New Template

[Hammerhead]

Victim and any other member of my Shattered Lands game, please do not read.

Spoiler Space





Okay, next sesssion in my game the PCs will face off against a mind-controlled artist who uses a psionic pen to animate his drawings. A painting, that of a monstrous brain-spider (an idea stolen from P-Kitty, the lovely Unflaith), has taken control of his mind and this artist uses a piece of one of the brain-spider's legs as a pen. While the artist doesn't know this, the pen psionically animates the drawings to go cause havoc (the artist thinks it's his own skill).

Anyway, I wanted to invent an Inkborn template for this guy's creations to attach to the base creature he draws. I was thinking of a few abilities these things might have, and hoped you guys could critique my ideas or come up with cooler ones.

A creature with the Inkborn template gains the following abilities:

Blinding Ink (Ex): When struck by a slashing or piercing weapon or effect (like a Blade Barrier), the ink from the wound blinds the attacker for 1d6 rounds unless they make a Reflex save DC 10+1/2 HD+Con Modifier. This ink can be washed from eyes as a full round action.

Abilities: Con -10

I want these Inkborn creatures to have good offensive power but lack stamina. They are just made up of ink, after all. The Con modifier might be a little extreme though. I also wanted the Inkborn creatures to be weaker than their base creatures.

Any thoughts or ideas to help me out?

 

[Eolin]

Why let them have con at all?

I don't know if its what you're going for. But they're made of ink, so I'd say they shoudn't even have a con score. They don't run out of breath, they don't need to eat, etc etc. Because they have no metabolism, hence no con.

But that's just me, and maybe I'm crazy.

 

[Sollir Furryfoot]

Hrm, Con -10 is pretty steep. Consider making it Con -4 or 6, halving or even eliminating natural armor, giving it that ink spray ability you put above (maybe only make it usable once per round, and making it an area affect, emanation or cone or similar), leaving them open to ranged attacks and perhaps ranged weapon (like guisarme) attacks as a weakness. +4 racial bonus to hide in shadowy areas perhaps?

Gotta go for now, but I'll try to think of some other abilities tomorrow.

 

[Nifft]

I'm with Eolin -- make them of type Construct.

The Effigy template in Complete Arcane might be good.
Or the Energy Creature template in MC Arcana (Evolved|Unearthed).
Or the Zombie template... Con's already gone, remove the slow effect and you're good to go. If you add blindness and maybe one other trick, up the CR by +1 (from the Zombie template).

Spider ink, eh? Could be poisonous, too. That, plus normal speed, would account for +1 CR over Zombie.

-- N

 

[Hammerhead]

Thanks for the input guys! You've given me a lot of great ideas. I looked at the Effigy template, and it really wasn't what I had in mind, and I certainly didn't want to make these guys undead. Okay, here's what I'm thinking of using at the moment:

Inkborn Template

Type: Becomes a Magical Beast? (Not sure about making them constructs; I accept the argument of not giving them a Constitution at all, but it seems that these things could be Ray of Enfeebled, Sneak Attacked, etc.)

Abilities: Con -6

Natural Armor: half of base creature, rounding up

Blinding Ink (Ex): Any damaging hit by a piercing or slashing weapon or effect such as Blade Barrier, blinding ink sprays out from the wound in a 15 ft. cone. Those hit by the area of Effect must make a Reflex save at DC 10+1/2HD+Con or be blinded for 1d6 rounds unless washed out with a supply of liquid and a full round action. This ability is an immediate action and can be used once per round.

Ink Seepage (Ex): Anyone damaged by the creature's natural weapons must make a Fort Save or take 1 point of Wisdom damage as the ink weakens the creature's will (and conincidentally weakens the characters against the psionic abilities of the picture of the mind-spider.

How about that ?

 

[Hammerhead]

Inkborn Wyvern
Large Dragon
HD: 7d12-7 (38 hp)
Initiative: +1
Speed: 20 ft. Fly 60 ft.
AC 14, touch 10, flat-footed 13
BAB/Grapple: +7/+14
Attack: Sting +10 melee (1d6+4 and poison), or Talon +10 melee (2d6+4), or Bite +10 melee (2d8+4)
Full Attack: Sting +10 melee (1d6+4 and poison), and Bite +8 melee (2d8+4), and 2 Wings +8 melee (1d8+2) and 2 Talons +8 melee (2d6+4)
Space/Reach: 10 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Blinding Ink, Improved Grab, Ink Seepage, Poison
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft., immunity to sleep and paralysis, low-light vision, scent, shadowy hide (+4 hide bonus)
Saves: Fort +4, Ref +6, Will +6
Abilities: Str 19, Dex 12, Con 9, Int 6, Wis 12, Cha 9
Skills: Hide +11, Listen +13, Move Silently +11, Spot +16
Feats: Ability Focus (poison), Alertness, Flyby Attack, Multiattack
Environment: Warm hills
Organization: Solitary, pair, or flight (3–6)
Challenge Rating: 5
Treasure: None
Alignment: Neutral Evil

 

[Hammerhead]

Inkborn Dire Bear
Large Magical Beast
Hit Dice: 12d8+15 (69 hp)
Initiative: +1
Speed: 40 ft. (8 squares)
Armor Class: 14 (–1 size, +1 Dex, +4 natural), touch 10, flat-footed 13
Base Attack/Grapple: +9/+23
Attack: Claw +19 melee (2d4+10)
Full Attack: 2 claws +19 melee (2d4+10) and bite +13 melee (2d8+5)
Space/Reach: 10 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Blinding Ink, Improved grab, Ink Seepage
Special Qualities: Low-light vision, scent
Saves: Fort +9, Ref +9, Will +9
Abilities: Str 31, Dex 13, Con 13, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 10
Skills: Hide +1, Listen +10, Spot +10, Swim +13
Feats: Alertness, Endurance, Run, Toughness, Weapon Focus (claw)
Environment: Cold forests
Organization: Solitary or pair
Challenge Rating: 6
Treasure: None
Alignment: Neutral Evil

 

[Spatzimaus]

My suggestions for the template:

> Change the type to Ooze. This'd remove the CON score entirely, right? It'd also make them immune to a lot of the mind-affecting stuff that always seems to cause problems.

> Instead of the natural armor, give them some DR. I'd go with DR 5/cold iron, possibly scaling up to 10 or 15 for higher HD creatures.

> Add Regeneration of 1/Cold (cold damage freezes the ink, allowing it to be shattered)

Throw on some fun side abilities and maybe one big vulnerability, and you're done.