Magovore Invader
If you’ve not see it, you need to. It looks awesome. “What the deuce are you talking about, Mark?” you ask. I’m talking about Sine Nomine Publishing’s under-development Spears of the Dawn, “an old-school RPG that provides an African-flavored take on traditional fantasy adventure gaming.” I’ve long enjoyed what little African history and myths I’ve studied over the years, which is often very different than the more familiar (to me, at least) history and myths of the West. If you want a fantasy setting that truly is different than what you and your players are likely used to, why not go for a brand new set of cultural assumptions?
As I mentioned in my previous post (see below), work on Tiamat’s Throne has slowed down a bit. I hope to remedy that next week when I’m off for Thanksgiving. (Huzzah! to my pilgrim forefathers.) Until then, here’s another beast for my Stars Without Number-inspired setting that mixes fantasy elements with the sci-fi.
Magovore Invader
Armor Class: 6
Hit Dice: 3
Attack Bonus: +6
Damage: 1d10 plus special
No. Appearing: 1
Saving Throw: 14+ (+4 versus magic)
Movement: 30 ft. flying (see below)
Morale: 7
A magovore invader resembles a dense gray, leathery lump of tissue and muscle roughly three or four feet in diameter. It undulates via flight through the vacuum of space as easily as it moves through an atmosphere. Its serrated beak is surrounded by a ring of fleshy growths that detect heat, electrical activity, and magical dweomers. (Otherwise, a magovore invader is blind and deaf, and has no olfactory senses.)
Magovore invaders, as their name implies, feed on eldritch energy, which they tear from magic-using creatures (such as wizards) by biting. A magic-using creature bit by a magovore invader loses mana points equal to half the damage inflicted by the bite (round up). (Mana points lost in this manner are recovered normally.) Also, the magovore invader gains bonus hit points equal to the number of mana points consumed.
This creature is particularly resistant to magic, enjoying a +4 bonus on saving throws against magical effects. If a magovore invader makes its saving throw against a magical effect, the beast is completely unaffected by the magic (even if there would normally be a reduced effect with a successful save, such as against a fireball). Even worse, the successful saving throw against a magical effect also grants the magovore invader bonus hit points equal to the level of the spell it saved against.
When bonus hit points gained by biting magic-using creatures and/or making saving throws against spells equal the magovore invader’s original hit point total, the creature immediately reproduces by asexual fission, and the new creature reaches its full size three rounds (gaining one Hit Die per round).
Magovore invaders are completely immune to the hazards of outer space, such as the vacuum, cosmic radiation, et cetera. Extreme conditions, such as flying too close to a star, still prove disastrous to a magovore invader. A magovore invader can fly through outer space as if it were a drive-1 rated starship. These creatures always succeed at Navigation checks.
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