| Hit Dice: | 7d6+28 (52 hp) |
| Initiative: | +1 |
| Speed: | 30 ft. (6 squares), burrow 30 ft. |
| Armor Class: | 20 (+1 Dex, +9 natural), touch 11, flat-footed 19 |
| Base Attack/Grapple: | +3/+7 |
| Attack: | Slam +7 melee (1d6+4) |
| Full Attack: | 2 slams +7 melee (1d6+4) |
| Space/Reach: | 5 ft./5 ft. |
| Special Attacks: | Spell-like abilities |
| Special Qualities: | Burrow, earth mastery, immunity to cold, low-light vision, mountain dependency |
| Saves: | Fort +8, Ref +6, Will +6 |
| Abilities: | Str 19, Dex 13, Con 18, Int 14, Wis 13, Cha 16 |
| Skills: | Craft (stonemasonry) +12, Craft (trapmaking) +12, Diplomacy +5, Knowledge (architecture and engineering) +12, Knowledge (nature) +12, Listen +13, Search +2 (+4 secret doors and compartments), Sense Motive +11, Spot +13, Survival +11 (+13 in aboveground natural environments) |
| Feats: | Alertness, Great Fortitude, Track |
| Environment: | Any mountains |
| Organization: | Solitary |
| Challenge Rating: | 7 |
| Treasure: | Standard |
| Alignment: | Always lawful neutral |
| Advancement: | 8–14 HD (Medium) ♊ |
| Level Adjustment: | — |
Like a dryad or a fossergrim, an oread is a fey creature intrinsically linked to some feature of the natural world. In the oread’s case, it’s an undeniably important feature—a mountain. An oread guards the natural state of her mountain home, protecting it from miners and quarrymen and fending off drastic forces of erosion. Individual miners might be charmed, warned, and sent on their way, but large parties that go to mine or quarry an oread’s mountain always come to disaster or are simply never heard from again.
Oreads vary in appearance, but all resemble stern, strong humanoid women with stony skin. An oread’s hair looks like strands of stringy lichen and is white when its mountain’s peak is covered in snow. Oreads often wear gowns woven from the metals of their mountain, and many wear jewelry of uncut gems and precious stones.
An oread is a fierce warden of her mountain and regularly uses her spells to bring disaster upon those who would despoil it. Such mountains gain the reputation of being cursed or evil, and that sometimes attracts the attention of a tribe of evil humanoids or giants seeking a refuge. Being a lawful creature, an oread will often strike a bargain of mutual protection with such a tribe.
Oreads speak Dwarven, Sylvan, and Terran.
An oread uses its knowledge of stone and its skill with engineering to create many deadly deadfalls and avalanche points on its mountain. When confronted with foes, an oread often charms one to lure the rest to a place where its traps can have their greatest effect. The oread then triggers them from hiding, hoping to kill, maim, or frighten its foes enough to cause them to flee. More troublesome and determined foes feel the full brunt of the oread’s spellcasting powers.
An oread can be summoned using a summon nature’s ally VI spell.
Spell-Like Abilities: At will—stone tell, teleport (from any point on its mountain to any other point on its mountain); 3/day—charm monster, soften earth and stone, spike stones, stone shape, transmute mud to rock, transmute rock to mud; 1/day—earthquake, move earth. Caster level 14th; save DC 13 + spell level.
Burrow (Ex): An oread can glide through stone, dirt, or almost any other sort of earth except metal as easily as a fish swims through water. Its burrowing leaves behind no tunnel or hole, nor does it create any ripple or other signs of its presence. A move earth spell cast on an area containing a burrowing oread flings the oread back 30 feet, stunning the creature for 1 round unless she succeeds on a Fortitude save (DC 19).
Earth Mastery (Ex): An oread gains a +1 bonus on attack and damage rolls if her foe is touching the ground.
Mountain Dependency (Su): Each oread is mystically bound to a mountain. If an oread strays farther than 1 mile from her mountain, she dies within 4d6 hours.
Source: Oread, page 134. Changes applied as per the D&D® v.3.5 Accessory Update.