Fiend Factory 5e. White Dwarf 25: The Dream Demon

 Issue 25: The Dream Demon

 


This is another Fiend Factory presented as a mini-scenario, called The Black Manse. In this scenario, the setting is a town or village that is suffering injustice and heavy taxation ever since the former, benevolent baron was supplanted by his son and his twelve dwarf henchmen. Since the local mayor turned into a gibbering idiot when he went to plead with the son, there’s obviously an opening for adventurers to investigate. There’s no map, but a nice evocative illustration of the Manse for inspiration.

 


In reality, the son is an Incubus,



The main difference between this version and the 5th Edition version is that Roger E Moore’s incubi have more spell-like abilities for affecting the mind of their victims, including confusion and the psionic ability to cause insanity (which this particular incubus used on the former baron).

The baron’s men have been taken over by Brain Suckers (by John R Gordon).


These are quite neat, and could be used as a kind of larval form of Intellect Devourer, since in effect they do the same thing except reversibly. Unlike intellect devourers, the brain sucker leaves the host alive (although damage is caused that could be deadly to low-level types) if it is forced out. Again, like the incubus, it’s psionic.


Finally, the baron’s treasure house is guarded by, well, a Guardian (by Simon Tilbrook)

 



This is described as a variant necrophidius, which is less of a rip-off than it seems since Simon Tilbrook also came up with the necrophidius. Iit has some interesting quirks, and I may come back to this one for bonus stats. Its bite causes petrification (nick the rules for the cockatrice), but it is also able to project its spirit into the bodies of its petrified victims, becoming an animated statue. That’s a good dilemma for a party if they have to fight their petrified companion without damaging them beyond restoration. Each guardian has a built in vulnerability to a particular material (in the case of this scenario, silver), which can be exploited by the master to prevent betrayal (here, all of the treasure chests are silver-plated).

So, the incubus already exists, the brain sucker is too close to an intellect devourer (plus I did a body snatcher beat with the Enslaver), the Guardian is good, but my favourite in this issue is Phil Masters’ Dream Demon, perhaps because of the illustration.

 


In this scenario, the incubus’ dwarf henchmen are actually these creatures under an illusory disguise, but I particularly like the idea of them as an alternative to an imp or quasit as a special familiar.

 




They have ties to the Illusionist class, which hasn’t been a thing beyond a specialist wizard since 1st Edition, but there’s still plenty of scope for giving them strong ties to magic of the illusion school. To that end, I gave them specific resistance against illusion magic, with a once-per-day ability to chose to succeed automatically on a saving throw. This streamlined the rather awkward list of specific spells to which the dream demon was immune (and they don’t form a coherent enough theme to convert it simply into a condition immunity.

The innate spellcasting was quite easy to convert, using minor illusion in place of ventrilioquism, and I gave them major image in place of the non-existent gaze reflection and minor creation.

The ability of a dream demon to control shadows (the undead monster) is an odd one, but I kept it.

 

Dream Demon

Tiny fiend (demon), chaotic evil

Armour Class 14

Hit Points 14 (4d4 + 4)

Speed 20 ft., fly 30 ft.

STR

DEX

CON

INT

WIS

CHA

5 (-3)

18 (+4)

12 (+1)

11 (+0)

10 (+0)

14 (+2)

Proficiency Bonus +2

Saving Throws Dex +7, Int +5

Skills Deception +5, Insight +3, Stealth +7

Senses truesight 60 ft., passive Perception 10

Languages Abyssal, Common

Challenge 1 (100 XP)

Illusion Resistance. The dream demon has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects of the illusion school. Once per day, if it fails a saving throw against an illusion spell, it can choose instead to succeed. Note that a dream demon will automatically disbelieve any illusory effects due to its truesight..

Illusory Appearance. The dream demon can give itself the illusory appearance of any humanoid of size Small or smaller, but not that of a specific person. If this effect is dispelled, the dream demon can restore it as a bonus action on its turn.

Innate Spellcasting. The dream demons innate spellcasting ability is Charisma (save DC 12). It can innately cast the following spells without material components.

       At will: dancing lights, minor illusion

3/day: hypnotic pattern, phantasmal force

1/day: invisibility, major image, maze


ACTIONS

Wing. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 6 (1d4 + 4) slashing damage.

Control Shadows (1/day). The dream demon can attempt to take control of an undead shadow. To do so, the dream demon makes a contested Charisma check against the shadow’s Wisdom check. If successful, the shadow is under the control of the dream demon for as long as the dream demon concentrates, or for 1 hour, whichever ends first.

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dr Simon Reads... Appendix N. Part One: Poul Anderson

Image
Dr. Simon Reads Appendix N: Introduction This is a new series that will feature sporadically, in which I explore classic fantasy and science fiction works. You will either know what I mean by “Appendix N”, or you will have no clue. In the original Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Dungeon Masters Guide, Gary Gygax provided a large number of appendices, from random smells to reputed magical properties of herbs and gemstones. Appendix N was a bibliography of works that inspired him. Back in 1982 when I first got hold of this book, there were only a couple of items on there that I’d read, and only a few other authors that I’d even heard of. Many years later, after, much reading, I returned to Appendix N expecting to have added greatly to the works on there that I’d read; but actually, there were still very few. Many of the authors were obscure or out of print authors of, for want of a better expression, golden age pulp; the kind that feature in Amazing Stories and the like. Now, ...
Read more

An Atheist Explores the Qur'an Part 121: Closing Thoughts

It took half as many posts to tackle the Qur'an as it did the Bible, 120 compared to 248, but it felt like longer sometimes. Perhaps because the Qur'an is written by a single man and deals with pretty much the same topic over and over, whereas the Bible is a compilation of multiple works, some of which are historical, some apocalyptic, some laws or building instruction, some philosophical, some poetic, some a bit of each. From that point of view, I'd have to say that the Bible was the more interesting work to read. Have I learned any great wisdom from the Qur'an? I'd have to say … no, not really. Granted, I probably didn't approach it with a particularly deep understanding of the material in the first place, but that (as with the Bible readthrough) was always my intent. Picking through line by line is still something of a deep dive, and in both books I tried to be alert for symbol and metaphor. Doing it that way, however, it's easy to miss thematic callb...
Read more

An Atheist Explores the Bible Part 140: The Fall and Rise of (Slightly Tarty) Cities (Isaiah 21-25)

Isaiah 21-25 The Fall and Rise of (Slightly Tarty) Cities Welcome to another instalment of An Atheist Explores Sacred Texts (Bible version). In this series I work my way chapter-by-chapter through the King James Bible, commenting on it from the point of view of the text as literature and mythology. For more detail, see the introductory post http://bit.ly/2F8f9JT For the online KJV I use, see here http://bit.ly/2m0zVUP And now: Isaiah 21 “And he cried, A lion: My lord, I stand continually upon the watchtower in the daytime, and I am set in my ward whole nights:” Isaiah has a vision that causes him pain like the pain of childbirth, apparently. From out of the desert comes a chariot bearing news that Babylon has fallen, but I don’t know to whom. This chapter says to “ watch in the watchtower ”, from which I guess the Jehovah’s Witnesses get the name of their little newsletter. Also Isaiah, or the people to whom he speaks, are told to “ go set a watchman ”; another line ...
Read more