Urban Monster Feats
Living in the city requires adapting to certain realities of city life. It’s noisy, it’s crowded, it’s polluted, but on the other hand, it’s also convenient, diverse, and has great potential for prosperity. Just as humans have to adapt to living in the city, though, so do any monsters that choose to follow them there, and so this week’s Exotic Encounters provides five new feats for urban monsters.
Plague Carrier (Monster)
The diseases you carry are especially contagious, and ripe for spreading a plague through an entire city.
Prerequisite: Disease universal monster ability.
Benefit: The disease that you carry gains the plague template (Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Horror Adventures). Additionally, you gain a +2 racial bonus on saving throws made to resist diseases.
Reduce to Rubble (Monster)
You can crush entire buildings.
Prerequisite: Str 25, Power Attack and either Improved Bull Rush or Improved Overrun, size Large or larger.
Benefit: You can attempt to destroy a building by ramming it as a charge attack and making a combat maneuver check. The DC of this check depends on the size of the structure, as well as the material it is made of. The base DC is 20 unless the building was specifically designed to resist assault, in which case the DC is equal to 20 + the Knowledge (engineering) modifier of the architect or designer that created it. The DC increases by 10 for each size category larger than you the building is. If the building is made of stone, the DC increases by 5, and if it is made of metal, the DC increases by 10. If the structure is made of a material less sturdy than standard wood construction, the DC may be lower, at the GM’s discretion. Similarly, certain engineering features (such as being built into the side of a mountain, being built on narrow support struts, etc.) may increase or decrease the DC as well.
If the combat maneuver check is a success, the building collapses, dealing 8d6 points of bludgeoning damage and burying everyone inside. A successful DC 15 Reflex save halves this damage, and negates being buried. Characters take 1d6 points of nonlethal damage per minute while buried. If such a character falls unconscious, he must make a DC 15 Constitution check each minute. If it fails, he takes 1d6 points of lethal damage each minute until freed or dead. Characters who aren’t buried can dig out their friends. In 1 minute, using only her hands, a character can clear rocks and debris equal to five times her heavy load limit. The amount of loose stone that fills a 5-foot-by-5-foot area weighs 1 ton (2,000 pounds). Armed with an appropriate tool, such as a pick, crowbar, or shovel, a digger can clear loose stone twice as quickly as by hand. A buried character can attempt to free himself with a DC 25 Strength check.
Sewer Stench (Monster)
Your stench is particularly pungent, and mixed with aromas of filth and waste.
Prerequisite: Stench universal monster ability.
Benefit: Any creature that fails the Fortitude save to resist your stench ability by 5 or more is nauseated, rather than sickened, for the first 1d4 rounds of the effect. Additionally, the range of your stench special ability extends to 60 feet, and the duration is increased to 1.5 times the normal amount.
Through the Cracks (Monster)
You can squeeze through even the narrowest of spaces, including cracks in the walls or floor.
Prerequisite: Amorphous and compression universal monster abilities.
Benefit: You can squeeze through any space that water can pass through. If this is a narrower space than you would normally be able to squeeze through with your compression ability, each square you enter counts as if it were 4 squares, rather than 2, and you are denied your Dexterity bonus to AC for as long as you are squeezing in this way.
Urban Ambusher (Monster)
You have grown adept at hiding in plain sight and attacking victims who discount you as nothing more than part of the scenery.
Prerequisite: Freeze universal monster special ability.
Benefit: If you participate in a surprise round in combat after successfully hiding yourself with your freeze universal monster ability, you may take a full round’s worth of actions during the surprise round, and you gain a +2 morale bonus on attack and damage rolls made during that surprise round. Additionally, when you ambush an enemy or enemies unaware of your presence, you can attempt a Stealth check at a –10 penalty. The result indicates the DC of Perception checks to hear your attacks until an opponent’s first action, when the DC returns to the normal –10 for hearing battle. Other enemies present can still see the attack; this feat only prevents the sounds of battle from alerting others.