Eye Filly (3.5e Creature)

EYE FILLY

	Eye Filly
	Dreadnaught Half-Beholder War Pony
Size/Type:	Medium Aberration (Augmented Animal)
Hit Dice:	2d8+12 (28 hp)
Initiative:	+7 (+3 Dex, +4 Imp Init)
Speed:	40' (8 squareS)
Armor Class:	25 (+3 Dex, +12 natural), touch 13, flat-footed 22
Base Attack/Grapple:	+1/+6
Attack:	Bite +6 melee (2d3+5) or hoof +6 melee (1d3+5)
Full Attack:	Bite and 2 hooves +4 melee (1d3+2)
Space/Reach:	5'/5'
Special Attacks:	Eye rays, felling strike, rapid strike
Special Qualities:	All-around vision, damage reduction 5/magic, darkvision 60', float, immunities, low-light vision, resist fire 10, scent, spell resistance 12
Saves:	Fort +9, Ref +6, Will +1
Abilities:	Str 21, Dex 17, Con 22, Int 4, Wis 12, Cha 7
Skills:	Listen +4, Spot +5
Skill Tricks:	-
Feats:	Endurance[b], Improved Initiative[b], Multiattack, Shot On The Run[b]
Environment:	Temperate plains
Organization:	Solitary, gang (2-5)
Challenge Rating:	6
Treasure:	None
Alignment:	Usually chaotic evil
Advancement:	-
Level Adjustment:	-

It's a small chestnut horse, though its head has been seemingly removed and replaced by a reddish-brown, plated sphere with a single eye, a mouth crowded with needles, and on closer inspection about half a dozen eye stalks around the top and back. Where it would have a mane, instead the bizarre creature has plates that run down its back and part-way down its shoulders like certain reptiles. Its central eye broadcasts dim anger, but the moment it spots you it emits a screeching whinny and charges, firing multi-colored magic rays from its stalks in your direction!

Eye fillies are freakish ponies each with a head identical to a tiny beholder. They are every bit as dreadful as those monstrous orbs, even if they're much smaller. Their origin is speculated to be from a magical catastrophe or divine retribution striking an area populated by mares, aberrations, and other beasts both natural and foul, or perhaps a beholder mage did it. Whatever their source, they are beholderkin, as hated by true beholders as any other.

They are aggressive, attacking most other creatures on sight aside from other eye fillies, though if nothing else comes along after a few days, they'll turn on each other. If an enemy is Huge or larger, they tend to stay just far enough back to fire eye rays, showing uncharacteristic survival instincts and cunning. Though it could be the fear and ego of even the most animalistic of evil beings.

Wherever eye fillies rear their horrid faces, their animosity always leaves scores of rotting and petrified corpses. They terrorize a region so long as survivors remain (regardless of if they're sentient or even alive; eye fillies do not discriminate). Their brazen, ceaseless assaults always rally heroes to put them down, else swift depopulation is the consequence of inaction or unawareness. More than one remote village bears silent witness to these equine assassins.

Eye fillies are the same size and weight as a war pony (less than 5' at the shoulder), and they speak no languages.

Combat

Eye fillies are as vicious as a young beholder and just as insane. They are barely more intelligent than normal horses so they don't make any good tactics with their eye rays. They usually just fire the deadliest rays it can at the closest creatures, and charges the nearest survivor to bite and batter with its hooves. In groups they rarely exercise pack tactics, simply attacking whoever has angered that particular eye filly the most.

An eye filly's natural weapons are treated as magic for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.

Attacks

Eye Rays (Su): An eye filly has seven eye stalks like that of a beholder, each able to produce a magical ray once a round even when the eye filly is attacking physically or moving at full speed. It can easily aim all its eyes upward, but its own head and body tend to get in the way when it tries to aim in other directions. During a round, it can aim only three eye rays at targets in any one arc other than up (forward, backward, left, right, or down). The remaining eyes must aim at targets in other arcs or not at all. Randomly determine the effects of each eyestalk from the list, but no more than two should have the same effect. Each eye's effect resembles a spell cast by a 9th-lvl sorcerer but follows the rules for a ray. All rays have a range of 100' and a DC of 17.

Fear: This works like the spell, except it targets one creature. The target must succeed at a Will save or be affected as though by the spell.

Finger of Death: The target must succeed at a Fortitude save or be slain as though by the spell. The target takes 3d6+9 damage on a successful saving throw.

Flesh to Stone: The target must succeed at a Fortitude save or be affected as though by the spell.

Inflict Moderate Wounds: This works just like the spell, dealing 2d8+9 damage (Will half).

Sleep: This works like the spell, except that it affects one creature with any number of hit dice. The target must make a Will save to resist.

Slow: This works like the spell, except that it affects one creature. The target must make a Will save to resist.

Telekinesis: The eye filly can move objects or creatures that weigh up to 225 lbs, as though with the telekinesis spell. Creatures can resist the effect with a successful Will save.

Felling Strike (Ex): Once per day, when an eye filly scores a critical hit, it can elect to make a felling strike by rolling again. If the result of this third roll would hit the target, the target takes the full damage from the critical hit as normal but must also make a Fortitude saving throw (DC 10 + damage dealt) or die.

Rapid Strike (Sp): Once per day, an eye filly may grant itself the effects of a haste spell (self only); CL 2.

Qualities

All-Around Vision (Ex): Because of their additional eyes, eye fillies are exceptionally alert and able to look in all directions at once. This gives them a +4 racial bonus on Spot and Search checks, and they can't be flanked.

Float (Ex): An eye filly's head is naturally buoyant, though it is weighted down by its body. This buoyancy grants it a permanent feather fall effect with personal range.

Immunities (Ex): Eye fillies are immune to disease, poison, paralysis, stunning, and mind-affecting effects.

Other

Dreadnaught template is from Book of Templates, Deluxe Edition 3.5 of Silverthorne Games. Modified slightly: DR changed to 5/magic because making it equal to HD would be too small to notice, and breaks tradition of DR being divisible by 5. Also dropped Punishing Strike as 1/day +2 damage on one attack would be so weak as to be a non-ability.

It was added only because a 2-HD creature with a CR of 6 would have been a complete pushover even if it could do at-will quickened meteor swarm. It at least made its HP roughly the same as a HD 4-5 creature.

Half-Beholder template is from Bastards and Bloodlines of Green Ronin Publishing. Modified slightly: made it change type to Aberration (Augmented Subtype) without recalculating BAB, saves, etc. The DC for the eye rays was changed from adding half-Con-mod to adding Con-mod to keep with tradition and to prevent it from being so low as to be inconsequential.

Its starting stats before adding modifications from being a war pony and from the templates were as follows: Str 13, Dex 11, Con 12, Int 8, Wis 10, Cha 9

Adventure Ideas

• Low Level: An eye filly has fallen into a pit trap, and few aside from hunters dare move close enough to do anything with the foul monster. They and other predators looking for an easy meal have been killed one by one, and the forest's ecosystem is beginning to suffer.
• Mid Level: A cleric of a deity of unnatural beasts has put out a bounty on live eye fillies.
• High Level: The legendary monster Sawfang, an eye filly big enough to be a stone giant's mount, has recently gained human-like sentience.

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