DCC Bestiary - Nightmare

This one has been percolating in the back of my brain for about a year.

The idea of a evil necromancer or hag riding a jet black steed belching fire and smoke, as they ride with a captured mortal soul back to the nether reaches of hell is pretty cinematic.  Unfortunately, there is no DCC version of this that captures the scene, and the various editions of D&D don't do much better -- it's a bag of hit points that can plane shift.

Looking at legends and myths, there's all sorts of cool source material going back to Greek mythology.  I can't use all of it ... the monster stat block would be two pages and unusable.  But I can take some themes and use them for one or two cool effects.

Here's a good overview of the nightmare's history and D&D usage of the critter.

http://thecampaign20xx.blogspot.com/2015/05/dungeons-dragons-guide-to-nightmare.html 

For my version, I kept the 8 Hit Dice, lowered the Armor Class from a lofty 24 down to 18, merged the fear gaze and cloud of smoke and soot into one ability, and change it from a vanilla planar step into something cooler ... the hellride. It's more evocative of travelling the worlds from Roger Zelazny's Nine Princes in Amber than 'pop, you have arrived'.

Thoughts? Drop me a note at archadethered@gmail.com.

Demon, Nightmare (Type II)

     A creature of the Lower Hells, a great gaunt black horse with sparking and flaming hooves with smoke trailing from its nostrils and mouth, with a coat of the blackest night.

     Nightmares are steeds for powerful demons and hags, conveying them across the planes.  They will serve cruel masters and mistresses willingly in exchange for mortals to slay, and souls to consume in the form of larvae or hag-cursed victims.  They are highly intelligent and serve their own purposes.  

     While Nightmares cannot speak, they can read the minds of those around them, especially to know their deepest fears, which they then twist and bend to cause mortals around them to flee.

     Nightmare: init +4; Atk flaming hooves +6 melee (1d6+4 plus 1d4 fire) and bite +6 melee (2d4+4); AC 18; HD 6d8+12 (40 hp); MV 60’, Fly 90’; Act 2d20, SP aura of fear and smoke, critical hit range 19-20, darkness (+8 check); demon traits (ESP), hellride, immune to non-magical weapons, infravision 120’, resistant to fire, acid, cold, electricity and gas; Sv Fort +10, Ref +8, Will +12; AL C; Crit Dn/??

     The flaming hooves of a nightmare can set combustible materials alight, and any creature wearing cloth or similar burnable materials when struck must make a DC 6 Reflex save or catch fire.

     Simply being near a nightmare and inhaling the smoke and soot emanating from the demonic steed can cause irrational fear and discomfort, and any within 20 feet must make a DC 14 Will save or suffer a -2 penalty to all rolls (attack, damage, skills, spells and saves) until aa full-night's sleep. If successfully saved against, no further check is required that day. No creature affected by the fears generated by the nightmare will willingly mount it.

     A galloping nightmare can become ethereal within 1d3 turns, turning to smoke along with it’s rider and vanishing.  Traversing the road to the Lower Hells from the material plane to the ethereal, it can find it’s way to any foul planes of existence or back in a further 2d3 turns.