Blood lives on after death (D&D 3.5, Monster)

[Greyfeld85]

Something one of my players said while we were chatting amongst ourselves gave me a brainstorm for a new monster. I'm not very good with all the technicalities that come with creating a new monster, and I used the gray ooze as my template, so bare with me. For now, I give you, the Sanguine.

Sanguine

Sanguines are amorphous creatures that spawn from death. When magic is the cause of death for a living creature, a spark of that magic ignites in its blood. Within 12 hours, it gives birth to a sanguine, a child of death and sorcery, with only a taste for organic matter - both living and dead.

Size/Type: Medium Ooze
Hit Dice: 4d10+15 (36 hp)
Initiative: -2
Speed: 20 feet (4 squares)
Armor: 8 (-2 dex), 5 touch, 5 flat-footed
Base Attack/Grapple: +2/+3
Attack: Slam +3 melee (1d6+1 plus 1d6 acid)
Full Attack: Slam +3 melee (1d6+1 plus 1d6 acid)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Acid, constrict 1d6+1 plus 1d6 acid, improved grab, hemorrhage
Special Qualities: Blindsight 60 ft., DR 5/-, ooze traits, mutable, Spell Resistance 15
Saves: Fort +6, Ref -4, Will -4
Abilities: Str 12, Dex 7, Con 21, Int Ø, Wis 1, Cha 1
Skills: —
Feats: —
Environment: Any
Organization: Solitary, gang (4-9)
Challenge Rating: 5
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always neutral
Advancement: 4-7 HD (Medium); 8-15 HD (Large); 16-31 HD (Huge)


Combat

Saguines attack any creatures they encounter. They lash out with pseudopods or simply engulf opponents with their bodies, which secrete acids that help them catch or digest their prey. Occasionally, the sense of blood draws them to join with other living creatures, tearing them apart from the inside.

Blindsight (Ex)
A sanguine's entire body is a primitive sensory organ that can ascertain prey by scent and vibration within 60 feet.

Acid (Ex)
A sanguine secretes a corrosive acid that quickly dissolves organic material and metal, but not stone. Any melee hit or constrict attack deals acid damage. Armor or clothing dissolves and becomes useless immediately unless it succeeds on a DC 16 Reflex save. A metal or wooden weapon that strikes a gray ooze also dissolves immediately unless it succeeds on a DC 16 Reflex save. The save DCs are Constitution-based.

The sanguine's acidic touch deals 16 points of damage per round to wooden or metal objects, but the sanguine must remain in contact with the object for 1 full round to deal this damage.

Constrict (Ex)
A sanguine deals automatic slam and acid damage with a successful grapple check. The opponent’s clothing and armor take a -4 penalty on Reflex saves against the acid.

Mutable (Ex)
Sanguines have the ability to split apart and combine together with one another. As a standard action, a sanguine may split apart into two separate creatures. Each half of the sanguine has 1/2 the total hit dice and current HP of the original creature, and receives any change in size that comes with that change. The two new sanguine act on the same initiative of the original creature.

Similarly, as a standard action two sanguine may join together into a single creature. By joining together, the new sanguine's hit dice are the total of the original two creatures, and its current HP is the average of the two; again, the new creature receives any change in size that comes with these changes. The new sanguine acts on the average initiative of the original two creatures.

Hemorrhage (Ex)
If a sanguine has grappled a living creature that has an active circulatory system and is the same size as the sanguine or larger, it may use a full-round action to stop grappling its target and enter that creature's blood stream through a cut or open orifice. While inside, the sanguine causes its target to hemorrhage for 1d6+Constitution modifier bleeding damage and 1d6 acid damage per round. This damage bypasses damage reduction and immunity. At the beginning of the target's turn, it may make a Fortitude Save (DC 17) to expel the sanguine from its system. The save DC is constitution based. An expelled sanguine occupies a random square next to the target that expelled it. While inside a creature, a sanguine cannot be targeted.

Improved Grab (Ex)
To use this ability, a sanguine must hit with its slam attack. It can then attempt to start a grapple as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity. If it wins the grapple check, it establishes a hold and can constrict or hemorrhage.


Diseased Sanguine

About one in twenty sanguines carries some sort of poison or disease. Roll a d100 and consult the table below to determine which poison or disease the sanguine carries. If a diseased sanguine lands a successful attack or constrict, that target must roll a successful save against the poison or disease at its normal DC. Alternatively, if the sanguine uses Hemorrhage on a target, that target must roll a save against that poison or disease for every round the sanguine is in its body, in addition to the normal fortitude save required to expel the sanguine.

Poison/Disease Table:

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{table=head]Poison/Disease | d%
Striped Toadstool | 1-10
Black Adder Venom | 11-20
Small Centipede Poison | 21-30
Filth Fever | 31-35
Mindfire | 36-40
Bloodroot | 41-45
Arsenic | 46-49
Drow Poison | 50-53
Greenblood Oil | 54-57
Id Moss | 58-60
Devil Chills | 61-63
Blue Whinnis | 64-66
Medium Spider Venom | 67-69
Red Ache | 70-71
Oil of Tagit | 72-73
Ungol Dust | 74-75
Insanity Mist | 76-77
Blinding Sickness | 78-79
Cackle Fever | 80-81
Lich Dust | 82-83
Shadow Essence | 84-85
Wyvern Poison | 86-87
Demon Fever | 88-89
Dark Reaver Powder | 90-91
Burnt Othur Fumes | 92-93
Large Scorpion Venom | 94-95
Giant Wasp Poison | 96-97
Deathblade | 98-99
Purple Worm Poison | 100
[/table]

All poisons and diseases listed on this table, and their effects, can be found on the SRD.

[Phosphate]

AC 5? DR of only 5? No resistances?

I like the nastiness of this creature's abilities, but it's much, much more often than not just a 1 hit kill.

And it's absurdly slow too. all you need to do to kill it is put 10 feet of distance between you, run away 10 feet per round, and throw a rock at it every round.

[TuggyNE]

AC 5? DR of only 5? No resistances?

I like the nastiness of this creature's abilities, but it's much, much more often than not just a 1 hit kill.

And it's absurdly slow too. all you need to do to kill it is put 10 feet of distance between you, run away 10 feet per round, and throw a rock at it every round.

It's an ooze, and in fact basically a grey ooze with extra features, and all you mentioned is true for most oozes; however, CR 4 is probably too low for its special abilities, and it doesn't have enough HP to keep up. Therefore, I suggest ramping its HD up a bit, perhaps increasing Dex or other abilities, and maybe crank its speed up. Then, of course, increase CR appropriately. 5 might be a good target.

[Steward]

I think spell resistance would fit in with the description if you wanted to make it a little bit more durable (right now it would be easy for a mage to pelt it with a few spells).

[Greyfeld85]

Changes

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Added

• Spell Resistance 15

Changed

• Dexterity increased from 1 to 7
• Speed increased from 10 to 20
• Hit Dice increased from 3d10 to 4d10
• CR bumped up to 5 from 4

I have a question: should I be adding feats onto this thing? I noticed that the gray ooze doesn't have any feats, so I didn't know if I should be or not.

[TuggyNE]

Changes

Spoiler

Show

Added

• Spell Resistance 15

Changed

• Dexterity increased from 1 to 7
• Speed increased from 10 to 20
• Hit Dice increased from 3d10 to 4d10
• CR bumped up to 5 from 4

Quick CR estimation with Vorpal Tribble's method:

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CR estimation:
#1. Divide creature's average HP by 4.5 to 6.5.
4.5 for 5 HD or lower, 5 for 6-10 HD, 5.5 for 11-15 HD, 6 for 16-20 HD., 6.5 for 20-25 HD.
42/4.5=9.3
#2. Add 1 for each five points above 10 its AC is, subtracting 1 for every 5 below.
8=-0.4
#3. Add 1 for each special attack (+2 to +5 or more if its got a decent number of spells in its spell-like abilities).
4
#4. Add 1 for each quality unless you deem it worthy of more. Add 1 for each resistance and 10 points of DR it has, and 2 for each immunity. Subtract 1 for each vulnerability.
3.5
#5. Add 1 for every two bonus feats it has.
0
#6. Divide total by 3. This should be its rough CR.
16.4/3=5.5

So CR 5 is probably not unreasonable.

I have a question: should I be adding feats onto this thing? I noticed that the gray ooze doesn't have any feats, so I didn't know if I should be or not.

Most oozes are mindless, and receive no feats or skill points. (Although they can still get racial bonus feats, for example, if suitable.)

[Greyfeld85]

Fair enough. I didn't realize that mindless meant no feats.

Though it would be nice if I could give it Improved Grapple.

[Hanuman]

If this is lividity spawned then you should make the ToD->spawn 1d6+6hours, but 12 could be more simple.

If you wanted to make it really nasty, you could make bigger versions of it-- not sure if you've ever faught a bone ooze but those things can be quite nasty...

I see that the blood ooze can enter blood, but to expand on this it should be able to suck blood out whether that be in contact as a bone ooze, or at range such as the bloodstar spell: http://dndtools.eu/spells/libris-mor...oodstar--1457/

The blood ooze can split, but I don't see any way for it to increase it's size or HD, so I assume the lack of propagation was deliberate.

[Greyfeld85]

If this is lividity spawned then you should make the ToD->spawn 1d6+6hours, but 12 could be more simple.

If you wanted to make it really nasty, you could make bigger versions of it-- not sure if you've ever faught a bone ooze but those things can be quite nasty...

I see that the blood ooze can enter blood, but to expand on this it should be able to suck blood out whether that be in contact as a bone ooze, or at range such as the bloodstar spell: http://dndtools.eu/spells/libris-mor...oodstar--1457/

The blood ooze can split, but I don't see any way for it to increase it's size or HD, so I assume the lack of propagation was deliberate.

Mutable allows the Sanguine to split or join together. The joining section is the second half of the ability.

[Hanuman]

I was speaking on a biology standpoint of self-sustaining monsters, but the mechanics of doubling HD are also interesting, and probably warrant never giving players the ability to repeatedly create them.

[Debihuman]

Is the creature called a sanguine ooze or just a sanguine? It seems to me that it makes more sense to call it a sanguine ooze as sanguine refers to other things, namely chalk and color in heraldry.

Mutable and Hemorrhage should be Extraordinary abilities.

Advancement: 5-7 HD (Medium); 8-14 HD (Large); 15-21 HD (Huge)

A good rule of thumb is to have creatures increase in size when they double their HD.

If you are basing the saves on Con, then the save DCs are 17 not 16. 10 + 1/2 creature's hit dice (2) + Con modifier for 21 that would be +5. 10 +2 +5=17.

Debby

[Greyfeld85]

Is the creature called a sanguine ooze or just a sanguine? It seems to me that it makes more sense to call it a sanguine ooze as sanguine refers to other things, namely chalk and color in heraldry.

Mutable and Hemorrhage should be Extraordinary abilities.

*Shrugs* I just called it a Sanguine. I thought it was a cool name. I don't think the word is commonly used enough that there's likely to be any ridiculous "who's on first?" moments. It was easiest to characterize as an ooze, because they share similar properties, but putting it in the name may inadvertently pigeon-hole the monster by creating a certain mental image.

Thanks for the heads up on the Ex abilities, I forgot to add those markers.

Advancement: 5-7 HD (Medium); 8-14 HD (Large); 15-21 HD (Huge)

A good rule of thumb is to have creatures increase in size when they double their HD.

The HD I listed are very very similar to your listing here, just a couple points difference. I did it that way so that the extreme edges of each HD group couldn't force a size change with the Mutable ability (for example, a 7 HD medium Sanguine merging with an 8 HD large Sanguine would still be a large creature, instead of bumping up to a huge creature). Maybe that was a little nit-picky?

If you are basing the saves on Con, then the save DCs are 17 not 16. 10 + 1/2 creature's hit dice (2) + Con modifier for 21 that would be +5. 10 +2 +5=17.

Debby

blech... I forgot to change the DC when I bumped up the hit dice, thanks.