Tuesday, August 25, 2020

Non-Dark Sun Creatures in Dark Sun - Cildabrin

There are many creatures from 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 often add a new Athasian variant as well.

Cildabrin


Cildabrin Cildabrin, Savage
Climate/Terrain Subterranean Ruins of Kalidnay
Frequency Very rare Very rare
Organization Solitary Solitary
Activity Cycle Any Any
Diet Carnivore Carnivore
Intelligence Low (5-7) Animal (1)
Treasure C or D Nil
Alignment Neutral Evil Chaotic Evil
No. Appearing 1-2 1
Armor Class 5 2
Movement 15 15
Hit Dice 11 16
THAC0 9 4
No. of Attacks 3 3
Damage/Attack 1-12/1-12/1-6 2-16/2-16/1-12
Special Attacks See Below See Below
Special Defenses Nil See Below
Magic Resistance 20% 50%
Size H (13' across, 6'-10' high) H (16' across, 10'-14' high)
Morale Elite (13-14) Fearless (19-20)
XP Value 7,000 12,000


Cildabrins are a race of either huge spiders with elements of a giant scorpion’s anatomy, or a race of huge scorpions with elements of a spider’s anatomy. No one knows for certain. The cadre of defilers that created them died long ago.
A cildabrin’s body is black and furry. The cildabrin’s eight eyes are turquoise blue. The front two legs end in scorpion-like pincers, and there is a supple, fur-covered tail with an 8-inch stinger at its tip. They have infravision with a 120-foot range.
One out of every twenty cilabrin born become savage after their first year. These savage cildabrin lose much of their intelligence and feel nothing but rage. They only find solace in fighting and killing other creatures. It is unknown why this happens, perhaps it was a mistake in their creation.

Combat
When in melee, cildabrins attack with their claws and their stinger. If the cildabrin hits with a pincer, a victim at least one category size smaller must make a successful saving throw vs. bend bars to escape. If the saving throw is not successful, the victim automatically takes 7-12 points of crushing damage in the subsequent round. The victim can attempt to escape once per round, until the cildabrin releases him at its death, or until the victim loses consciousness. The stinger can reach any medium-sized or larger targets that are in melee with it. The stinger is equipped with Type O poison. Perhaps because of the presence of a tail, these beasts lack spinnerets. Fortunately, they are a highly magical race with several magical abilities to compensate for this weakness. The cildabrin can cast web of darkness 15’ radius, and silence, 15’ radius three times a day, one per round. Cildabrins also have a permanent spider climb effect. They are immune to all web spells.
Cildabrins prefer to ambush their prey from where they hide, usually from within an area of silence. They often cast a web spell and move into melee. A darkness spell is usually saved to protect the creature as it retreats.
Savage cildabrins are larger, less intelligent, but more ferocious forms of the standard cildabrin. They cannot cast spells, but have a higher magic resistance. Due to their never ending rage, savage cildabrin are 50% immune to all telepathic psionic abilities. In addition, their carapace is spiked and inflicts 1d4+1 points of damage on any creature attacking it with natural weapons. The thickness of their carapace also reduces the amount of damage the savage cildabrin takes from piercing weapons by half.

Habitat/ Society
As solitary creatures, cildabrins come together only to mate. If two cildabrins are encountered, there is doubtless a nest of 10-40 large, purple eggs nearby, probably in an area of darkness. Cildabrins understand the value of treasure, or at least that food seems attracted to it, and often leave some visible to attract prey.
Standard cildabrin may understand (35% chance) the local language, but are unable to speak.
Savage cildabrin do not mate. They only live to kill and devour other life.
Cildabrin eggs hatch after four months. The hatchlings grow at 1HD per season (3HD a year), until they are fully grown. They are born small, but gain a size category for every three hit dice they gain, up their maximum size category.
Claw and sting damage is reduced by 1 for every hit die that they lack, minimum of 1. So, a 4HD cildabrin does 1D12 - 7 points of damage with it's claws and 1D6 - 7 points of damage with its stinger. They develop their poison after their first year and their magical abilities after their second year. Cildabrin are abandoned by their parents shortly after hatching.

Ecology
Cildabrins eat any animal that they can catch. Once the food is caught and paralyzed or killed, the cildabrin retreats to its lair to eat. The lair is usually a dark cave. It cannot consume inorganic material, so items constructed from stone, obsidian, crystal, or metal are stripped from the prey and set aside, either in a pile in the rear of the cave or on the cildabrin’s “bait piles”.
Savage cildabrin do not bait their prey in any way.

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