Monday, August 22, 2016

New Oe/1e/BX Monster: Ambler

This is something I drew a while back and shared on Google+ as an illustration only.
Now it's a fully-statted creature.




An ambler (a contraction of the words “armored” and shambler”) is an elemental creature created from the massive sphere of armor and weapons located at the center of the Demi-plane of Electro-magnetism. When one of these anomalies escape their home plane (e.g., ported in by a powerful magic-user), the ambler appears as a shambling mishmash of mismatched pieces of armor in a vaguely humanoid form with 1-4 usable limbs, each of which has a 75% chance of holding a small-to-medium weapon (hand axe, dagger, 1-handed sword, etc.).

Because producing an ambler requires it to be summoned (as opposed to being conjured from existing material), control of the ambler is not automatic, nor will it serve any creature (even its summoner), so it will not follow orders unless compelled to do so my some additional force (e.g., a charm or control spell). The ambler can understand any language that was possessed by the previous owner of any piece of armor used in its composition, or weapon it holds (usually this will include common, dwarvish and elvish, though it is not unheard of for this to also include halfling and orcish; other languages known are at the discretion of the DM but is suggested that there be a 90% chance of the ambler knowing any common language, 30% for any uncommon language, 10% for any rare language, and 1% for any very rare language, assuming the language in question is spoken by species that normally wears armor).

The electromagnetism in the ambler is so strong that should a successful melee strike be made against the ambler by a normal (i.e., non-magical) weapon made of a magnetic metal (e.g., steel or iron), there is a 50% chance that the weapon will become “stuck” to the ambler, and useless by the attacker.

Amblers are affected by protection from evil spells, and can be returned to their home plane by dispel magic, but can also be dealt with using extraplanar dismissal or banishment. If dismissed or banished, any weapon stuck to the ambler will be transported with it.


Oe/1E STATS
FREQUENCY: Very rare
NO. APPEARING: 1
ARMOR CLASS: 0
MOVE: 6"
HIT DICE: 5-8
% IN LAIR: Nil
TREASURE TYPE: Nil
NO. OF ATTACKS: 1-4
DAMAGE/ATTACK:
1-6 or by weapon
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Nil
SPECIAL DEFENSES:
+1 or better
needed “to hit”
MAGIC RESISTANCE: Standard
INTELLIGENCE: Low
ALIGNMENT: Neutral
SIZE: M-L
PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil
Attack/Defense Modes: Nil


BX STATS
ARMOR CLASS: 0-3
HIT DICE: 5-8*
MOVE: 60'(20')
ATTACKS: 1-4
DAMAGE: 1-6 or by weapon
NO. APPEARING: 1
SAVE AS: Fighter:5-8
MORALE: 10
TREASURE TYPE: Nil
ALIGNMENT: Neutral

3 comments:

  1. I agree, it's a great concept.

    The name might need a little work; to me at least "ambler" automatically associates with the verb "amble", which I think is not quite what you were going for. ;-)

    Then again, I'm drawing a blank on anything better. Maybe with those mismatched limbs it ambles after all . . .

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  2. Hi Richard, I was wondering if you'd agree to let us publish this monster (along with your Gibbershroom) in the first issue of KNOCK! magazine, in exchange for money. Would you email me <(my first name) at (my last name) dot com> so I can give you the details?

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