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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Alzrius" data-source="post: 9676428" data-attributes="member: 8461">Another supplement that I picked up during the recent PaizoCon Sale was Rite Publishing's <a href="https://legacy.drivethrurpg.com/product/121068/Monster-Templates-Headless-Horseman?affiliate_id=820" target="_blank">Monster Templates: Headless Horseman</a> (affiliate link).I'll admit that I was surprised when I saw this one. Partially that was because I apparently somehow missed it in the decade-plus since it was released, but also because this particular niche isn't something that Paizo ever filled on their own. Sure, they have a <a href="https://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/undead/dullahan/" target="_blank">dullahan</a> monster, and there's even a <a href="https://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/haunts/cr-10-12/headless-horseman-cr-10/" target="_blank">headless horseman haunt</a>, but you'd think that a template to make a creature into a headless horseman would be a no-brainer (pun intended).Apparently, it wasn't.Fortunately, Steven D. Russell was there to take up the challenge. Many thanks to you, Steve; we still miss you.What I like most about this template is that it's, for lack of a better word, quirky. For instance, it specifies that the headless horseman has lifesense, and while it specifies that works as per blindsense, the implication is that this won't work with regard to constructs or other undead, so if you happen to have, say, a clockwork familiar or can animate some non-living things, you can take the headless horseman unaware.Likewise, the template smartly specifies that the "horseman" part of the headless horseman functions as per the cavalier class's <a href="https://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/base-classes/Cavalier/#TOC-Mount-Ex-" target="_blank">mount</a> class feature rather than necessarily being a horse per se (and, in fact, overtly states that it could even be a dragon as per the <a href="https://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/3rd-party-classes/rogue-genius-games/dragonrider/" target="_blank">dragonrider</a> class). But look at the list of cavalier mounts, and the silliness potential just skyrockets...can you imagine a headless horseman riding a giraffe (making him a "headless giraffeman")? Because that's something I can't un-think now.But the thing which tickled my fancy the most was that, as per the template, headless horsemen are all searching for their heads, being unable to be destroyed permanently unless their head is either destroyed or returned to them. Of course, given that they're also bound to a particular area, that can often mean it's permanently out of reach, but while that particular conundrum is great adventure fodder, imagine the more outre possibilities...For instance, suppose a headless horseman's severed head has itself been made into a <a href="https://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/undead/beheaded/" target="_blank">beheaded</a> of some kind. That's two undead for the price of one! Necro-nomics, baby! And it gets better, because a beheaded can be taken as a familiar by an evil spellcaster...and the headless horseman template says that anyone touching their head can command them as per a command undead spell (CL 20, no save). So now your necromancer has gotten a familiar that also gives it command of a powerful undead creature! How can you not love that kind of synergy?And really, this is why I enjoy this product so much; the inspiration alone makes it worth the purchase price, with the actual content being extra. I love it when a product stimulates my imagination like this, and that I got it during a sale makes it that much better.</blockquote>

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