13th Sage: Three Ghostly Monsters from Elven Towers

Wade Rockett 13th Age designer logoElven Towers is a fantastic new adventure from Cal Moore—if you pre-order the print edition now, you get the full PDF and color map folio immediately as a download. It does some really interesting things with 13th Age design, but as a GM I also love that it’s full of creepy monsters. With Halloween on the way, I decided to use this column to preview a couple of them for use in your October games. (I redacted some of their mechanics so there’s still a surprise in store for any players who sneak a look at these.) I hope you enjoy them, and encourage you to get your hands on this book!

Phantasmal Knight

6th level troop [CONSTRUCT]

Initiative: +14

Vulnerability: force

Force blade +11 vs. AC—15 force damage

Natural even roll: Make a second force blade attack (but not a third).

Phantasmal tricks: As a standard action, the knight can create a random force effect. During its turn, roll a d6 to determine the effect it can create that turn:

1–2: Force javelin +11 vs. AC—20 force damage, and if the natural attack roll is greater than the target’s Dexterity ability the target is stuck until the end of its next turn.

3–4: Force burst +11 vs. PD (1d2 nearby enemies)—18 force damage, and the target is dazed until the end of its next turn.

5–6: Force shield: The knight and one nearby ally gain a +4 bonus to AC and PD until the start of the knight’s next turn. Reroll other knights’ phantasmal tricks results of 5–6 until this force shield ends.

Resist elemental damage 16+: When an elemental attack (acid, cold, fire, lightning) targets this creature, the attacker must roll a natural 16+ on the attack roll or it only does half damage.

Phantasmal push: Once per round as an interrupt action, when a creature moves away from the knight, the knight can attempt to stop that movement (negating a disengage, for example) or push the creature a few feet backward (off the stairs, perhaps) with a blast of blue light. The target rolls a save; on a failure, it gets stopped/pushed.

Flight: The knight prefers to stay low to the ground, but can fly just enough to move carefully over obstacles or reach flying enemies who are trying to hover in out-of-the-way corners of the ceiling.

AC 22

PD 19    HP 90

MD 16

 

Priestess Shade

7th level troop [SPIRIT]

Initiative: +10

Shadow mace +12 vs. AC—21 damage; plus 10 cold damage once [REDACTED].

Natural even hit: The target takes 10 ongoing negative energy damage. If the natural roll was a 16, 18, or 20, the target is also weakened (save ends both).

Natural odd miss: 4 damage.

Pent-up malice: When the priestess shade is defeated, it raises two shadow watchers to join the battle during the next round as a final act of malice.

Shadow form: The priestess shade can pass through objects and walls, but can’t end its turn inside them. It won’t use this ability until [REDACTED].

AC 23

PD 16 HP 100

MD 21

 

Shadow Watcher

6th level mook [SPIRIT]

Initiative: +9

Shadow attack +11 vs. AC—9 damage; plus 6 cold damage once [REDACTED]

Natural 16+: The target is dazed until the end of its next turn.

Shadow form: Shadow watchers can pass through objects and walls, but can’t end their turns inside those objects. They won’t use this ability until [REDACTED].

AC 22

PD 20    HP 20 (mook)

MD 16

Mook: Kill one shadow watcher mook for every 20 damage you deal to the mob.

 


13th Age combines the best parts of traditional d20-rolling fantasy gaming with new story-focused rules, designed so you can run the kind of game you most want to play with your group. 13th Age gives you all the tools you need to make unique characters who are immediately embedded in the setting in important ways; quickly prepare adventures based on the PCs’ backgrounds and goals; create your own monsters; fight exciting battles; and focus on what’s always been cool and fun about fantasy adventure gaming. Purchase 13th Age in print and PDF at the Pelgrane Shop.

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