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 Perhaps you need to add to your stable of psionic creatures so that you can keep your players on their toes? If so, take a look at the entries for new creatures below, or print them out and take them to your gaming table. You never know when an intriguing adventure idea will pop into your head simply by looking at a new monster!
Spryjack
The small, apelike humanoid crouching before you grips a full-sized weapon in its long spidery fingers. Its dingy green skin ends in bare bone on its hands, feet, and face, and its weapon is enveloped by an unnatural glimmer.
Spryjack CR 3
Usually CN Tiny monstrous humanoid (psionic)
Init +7; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Listen +3, Spot +9
Languages Common
AC 17, touch 15, flat-footed 14
(+2 size, +3 Dex, +2 natural)
hp 27 (5 HD)
Fort +2, Ref +7, Will +5
Speed 30 ft. (6 squares), climb 20 ft.
Melee+1 longspear +8 (1d8+1/x3) or
Ranged+1 light crossbow +11 (1d8+1/19-20)
Space 2 1/2 ft; Reach 0 ft. (5 ft. with small or medium weapons)
Base Atk +5; Grp -3
Psi-Like Abilities (ML 5th):
At will -- far hand (+10 ft. range*)
3/day -- call weaponry (+1 weapon*), strength of my enemy, vampiric blade
* Includes augmentation for the spryjack's manifester level
Abilities Str 10, Dex 16, Con 12, Int 7, Wis 13, Cha 6
SQ greater oversized weapon
Feats Alertness, Improved Initiative
Skills Climb +11, Escape Artist +9, Hide +11, Listen +3, Move Silently +11, Spot +9
Advancement by character class; Favored Class Lurk; see text
Greater Oversized Weapon (Ex) A spryjack can wield Small and Medium weapons without penalty, as though they were weapons of its size.
Skills A spryjack has a +8 racial bonus on Climb checks, and a +4 racial bonus on Escape Artist, Move Silently, and Spot checks. It can always choose to take 10 on Climb checks, even if rushed or threatened. Spryjacks use their Dexterity modifier, instead of their Strength modifier, for Climb checks.
Robbers and bandits of the worst sort, spryjacks compensate for their small size with psionic abilities. They are incurably greedy and readily attack larger creatures to gain their next prize.
Strategies and Tactics
Spryjacks sometimes raid their victims in groups, but only by coincidence when two or more of them find the same victim at the same time. They are quite cowardly, and they initially try stealth, followed by a quick grab and escape into the trees.
If a victim chases down the spryjack in pursuit of stolen goods, the creature's avarice for its new prize overcomes its craven nature and it attacks without hesitation. Other spryjacks often join in at this point, hoping to snatch some of the spoils from their opponent.
Spryjacks like to snag the biggest, most important-looking item they can carry away. They tend to overlook small items, such as coins and gems, but take these if no better option presents itself.
Sample Encounters
Spryjacks creep as close as possible before they make their attack, preferring to remain concealed behind trees or other cover unless forced to come into the open. If nobody seems to be looking their way, they use far hand to lift prospective treasures straight into their grasp without ever exposing themselves to danger.
Raid (EL 3-6): One to three spryjacks attack a group of travelers in the night, snatching whatever stray items they can before fleeing to their communal home in the trees.
Plague of Thieves (EL 9): Half a dozen spryjacks living near a small farming community have become more aggressive, raiding almost daily. A nearby gauth keeps stealing away everything the spryjacks take, leaving the spryjacks coveting even more of the community's goods.
Ecology
Spryjacks are nocturnal, since they prefer to come out to thieve when fewer people are about to interrupt them. If necessary, they can forage to feed themselves, but nothing that simply grows wild is as sought by a spryjack as an object in someone else's possession, so their diet consists mainly of vegetables stolen straight from the field.
Spryjacks live in the trees, where they build simple camps for habitation. Young spryjacks spend all their time in the camp, living off scraps discarded by the adults and honing their skills against each other.
Environment: Most spryjacks live in forested areas, but they also make their homes in marshes and hilly areas. All they require is a suitable selection of targets and a campsite beyond the reach of their victims.
Typical Physical Characteristics: An adult male spryjack is nearly 2 feet tall and weighs around 6 pounds. Females are slightly smaller and lighter.
The spryjack's dull green body is apish in design, with short, stout legs, powerful shoulders, and long arms. Each hand has seven long, thin digits, which allows them to hold large objects with relative ease. Their face, hands, and feet are plated with a tough horn that makes them look like bone.
Alignment: Spryjacks are usually chaotic neutral. They care only about their personal quest for treasure, but hold no real hatred for other creatures.
Society
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Spryjack Lore
Characters with ranks in Knowledge (nature) or Knowledge (psionics) can learn more about spryjacks. When the character makes a successful skill check, the following lore is revealed, including the information from lower DCs.
Knowledge (nature)/(psionics)
DC Result
15 This creature is a spryjack, a greedy creature that ambushes travelers. This result reveals all monstrous humanoid traits.
20 Despite their size, spryjacks can wield weapons of normal size.
25 Spryjacks can steal the life and health of their victims. Even the weapons they wield are stolen straight out of the air.
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A spryjack "tribe" is a small, loose grouping of males around a single female called a tribemother (and her children). While she mates only with the male who gathers the most impressive prizes, their continual theft from outsiders (and each other) is from a genuine desire for the treasure itself. The tribemother almost never leaves the camp, and she steals all her possessions from the males, who show no hesitation in trying to get them back.
Spryjacks spend most of the day sleeping, but at evening the camp comes to life as the spryjacks prepare for their nightly work. They usually go out to gather food from nearby farms or acquire a new trinket, but sometimes they stay back if they already have a particularly fine object they want to defend. When a spryjack is not occupied with fulfilling these basic necessities, they brag, fight, show off items, and, of course, rob each other blind.
Everything in a spryjack camp is cobbled together from something they found wild or got by theft. A large canopy fashioned from stolen hides and fabric covers the entire camp, with an outer wall made from woven branches. Ramshackle walls divide the interior, and a mixture of broken fragments from past treasures covers the floor. This mixture makes walking on it both painful and dangerous for anyone without a spryjack's bony feet.
Typical Treasure
A spryjack camp has treasure typical for its Encounter Level (about 4,500 gp for a camp with 7 to 9 adults). It is mostly composed of metal items and other objects durable enough to survive the spryjacks' constant squabbling.
Spryjacks with Class Levels
A spryjack's favored class is the lurk from Complete Psionic. Lurks are underhanded psionic killers. (If you are not using Complete Psionic in your campaign, substitute rogue as the favored class.)
Level Adjustment: +3
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