Need a CR for this Exploding Undead Template

[Grishnak]

Well the basics of the template are as follows.

Upon the undeads death it explodes into shards of bone which has a blast radius of 20' the bones cause 1d6 damage/per hd of undead Reflex for half damage.
As a secondary effect the characters caught in the blast must make a Fortitude save DC 20 or have the bone shards work their way in. 2nd Fort Save DC 25 or the character dies and becomes the undead who's bones entered the body 1d4 rounds later.
(Eg Undead creature that explodes - skeleton, characters raises as a skeleton)

I was thinking along the lines of about a +2 or +3 CR but any guides will be helpful. I used Van Richtens Guide to the Walking Dead and in there the create spawn cr adjustment is +1/2 so the rest of the cr would be based on the explosive damage.

Example Creature

Medium Sized Skeleton
1d12 (6hp) - Blast damage 1d6
Init +5 (+1 dex, +4 Improved Init)
Speed 30ft
Ac 13 (+1 dex, +2 natural)
Attacks 2 claws +0 melee
Damage Claw 1d4
Face/Reach 5ft. by 5ft./5ft.
Special Qualities Undead, immunities, Exploding Dead
Saves Fort +0, Ref +1, Will +2
Abilities Str 10 Dex 12 Con - Int - Wis 10 Cha 11
Feats Improved Init

CR 2 1/3 or 3 1/3???

 

[Devon]

I'd give it a +3 CR.

It's got the equivalent of a Create Spawn ability, except it doesn't require the victim's actual death (it CAUSES the actual death, like a finger of Death spell). +4.

However, it's usable only once, save to avoid. That would be a +2.

But it's got a save DC that is pretty high, but if you want it to have nothing to do with the original undead's power-level, and make this an across-the-board dangerous and scary combat enchantment, then I would probably keep it at +3.

It's a great and scary idea. However, were I given this template to engineer, I'd probably rule that the victims would make a save, and if they failed, then the next time they were reduced to 0 hit points (or -1 hit points) they would THEN automatically rise as the undead that had infected them. That would be a +2, easily, I think.

Any thoughts?

- Devon

 

[Grishnak]

Devon thx for the reply, I did another post regarding this creature on the general chat and most people said +2 and the save was a bit too high and should go off undeads hit dice or charisma modifier for save, although with your contribution of the once the pc/npc/monster hits 0 hp's then it turns is a nice touch imo. Possibly change it slightly for people with say toughness so they can get to -3 (1 Toughness feat) before becoming the undead. Will have a think over whether it should go to -10 or not as standard death or if they start turning like Return of the living dead where they can pretty much only talk and the odd movement but are in essence already dead.

Also possibly make a slight alteration to cr of exploding undead for example:
If player is killed by exploding undead and they come back as standard undead +2 cr for the original exploding undead and if exploding undead are spawned to continue the exploding undead template then +3 cr.
How does that sound? If you manage to kill anyone with this template let me know so I can begin a thread of manic laughter hehe