Undead and Construct templates - Five Renegades players please stay out

[Elethiomel]

Hi,

I'm a GM for a couple of campaigns. One is on hiatus, but I am planning to bring it back with a bang. The other one will probably have a new session next week, so I'll tackle that first.

I need a template, or templates, that give a creature the "undead" type without making them mindless, and without the template providing a large number of special attacks and powers (like vampires). Bonus if the look the template creates is consistent with the look of a skeleton or zombie.

For the second campaign I need a template - or a separate creature - that results in a Huge or larger dragon construct. I've looked at the Effigy template from Complete Arcane, but it doesn't quite fit the theme. This should be an obvious construct, made out of some shiny metal (or adamantine).

Does anyone know where I can find anything like this?

 

[IcyCool]

Necropolitan, from Libris Mortis.

As for the dragon, you could just use the Effigy creature template and describe it how you like. There is also the dragonflesh golem from MM2.

 

[Twowolves]

Green Ronin's Advanced Bestiary has a template for normal and "Dread" versions of almost every type of undead in the MM, as well as a Clockwork template, Lifespark Construct, and War Machine construct (I think).

 

[Elethiomel]

Thanks guys. Unfortunately I don't have Green Ronin's Advanced Bestiary.

Also, for the Dragon Golem... sure, I could use the Effigy Creature template and describe it differently. But I have a feeling that a Iron-Golem-like Dragon construct would have different stats than a Clockwork-Dragon.

 

[Croesus]

Check out the pdf "Book of Templates" by Silverthorne Games. This is the original 3.0 version and I believe it sells for only $3.00. It has several undead templates, including Greater Skeleton, Greater Zombie, and Skinhusk (that one's fun...)

Both of the "Greater" templates suggest reducing the base creature's Int score by 1d4+1 points, but you can ignore that and use the rest of the template as is.

 

[IcyCool]

Thanks guys. Unfortunately I don't have Green Ronin's Advanced Bestiary.

Also, for the Dragon Golem... sure, I could use the Effigy Creature template and describe it differently. But I have a feeling that a Iron-Golem-like Dragon construct would have different stats than a Clockwork-Dragon.

Well, it sounds like the Necropolitan will fit your undead needs perfectly, at the very least.

 

[Bad Paper]

I have a feeling that a Iron-Golem-like Dragon construct would have different stats than a Clockwork-Dragon.

Well, if you just want it to be an iron golem, then make it an iron golem in the shape of a dragon. I've seen two separate examples of iron spider golems. Make something up. Or...isn't there a half-golem template somewhere? See what that does.

 

[Kurashu]

There's the Elder Eidolon in Lords of Madness.

It's got a slight Lovecraftian feel, but you could change that.

 

[Elethiomel]

Well, if you just want it to be an iron golem, then make it an iron golem in the shape of a dragon. I've seen two separate examples of iron spider golems. Make something up. Or...isn't there a half-golem template somewhere? See what that does.

Yeah, I could advance an Iron Golem to Huge, but I'm not convinced that's the best solution. It would lack dragon-ness. Effigy is too not-magical-construct-y and pure Iron Golem in the shape of a Dragon is too not-Dragon-y. What I want here is a blend.

And yeah, IcyCool - the Necropolitan fit my needs excellently. Though I do wonder at their argumentation when it comes to the CR of it. The example Necropolitan has a CR of 5 as a 5-th level wizard, but the template says that when becoming a Necropolitan the creature loses a level (+1000 XP) and thus doesn't need any ECL or CR adjustment. That seems odd. "Yeah, you see, it *used* to be a 6th level wizard, so losing a level makes it okay to have it as CR5 now." So I'll give my necropolitans CR+1 and ignore the whole level loss thing. They're not supposed to be PCs anyway.

[Edit: The below was edited in once I read the reply that was made while I contemplated this post. Yeah, I contemplate for a long time.]

There's the Elder Eidolon in Lords of Madness.

It's got a slight Lovecraftian feel, but you could change that.

The Elder Eidolon looks nice. It looks like a "more powerful" version of the Effigy template, with better stat bonuses and some unnatural abilities added in, and a correspondingly higher CR adjustment. If I try and replace those with thematically better ones (Insanity Aura becomes Fear Aura with the same duration and DC, but Fear instead of Confusion, etc.) this should work out much better. Thanks!