Tuesday, November 5, 2019

Non Dark Sun Creatures in Dark Sun - Bat

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.
I removed the spell casting and bat familiar, as I did not feel they fit the Dark Sun setting very well. I added a psionic bat, which can be quite a hassle for your player characters.
Bat

Common Large Huge Psionic
Climate/Terrain Any Land Any Land Warm Caves Any Land
Frequency Common Uncommon Rare Rare
Organization Swarm Flock Flock Solitary or Flock
Activity Cycle Night Night Night Night
Diet Omnivore Omnivore Omnivore Omnivore
Intelligence Animal (1) Animal (1) Animal (1) Semi (2-4)
Treasure Nil Nil C A
Alignment Neutral Neutral Neutral Evil Neutral
No. Appearing 1-100 3-18 1-8 1 or 1-12
Armor Class 8 (See Below) 8 7 (See Below) 3
Movement 1, Fl 24 (B) 3, Fl 18 (C) 3, Fl 15 (C) 2, Fl 21 (A)
Hit Dice 1-2 hp 1d4 hp 4-6 4+4
Thac0 20 19 17 (4 HD)
15 (5-6 HD)
16
No. of Attacks 1 1 1 1
Damage/ Attack 1 1d4 2d4 1d4 + 1
Special Attack See below Nil See below Psionics
Special Defense Nil See below See below Psionics
Magic Resistance Nil Nil Nil Nil
Size T (1') M (6') H (12-16') M (7')
Morale Unsteady (5-7) Unsteady (5-7) Steady (11-12) Elite (14)
XP Value 15 35 420 (4 HD)
650 (5 HD)
975 (6 HD)
650


Bats are common animals in the Tablelands. While ordinary bats are annoying but harmless, larger varieties can be quite deadly.
With almost 2,000 different species of bats known, one can find wingspans from less than two inches across to 15 feet or more. The small body of the ordinary bat resembles a mouse, while the wings are formed from extra skin stretched across its fore limbs. The larger bats are scaled up but otherwise similar in appearance.
Despite the common belief that bats are blind, nearly all known species have rather good eyesight. In the dark, however, they do not rely on their visual acuity, but navigate instead by echo-location. By emitting a high-pitched squeal and listening for it to bounce back to them, they can see their surroundings by this natural form of sonar.

Combat
Ordinary bats attack only if cornered and left with no other option. If startled, bats tend to become frightened and confused. This causes them to swarm around and often fly into things. The typical bat swarm ends up putting out torches (1% chance per bat encountered per round), confusing spell casting and psionics (Wisdom roll required to cast spells or use psionics), inhibiting combatants’ ability to wield weapons (by a -2 THAC0 penalty), and otherwise getting in the way. Under ideal flying conditions, a bat’s Armor Class rating rises from 8 to 4.

Habitat/Society
While bats are found almost anywhere, they prefer warm climates. Bats live in caves, dark buildings, or crevices, hanging by their toes during the day, and leaving at dusk to feed during the night. In large, isolated caverns there may be thousands of bats. Bats are most common in mountains, rocky badlands, and abandoned urban environments.

Ecology
Most bats eat plants or insects, though some include small animals or fish in their diets. The rare leech bat travels at night to drink the warm blood of living mammals, but its victims are rarely humans or demihumans. Carrion crawlers are among the few creatures known to live in the guano on the floor of large bat-infested caverns, making any expeditions into such caves dangerous indeed. If the noxious odor from the guano is not enough to subdue the hardiest of adventurers (a single Constitution check to stay conscious), these crawling denizens are.

Large
These creatures are large versions of the carnivorous variety of the ordinary bat with 3-foot-long bodies and 5- to 6-foot-long wingspans. They dwell in dark caverns, usually underground, and depend on their sonar in flight to compensate for their poor eyesight.
Extremely maneuverable in flight, large bats gain an Armor Class bonus of +3 when an opponent with a Dexterity of 13 or less fires a missile weapon at it. The creature must land (usually on its victim) to attack with its bite. This species inflicts 1d4 points of damage with its teeth. Anyone bitten by a large bat has a 1% chance per point of damage done to contract rabies.
When rabies is contracted, there is a 1d4+6 day incubation period. Once this period has ended, the victim has 10 days to live. The victim cannot drink or eat anything and is overly irritable. Anything from loud noises to being awakened at night can set the victim off (the DM determines the temper triggers). If temper flares, the victim must roll a Wisdom check. If the check fails, the rabid person attacks until he is killed or knocked unconscious. When a character contracts rabies, he or she dies from the infliction, unless cured by psionics or spells.

Huge (Mobat)
Mobats prefer warm-blooded prey that they bite to death with their fangs. They have a dim and evil intelligence that gives them a desire for shiny objects. Because the typical mobat has a wingspan of 12 to 16 feet, they must have large areas to serve as flight runways.
Because Mobats’ flight is so rapid and silent, their victims suffer a -3 penalty to their surprise rolls. They can also give a piercing screech that causes such great pain that victims seek to cover their ears rather than fight, unless a saving throw versus paralyzation is successful. This screech is always used if the prey resists and it is effective in a 20-foot radius about the mobat. Note that mobile mobats have an Armor Class of 2. Under crowded flying conditions, their Armor Class suffers and raises to 7. When not in flight, mobats have an Armor Class of 10.

Psionic
These creatures appear slightly larger than large bats, whom they often live among. They have 3 1/2-foot-long bodies and 6- to 7-foot-long wingspans. They dwell in dark places and have infravision up to 120'. They communicate with other bats via telepathy that has a range up to 80'.
They are extremely maneuverable in flight, gaining an Armor Class bonus of +3 when an opponent with a Dexterity of 13 or less fires a missile weapon at it. Psionic bats must land (usually on its victim) to attack with its bite. This species inflicts 1d4+1 points of damage with its teeth. Although, Psionic bats prefer to use their psionics to confuse their targets before resorting to physical attacks, teleporting behind targets and attacking grants the bat an additional +2 bonus to hit. Psionic bats hate all magic users and attack them before any other targets.
Psionic Summary
Level: 3
Dis/Sci/Dev: 2/2/7
Attack/Defense: 0/2
Score: 15
PSPs: 92
Clairsentient: Clairvoyance, Danger Sense, See Magic
Psychoportive: Teleport, Blink, Dimensional Door, Duo-Dimension, Phase, Time Shift


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