Bloody Bones Working Draft
Bone Tyrant, Master
Large Undead (Extraplanar)
Hit Dice: 11d12 (71 hp)
Initiative: +2
Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares)
Armor Class: 22 (-1 size, +2 Dex, +6 natural, +5 deflection), touch 16, flat-footed 17
Base Attack/Grapple: +5/+13
Attack: Spear +8 melee (2d6+6/×3) or spear +6 melee (2d6+4/×3)
Full Attack: Spear +8 melee (2d6+6/×3) or spear +6 melee (2d6+4/×3)
Space/Reach: 10 ft./10 ft.
Special Attacks: Marshal undead, subjugate undead
Special Qualities: Damage reduction 10/bludgeoning, darkvision 60 ft., immune to turning, minion bond, minion dependence, undead traits, unhallowed aura, unholy sentinel
Saves: Fort +3, Ref +5, Will +10
Abilities: Str 19, Dex 15, Con —, Int 13, Wis 16, Cha 20
Skills: Intimidate +19, Knowledge (religion) +15, Knowledge (the planes) +15, Listen +17, Spot +17, Survival +3 (+5 on other planes)
Feats: Combat Reflexes, Divine Might, Improved Sunder, Power Attack
Environment: Any land or a lawful evil outer plane
Organization: Solitary, court (1 plus 1-6 minions), autocracy (1 plus 1-6 minions and 50-200 HD of undead)
Challenge Rating: 6
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always lawful evil
Advancement: 12-21 HD (Large), 22-33 HD (Huge) or by character class
Level Adjustment: —
A humanoid skeleton dressed in dark robes made with fine, heavy cloth. Instead of being yellow-white like a normal skeleton, its bones are the gory red of arterial blood – except for the eye sockets, which are pitch-black holes.
Bone tyrants are diabolical undead that can be conjured from the Nine Hells by evil priests. A bone tyrant's main strength is its ability to control undead, which is similar to an evil cleric's rebuke undead ability but far more powerful. Bone tyrants come in two varieties, the large bone tyrant masters and the man-sized bone tyrant minions. A master bone tyrant has a supernatural bond with its minions which allows them to communicate telepathically and share their power to subjugate undead.
Bone tyrants are usually encountered as protectors of unholy places of worship when on the Prime Material Plane. On their native plane, bone tyrants control hordes of lesser undead on behalf of a godlike Infernal power, such as an Archduke of Hell.
A master bone tyrant may be called by a
planar ally or
greater planar ally spell. If it agrees a bargain to use its Unholy Sentinel ability, it automatically summons a full complement of six bone tyrant minions.
A bone tyrant master stands 8 feet tall and weighs about 250 pounds.
COMBAT
A bone tyrant master would rather direct its minions and subjugated undead than enter battle itself. If combat is unavoidable, it uses its Divine Might feat every round to boost its weapon damage, since it has unlimited uses of rebuke undead. A bone tyrant master that is bound to an unholy altar is unable to retreat, so will fight until destroyed, but unbound tyrants will withdraw to preserve their existence and then marshall undead for a counter-attack.
Marshall Undead (Su): Once a day, a bone tyrant master can call undead to gather towards it. This is resolved like a use of the tyrant's Subjugate Undead ability (see below). Marshal Undead can affect any undead within 20 miles of the master, except for other bone tyrants, and does not require line of effect or line of sight. The marshaled undead count towards the Hit Dice limit of the bone tyrant's Subjugate Undead ability.
Affected undead start walking towards the bone tyrant master, taking the most direct route available. A marshaled undead will try to move around or break through obstacles, and will attack creatures that threaten or obstruct them. If the Subjugate Undead check had a "rebuke" result, the undead will walk towards the master for 1 hour and then revert to normal behavior; undead marshaled by a "command" result will keep walking until they are destroyed or the bone tyrant master instructs them to stop (either in person or via a bone tyrant minion).
A cleric can attempt to dispel a Marshal Undead effect by channeling positive energy or negative energy. This follows the "Dispelling Turning" rules for an evil cleric except there are no alignment restrictions.
Minion Bond (Su): A bone tyrant master has a permanent
telepathic bond to all its minions (as the spell, except it can't be dispelled). Note that the minions are only bonded to the master, not to each other.
Minion Dependence (Ex): Should one of a bone tyrant master's minions be destroyed, the master immediately gains one positive level. This level persists until the master can return to the lower planes and bond with a replacement minion.
If a bone tyrant master is destroyed, all of its minions are immediately banished to the lower planes they originated from.
Subjugate Undead (Su): A bone tyrant can subjugate vast numbers of undead. This ability allows the bone tyrant to rebuke or command undead or dispel turning as if it were an 11th level evil cleric, with the following additional rules:
- A bone tyrant can use this power an unlimited number of times a day.
- A bone tyrant master and all its minions use the same cleric level for their Subjugate Undead checks. If the bone tyrant master gains levels in a class with the rebuke undead ability, those levels stack with the effective cleric level of all the bone tyrants. Add the Hit Dice limit of undead it can command using rebuke undead to the Hit Dice limit of its Subjugate Undead ability (see below).
- A bone tyrant can command any number of undead whose Hit Dice are less than half their effective cleric level, provided the total Hit Dice of said undead does not exceed the effective cleric level multiplied by 6 for the master plus 3 for each minion. This Hit Dice limit is a pool shared between the master and all its minions, all of whom can command the subjugated undead. The bone tyrant master's orders take priority over its minions. To create a clear chain-of-command, a master often appoints "commanding officers" by ordering subjugated undead to only accept commands from a particular bone tyrant minion.
A full court of bone tyrants with 1 master and 6 minions can thus Subjugate 24 HD of undead per level; for a total of 264 HD with an effective cleric level of 11.
- The bone tyrant master (but not the minions) can also command a single undead whose Hit Dice do not exceed its own. This undead's Hit Dice still count towards the Hit Dice total the bone tyrants can subjugate.
Unhallowed Aura (Su): A bone tyrant master continually radiates an effect similar to the
unhallow spell. When not serving as an Unholy Sentinel (see below), a bone tyrant master's Unhallowed Aura is a 40 ft. radius emanation that moves with the bone tyrant.
If a bone tyrant master agrees to serve as an Unholy Sentinel, its Unhallowed Aura is centered on the
unhallow spell used in the Unholy Sentinel pact. The unhallowed ground can have any shape as long as it is continuous and at least as large as the
unhallow spell at its heart. Its maximum size is a radius of 100 ft. plus 10 ft. per caster level of the
unhallow.
All turning checks made to turn undead within the Unhallowed Aura take a profane penalty equal to half the effective cleric level of the master's Subjugate Undead ability. Remember that the master gains positive levels if any of its minions are destroyed (see Minion Dependence), which will lower its effective cleric level. For example, a typical master has a Subjugate Undead level of 11, so radiates a -5 turn check penalty. If it loses 3 minions it gains 3 positive levels, weakening its Subjugate Undead to 8th level, for -4 turn check penalty.
Note that the Unhallowed Aura's turn undead penalty does not stack with the -4 turn undead penalty of an
unhallow spell, since both are profane penalties.
Nonmagical barriers do not obstruct an Unhallowed Aura. A
hallow spell will block the effects of the aura, while a
protection from evil or
magic circle against evil spell will weaken the Aura by 2 (e.g. a -4 turn undead penalty becomes a -2 penalty).
Unholy Sentinel (Su): A summoned bone tyrant master can agree to protect an area by mystically binding itself to an unhallow effect, such as an
unhallow spell or an unholy altar. In the case of an
unhallow spell, this counts as the "spell effect" that can be fixed to the
unhallow, so has a maximum duration of one year.
The bone tyrant master always requires payment consistent with the duration and danger of the sentinel duty. Until it completes its term of service or is released from its agreement, the master may not move outside the
unhallow effect (normally a 40 ft. radius, like the spell). If the master is forced outside that range, it is instantly teleported back to a designated area adjacent to the centre of the
unhallow effect, as if by a
word of recall spell. The bone tyrant master and its minions can not travel to another plane until the Unholy Sentinel pact expires, so cannot be banished to their home plane by
holy word and the like.
Should the
unhallow effect be destroyed or broken, the bone tyrant master and all its minions are instantly banished back to the lower planes. A typical unholy altar has hardness 8, hit points 80 and Break DC 30.
Bone Tyrant, Minion
Medium Undead (Extraplanar)
Hit Dice: 3d12 (19)
Initiative: +2
Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares)
Armor Class: 16 (+2 Dex, +4 natural), touch 12, flat-footed 14
Base Attack/Grapple: +1/+2
Attack: Shortspear +2 melee (1d6+1) or shortspear +3 melee (1d6+1)
Full Attack: Shortspear +2 melee (1d6+1) or shortspear +3 melee (1d6+1)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Dimension door, subjugate undead
Special Qualities: Damage reduction 5/bludgeoning, darkvision 60 ft., immune to turning, master dependence, minion bond, undead traits
Saves: Fort +1, Ref +3, Will +5
Abilities: Str 13, Dex 15, Con —, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 16
Skills: Intimidate +9, Knowledge (religion) +3, Knowledge (the planes) +3, Listen +8, Spot +8
Feats: Combat Reflexes, Power Attack
Environment: Any land or a lawful evil outer plane
Organization: Solitary, squad (1 plus 5-30 HD of undead), court (1-6 plus 1 bone tyrant master), host (1-6 minions plus 50-200 HD of undead) or autocracy (1-6 plus 1 bone tyrant master and 50-200 HD of undead)
Challenge Rating: 2 (3 if bonded to a master bone tyrant)
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always lawful evil
Advancement: — (but see Master Dependence)
Level Adjustment: —
A humanoid skeleton dressed in dark robes made with fine, heavy cloth. Instead of being yellow-white like a normal skeleton, its bones are the gory red of arterial blood – except for the eye sockets, which are pitch-black holes.
Bone tyrants are diabolical undead that can be conjured from the Nine Hells by evil priests. A bone tyrant's main strength is its ability to control undead, which is similar to an evil cleric's rebuke undead ability but far more powerful. Bone tyrants come in two varieties, the large bone tyrant masters and the man-sized bone tyrant minions. A master bone tyrant has a supernatural bond with its minions which allows them to communicate telepathically and share their power to subjugate undead.
Bone tyrants are usually encountered as protectors of unholy places of worship when on the Prime Material Plane. On their native plane, bone tyrants control hordes of lesser undead on behalf of a godlike Infernal power, such as an Archduke of Hell.
A minion bone tyrant may be called by a
lesser planar ally spell. They can also be summoned by a bone tyrant master who has agrees a bargain to use its Unholy Sentinel ability.
A bone tyrant minion stands 5 to 6 feet tall and weighs about 60 pounds.
COMBAT
Bone tyrant minions prefer to stay out of melee and direct their subjugated undead from the back ranks. They sometimes "play dead" and direct their undead subjects while pretending to be a lifeless skeleton. A minion frequently uses
dimension door ability to escape or outflank opponents.
Bone tyrant minions will unquestioningly follow the commands of a bone tyrant master they are bonded to, even if this would result in their destruction.
Dimension Door (Sp): A bone tyrant minion can
dimension door once per round (caster level 8th). The ability affects only the minion, which never appears within a solid object.
Master Dependence (Su): If a bone tyrant minion is destroyed while it is bonded to a bone tyrant master, the master immediately gains one positive level. If the bone tyrant master is destroyed, the minion is immediately banished to the lower plane it originated from.
In addition, if a bone tyrant master has advanced its Hit Dice, all minions it is bonded to gain one negative level for every 2 additional HD its master has. These negative levels provide the normal effects to the minions (being undead, each negative level gives a +1 bonus on attack rolls, saving throws, skill checks, ability checks; gain of 5 hit points; and +1 to effective level for spells and special abilities). The negative levels last until the minion bond is broken, a minion does not lose any if its master gains positive levels.
Minion Bond (Su): A bone tyrant master has a permanent
telepathic bond to all its minions (as the spell, except it can't be dispelled). Note that the minion is only bonded to the master, not to the other minions.
Subjugate Undead (Su): A bone tyrant minion can rebuke or command undead or dispel turning as if it were a 5th level evil cleric.
A minion that is bonded to a bone tyrant master uses its master's Charisma bonus and effective cleric level when making Subjugate Undead checks instead of its own, and the Hit Dice limit of undead it can Subjugate is taken from a pool shared by the master and all its minions. See the bone tyrant master for full details. The master can block any of its minions from using Subjugate Undead as a free action, or restore it as another free action.
Note: Originally appeared in
Polyhedron #18 as "bloody bones". Renamed to avoid confusion with another creature of the same name.
Originally found in
Polyhedron #18 (1984).
