Thursday, October 3, 2019

Non-Dark Sun Creatures in Dark Sun - Baatezu, Abishai

There are many creatures for the various monstrous manuals that have been officially added to Dark Sun. I added some unofficially for my game and I'm sure a lot of other DMs do the same.
There is no inherent problem with this, although the flavor text often doesn't fit with the Dark Sun setting. My goal is to list the various monsters that "don't fit" and rewrite their flavor text to make them fit.

Baatezu, Abishai

Black
Climate/Terrain: Any
Frequency: Very Rare
Organization: Solitary
Activity Cycle: Any
Diet: Carnivore
Intelligence: Average (8-10)
Treasure: Nil
Alignment: Lawful Evil
No. Appearing: 2-20
Armor Class: 5
Movement: 9, Fl 12 (C)
Hit Dice: 4+1
Thac0: 17
No. of Attacks: 3
Damage/ Attack: 1d4/1d4/1d4+1
Special Attack: Poison, Dive
Special Defense:+1 or better weapons to hit, regeneration
Magic Resistance: 30%
Size: L (8' tall)
Morale: Average (8-10)
XP Value: 7,000 (5,000 if non-magical)

Green
Climate/Terrain: Any
Frequency: Very Rare
Organization: Solitary
Activity Cycle: Any
Diet: Carnivore
Intelligence: Average (8-10)
Treasure: Nil
Alignment: Lawful Evil
No. Appearing: 2-8
Armor Class: 3
Movement: 9, Fl 12 (C)
Hit Dice: 5+2
Thac0: 15
No. of Attacks: 3
Damage/ Attack: 1d4/1d4/1d4+1
Special Attack: Poison, Dive
Special Defense:+1 or better weapons to hit, regeneration
Magic Resistance: 30%
Size: L (7' tall)
Morale: Average (8-10)
XP Value: 8,000 (6,000 if non-magical)

Red
Climate/Terrain: Any
Frequency: Very Rare
Organization: Solitary
Activity Cycle: Any
Diet: Carnivore
Intelligence: Average (8-10)
Treasure: Nil
Alignment: Lawful Evil
No. Appearing: 1
Armor Class: 1
Movement: 9, Fl 12 (C)
Hit Dice: 6+3
Thac0: 13
No. of Attacks: 3
Damage/ Attack: 1d4/1d4/1d4+1
Special Attack: Poison, Dive
Special Defense:+1 or better weapons to hit, regeneration
Magic Resistance: 30%
Size: L (6' tall)
Morale: Steady (11-12)
XP Value: 9,000 (7,000 if non-magical)

Abishai are very rare on Athas. They look like gothic gargoyles, thin and reptilian, with long, prehensile tails and large wings. The three varieties of abishai have different skin colors – in ascending order of station, black, green, and red. All have a vinegary smell and rasping voices. The air seems to warm perceptibly in their presence, especially at night.

Combat
In battle, the abishai strikes with two claws (1d4 points of damage each) and its flexible tail (ld4 + 1 points of damage and poison; note that the poison is fatal unless a successful save vs. poison is made).
Abishai can fly high into the air and dive at their enemies, striking with both claws. They attack at +2, and a hit does double damage (2d4 points per claw).
Once per day they can attempt to gate in 2 to 12 lemures (60% chance of success) or 1 to 3 abishai (30% chance). Any baatezu who is gated into Athas must pass through the Gray and have a chance of getting lost. Any baatezu attempting to leave Athas also have a chance of getting lost in the Gray.
Abishai are susceptible to holy water (2d4 points of damage per vial). They regenerate 1 hit point per round unless the damage is done by holy water or a holy magical weapon.
Because baatezu are cut off from their divine and arcane power sources they cannot use any of their spells or spell-like abilities until they learn to draw energy as other arcane spellcasters. Baatezu only learn how to defile. Once they learn to draw energy, baatezu gain all the spell-casting abilities of all baatezu, in addition, they can change self, command, produce flame, pyrotechnics, and scare. Even without the ability to draw energy, baatezu keep their immunities and damage reductions.

Habitat/Society
Abishai are voracious and evil. They learn defiling magic as soon as possible when entering Athas. Separated from the Blood War and further advancement on their native plane, abishai on Athas generally seek to build cults of worshipers around themselves and build communities dedicated to their greatness. They may seek to escape Athas, but only when their success is assured.
Their racial hatreds are not removed when getting stuck on Athas and baatezu will seek to destroy any tanar'ri they come across.

Ecology
The abishai are not native to Athas and have no positive ecological impact. Baatezu do not reproduce.

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