Zaydos
2015-10-31, 12:05 PM
Tumolar Ancestor
Diminutive Aberration
Hit Dice: 2d8 (hp)
Initiative: -5
Speed: 0 ft
Armor Class: 9 (+4 size, -5 Dex), touch 9, flat-footed 9
Base Attack/Grapple: +1/-16
Attack: -
Full Attack: -
Space/Reach: 1/10 ft/0 ft
Special Attacks: Blood Necromancy, Rejection, Takeover
Special Qualities: Ancestral Grimoire, Blind, Blindsense 30 ft, Darkvision 60 ft., Dark Knowledge, Parasitize Senses, Sense Blood, Symbiont Traits, Telepathy.
Saves: Fort +1, Ref -5, Will +3
Abilities: Str -, Dex -, Con 12, Int 16, Wis 11, Cha 15, Ego 17
Skills: Concentration +6 (+10 to cast defensively), Knowledge (arcana) +8, Knowledge (any two) +8, Spellcraft +10.
Feats: Combat Casting
Environment: Descendants.
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 1/10 or Host’s CR +1ish
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always Evil (any)
Advancement: -
Level Adjustment: –
Some necromancers despite seeking immortality fear the transformation into a lich. Some seek a redundant means of immortality; even a lich can be killed. Where a lesser mortal might settle for the immortality of fame or children, that is not a fate befitting a mage. Even so there is an immortality in lineage and the mage that gives rise to a tumoral ancestor seeks it. Ferreting out the ancient ritual they perform the necromantic rights transferring a part of their soul into their blood lineage. This soul fragment gives rise to strangely aware, typically benign, tumor amongst the mage’s descendants; a tumoral ancestor.
A tumoral ancestor is in part a guardian and guide meant to ensure the mage’s genetic immortality, by ensuring their success. A tumoral ancestor is also a parasite, meant to take control of the host imprinting the creating mage’s soul and personality upon them. In this way the tumoral ancestor is a promise of rebirth of the original mage, a test of the worthiness of the mage’s descendants, and a support to ensure that the worthy survive and thrive.
A tumoral ancestor will only sometimes manifest in any descendant. A skilled mage who has a tumoral ancestor in their ancestry may call forth one by binding it as their familiar, preventing the risk of takeover in the process. Some reports speak of tumoral ancestors not passed along within the blood of a mage’s descendants, but in the blood of their killer’s descendants. Evil wizards who delivered to their foe one final blow that will be with them through the ages. These tumoral ancestors are less helpful to their hosts, seeking to corrupt them with honeyed words and hoping for a full take over with a toxic intensity.
A tumoral ancestor cannot speak, though it can communicate telepathically with any creature touching it.
Combat:
Without a host a tumoral ancestor generally does very little as they are unable to act except to telepathically communicate with nearby relatives or creatures touching them. Within a host a tumoral ancestor occasionally helps by releasing some, low level, necromancy spells to aid them although the blood required to do so makes it a dangerous choice and tactic.
Ancestral Grimoire (Su): A tumoral ancestor retains knowledge of dark arcane secrets from when they were alive and may grant it to their host. Each tumoral ancestor knows 3 1st level spells, 2 2nd level spells, and 1 spell of each level from 3rd to 5th that it can grant this way. These spells are always all drawn from one of either the Wizard or Dread Necromancer spell list, and if drawn from the Wizard spell list are limited to the Divination and Necromancy schools. The host may treat the spells as spells known or in their spell book for arcane spellcasting classes, even adding them to their spell list at the appropriate level for a Wizard or Dread Necromancer if necessary, but only once each day for each spell.
Blind (Ex): A tumoral ancestor is blind, although they parasitize the senses of their host, and immune to gaze attacks and sight based attacks.
Blood Necromancy (Su): A tumoral ancestor retains some power to work magic within their host’s body. By substituting their host’s blood and life force for components a tumoral ancestor can cast each 1st and 2nd level spell which lack an expensive material component once per day with a caster level of 7. The tumoral ancestor inflicts 5 damage to its host to cast a 1st level spell and 10 damage to cast a 2nd level spell.
Dark Knowledge (Su): A tumoral ancestor whispers the knowledge of the mage it once was into the ears of its host granting them a +3 to any Knowledge check involving a Knowledge skill that the tumoral ancestor possesses at least 5 ranks in. The tumoral ancestor may not also aid another on such a check but may make one for itself as well.
Parasitize Senses (Su): A tumoral ancestor taps into their host’s senses. They can see and hear anything their host does, and gain the benefits of any special sense their host possesses. This is a one-way road, the host does not automatically benefit from the tumoral ancestor’s blindsense or sense blood.
Rejection (Ex): The body of a creature which could not have naturally formed the tumoral ancestor (i.e. could not be sensed by its sense blood ability) naturally rejects the tumoral ancestor and the tumoral ancestor instinctively rejects them pumping toxins into their blood stream and threatening to turn malignant and spread throughout their entire body as a deadly cancer. This inflicts 1d4 Constitution damage, and 1d4 Wisdom damage each day as it takes its toll on both the host’s body and brain. Each day there is a 10% chance (rolled separately for Con and Wis) that it inflicts drain instead of damage.
Sense Blood (Su): A tumoral ancestor can sense the presence of other creatures of the same blood line instinctively. Up to 15 generations removed from the mage which created the tumoral ancestor this works with perfect precision. Beyond that it typically begins to fail unless there has been intermixing again over the generations, or a particular branch has strongly inherited the magic that created the tumoral ancestor in the first place. This functions as Blindsight out to 300 ft to detect such creatures which ignores line of effect, but only detects such creatures and nothing more (not even what they’re wearing).
Symbiont Traits: See Fiend Folio 215 since I’m not comfortable reprinting that much copyrighted material; a tumoral ancestor is near the outside of its host’s body as a large (about half the size of a fist) lump somewhere on their body.
Takeover (Su): A tumoral ancestor which wins several ego checks slowly imprints the personality of its creator on its host. If a host is controlled by a tumoral ancestor for two days in a row their alignment moves one step towards the tumoral ancestor’s and the take on certain personality traits and nervous tics of the ancestor who made it. If a host is controlled by a tumoral ancestor for three days the tumoral ancestor fuses with them completely and cannot be removed short of killing the host, in addition the host’s alignment changes to the tumoral ancestor and their personality becomes an imperfect copy of the tumoral ancestor’s creator with only the occasional glimmer of some mannerism or behavior of their original. This may involve being turned into an NPC or may not. Restoring a creature imprinted this way is nearly impossible. The tumoral ancestor must be removed (requiring them to be killed) and then a Wish or Miracle may be used to restore the original personality; if the tumoral ancestor is not removed a Wish or Miracle will merely restore the original personality for 1d4 minutes before the tumoral ancestor reinstates the takeover personality. Being taken over by a tumoral ancestor does not stop the rejection effect; though that does not prevent a tumoral ancestor from being particularly likely to press for total control.
A tumoral ancestor which is a familiar never attempts to takeover their master even if ego conflicts lead to them being in control for two or more days.
Telepathy (Su): A tumoral ancestor may telepathically communicate with any creature touching it. It may also communicate with any creature it can sense with Sense Blood as if they were touching it.
Diminutive Aberration
Hit Dice: 2d8 (hp)
Initiative: -5
Speed: 0 ft
Armor Class: 9 (+4 size, -5 Dex), touch 9, flat-footed 9
Base Attack/Grapple: +1/-16
Attack: -
Full Attack: -
Space/Reach: 1/10 ft/0 ft
Special Attacks: Blood Necromancy, Rejection, Takeover
Special Qualities: Ancestral Grimoire, Blind, Blindsense 30 ft, Darkvision 60 ft., Dark Knowledge, Parasitize Senses, Sense Blood, Symbiont Traits, Telepathy.
Saves: Fort +1, Ref -5, Will +3
Abilities: Str -, Dex -, Con 12, Int 16, Wis 11, Cha 15, Ego 17
Skills: Concentration +6 (+10 to cast defensively), Knowledge (arcana) +8, Knowledge (any two) +8, Spellcraft +10.
Feats: Combat Casting
Environment: Descendants.
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 1/10 or Host’s CR +1ish
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always Evil (any)
Advancement: -
Level Adjustment: –
Some necromancers despite seeking immortality fear the transformation into a lich. Some seek a redundant means of immortality; even a lich can be killed. Where a lesser mortal might settle for the immortality of fame or children, that is not a fate befitting a mage. Even so there is an immortality in lineage and the mage that gives rise to a tumoral ancestor seeks it. Ferreting out the ancient ritual they perform the necromantic rights transferring a part of their soul into their blood lineage. This soul fragment gives rise to strangely aware, typically benign, tumor amongst the mage’s descendants; a tumoral ancestor.
A tumoral ancestor is in part a guardian and guide meant to ensure the mage’s genetic immortality, by ensuring their success. A tumoral ancestor is also a parasite, meant to take control of the host imprinting the creating mage’s soul and personality upon them. In this way the tumoral ancestor is a promise of rebirth of the original mage, a test of the worthiness of the mage’s descendants, and a support to ensure that the worthy survive and thrive.
A tumoral ancestor will only sometimes manifest in any descendant. A skilled mage who has a tumoral ancestor in their ancestry may call forth one by binding it as their familiar, preventing the risk of takeover in the process. Some reports speak of tumoral ancestors not passed along within the blood of a mage’s descendants, but in the blood of their killer’s descendants. Evil wizards who delivered to their foe one final blow that will be with them through the ages. These tumoral ancestors are less helpful to their hosts, seeking to corrupt them with honeyed words and hoping for a full take over with a toxic intensity.
A tumoral ancestor cannot speak, though it can communicate telepathically with any creature touching it.
Combat:
Without a host a tumoral ancestor generally does very little as they are unable to act except to telepathically communicate with nearby relatives or creatures touching them. Within a host a tumoral ancestor occasionally helps by releasing some, low level, necromancy spells to aid them although the blood required to do so makes it a dangerous choice and tactic.
Ancestral Grimoire (Su): A tumoral ancestor retains knowledge of dark arcane secrets from when they were alive and may grant it to their host. Each tumoral ancestor knows 3 1st level spells, 2 2nd level spells, and 1 spell of each level from 3rd to 5th that it can grant this way. These spells are always all drawn from one of either the Wizard or Dread Necromancer spell list, and if drawn from the Wizard spell list are limited to the Divination and Necromancy schools. The host may treat the spells as spells known or in their spell book for arcane spellcasting classes, even adding them to their spell list at the appropriate level for a Wizard or Dread Necromancer if necessary, but only once each day for each spell.
Blind (Ex): A tumoral ancestor is blind, although they parasitize the senses of their host, and immune to gaze attacks and sight based attacks.
Blood Necromancy (Su): A tumoral ancestor retains some power to work magic within their host’s body. By substituting their host’s blood and life force for components a tumoral ancestor can cast each 1st and 2nd level spell which lack an expensive material component once per day with a caster level of 7. The tumoral ancestor inflicts 5 damage to its host to cast a 1st level spell and 10 damage to cast a 2nd level spell.
Dark Knowledge (Su): A tumoral ancestor whispers the knowledge of the mage it once was into the ears of its host granting them a +3 to any Knowledge check involving a Knowledge skill that the tumoral ancestor possesses at least 5 ranks in. The tumoral ancestor may not also aid another on such a check but may make one for itself as well.
Parasitize Senses (Su): A tumoral ancestor taps into their host’s senses. They can see and hear anything their host does, and gain the benefits of any special sense their host possesses. This is a one-way road, the host does not automatically benefit from the tumoral ancestor’s blindsense or sense blood.
Rejection (Ex): The body of a creature which could not have naturally formed the tumoral ancestor (i.e. could not be sensed by its sense blood ability) naturally rejects the tumoral ancestor and the tumoral ancestor instinctively rejects them pumping toxins into their blood stream and threatening to turn malignant and spread throughout their entire body as a deadly cancer. This inflicts 1d4 Constitution damage, and 1d4 Wisdom damage each day as it takes its toll on both the host’s body and brain. Each day there is a 10% chance (rolled separately for Con and Wis) that it inflicts drain instead of damage.
Sense Blood (Su): A tumoral ancestor can sense the presence of other creatures of the same blood line instinctively. Up to 15 generations removed from the mage which created the tumoral ancestor this works with perfect precision. Beyond that it typically begins to fail unless there has been intermixing again over the generations, or a particular branch has strongly inherited the magic that created the tumoral ancestor in the first place. This functions as Blindsight out to 300 ft to detect such creatures which ignores line of effect, but only detects such creatures and nothing more (not even what they’re wearing).
Symbiont Traits: See Fiend Folio 215 since I’m not comfortable reprinting that much copyrighted material; a tumoral ancestor is near the outside of its host’s body as a large (about half the size of a fist) lump somewhere on their body.
Takeover (Su): A tumoral ancestor which wins several ego checks slowly imprints the personality of its creator on its host. If a host is controlled by a tumoral ancestor for two days in a row their alignment moves one step towards the tumoral ancestor’s and the take on certain personality traits and nervous tics of the ancestor who made it. If a host is controlled by a tumoral ancestor for three days the tumoral ancestor fuses with them completely and cannot be removed short of killing the host, in addition the host’s alignment changes to the tumoral ancestor and their personality becomes an imperfect copy of the tumoral ancestor’s creator with only the occasional glimmer of some mannerism or behavior of their original. This may involve being turned into an NPC or may not. Restoring a creature imprinted this way is nearly impossible. The tumoral ancestor must be removed (requiring them to be killed) and then a Wish or Miracle may be used to restore the original personality; if the tumoral ancestor is not removed a Wish or Miracle will merely restore the original personality for 1d4 minutes before the tumoral ancestor reinstates the takeover personality. Being taken over by a tumoral ancestor does not stop the rejection effect; though that does not prevent a tumoral ancestor from being particularly likely to press for total control.
A tumoral ancestor which is a familiar never attempts to takeover their master even if ego conflicts lead to them being in control for two or more days.
Telepathy (Su): A tumoral ancestor may telepathically communicate with any creature touching it. It may also communicate with any creature it can sense with Sense Blood as if they were touching it.