Shin Okada
Explorer
Are there some good creature template which can be applied to constructs? Namely, Retriever.
Template for Constructs?
- Thread starter Shin Okada
- Start date
According to MonsterForge, you can add the Ice Beast template to a Retriever, as well as Yellow Musk Zombie.
Ice Beast is from Frost Burn, while YMZ is from Fiend Folio.
Shin Okada
Explorer
Thanks. I checked both of them but Ice Creature happen to be a very bad choice in this particular case as the adventure involves a lot of Red Dragons hostile to the demons. And one PC is a Gold Dragon Disciple and there are a Sorcerer, a Warmage, and 1 cleric with magic domain, who can cast a lot of fire spells on the fly. And according to SS, Yellow Musk Zombie template must be applied to a living creature whose physiology include a brain.
Alzrius
The EN World kitten
There are a number of options I can recommend, but they're mostly third-party.
Open Design's Kobold Ecologies Vol. 1 has a truly excellent article on retrievers, featuring a number of replacement abilities, enhancement abilities, and even flaws that can modify them. Moreover, it has the Masterpiece of Mad Genius template, which lets you add another template normally reserved for a living, corporeal creature onto a Construct.
The Book of Template - Deluxe Edition 3.5, by Silverthorne Games, only has a few templates for Constructs, and most of them aren't helpful. That said, the Phantasmal is a very creative template that makes the applied creature into a powerful illusion. There's also a number of minor variations (such as Magic-Immune) that can be applied to any Construct.
Finally, Green Ronin's Advanced Bestiary is a template book that has several useful Construct-themed templates, such as Lifespark for living Constructs, and Transforming for Constructs that can take multiple forms. You could even use something like Amalgam to combine your retriever with some other kind of creature.
Hope that helps!
Open Design's Kobold Ecologies Vol. 1 has a truly excellent article on retrievers, featuring a number of replacement abilities, enhancement abilities, and even flaws that can modify them. Moreover, it has the Masterpiece of Mad Genius template, which lets you add another template normally reserved for a living, corporeal creature onto a Construct.
The Book of Template - Deluxe Edition 3.5, by Silverthorne Games, only has a few templates for Constructs, and most of them aren't helpful. That said, the Phantasmal is a very creative template that makes the applied creature into a powerful illusion. There's also a number of minor variations (such as Magic-Immune) that can be applied to any Construct.
Finally, Green Ronin's Advanced Bestiary is a template book that has several useful Construct-themed templates, such as Lifespark for living Constructs, and Transforming for Constructs that can take multiple forms. You could even use something like Amalgam to combine your retriever with some other kind of creature.
Hope that helps!
I'm not familiar with Ice Creature, but I imagine that it wouldn't be that hard to modify it into Fire Creature. Do a global replace of ice/cold with fire/heat and you're probably most of the way there.
Shin Okada
Explorer
Well, basically, I want to make retrievers a little bit stronger without making them gargantuan in size. Mainly because I do not have that much big spider minis.
I can bump Retrievers' up into HD 14 (CR 12). But PCs are already hitting Level 17 and thus something stronger are needed, both in CR and in actual capability.
Incarnate template is only for humanoid constructs and actually make them weaker.
Theo R Cwithin
I cast "Baconstorm!"
Alzrius mentioned "Advanced Bestiary". If you have that, it contains a few templates that can be applied to constructs:
The Transforming template for constructs gives several new movement, etc., options for +1 CR. For example, Retrievers that can burrow, climb and fly might really surprise the PCs.
An Elemental Infusion template would give your Retrievers additional new capabilities for +1 CR. For example, the Fire Infusion form gives a breath weapon, fire healing, etc, and would be very useful for the Retrievers in your fire-dominated campaign setting.
The Metal Clad templates mainly give AC bonuses and resistances, for +1 to +6 CR. Not very interesting, IMHO, but it seems to naturally go with constructs.
The Transforming template for constructs gives several new movement, etc., options for +1 CR. For example, Retrievers that can burrow, climb and fly might really surprise the PCs.
An Elemental Infusion template would give your Retrievers additional new capabilities for +1 CR. For example, the Fire Infusion form gives a breath weapon, fire healing, etc, and would be very useful for the Retrievers in your fire-dominated campaign setting.
The Metal Clad templates mainly give AC bonuses and resistances, for +1 to +6 CR. Not very interesting, IMHO, but it seems to naturally go with constructs.
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