Converting Creatures from Other Campaign Settings

[Cleon]

Sure, "duplicate" is fine.

This might be worth modifying...

Keen Scent (Ex): A shark can notice creatures by scent in a 180-foot radius and detect blood in the water at ranges of up to a mile.

Hmm, yes I suppose it would. I'd reduce the range a bit.?

Come to think of it, if we give the templated creature "Scent Blood" then we ought to give the incorporeal form the same ability.

Anyhow, let's leave that on the back burner for the time being and start on the template.

Transient Golem Duplicate
A transient golem can use its Infusion attack to turn itself into an imitation of any living creature. Its appearance is identical to the creature it is duplicating, but its behaviour may be different. Most noticeably, they always have an obsessive thirst for blood, which they must feed upon to maintain their physical form.

Some transient golem duplicates do not realize they are imposters and sincerely believe they are the creature they are imitating.

Creating a Transient Golem Duplicate
"Transient Golem Duplicate" is an acquired template that can be added to any living, corporeal creature (referred to hereafter as the base creature).

A transient golem duplicate uses all the base creature's statistics and special abilities except as noted here.

Special Attacks
A transient golem duplicate retains all the special attacks of the base creature and gains a blood-draining incorporeal touch attack.

Blood-Draining Touch (Su): ?

Special Qualities
A transient golem duplicate has all the special qualities of the base creature as well as those described below.

Living Construct (Ex): Although a transient golem duplicate gains the type and subtypes of whatever creature it retains some of the qualities of the Construct type. [what shall these be?]

Discorporate (Ex): A transient golem duplicate can turn itself back into a transient golem as a standard action. It becomes incorporeal and loses all this template's abilities. Transient golems only discorporate in dire circumstances, they can become corporeal again by using their Infusion attack once more.

Immunity to Magic: - just copy the golem's.

Lust for Blood (Ex): Some kind of Will check to resist feeding?

Scent Blood (Ex): A transient golem duplicate can notice living creatures in a 60 feet by the smell of their blood. It can detect spilled blood at ranges of up to a mile, and track a bleeding creature as if it had the scent special quality and the Track feat.

Abilities
Same as the base creature, except that its Constitution score may be reduced if it is short of blood (see Blood-Draining Touch, above).

A newly formed duplicate has a Constitution score equal to the Con damage it did to the base creature with its Infusion attack, it use Blood-Draining Touch to increase its Constitution to its full value as quickly as it can.

 

[Shade]

Here's an ability that we might mine for "lust for blood"...

Need to Feed (Ex): A ravenous creature is driven by a consuming hunger, not a lust for battle. Whenever it slays a living opponent, the ravenous undead must succeed at a DC 15 Will save or immediately stop to eat its kill. When eating, a ravenous creature can do nothing else. It loses its Dexterity bonus to AC and does not make attacks of opportunity.

 

[Cleon]

Here's an ability that we might mine for "lust for blood"...

Need to Feed (Ex): A ravenous creature is driven by a consuming hunger, not a lust for battle. Whenever it slays a living opponent, the ravenous undead must succeed at a DC 15 Will save or immediately stop to eat its kill. When eating, a ravenous creature can do nothing else. It loses its Dexterity bonus to AC and does not make attacks of opportunity.

So something like:

Bloodthirst (Ex): A transient golem duplicate is driven by its need for fresh blood. Whenever it is within 60 ft. of a creature with a bleeding wound (from a sword of wounding or the like), it must succeed at a DC 15 Will save or immediately try to use its blood-draining touch to feed upon the bleeding creature's wound.

 

[Shade]

Yeah, that looks good.

 

[Cleon]

Yeah, that looks good.

Right-ho. That just leaves us to decide what Construct immunities to include in Living Construct (I'm thinking just the standard selection that warforged have) and working out the details of their Blood-Drinking Touch.

The latter will be the tricky one.

Here's some earlier attempts:

Blood Drain (Su): A transient golem using Mimic Shape (see below) can make an incorporeal touch attack against any creature with an unhealed wound. It can also Blood Drain with any natural attacks it gains from its mimicked shape. The wound instantly closes and stops bleeding (which stops any continuing damage from a wounding weapon or the like), but the creature takes 1 point of Constitution damage and the golem's Con increases by 1 (up to the Constitution of the creature it mimicked). This touch is completely painless, and it requires a [DC X Spot or Autohypnosis?] check for the victim to notice the loss. Another character who closely examines the victim can notice their anemia with a DC X Heal check.

From Mimic Shape (Su):
A transient golem loses 1 point of Constitution for every day it maintains a mimicked shape. It can regain this Con using Blood Drain. Should its Constitution ever drop to zero the golem evaporates back into its Incorporeal form and loses all the changes gained by Mimic Shape.

Combining them I came up with the following. I think it's a pretty good first draft.

Blood-Drain (Su): A transient golem duplicate has an incorporeal touch attack that does 1 point of Constitution damage, it can literally reach inside a victim to sup upon their blood and life force. Any open wounds the victim may have will instantly close and stop bleeding (this stops any continuing damage from a wounding weapon or the like). This attack is subtle and completely painless. The victim will not realize they have been attacked unless they succeed at a [DC X Spot or Autohypnosis?] check - they will notice any miraculously closed wounds, of course, but that appears to be healing rather than an attack. Another character who closely examines the victim can notice their anemia with a successful DC X Heal check.

A transient golem duplicate can also Blood Drain through any natural attacks possessed by the creature it has duplicated, adding 1 point of Constitution damage to each such attack that hits.

Transient golem duplicates must use Blood Drain to maintain their corporeal form. For every day they spend without using Blood Drain they will lose 1d3 points of Constitution. The duplicate can regain this lost Constitution using Blood Drain, regaining 1 point of Constitution for every point of Constitution damage it does to a victim. If its Constitution should ever fall to zero it will immediately lose its transient golem duplicate template and Discorporate, becoming an incorporeal transient golem once more. The golem can not use Blood Drain to gain a Constitution score higher than the base creature it is duplicating, instead the creature gains 5 temporary hit points for every excess point of Constitution damage it does, to a maximum equal to the bonus hit points of a Construct of its size. (e.g. a Medium-sized duplicate can gain up to 20 temporary hit points through excessive Blood Draining.)

 

[Shade]

That looks like it'll work, but I'd suggest a name change to avoid confusion with typical blood drain. "Blood feed" or "steal blood" might work, but I'm sure someone will come up with something better.

 

[Cleon]

That looks like it'll work, but I'd suggest a name change to avoid confusion with typical blood drain. "Blood feed" or "steal blood" might work, but I'm sure someone will come up with something better.

Yes, that makes sense.

Filch Blood? Siphon Blood? Tap Blood?

Frankly, I like "Blood Stealing" or "Thieve Blood" better than any of those. I'll use that for the time being. I'll use Steal Blood for the time being.

Now, what DC should we have for the Spot / Heal / Autohypnosis check? I'm thinking a flat DC25 or DC20. We could make it HD and ability-based, but that would mean it varies a lot depending on what creature it's mimicking - e.g. say we make it Cha-based and it copies a rat, the skill checks would only be DC6. Its supposed to be very hard to notice, so I would make the skill check over 20, that way an average commoner will not notice, but most PCs will have some chance. Let's say DC25 for the Spot, DC20 for Autohypnosis and Heal.

Revising...

Steal Blood (Su): A transient golem duplicate has an incorporeal touch attack that does 1 point of Constitution damage, it can literally reach inside a victim to sup upon their blood and life force. Any open wounds the victim may have will instantly close and stop bleeding (this stops any continuing damage from a wounding weapon or the like). This attack is subtle and completely painless. The victim will not realize they have been attacked unless they succeed at a DC25 Spot check or a DC20 Autohypnosis check - they will notice any miraculously closed wounds, of course, but that appears to be healing rather than an attack. Another character who closely examines the victim can notice their anemia with a successful DC 20 Heal check.

A transient golem duplicate can also Steal Blood through any natural attacks possessed by the creature it has duplicated, adding 1 point of Constitution damage to each such attack that hits.

Transient golem duplicates must use Steal Blood to maintain their corporeal form. For every day they spend without stealing blood they will lose 1d3 points of Constitution. The duplicate can regain this lost Constitution using Steal Blood, regaining 1 point of Constitution for every point of Constitution damage it steals. If its Constitution should ever fall to zero it will immediately lose its transient golem duplicate template and Discorporate, becoming an incorporeal transient golem once more. The golem can not use Steal Blood to gain a Constitution score higher than the base creature it is duplicating, instead the creature gains 5 temporary hit points for every excess point of Constitution damage it steals, to a maximum equal to the bonus hit points of a Construct of its size. (e.g. a Medium-sized duplicate can gain up to 20 temporary hit points through excess Blood Stealing.)

 

[Shade]

The giant leech uses an opposed Hide check to set the DC...

Anesthetize (Ex): A creature bitten by a giant leech must succeed on a Spot check (opposed by the giant leech's Hide check) to notice the attack if both the leech and its target are in murky water at least 2 feet deep. Each round of blood drain entitles the creature to another Spot check to notice the leech, with a cumulative +2 bonus on the check per round after the first. Characters attacked in clear water, or who have some means of detecting the leech without seeing it, notice the attack immediately.

...I'm not sure that makes much sense in this case, though.

 

[freyar]

A couple quick comments:

I think HD should switch to 13, hp the same as the transient golem, but I'm open to persuasion.

More in a bit

Adding in EDIT: I also think the abilities should switch to the Wis and Cha of the transient golem, though also not a deal breaker.

I like "Thieve Blood" for the steal blood ability, and the fixed DCs that Cleon has seem about right to me.

Finally, I'm not sure if we should call it "living construct" since that's a subtype elsewhere with a specific meaning. But I'm not coming up with a better name at the moment.

 

[Cleon]

A couple quick comments:

I think HD should switch to 13, hp the same as the transient golem, but I'm open to persuasion.

Adding in EDIT: I also think the abilities should switch to the Wis and Cha of the transient golem, though also not a deal breaker.

I'd rather it duplicated the HD, hp and type of the duplicated creature, since the original transient golem effectively became a copy of its victim stat-wise.

I like "Thieve Blood" for the steal blood ability, and the fixed DCs that Cleon has seem about right to me.

Thieve Blood is fine by me. I still like fixed DC, but if we're calling it thievery maybe we could also allow a Sleight of Hand skill check to increase the DC?

Finally, I'm not sure if we should call it "living construct" since that's a subtype elsewhere with a specific meaning. But I'm not coming up with a better name at the moment.

Yes, I wasn't entirely happy with calling it a "Living Construct" either. Upon reflection, let's just give it an "Immunities" SQ, something like:

Immunities (Ex): Although a transient golem duplicate has most of the body functions of a living creature it is only an imitation of life, so retains some of the Construct traits of its incorporeal form. The duplicate is immune to X.

Then we just need to decide on what the X is. I'm thinking we should give it the following:

• Immunity to all mind-affecting effects (charms, compulsions, phantasms, patterns, and morale effects).
• Immunity to death effects and necromancy effects.
• Not subject to ability damage, ability drain or energy drain.
• Not at risk of death from massive damage. Immediately destroyed when reduced to 0 hit points or less.
• Since it was never alive, a transient golem duplicate cannot be raised or resurrected.