Monster Encyclopaedia I: Ravagers of the Realms
| Author | August Hahn, Gareth Hanrahan, Lizard |
| Publisher | Mongoose Publishing |
| Publish date | 2004 |
| OGL Section 15 | me1 |
The material below is designated as Open Game Content
Basilim
Medium Construct
Hit Dice: 4d10+20 (42 hp)
Initiative: +0
Speed: 20 ft. (4 squares)
Armour Class: 14 (+4 natural), touch 10, flat-footed 14
Base Attack/Grapple: +3/+6
Attack: Slam +6 melee (1d6+4)
Full Attack: Two slams +6 melee (1d6+4)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: —
Special Qualities: blindsight 30 ft., construct traits (some), damage reduction 8/adamantine, madness
Saves: Fort +1, Ref +1, Will +1
Abilities: Str 16, Dex 10, Con —, Int 10, Wis 6, Cha 8
Skills: Intimidate +5, Listen +2, Spot +2
Feats: Iron Will, Power Attack
Environment: Any
Organisation: Solitary or garden (5–10)
Challenge Rating: 3
Treasure: Standard
Alignment: Usually lawful evil
Advancement: By character class
Level Adjustment: +5
This creature is a weathered and decayed statue that must once have depicted a warrior.
There are few fates worse than the living death of petrification. To be transformed into a statue by the gaze of a basilisk or the whim of a sorcerer, to stand there entombed in unmoving stone while centuries wheel by around you – death would be a mercy, a release, but it never comes. The basilim are those who learned to live again in their stony bodies, victims of transformation who adapted over the long centuries. They learned to animate the rock of their bodies with vital force, to bend stone by the application of will alone. They learned to see the world through lenses of opaque stone and through miniscule vibrations in the ground. They learned to tear their heavy stone feet out of the ground where they had rested for untold years and step by agonising, tremulous step, they learned to move again. Most basilim are quite, quite mad. Centuries trapped in oblivious darkness would drive even a saint to the brink of insanity, but to live again as a basilim, a terrifying level of obsession is also needed. Most basilim spend hundreds of years learning to reanimate themselves, then blunder into some foe and get smashed to pieces. Others are more patient, disguising themselves as fleshy beings and seeking out some wizard or cleric to free them from their stone bodies, or else pursuing their obsession with the unyielding intensity of stone.
Basilim cannot be constructed; the only way to make one is by turning a creature into stone and waiting the decades or centuries it takes it to learn to move again, assuming it has the will to do so.
Combat
Some basilim just use their mighty stone fists to smash enemies into the ground, but the majority of basilim were once adventurers and put their old skills to good use.
Madness (Ex): All basilim are somewhat unhinged. Unlike artificial constructs, they are not immune to mind- affecting spells and effects; however, a basilim can keep making saving throws against a spell or effect each round until its mind breaks free. This drives the basilim deeper into madness, causing it to hallucinate or act in a bizarre fashion.
Basilim as Player Characters
A basilim loses the abilities of its original race. Basilim must have spent at least 100 years in the form of an immobile statue.
• Strength +4, Wisdom –2, Charisma –2. Basilim have no Constitution score in construct form, but one should still determine its value in case the
character gets turned back into flesh at some point.
• A basilim’s slam attack deals 1d6 points of lethal damage.
• +4 natural armour bonus.
• DR 8/adamantine.
• Blindsight 30 feet.
• Base speed 20 feet.
• All basilim are insane, as described above. When under the effects of its insanity, the basilim may become a Non-Player Character at the discretion of the Games Master.
• 4d10 racial Hit Dice.
• Basilim get the bonus hit points for being a construct.
• Level Adjustment: +5.
Basilim Paladin
Medium Construct Paladin 5 (Good)
Hit Dice: 9d10+20+ (69 hp)
Initiative: +0
Speed: 20 ft. (4 squares)
Armour Class: 21 (+4 natural, +7 half plate), touch 10, flat-footed 21
Base Attack/Grapple: +9/+13
Attack: Greatsword +15 melee (2d6+6 plus 1d6 fire)
Full Attack: Greatsword +15/+10 melee (2d6+6 plus 1d6 fire)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Smite evil 2/day, spells
Special Qualities: Aura of courage, aura of good, detect evil, divine grace, divine health, lay on hands (5 points), special mount, turn undead
Saves: Fort +6, Ref +3, Will +4
Abilities: Str 18, Dex 10, Con –, Int 10, Wis 13, Cha 13
Skills: Diplomacy +6, Handle Animal +5, Knowledge (religion) +2, Listen +5, Ride +5, Spot +3
Feats: Mounted Combat, Ride-By Attack, Spirited Charge, Weapon Focus (greatsword)
Challenge Rating: 8
Alignment: Lawful good
This basilim was once a heroic paladin who rode out to defend a village from a cockatrice. The cockatrice struck him as he killed it and he was entombed in living stone for centuries. The peasants placed the stone paladin in the centre of their village to honour him and he now watches over them obsessively. When his insanity takes hold, the paladin is convinced that his allies are folk of the town and that his enemies are attacking the village trying to despoil it.
Equipment: +1 flaming greatsword
Spells: (Spell save DC 12): 1st level – bless weapon.
