Quicksilver Wyrm
by Tom Gafkjen a.k.a. wingnut
"Did you see that, Ran?" Gravdale asked as he pointed into the forest.
"That flash of silver? Ya, I did." The young boy replied.
Ran turned his attention to the man pointing. It was Gravdale, a well known human ranger and his mentor. They were on the trail of a Quicksilver Wyrm, a tiny member of the dragon family. It has been two days since they found the first signs of it's territory. They could tell they were close by the greenish bubbling that formed on the bark of the trees nearby. It was caused by the caustic spit of the wyrm. Gravdale had pointed out that this mark served both as a warning and marked its territory for other wyrms.
The ranger motioned them forward. Showing Ran where to step and how to position his body for the most amount of stealth, they slowly crept up to where they had spotted the wyrm. Ran let out a gasp as the wyrm flew into view. It was beautiful. Its snakelike body was about 2 ½ feet long with a set of wings beating so fast they were hard to make out. The light reflecting off its scales made it look as if they were made from the purest silver. Small white horns protruded from its head and a bony crest ran down its spine.
Gravedale froze still as the wyrm turned its attention to the two humans. Being only twenty feet from it, the ranger started to get nervous. He knew the wyrm was just out of its range for its caustic spit but it could dart in at any time and attack. He let dangle a gold necklace that he had been holding in his hand. The wyrm quickly shifted its attention to the necklace and started to fly a little higher, getting in attack position.
The ranger slowly placed the necklace on a branch while softly speaking a guttural hiss, the language of dragons, "We meansss you no harm noble wyrm. Pleassse take thisss offering asss a gesture of friendshipsss."
"Why you here humansss?" the wyrm hissed as he tilted its head to the right and examined the to humans in front of it.
"To marvelsss at your beauty and to trainsss my youngling in how to pay the proper ressspect to your kindsss." Gravdale could tell the flattery was starting to work as the wyrm flew down to eye level still out of its range. Ran, standing back, was able to make out some of the conversation, as his mentor had instructed him in dragonspeech.
"Thisss,"the human ranger states while pointing at the necklace and stepping away, "is yoursss. My gift to you. From one friendsss to anothersss." He maintained a calming voice that worked well with the many other animals he had befriended.
"You ssspeak well for a humansss." the wyrm replied as it tilted its head to the left.
"I only ssseek to be friendsss. Nothing more. With thisss my firssst offering, we will leave. Live well noble wyrmsss."
The ranger motioned to Ran to back up. They both slowly moved backward, keeping an eye on the wyrm as it hovered there watching them. They paused when the wyrm dove down, grabbed the necklace in its mouth and darted off into the forest.
"That was incredible." Stated Ran in awe.
Gravdale smiled down at his apprentice and said, "Yes it was. The two keys in dealing with a Quicksilver Wyrm is flattery and always have a flashy bauble."
The ranger tousled the youths hair as the both started walking back along the trail that brought them here. He looked back and made a mental note about the location as he planned on making return appearances here in an effort to win the wyrm as an ally.
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Quicksilver Wyrm
Tiny Dragon
Hit Dice: 4d12+8 (34 average hp)
Initiative: +12 (+8 Dex, +4 Improved Initiative)
Speed: 10 ft. Flying 50 ft. (Perfect)
AC: 26 (+2 size , +8 Dex, +6 natural)
Attacks: Bite +4
Damage: Bite 1d4
Face/Reach: 2 1/5 ft. by 2 1/5 ft./0 ft.
Special Attacks: Breath Weapon
Special Qualities: Lightning Reflection. Immune to sleep and paralysis effects. Darkvision 60 feet and low-light vision.
Saves: Fort +6, Ref +12, Will +5
Abilities: Str 8, Dex 26, Con 14, Int 8, Wis 12, Cha 13
Skills: Hide +6, Spot +6, Listen +6
Feats: Improved Initiative
Climate/Terrain: Any Forest
Organization: Solitary or Mated Pair (2)
Challenge Rating: 2
Treasure: Standard
Alignment: Usually Neutral
Advancement: 4 HD (Tiny), 6 HD (Tiny), 8 HD (Small)
These lightning quick wyrms appear as 2-3 foot snakes with wings. They tend to be a dark silver color when born, with their scales turning into a bright silver as they get older. They possess and set of horns and a bony crest that runs down along the spine. A typical Quicksilver Wyrm lives about 70 years.
COMBAT
Quicksilver Wyrms prefer not to engage in melee combat. They like to fly up out of range of melee weapons and spit their poison on the enemy. Starting with those that have ranged attacks or spell casters. Once they spit, they use their speed to seek cover in the trees until they can generate another and then return to battle.
Breath Weapon (Su): The Quicksilver Wyrm's breath weapon is a 15-foot line of corrosive poison. It does 1d6+1 points of acid damage (Ref save vs. DC 14 for half) the first round and 1d2 the second. The spit also contains a paralytic poison. The poison causes paralysis (Fort save vs. DC 14 or if Ref save was made DC 11) if a save is not made. The paralysis last 1d4+1 minutes. The Quicksilver Wyrm can use this breath weapon once every 1d4+1 rounds.
Lightning Reflection (Ex): Because of its silver like skin, as a free action, Quicksilver Wyrms can redirect a direct lightning attack (i.e. lightning bolt) back upon its source.
They can speak a simple form of Draconic.
Please post any comments, as this is my first attempt at posting a d20 creature.
Re: Quicksilver Wyrm
Hey thanks Khur.
First thing I thought was, after seeing your post, WOW that looks a lot better (stat wise) than what I came up with. I don’t have access to 3.5 edition as I still am using 3.0, so your conversion will help greatly.
The thought behind it was a snake with wings that could spit a caustic/paralysis type breath weapon. I used the generic dragon info for 3rd edition when creating this. I guess I need to pick up the 3.5 edition to make my critters compatible.
Two notes - no claws (snake body) and no damage from lightning sources.
Once again thanks for the input and feel free to use.
Re: Quicksilver Wyrm
It's been some time since this was originally posted... are we going to see a re-post with the final edit?
Cheers
Llowellen
Re: Quicksilver Wyrm
Great idea, Tom. This critter is pretty cool in concept, but it’s a little off insofar as game balance. I do some editing for WotC, so I thought I'd help out--noting your request for comments. The first thing I notice is a painfully high AC—no 2nd-level character has much chance of hitting the quicksilver wyrm and that calls its CR into question. If you want the wyrm to be CR 2 at 4 HD, it needs to be toned down. I’m going to approach my criticism from the idea that the target CR is 2.
First, lets look at a CR 2 Tiny dragon—the wyrmling white. A wyrmling white dragon has 3 HD, Str 11, Dex 10, Con 13, Int 6, Wis 11, and Cha 6. It has excellent movement, has +2 natural armor (total AC 14, very reasonable for 2nd-level characters), is immune to cold, vulnerable to fire, and has icewalking.
So the quicksilver wyrm is way better than the wyrmling white. Let’s see what we can do to bring it closer to CR 2. I’ll also convert to 3.5 edition.
HD 3d12+3 (21) (which seems to be correct, since advancement lists 4 HD)
Initiative: +9 (lower Dex, see below; +5 Dex, +4 Improved Initiative)
Speed: 60 ft. (very fast quadruped), fly 150 ft. (good) (better maneuverability than normal for a tiny dragon)
AC: 18 (+2 size, +5 Dex, +1 natural) (lower natural armor keeps AC tolerable for CR 2, +2 is okay too)
Base Attack/Grapple: +3/ –6 (+3 dragon HD/BAB –8 size –1 Str)
Attack: Bite +4 melee (1d4 –1) (+3 BAB – 1 Str + 2 Size)
Full Attack: Bite +4 melee (1d4–1), 2 claws –1 melee (1d3–1) (claws are secondary attacks)
Space/Reach: 2-1/2 ft./0 ft. (5 ft. with bite)
Special Attacks: Breath weapon
Special Qualities: Blindsense 60 ft, darkvision 120 ft., immunity to acid (breath weapon), sleep, and paralysis, lightning reflection, low-light vision
Saves: Fort +4, Ref +8, Will +3 (HD change, ability changes, more manageable for CR 2)
Abilities: Str 8, Dex 20, Con 12, Int 8, Wis 11, Cha 10 (Changes made toward CR 2 dragons, while keeping concept)
Skills: (Skill points = 5 (6 base – 1 Int) x 7 (4 + 3 HD) = 35); Hide +18 (5 + 8 size + 5 Dex), Listen +6 (6), Move Silently +11 (6 + 5 Dex), Sense Motive +6 (6), Search +5 (6 – 1 Int), Spot +6 (6)
Feats: (1 at 1 HD, + 1 3 HD) Flyby Attack, Improved Initiative (Flyby Attack makes the wyrm seem quicker and a bit more dangerous)
Environment: Any forest
Organization: Solitary, mated pair (2), or family (1–2 and 2–5 offspring [1-HD dragons])
Challenge Rating: 2 (could be 3, but probably not)
Treasure: Standard (should probably be more, especially if the dragon requires "gifts")
Alignment: Usually neutral
Advancement: 4–6 HD (Tiny), 7–9 HD (Small)
Level Adjustment: +4
Claws? I suppose the quicksilver wyrm doesn’t have claws. If not, just get rid of them above. This doesn’t change the wyrm’s CR.
Breath Weapon (Su): Should be 30 feet, but the limited range is a good idea with your increased and continuing damage. May I suggest 1d6/1d3 with no +1. Reflex DC with above stats is 12 (makes sense for such a small stream).
The combo paralytic poison effect would probably raise the dragon’s CR to 3. I think the paralysis effect is cool, but maybe it should be the poison’s only effect or combined with only minor acid burns (1d3 or so). Fort save would be 12 (with above stats), unless you give the poison a racial bonus to DC.
Lightning Reflection: Does the wyrm take damage from the reflected attack? That needs to be clear.
Hope this helps! It's a fun critter, and I hope you don't mind if I use it in my home game. :)