Friday, October 3, 2008

Monster Week at the Near TPK - the Psicow

All right, the week from hell at work seems to have ended, and I'm ready to jump back into the blogging pool. Jen drew more random monsters for me, so I'm celebrating my return with more homegrown 4e monsters! Tonight's entry: the terrible psicow.

Psicow
Psicows are intelligent beasts only distantly related to normal cattle. No one knows where they come from, though many theories have been put forward. Some say they hail from the far realm, others believe that they are normal cattle infused with powers of that realm, and still others claim that they were bred by the mind flayers as a strange cross between guardians and food for their grimlock servants.

Level 10 Controller
Psicow Illusionist
XP 500
Large aberrant magical beast
Initiative +7 Senses Perception +3; darkvision
Cowed aura 5; enemies within the aura take a –2 penalty to attack rolls against the psicow illusionist
HP 106; Bloodied 53
AC 24; Fortitude 22, Reflex 22, Will 23
Speed 6
mGore (standard; at-will)
+13 vs. AC; 1d8 + 4 damage and the target is pushed one square.
RPsychic Gore (standard; at-will) * Psychic
Ranged 10; +15 vs. Will; 2d6+6 psychic damage, and the psicow illusionist makes a secondary attack against the same target. Secondary Attack: +15 vs. Will; the target is dazed (save ends).
RThird Eye (minor; encounter) * Psychic
Ranged 5; +15 vs. Will; the target takes a -2 penalty to Will (save ends).
AIllusory Stampede (standard; recharge 5 6) * Illusion, Psychic
Area burst 2 within 5; enemies within the burst imagine that the area is filled with stampeding cattle; +12 vs. Will; 2d8 + 5 psychic damage, and the target takes ongoing 5 psychic damage and is immobilized (save ends both).
Psicow Path (move; encounter) * Illusion
The psicow illusionist shifts up to 5 squares under the cover of illusions and gains concealment until the end of its next turn.
Alignment Unaligned Languages Deep Speech, telepathy 10
Skills Insight +15
Str 15 (+7) Dex 14 (+7) Wis 21 (+10)
Con 18 (+9) Int 18 (+9) Cha 15 (+7)

Psicow Illusionist Tactics
A psicow illusionist uses its illusory stampede as often as possible, and directs its third eye at the enemy it determines to be the greatest threat. If engaged in melee it will attempt to use psycow path to retreat or withdraw to a better position.
Level 14 Artillery
Psicow Brainlasher
XP 1,000
Large aberrant magical beast
Initiative +9 Senses Perception +6; low-light vision
HP 110; Bloodied 55
AC 26; Fortitude 26, Reflex 26, Will 27
Speed 6
mGore (standard; at-will)
+21 vs. AC; 1d8 + 4 damage and the target is pushed one square.
RPsychic Gore (standard; at-will) * Psychic
Ranged 20; +20 vs. Will; 2d8+6 psychic damage, and the target is dazed (save ends).
RThird Eye (minor; encounter) * Psychic
Ranged 10; +20 vs. Will; the target takes a -2 penalty to Will (save ends).
APsychic Cowpie (standard; encounter) * Psychic
Area burst 3 within 10; targets enemies; +17 vs. Reflex; 2d8 + 6 psychic damage, and the target is immobilized (save ends). Aftereffect: The target is slowed (save ends).
Alignment Unaligned Languages Deep Speech, telepathy 10
Skills Insight +18
Str 16 (+10) Dex 14 (+9) Wis 23 (+13)
Con 20 (+12) Int 20 (+12) Cha 15 (+9)

Psicow Brainlasher Tactics
A psicow brainlasher opens with a psychic cowpie if no enemies are nearby and it can catch more than two in the burst. It tries to stay out of melee and use its psychic gore, and directs its third eye at the enemy it determines to be the greatest threat.

Psicow Lore
A character knows the following information with a successful Dungeoneering check.
DC 20: Psicows are intelligent but belligerent creatures that possess potent psychic powers. Psicows communicate via telepathy. They understand Deep Speech.
DC 25: Some psicows are raised by aberrant creatures like mind flayers. The mind flayers use them as guards and, when they become too old or sick to perform this duty, as food for thralls.

Encounter Groups
Psicows are often found acting as guards for groups of aberrant creatures.
Level 14 Encounter (XP 5,000)
* 2 psicow brainlashers (level 14 artillery)
* 2 mind flayer infiltrators (level 14 lurker)
* 4 grimlock minions (level 14 minion)
Fear the terrible brain twisting death moo of the psicow!

6 comments:

Gregor LeBlaque said...

Glad you approve :)

Currently working up more in the series in the hope that even if another hell week erupts at work next week I'll still be able to post daily.

I also need to get Jen to draw me one more random monster picture if I'm going to make it an even week...

Paolo Cecchetto said...

The monster is really nice, but I was waiting for a monster brainstorming like the last time :(

I'm a little disappointed ^_^

Gregor LeBlaque said...

I'll see what I can do about getting her to draw another one that breaks my brain so I need the outside input again.

The monster brainstorming was fun. Maybe this blog needs that as a weekly or monthly feature...

ChaoticBlackSheep said...

I can draw more random monsters sometime later this week. I'm glad you all enjoy them so. Monsters are the most fun because you can let your imagination go wild.

ChaoticBlackSheep said...

I don't know about the psychic cowpie thing. That is just so... bad. I guess it lends a new take on the idea of having "sh** for brains". :)

Gregor LeBlaque said...

I was kind of amused with the cowpie. It's a slightly weaker version of the aboleth slime mage's slime burst, so I already had "targets dripping with goo" in my head when I named it.

I'm more pleased with the name I came up with for the illusionist's move power...