CREATURES FROM ADVANCED DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS

RUST MONSTER

Val	CHA	Cost	Roll	Notes
10	STR	0	11-	Lift 100.0 kg; 2d6 HTH Damage [1]
17	DEX	21	12-	OCV:  6/DCV:  6
13	CON	6	12-
12	BODY	4	11-
5	INT	-5	10-	PER Roll 13-
13	EGO	6	12-	ECV:  4
8	PRE	-2	11-	PRE Attack:  1 1/2d6
8	COM	-1	11-

8	PD	1		Total:  8 PD (5 rPD)
8	ED	0		Total:  8 ED (5 rED)
2	SPD	0		Phases:  6, 12
5	REC	0
26	END	0
24	STUN	0		Total Characteristic Cost:  30

Movement:	Running:	8"/16"
		Leaping:	2"/4"
		Swimming:	2"/4"

Cost	Powers & Skills
315	Metal To Rust:  HKA 10d6, Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2), Persistent (+1/2), Damage Shield 
	(Offensive; +3/4), Does BODY (+1), AVLD (Power Defense; +1 1/2); Only Versus Metal (-1), No STR 
	Bonus (-1/2)
7	Bite:  HKA 1 point (1/2d6 w/STR), Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2)
15	Armored Hide:  Armor (5 PD/5 ED)
4	Quicker Than You'd Think:  Running +2" (8" total), END 1
9	Alertness:  +3 PER with all Sense Groups
19	Smell Metal:  Detect A Single Thing: Metal 17-/14- (Smell/Taste Group), Increased Arc Of 
	Perception (360 Degrees), Range, Telescopic:  +4
5	Darkvision:  Nightvision
6	Prehensile Feelers And Tail:  Extra Limbs  (3), Inherent (+1/4)

	Skills
2	+1 with Metal To Rust

5	Tracking 11-

Total Powers & Skill Cost:  387
Total Cost:  417

75+	Disadvantages
20	Physical Limitation:  Instinctive Intelligence (All the Time, Greatly Impairing)
10	Physical Limitation:  Limited Manipulation (Frequently, Slightly Impairing)
15	Physical Limitation:  Always Hungry, Voracious Appetite (Frequently, Greatly Impairing)
297	Experience Points

Total Disadvantage Points:  417

Ecology: Rust monsters tend to live deep underground, where they search out and devour metals of all sorts. They prefer ferrous metals (such as iron and steel) and will eagerly seek such things out.

It has been pointed out that such a diet of rust and metal seems to go against all known ideas of ecology, meaning that rust monsters may be unnatural creatures. Most people believe that rust monsters are the creations of a sorcerer, although others hold forth that they are extra-planar creatures and consider the Elemental Plane of Earth to be the rust monsters natural home.

Personality/Motivation: Normal animal motivations. Their only real desire is a stead diet of refined metals.

Powers/Tactics: Rust monsters don't engage in combat per se. They will pursue a source of food, but prefer to get their diet of rust without a fight. As a rust monster's mouth is too small to be of real any use, their only real defense is their thick skin and running away.

A rust monster can destroy 1,000 cubic feet of metal at a touch (that’s a 10’ cube, or 4 cubic HERO hexes). Using Metal's Doom (found on page 85 of the Fantasy Hero Grimoire), I made the attack a HKA so it would affect any and all metal, from swords and armor to metal doors, walls, and the like. It’s AVLD to avoid issues with DEF (I figure Power DEF could be considered magical wards or the like). And it’s 10d6 because a cubic hex of steel is 25 BODY, and each additional cubic hex is +1 BODY.

Appearance: A rust monster is about 5 feet long, 3 feet high, and weighs 200 pounds. It has a globular body covered in thick plates, four legs, a long tail with a paddle-like tip, and two feathery antenna at the corners of the mouth. They are usually reddish in color with a yellowish underside.

Designer's Notes: The rust monster is an amusing—if impossible—creature that could only exist in a fantasy setting. Considering how much naturally occurring metal there is just "laying around," odds are a rust monster would soon starve. However, with the extensive subterranean world the AD&D universe postulates, it seems likely rust monsters would find sufficient food after all. Much worse, of course, would be the effects of letting such a creature loose in the modern world. Cars, homes, guns, street signs, virtually anything one could think of would contain food for these animals.

Rust monsters around found in the Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual 3.5 from Wizards of the Coast. This character sheet was developed based on material found on Killer Shrike's D&D 3e to HERO conversion webpage.

Rust Monster Hero Designer File

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