Frostran (3.5e Monster)

''A pale blue creature, like a tortoise without a shell, confronts you on the mountain peak. Its body is covered with rocks embedded in its surface, and its face appears to be a rocky mask. With a savage roar, the creature slowly advances on your position.''

[[Summary::Frostran is one of the "Tran trio", and the embodiment and guardian of frozen mountain peaks. Like a mountain, it is sturdy, rugged, strong... and slow. Very, very slow. But don't underestimate it because it moves at a snail's pace &mdash; it can easily destroy its enemies in melee or at long range.]]

Combat
Frostran is very well-rounded, with the exception of its cripplingly poor Dexterity and movement speed. It makes up for this with potent ranged attacks and very strong defenses. Frostran has the strongest defenses of the Tran trio and the most physical power, but its nonphysical attacks are significantly weaker than those of its counterparts Heatran and Voltran. It's also the slowest of the Tran trio by far, but then again, it's slow in comparison to anything that isn't immobile. Because of this fact, Frostran usually positions itself in a chokepoint so that it can actually fulfill its role as a guardian without enemies simply walking around it. Frostran's ludicrous defenses and numerous ranged attacks enable it to hold a chokepoint very well; a Frostran in a chokepoint might as well be an impassable wall.

Frostran has the Juggernaut feat, but is unable to utilize its +16 BAB benefit due to being quadrupedal and lacking opposable thumbs. Thus, it instead has a frightful presence, just like a dragon.

 : Whenever Frostran is hit by an effect that would normally deal Ice or Cold damage, that damage is negated, and unless the effect originated from Frostran itself, it becomes even more powerful, Empowering any cold effects it unleashes in the next round. If the effect continues over multiple rounds, it remains Empowered for each round. Even if Flash Freeze is suppressed, Frostran is still immune to cold.

 : Frostran is the essence of life in frozen peaks, an otherwise inanimate aspect of geography. Thus, it can tap into the latent incarnum of the land. Frostran has an essentia pool containing 2 points of essentia plus 1 point for every 3 HD that it has. Its 30 HD grants it 12 essentia and the ability to invest up to 4 essentia in any given essentia receptacle. It can invest essentia into its cold anti-resistance to improve it by 4 points for every point of invested essentia.

 (Su): Once per three rounds, Frostran can telekinetically launch up to 3 chunks of stone within 100 feet. These are launched as ranged attacks at separate targets, and, if at least as large as a Medium character, deal 6d6 damage each. Furthermore, upon activation, Frostran gains a +1 Enhancement Bonus to Natural Armour and to all ability scores for the next five minutes. Using AncientPower while the bonus is still in effect improves the bonus by 1 (to a maximum of +6 total for natural armor and each ability score) and resets the duration &mdash; Frostran knows to throw random rocks around every minute or so just to keep the bonuses at the maximum. This is a [Rock] effect.

Frosttran can invest essentia into AncientPower to increase its number of rocks and the number of rocks it can launch at any given target. It launches 1 extra rock for every point of essentia invested into AncientPower and is allowed to launch 1 extra rock at a single target for every 2 points of essentia invested into AncientPower.

Mettle : Thanks to its Resilience feat, whenever Frostran succeeds on a Fortitude or Will save for a partial effect from an attack, that attack instead does nothing at all to Frostran.

 (Su): Frostran's bite attack inflicts an additional 1d10 cold damage, and a failure of 5 or more on a DC 31 Fortitude save (Strength-based) causes the target to become frozen, as the freeze spell, until it manages to break free with a DC 30 Strength check. This is an [Ice] effect.

 (Su): Frostran can make itself look extra fierce, and is able to make an Intimidate check to demoralize as a Swift action.

 : Frostran's bite attack is capable of smashing bones. Frostran's bite attack deals damage as though it was one size category larger, and forces any creature struck by it to succeed on a DC 31 Fortitude save (the save DC is Strength-based). A creature that fails the Fortitude save loses 1 point of natural armor, 1 point of damage reduction, and 1 point of martial defense for 1 minute. Another successful Crunch reduces the target's natural armor, damage reduction, and martial defense by a further 1 (to a maximum penalty of &minus;6) and refreshes the duration. This is a [Dark] effect.

Frostran may invest essentia into its Crunch to improve the save DC by 1 per point of invested essentia. (Crunch and Ice Fang share the same DC; Ice Fang kicks in when a save against Crunch fails by 5 or more. Thus, increasing the save DC of Crunch increases the save DC of Ice Fang as well.)

 : At will, Frostran may summon rocks from the sky anywhere within Medium range. These rocks fall in a 30-foot-radius cylinder with infinite height and do 15d12 damage (1 die per 2 HD) to all within the area, with a Reflex save (DC 33, Constitution-based) allowed for half. Victims are affected as though by a cave-in, and are buried if they fail their Reflex saves. This is a [Rock] effect.

Frostran may invest essentia into Rock Slide to increase the radius of the cylinder by 10 feet per point of invested essentia.

 : Whenever Frostran takes damage in a round, its slam attack does double damage for the rest of that round. This is an [Ice] effect.

' (Sp):' This is a flame strike'' from below rather than from above. Instead of divine energy, half of the damage is a [Ground] effect and the other half is cold damage. (Actually, the whole move is a [Ground] effect, not an [Ice] effect, even though half of the damage is cold damage. It's still considered a cold effect, though - just not for interacting with Pokémon traits.) Frostran's caster level is equal to its Hit Dice. The save DC of 32 is Charisma-based. Frostran may use earth power at will.

 : As a swift action, Frostran may crack its body to increase its flexibility at the expense of defenses. After using Shell Smash, Frostran takes a &minus;3 penalty to natural armor and all defenses (spell resistance, martial defense, spell dampening, energy resistances), but gains a +30-ft. bonus to all movement speeds and adds 2 dice to all damage rolls. These bonuses and penalties last for 2 minutes. Frostran may only use Shell Smash four times per encounter (once plus one more time for every 10 HD it has).

' :' Frostran may cast spike stones'' at will. This is a [Rock] effect. It often uses this to limit where its enemies can move to. (Too bad most epic characters can fly.)

Frostran may invest essentia into Stone Edge to increase the damage per spiked square to 3d8 with the first essentia point, then to add 3 dice of damage to the damage dealt by the spikes per square for each additional point of essentia invested.

' :''' Frostran's signature move, Snow Spiral is also its most dangerous asset and single-handedly makes up for Frostran's mobility deficits. At will, Frostran may summon a 120-foot-radius emanation of blizzard-strength snow-laced wind anywhere within Long range; the snow whirls around in a circle around the area, making it look like a snowy hurricane or tornado. This emanation does 20d10 cold damage to all caught in its area, with a Reflex save (DC 32, Charisma-based) allowed for half. A creature that fails its Reflex save is also immobilized and takes 20d10 cold damage again on Frostran's next turn, with another Reflex save allowed to halve that round's damage and end the effect. A creature must continue making saves against Snow Spiral (and taking damage from it) until it succeeds on a Reflex save or fails 5 consecutive Reflex saves, or until Frostran leaves Long range of that creature or is defeated, at which point the effect gives out. Snow Spiral treats improved evasion as being merely normal evasion (so creatures with improved evasion still take full damage on a failed Reflex save). Frostran may not use Snow Spiral while a previous Snow Spiral is still in effect. Frostran's caster level is equal to its Hit Dice. This ability is the equivalent of a 9th-level spell. (1 die's worth of damage is added per Hit Die/caster level, skipping every third Hit Die/caster level.) Snow Spiral is an [Ice] effect.

Frostran may invest essentia into Stone Spiral to add 1 die of damage and +2 to the Reflex save DC for each point of invested essentia.

 : Frostran's defensive ruggedness is somewhat undermined by its shoddy defensive typing. It suffers a &minus;10 penalty on saves against [Fighting] and [Steel] effects. If a [Fighting] or [Steel] effect does not allow a save, Frostran takes double damage and is sad.