Lesser Worms that Walk[template]

Lesser Worms that Walk
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/El...ery/111211.jpg
Edwin Tolstoff, a lesser worms that walk.

One of the most horrible creatures in the multiverse is the creature known as the Worms that Walk. This elder evil is a scourge on all life as it will stop at nothing to destroy all it wishes to. Some depraved or unlucky individuals can become lesser avatars of this monster, either by force or by their own willingness to.
Most worms that walk live outside of any society, living in their own lairs by themselves with their depraved experimentations and studies. Usually, when a worms that walk encounters a commoner, they react unfavorably and will run off screaming or try to slay the worms that walk, for this reason many worms that walk invest in spells to disguise their appearance or even things as simple as heavy robes and masks to put over their wormy faces.

Creating a Lesser Worms that Walk
"Worms that walk" is a template that can be added to any corporeal arcane spellcaster of nongood alignment with a caster level of 11th or better. It uses all the original character’s statistics, special abilities, and equipment, except as noted here.

Type
The creature's type changes to aberration(it is a creature composed of hundreds of discrete crawling worms). You gain the augmented subtype. Do not recalculate BAB, base saves or skill points.

Hit Dice
Change all current and future racial hit dice into d8's.

AC
The skins of the worms that compose your body are slightly tougher than the skin that that used to compose your body. You get a +2 natural armor bonus to AC.

Speed
A worms that walk gain a burrow speed of 15 feet. This does not allow them to move through any solid materials, such as stone or metal but it does allow them to pass through soil, sand or gravel without trouble.

Attack
A worms that walk gain a natural slam attack, with damage based on size. A worms that walk retains the ability to wield normal weapons, but not while discorporated(see below). If using a weapon, the slam is a secondary attack and adds only half his strength modifier to damage with it.

Damage
A worms that walk's natural slam attack deals damage based on size(1d4 for small, 1d6 for medium, 1d8 for large and so on). If using a weapon, the slam is a secondary attack and adds only half his strength modifier to damage with it.

Special Attack
A worm that walks retains all the character’s special attacks. It also gains one special attack, worm-smite.

Worm-Smite(Ex): Once every five rounds, a worms that walk can make a touch attack to deliver a worm-smite. A creature struck by this attack must succeed on a Reflex save(DC 10+half HD+Cha modifier) or be become covered in ravenous worms. On the worms that walk's next turn and every turn thereafter, the target takes 1d8 points of slashing damage for every 2 HD you have per round, as the worms consume the target's flesh and burrow into it's organs. The worms remain until destroyed or removed--or until the target is slain, indicating the worms have devoured their victim.
A target can use a full-round action to attempt to remove the hungry worms. Escaping requires a Reflex save(DC 10+half HD+Con modifier). Rolling on the ground--and this crushing the worms--provides a +2 circumstance bonus on the save. Dealing at least 20 points of fire damage destroys the worms, but deals the same amount of damage to the victim as well. Conjuration (teleportation) spells or spell-like effects can also extricate the target from the worm-smite.
Constructs, elementals, oozes, and creatures of the incorporeal subtype are immune to this ability.

Special Qualities
A worm that walks retains any special abilities it had in life and gains those mentioned below.

Blindsight(Ex): A worms that walk gain blindsight out to 20 feet as each worm feels the vibrations in the ground, air or water around them.

Discorporate(Ex): As an immediate action, a worms that walk can discorporate, collapsing into a pile of slithering vermin. You now count as a centipede swarm with as many hit points as normal and without poison. Your form is not actually centipedes though, but worms. In the round when the use this ability, the worms fall to the ground, filling their space. Unless each worm is destroyed within 1 round, the writhing worms burrow into the earth or slither away(if you choose). As long as any component vermin of the worms that walk, the worms that walk can, within 24 hours, breed and create a new body to house the malicious essence.

Immunities(Ex): A worms that walk has no discernable anatomy, so it is not subject to critical hits, sneak attack and precision damage or flanking. Because they are composed of so many individual creatures, they are immune to injury and contact poisons.

Spell Resistance(Su): You gain spell resistance equal to 10+your arcane caster level.

Saves
Same as base creature.

Abilities
Same as base creature.

Skills
Same as base creature, except that a worm that walks receives a +4 racial bonus on Hide, Survival, Listen, and Move Silently checks.

Feats
Same as base creature.

Challenge Rating
Same as base creature +2

Level Adjustment
Same as base creature +3

Seems like this should be immune to precision based damage, and maybe criticals as well... maybe injury poisons too. (The other types could get worms that weren't already killed by the blow).

Maybe it should have a weakness to fire and/or acid (they would be quite effective at burning away all the worms after all)?

Had you posted this earlier, I would have submitted this as a character for the Infernal Dictum cmapaign

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Originally Posted by DracoDei

Seems like this should be immune to precision based damage, and maybe criticals as well... maybe injury poisons too. (The other types could get worms that weren't already killed by the blow).

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Immunities(Ex): A worms that walk has no discernable anatomy, so it is not subject to critical hits, sneak attack and precision damage or flanking.

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I think I'll add the injury or contact poison thing.

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Originally Posted by Bisected8

Maybe it should have a weakness to fire and/or acid (they would be quite effective at burning away all the worms after all)?

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Hmm, it makes sense, but I don't know if I really want to weaken it. If you think about it, the fire or acid would only burn away the worms in front unless it did more. Each worm is a single hit point, so burning worms away is just dealing hp damage.

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Originally Posted by Threeshades

Had you posted this earlier, I would have submitted this as a character for the Infernal Dictum cmapaign

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:biggrin:

Interesting.

Have you thought about giving it an alternate, 'swarm' form, for people like the squick factor of enveloping their enemies in a swarm of creepy crawlies?

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Originally Posted by dyslexicfaser

Interesting.

Have you thought about giving it an alternate, 'swarm' form, for people like the squick factor of enveloping their enemies in a swarm of creepy crawlies?

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Hmm... Interesting idea. If I get some time to come up with something I think I'll implement that.

This is pretty cool. Didn't you say that each worm is 1hp? So then would epics increase in size or smaller worms or what? Also when using worm smite would you lose hp for worms lost? Or if at 1hp would you only be 1 worm? Add more on stuff like that. Good though.

Didn't the epic Worm That Walks template have an engulf attack?

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Originally Posted by MrBojangles

Didn't the epic Worm That Walks template have an engulf attack?

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It did, but I'm basing this one off of the Worms that Walk that Edwin Tolstoff is in Elder Evils, and he doesn't have an engulf.

I lowered the LA to +2, I hope that's not too low.

Edit: Also altered the discorporate a bit, and now you're a swarm instead of a vulnerable pile of 1 hp creatures.

This looks good, however I feel it should be a +3 LA.
While not as powerful as a Lich, a Worm that Walks seems to be a means to avoid death all together. As long as you have 1 HP you can run and re-spawn.

Also, questions, Do Worms that Walk age?
What do they eat? Flesh or Dirt?

At what rate do they age?

How does one become a worm that walks?

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Originally Posted by ChumpLump

As long as you have 1 HP you can run and re-spawn.

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That's true of just about anything.

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Originally Posted by Maldraugedhen

That's true of just about anything.

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Touché, Maldraugedhen, touché.

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I see where I am mistaken. 2 LA seems fine.

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Originally Posted by ChumpLump

Also, questions, Do Worms that Walk age?
What do they eat? Flesh or Dirt?

At what rate do they age?

How does one become a worm that walks?

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Indeed, I also wish to know the answers to the questions. Also, can you eventually advance into a full fledged Worm That Walks?

I suppose you wouldn't age, seeing as you're a mass of worms that simply breed over and over again to maintain your amount of worms. Though I doubt you'll ever become a full-fledged worms that walk, since that's the consumed body of a dead god.

SRD says that you can with an epic spell. I would say that you have to go through a magic ritual to permanently buff all the worms on you, draining money, and exp to become a full fledged Worm That Walks.

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Change all current and future racial hit dice into d8's.

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So that doesn't include class HD? (Note that the lich template changes class HD).

In general, these kinds of templates are better for characters than monsters.

Worm-smite, Immunities and Discorperate are the only real "good" abilities, monster-wise. And even a L 11+ arcane caster who worm-smited would probably be using his action poorly.

Might I suggest it be (10+1/2 HD +con bonus)? (Or is that not allowed), representing the fact that it is the body of the WTW that is doing the attacking, not the mind?

There is the serious problem of "alter form", which now becomes an amazingly kick-ass spell, especially in the hands of a PC.

Some ideas:
DR/crushing? (you don't bleed...)
Immune to polymorph effects?
Can you use discorperate to spy on people? A 'scout worm' ability of some kind?

I think I'll take up the, "this should be at least an LA +3" argument.

In general, the LA is greater than the CR up, particularly when the template has useful out of combat abilities, such as a borrow speed.

Even ignoring this, BlindSight (which is even better than blindsense), critical hit immunity, and a good spell resistance together are border line LA 2 / LA 3. With a borrow speed, natural armor bonus, Discorporate, and Worm Smite abilities this probably should have a LA of +3, particularly if 60 ft dark vision, an ability that would fit the theme, is added.

If you wish to keep it at LA +2 I'd recommend replacing the blindsight with blindsense at the least, and add a maximum duration to the worm-smite, say 2d6 rounds + con (or + cha if the save is con based)

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Indeed, I also wish to know the answers to the questions. Also, can you eventually advance into a full fledged Worm That Walks?

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Hey Krimm, can I call dibs on making an epic PrC to let them do this? Pleeease?

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Originally Posted by Yakk

So that doesn't include class HD? (Note that the lich template changes class HD).

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Because liches are undead creatures. The worms that walk are not. If a worms that walk also becomes a lich, all HD will then become d12's because he's a corpse.

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Originally Posted by Yakk

In general, these kinds of templates are better for characters than monsters.

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Yes, but some PC's have racial HD, not many but I want all my bases covered.

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Originally Posted by Yakk

Worm-smite, Immunities and Discorperate are the only real "good" abilities, monster-wise. And even a L 11+ arcane caster who worm-smited would probably be using his action poorly.

Might I suggest it be (10+1/2 HD +con bonus)? (Or is that not allowed), representing the fact that it is the body of the WTW that is doing the attacking, not the mind?

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That does make more sense, I think I'll do that.

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Originally Posted by Yakk

There is the serious problem of "alter form", which now becomes an amazingly kick-ass spell, especially in the hands of a PC.

Some ideas:
DR/crushing? (you don't bleed...)
Immune to polymorph effects?
Can you use discorperate to spy on people? A 'scout worm' ability of some kind?

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There is probably a trillion things a person could do and would be resistant to if they were a thousand worms or so, but I could go on an on and make the world's largest template for it. But I won't, and I'm going just on the stuff from Elder Evils and taking a few things from the ELH I thought seemed appropriate.

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Originally Posted by Psionic Dog

I think I'll take up the, "this should be at least an LA +3" argument.

In general, the LA is greater than the CR up, particularly when the template has useful out of combat abilities, such as a borrow speed.

Even ignoring this, BlindSight (which is even better than blindsense), critical hit immunity, and a good spell resistance together are border line LA 2 / LA 3. With a borrow speed, natural armor bonus, Discorporate, and Worm Smite abilities this probably should have a LA of +3, particularly if 60 ft dark vision, an ability that would fit the theme, is added.

If you wish to keep it at LA +2 I'd recommend replacing the blindsight with blindsense at the least, and add a maximum duration to the worm-smite, say 2d6 rounds + con (or + cha if the save is con based)

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I'll boost it up to +3.

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Originally Posted by The Demented One

Hey Krimm, can I call dibs on making an epic PrC to let them do this? Pleeease?

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Go for it.

The "immune to polymorph magic" was an attempt to un-break alter form. :)

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Originally Posted by Yakk

The "immune to polymorph magic" was an attempt to un-break alter form. :)

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I used this template on an NPC in my campaign and it was awesome.

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Originally Posted by Raging_Pacifist

I used this template on an NPC in my campaign and it was awesome.

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Really? Tell me how it went. :biggrin:

Here we go.

Wow, this is very cool. I'm gonna have to find a place in my modern D&D game for this.

Where is that picture from, too?

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Originally Posted by The Demented One

Here we go.

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:D

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Originally Posted by Obrysii

Wow, this is very cool. I'm gonna have to find a place in my modern D&D game for this.

Where is that picture from, too?

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Picture's from Elder Evils, nicked it from the WotC site.

Edwin Tolstoff gained Frightful Presence (Su) when he used his worm-smite attack. I was just curious why that was left off. It would seem fitting.

And meanst the thread has been rezed, I'll throw in that the Worm That Walks template in the ELH makes no mention of dead gods. I'm guessing then that they've reflavored it in Elder Evils, but I liked it how it was before: worms and maggots converge upon and consume the body of a powerful dead spellcaster, and the spellcaster's mind takes control of them, forming a new body. They had a non-epic ritualistic method to make one (requiring months and having only a small percent chance of working), or an epic spell to raise one (that I think took about as long). Oddly enough, there was no way supplied to become one yourself. But based on the epic spell you could reverse engineer one easily enough.