Potion Beast
It's Potion Week here at Necromancers of the Northwest, and what better way to get things kicked off than with a monster that lives in a potion? The potion beast may be small, but it's ready for action and can’t wait to spring a surprise encounter on your players as they merrily sip potions, unaware of the danger lurking behind every ounce.
Potion Beast
Barely visible swimming in the potion bottle is a scaled quadruped, about the size of a frog, with a pair of forward-facing jet-black horns and sparking yellow eyes.
POTION BEAST CR 1
XP 300
CN Fine magical beast
Init +4; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +6
DEFENSE
AC 22, touch 22, flat-footed 18 (+4 Dex, +8 size)
hp 6 (1d10+1)
Fort +3, Ref +6, Will +2
Defensive Abilities nauseating skin
OFFENSE
Speed 10 ft., swim 20 ft.
Melee gore +13 (1d4-3)
Space 1/2 ft.; Reach 0 ft.
Special Attacks assimilate potion, poison potion, sickening horns
STATISTICS
Str 5, Dex 18, Con 12, Int 12, Wis 14, Cha 10
Base Atk +1; CMB -10; CMD 4
Feats Weapon Finesse
Skills Knowledge (arcana) +2, Perception +6, Swim +9; Racial Modifiers Swim +8
Languages none
SQ potion habitat
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Assimilate Potion (Sp): Over time, a potion beast living inside a potion can absorb some of that liquid’s magic, allowing it to access the potion’s power without need to consume it. If a potion beast has remained in physical contact with the liquid of a potion for at least 1 hour, it can cast the spell that potion replicates as a spell-like ability 3 times per day. The caster level for this spell-like ability is equal to the caster level of the potion, and the potion beast has a concentration modifier of +0.
Nauseating Skin (Ex): Any creature that consumes a potion containing a potion beast also consumes the potion beast, and may become ill due to its nauseating skin. When the creature first swallows the potion beast, she must succeed on Fortitude save (DC 15) or become nauseated for 1 round and expel the potion beast into an adjacent square. If the save is successful, the potion beast suffers 1 point of damage or damage equal to the swallowing creature’s swallow whole damage, but the creature must continue to make Fortitude saves each round until the potion beast dies, or until it is expelled. The saving throw DC is Constitution-based and includes a +4 racial bonus.
Poison Potion (Ex): A potion beast has the ability to transmute any potion it touches into a poisonous substance that is harmful to all non-potion beasts. As a standard action, the potion beast can touch a potion in order to poison it. A creature who drinks the poisoned potion must succeed on a DC 11 Fortitude save or suffer 1d2 points of Constitution damage. The saving throw DC is Constitution-based. Creatures immune to poison are immune to this effect, and creatures add any saving throw bonus against poison as a bonus to resist this effect.
Potion Habitat (Ex): Potion beasts are born to magical potions and can live indefinitely in magical potions without need to eat, sleep, or breathe.
Sickening Horns (Ex): Whenever a potion beast deals at least 1 point of lethal damage to a creature with its gore attack, that creature must succeed on Fortitude save (DC 11) or become sickened for 1 round.
Ecology
Potion beasts are strange little creatures whose existence can be traced back to improperly created potions. When a potion is not created correctly, there is a chance that the magical energies left unrestrained create life in the form of one of these intelligent, if somewhat dangerous, beasts. Perfectly at home in potions, potion beasts live for long periods of time by simple feeding off of the energies which gave it life, allowing it to live comfortably as long as it is undisturbed. Typically, potion beasts can be found going about their simple lives in the bottles of discount potion sellers, merely enjoying existence until someone pops the cork and forces the creature to action. Not especially malicious by nature, potion beasts will use whatever means are available to them to defend their homes and return to normalcy.
Potion beasts have been noted to be extremely bright and possess strong survival instincts, often looking for the easiest way out of problems. Though intelligent, potion beasts are not naturally gifted with language, and special care must be taken to teach them to speak. For those that do convince a potion beast to talk, they find them to be surprisingly curious and cunning individuals who want to see the world, but only if it doesn’t mean leaving the comfort of their potion homes. As such, potion beasts are sometimes kept as loyal and exotic pets for wizards and alchemists.