List of creatures with spell-like abilities

[Big Mac]

The other day Jaid posted a topic called another reason to use hurwaeti crews..., where he pointed out that, as well as being able to refresh the air on a spelljamming ship, that spell-like ability that the hurwaeti have could also be used to power Series Helms.

That got me wondering something: How many other D&D creatures have spell-like abilities that could power Series Helms?

I'd like to make a list of the creatures, the sources for them (book and page reference if possible) and what that ability is. I think we could put together a table that GMs could use to pick crews for ships with Series Helms.

CREATURES WITH SPELL-LIKE ABILITIES:

• Hurwaeti (CGR1 The Complete Spacefarer's Handbook: pages 20-21): Fog cloud (fog bank) 1/day

LAST EDIT (by Big Mac 12 Jul 2018): List created.

[Big Mac]

I don't have all the details for the hurwaeti yet. I'll try to hunt down the details when I get home.

BTW: I'm intending to put down creatures of any edition of D&D on this list. If you don't want to convert things from one edition to another, just ignore any critters that are not in your preferred edition.

If the spell-like abilities are interesting enough, I might create separate topics, to discuss the implications of an entire crew with that ability in the context of Spelljammer.

[Dalillama]

Offhand and without reference to my books, we've got Ogre Magi, Drow, all sorts of dragons, Brownies, Pixies, (also need less air and food), kenku and dryads.

[Tim Baker]

I'm not sure it's straightforward to tell which monsters have spell-like abilities in 4e. I don't have my books handy, but I don't recall that being a power keyword. I think you may try on power name and descriptions and your educated guess.

[Dalillama]

Hags (Annis even have Fog Cloud and can presumably refresh atmosphere as well)

[ripvanwormer]

Hags (Annis even have Fog Cloud and can presumably refresh atmosphere as well)

Cloud giants are useful for the same reason; they have obscuring mist and fog cloud as spell-like abilities. In addition, their ability to levitate themselves and up to 2,000 pounds means they can pilot small boats even without a helm (either towards or away from a center of gravity), which is useful in emergencies.

[ripvanwormer]

Every monster with spell-like abilities in the Pathfinder Bestiary 1:

Aasimar
Aboleth
Angel, Astral Deva
Angel, Planetar
Angel, Solar
Archon, Hound
Archon, Lantern
Archon, Trumpet
Azata, Bralani
Azata, Ghaele
Azata, Lillend
Barghest
Bebelith
Couatl
Dark Creeper
Dark Stalker
Demon, Babau
Demon, Balor
Demon, Dretch
Demon, Glabrezu
Demon, Hezrou
Demon, Marilith
Demon, Nabasu
Demon, Nalfeshnee
Demon, Quasit
Demon, Shadow
Demon, Succubus
Demon, Vrock
Derro
Devil, Barbed
Devil, Bearded
Devil, Bone
Devil, Erinyes
Devil, Horned
Devil, Ice
Devil, Imp
Devil, Pit Fiend
Devourer
Doppelganger
Chromatic Dragon, Black (Juvenile and above)
Chromatic Dragon, Blue (Young and above)
Chromatic Dragon, Green (Young and above)
Chromatic Dragon, Red (Young and above)
Chromatic Dragon, White (Juvenile and above)
Metallic Dragon, Brass (Very young and above)
Metallic Dragon, Bronze (Very young and above)
Metallic Dragon, Copper (Very young and above)
Metallic Dragon, Gold (Very young and above)
Metallic Dragon, Silver (Very young and above)
Drider
Drow
Dryad
Duergar
Genie, Djinni
Genie, Efreeti
Genie, Janni
Genie, Marid
Genie, Shaitan
Giant, Cloud (levitate, obscuring mist, fog cloud)
Giant, Storm
Half-Celestial
Half-Fiend
Intellect Devourer
Lamia
Mephit
Neothelid
Night Hag
Nightmare
Nymph
Ogre Mage
Phoenix
Pixie
Satyr
Sphinx
Svirfneblin
Tiefling
Unicorn

[Dalillama]

Cloud giants are useful for the same reason; they have obscuring mist and fog cloud as spell-like abilities. In addition, their ability to levitate themselves and up to 2,000 pounds means they can pilot small boats even without a helm (either towards or away from a center of gravity), which is useful in emergencies.

They can't though, cos they can't fit in small boats. They also take way more food.

Every monster with spell-like abilities in the Pathfinder Bestiary 1:


Aboleth*†
Couatl
Dark Creeper**
Dark Stalker**
Derro
Devourer†
Doppelganger
Chromatic Dragon, Black (Juvenile and above)
Chromatic Dragon, Blue (Young and above)
Chromatic Dragon, Green (Young and above)
Chromatic Dragon, Red (Young and above)
Chromatic Dragon, White (Juvenile and above)
Metallic Dragon, Brass (Very young and above)
Metallic Dragon, Bronze (Very young and above)
Metallic Dragon, Copper (Very young and above)
Metallic Dragon, Gold (Very young and above)
Metallic Dragon, Silver (Very young and above)
Drider
Drow
Dryad
Duergar
Giant, Cloud (levitate, obscuring mist, fog cloud)*
Giant, Storm*
Half-Celestial
Half-Fiend
Intellect Devourer†
Lamia
Neothelid*†
Night Hag
Nymph
Ogre Mage
Phoenix
Pixie
Satyr
Sphinx*
Svirfneblin
Tiefling
Unicorn*
*Has size or shape that would require extensive customisation of ships.
**Can/will not work with crews of other races
†Can/will not work with anyone else whatsoever.

Did Rakshasas not make it into Pathfinder? Also I went through the list and cut out all the Outsiders, who are unsuited by their extraplanar natures to space travel.

[ripvanwormer]

Cloud giants are useful for the same reason; they have obscuring mist and fog cloud as spell-like abilities. In addition, their ability to levitate themselves and up to 2,000 pounds means they can pilot small boats even without a helm (either towards or away from a center of gravity), which is useful in emergencies.

They can't though, cos they can't fit in small boats. They also take way more food.

Food is an issue, but they don't need to fit in the small boats. They can just float nearby.

Did Rakshasas not make it into Pathfinder?

Rakshasas are in Pathfinder, but they have standard spells rather than spell-like abilities, which means they would just use standard helms rather than serial helms. Their detect thoughts and change shape abilities are supernatural abilities rather than spell-like abilities, but admittedly the distinction between spell-like and supernatural abilities are 3.x rules that might not be relevant to how Jeff Grubb defined "spell-like abilities" in the Spelljammer boxed set.

Also I went through the list and cut out all the Outsiders, who are unsuited by their extraplanar natures to space travel.

I agree that creatures whose sole spell-like ability is the power to travel to other planes are unlikely to use spelljamming ships, but listed them anyway since technically they could use serial helms if they were forced to. I could imagine conjurers powering their ships with enslaved demons, for example.

I agree that planar creatures like genies would be unlikely to willingly travel via wildspace instead of the planes except we have the canon example of the Peacock in Greyspace, which has an all-efreeti crew (Greyspace, page 26). So clearly exceptions can be made.

†Can/will not work with anyone else whatsoever.

Aboleths are social creatures ruled by their savants. They've been known to ally with drow, illithids, ixitxachitl, kopru, krakens, and kuo-toas, and they're famous for creating their own servant race, the skum. In the first appearance of an aboleth in the AD&D game, I1 Dwellers of the Forbidden City, the aboleth had an alliance with the yuan-ti, was worshiped as a god by mongrelmen, and had slaves. Most of their abilities revolve around taking slaves, so I could imagine, say, a single aboleth with a serial helm in a ship crewed by skum or other slaves. Aboleths also sometimes have offspring which they raise for the first ten years of their lives.

Intellect devourers are typically servants or pets of the illithids, so a group of illithids in a nautiloid could use intellect devourers to boost their serial helm. In Pathfinder, intellect devourers have their own civilization and are explicitly from outer space.

"The Ecology of the Devourer" in Dragon #355 provides examples of devourers allying with other races, particularly outsiders and undead. They're motivated chiefly by searching for their own lost souls, so if one believes its soul to be imprisoned somewhere in Wildspace it's conceivable it might charter a ship with a serial helm to look for it, crewing its ship with ghast servants. They're unlikely to work with one another unless they've been created by the same event, but say, three devourers created by the same soul-devouring Wildspace horror might charter a ship to recover their souls together.

Neothelids, in Pathfinder, have their own civilization and create worm-like minions called seugathi (who also have spell-like abilities) to serve them.