Albino Crocodile

These miniature white crocodiles descend from the pets of a master wizard who once ran a school of magic. When their owner was killed they fled into the sewers beneath, and the necromancer who followed made only halfhearted, spiteful efforts to exterminate them. They have thrived since, subtly altered by runoff from the necromancer's experiments.

Small or not, albino crocodiles are almost as strong as their full-sized cousins and are vicious, sly and unpredictable. They nearly always ambush, giving victims a -3 penalty on surprise rolls. The bite deals 2d4 points of damage and the tail slap 1d6. Because the tail strikes around a humanoid's knees, anyone it hits must save vs. paralyzation or be knocked down and lose all remaining actions that round.

Generations of soaking in magical waste have left them totally immune to magic. Only spells whose results are not themselves sustained by magic can hurt them: a wall of thorns or a falling wall of stone harms one, but magic missile does nothing, and a wall of force or prismatic sphere is no barrier to it at all. Dim as they are, they have learned that two-legged creatures who glow from their hands are easy meat, so they single out spellcasters.

Albino crocodiles usually live alone, though groups of 3-9 form when food is plentiful. Oddly, that is when they are safest to meet, since they attack only when hungry or threatened. Between hunts they rest on the bottom of flooded channels, digesting or waiting.

Rats and other small animals make up most of their diet. They go after humans only when starving or provoked.