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Cipher Stars
2011-06-16, 10:26 PM
Essence Eater
http://i592.photobucket.com/albums/tt7/xxdeadmuffinxx/anime/killer.jpg

Essence Eaters are people who were infected by a Vampire Lord, but were saved and did not become a vampire. In such cases there is a 1% chance the subject becomes an Essence Eater 1d3 years later. From then, the Essence Eater can create more of its kind by draining a body of blood and transfusing its own blood, Most don't survive, and it must be done quickly or else the body will be too dead for it to work.

Essence Eaters are rare, Natural enemies to the Vampire. They prey on the vampires prey and the vampires themselves. Nothing tastes better to an Essence Eater then the life force of blood sucking creatures as its a jumbled mix of so many stolen lives. And Vampire are a good fight as well, Essence Eaters are thrill seekers by nature, believing themselves immortal. and indeed, they might as well be, similar to the Vampire Lord in they're persistence. Essence Eaters are perfectly sane, They're just driven by a lust for life energy. The Essence eater need not bite anyone, they just need prolonged contact with more then 20% of they're body for at least 6 seconds to drain a bit of another's energy. As such many infiltrate brothels and pose as prostitutes, Draining only a little from individual clients. Enough to be mistaken for a tiring night and satisfy they're need for energy while not being enough to raise suspicion in most. Of course, many still are savages completely driven by the need and kill they're victims in dark allies.



As stated above, any bitten by a Vampire Lord and survived can become an Essence Eater.

Balance point: Vampire Lord.

Type: Changes to Deathless, retaining Constitution.

Features:
+8Str, +8Dex, +10Con, +4Int. +4wis, +6Cha, +6Appearance

Base Land Speed:
As base creature +20ft

Special Qualities:
Damage reduction 10/adamantine
Fast healing 10
Regeneration 10/Water. ([water] descriptor spells that deal slashing or bludgeoning damage.)
Spell/Power immunity.
Immunity to falling damage.
+20 Jump, Tumble, Climb, Swim, Balance, and Move Silently.

Deathless: The Essence Eater can only be killed by severing the head, burning both separately inside Hallowed and Consecrated areas, burying the body's ashes in a sealed case of holy water, burying the head's ashes in a sealed case of holy water, tied to a gold holy symbol, and sunk at the bottom of a body of water at least 10ft per Essence Eater's Character Level.
If any of these conditions are broken, the Essence Eater returns to life in the place of its birth in the form of a crystalline cocoonlike sphere that hatches in one week of its appearance.
If these conditions weren't met in the first place, the Essence Eater regenerates/heals as normal after 10 minutes per point of damage over -9hp.

Special Attacks:
Steal Life: Every round you maintain a pin you may deal 1 negative level. For each negative level you deal, You gain 1 Temporary level (opposite effects of a negative)You lose 1 temporary level per hour.
Give Life: If you have Temporary Levels on you, You can bestow them, or any number of them, to another. This can be used to resurrect a person long enough they can haul they're own dead buttox to an actual healer, or simply give a critter some power boost.
Pheromone Boost: You give off a scent that attracts others of similar species. (HumanXElf, or ElfxHalf-Orc) that works just like Charm Person with a caster level equal to the Essence Eater's character level, it only achieves full potency at a range of 10ft, beyond that you just smell nice.
Vengeful Blood: Your blood is deadly. Those who deal melee damage through your Damage Reduction take 1 point of Acid damage per 2 points of damage dealt to you as your own spilled blood arcs out to make an attack at them. If a creature Bites you or otherwise ingests some of your flesh or blood, they take a fortitude save DC = Essence Eater character level +15 or die. if they succeed, they take 1d6 negative level drain and are rendered unconscious for Essence Eater character levels = minutes.
Works against all melee or ranged within 15 ft.

Weaknesses:
Life force dependency:
The Essence Eater must drink the blood of a sentient creature at least once every 24 hours, or suffer from a -4 Ability damage per hour over drawn. (4 hours after 24 hours they would have a -16 to all ability scores) If they die from this, they return 12 hours later as a mindless creature that searches for prey (Becoming a monster under DM control) slaughtering everyone in sight, and using memories from when it was sane to seek out and destroy. Creature can be returned to sane thought by consuming blood of a willing subject who had some sort of powerful tie (Whether it be emotional or magical)
Special: After drinking Vampire blood, the Essence Eater need not drink more blood for 72 hours.
Magicless:
Essence Eater cannot use magic or psionics, They can however cast Divine spells as they work through the power of a deity.
Damned:
the Essence Eater becomes a creature blocked from natural progress after death, should they be destroyed somehow they are stuck in a void existence of pain at the mercy of the Void until a Deity manages to find them, take pity or decide to use them.

LA: +10

Cipher Stars
2011-06-16, 11:51 PM
No love for the Eater?

NeoSeraphi
2011-06-17, 12:17 AM
Whew boy. Okay, several things to discuss here.

First of all, you did not post a Type Change. Even if the Type remains the same, it's important to write "Type: Same as base creature".

Additionally, all templates must list what they can be applied to. (Yours is probably any living humanoid, but it could be any living creature, or any living creature that is not mindless, etc.) If you have specific types you want to exclude from becoming Essence Eaters (Vermin, undead, constructs, plants, animals, dragons, aberrations and magical beasts all seem like they wouldn't fit this category) you need to specify that.

Adamantium is not a substance in D&D. It is the fictional harder-than-diamonds metal that coats Wolverine's skeleton in the X-men universe. I believe you meant to write "adamantine".

You must specify what type of damage overcomes regeneration. If you intend for the regeneration to change ALL damage to subdual damage, you must specify by saying "Regeneration 10, which is overcome by nothing". Typically regeneration is overcome by acid and fire damage.

When a template grants a bonus to skill checks, that bonus is always considered a racial bonus.

Pheromone Boost: You did not specify a range for this. Typically, scents carry 30 feet in all directions, but only 15 feet downwind and up to 60 feet upwind.

Toxic Blood: You should specify (as bludgeoning weapons do not actually draw blood) that this ability only applies to piercing and slashing weapons. Also, it would not work on a creature using a reach weapon such as a lance, as the blood would not actually touch them. You should also specify that creatures immune to poison are immune to this effect. Additionally, abilities that allow saving throws always take the wielder's stat modifier into account. It's how we tell the difference between the strongest Essence Eaters and the weakest. For an ability like this, I suggest making it 10+his level +his Constitution modifier (which, because of the template, is bound to be really high).

Give Life- You do not specify an action required for this, or a range. (Probably standard action touch, but what do I know?)

There, that should be enough PEACH for one night, I think. :smallbiggrin:

Lordof Dorkness
2011-08-03, 11:00 PM
Fist of all, I like this Template... a lot.
I wonder what gaming system this is meant for.
It's not D&D 3.5 because it says +6 Appearance.

Cipher Stars
2011-08-03, 11:28 PM
Update: I edited the template removing [Name Pending]'s and replacing them with "Essence Eater"
and re-fluffed the cocoon to be a crystalline sphere.

Appearance is in the Book of Erotic Fantasy and has no place in most games, however it often comes up in my 'brews because I think it deserves its own stat away from Charisma. Just ignore it if you do not use Appearance.

Steward
2011-08-03, 11:37 PM
I like the idea of a being that preys on vampires (that isn't some Van Helsing type). When you say that they can't use arcane magic or psionics, do you just mean that they can't cast those types of spells (or manifest those powers) or are they barred from using wands, rings, drinking potions, etc.? The spell/power immunity is pretty tough -- I can see why the LA is so high! Does that mean that they're invulnerable to magical weapons or just spells like Fireball and Scorching Ray?

Can a vampire or another intelligent undead take this template? (I know it'll probably be a killer LA for most players to swallow but an NPC in a game might).

Cipher Stars
2011-08-04, 12:05 AM
I like the idea of a being that preys on vampires (that isn't some Van Helsing type). When you say that they can't use arcane magic or psionics, do you just mean that they can't cast those types of spells (or manifest those powers) or are they barred from using wands, rings, drinking potions, etc.? The spell/power immunity is pretty tough -- I can see why the LA is so high! Does that mean that they're invulnerable to magical weapons or just spells like Fireball and Scorching Ray?

Can a vampire or another intelligent undead take this template? (I know it'll probably be a killer LA for most players to swallow but an NPC in a game might).

If the DM would allow it its fine, they're the final sayers of whats in they're game anyway. Even so, that'd be LA 16, ouch. only 4 levels of a class before your stepping in Epiclands.
It could work in Gestalt though, having one side spent on taking LA.

Spell/power immunity encompasses all magic and psionics, not even lil weapon enhancements get passed, in return they can't do anything magical or psionic themselves.

SowZ
2011-08-04, 01:33 AM
Wait, what is the max number of temporary levels you can gain?

Morph Bark
2011-08-04, 04:10 PM
If a vampire template is LA+8, then this most certainly is more than LA+10. Also, isn't it so that a creature cannot have both Fast Healing and Regeneration at once? And why DR/adamantine, rather than silver or cold iron?

Tanuki Tales
2011-08-04, 10:50 PM
Also, isn't it so that a creature cannot have both Fast Healing and Regeneration at once?

Abominations would like a word with you. :smalltongue:

Morph Bark
2011-08-05, 01:16 PM
Abominations would like a word with you. :smalltongue:

Abominations are also epic-level creatures. This template can be applied to level 1 goblin commoners.

EDIT: Actually, as written, any creature with a Con score could become an Essence Eater, even plants, oozes, elementals and the Tarrasque.

Tanuki Tales
2011-08-05, 01:48 PM
Abominations are also epic-level creatures. This template can be applied to level 1 goblin commoners.

EDIT: Actually, as written, any creature with a Con score could become an Essence Eater, even plants, oozes, elementals and the Tarrasque.

The point is there's precedence for creatures having both Fast Healing and Regeneration.

And technically the Abomination type doesn't require the creature to be epic, just that the only printed examples are epic.

Steward
2011-08-05, 10:53 PM
If the DM would allow it its fine, they're the final sayers of whats in they're game anyway. Even so, that'd be LA 16, ouch. only 4 levels of a class before your stepping in Epiclands.
It could work in Gestalt though, having one side spent on taking LA.

I wasn't thinking more of the LA but the fluff; would it be logical for a creature to both be a vampire (or another form of intelligent undead) and an essence-eater, even if neither class had an LA?

Cipher Stars
2011-08-05, 11:40 PM
I wasn't thinking more of the LA but the fluff; would it be logical for a creature to both be a vampire (or another form of intelligent undead) and an essence-eater, even if neither class had an LA?


Ah...................... yea I guess its fine. A vampire growing to feast on other vampires.