The official GemStone IV encyclopedia.
Squamous reptilian mutant
Clad in thick, pooling garb that conceals the worst of her tortured form, the mutant was once a being of great stature. Now her body is hunched and bent beneath the weight of her transformation. Her skin sloughs in places, revealing scaling reminiscent of a lizard's, the lamina pale but faintly tinged with cold color. The monstrous alterations to the mutant's form have not spared her features. They are an uneven mass of tumorous growths and molting, squamous skin into which two slit-pupiled eyes of monstrous golden hue are deeply set. Pronounced venom sacs, far from symmetrical, bulge from the sides of the mutant's neck as if to match the uneven distension of her cranium.
Hunting Strategies
- General Advice
- As primarily casting creatures, mutants are fairly vulnerable to SMR-based spells and attacks like Condemn (309), Earthen Fury (917), Hamstring, Spike Thorn (616), Twin Hammerfists, and so on. This is offset somewhat by their high level, though.
- Mutants have exceptionally high CS--over 520--that leaves their Thought Lash (1210), Bind (214), and Vertigo (1219) spells nearly guaranteed to hit against every profession and leave characters stunned or disabled. Keep them from casting by any means including Sweep, Feint, Corrupt Essence (703), Moonbeam (611), Condemn, Earthen Fury, or other options that keep them stalled out, unable to cast, or repeatedly stunned.
- Mutants have Brace (1214), which can disarm against many forms of physical attacks. However, many combat maneuvers and SMR-based weapon techniques bypass this, as do ranged attacks and unarmed combat. Brace can also be removed via dispelling magic such as Spirit Dispel (119), Spiritual Abolition (230), Elemental Dispel (417), Mental Dispel (1218), and Song of Unravelling (1013) or other similar effects like Spell Cleave.
- Voln
- Symbol of Transcendence can sometimes salvage a bad situation, either preemptively or used with its emergency cooldown. High CS aside, mutants are still mostly casting disablers or attacking with one of the weaker weapon bases, the cudgel, so it's possible to survive even ten rounds of stun with enough luck.
- Symbol of Restoration can be used while Immobilized by Bind.
- Bards
- Clerics
- The INFUSE SPIRIT option of Soul Ward (319) can sometimes delay mutants long enough to keep a cleric alive through lengthy stun.
- Empaths
- The REGENERATE option of Regeneration (1150) can sometimes keep an empath healed and padded to survive lengthy stun a limited number of times per day, depending on Transformation lore.
- Paladins
- Divine Incarnation (1650) Smite with enough Religion lore to reliably hit twice will usually do substantial damage to mutants, if not outright kill them, while divine energy lasts.
- Be ready to beseech Divine Intervention (1635) at a moment's notice to get away safely after being hit by any of a mutant's dangerous spells.
- Rangers
- With enough Ranger Base ranks, Moonbeam is a nearly universal solution in the Hinterwilds and mutants are no exception.
Other Information
Hitting their arms has a disarm like effect causing you to drop your weapon.
Your maul strikes one of the bony protrusions on a squamous reptilian mutant's forearms and it is wrenched out of your grasp!
The rune-scribed maul falls into the shadows!
They Sweep
A squamous reptilian mutant crouches and sweeps a leg at you!
[SMR result: 147 (Open d100: 65, Bonus: 1)]
They Bind
A squamous reptilian mutant flicks her bulging eyes toward you!
CS: +460 - TD: +389 + CvA: -27 + d100: +76 - +5 == +115
Warding failed!
An unseen force entangles you, restricting your movement!
| Near-level creatures - edit
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