alertness, Endurance, Skill Focus (Hide), Skill Focus (Move Silently), Lightning Reflexes, Iron Will, Combat Reflexes, Skill Focus (Bluff), Improved GrappleB |
| Environment: | With caster (works best in or near water) |
| Organization: | With caster |
| Challenge Rating: | N/A (same encounter as caster) |
| Treasure: | N/A (same encounter as caster) |
| Alignment: | Same as caster |
| Advancement: | By caster level |
| Level Adjustment: | N/A |
Note: the Veles serpent only has as many feats as its Hit Dice allow it to have. It selects feats in the listed order.
Being made of water, the Veles serpent gets a +40 racial bonus to Hide and Move Silently checks while remaining perfectly still in water (it's effectively invisible). This racial bonus is reduced to +20 while in motion in water, +10 while perfectly still on land, and +5 while in motion on land. The Veles serpent can hide in plain sight while in water. (As it's made of earth elementals as well as water elementals, the Veles serpent can naturally blend in with any terrestrial environment, but not as well as it does in an aquatic one.)
Improved Grab (Ex): The Veles serpent can, upon making a successful bite attack upon any opponent, attempt to grapple them as a free action. If it succeeds, it wraps itself around the foe and begins to constrict.
Constrict (Ex): The Veles serpent can constrict just like a constrictor snake, but its massive size makes its constriction ability extremely dangerous in numerous ways. First and foremost, the Veles serpent is capable of constricting several creatures at a time. The Veles serpent is so big that it can hold up to 1 Colossal or Gargantuan opponent, 2 Huge opponents, 4 Large opponents, 8 Medium opponents, 16 Small opponents, or 32 Tiny or smaller opponents in its coils at any given time without hindering its ability to attack (and capture) other opponents. If it goes over this limit, then it gives all creatures it's currently grappling a cumulative +4 bonus to grapple checks to escape for every extra size category of creature it attempts to grapple (a Colossal creature being treated as 2 Gargantuan creatures for this purpose unless the Colossal creature is the only one being held), and also takes a cumulative -4 penalty to all attack rolls against creatures it isn't grappling. In addition to doing hit point damage (specifically 2d12+30 points of damage) through crushing pressure, the Veles serpent squeezes the air out of its victims' lungs as it constricts, causing 1 point of Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution damage per round to all creatures it constricts that need to breathe. This ability damage is due to shortness of breath more than it is to bodily harm; as such, all ability damage inflicted in this manner goes away after 1 minute if the Veles serpent does not continuously constrict its victim, and a creature can spend two consecutive full-round actions to catch its breath and immediately eliminate the ability damage if it is freed from the constriction. A creature being swallowed by the Veles serpent still cannot breathe, and thus cannot get its breath back and eliminate its ability damage. Creatures of Large or smaller size are utterly smothered in the Veles serpent's coils, to the point where they find breathing impossible; they must hold their breath or else suffocate.
Swallow Whole (Ex): The Veles serpent can swallow enemies whole and alive (or undead, or just animated), just like a purple worm or nightcrawler. It can transfer a constricted opponent to its mouth as a full-round action that requires a grapple check (holding it in both mouth and coils at the same time), and then use a series of full-round actions to swallow the foe starting on the next turn (it requires 5 full-round actions to swallow a Colossal opponent, 4 full-round actions to swallow a Gargantuan opponent, 3 full-round actions to swallow a Huge opponent, 2 full-round actions to swallow a Large opponent, 1 full-round action to swallow a Medium opponent, and a standard action to swallow a Small or smaller opponent. A grapple check is required for every round of swallowing, but once the process begins, the creature being swallowed cannot free itself from the Veles serpent's mouth unless it beats the Veles serpent's grapple check by 10 or more. On a success by 9 or less, its struggles only prevent it from going further down the Veles serpent's throat (like a real snake, the backwards curvature of the Veles serpent's fangs makes it nearly impossible to wriggle back out of the Veles serpent's throat once swallowing begins). A success by 10 or more allows the creature to offset one round's worth of swallowing progress plus 1 more for every five points by which its grapple check result beats the Veles serpent's check result plus 10. Once a creature is fully swallowed, escape via grapple checks is no longer possible. The Veles serpent's "stomach" can hold 1 Colossal, 2 Gargantuan, 4 Huge, 8 Large, 16 Medium, 32 Small, 64 Tiny, or 128 Fine or smaller creatures. Opponents in the Veles serpent's "stomach" take 3d12+30 bludgeoning damage and 1d12+10 acid damage per round, and are also forced to hold their breath or else drown. The snake, being made of elementals, holds victims inside it through raw magical force, and so once a creature is fully swallowed, escape through grapple checks is utterly impossible. It is still possible to break out with a light melee weapon (anything larger can't be swung effectively due to the immobilizing effects of the magic powering the Veles serpent); its "stomach" has AC 20 (-8 size, +18 natural) and damage reduction 20/epic and adamantine. The "stomach"'s hit points are equal to half the full normal total of the caster, and once a creature exits, the hole is repaired by the spell's magic; other victims must break out themselves.
The Veles serpent is considered to be both an earth and water elemental, and therefore its Earth Mastery (Ex) and Water Mastery (Ex) abilities work in concert; the Veles serpent gets a +2 bonus to all attack rolls and damage rolls against opponents as long as both it and the opponent are on the ground and/or in water, but takes a -4 penalty to attack rolls and damage rolls if it or the opponent is airborne. An opponent being grappled by the Veles serpent is considered to be wherever the Veles serpent is (in the water if the Veles serpent is in the water, on land if the Veles serpent is on land, or in the air if the Veles serpent is in the air).
Drench (Ex): Being essentially made of water, a Veles serpent can put out fires of Gargantuan or smaller size just by moving into them. Nonmagical fires are automatically extinguished, while magical fires are treated as though the caster of the Veles serpent had cast superb dispelling on them (this causes no backlash damage to the Veles serpent or its caster). A Veles serpent also adds +2d12 to all non constriction damage rolls against creatures with the Fire subtype - against creatures that are actually made of fire, such as fire elementals, this bonus is doubled to +4d12 damage. For constriction damage rolls, the damage bonuses against fire-subtype creatures and fire-based creatures are increased to +3d12 and +6d12, respectively.
The Veles serpent's Vortex (Su) attack works just like a primal water elemental's. Its Push (Ex) attack works just like a primal earth elemental's. (The Veles serpent can bull rush just like a Huge earth elemental; its body isn't built for bull rushing, so it bull rushes as though it's two size categories smaller than it actually is. It can resist being bull rushed as a Colossal creature (its actual size category).)
Serpentine Strike (Ex): Because the Veles serpent is, well, a massive serpent, its range is deceptively huge. It can strike 30 feet away from its space as a standard action or when making an attack of opportunity, but if it takes a full-round action to aim for its target, it can make a single melee attack against an opponent up to 75 feet away from it. It can use its improved grab when making this attack if its target is Large or Smaller, grabbing the foe in its jaws and yanking it into its space to be constricted; if the foe is Tiny or smaller, the Veles serpent may swallow it immediately as a free action instead of constricting it first (swallowing the foe requires a second grapple check immediately after grabbing the foe). Foes of Huge or larger size are too heavy and bulky to be snatched up from outside the Veles serpent's standard attack range.
Earth Glide (Ex): A Veles serpent can glide through stone, dirt, or almost any other sort of earth except metal as easily as it swims through water (albeit not as quickly). Its burrowing leaves behind no tunnel or hole, nor does it create any ripple or other signs of its presence. A move earth spell cast on an area containing a burrowing Veles serpent flings it back 30 feet, stunning the creature for 1 round unless it succeeds on a DC 15 Fortitude save.
When the spell expires or is dispelled, or the Veles serpent has its HP reduced to 0 or is otherwise killed, the Veles serpent disperses into its constituent elementals, which immediately return to their own planes. Veles serpent has a +20 bonus to its DC for resisting dispel checks.
Though this spell refers to Veles, Slavic god of water and earth, you may substitute whatever god is most appropriate for your campaign, such as Poseidon or Satan. Change the name of the spell accordingly. Whichever deity you choose to associate this spell with, it is only available to worshippers of that deity.
Material Component: A prime cut of beef, a ruby worth at least 60,000 gp, and a sapphire worth at least 60,000 gp. You may substitute a heart of earth with 20 charges for the ruby and a heart of water with 20 charges for the sapphire (you may substitute for either gem or both of them in this fashion). You must have attuned yourself to a heart of element to use it as a material component for this spell. If you use a heart of element as a material component in this fashion, the heart is not consumed (as it is an artifact, even epic spells cannot destroy it), but all 20 of its charges are expended, leaving its spell-like abilities unusable until it is recharged.
Focus: A silver holy symbol of Veles costing 1,000 gp. For a cleric, druid, or other divine spellcaster, this holy symbol can be the same divine focus used to cast your other spells, but it must be made of silver and cost at least 1,000 gp in order to cast Veles serpent. (The focus is not expensive enough to affect the Spellcraft DC of Veles serpent.)
XP Cost: 12,000 XP.
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