Monster: Flame Shard

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Flame Shard

This vertically stretched octahedron is composed of translucent flames and emanates intense heat.

CR 7; XP 6,400
N Medium Outsider (elemental, fire, incorporeal)
Init +5; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +11

Defense
AC 20, touch 20, flat-footed 15 (+5 deflection, +5 Dex)
hp 51 (6d10+18)
Fort +8, Ref +10, Will +6
Defensive Abilities absorb fire, incorporeal; Immune disease, elemental traits, fire
Weakness vulnerable to cold

Offense
Speed fly 20 ft. (perfect)
Ranged 2 fire bolts +12 touch (4d6 fire)
Special Attacks burn through, flame wave

Statistics
Str —, Dex 20, Con 16, Int 9, Wis 15, Cha 21
Base Atk +6; CMB +11; CMD 26
Feats Point-Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Weapon Focus (fire bolt)
Skills Fly +22, Knowledge (arcana) +8, Knowledge (nature) +8, Knowledge (planes) +8, Perception +11
Language understand Ignan; telepathy 100 feet (creatures with fire subtype only)

Ecology
Environment deserts and volcanic regions
Organization single, pair, or swarm (3–12)
Treasure standard

Special Abilities

Absorb Flame (Su) A flame shard is healed by fire damage, recovering 1 hit point per 3 points of damage the effect would normally inflict.

Burn Through (Su) Creatures struck with one of the flame shard's fire bolts have their fire resistance reduced by 10 points until the end of the flame shard's following turn. Effects of multiple hits stack.

Fire Bolt (Su) A flame shard can fire single bolt of fire as a standard action or two bolts of fire as a full-round action. Each fire bolt is a ranged touch attack with range of 60 feet and no range increment, dealing 4d6 points of fire damage.

Flame Wave (Su) A flame shard can focus its heat into a wave of flames as a standard action, creating a 30-ft. radius burst around itself at the start of its following turn and becoming dazed for the next 1d4+1 rounds. Flame wave inflicts 6d6 points of fire damage or half on a successful Reflex saving throw (DC 16). The saving throw DC is Constitution-based.


Flame shards are elemental spirits of pure disembodied fire. While they are not usually malicious, they are quite territorial and may get aggressive toward intruders, with the exception for creatures with fire subtype. They seem to have problem with comprehending existence of non-fire beings, (and even more so of non-fire sapience), tending to treat solid mortal creatures as moving parts of scenery, and may get annoyed or even outright angry when their surroundings are altered by presence of organic mess.

Their thought patterns are definitely strange to corporeal organic beings, making communication with them tricky, even for linguist (and conjurers) highly skilled in Ignan.

Variants:

Frost Shards have cold subtype, inflict and absorb cold damage, and reduce cold resistance with their freeze through ability, while the Storm Shards have air subtype, inflict and absorb electricity damage, and reduce electricity resistance.

Flame Shardling (CR 3) is Tiny and has AC 16 (+2 defection, +2 Dex, +2 size), 2d10+2 HD, 13 hp, Fort +1, Ref +5, Will +5, Dex 14, Con 12, Cha 15, Point-Blank Shot feat, Fly +19, Knowledges +4, Perception +7. It can make 2 fire bolt +6 (1d6 fire) attacks. Its burn through ability reduces fire resistance by 5 per hit, and its flame wave only triggers when it is dropped to 0 or less hit points, inflicts 2d6 points of fire damage within 10 ft. radius (saving throw DC 13). It can be selected as an Improved Familiar by a caster using a significant amount of fire magic with 7th or higher caster level. They are more tractable with than flame shards as they seem to lack strong territorial instinct and they appear to be more curious of non-fire existence as well.