Floater
created by Steve Martin

Frequency:	Varies
Number Appearing:	if common, 2d12; if uncommon, 2d4; else, 1
Armor Class:	10
Move:	0"/24"
Hit Dice:	5 to 30
% in Lair:	nil
Treasure Type:	nil
Number of Attacks:	5-30
Damage per Attack:	0 or 1d12+14 each
Special Attacks:	Confuse, light amplification, possible psionic ability
Special Defenses:	Tangle, possible psionic ability
Magic Resistance:	10%
Intelligence:	Genius
Alignment:	Neutral Good
Size:	L (up to 70' diameter body)

Appearance

Floaters are huge, multi-tentacled creatures with transparent, balloon-like bodies. They float in the air, and often let their tentacles trail the ground. For simplicity, assume they have a virtually unlimited number of tentacles but may only use as many at a time as they have hit dice. The tentacles may be roughly time and a half (for larger specimens) to three times as long (for juveniles) as the body diameter.

Floaters fly by changing their shape to ride the winds where they want to go. They maneuver slowly, and can only change direction by 15 degrees per round. They may increase or decrease their speed by only 1" per round.

Floaters buoy themselves with a flammable lighter-than-air gas, and will burn explosively if they take damage from fire⁽¹⁾ and fail a saving throw vs. spell (allow a +5 on saves vs. non-magical fires). The explosion will do 2d4 damage for every HD the floater has, modified for range as follows:

Range:	Damage if No Save:	Damage if Save:
0" (in contact -- ie: held)	Full	N/A -- no save allowed
Within 3"	Full	Full -- items not affected if save
3" to 5"	Full	One Half
5" to 7"	One Half	One Quarter
7" to 9"	One Quarter	One Eighth
9" to 11"	One Eighth	One Sixteenth
11" to 13"	One Sixteenth	None
13" to 15"	One Thirty-second	None

Environs

Floaters live in warm areas, and by far prefer flat and unobstructed terrain such as plains and desert.

Combat

Floaters have 25 strength, but are usually very gentle. When physically attacking, the floater may bring two tentacles per round to bear on a small creature, 4 on a medium one, 8 on a large one, and so on. The floater will most often entangle an opponent so that he may neither attack nor cast spells. This attack does no damage. If all of a creature's limbs are held, the hold is inescapable unless released. Otherwise the creature has a chance of breaking another limb free equal to his bend bars percentage times the number of free limbs he has. Once all limbs are free, another successful attempt to escape equals success.

At will while touching another creature, the floater may know alignment on, confuse as the priest spell (round/hit die duration, save allowed), or telepathically communicate with that creature. In addition to these abilities, the floater may have psionics if they are in the campaign. Allow a 2% per hit die chance for psionics.

Even when it does attack for damage, floaters will usually to "subduing" damage to non-evil creatures. That is, 75% of the damage done is temporary, not real. However, if provoked enough, or when confronting evil creatures, floaters are quite capable of deadly force.

When attacking to kill, these creatures usually float high above their target and use their tentacles to focus light on a roughly 10' diameter area. This requires at least 4 tentacles, and does 1d4 damage plus 1d4 per tentacle beyond the third in use. A save vs. breath weapon (with dex adjustments) indicates the victim has dodged out of the area for no damage. The range on this weapon is 1" per hit die of the creature for full strength, with a loss of 1d4 per additional 1" distance.⁽²⁾

For purposes of forced entry into a structure, every 28 points of damage done by the floater is one point of structural damage. Thus, two tentacles will inflict at least one point of structural damage a round.

Culture

Floaters may be a source of information to good characters, and might be persuaded to carry characters for a short distance if the characters are truly in need. They will not stray from their preferred terrain, though, and will not approach more than a couple of miles from a city when giving such aid.

Telepathic communication with a floater is a bizarre experience, as the creature does not speak in the mind of another creature, but rather provides a scene as real as any spectral force. The other creature must interpret the scene, and may easily do so incorrectly. Floaters tend not to ''think down to'' the level of most monsters. Characters wishing to communicate at the same time as engaging in another action must make a saving throw vs. spell to be able to concentrate on both activities. When the floater is communicating with several other creatures at once, all will see the same scene.

1. Both the body and tentacles contain the flammable gas, but the tentacles contain a much lower concentration. The DM may want to consider granting another +5 on the saving throw if the creature is struck by fire in the tentacles rather than the body. In all other respects, though, damage is damage, and the body is not tracked separately from the tentacles.
2. Thus, a full-grown floater would cause full damage from 27" away. It could do some damage -- and start fires -- from 27"+26"=53" away. At shorter range it could fine-tune the damage by using fewer tentacles. These ranges should be measured from the end of the tentacles, not from the body.

Site Map | 10 February 99

copyright © 2001 by Michael Moran Alterio, Michael Babriecki, Harry Ching, Stephen Martin, and Donald R. Parrish III (all rights reserved)