#snowcloak

Hypostatic Tank

Image © Wizards of the Coast, by Mitch Cotie. Accessed at the Frostburn Art Gallery here

[The snowcloak is a monster in Frostburn with a cool illustration and little else going for it. The original statistics have a bunch of needless spell-like abilities (does it really need to dimension door 3/day at CR 4?) and the paralysis lasts way too long (1d4 hours). Plus, there’s no explanation in the flavor text of what they do, where they live, and why they are except for “wandering predators”. I kept the wandering aspect, but tied it to a phenomenon and gave them some possible allies and enemies. On our planet, the Antarctic Circle is home to the Circumpolar Current, an enormous ocean current driven by similarly massive winds. I imagine that snowcloaks would love it there.]

Snowcloak CR 4 CN Aberration This being looks like an oversized white stingray, except that it has two skull-like heads and a club at the end of its whip-like tail in place of a sting. It flies above the ground, sharp fringes running alongside the margins of its body.

Snowcloaks are strange dual-headed predators that more resemble deep sea fish than any sane life at the surface. They are hunters and riders on the wind, and chase storm effects across the frozen reaches of the world. Even mountains in temperate regions may be host to snowcloaks, although they prefer to hunt the windward side of mountain ranges than the lee. Their two heads cooperate with one another—one can sleep while the other steers, meaning that a snowcloak can doze on the wing and never has to land unless it chooses to.

A snowcloak prefers to make hit and run attacks—although they have many natural weapons, they are on the move so frequently that they usually can only bring one to bear at a time. They pounce upon creatures caught in storms, and if they cannot find prey may linger in the storm’s wake to attack beings that emerge from shelter once the brunt of the weather has passed.Their claws contain a paralytic agent, and snowcloaks that successfully paralyze a foe will descend on it above other foes. All snowcloaks have minor magical abilities, which they use to dissuade ranged attacks if the wind is insufficient.

Snowcloaks spend much of their lives high in the atmosphere, descending to lower levels to hunt. In the sky, they form shoals to socialize with each other and the occasional air elemental. Such associations are competitive, with snowcloaks often showing off to one another and competing in aerial stunts and races. Cloud giants consider snowcloaks to be pests, and it is rumored that the first snowcloaks are somehow related to the legendary cloud castles these giants once dwelled in. Since snowcloaks never stand still for more than a few moments, they have no lairs in which to deposit treasure.