Mundanoid

Description

The mundanoid is a creature that was created long ago by an elder god of magic (the author of this entry is not sure if this god still exists, thus the fate of this diety could be anything). This god was obviously very evil and corrupt, and totally devoted to chaos, for the nature of this monster is very horrable, and is also known as magic-bane, for it is the bane of all mages of every alignment. The nature of this creature is of the darkest and blackest of magic, yet the way that must be taken to defeat the monster is why it was so named.

A mundanoid generally appears as a humanoid whose skin is dark grey, and their eyes are dead black. They normally attack with their fists, however when they get more powerful they have other, more sinister, forms of attack to choose from. What makes them so terrible is, put quite simply, anything that is magical in nature that touches it (i.e., a magical weapon or a spell), will feed it and give it more power, anything that is mundane in nature (i.e., a non-magical weapon) is the only means to kill it.

Everytime a magical weapon touches them, instead of doing damage, the mundanoid gains hit points dependent upon the weapons highest plus (thus a +2/+4 vs. reptiles sword would feed it 4 hit points). The weapon would do no damage because the magical energy in the sword would counteract that, (note: magical weapons that have no "plus" per say would feed it hit points dependent upon the strength or power of the weapon). For every 5 hit points the monster gains, it also gains 1 hit die, gaining a hit die affects the monster in the following manner:

• reduce it's armor class by 1 (thus 0 to -1 for 6 hit dice creature)
• reduce it's THACO by 1 (thus 15 becomes 14)
• increase it's movement by 1" (thus 12" becomes 13")
• increase it's height by 1' (thus 5' becomes 6' at 6 hit dice)
• increase it's number of attacks by 1 for every 5 hit dice
• detect magic at 1 mile radius for every 5 hit dice

If a spell is cast upon the monster, the spell will feed 1 hit die for every spell level (thus a fireball would feed 3 hit dice) as well as the new hit points from the hit dice (note: damage from a spell does not feed the monster, only the spell level and the magical bonuses from magic weapons). Priest spells are treated the same as mage spells when affecting a mundanoid.

As well as feeding off magic, mundanoids may also physically attack. They normally inflict 1d6 points of damage per attack, however this attack can increase when they gain size, at 8 hit dice they inflict 1d8, at 11 it is 1d10, at 14 it is 1d12, and at 17 it is 1d20. On a natural roll of 20 the mundanoid will have struck an item of magic and automatically gained 1 hit die from the attack, then the item must save verses a normal blow, if the item fails then it loses all it's magical properties and the mundanoid gains an appropriate number of hit dice depending on the power of the item (a +2 sword would give 2 hit dice, a staff of magi would give at least 12 hit dice, etc).

Once mundanoids start feeding from magic their physical appearance becomes more chaotic, their skin starts to constantly shift into different colors, often times taking on odd, random patterns of color, the more hit dice the mundanoid has, the more chaotic and varying the colors and patterns are. Their eyes also change as they gain hit dice, the more powerful it gets the brighter their eyes become, until it becomes a blinding white light. When they gain more hit dice they are also able to perform spell-like powers once per round.

• At 8 hit dice a mundanoid may reflect one spell attack as a ring of spell turning.
• At 10 hit dice a mundanoid may throw a fireball as the spell (1d6 per hit dice of the mundanoid).
• At 12 hit dice a mundanoid may produce a cone of cold (as the spell).
• At 14 hit dice it may throw a bolt of chain lightning (as the spell).
• At 16 hit dice its eyes will cause blindness to any who fail a save vs. spell (affects are the same as the spell).
• At 18 hit dice it can teleport without error.
• At 20 hit dice it can shapechange.
• At 22 hit dice it can produce a firestorm (as the spell).
• At 24 hit dice it can act as a rod of cancellation with a successful hit.
• At 26 hit dice it can plane shift and probability travel.
• At 28 hit dice it can produce a prismatic sphere or spray.
• At 30 hit dice it can perform an action similar to the spell Mordenkainen's Disjunction.

A mundanoid will remain at it's present hit dice (if it does not feed off of magic during this time) for 1 turn per hit die of the creature. Thus a 30 hit dice mundanoid will remain at 30 hit dice for 30 turns, then 29 hit dice for 29 turns, an so on. The reason for this is because the more magic the creature has inside itself, the longer it will last. Thus when a mundanoid starts getting down to less than 10 hit dice, they start acting more and more frantic to feed off of more magic. Once they are at 5 hit dice they are "mundane", and must seek out magic or magic wielding creatures to feed.

Mundanoids can be encountered on any of the lower planes (including the neutral evil and lawful ones, dispite their chaotic nature, since they have no interest in the blood-war), as well as the elemental, astral, and ethereal (rare), not to mention the prime material plane.

When encountering mundanoids, their is a 50% chance they will have fed off some amount of magic recently, however they will probably have 6-13 hit dice. It is very rare for a Mundanoid to go beyond 20 hit dice, however it must happen once in a while, otherwise they would not be encountered upon other planes of existance.

The most power a mundanoid to ever have been recorded to achieving is 31 hit dice, however this occurance was at least a milenia ago and, by the gods will, will not ever be encountered again. It is unknown to this author (and I do not wish to ponder it long) what type of devestating powers a mundanoid would possibly develope at hit dice well above 30, any powers it does gain would well attract the attention of a major power indeed.