All Creatures from tiny birds to Ancient Wyrms spawning in Ilshenar have a 5% chance to spawn as a Paragon of its type. A paragon is bright gold in color and has the tag (Paragon) on the end of its name. It has significantly enhanced stats, skills and regenerative powers than normal:
- Hit points multiplied by 5
- Strength raised by 5%
- Dexterity and Intelligence raised by 20%
- All skills raised by 20%
- Base damage raised by 5 points
- Poisoning, if present in the creature type, raised by one level (but capped at ‘lethal’)
- Fame and Karma adjusted by 40% (positive or negative depending on the creature type)
Paragons move very quickly and aggressive ones are extremely prone to target-switching, being especially drawn to fast moving characters. Should you come across anyone fighting a paragon give them a wide berth and walk, don’t run if you would avoid becoming the paragon’s target. The advice to tamers hunting in Ilshenar is ‘send in your pet first then walk, or better, teleport to its side to vet/heal’.
Special Rewards
The items known as ‘minor artifacts‘ are dropped by paragons, each person involved in the death of one will have a chance of receiving such an artifact, depending on the fame of the creature and the luck of the character.
Treasure map carrying mobs, listed on the Treasure Map Quests page, have a 10% chance of carrying a special treasure chest one level higher than their regular map. The chests spawn in 11 different colors and show the type of creature it came from.
Exactly as the equivalent treasure chest, these chests are locked and trapped. You will need a character with lockpick skill to open all but the lowest levels. A Grand Master mage will be able to magically unlock a paragon chest from a creature that normally drops level 1 maps. A Legendary mage will be able to unlock one from a creature that normally drops level 2 maps (water elemental for example) beyond that you will need a lock picker.
Contents of the chest are a small amount of gold (slightly over 1000gp from Titan chest), some gemstones, a few magic items and a treasure map of the same level as the chest, ie one level above that normally carried by that monster. The map is ‘random facet’, the treasure chest it leads to can be anywhere on the shard, as an example, the chests featured in the image contained the following:
- From a Water Elemental, an adeptly written map for Felucca
- From a Cyclopian Warrior, a cleverly written map for Trammel
- From two Titans, an ingeniously written map for Ter Mur and one for Felucca
Unopened chests are a good training resource for detect hidden skill, remove trap skill and lockpicking. Magic items in the chests can be unravelled to train imbuing.