Spirit Swallower Template - Please Comment!

Spirit Swallower

Spirit swallowers are the guards of the torture chambers of the oriental underworld. Found mainly on the lower planes, these creatures are animals with a bipedal stance.

Creating a Spirit Swallower

"Spirit swallower" is a template that an be applied to any animal or vermin (the base animal). It becomes a magical beast and gains the extraplanar and spirit subtypes.
Size : If the base animal is Small or smaller, the spirit swallower is Medium-size. Otherwise, the spirit swallower is Large.
Hit Dice : If the base animal has 10 or more hit dice, the spirit swallower has 8 Hit Dice. Otherwise, the spirit swallower has 6 Hit Dice.
Armor Class : Spirit swallowers gain a +1 bonus to natural armor.
Attacks: As base animal.
Special Attacks : The spirit swallower retains all the base animal's special attacks and gains these :


Touch of Amnesia : This ability allows a spirit swallower to make a melee touch attack that, if successful, causes the victim to forget the previous minute and all its events. A save (Will DC 10 + 1/2 spirit swallower's HD + spirit swallower's Cha modifier) negates this effect.
Spirit Swallowing : Any creature at 0 hp or less (in a coma or dead) is vulnerable to this attack. This attack transports the target's spirit to the Lower Plane of Baator.


Special Qualities : As base creature, plus fire resistance 5 (+5 per HD over 6).

Abilities : Str +2, Con +2, Dex +0, Int +4, Wis +0, Cha +0.

Climatee/Terrain : Lower plane of Baator

Treasure : Standard


CR : 2 or fewer HD : +3
3 - 4 HD : +2
5 - 9 HD : +1
10 - 12 HD : +0
13+ HD : -1

I like this except for the variable hit dice and size thing. So if an elephant got this template it would go down to a large? And giving a hit die penalty is kind of odd. The abilities aren't too big either, CR +1 at most. (And you should let vermin in on the game man! I want to see soul sucking mantises dang nabbit!

No outsider, it gets the (extraplanar) subtype. (See create text). And yeah, an elephant'd go down to a large. (The impression I got from the myths was that they weren't more than twice a man's height, if that, but taller than the average man.)

Magical Beast with the extraplanar (and possibly spirit) subtypes?

Yeah, Magical Beast. But no Spirit subtype.

a) Because I don't have the book telling what the spirit subtype does.
b) They're corporeal, so not spirits.