With Fiends Like These...
Eberron's most ancient adversaries are the Lords of Dust, native demons who once ruled the earth and are now imprisoned within it. While the rakshasa rajahs may be trapped deep within Khyber, their servants and proxies still roam the world above. These fiends enlist mortal followers, gather powerful artifacts, and attack challengers to their sovereignity as they unveil their scheme to create a second Age of Demons.
This article presents three additions to a fiend-oriented campaign. The bharaivya is a native fiend that makes an excellent challenge for low-level parties or a foot soldier for higher-level encounters. The half-fiend (native) template provides an option for creating half-fiends tied to rakshasas rather than the demons of Shavarath. Finally, thrall items are an example of how devious fiends can use adventurers' treasure-hunting instincts against them.
New Creature: Bharaivya
This being’s head is that of a lynx, though cunning intelligence gleams in its narrowed eyes. Its humanoid body is covered in loose, exotic garments. It crouches with coiled energy whenever it is not moving, emphasizing the fact that each of its limbs are grotesquely double-jointed.
Eternal servants to the rakshasa, bharaivya are fiends spawned to serve as foot soldiers and spies in the war against light. At the dawn of time, rakshasa rajas commanded entire armies of bharaivya, but now they are elite commandos almost as rare as the rakshasas themselves. They fight unquestioningly on behalf of their masters, providing a martial arm to their elders’ complex schemes.
Bharaivya often disguise themselves as experienced monks, creating schools that teach martial arts while indoctrinating young monks as servants of the fiend lords. While not as subtle as the rakshasa, they still prefer to plan ahead and avoid revealing their supernatural identity.
BHARAIVYA Bharaivya stand about 3 feet tall and weigh about 35 pounds. Bharaivya speak Common, Infernal, and Undercommon. COMBAT |
New Template: Half-Fiend (Native)
While traditional half-fiends certainly appear on Eberron, half-fiends with rakshasa heritage are more common. Rakshasas are shapeshifters with schemes that unfold over a matter of centuries, and often use their offspring as servants. Some "half-rakshasas" may even be created as part of foul rituals within the depths of Khyber.
A creature with the half-fiend (native) template gains catlike features: a broad, leonine muzzle and eyes with slit pupils. If they have natural body hair, it grows thicker and covers the creature's body. Most half-rakshasas have orange-tinted flesh and tiger-like stripes, though some have the dusky or pale coloration of nazathrune and ak'chazar rakshasas. While some half-rakshasas take after the physically powerful zakyas, most are plotters and conspirators who prefer to fight through their minions.
CREATING
A HALF-FIEND (NATIVE) A half-fiend (native) uses all the base creature’s statistics and special abilities except as noted here. Size and Type: The creature’s type changes to outsider (native). Do not recalculate Hit Dice, base attack bonus, or saves. Size is unchanged. Half-fiends are normally native outsiders. Speed: Use the base creature's speed. (Unlike a traditional half-fiend, the native half-fiend does not gain wings or a fly speed.) Armor Class: Natural armor improves by +1 (this stacks with any natural armor bonus the base creature has). Attack: A half-fiend (native) has two claw attacks and a bite attack, and the claws are the primary natural weapon. If the base creature can use weapons, the half-fiend (native) retains this ability. A half-fiend (native) fighting without weapons uses a claw when making an attack action. When it has a weapon, it usually uses the weapon instead. Full Attack: A half-fiend (native) fighting without weapons uses both claws and its bite when making a full attack. If armed with a weapon, it usually uses the weapon as its primary attack and its bite as a natural secondary attack. If it has a hand free, it uses a claw as an additional natural secondary attack. Damage: Native half-fiends have bite and claw attacks. If the base creature does not have these attack forms, use the damage values in the table below. Otherwise, use the values below or the base creature’s damage values, whichever are greater.
Special Attacks: A half-fiend (native) retains all the special attacks of the base creature and gains the following special attack. Smite Good (Su): Once per day the creature can make a normal melee attack to deal extra damage equal to its HD (maximum of +20) against a good foe. Spell-Like Abilities: A half-fiend (native) with an Intelligence or Wisdom score of 8 or higher has spell-like abilities depending on its Hit Dice, as indicated on the table below. The abilities are cumulative. Unless otherwise noted, an ability is usable once per day. Caster level equals the creature’s HD, and the save DC is Charisma-based.
Special
Qualities: A half-rakshasa has all the special qualities
of the base creature, plus the following special qualities. Abilities: Increase from the base creature as follows: Str +2, Dex +4, Con +2, Int +4, Cha +4. Skills: A half-fiend (native) gains skill points as an outsider and has skill points equal to (8 + Int modifier) x (HD + 3). Do not include Hit Dice from class levels in this calculation—the half-fiend (native) gains outsider skill points only for its racial Hit Dice, and gains the normal amount of skill points for its class levels. Treat skills from the base creature’s list as class skills, and other skills as cross-class. Challenge Rating: HD 4 or less, as base creature +1; HD 5 to 10, as base creature +2; HD 11 or more, as base creature +3. Alignment: Usually evil (any). Level Adjustment: +4 |
Thrall Items
Rakshasas are rarely taken by surprise. They know their enemies and understand the mindsets of the adventurers and paladins who seek to infiltrate their layers. They know their opponents will be armed, and competent foes will carry powerful magic items designed to overcome a rakshasa's damage resistance. But a rakshasa also knows that if it can choose its enemies' weapons, it will have a deadly advantage.
Put simply, thrall items are pairs of items that recognize each other. A primary item, usually a weapon or other offensive item, is keyed to a secondary item. Anyone wearing the secondary item cannot be harmed by the primary item. Creating a pair of thrall items is just like creating a single magic item, but the requirements are more stringent (see below).
Creating Thrall Items: A primary thrall item may be any magic weapon, wand, staff, rod or scroll with a market price of 5,000 gp or more that. The item creation process links it to a secondary item, which may be a helmet, amulet, belt or ring. To create a thrall item, a creator must fulfill the following requirements in addition to the primary item's base requirements: —
Additional cost: 1,000 gp per 5,000 gp in base cost of primary item Once a thrall item pair is created, the wearer of the secondary item cannot be harmed by the primary item to which it is linked. If the linked item is a weapon, any attempt to hit the wearer automatically fails. If the linked item is a spell trigger or spell completion item, its spells appear to target the wearer of the secondary item, but no actual damage is dealt (even for area-effect spells such as fireball). The function of the secondary item may be revealed through use of identify, but the true nature of the primary item cannot be discovered by any effect short of an informed legend lore. If the secondary item is destroyed, the primary item is also destroyed. |
Thrall items serve several purposes. Most are the products of cautious creators who simply don't wish their powerful items to be used against them. But some thrall items are created by those who actually intend for the primary item to fall into the hands of an enemy. A thrall item is more subtle than a cursed item, but can just as effectively take its wielder out of a fight. By the time the wielder of the primary item realizes that he's missing what should be certain shots, the battle has often been decided. If an adventurer manages to survive such a battle and retrieve the secondary item, however, he has a powerful weapon to carry into future conflicts.
Sample Thrall Item: Fiendslayer Longbow
This ancient longbow glows with silver radiance. It is crafted from polished wood and inlayed with silver verdigree. Just above the grip, a single cat's eye gem gleams with its own inner light.
The fiendslayer longbow is clearly a powerful magic item, and casting an identify spell will reveal that it is a +3 flaming burst longbow that sheds light equivalent to a light spell (bright light in a 20-foot radius, shadowy light in a 40-foot radius).
The fiendslayer longbow functions normally in almost all situations, but it is actually a thrall item linked to a thrall amulet worn by a powerful rakshasa sorcerer. (The amulet is made of gold and set with a large cat's eye gem.) Though the bearer of the fiendslayer longbow makes attack rolls as normal against the wearer of the thrall amulet, any attempt to hit the wearer of the thrall amulet automatically fails.
The rakshasa has hidden this bow within its lair, seemingly well-secured but placed conspicuously so that any formidable intruder is likely to find it. The rakshasa will allow the weapon to be used against his own minions in order to prove its worth, and will react with feigned fear if the longbow appears during a battle.
The thrall amulet's nature (and connection to the fiendslayer longbow) can be revealed through use of identify, but no effect short of a legend lore will reveal the fiendslayer longbow's true nature.
| +3
flaming burst longbow and thrall amulet pair
Strong evocation; CL12; Craft Magic Arms and Armor, fireball, suggestion, and nondetection; Price: 60,375 gp. |
This article was written by Johnny "Jhonen Olain" O'Neal.