Dog Moon's Creatures [Updated Aug 13th]
Dog Moon
Adventurer
Puddle of Blood
Okay, I've had this on my desktop for quite some time now and in an attempt to move it, I decided to finish it and post it. The sample creature is a little bit buff and as I was thinking about creatures, I noticed that adding a simple +2 or +4 CR modifier wasn't correct. A little bit of judgement will be needed depending on Strength of the creature as well as Size and what special abilities it might lose. I thought Giant would be good, but a Huge Giant is quite painful, IMO, whereas a Human wouldn't be.
CR ratings should probably be something like this: +1 Medium and +1 for every size category beyond, +1 if has great strength, -1 for poor strength or loss of numerous abilities.
I got this idea from a picture [which I of course cannot currently find] where a girl is sitting in a puddle of blood and hands are reaching out of it and grabbing her as if attempting to pull her in.
Puddle of Blood
Puddles of Blood are created from the aftermath of a great battle. The fallen of the victims are most frequently left upon what was once a battlefield and it is the blood of these poor soldiers which combines together to create a Puddle. Not all battles cause Puddles to be formed, however.
Puddles require one of several requirements to be made before they can be created.
1. The battle must be a slaughter, preferably of innocents, but that is not required. The Blood of those slaughtered rises as a Puddle of Blood. These Puddles seak vengeance, hunting down those who killed them. It does not matter what the people slaughtered believed in before. The anger and pain have multiplied due to the number of bodies and has twisted their thoughts into evil deeds.
2. The battle must occur within a tainted or evil area, such as a temple to an Evil God. The Blood of the fallen seek one of two things, depending on the reason of the assault. The first is vengeance, their hearts tainted by the very land around them. The Evil seeps into their bodies and blood and cause the Puddle to arise. The second is to retrieve what was stolen. Artifact thefts are all too common and the desecrated air within the area will cause a Puddle to form if there are no others to retrieve it. In this case, the goal of the Puddle is to retrieve the item instead of killing, though it will not hesitate to kill those who stand in it's way.
3. Necromancers are drawn to the endmaths of battles due to the number of bodies they can potentially animate. If enough of this foul necromantic energies fill the area of the battle, the energies mix within the body and blood of the fallen and create a Puddle. In this case, the Puddle has no desire for anything but purely the slaughter of living beings. It moves from town to town, killing those it finds and then moving on to find more living targets.
"Puddle of Blood" is a template which can be added any number of similar creatures who die in the above conditions. Only living creatures with blood can be affected by this template.
Size and Type: The creatures' size increases by one. However, this is only in reference to the size the Puddle takes up. Do not make any other modifications that changing a creature's size would normally occur. Their type changes to Undead.
Hit Dice: Change all Hit Dice to d12s. Do not recalculate base saves, base attack bonus, etc.
Speed: Creatures lose all means of locomotion with the exception of the base ground speed which changes to 5' regardless of their previous speed.
Armor Class: If the creatures wore armor, do not calculate that into the Armor Class of the Puddle.
Attack: A Puddle of Blood gains a single claw attack per 5' square that it occupies. Thus a Large Puddle of Blood [10x10] would have four attacks.
Damage: The damage of the creature's claw attack does not change. Use the chart below if the creature did not previously have one.
Small: 1d4
Medium: 1d6
Large: 1d8
Special Attacks: Loses all special abilities requiring the usage of any part of it's body except its hand. Loses any Spell-Like Abilities it may have once had.
Unholy (Su): Due to the blasphemous nature of a Puddle, a black aura surrounds each hand. Each claw attack deals an additional 1d6 unholy damage upon striking.
Improved Grapple (Ex): A Puddle of Blood gains the Improved Grapple ability. Due to the nature of the arms, however, for each additional arm attempting to grapple a creature, the Puddle gains a +2 bonus on it's Grapple check.
Swallow (Ex): Puddles can Swallow opponents up to 1 size smaller than the Puddle itself. When Swallowed, an opponent is attacked by 1d3 arms. They are considered flat-footed against the attacks. Also, they are forced to hold their breath as if they are drowning.
Special Qualities: Loses all special abilities requiring the usage of any part of it's body except its hand. Loses any Spell-Like Abilities it may have once had.
Undead Qualities
Puddle of Blood (Ex): The blood itself appears to be an endless pool of blood and for all intents and purposes, it might as well be. Thus any attacks made against the blood itself have no effect. The threat against targets is the hands and not the blood itself. When the hands are gone, the blood quickly dissipates. The hands themselves are what need to be attacked. Do not bother calculating hit points per hand. Assume that there are dozens of hands and that after the Puddle is brought to 0, the hands are all destroyed.
Alignment: Due to the malevolent magicks involved, the Puddle's alignment is always evil.
Abilities: Int -4. As Undead, Puddles have no Con score.
Skills: Hide +4, Move Silently +4. Puddles are move difficult to hear because they glide quietly across the floor and do not make any noise. Puddles usually do not make any attempt to hide, but they gain a bonus on Hide checks simply because it is flat against the ground and does not rise up until it attacks. The DM may wish to decrease this bonus in light. While darkness may make it difficult to see, a moving puddle is not so difficult to see in the middle of the street during the daytime.
Feats: It loses feats that it cannot realistically use due to loss of body. It replaces these feats with Toughness.
Puddle of Blood Variants
Sometimes, the evil which creature a Puddle of Blood is more powerful than normal and thus modifies the puddle. Following are three variants.
Rotten Puddle of Blood
The blood stinks. Like horribly so. Like the rotten stench of a thousand bodies left in the hot sun for days.
Stench (Ex): Creatures within 30 feet must make a Fortitude save [DC 10 + 1/2 HD + Charisma modifer] or be nauseated. Creatures swallowed automatically are affected unless they are immune. When the Puddle is destroyed and the blood dissipates, it creates the effects of a Cloudkill for 1d3 rounds before it is completely gone.
Burning Puddle of Blood
Hot-Blooded (Ex): The Blood is hot to the touch. All attacks from the hands are considered as being covered in blood and take an additional 1d6 points of fire damage. Creatures Swallowed take 4d6 fire damage per round in addition to the normal effects of being Swallowed by a Puddle of Blood. Creatures standing upon the blood take 1 point of fire damage on the beginning of their turn.
Boiling Blood (Su): One time per day, the Puddle of Blood can begin to bubble and boil. This essentially doubles all fire damage done by the Hot-Blooded ability. The Puddle of Blood also gains a +4 bonus to Strength. This ability lasts a number of rounds equal to 3 + the Puddle's Charisma modifier.
Living Puddle of Blood
Blood Attack: In addition to the normal attacks a Puddle of Blood makes, the Puddle gains an additional slam attack as the Blood strikes an opponent. This attack is as the regular claw attack, but is treated as being one size category larger. If the Blood strikes a living creature with blood, the Puddle steals the character's blood, gaining a number of hit points equal to the damage done.
Unholy Toughness (Ex): The Puddle gains a number of hit points equal to it's hit Dice x the creature's Charisma bonus, if positive.
Special: Unlike the normal Puddle of Blood, the blood of a Living Puddle of Blood may be attacked normally.
Abilities: Charisma +4.
For the sample creature, I chose Frost Giant because of an adventure I had in my head, the premise which I can write here.
Few beings choose to fight against one of the tougher Giants one-on-one because of their great physical strength and even groups of people would prefer to not fight even a single one. So when you get a message from a Frost Giant saying that his clan needs your help, you are greatly surprised. You prepare for a trap nonetheless and follow the Frost Giant to where his clan had lived: a great temple.
The first and most obvious thing about the scene when you arrive is the amount of blood. You thought an army amongst men caused a lot of blood, but nothing can prepare you for the sight of blood from fifty Frost Giants. You now know that this is not a trap and that the Giants truly need your help. However, a part of you feels fear. What can cause this damage to so many Frost Giants?
"A dozen of them," the Giant says, "They came out of no one and slaughtered my people like we were nothing." Surprisingly, he actually speaks Common fairly well, though with a heavy accent.
"Who were they?" you ask, but the Giant only shakes his head. "I don't know," he tells you, "But they were creatures of hate, creatures of a great evil. They headed north," he adds, "Deeper into the mountains."
You pass a pile of bodies and notice that many of them are missing parts of their arms. Asking politely, you wait for an answer. The Giant pauses for a moment before answering: "Our God is not happy about this slaughtering of our people and sent out a creature of even greater evil than that of our enemies. It has not returned yet, and we desire your help to seek vengeance."
A simple enough request, you believe, on the surface, but seeking vengeance against those who can deal this is something you had bargained for when waking up this morn. You nod and after a short bargaining session, you head north to deal with this enemy, wondering what sort of creature is made from the arms of the Giants...
Huge Undead
Hit Dice: 14d12 (135 hp)
Initiative: +2
Speed: 5 ft
Armor Class: 22 (–1 size, +2 Dex, +11 natural), touch 11, flat-footed 20
Base Attack/Grapple: +10/+22
Attack: Claw +17 melee (1d8 +8 +1d6 unholy)
Full Attack: 9 Claws +17 melee (1d8 +8 +1d6 unholy)
Space/Reach: 10 ft./15 ft.
Special Attacks: Improved Grapple, Swallow
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft, Undead Traits
Saves: Fort +9, Ref +6, Will +7
Abilities: Str 27, Dex 15, Con -, Int 6, Wis 12, Cha 11
Skills: Climb +11, Hide +10, Jump +11, Move Silently +6, Spot +12
Feats: Combat Reflexes, Iron Will, Power Attack, Toughness x2
Environment: Any
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating:
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always Evil
Okay, I've had this on my desktop for quite some time now and in an attempt to move it, I decided to finish it and post it. The sample creature is a little bit buff and as I was thinking about creatures, I noticed that adding a simple +2 or +4 CR modifier wasn't correct. A little bit of judgement will be needed depending on Strength of the creature as well as Size and what special abilities it might lose. I thought Giant would be good, but a Huge Giant is quite painful, IMO, whereas a Human wouldn't be.
CR ratings should probably be something like this: +1 Medium and +1 for every size category beyond, +1 if has great strength, -1 for poor strength or loss of numerous abilities.
I got this idea from a picture [which I of course cannot currently find] where a girl is sitting in a puddle of blood and hands are reaching out of it and grabbing her as if attempting to pull her in.
Puddle of Blood
Puddles of Blood are created from the aftermath of a great battle. The fallen of the victims are most frequently left upon what was once a battlefield and it is the blood of these poor soldiers which combines together to create a Puddle. Not all battles cause Puddles to be formed, however.
Puddles require one of several requirements to be made before they can be created.
1. The battle must be a slaughter, preferably of innocents, but that is not required. The Blood of those slaughtered rises as a Puddle of Blood. These Puddles seak vengeance, hunting down those who killed them. It does not matter what the people slaughtered believed in before. The anger and pain have multiplied due to the number of bodies and has twisted their thoughts into evil deeds.
2. The battle must occur within a tainted or evil area, such as a temple to an Evil God. The Blood of the fallen seek one of two things, depending on the reason of the assault. The first is vengeance, their hearts tainted by the very land around them. The Evil seeps into their bodies and blood and cause the Puddle to arise. The second is to retrieve what was stolen. Artifact thefts are all too common and the desecrated air within the area will cause a Puddle to form if there are no others to retrieve it. In this case, the goal of the Puddle is to retrieve the item instead of killing, though it will not hesitate to kill those who stand in it's way.
3. Necromancers are drawn to the endmaths of battles due to the number of bodies they can potentially animate. If enough of this foul necromantic energies fill the area of the battle, the energies mix within the body and blood of the fallen and create a Puddle. In this case, the Puddle has no desire for anything but purely the slaughter of living beings. It moves from town to town, killing those it finds and then moving on to find more living targets.
"Puddle of Blood" is a template which can be added any number of similar creatures who die in the above conditions. Only living creatures with blood can be affected by this template.
Size and Type: The creatures' size increases by one. However, this is only in reference to the size the Puddle takes up. Do not make any other modifications that changing a creature's size would normally occur. Their type changes to Undead.
Hit Dice: Change all Hit Dice to d12s. Do not recalculate base saves, base attack bonus, etc.
Speed: Creatures lose all means of locomotion with the exception of the base ground speed which changes to 5' regardless of their previous speed.
Armor Class: If the creatures wore armor, do not calculate that into the Armor Class of the Puddle.
Attack: A Puddle of Blood gains a single claw attack per 5' square that it occupies. Thus a Large Puddle of Blood [10x10] would have four attacks.
Damage: The damage of the creature's claw attack does not change. Use the chart below if the creature did not previously have one.
Small: 1d4
Medium: 1d6
Large: 1d8
Special Attacks: Loses all special abilities requiring the usage of any part of it's body except its hand. Loses any Spell-Like Abilities it may have once had.
Unholy (Su): Due to the blasphemous nature of a Puddle, a black aura surrounds each hand. Each claw attack deals an additional 1d6 unholy damage upon striking.
Improved Grapple (Ex): A Puddle of Blood gains the Improved Grapple ability. Due to the nature of the arms, however, for each additional arm attempting to grapple a creature, the Puddle gains a +2 bonus on it's Grapple check.
Swallow (Ex): Puddles can Swallow opponents up to 1 size smaller than the Puddle itself. When Swallowed, an opponent is attacked by 1d3 arms. They are considered flat-footed against the attacks. Also, they are forced to hold their breath as if they are drowning.
Special Qualities: Loses all special abilities requiring the usage of any part of it's body except its hand. Loses any Spell-Like Abilities it may have once had.
Undead Qualities
Puddle of Blood (Ex): The blood itself appears to be an endless pool of blood and for all intents and purposes, it might as well be. Thus any attacks made against the blood itself have no effect. The threat against targets is the hands and not the blood itself. When the hands are gone, the blood quickly dissipates. The hands themselves are what need to be attacked. Do not bother calculating hit points per hand. Assume that there are dozens of hands and that after the Puddle is brought to 0, the hands are all destroyed.
Alignment: Due to the malevolent magicks involved, the Puddle's alignment is always evil.
Abilities: Int -4. As Undead, Puddles have no Con score.
Skills: Hide +4, Move Silently +4. Puddles are move difficult to hear because they glide quietly across the floor and do not make any noise. Puddles usually do not make any attempt to hide, but they gain a bonus on Hide checks simply because it is flat against the ground and does not rise up until it attacks. The DM may wish to decrease this bonus in light. While darkness may make it difficult to see, a moving puddle is not so difficult to see in the middle of the street during the daytime.
Feats: It loses feats that it cannot realistically use due to loss of body. It replaces these feats with Toughness.
Puddle of Blood Variants
Sometimes, the evil which creature a Puddle of Blood is more powerful than normal and thus modifies the puddle. Following are three variants.
Rotten Puddle of Blood
The blood stinks. Like horribly so. Like the rotten stench of a thousand bodies left in the hot sun for days.
Stench (Ex): Creatures within 30 feet must make a Fortitude save [DC 10 + 1/2 HD + Charisma modifer] or be nauseated. Creatures swallowed automatically are affected unless they are immune. When the Puddle is destroyed and the blood dissipates, it creates the effects of a Cloudkill for 1d3 rounds before it is completely gone.
Burning Puddle of Blood
Hot-Blooded (Ex): The Blood is hot to the touch. All attacks from the hands are considered as being covered in blood and take an additional 1d6 points of fire damage. Creatures Swallowed take 4d6 fire damage per round in addition to the normal effects of being Swallowed by a Puddle of Blood. Creatures standing upon the blood take 1 point of fire damage on the beginning of their turn.
Boiling Blood (Su): One time per day, the Puddle of Blood can begin to bubble and boil. This essentially doubles all fire damage done by the Hot-Blooded ability. The Puddle of Blood also gains a +4 bonus to Strength. This ability lasts a number of rounds equal to 3 + the Puddle's Charisma modifier.
Living Puddle of Blood
Blood Attack: In addition to the normal attacks a Puddle of Blood makes, the Puddle gains an additional slam attack as the Blood strikes an opponent. This attack is as the regular claw attack, but is treated as being one size category larger. If the Blood strikes a living creature with blood, the Puddle steals the character's blood, gaining a number of hit points equal to the damage done.
Unholy Toughness (Ex): The Puddle gains a number of hit points equal to it's hit Dice x the creature's Charisma bonus, if positive.
Special: Unlike the normal Puddle of Blood, the blood of a Living Puddle of Blood may be attacked normally.
Abilities: Charisma +4.
For the sample creature, I chose Frost Giant because of an adventure I had in my head, the premise which I can write here.
Few beings choose to fight against one of the tougher Giants one-on-one because of their great physical strength and even groups of people would prefer to not fight even a single one. So when you get a message from a Frost Giant saying that his clan needs your help, you are greatly surprised. You prepare for a trap nonetheless and follow the Frost Giant to where his clan had lived: a great temple.
The first and most obvious thing about the scene when you arrive is the amount of blood. You thought an army amongst men caused a lot of blood, but nothing can prepare you for the sight of blood from fifty Frost Giants. You now know that this is not a trap and that the Giants truly need your help. However, a part of you feels fear. What can cause this damage to so many Frost Giants?
"A dozen of them," the Giant says, "They came out of no one and slaughtered my people like we were nothing." Surprisingly, he actually speaks Common fairly well, though with a heavy accent.
"Who were they?" you ask, but the Giant only shakes his head. "I don't know," he tells you, "But they were creatures of hate, creatures of a great evil. They headed north," he adds, "Deeper into the mountains."
You pass a pile of bodies and notice that many of them are missing parts of their arms. Asking politely, you wait for an answer. The Giant pauses for a moment before answering: "Our God is not happy about this slaughtering of our people and sent out a creature of even greater evil than that of our enemies. It has not returned yet, and we desire your help to seek vengeance."
A simple enough request, you believe, on the surface, but seeking vengeance against those who can deal this is something you had bargained for when waking up this morn. You nod and after a short bargaining session, you head north to deal with this enemy, wondering what sort of creature is made from the arms of the Giants...
Huge Undead
Hit Dice: 14d12 (135 hp)
Initiative: +2
Speed: 5 ft
Armor Class: 22 (–1 size, +2 Dex, +11 natural), touch 11, flat-footed 20
Base Attack/Grapple: +10/+22
Attack: Claw +17 melee (1d8 +8 +1d6 unholy)
Full Attack: 9 Claws +17 melee (1d8 +8 +1d6 unholy)
Space/Reach: 10 ft./15 ft.
Special Attacks: Improved Grapple, Swallow
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft, Undead Traits
Saves: Fort +9, Ref +6, Will +7
Abilities: Str 27, Dex 15, Con -, Int 6, Wis 12, Cha 11
Skills: Climb +11, Hide +10, Jump +11, Move Silently +6, Spot +12
Feats: Combat Reflexes, Iron Will, Power Attack, Toughness x2
Environment: Any
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating:
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always Evil
Dog Moon
Adventurer
Quartz said:
Thanks. I am certainly a fan of variants. Allows you to use the same creature, but tweaks it just enough that it isn't the same creature.
Quartz said:
So you're suggesting that my variants should have variants?
I actually do like this idea though, despite my joking about it a little bit. That's certainly easy enough to add.
Quartz said:
After examining a couple of monsters, I suppose you're right. Engulf never even crossed my mind though. It'll be exactly the same ability, but yeah, Engulf v Swallow does have a slightly different flavor to it, and this ability is more appropriately Engulf cause it lacks the mouth, and really the stomach, to use a 'swallow' ability.
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