FREQUENCY: Very rare
NUMBER APPEARING: 1
ARMOR CLASS: 4
MOVE: 15”
HIT DICE: 7 (30 hit points)
% IN LAIR: Nil
TREASURE TYPE: Nil
NUMBER OF ATTACKS: 1
DAMAGE/ATTACK: By weapon type
SPECIAL ATTACKS: See below
SPECIAL DEFENSES: See below
MAGIC RESISTANCE: Standard
INTELLIGENCE: Average (with considerable
cunning)
ALIGNMENT: Neutral
SIZE: M
PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil (immune to psionic
attacks)
The oculon is an enchanted monster created
by a high-level
magic-user
to act as an assistant or guardian. The process of
creating one is long and quite involved,
but the resulting being is
fairly powerful because of the many special
skills it has. An
oculon is humanoid in shape, though only
vaguely so, and is 4
feet tall at the shoulder. Instead of
a human head, the oculon has
a flexible neck about 3 feet in length
with a single large eye at the
end. The neck is 2” in diameter and the
eye is 4” across.
There is no rigid internal skeleton; the
oculon’s movements
appear somewhat rubbery, and it can flatten
into a mobile blob
of matter only 9” high, covering 6 square
feet. When flattened
oculons move at one-third normal speed
and do not attack.
An oculon can only be hit by weapons of
a magical nature. In
addition, the lack of a skeleton allows
this creature to take only
half damage from falls and from attacks
made by blunt weapons
when in its semi-humanoid form. When in
its flattened form, the
cannot be damaged at all by falls or blunt
weapons, because the
body will “give” and absorb the impact
of the blow.
An oculon will take verbal commands only
from the magicuser who helped create it. It can understand and obey a reasonably
complex set of instructions and may operate on its own for
a considerable period of time.
Small-sized melee weapons may be handled
by an oculon in
combat, but they cannot use missile weapons.
If an oculon
succeeds in attacking from behind it will
do double damage to
the victim. Also, the large eye may fire
up to seven magic missiles per day at a maximum rate of one per round.
These missiles
do 1-6 points damage each and strike opponents
as if launched
by a 7-hit-dice monster; they have a 180’
range but there are no
penalties “to hit” when firing upon a
target at medium or long
range.
Small-sized melee weapons may be handled
by an oculon in
combat, but they cannot use missile weapons.
If an oculon
succeeds in attacking from behind it will
do double damage to
the victim. Also, the large eye may fire
up to seven magic missiles per day at a maximum rate of one per round.
These missiles
do 1-6 points damage each and strike opponents
as if launched
by a 7-hit-dice monster; they have a 180’
range but there are no
penalties “to hit” when firing upon a
target at medium or long
range.
Oculons may hide in shadows with 80% success.
They can
move about in complete silence, surprising
opponents on a
score of 1-4 on a 6-sided die. They cannot
be caught in a Web or
snared, netted, or grasped in any way;
treat as if they were
coated with Oil of Slipperiness.
Creation of an oculon requires the services
of an alchemist
and spells cast from a magic-user of at
least 18th level. Many
exotic materials are required by the alchemist,
and the total cost
of his services will be 30,000 gp. The
three most important
substances necessary are a gland from
a purple worm, an eye
from a beholder, and the brain of a thief.
Two to five weeks are
required for the alchemist to prepare
the mixture, after which
the Wizard must cast these spells upon
the fluids, in this order:
Unseen Servant, Magic Missile, Protection
from Normal Missiles, Geas, Mind Blank, and Wish. The oculon then assumes
its
semi-humanoid form and is ready to take
on assignments.
The body of an oculon is light grey in
color, and slightly
glossy. The cornea of the eye is dark
grey, and the pupil of the
eye is black.
| Dragon | - | MM3 | - | Dragon #53 |