Creature by Poll #9 - Raven Entity Discussion

[Knight Otu]

Origin: former wizard's familiar who has joined/taken over a flock of ravens. Concept: A raven entity is a Swarm of ravens with enhanced powers (based on the level of the wizard whose familiar started it all). Spellcasting, empathy, shared spell (when in a contiguous swarm), evasion, SR, etc..

Due to the special nature of the Raven Entity, I'll skip the attributes poll, though I'lll still run a special abilities poll. The final creature will look something like this:

Tiny Magical Beast (Swarm)
Hit Dice: XdX (X hp)
Initiative: +2
Speed: 10 ft. (2 squares), fly 40 ft. (average)
Armor Class: X
Base Attack/Grapple: X/-
Attack: Swarm (X)
Full Attack: Swarm (X)
Space/Reach: 10 ft./0 ft.
Special Attacks: X
Special Qualities: Low-light vision, X
Saves: Fort +2, Ref +4, Will +2
Abilities: Str 1, Dex 15, Con 10, Int X, Wis X, Cha X
Skills: XX
Feats: XX
Environment: Any land
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: X
Treasure: XX
Alignment: XX
Advancement: —
Level Adjustment: —

Due to the nature of the creature, I think about making this a template that can be applied to the Raven familiar. Hit Dice would be depending on the familiar's HD (being equal to the master's caster level).

If we want to keep the relationship with the Astral Manes, we might want to give them a darkness ability.

 

[Knight Otu]

Poll Results...

The raven entity will certainly have some type of fear effect and spell use. Sonic and summoning abilities are quite likely, as is a darkness effect.

 

[Gez]

So, the summoning effect.

Summon Ravens (Sp): Thrice per day, the raven entity can summon a swarm of ravens. The ravens themselves are considered non-magical, but can be dispelled like any conjuration (summoning) effect. Use the stats of the raven entity itself, but without any Su or Sp powers, for the raven swarm.

 

[Knight Otu]

Makes sense, considering there are no official raven swarm stats. Summoned creature gets stonger with the summoning creature...

 

[Gez]

Addenda/errata: I don't know what will the RE's final Int score be, but the Raven Swarms, of course, will have only 2.

 

[Knight Otu]

The raven entity would have the same Int as the "seed familiar," as Sejs put it.

Some basics:

CREATING A RAVEN ENTITY
“Raven entity” is an aquired template that can be added to any raven that is or once was a familiar (referred to hereafter as the familiar).
A half-dragon uses all the base creature’s statistics and special abilities except as noted here.
Size and Type: The raven entity is a Tiny Magical Beast with the Swarm subtype.
Hit Dice: A raven entity has Hit Dice equal to the level of the familiar's master. These Hit Dice are Magical Beast Hit Dice (d10).
Speed: 10 ft. (2 squares), fly 40 ft. (average)
Armor Class: The raven entity has a natural armor bonus equal to that of the familiar.
Attack: A raven entity uses the swarm attack. As a swarm, raven entities don't normally attack otherwise, and cannot grapple. The base attack bonus of a raven entity is equal to its Hit Dice.
Full Attack: A raven entity uses the swarm attack.
Damage: A raven entity's swarm attack deals damage appropriate for its hit dice:

 Swarm HD	Swarm Base Damage
 1–5		1d6
 6–10		2d6
 11–15		3d6
 16–20		4d6
 21 or more	5d6

?(If the raven swarm uses a touch spell, it is discharged on a single creature affected by the swarm attack.)?
Special Attacks: A raven entity retains all the special attacks of the familiar. If the familiar had special permanent abilities not commonly found in familiars (such as from the Familiar Spell epic feat), it retains those as well, if appropriate for a swarm. In addition it gains the following special attacks:

Spells:
Fear:
Darkness:
Summon Ravens (Sp): Thrice per day, the raven entity can summon a swarm of ravens. The ravens themselves are considered non-magical, but can be dispelled like any conjuration (summoning) effect. Use the stats of the raven entity itself, but without any Su or Sp powers, without any spells, and with an Int of 2, for the raven swarm.

Special Qualities: A raven entity retains all the special qualities of the familiar. If the familiar had special permanent abilities not commonly found in familiars (such as from the Familiar Spell epic feat), it retains those as well, if appropriate for a swarm. In addition it gains the following special qualities:

Saves:The base Fortitude and Reflex saves of the raven entity are 1/2 the raven entity's Hit Dice +2. The base Will save of the raven entity is 1/3 of the raven entity's Hit Dice.
Abilities: Same as the familiar.
Skills: A raven entity gains skill points as a magical beast and has skill points equal to (2 + Int modifier) x(HD + 3). Treat skills from the familiar’s list and the familiar's master's list as class skills, and other skills as cross-class.
Feats:
Environment: Same as either the base creature or the dragon variety.
Challenge Rating: The raven entities hitdice +x
Alignment: Same as the familiar.
Advancement: -
Level Adjustment: -

 

[Knight Otu]

Actually, now that I think of it - if the raven entitiy is supposed to cast spells, it needs an appropriately high ability score. 10 + the highest level spell the creature can cast (which is the minimum)?

 

[Gez]

I want to say that I think the name of the template itself shouldn't be "raven entity" but "familiar entity" or something. Raven entity should be the name of the sample, using a raven familiar as the base creature. Like how WotC do templates now, putting the sample first, the template after (half-troll barbazu, half-illithid lizardfolk, etc.).

That way, we could also create cat entities, rat entities, bat entities, gnat entities, hat entities, mat entities, vat entities, etc.

So, we'd have:

CREATING A FAMILIAR ENTITY
“Familiar entity” is an aquired template that can be added to any Tiny familiar whose master was slain (referred to hereafter as the familiar).
A familiar entity uses all the base creature’s statistics and special abilities except as noted here.
Size and Type: The entity is a Tiny Magical Beast with the Swarm subtype.
Hit Dice: An entity has Hit Dice equal to the level of the familiar's master. These Hit Dice are Magical Beast Hit Dice (d10).
Speed: 10 ft. (2 squares), fly 40 ft. (average)
Armor Class: The entity has a natural armor bonus equal to that of the familiar.
Attack: An entity uses the swarm attack. As a swarm, entities don't normally attack otherwise, and cannot grapple. The base attack bonus of an entity is equal to its Hit Dice.
Full Attack: An entity uses the swarm attack.
Damage: An entity's swarm attack deals damage appropriate for its hit dice:

 Swarm HD	Swarm Base Damage
 1–5		1d6
 6–10		2d6
 11–15		3d6
 16–20		4d6
 21 or more	5d6

If the entity uses a touch spell, it is discharged on every creature affected by the swarm attack.

Special Attacks: An entity retains all the special attacks of the familiar. If the familiar had special permanent abilities not commonly found in familiars (such as from the Familiar Spell epic feat), it retains those as well, if appropriate for a swarm. In addition it gains the following special attacks:

Spells:
Fear:
Darkness:
Summon Animal Swarm (Sp): Thrice per day, the entity can summon a swarm of animals of the same type (raven swarm for a raven entity, for example). The animals themselves are considered non-magical, but can be dispelled like any conjuration (summoning) effect. Use the stats of the entity itself, but without any Su or Sp powers, without any spells, and with an Int of 2, for the summoned animal swarm.

Special Qualities: An entity retains all the special qualities of the familiar. If the familiar had special permanent abilities not commonly found in familiars (such as from the Familiar Spell epic feat), it retains those as well, if appropriate for a swarm. In addition it gains the following special qualities:

Saves:The base Fortitude and Reflex saves of the entity are 1/2 its Hit Dice +2. Its base Will save is 1/3 of its Hit Dice.
Abilities: Intelligence increases by 10, otherwise same as the familiar.
Skills: An entity gains skill points as a magical beast and has skill points equal to (2 + Int modifier) x(HD + 3). Treat skills from the familiar’s list and the familiar's master's list as class skills, and other skills as cross-class.
Feats:
Environment: Same as either the base creature or the dragon variety.
Challenge Rating: The entity hitdice +x
Alignment: Same as the familiar.
Advancement: -
Level Adjustment: -
​

 

[Knight Otu]

I've had pretty much the same thought, in fact. Only ravens would be a truly narrow template. Needs a bit of cleanup still, though, and we'll see what the others (there are others?) think.

 

[Gez]

True, the CbP stuff has lost most of its steam... It's a good idea, though.

Maybe we could try, for the next, pimping it on more places? I'm thinking about WotC's monsters forum, and NG's ToH forum.