Ubue

Illustration by Erol Otus

I have been running the orange-cover version of B3–The Palace of the Silver Princess in my current campaign, digging on the funky vibe of the whole dungeon, but also changing about 85% of the content to suit my needs. Most of the new monsters in the module are completely shitty, not even worth trying to fix (for those I just replace them with something else that inspires me more), but the ubue are in a class by themselves. It really comes down to the original illustration by Erol Otus... man, that is weird and wonderful! If it wasn't for that gnarly picture I would've kicked the ubue to the curb like the rest, but that picture demands that I use them in my dungeon. 

Well, I actually don't go for the whole "cave-man" style of the ubue as written in the module. I have shifted the flavor of B3's setting into something more like a lost unseelie castle, so the ubue have morphed into these strange beings that have evolved out of wild and evil magic from Faerie. I made them psionic and they like to scour old ruins in search of magical items and lore. They like to wear long, arm-less robes of fine bronze plates (kind of Klimt-esque) and dislike brutish combat, preferring mind powers. They still look ugly and weird, though, and have a bizarre blended sexuality.

Here are my preliminary stats for these guys as I work them out. (Yeah, I found some stats for them in Necromancer Games Tome of Horrors, but it was essentially the same "cave-man" creature from the original module, so that didn't work for me.)

UBUE

large aberration (psionic)

hit dice: 3d8+12 (24)

initiative: -1

speed: 40 ft

armor class: 15 (-1 size, -1 dex, +3 thick skin, +3 bronze robe)

base attack/grapple: +2

attack: Slam +5 melee (1d6+4)

full attack: Slam +5 melee (1d6+4) and 2 slams +3 melee (1d6+4)

space/reach: 10 ft/10 ft

special attacks: Psi-like abilities, multi-attack

special qualities: Darkvision 60 ft, spell resistance 10, naturally psionic, power resistance +13

saves: Fort 7, Ref 2, Will 5

abilities: Str 19, Dex 8, Con 18, Int 14, Wis 9 , Cha 22

skills:

feats: Multiattack, Alertness

environment: Fey-touched ruins

organization: Solitary, pair, or clan (3–9)

challenge rating: 4 [?]

treasure: Standard

alignment: Usually chaotic neutral

advancement: By character class (Wilder)

level adjustment: base creature +2

psi-like abilities: 3/day—defensive precognition, empty mind, mind thrust; 1/day—force screen.  

[For now I just gave them the Phrenic template from the Psionics Handbook, thinking I will flesh out their mind powers more later. I am lazy and move in fits and starts.]