Paraelemental, Ice [1249]

Climat/Terrain	Paraplane of Ice
Organisation	Band
Fréquence	Commun
Diète	Cinnabril
Cycle d'activité	Any
Intelligence	13-14 - Hautement intelligent
Trésor	Nil
Alignement	Neutre Absolu
Nombres	1-6
Classe d'armure	3
Mouvement	Au sol : 6'' Vol : - Classe de vol : Nage : Enfouissement : Web :
Dés de vie	8, 12, or 16
Thac0	8 HD: 13 12 HD: 9 16 HD: 5
Nbre d'attaques	1
Dommage / attaques	3-18
Attaques spéciales	Cold aura
Défenses spéciales	See below
Résistance à la magie	Nil
Taille	L - larger than man-sized ( 7+' to 12' ) (8-16’ tall)
Morale	15-16 - Champion
Valeur en XP	8 HD: 7.000 xp 12 HD: 11,000 xp 16 HD: 15,000 xp

Commentaires : Between the Elemental Planes of Air, Earth, Fire, and Water lie four others – the Paraelemental Planes – that represent different combinations of those elements. And whereas the Elemental Planes spawn elementals, the Paraelemental Planes create, naturally enough, paraelementals – creatures that embody the natures of Ice, Magma, Ooze, and Smoke. The four kinds of paraelementals are generally regarded as slightly less powerful than elementals, yet still mightier than quasielementals (though plenty of inner-planar scholars dispute such rankings). Due to the nature of their home planes – which are, more or less, mixtures of two elements – parelementals’re often thought to exhibit dual characters, though this manifests Itself in different ways. By and large, paraelementals help to sustain themselves by consuming their opposites. In other words, ice paraelementals drain warmth, smoke paraelementals ingest air, and so on. This strikes some as a bit odd – why wouldn’t an ice creature keep itself alive by surrounding itself with cold? But that’s the wrong kind of question, and the Rule of Threes explains why. First of all, paraelementals won’t starve to death if they don’t consume their opposites; after all, they’re just spirits that shape bodies for themselves out of the substance of their home plane. Second, the paraplanes don’t have much of their opposites, anyway – there just ain’t a lot of warmth on Ice. And third, the paraelementals don’t actually eat their opposites; rather, they gain sustenance from the sheer act of converting it. Thus, an ice paraelemental relishes draining away the heat of a fire, not consuming the actual warmth itself. Many paraelementals aren’t too smart, but those with better than low Intelligence usually prefer to communicate in their own language. From the plane of absolute cold, this tall, humanoid creature is utterly – dangerously – frigid. Its body is translucent white, made of icy crystals covered in patches of frost. Piercing blue eyes peer out of deep sockets. Some folks refer to an ice paraelemental as a cold or frost paraelemental instead, but it’s all the same thing.

Combat : The freezing touch of an ice paraelemental causes 3d8 points of damage, but it don’t have to strike a sod to make him sorry. It also gives off intense cold the way a raging fire gives off heat, and all creatures within 10 feet suffer 1d4 points of damage per round from the numbing chill. What’s more, the paraelemental is so cold that its touch freezes water (or similar fluids). It can freeze 100 square feet of watery liquid to a depth of 6 inches. If wounded in some way, an ice paraelemental finds succor in cold environments. When in contact with natural ice, snow, or sleet, it automatically heals 1d8 hit points per round, up to its normal maximum. ’Course, this makes it sodding difficult to fight an ice paraelemental on its home paraplane. All ice paraelementals can be struck only by +1 or better weapons, and they’re completely immune to cold-based spells and magic. However, they’re particularly vulnerable to heat-based attacks, which inflict twice their normal damage on the frosty creatures.

Habitat / Société : A good many ice paraelementals have turned from their neutrality to serve the evil lord Cryonax, one of the Princes of Elemental Evil. But he’s not the only blood with status on the paraplane – numerous minor lords and nobles rule their fellow paraelementals. They simply ignore Cryonax and his evil, maintaining their pure devotion to cold and nothing more. Ice paraelemental rulers gain their positions through strength and respect, and are often challenged by their underlings. However, a planewalker traveling to Ice isn’t likely to encounter any nobles or rulers. Instead, he’ll find paraelementals operating in small, leaderless groups, hunting for food or patrolling for intruders. Strife among these creatures rarely occurs.

Ecologie : Any warmth at all – or rather, the act of draining such warmth – provides a little sustenance for ice paraelementals. They steal it from any source of heat, even slowly snuffing out normal fires burning nearby. As mentioned earlier, they don’t actually consume the heat so much as convert it. Naturally, those same flames’d be dangerously destructive if applied to an ice paraelemental directly. Perhaps that’s part of the reason they drain the warmth from fire – to prevent it from being used against them.