Arcane Bolt, Diamondback Viper: Online additions

So, my Monster Manual is supposed to be on its way, but Canada Post in their infinite wisdom has gotten themselves into a strike position, which means there is no mail being delivered in Canada right now. There's no end in sight, so I'm going to be without a physical copy of the stuff I ordered for a while. Well, that sucks. However, there are alternative methods to getting things like this, and since I have in fact purchased the product, I feel neither guilt nor shame at getting an online PDF copy for free. But first, there are a couple of online things to look at, one spell and one monster.

The spell is arcane bolt. It's a 1st-level sorcerer/wizard spell that is billed as an alternative to the ever-popular magic missile. Basically, it's got a higher damage range (2-7 per missile instead of 2-5), but the target does get to make a saving throw to avoid all damage. You get one bolt per two levels up to a maximum of 5 bolts at 9th level. It can be defended against exactly like a normal magic missile, so a brooch of shielding or a shield spell will protect the target from all damage from this spell. It's a useful attack spell, although I imagine most people would prefer the guaranteed damage of a magic missile.


The next online article is the first entry in the Monster Mayhem category of articles. This will present new monsters that don't appear in the Monster Manual. The first one is the diamondback viper, a Tiny aberration. If you look closely, you'll see that this critter has three heads and tiny wings that allow it to fly, albeit poorly. It's a predator, obviously, and it has a poisonous bite. It can also jet backward in flight up to 80 feet in a single round, which is quite fast. I'm pretty sure that could be used as a sudden attack, but it might be a DM call since it does move backward, meaning it's not in its normal attack position.

The diamondback viper has a CR of 1, so it's a low-level beastie. However, they can be found working in tandem with xorn; the viper gets to eat the victims, while the xorn gets the gems. That seems like a raw deal, but I guess a snake would be fine with it. They have half a hit die, an AC of 21 thanks to their size and high Dex (20), and an Intelligence of 15! That is one smart snake. They can be found in any underground setting.

So, that's it for today. Tomorrow I will do the Map-a-Week, and then on Monday (hopefully) I will begin my run through the Monster Manual. Hopefully, the post office will get back to work soon so I can get my hands on my new copy.

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