Request: Ghoul Template (3.5, PEACH)

[NeoSeraphi]

Ghoul

A Ghoul is a creature who has drunk, and continues to drink upon, the blood of a vampire (they call it "Vitae"). By doing so, a ghoul becomes a bound servant to a vampire, as Vitae and its effects are extremely addictive. Vampires often allow the services of one or two ghouls, however, possessing any more than that will often be a threat to the vampire's life, as he needs blood to survive as well.

Creating A Ghoul

"Ghoul" is an acquired template that can be added to any humanoid or animal creature (referred to hereafter as the base creature).

A ghoul uses all the base creature’s statistics and special abilities except as noted here.

Size and Type

Same as the base creature, however, if the base creature was an animal, its type changes to magical beast.

Hit Dice

Same as the base creature, however, if the base creature was an animal, its racial HD change to Magical Beast HD, and it must recalculate its hit dice, saving throws, and BAB accordingly.

Speed

Same as the base creature.

Armor Class

Same as the base creature.

Attack

A ghoul retains all the attacks of the base creature If the base creature can use weapons, the ghoul retains this ability. A creature with natural weapons retains those natural weapons

Special Attacks

A ghoul retains all the special attacks of the base creature and gains the Blood Drain special attack.

Blood Drain (Ex)

A ghoul may suck blood from a vampire. If the vampire is unwilling, the ghoul may force it with a successful grapple check, allowing it to drain blood each round if it manages to maintain a pin against the vampire. A ghoul drains one pint of blood from a vampire per round. For each pint of blood a vampire loses, it gains one Exhaustion Level. Exhaustion Levels give the vampire the exact same penalties that negative levels give to living creatures. If a vampire has a number of exhaustion levels that equal or exceed its HD, it is immediately destroyed. There is no magical way to remove Exhaustion Levels, though a vampire automatically removes one Exhaustion Level per 4 points of Constitution damage it inflicts with its Blood Drain special attack.

The ghoul gains special qualities based on how many pints of vampire blood it drinks. (See "Blood Pool", in the Special Qualities section below).

Special Qualities

A ghoul retains all the special qualities of the base creature and gains the Blood Pool special quality.

Blood Pool: A ghoul gains a number of bonuses based on how many pints of blood it has drank from a vampire. For each pint the ghoul has drank, he gains one temporary Blood Point. Blood Points fade after 24 hours. However, for each 5 temporary Blood Points a ghoul gains, he also gains one "permanent" Blood Point. Permanent Blood Points fade in one month. The ghoul gains bonuses based on the total number of Blood Points it possesses, shown in the table below. The bonuses are cumulative.

{table]Number of Blood Points | Bonus
1 | Undying Ghoul
4 | Str +2
6 | Dex +2
8 | Superhuman Strength
10 | Superhuman Speed
12 | Greater Blood Drain
15 | Servant of the Undead Lord
[/table]

Undying Ghoul: The ghoul cannot die of old age. The ghoul keeps track of its true age, but as long as it has Undying Ghoul, it does not physically age, nor does it take any penalties to its physical ability scores. The ghoul still accrues bonuses to mental ability scores for aging, but unlike Timeless Body, it does not die when its time is up. The ghoul can live for eternity, if it continues to possess Undying Ghoul. If the ghoul's Blood Points drop to 0, the ghoul immediately gains any penalties to its physical ability scores it should have for its true age, and begins physically aging at an alarming rate. The ghoul ages at a rate of 10% of the gap between its appearance and its true age per hour, and after 10 hours, the ghoul will have reached its true age. (Restoring the ghoul's Blood Points stops the process, but does not reverse it. Whatever age the ghoul is when it gains Undying Ghoul, that is the age it will stay until it loses Undying Ghoul again). If a ghoul's true age exceeds its maximum age when it loses Undying Ghoul, when 10 hours pass, the ghoul dies.

Str +2: The ghoul receives a +2 bonus to its Strength score.

Dex +2: The ghoul receives a +2 bonus to its Dexterity score.

Superhuman Strength: The ghoul receives a +4 bonus to all Strength checks, Strength-based skill checks, and opposed Strength checks (such as grapple and trip). (This stacks with the ghoul's Strength increase).

Superhuman Speed: The ghoul receives a +4 bonus to all Dexterity checks and Dexterity-based skill checks. Additionally, the ghoul's base land speed increases by +10'. (This stacks with the ghoul's Dexterity increase).

Greater Blood Drain: The ghoul's fangs sharpen considerably as its thirst for vampire blood grows almost uncontrollable. When the ghoul pins a vampire and drains its blood unwillingly, it can drain 3 pints per round instead of 1. Greater Blood Drain does not work when the ghoul drains blood from a willing vampire.

Servant of the Undead Lord: The ghoul has drained so much of the vampire's power, the ghoul practically is a vampire. The ghoul gains all benefits of the vampire template, except that its type does not change to undead, and it does not gain Blood Drain, Children of Night, Turn Resistance, or Create Spawn. The ghoul does not gain any weaknesses associated with a vampire, nor does it gain the +8 Level Adjustment.

Abilities

Increase from the base creature as follows: Con +2. All that extra blood makes a ghoul much heartier than a normal creature. If the base creature was an animal, its base Intelligence rises to 10.

Skills

Same as the base creature.

Environment

Any, usually same as vampires in the current setting.

Organization

Solitary, generally accompanying a vampire with at least 3 more hit dice than the ghoul.

Challenge Rating

Same as the base creature +2.

Treasure

Double standard.

Alignment

Always evil (any).

Advancement

By character class (Humanoid). By racial HD (Animal).

Level Adjustment

Same as the base creature +2.

[Wyntonian]

Now, this is an interesting take on ghouls. I approve! Doesn't look too overpowered either, though that depends on how many vampires are around and whether or not you can smack them around sufficiently.

[NeoSeraphi]

Now, this is an interesting take on ghouls. I approve! Doesn't look too overpowered either, though that depends on how many vampires are around and whether or not you can smack them around sufficiently.

It's apparently based on ghouls from New World of Darkness. And thank you.

[Pokonic]

It's apparently based on ghouls from New World of Darkness. And thank you.

Himm, I do like this. Any chance you would be doing anything else from the WoD, like Hosts and all that?

[NeoSeraphi]

Himm, I do like this. Any chance you would be doing anything else from the WoD, like Hosts and all that?

Unfortunately, I don't know anything about the World of Darkness system. A user requested I make the ghoul into a template designed for 3.5 and gave me some light reading about them, and I decided to try it. However, I don't know anything about the game or its lore personally. So, I'm sorry to say, no, probably not.

[The Mentalist]

Pokonic: If Neo's not doing it, pretty much complete WOD translations are on my to-do list. Send me a request and I'll bump it to the top

[Othesemo]

I assume that 'Str +2' and 'Superhuman Strength' stack (same with the dex), but I'd suggest specifying whether or not they do, if only to alleviate confusion. Other than that, I could see this fluctuating in power pretty radically based aon the availability of vampires in a given campaign setting.

Perhaps a LA of (Vampires/Sq. Mile)/3?

Okay, that would probably be a bad idea. But all this race has going for it is +2 Con and Blood Draining. And if you don't have regular (daily) access to a vampire, the latter will not apply very often. This would be particularly pronounced in most campaigns- a typical adventure will take a day or two, and most DMs won't be willing to drop a vampire at the beginning of every dungeon. In most campaigns, where vampires will appear only as the occasional villain (probably a noble of some sort), this would be a decent LA 0 race- a bit worse than a dwarf, or slightly better if you're playing a cha based class. Meanwhile, if your campaign has a large enough prevalence of blood suckers to consistently get 10 vitae, I could see this being LA 2-3.

In short, I think that this race doesn't have consistent enough power to be given a static LA. I'm not sure how one would fix that, though.

[NeoSeraphi]

I assume that 'Str +2' and 'Superhuman Strength' stack (same with the dex), but I'd suggest specifying whether or not they do, if only to alleviate confusion. Other than that, I could see this fluctuating in power pretty radically based aon the availability of vampires in a given campaign setting.

Perhaps a LA of (Vampires/Sq. Mile)/3?

Okay, that would probably be a bad idea. But all this race has going for it is +2 Con and Blood Draining. And if you don't have regular (daily) access to a vampire, the latter will not apply very often. This would be particularly pronounced in most campaigns- a typical adventure will take a day or two, and most DMs won't be willing to drop a vampire at the beginning of every dungeon. In most campaigns, where vampires will appear only as the occasional villain (probably a noble of some sort), this would be a decent LA 0 race- a bit worse than a dwarf, or slightly better if you're playing a cha based class. Meanwhile, if your campaign has a large enough prevalence of blood suckers to consistently get 10 vitae, I could see this being LA 2-3.

In short, I think that this race doesn't have consistent enough power to be given a static LA. I'm not sure how one would fix that, though.

They do stack, I thought I made that clear with "the bonuses are cumulative" but I'll go clarify.

This template is not intended for PC use. It would require some editing to make it actually worth it and usable for anything other than a carefully written villain, but since the template itself is so specific (a living creature who feeds on the blood of vampires) I have no reason to think that I should make it any more useful to just a generic PC.

Edit: I don't mean to sound so dismissive, I'm sorry. I was just pointing out that the flavor of the template is "You drink blood, you get power". So without any blood to drink, you really shouldn't be gaining any power, right? The ghoul isn't really that much different from a humanoid (though the ghoul wolf is very different from the wolf).

[silphael]

Maybe make a correction about blood points: as written, if you drain 15 BP from a vampire, the next day you age again. Maybe make it lose one BP per day or so. Maybe let them as well spend BP to do things like a bigger temporary increase in str or dex?

[NeoSeraphi]

Edited the Blood Pool. Now the ghoul gains one "permanent" Blood Point for every 5 temporary Blood Points he drains. Permanent Blood Points fade after one month, instead of 24 hours.

[Madara]

Ghoul

A Ghoul is a creature who has drunk, and continues to drink upon, the blood of a vampire (they call it "Vitae"). By doing so, a ghoul becomes a bound servant to a vampire, as Vitae and its effects are extremely addictive. Vampires often allow the services of one or two ghouls, however, possessing any more than that will often be a threat to the vampire's life, as he needs blood to survive as well.

Very interesting, the reliance on a vampire seems limiting though..

Creating A Ghoul

"Ghoul" is an acquired template that can be added to any humanoid or animal creature (referred to hereafter as the base creature).

A ghoul uses all the base creature’s statistics and special abilities except as noted here.

Size and Type

Same as the base creature, however, if the base creature was an animal, its type changes to magical beast.

So its not actually Undead, that's going to lower its power. Interesting that it can work on any humanoid or animal.

Blood Drain (Ex)
*snip*

The ghoul gains special qualities based on how many pints of vampire blood it drinks. (See "Blood Pool", in the Special Qualities section below).

That's better, it doesn't require vampire blood to survive, because I don't think of vampires being really common.

Blood Pool:

*Snip*

{table]Number of Blood Points | Bonus
1 | Undying Ghoul
4 | Str +2
6 | Dex +2
8 | Superhuman Strength
10 | Superhuman Speed
12 | Greater Blood Drain
15 | Servant of the Undead Lord
[/table]

*Snip*

ok, I'm gonna go on a limb and estimate an average maximum of 4 bp, because that's be your own private vampire to suck. Since vampires have +8LA, their HD would be low. If they drink a lot of blood to heal the Exhaustion(Which they'd be in combat while weak), you can get about 7 on a good day. So we're looking at a template that grants +2 Str, and +2 Dex and +2 Con(Below). That's about a high LA +1

Abilities

Increase from the base creature as follows: Con +2. All that extra blood makes a ghoul much heartier than a normal creature. If the base creature was an animal, its base Intelligence rises to 10.

Yay, playable animal!

Organization

Solitary, generally accompanying a vampire with at least 3 more hit dice than the ghoul.

So a Ghoul with a ECL of...let's say 5, has 3 HD(With this template) so it follows a 6HD Vampire, which has an ECL of 14.

Challenge Rating

Same as the base creature +2.

Alignment

Always evil (any).

Level Adjustment

Same as the base creature +2.

The LA seems about right, it could work with a high +1, but depends on the circumstances, so it makes sense. Alignment, is more like a guideline anyways. CR could be anywhere from +2 to +4ish depending on how much of a boost they're getting.

Overall it seems about right, I don't think it would be easy to have as a PC, but I believe its meant as an NPC template?(At least mainly)

[NeoSeraphi]

Overall it seems about right, I don't think it would be easy to have as a PC, but I believe its meant as an NPC template?(At least mainly)

It's meant to be an NPC template, yes. For ghoul NPC servants of vampires.