d20 Dreamspawn – Lerona and Queen Yintor

   Occasionally people want to know why they should take a challenge rating one creature as a companion when they can take a challenge rating two creature.

   And to some extent, that’s a sensible question. Admittedly, lower challenge-rating creatures sometimes have some useful special ability, are often less conspicuous, and may be a better fit with the role you’re playing – but if a game gets combat-heavy, having passed up a couple of extra hit dice and more damage can start looking like a really stupid decision.

   However, if your game master is feeling generous enough to let you get away with it, there’s an easy way to fix that; apply a +1 ECL – or CR – Template. After all, your companion needs to be challenge rating two or less – but nothing says it has to be straight out of the book.

   In this case, I’ll be applying the Atherian Absolute Command Birthright. That’s normally a +0 ECL Race, but – in Eclipse – you can apply racial builds as Templates at +1 ECL.

   The Absolute Command Birthright:

• Inherent Spells: 4xL1 (6 CP), 4x L2 (12 CP), 4x L3 (11 CP): Specialized and Corrupted: Only usable to power Theurgy, immediate commands only, requires a fortitude save at +4 against the user’s own spell to avoid fatigue. Net cost: 10 CP. Caster Level = User’s Hit Dice
• Reflex Action with +3 Bonus Uses: Specialized in Theurgy (12 Uses/Day, 11 CP)
• Mastery x2 (all Theurgy Verb Skills) (8 CP): Specialist for Double Effect (may “Take 20”)/immediate commands only; no long-term enchantments, no duration spells, no triggered or waiting effects, etc. Corrupted/requires a Will save against fatigue.
• Resist: +2 on saving throws against Mental Effects, Corrupted: Mind Control Only (2 CP).
  • That last bit is usually redundant, but it might come into play if the Protection from Law effect gets dispelled.

   Lerona Sylinthin is a young elvish girl, the daughter of an elven father and a half-elven mother, and is as yet very young – the rough equivalent of seven or eight years old. Her red-blonde hair and freckles are amongst the last traces of her human grandmother – whom she has, sadly, never met, since she died of old age long before Lerona was born.

Lerona is sunny, cheerful, and surprisingly practical in daily life – perhaps a heritage from her father, a carpenter and wood-carver who’s only resort to elvish mysticism is to use it to help sell wooden charms and trinkets. She reserves her flights of fantasy for the epic tales of gods and dragons her mother has spun for her, and used to get lost watching the sun shining through the collection of colored bottles in the window, seeing the gods and dragons of her mother’s tales in the motes of dust dancing in the colored beams that sparkled gemlike through the glass.

   She could see them so clearly that she wasn’t too surprised when one of the tiny dragons she envisioned landed on her shoulder and talked to her. She’s not so sure that the creature really is a goddess – at least not like the ones the priests talk about – but Queen Yintor is certainly at least a mystical guardian and friend. Who knows? She might really be a minor goddess.

   Her parents are more than a little frightened. Minor oddities, such as not being burned picking up a hot pot, could be overlooked – but the things that happened when a group of bandits attacked the trade-fair outside the walls of the town were not so easily dismissed. Hurling away three burly men with a word, shrugging off a shower of arrows, and healing her mother’s wound while having her imaginary pet strafe the bandits with lightning bolts until they fled was just a bit conspicuous…

   Fortunately, in the confusion, no one outside the family managed to trace the lightning-storm back to Lerona, and the only witnesses to her other tricks were bandits – now dead or fled. Still, sooner or later such abilities will certainly draw the notice of greater powers.

   They’d be even more worried if they realized that a small cult is growing amongst their daughter’s young friends.

   Queen Yintor is a tiny, three-headed, dragoness with multicolored gemlike scales with gold and silver edges, black eyes filled with tiny stars and galaxies, and fringes of twitching, transparent, tendrils around her eyes, mouth, nostrils, and talons (and occasionally slipping out from under her scales). She’s about the size of a small cat (with an overlong tail) in her true form, and usually rides on Lerona’s shoulder or hides in her hair. When she’s off in another dimension, her telltale mark is a modest hair ornament – although it’s quality and apparent value varies depending on how much Queen Yintor feels like showing off at the moment (a minor effect of her chameleon powers).

   Queen Yintor assumes that – since gods are powerful extradimensional beings, and SHE is a powerful extradimensional being, then she must be a goddess, and her bondmate must be her high priestess, and that it is only proper that she be worshiped – although being worshiped as part of a pantheon is acceptable, at least “until she learns the trick of bestowing clerical magic”. Her bondmate, of course, should get all the best of EVERYTHING. Everyone should love and worship Queen Yintor, and love and honor, and bestow wealth and power and influence upon, her bondmate. For those who fail to do so, there is always the Wrath of the Goddess Yintor!

   Perhaps fortunately, Queen Yintor is lazy, and is usually willing to take Lenora’s word for it as to whether or not someone is being rude enough to punish with a lightning bolt.

   Lerona Sylinthin

   Level -1 Elven Child, equivalent age eight.

• Gains (1+ Con Mod) HP and (2x Int Mod) Skill Points for her level.
• Racial bonuses of +2 Dex, -2 Con, Immunity/Sleep Effects, +2 on Saves versus Enchantment Spells and Effects, Low-Light Vision, Proficiency with longsword, rapier, longbow, and shortbow, +2 on Listen, Search, and Spot, speaking Elven as an extra language, and the ability to detect secret doors.
• Attribute Age adjustments for Small Child: Str -4, Wis -2, Con +2, Dex +2, and Chr -2.
• Rolled Attributes: (4d6, keep 3): Str 13, Int 12, Wis 14, Con 14, Dex 16, Chr 15.
• Net Attributes: Str 09 (-1), Int 12 (+1), Wis 12 (+1), Con 14 (16*) (+3), Dex 20 (22*) (+6), and Chr 13 (+1).

   Skills (2 SP + 1 CP): Knowledge/Religion +2, Diplomacy +2, Listen +3, Search +3, and Spot +3. Speaks Elven and Common (and is still learning her bonus language). +3 Specialty in Queen Yintor. Note that her Charisma and social skills are often drastically augmented by Queen Yintor’s powers. Lerona is entitled to eight memorized minor mystical rituals, but has yet to actually pay attention to that – so they haven’t been selected as of yet.

   Disadvantages: Visions (sees, and acts on, occasional “visions” – supposedly from the gods), Insane (sees nothing wrong with having Queen Yintor constantly lurking about or with trying to recruit worshipers for her), Obligations (chores, weekly lessons at the local temple, listen to parents), and Hunted (someone has been listening to the surviving bandit’s tales. That’s one more disadvantage than she can actually get points for, but this will happen). That gives her 10 CP to spend. One has already gone to getting that Speciality noted above, as for the rest…

   Companion with two levels of Template, Specialized; Queen Yintor wants to be worshiped, and to have offerings made to her, and to be endlessly fussed over. She does not react well to people who deny her divinity, who don’t indulge her, or who are mean to her high priestess (9 CP).

   Combat Information:

• Initiative: +6 (Dex)
• Armor Class: 10 (Base) +6 (Dex) +4 (Armor*) = 20.
• Move: 30 + 30* = 60.
• Hit Points: 1 (Base) +12 (2d6 Magic) +9 (3x Con Mod) = 22
• Damage Reduction 10/Psionics
• Energy Resistance 20, 10 versus psionically-generated energies.
• Saves: Fort +8, Ref +8, Will +6 (using Queen Yintor’s saves).
• Attacks
  • Punch or Kick: +0 (-1 Str +1 Magic), 1d4 stun (-1 Str, +1 Magic), Crit 20/x2
  • Small Short Bow: +6 (+6 Dex), 1d4, Crit 20/x3, 60′ range increment.

   Special Notes: Need not Eat, Drink, Sleep, or Breathe, effectively immune to poison*, Fast Healing I (up to 20 points/hit die/day)*, Protection from Law*, and True Strike 3/Day*. All use-activated. Effects marked with an “*” are subject to dispelling and antimagic versus caster level one – but will come right back again next round.

   Queen Yintor (Pseudodragon Base):

Hit Dice:	2d12 +2d6 (12) +16 = 50 HP
Initiative:	+4 (Dex)
Speed:	45, fly 90 (good)
Armor Class:	25 (10 Base +2 Size, +4 Dex, +5 Natural +4 Armor)
Base Attack/Grapple:	+2/–8
Attack:	Sting +7 melee (1d3–1 plus poison, magic)
Full Attack:	Sting +7 melee (1d3–2 plus poison) and bite +0 melee (2)
Space/Reach:	2-1/2 ft./0 ft. (5 ft. with tail)
Special Attacks:	Poison (Ex): Fortitude DC 16 (Con based, with +2 racial bonus), initial damage sleep for 1 minute, secondary damage sleep for 1d3 hours.
Special Qualities:	Blindsense 60 ft., darkvision 60 ft., immunity to sleep and paralysis, low-light vision, spell resistance 24, telepathy 60 ft. Extraordinary Returning, Unbound, Amorphous, Immune to Sneak Attacks and Critical Hits, Disturbing, Helpful, Need not Eat, Breathe, Drink, or Sleep, DR 10/Psionic, Energy Resistance 20, 10 versus psionicly-generated energies, Immunity to Poison, Fast Healing I, Protection from Law.
Saves:	Fort +8, Ref +8, Will +6
Abilities:	Str 8, Dex 17 (19), Con 17 (19), Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 10
Skills:	Diplomacy +2, Hide +22* (Additional +4 in forests, overgrown areas, or when hiding under hair), Listen +8, Search +6, Sense Motive +8, Spot +8, Survival +2 (+4 following tracks), Knowledge/The Planes +1, Speaks Common, Sylvan, and Elvish.
Feats:	Weapon Finesse

　

   Unique Powers

• As a companion creature, Queen Yintor bestows a six-point power; in her case, that’s Blessing, Specialized (for double effect) and Corrupted (for reduced cost)/Only works between her bondmate and Herself, can only be used to bestow the abilities of Blessing, Spell Resistance, Darksight, and the Absolute Command template. In practice, this rules exploit allows Lerona to bestows the Blessing power right back on Queen Yintor. Queen Yintor then bestows her Spell Resistance, Darksight, and Absolute Command powers on Lerona – and, thanks to the double effect, does so without losing them herself for a total cost of 4 CP.
  • Yes, that is cheesy. Perhaps fortunately, however, Queen Yintor is quite lazy. She hates to risk being fatigued if she can avoid it. Hence this doesn’t usually amount to doubling up on her spellcasting; it simply means that her bondmate gets to use it.
  • It’s also a good way to build those “destined companion” characters, where the two together are supposed to be far more effective than the two as individuals. I’d still be careful about letting players take this option; Blessing is almost always better as a game master tool anyway.
• Secondarily, Queen Yintor bestows the intuitive knowledge of (2 x [Int Mod +3]) mystical rituals of her bondmate’s choice (she doesn’t pay any attention to such things; she simply funnels some lore out of the aether into her companions head) – although attempting to use these without the Occult Ritual ability is pretty problematic for all but the most trivial rituals (2 CP).
• Inherent Spells (3/Day Each):
  • Eyes Outside Of Time (L1): Moment of Insight/+20 Insight Bonus to any one skill check. Note that, as a personal spell, this also affects her bondmate.
  • The Sparkling Scales (L1): Hypnotism.
    • These two abilities use the option for Inherent Spell as two level one spells twice per day each – three times per day each with splitting the usual two bonus uses between them.
  • The Talon’s Caress (L4): Cure Critical Wounds.
  • Wrath of the Goddess Yintor (L5): Call Lightning Storm. A momentary apparition of one of Queen Yintor’s draconic heads appears momentarily to “breathe the lightning” each time she releases a bolt, adding a certain element of scariness – and a brief aerial glimpse of the field – to each blast, however, attacks against that apparition will affect Queen Yintor if anyone has a held action to use to launch one.
  • A Vision of Unearthly Delight (L6): Grants the creature touched a +10 Competence Bonus to socially-based skills (Charisma-based skills other than Disguise and Use Magic Device, plus Sense Motive and Speak Language – allowing the user to select ten languages of choice) and a +6 Enhancement Bonus to Charisma for one hour per caster level.

   OK, for a personal deity, Queen Yintor isn’t at all bad.

   Personally, I wouldn’t normally let anyone get away with designing or taking companion-creatures like these in a normal campaign – but if you really want to play a Digimon or Pokemon campaign, or turn loose a bunch of kids and their pocket monsters, there’s no reason not to do so. The kids will be able to take quite a bit of incidental damage, while their creatures do most of the heavy work.