Looking for something to spice up an adventure this holiday season? Look no further! Well, okay, you may have to look a bit further...but here's a start.
Father's Day
Halloween
Keeper of the Seven Keys (Part I)
Keeper of the Seven Keys (Part II)
Thanksgiving
Yukon Cornelius, Warrior of the North
This Yuletide: Beware the Bumble!
The Great Intelligence Wishes You a Merry Christmas
Happy Holidays from the Laser Snowmen!
Yukon Cornelius is a prospector in the far north, possessed of great courage, daring, and northern lore.
Yukon Cornelius has a pack of unlikely and mismatched miniature dogs. Although none are appropriate to pulling a sled, they are nonetheless able to do so. One is a Saint Bernard, which carries a potion of healing (2 HD) in a small keg. These dogs are AC 14 and have 6 hp each. They have no effective attacks, apart from yapping at foes and cowering behind Yukon Cornelius. These dogs can made a collective attack roll (with a +4 bonus) once per game session. If they succeed, they do no damage, but instead allow Yukon Cornelius to re-roll a failed Deed Die. Regardless of the result of the second roll, Yukon Cornelius must abide by it.
Elf Dentist
Why are you such a misfit? Far from being a nitwit, you quit from being an ordinary elf. Magic is not for you - except the magic of good dental hygiene and a bright smile filled with straight teeth.
Hit points: An elf dentist gains 1d6 hit points at each level.
Weapon training: An elf dentist is trained in the use of tooth extractors, which look a lot like large pliers, as well as other instruments of dentistry. If used as weapons, these do 1d6 damage. Working with these tools, as well as various dental amalgams and braces, has eradicated all sensitivity to iron from these elves. They can use any armor, but the armor check penalty is applied to their attempts at dentistry.
Alignment: Elf dentists are almost always Neutral, happy to provide their services to paladin and bumble alike. Some are Lawful.
Very few are Chaotic, and the dentistry of these elves give children nightmares.
Magic: Elves practice arcane magic, but elf dentists give up all that. They gain no spells.
Immunities: Elf dentists are immune to magical sleep, paralysis, and cavities.
Heightened Senses: Elves are astute and observant. All elf dentists receive a +4 bonus to detect impacted molars, cavities, and damaged teeth.
Luck: Elf dentists apply their starting Luck modifier to rolls for hit points. That modifier does not change as the elf dentist’s Luck score changes.
Languages: At 1st-level, an elf dentist automatically knows Common, the elven racial language, and one other language. An elf dentist knows one additional language for every point of Int modifier. Additional languages are randomly determined as specified in Appendix L, as though they were ordinary elves.
Action dice: An elf dentist’s action dice can be used for attacks or skill checks at any level.
Mighty Deed of Dentistry: Elf dentists earn their keep by working on the teeth of others. They pull fangs, perform root canals, and fill cavities. Prior to any attack roll, or as a skill check, an elf dentist can declare a Mighty Deed of Dentistry. This works much as does a Warrior's Mighty Deed of Arms, but it only extracts teeth or schedules a dental appointment.
The Dental Die does not add to attack or damage, but determines the number of teeth removed with a successful attack...or the number of days to the target's next dental appointment. A Will save (DC equal to Skill Check plus Dental Die result) is required to miss the appointment. For most creatures, every 3 teeth removed reduces bite damage by -1d on the dice chain.
1 - Misfit
2 - Hygienist
3 - Apprenticed Dentist
4 - Dentist
5 - Master Dentist
These hairy creatures are reasonably intelligent, ape-like giants who dwell in the far north. Their favorite food is reindeer, although they will eat any meat. Their superior sense of smell, hearing, and sight, allow them to track potential meals with almost supernatural skill. Fortunately, they are unable to swim, and will be stopped by any body of wide, deep water.
If a bumble hits with its claw, it grabs its opponent unless they succeed in an opposed Strength check vs. +8. The victim is then subject to the bumble's bite attack until it can get free.
Humbled Bumble: There are stories of bumbles who, having had their teeth removed, become tractable because they can no longer hunt sufficiently. A humbled bumble only does 1d3 damage as it gums creatures with its bite. It is far easier for such a bumble to trade services for shelter and food.
Water molecules trapped in crystalline form, capable of reading minds, intelligent snow is a form of programable matter from some distant world or plane. Molded by the thoughts of Dr. Simeon - genius or madman - they became devouring monsters with shark-like teeth made of ice.
A snowman created from intelligent snow is not only immune to cold damage, it is healed 1 hp for every die of damage such an attack would normally do. It takes twice normal damage from heat and fire. It has the power of instant formation, effectively using its Action Die to teleport from one location to another, usually attracted by thoughts or directed by some Great (and malevolent) Intelligence.
A PC facing an intelligent snow snowman can attempt to think it temporarily out of existence. To do this, the PC makes an opposed Will save against the snowman. If the snowman is being directly controlled by an Intelligence, the PC makes an opposed Will save against the controlling Intelligence instead. Success in either case prevents the snowman from reforming for 1d8 turns....although other snowman can use their instant formation ability to teleport to the same location.
It is even possible for PCs to attempt to wrest control over intelligent snow from whatever Great Intelligence currently controls it....but this would require an extended contest and is unlikely to succeed, especially if the controller has built up their dominance over years.
Without anyone to control it, intelligent snow eventually melts and becomes water. The water mixes with other water, dilutes, and becomes innocuous. A big enough reservoir of intelligent snow (or water), however, might become powerful enough that even a drop could dominate and transform a living creature, as happened on Mars in 2059.
These alien snowman come from some strange and cold alien world - possibly far Yuggoth, Ribos, Hoth, or some cold and frigid asteroid circling forever around a distant sun.
Although immune to cold damage, they take twice normal damage from fire. Laser snowmen are intelligent enough to follow even complex orders, but are themselves the servants of alien wizards or cold intelligences inhabiting distant worlds.
Despite appearances, laser snowmen are cybernetically enhanced living creatures with frigid slush moving slowly through their pale veins. A living being bold enough to place one of the snowman's black faceted eyes in an empty socket discovers that it grafts itself to flesh, providing sight and a laser beam attack to a 120 foot range. Any natural "1" on a laser eye attack, however, causes the eye to shatter (instead of other fumble attacks), inflicting 1d6 damage on the creature grafted to the eye. A Fort save (DC 15) is required, or the unfortunate character also permanently loses 1d3 points of Intelligence or Personality (50% chance of each), as shards of the black facets penetrate their brain.