Astral searchers were mindless creatures of nebulous humanoid shape whose only driving action was to invade the material plane and possess a body, thereby becoming sentient.[2][1]
Creation[]
Astral searchers were created from concentrated or traumatic thoughts, such as combat or destructive spells cast in the astral plane.[2][1]
Behavior[]
Astral searchers wandered the astral plane searching for weak points between the planes so as to invade the prime material plane. Driven by their past connections to the prime material they obsessively searched for humanoid bodies to possess. Should they manage to arrive in other planes inhabited by humanoids, they would hunt down the nearest individual and attack its psyche. Once the psyche of their victim was destroyed they could then inhabit the body and become a new sapient creature.[2][1]
As newly created sapient creatures, they would exhibit the emotion that created them in the first place, such as rage, determination, fear, and so on. As they had not yet learned to speak they could only make noises reflecting their emotional state.[1]
Combat[]
Astral searchers attacked with ghostly claws that tore at the psyche. Purely mental, no ordinary defense or armor could stand against their attacks.[1]
Ecology[]
Until they possessed a humanoid, they had no capability for thought. Once in possession of a body they would assume that the emotion that created it was the natural state of the world, and thus sought to recreate the atmosphere around its own creation.[1] They were however very quick learners, and within a few hours of possession abilities such as language or non-weapon-related proficiencies would come back to the new inhabitant. Only memories and life experience were gone for good, as if the individual suffered from permanent amnesia. Of the original personality, it was gone forever and only by a true wish spell could it be brought back.[3]
Appendix[]
Appearances[]
Organized Play & Licensed Adventures
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 David "Zeb" Cook (1994). Planescape Campaign Setting, Monstrous Supplement. Edited by David Wise. (TSR, Inc), p. 4. ISBN 978-1560768340.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Don Turnbull (1981). Fiend Folio. (TSR Hobbies), p. 13. ISBN 0-9356-9621-0.
- ↑ David "Zeb" Cook (1994). Planescape Campaign Setting, Monstrous Supplement. Edited by David Wise. (TSR, Inc), p. 5. ISBN 978-1560768340.