Friday, December 20, 2013

Frightful Fridays! Urselementals

Hello, and welcome to a Frightful Fridays! which comes to you on an actual Friday this week. Today's set of creatures is thanks to Patrick, who challenged me with the illustration below. I figured the laser beam eyes could be represented in a fantasy setting as focused elemental rays, and things grew from that base assumption. The owlbear sets a nice precedent, and I reasoned some deranged wizard would combine a flying bear mashup with elementals. I indulged myself a little with the air-based urselemental by applying it to the not-a-true-bear koala, but I also figured mad wizards wouldn't really care about trifling things like taxonomy.
 
I hope you enjoy this week's offering, and I'll be back next week with yet another monster. Thanks for reading!


This bear has jet-black fur and a glowing, yellow, crescent-shaped patch on its chest; its eyes seethe with a fiery radiance.
Urselemental, Sun CR 9
XP 6,400
N Medium magical beast (fire)
Init +8; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +14


Defense
AC 24, touch 14, flat-footed 20 (+4 Dex, +10 natural)
hp 114 (12d10+48)
Fort +12, Ref +12, Will +8
Immune fire
Weakness vulnerability to cold


Offense
Speed 30 ft., fly 60 ft. (good)
Melee bite +17 (1d8+5) and 2 claws +17 (1d6+5)
Special Attacks radiant beam


Statistics
Str 21, Dex 18, Con 19, Int 7, Wis 14, Cha 10
Base Atk +12; CMB +17 (+21 grapple); CMD 31 (35 vs. trip)
Feats Endurance, Flyby Attack, Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Run, Skill Focus (Fly)
Skills Fly +17, Perception +14


Ecology
Environment warm terrestrial
Organization solitary, pair, squadron (3–12 mixed urselementals)
Treasure none


Special Abilities
Radiant Beam (Ex) Once every 1d4 rounds as a swift action, a sun urselemental shoots a fiery beam that requires a ranged touch attack to hit its target. If the beam strikes its target, it deals 6d6 fire damage, and potentially causes the target to catch on fire.

 


This bear has soft gray fur that crackles with static electricity; miniature lightning bolts shoot from the creature's eyes.
Urselemental, Koala CR 10
XP 9,600

N Medium magical beast (air)
Init +11; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +17


Defense
AC 25, touch 17, flat-footed 18 (+7 Dex, +8 natural)
hp 123 (13d10+52)
Fort +12, Ref +15, Will +9
Immune electricity


Offense
Speed 30 ft., fly 90 ft. (perfect)
Melee bite +18 (2d4+5) and 2 claws +18 (1d6+5)
Special Attacks electricity beam


Statistics
Str 21, Dex 24, Con 19, Int 9, Wis 16, Cha 10
Base Atk +13; CMB +18 (+22 grapple); CMD 35 (39 vs. trip)
Feats Death from Above, Endurance, Flyby Attack, Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Run, Skill Focus (Perception)
Skills Fly +19, Perception +17, Stealth +14
Ecology
Environment any terrestrial
Organization solitary, pair, squadron (3–12 mixed urselementals)
Treasure none


Special Abilities
Electricity Beam (Ex) Once every 1d4 rounds as a swift action, a koala urselemental shoots a crackling beam that requires a ranged touch attack to hit its target. If the beam strikes its target, it deals 6d6 electricity damage, and the target must succeed at a DC 20 Fortitude save to avoid becoming staggered for 1 round. The save DC is Constitution-based.

 


Icicles festoon this enormous white bear; an inner pale-blue fire lights its eyes.
Urselemental, Polar CR 11
XP 12,800
N Large magical beast (cold, water)
Init +6; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +15


Defense
AC 25, touch 11, flat-footed 23 (+2 Dex, -1 size, +14 natural)
hp 147 (14d10+70)
Fort +14, Ref +11, Will +10
Immune cold
Weakness vulnerability to fire


Offense
Speed 40 ft., fly 60 ft. (poor), swim 90 ft.
Melee bite +20 (2d6+7) and 2 claws +20 (1d8+7)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
Special Attacks polar beam


Statistics
Str 25, Dex 14, Con 21, Int 5, Wis 18, Cha 10
Base Atk +14; CMB +22 (+24 bull rush, +26 grapple); CMD 34 (36 vs. bull rush, 38 vs. trip)
Feats Endurance, Improved Bull Rush, Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Power Attack, Run, Skill Focus (Fly)
Skills Fly +7, Perception +15, Swim +19


Ecology
Environment any cold terrestrial
Organization solitary, pair, squadron (3–12 mixed urselementals)
Treasure none


Special Abilities
Polar Beam (Ex) Once every 1d4 rounds as a swift action, a polar urselemental shoots a solid beam of frost that requires a ranged touch attack to hit its target. If the beam strikes its target, it deals 7d6 cold damage, and the target must succeed at a DC 22 Fortitude save to avoid becoming fatigued. The save DC is Constitution-based.

 


This tremendous brown bear seems to have bits of rock jutting out from its fur; a sickly green light emanates from its eyes.
Urselemental, Grizzly CR 12
XP 19,200

N Large magical beast (earth)
Init +4; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +18


Defense
AC 27, touch 9, flat-footed 27 (-1 size, +18 natural)
hp 168 (16d10+80)
Fort +15, Ref +10, Will +14
DR 5/magic; Immune acid


Offense
Speed 40 ft., burrow 60 ft., fly 60 ft. (poor)
Melee bite +25 (2d8+10) and 2 claws +25 (2d6+10)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
Special Attacks acid beam


Statistics
Str 31, Dex 10, Con 21, Int 3, Wis 24, Cha 10
Base Atk +16; CMB +27 (+31 grapple, +31 overrun); CMD 37 (39 vs. overrun, 41 vs. trip)
Feats Endurance, Greater Overrun, Improved Initiative, Improved Overrun, Iron Will, Power Attack, Run, Skill Focus (Fly)
Skills Fly +8, Perception +18


Ecology
Environment any terrestrial
Organization solitary, pair, squadron (3–12 mixed urselementals)
Treasure none


Special Abilities
Acid Beam (Ex)
Once every 1d4 rounds as a swift action, a grizzly urselemental shoots a coherent beam of acid that requires a ranged touch attack to hit its target. If the beam strikes its target, it deals 8d6 acid damage, plus 1 point of ongoing acid damage for 5 rounds, and the target must succeed at a DC 23 Fortitude save to avoid becoming sickened for the duration of the ongoing damage. The save DC is Constitution-based.

 


Wizards discovered very early that bears of all sorts combine well with other creatures, resulting in bizarre creations like the owlbear. While no one has discovered the exact quality that makes bears so easily crossbred, that has not stopped deranged arcanists from tampering in things better left alone. Urselementals are yet another creation deriving from some hidden laboratory, where a mad (or genius) experimenter managed to fuse elementals with bears. However, specific species of bears accept certain elemental merges much more readily than others; a grizzly bear is the best candidate for earth, a koala bear is the best choice for air, a polar bear is the most suitable for water, and a sun bear is the optimum species for fire. Each species of bear is largely unchanged in terms of size—the koala grew to twice its normal size while only increasing its weight by 50 percent—but their eyes, which boil with barely restrained elemental energy, primarily mark them out from mundane versions.


Despite the fusion of elemental energies to urselementals, the creatures work surprisingly well together. Often a squadron of the bears features more than one species, including those of nominally opposed elements. Powerful wizards obtain—or create—urselementals to act as guards or the powerhouses of an intimidating army. True elemental creatures regard these odd creations with pity, but they will not typically attack the bears and may, in fact, enslave them for their own purposes.