This was a creature type for a setting in which Fey do not have a pantheon; rather there is a community of more powerful nature spirits.
Elder Spirits
An elder spirit is a sacred being that is periodically reborn as a member of the fey. Only by assuming the form of a fey creature can these beings serve the needs for which they are created, and the rebirth of each spirit is a significant event in the fey realms. They are always reborn into some physical form and their spirit can never be utterly destroyed, regardless of their age, physical appearance, or the manner of their death.
Each elder spirit represents some particular aspect of nature or the world at large, such as ocean waves, a river, road, old building, and so forth. But there are likely to be several such spirits for each major aspect. These associations of elder spirits interact with one another, sometimes cooperating and at other times clashing. Stable alliance of such spirits often serve specific divine powers that the fey worship as deities.
There are literally thousands of elder spirits among the fey, and few if any of these spirits are truly predominant over the others. Instead most of the elder spirits are more often closely linked to a certain geographic region. Such elder spirits can be found in locations such as a sacred grove or spring, or close to a prominent terrain feature such as a mountain river. These the elder spirit can be sought out in person, so as to plead for their personal aid. Whether it is granted or not will depend a great deal on the nature of the elder spirit and the personality of the form that they inhabit.
The appearance of an elder spirit is very similar to the creature from which it was formed, yet it is also distinctly different. Humanoid elder spirits display animalistic features on their body, and are more powerfully built. Non-humanoid elder spirits have a number of faintly humanoid traits, particularly about the facial area. The face of an elder spirit is much more expressive than most wild creatures.
Sample Elder Spirit
This example uses a 12 HD dire wolf as the base creature.
Ferafin Moonstreak
Elder Spirit Dire Wolf
Large Fey (Augmented Animal)
Hit Dice: 12d6+36 (78 hp)
Initiative: +4
Speed: 60 ft. (12 squares)
Armor Class: 21 (-1 size, +4 Dex, +6 natural, +2 deflection), touch 15, flat-footed 17
Base Attack/Grapple: +8/+20
Attack: Bite +16 melee (2d6+12) or touch +7 melee (nature's curse)
Full Attack: Bite +16 melee (2d6+12) or touch +7 melee (nature's curse)
Space/Reach: 10 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Trip, nature's curse, aura of divinity, summon kin, spell-like abilities, spells
Special Qualities: Damage reduction 10/cold iron, fast healing 3, divine nature, improved low-light vision, scent, resistance to fire 10 and cold 10, immunities, aspected, speak with animals and plants, kin empathy, scry sense, spell resistance 27
Saves: Fort +13, Ref +14, Will +12
Abilities: Str 27, Dex 19, Con 17, Int 8, Wis 14, Cha 14
Skills: Concentration +12, Escape Artist +8, Hide +17, Listen +13, Knowle
dge (nature) +13, Move Silently +14, Spot +13, Survival +25
Feats: Alertness, Cleave, DiehardB, EnduranceB, Improved Natural AttackB (bite), Power Attack, Run, TrackB, Weapon Focus (bite)
Environment: Temperate forests
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 11
Treasure: None
Alignment: Neutral
This giant, powerful gray wolf has a face with expressive, almost human features and the drawn ears of an elf. It has a heavy coat of fur with a streak of silver running from the forehead to the tail.
Ferafin is a sylvan forest spirit that guards the deep woods against unnatural powers. He has no fixed home, but wanders a territory over thirty miles in radius. Ferafin is not immediately inimical to most visitors to his forest, and indeed he welcomes those that enjoy its peace and serenity. However he is unrelenting when hunting down invading enemies of the woods. Occasionally he is accompanied on such hunts by wolf and dire wolf allies.
Ferafin speaks Sylvan.
Combat
Ferafin is furious on the attack, employing his speed and power to overwhelm an opponent. Against a powerful foe, however, he will employ his magical abilities until he sees a favorable moment to strike. If cornered, he will fight like a beast possessed, battling until either he is slain or the opponent flees. He has no fear of death, knowing that he will appear again in another form.
Ferafin's natural weapons are treated as magic weapons for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.
Trip (Ex): When ferafin hits with a bite attack, he can attempt to trip his opponent (+12 check modifier) as a free action without making a touch attack or provoking an attack of opportunity. If the attempt fails, the opponent cannot react to trip ferafin.
Nature's Curse (Su): Any creature ferafin hits with his touch attack must succeed on a DC 16 Will save or become permanently cursed. The opponent becomes entangled whenever it moves into or through a space containing plants. This effect is otherwise similar to the entangle spell (caster level 12th). This ability is equivalent to a 4th-level spell.
The curse bestowed by this spell can not be dispelled, but it can be removed with a break enchantment, limited wish, miracle, remove curse, or wish spell.
Aura of Divinity (Su): A divine aura surrounds ferafin whenever he fights or gets angry. Each foe within 20 feet must succeed on a DC 18 Will save to resist its effects. Those who fail are shaken for 24 hours and take a -2 penalty on saves against fear effects. A creature that has resisted or broken the effect cannot be affected again by ferafin's aura for 24 hours.
In addition, all allies within 15 feet of ferafin gain a +4 moral bonus on saving throws against fear effects while the aura is active.
Summon Kin (Sp): Once per day ferafin can attempt to summon 1d4+1 dire wolves with a 50% chance of success. This ability is equivalent of a 6th-level spell.
Spell-Like Abilities: 3/day--detect magic. 1/day--call lightning storm (DC 17), charm animal (DC 13), command plants (DC 16), deep slumber (DC 15), detect animals or plants, dispel magic, dominate animal (DC 15), faerie fire, freedom of movement, hold animal (DC 14), pass without trace, resist energy, suggestion (DC 14), tree stride. Caster level 12th. The save DCs are Charisma-based.
Spells: Ferafin can cast divine spells as a 12th-level ranger. The save DCs are Wisdom-based.
Typical Spells Prepared: (2/2/1; DC 12 + spell level): 1st--entangle (DC 13), jump; 2nd--barkskin, spike growth (DC 14); 3rd--greater magic fang.
Divine Nature (Su): Ferafin adds his Charisma modifier as a bonus to allhis saving throws, and as a deflection bonus to his Armor class. These modifiers are factored into the statistics above. In addition, all allies within 15 feet gain a +4 moral bonus on saving throws against fear effects.
Aspected (Su): Ferafin has a strong attachment to the woods in which he dwells. He is permanently affected by a geas to dwell in the proximity of his woods and to protect it from enemies. The geas can not be removed except by a deity.
Speak with Animals and Plants (Su): Ferafin can speak with any animal or plant as though using speak with animals and speak with plants (caster level 6th). This ability is always active.
Scry Sense (Su): While conscious ferafin immediately becomes aware of any attempt to observe him by means of a divination (scrying) spell or effect. If a Will save to resist the scrying is successful, ferafin also gains a visual image of the scrier and an approximate sense of his or her distance and direction.
Improved Low-Light Vision (Ex): Ferafin can see three times as far as a human in dim light.
Immunities (Ex): Ferafin is immune to fear, poison, disease, sleep, paralysis, and polymorph.
Reincarnation (Su): If ferafin dies and is not raised, within 2d10 years his spirit is reincarnated in the form of another elder spirit. The creature inherits all the memories of his previous lives, although these memories will be more difficult to recall than events from the current life. (Cumulative -2 circumstance penalty to any attempts to recall events from each past life.)
Skills: Ferafin has a +8 racial bonus on Knowledge (nature) and Survival checks. He also has a +2 racial bonus on Hide, Listen, Move Silently, and Spot checks.
Creating an Elder Spirit
"Elder spirit" is an inherited template that can be added to any corporeal animal, fey, giant, humanoid, magical beast, monstrous humanoid, or plant creature (referred to hereafter as the base creature). The base creature must have an Intelligence score; have a size of Diminutive or larger, and be advanced by at least 5 HD or one size category, whichever requires fewer HD.
An elder spirit has all the base creature's statistics and special abilities except as noted here.
Size and Type: The creature's type changes to fey. Do not recalculate base attack bonus. Size is unchanged.
Hit Dice: Reduce all current and future racial Hit Dice by one dice size, to a minimum of d6. Do not change class HD.
Speed: Increase all speed modes of 20 feet or more by +10 feet.
Armor Class: Natural armor improves by +1 per Size category larger than Tiny (this stacks with any natural armor bonus of the base creature).
Attacks: Same as the base creature. If the base creature has no natural weapons, the elder spirit gains either a slam, gore, bite, or claw attack.
Full Attacks: Same as the base creature. If the base creature has no natural weapons, the elder spirit gains either 2 slams, 1 gore, 1 bite, or 2 claw attacks.
Damage: If the base creature does not have natural weapons, use the damage values in the table below.
Slam Gore Bite Claw
Size Damage Damage Damage Damage
Tiny 1 1d2 1d3 1d2
Small 1d3 1d4 1d4 2d3
Medium 1d4 1d6 1d6 1d4
Large 1d6 1d8 1d8 1d6
Huge 1d8 2d6 2d6 1d8
Gargantuan 2d6 2d8 2d8 2d6
Colossal 2d8 4d6 4d6 2d8
Special Attacks: An elder spirit retains all the special attacks of the base creature and also gains the following special abilities.
Nature's Curse (Su): Any creature an elder spirit hits with her touch attack must succeed on a Will save (DC 14 + Charisma modifier) or become permanently cursed. The opponent becomes entangled whenever it moves into or through a space containing plants. This effect is otherwise similar to the entangle spell (caster level equals HD).
The curse bestowed by this spell can not be dispelled, but it can be removed with a break enchantment, limited wish, miracle, remove curse, or wish spell.
Summon Kin (Sp): Once per day an elder spirit can attempt to summon 1d4+1 of the base creatures with a 20% chance of success + 5% per 2 Hit Dice. This ability is equivalent of a 6th-level spell.
Spell-Like Abilities: An elder spirit with a Wisdom of 8 or higher has two or more spell-like abilities, depending on its Hit Dice, as indicated on the table below. The abilities are cumulative; an elder spirit centaur (4 HD) can use charm animal and pass without trace as well as detect magic 3/day and faerie fire. Unless otherwise noted, an ability is usable once per day. Caster level equals the creature's HD, and the save DC is Charisma-based.
HD Abilities
1-2 detect magic 3/day, faerie fire
3-4 charm animal, pass without trace
5-6 hold animal, resist energy
7-8 dominate animal, suggestion
9-10 command plants, freedom of movement
11-12 deep slumber, dispel magic
13-14 animal growth, commune with nature
15-16 antilife shell, freedom of movement
17-18 animate plants, dimension door
19-20 creeping doom, true seeing
21-22 control plants, mass suggestion
23+ find the path, heroes' feast
In addition, elder spirits gain additional bonus spells based on the environment categories of the base creature, as indicated on the table below. Select the abilities from every environment category that applies.
Environment Abilities
Any dimension door, disguise self
Aquatic control water, endure elements
Deserts giant vermin, longstrider 3/day
Forests detect animals or plants, tree stride
Hills soften earth and stone, spike stones
Marshes gaseous form, stinking cloud
Mountains jump 3/day, stoneskin
Plains entangle, insect plague
Underground spider climb 2/day, meld into stone
Cold chill metal, ice storm
Temperate call lightning storm
Warm heat metal, flame strike
Spells: An elder spirits can cast divine spells as a ranger with class levels equal to her HD + any Ranger spellcasting levels. The save DCs are Wisdom-based.
Special Qualities: An elder spirit retains all the base creature's special qualities and gains those described below.
Fast healing (see the table below).
Resistance to cold 10 and fire 10.
Damage reduction (see the table below).
An elder spirit's natural weapons are treated as magic weapons for the purpose o
f overcoming damage reduction.
Spell resistance equal to creature's HD + 15 (max 40).
Hit Dice Fast Healing Damage Reduction
1-6 1 5/cold iron
7-12 3 10/cold iron
13-18 5 15/cold iron
19+ 8 20/cold iron
If the creature already has damage reduction, use the value on this table instead.
Divine Nature (Su): An elder spirit adds her Charisma modifier as a bonus to all her saving throws, and as a deflection bonus to her Armor class.
Aura of Divinity (Su): A divine aura surrounds elder spirits that fight or get angry. Each foe within 20 feet must succeed on a Will save (DC equal to 10 + 1/2 Hit Dice + Charisma modifier) to resist its effects. Those who fail are shaken for 24 hours and take a -2 penalty on saves against fear effects. A creature that has resisted or broken the effect cannot be affected again by that same elder spirit's aura for 24 hours.
In addition, all allies within 15 feet of an elder spirit gain a +5 moral bonus on saving throws against fear effects while the aura is active.
Aspected (Su): An elder spirit has a strong attachment to some element of nature or the world at large. She serves a specific function with respect to this element, and is permanently affected as though by a geas to perform this service. The geas can not be removed except by a deity. However it often changes to a different form when the elder spirit is reincarnated.
Speak with Animals and Plants (Su): An elder spirit can speak with any animal or plant as though using speak with animals and speak with plants (caster level 6th). This ability is always active.
Kin Empathy (Su): An elder spirit can communicate and empathize with normal and dire forms of the base creature. This gives them a +4 racial bonus on checks when influencing the creature's attitude.
Scry Sense (Su): A conscious elder spirit immediately becomes aware of any attempt to observe it by means of a divination (scrying) spell or effect. If a Will save to resist the scrying is successful, the elder spirit also gains a visual image of the scrier and an approximate sense of his or her distance and direction.
Low-Light Vision (Ex): An elder spirit can see twice as far as a human in dim light. If the base creature already has a form of low light vision, the range increases by one multiple. Thus if the base creature can see three times as far as a human in dim lighting, the elder spirit can see four times as far.
Immunities (Ex): An elder spirit is immune to fear, poison, disease, sleep, paralysis, and polymorph.
Reincarnation (Su): If an elder spirit dies and is not raised, within 2d10 years her spirit is reincarnated in the form of another elder spirit. The creature inherits all memories of her previous lives, although these memories will be more difficult to recall than events from the current life. (Cumulative -2 circumstance penalty to any attempts to recall events from each past life.)
Saves: All base save bonuses are equal to +1/2 HD + 2.
Abilities: Str +2, Dex +4, Wis +2, Cha +4. Intelligence is at least 8.
Skills: An elder spirit gains skill points as a fey and has skill points equal to (6 + Int modifier) X (HD + 3). Do not include Hit Dice from class levels in the calculation--the elder spirit gains fey skill points only for its racial Hit Dice, and gains the normal amount of skill points for its class levels. The class skills are Concentration, Escape Artist, Hide, Knowledge (nature), Listen, Move Silently, Search, Spot, Survival, and all skills from the base creature's list. All other skills are cross-class skills.
Elder spirits have a +8 racial bonus on Knowledge (nature) and Survival checks. If the base creature already has a bonus in these skills, they are replaced by these modifiers.
Feats: Elder spirits gain Diehard, Endurance, Run, and Track, assuming the base creature doesn't already have these feats. If the base creature has one or more special attacks, it also gains Ability Focus on one of those attacks. Finally, the elder spirit also gains Improved Natural Attack on a single attack form that does not already have this feat.
Environment: Any, often as base creature.
Organization: Solitary.
Treasure: Double the treasure of the base creature, if any.
Alignment: Change Lawful Good or Chaotic Good to Neutral Good. Change Evil or Chaotic Evil to Neutral Evil. Otherwise the same as the base creature.
Comments and corrections appreciated.
Elder Spirits
An elder spirit is a sacred being that is periodically reborn as a member of the fey. Only by assuming the form of a fey creature can these beings serve the needs for which they are created, and the rebirth of each spirit is a significant event in the fey realms. They are always reborn into some physical form and their spirit can never be utterly destroyed, regardless of their age, physical appearance, or the manner of their death.
Each elder spirit represents some particular aspect of nature or the world at large, such as ocean waves, a river, road, old building, and so forth. But there are likely to be several such spirits for each major aspect. These associations of elder spirits interact with one another, sometimes cooperating and at other times clashing. Stable alliance of such spirits often serve specific divine powers that the fey worship as deities.
There are literally thousands of elder spirits among the fey, and few if any of these spirits are truly predominant over the others. Instead most of the elder spirits are more often closely linked to a certain geographic region. Such elder spirits can be found in locations such as a sacred grove or spring, or close to a prominent terrain feature such as a mountain river. These the elder spirit can be sought out in person, so as to plead for their personal aid. Whether it is granted or not will depend a great deal on the nature of the elder spirit and the personality of the form that they inhabit.
The appearance of an elder spirit is very similar to the creature from which it was formed, yet it is also distinctly different. Humanoid elder spirits display animalistic features on their body, and are more powerfully built. Non-humanoid elder spirits have a number of faintly humanoid traits, particularly about the facial area. The face of an elder spirit is much more expressive than most wild creatures.
Sample Elder Spirit
This example uses a 12 HD dire wolf as the base creature.
Ferafin Moonstreak
Elder Spirit Dire Wolf
Large Fey (Augmented Animal)
Hit Dice: 12d6+36 (78 hp)
Initiative: +4
Speed: 60 ft. (12 squares)
Armor Class: 21 (-1 size, +4 Dex, +6 natural, +2 deflection), touch 15, flat-footed 17
Base Attack/Grapple: +8/+20
Attack: Bite +16 melee (2d6+12) or touch +7 melee (nature's curse)
Full Attack: Bite +16 melee (2d6+12) or touch +7 melee (nature's curse)
Space/Reach: 10 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Trip, nature's curse, aura of divinity, summon kin, spell-like abilities, spells
Special Qualities: Damage reduction 10/cold iron, fast healing 3, divine nature, improved low-light vision, scent, resistance to fire 10 and cold 10, immunities, aspected, speak with animals and plants, kin empathy, scry sense, spell resistance 27
Saves: Fort +13, Ref +14, Will +12
Abilities: Str 27, Dex 19, Con 17, Int 8, Wis 14, Cha 14
Skills: Concentration +12, Escape Artist +8, Hide +17, Listen +13, Knowle
dge (nature) +13, Move Silently +14, Spot +13, Survival +25
Feats: Alertness, Cleave, DiehardB, EnduranceB, Improved Natural AttackB (bite), Power Attack, Run, TrackB, Weapon Focus (bite)
Environment: Temperate forests
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 11
Treasure: None
Alignment: Neutral
This giant, powerful gray wolf has a face with expressive, almost human features and the drawn ears of an elf. It has a heavy coat of fur with a streak of silver running from the forehead to the tail.
Ferafin is a sylvan forest spirit that guards the deep woods against unnatural powers. He has no fixed home, but wanders a territory over thirty miles in radius. Ferafin is not immediately inimical to most visitors to his forest, and indeed he welcomes those that enjoy its peace and serenity. However he is unrelenting when hunting down invading enemies of the woods. Occasionally he is accompanied on such hunts by wolf and dire wolf allies.
Ferafin speaks Sylvan.
Combat
Ferafin is furious on the attack, employing his speed and power to overwhelm an opponent. Against a powerful foe, however, he will employ his magical abilities until he sees a favorable moment to strike. If cornered, he will fight like a beast possessed, battling until either he is slain or the opponent flees. He has no fear of death, knowing that he will appear again in another form.
Ferafin's natural weapons are treated as magic weapons for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.
Trip (Ex): When ferafin hits with a bite attack, he can attempt to trip his opponent (+12 check modifier) as a free action without making a touch attack or provoking an attack of opportunity. If the attempt fails, the opponent cannot react to trip ferafin.
Nature's Curse (Su): Any creature ferafin hits with his touch attack must succeed on a DC 16 Will save or become permanently cursed. The opponent becomes entangled whenever it moves into or through a space containing plants. This effect is otherwise similar to the entangle spell (caster level 12th). This ability is equivalent to a 4th-level spell.
The curse bestowed by this spell can not be dispelled, but it can be removed with a break enchantment, limited wish, miracle, remove curse, or wish spell.
Aura of Divinity (Su): A divine aura surrounds ferafin whenever he fights or gets angry. Each foe within 20 feet must succeed on a DC 18 Will save to resist its effects. Those who fail are shaken for 24 hours and take a -2 penalty on saves against fear effects. A creature that has resisted or broken the effect cannot be affected again by ferafin's aura for 24 hours.
In addition, all allies within 15 feet of ferafin gain a +4 moral bonus on saving throws against fear effects while the aura is active.
Summon Kin (Sp): Once per day ferafin can attempt to summon 1d4+1 dire wolves with a 50% chance of success. This ability is equivalent of a 6th-level spell.
Spell-Like Abilities: 3/day--detect magic. 1/day--call lightning storm (DC 17), charm animal (DC 13), command plants (DC 16), deep slumber (DC 15), detect animals or plants, dispel magic, dominate animal (DC 15), faerie fire, freedom of movement, hold animal (DC 14), pass without trace, resist energy, suggestion (DC 14), tree stride. Caster level 12th. The save DCs are Charisma-based.
Spells: Ferafin can cast divine spells as a 12th-level ranger. The save DCs are Wisdom-based.
Typical Spells Prepared: (2/2/1; DC 12 + spell level): 1st--entangle (DC 13), jump; 2nd--barkskin, spike growth (DC 14); 3rd--greater magic fang.
Divine Nature (Su): Ferafin adds his Charisma modifier as a bonus to allhis saving throws, and as a deflection bonus to his Armor class. These modifiers are factored into the statistics above. In addition, all allies within 15 feet gain a +4 moral bonus on saving throws against fear effects.
Aspected (Su): Ferafin has a strong attachment to the woods in which he dwells. He is permanently affected by a geas to dwell in the proximity of his woods and to protect it from enemies. The geas can not be removed except by a deity.
Speak with Animals and Plants (Su): Ferafin can speak with any animal or plant as though using speak with animals and speak with plants (caster level 6th). This ability is always active.
Scry Sense (Su): While conscious ferafin immediately becomes aware of any attempt to observe him by means of a divination (scrying) spell or effect. If a Will save to resist the scrying is successful, ferafin also gains a visual image of the scrier and an approximate sense of his or her distance and direction.
Improved Low-Light Vision (Ex): Ferafin can see three times as far as a human in dim light.
Immunities (Ex): Ferafin is immune to fear, poison, disease, sleep, paralysis, and polymorph.
Reincarnation (Su): If ferafin dies and is not raised, within 2d10 years his spirit is reincarnated in the form of another elder spirit. The creature inherits all the memories of his previous lives, although these memories will be more difficult to recall than events from the current life. (Cumulative -2 circumstance penalty to any attempts to recall events from each past life.)
Skills: Ferafin has a +8 racial bonus on Knowledge (nature) and Survival checks. He also has a +2 racial bonus on Hide, Listen, Move Silently, and Spot checks.
Creating an Elder Spirit
"Elder spirit" is an inherited template that can be added to any corporeal animal, fey, giant, humanoid, magical beast, monstrous humanoid, or plant creature (referred to hereafter as the base creature). The base creature must have an Intelligence score; have a size of Diminutive or larger, and be advanced by at least 5 HD or one size category, whichever requires fewer HD.
An elder spirit has all the base creature's statistics and special abilities except as noted here.
Size and Type: The creature's type changes to fey. Do not recalculate base attack bonus. Size is unchanged.
Hit Dice: Reduce all current and future racial Hit Dice by one dice size, to a minimum of d6. Do not change class HD.
Speed: Increase all speed modes of 20 feet or more by +10 feet.
Armor Class: Natural armor improves by +1 per Size category larger than Tiny (this stacks with any natural armor bonus of the base creature).
Attacks: Same as the base creature. If the base creature has no natural weapons, the elder spirit gains either a slam, gore, bite, or claw attack.
Full Attacks: Same as the base creature. If the base creature has no natural weapons, the elder spirit gains either 2 slams, 1 gore, 1 bite, or 2 claw attacks.
Damage: If the base creature does not have natural weapons, use the damage values in the table below.
Slam Gore Bite Claw
Size Damage Damage Damage Damage
Tiny 1 1d2 1d3 1d2
Small 1d3 1d4 1d4 2d3
Medium 1d4 1d6 1d6 1d4
Large 1d6 1d8 1d8 1d6
Huge 1d8 2d6 2d6 1d8
Gargantuan 2d6 2d8 2d8 2d6
Colossal 2d8 4d6 4d6 2d8
Special Attacks: An elder spirit retains all the special attacks of the base creature and also gains the following special abilities.
Nature's Curse (Su): Any creature an elder spirit hits with her touch attack must succeed on a Will save (DC 14 + Charisma modifier) or become permanently cursed. The opponent becomes entangled whenever it moves into or through a space containing plants. This effect is otherwise similar to the entangle spell (caster level equals HD).
The curse bestowed by this spell can not be dispelled, but it can be removed with a break enchantment, limited wish, miracle, remove curse, or wish spell.
Summon Kin (Sp): Once per day an elder spirit can attempt to summon 1d4+1 of the base creatures with a 20% chance of success + 5% per 2 Hit Dice. This ability is equivalent of a 6th-level spell.
Spell-Like Abilities: An elder spirit with a Wisdom of 8 or higher has two or more spell-like abilities, depending on its Hit Dice, as indicated on the table below. The abilities are cumulative; an elder spirit centaur (4 HD) can use charm animal and pass without trace as well as detect magic 3/day and faerie fire. Unless otherwise noted, an ability is usable once per day. Caster level equals the creature's HD, and the save DC is Charisma-based.
HD Abilities
1-2 detect magic 3/day, faerie fire
3-4 charm animal, pass without trace
5-6 hold animal, resist energy
7-8 dominate animal, suggestion
9-10 command plants, freedom of movement
11-12 deep slumber, dispel magic
13-14 animal growth, commune with nature
15-16 antilife shell, freedom of movement
17-18 animate plants, dimension door
19-20 creeping doom, true seeing
21-22 control plants, mass suggestion
23+ find the path, heroes' feast
In addition, elder spirits gain additional bonus spells based on the environment categories of the base creature, as indicated on the table below. Select the abilities from every environment category that applies.
Environment Abilities
Any dimension door, disguise self
Aquatic control water, endure elements
Deserts giant vermin, longstrider 3/day
Forests detect animals or plants, tree stride
Hills soften earth and stone, spike stones
Marshes gaseous form, stinking cloud
Mountains jump 3/day, stoneskin
Plains entangle, insect plague
Underground spider climb 2/day, meld into stone
Cold chill metal, ice storm
Temperate call lightning storm
Warm heat metal, flame strike
Spells: An elder spirits can cast divine spells as a ranger with class levels equal to her HD + any Ranger spellcasting levels. The save DCs are Wisdom-based.
Special Qualities: An elder spirit retains all the base creature's special qualities and gains those described below.
Fast healing (see the table below).
Resistance to cold 10 and fire 10.
Damage reduction (see the table below).
An elder spirit's natural weapons are treated as magic weapons for the purpose o
f overcoming damage reduction.
Spell resistance equal to creature's HD + 15 (max 40).
Hit Dice Fast Healing Damage Reduction
1-6 1 5/cold iron
7-12 3 10/cold iron
13-18 5 15/cold iron
19+ 8 20/cold iron
If the creature already has damage reduction, use the value on this table instead.
Divine Nature (Su): An elder spirit adds her Charisma modifier as a bonus to all her saving throws, and as a deflection bonus to her Armor class.
Aura of Divinity (Su): A divine aura surrounds elder spirits that fight or get angry. Each foe within 20 feet must succeed on a Will save (DC equal to 10 + 1/2 Hit Dice + Charisma modifier) to resist its effects. Those who fail are shaken for 24 hours and take a -2 penalty on saves against fear effects. A creature that has resisted or broken the effect cannot be affected again by that same elder spirit's aura for 24 hours.
In addition, all allies within 15 feet of an elder spirit gain a +5 moral bonus on saving throws against fear effects while the aura is active.
Aspected (Su): An elder spirit has a strong attachment to some element of nature or the world at large. She serves a specific function with respect to this element, and is permanently affected as though by a geas to perform this service. The geas can not be removed except by a deity. However it often changes to a different form when the elder spirit is reincarnated.
Speak with Animals and Plants (Su): An elder spirit can speak with any animal or plant as though using speak with animals and speak with plants (caster level 6th). This ability is always active.
Kin Empathy (Su): An elder spirit can communicate and empathize with normal and dire forms of the base creature. This gives them a +4 racial bonus on checks when influencing the creature's attitude.
Scry Sense (Su): A conscious elder spirit immediately becomes aware of any attempt to observe it by means of a divination (scrying) spell or effect. If a Will save to resist the scrying is successful, the elder spirit also gains a visual image of the scrier and an approximate sense of his or her distance and direction.
Low-Light Vision (Ex): An elder spirit can see twice as far as a human in dim light. If the base creature already has a form of low light vision, the range increases by one multiple. Thus if the base creature can see three times as far as a human in dim lighting, the elder spirit can see four times as far.
Immunities (Ex): An elder spirit is immune to fear, poison, disease, sleep, paralysis, and polymorph.
Reincarnation (Su): If an elder spirit dies and is not raised, within 2d10 years her spirit is reincarnated in the form of another elder spirit. The creature inherits all memories of her previous lives, although these memories will be more difficult to recall than events from the current life. (Cumulative -2 circumstance penalty to any attempts to recall events from each past life.)
Saves: All base save bonuses are equal to +1/2 HD + 2.
Abilities: Str +2, Dex +4, Wis +2, Cha +4. Intelligence is at least 8.
Skills: An elder spirit gains skill points as a fey and has skill points equal to (6 + Int modifier) X (HD + 3). Do not include Hit Dice from class levels in the calculation--the elder spirit gains fey skill points only for its racial Hit Dice, and gains the normal amount of skill points for its class levels. The class skills are Concentration, Escape Artist, Hide, Knowledge (nature), Listen, Move Silently, Search, Spot, Survival, and all skills from the base creature's list. All other skills are cross-class skills.
Elder spirits have a +8 racial bonus on Knowledge (nature) and Survival checks. If the base creature already has a bonus in these skills, they are replaced by these modifiers.
Feats: Elder spirits gain Diehard, Endurance, Run, and Track, assuming the base creature doesn't already have these feats. If the base creature has one or more special attacks, it also gains Ability Focus on one of those attacks. Finally, the elder spirit also gains Improved Natural Attack on a single attack form that does not already have this feat.
Environment: Any, often as base creature.
Organization: Solitary.
Treasure: Double the treasure of the base creature, if any.
Alignment: Change Lawful Good or Chaotic Good to Neutral Good. Change Evil or Chaotic Evil to Neutral Evil. Otherwise the same as the base creature.
Comments and corrections appreciated.
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