The rogue shivered and glanced over her shoulder, only to find the darkened alley deserted save for the collapsed mugger that hadn’t seen the sap strapped to her hip. Pausing as she tucked the faithful weapon into its loop on her belt, she carefully scanned the moonlit alley and beyond it before concluding that she was alone. However, even as she adjusted her cloak, she couldn’t shake the feeling of eyes upon her. Leaving the alley behind quickly, she missed the tiny eyeball, posed atop six, spidery legs that emerged from behind the crate. It watched the rogue depart before it hopped onto the street and scurried after her.
Sorry for the late post, but it's also gonna have to be a quick one! The inspiration for this monster came a while back when Vildevitus#2346 posted a simplified design of the above critter over in the Monster Monday Discord and my imagination ran wild with it. I asked him to do up a slightly more detailed version of it and set about making a stat block for the errant eye. I decided that I wanted it to be a relatively weak creature, since eyes aren't exactly known to be sturdy and I haven't really done a creature at this CR as its own thing. I've had instances where I've had creatures of this level be part of a larger group, like the desravi, or be linked to something else, like the very simplistic saprolings, but this time I wanted a whole creature that could stand on its own. I also wanted the lore of this creature to be deliberately vague - where and how they come from is a mystery I think is best left up to the GM who wants to use them. I know where errant eyes come from in settings I run with them, but I otherwise leave that up to the purview of anybody that decides to use them.
Getting into the actual meat of the design, one of my initial concepts were that errant eyes essentially fed on visual stimuli so if they aren't seeing new things, they begin to feel uncomfortable. I chose to express that with in-game mechanics through its repetition vulnerability, which I hope is written in a way that makes sense without being needlessly wordy (these are the things that keep me up at night). Since I want it to be exploring new sights in all sorts of locales, I added climb and swim to its movement types, but couldn't quite justify flight for it. And while it has a pair of claw attacks that it can use in a pinch, the errant eye prefers staying at range and using its overwhelming visions to keep foes at bay, sharing the vast array of sights its seen with them, all at once. Possibly its most controversial ability, and one I may have given it by accidentally skipping or missing some rules, is its constant true seeing ability. However, this felt very integral to the creature - the ability to always see things as they really are so that it can carry out its observations unimpeded. I also enjoy the visual of the errant eye just watching an invisible rogue trying to sneak around. Oh, almost forgot - I gave it a bunch of languages so it can read stuff. GMs should feel free to swap languages it knows for relevant ones.
Pathfinder 1e:
Didn't change too much with the Pathfinder 2e version aside from adding in the Skitter reaction to help it flee from foes that close in on it. None of its bonuses are extraordinary, save for its Perception, which was a must.
Pathfinder 2e:
Blue's D&D 5e:
ENCOUNTER HOOKS
Eyeful: The heroes arrive in a town overrun by errant eyes that are creeping out the residents who believe that the errant eyes are waiting for something. Many people have started to claim that the errant eyes are there to observe something calamitous to the town with the more creative members certain that they are going to be the cause of the oncoming catastrophe. To prevent people from getting themselves hurt doing something stupid, officials within the city ask the heroes to clear out the errant eye infestation and leave the method up to them – as long as the town stays intact.
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Until next time, have a Monstrous Monday!
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