Shardling Horde - Creature, PEACH / WIP

[gr8artist]

Shardling Horde

As you make your way through the long forgotten fortress, you hear the grinding and scraping of metal against stone just around the corner. Slowly, a jagged, lumbering mass scrapes into view and lingers in the corridor. It looks to be made of broken pieces of weapons and armor, all stuck together as if by some strange magnetic force. Slowly, the broken and fractured helms turn and rest their gaze on you, before the mass rolls forward and begins to hack and scrape away at your armor.

Shardling Horde___CR 8
XP X
N medium construct
Init +X; Senses low-light vision, darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +X
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Defenses

AC 21, Touch X, flatfooted X; (dex +0, natural armor +11)
hp (10d10+20); 75
Fort + 3, Ref +3, Will +3
DR 5/–; Immune: construct traits
Defensive abilities: amorphous, all-around vision
Weakness: vulnerability to sundering
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Offenses_

Speed 20 ft.
Melee 2 Slams +15 (1d8+5), up to two acquired weapons
Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
Special Attacks amalgamation of metal
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Statistics_

Str 20, Dex 10, Con -, Int -, Wis 10, Cha 10
Base Atk +10; CMB +15 (+2 disarm/+4 sunder); CMD 25 (can't be tripped)
Feats greater sunder improved disarm, improved sunder
Skills 20
Languages
SQ compression
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Special Abilities

Amalgamation of metal (Ex): The shardling horde engulfs and acquires any bit of metal it finds lying around, especially weapons and armor. This has several effects depending on the condition and type of item acquired.
When it acquires a destroyed suit of armor, shield, or weapon, the horde gains temporary hit points equal to the maximum HP of the item it acquired.
When it acquires an intact or broken suit of armor or shield, it gains all magical benefits of that item immediately, as though the horde were wearing or using it.
When it acquires an intact or broken weapon, it may choose to begin attacking with that weapon in addition to its slam attacks. It is always considered proficient with any weapon it wields in this way, and it uses its full Strength modifier for attack and damage rolls with acquired weapons. The shardling horde can use up to one acquired weapon per 4 HD it possesses, in addition to its slam attacks.
Furthermore, when it acquires an item that is not yet destroyed, that item will begin taking extensive damage as the horde moves and attacks. After 12 hours, the item is considered broken if it was not, or is destroyed if it had been broken. After 24 hours, the item is destroyed and the shardling horde gains temporary hit poitns equal to the maximum HP of the ruined item.
The shardling horde grows as it acquires more material; it may permanently exchange 20 temporary hit points for an increase of 1 hit die. The following table shows the different upgrades and modifications that the horde undergoes as it acquires additional hit dice, as well as adjustments for making a weaker horde.

Spoiler: Table

Show

CR	HD	Max HP incl. construct bonus	Feats	# Weapons	Size	Slam	Str/Dex cumulative	Nat. Armor cumulative
	5	27	as listed	1	Tiny	1d4	–8/+4	as listed
	6	33	as listed	1	Tiny	1d4	–8/+4	as listed
	7	48 (38+10)	as listed	1	Small	1d6	–4/+2	as listed
	8	54	as listed	2	Small	1d6	–4/+2	as listed
	9	59	as listed	2	Small	1d6	–4/+2	as listed
8	10	75 (55+20)	as listed	2	Med	1d8	as listed	as listed
	11	80	+	2	Med	1d8	as listed	as listed
	12	86		3	Med	1d8	as listed	as listed
	13	91	+	3	Med	1d8	as listed	as listed
	14	97		3	Med	1d8	as listed	as listed
	15	112 (82+30)	+	3	Large	2d6	+8/–2	+2
	16	118		4	Large	2d6	+8/–2	+2
	17	123	+	4	Large	2d6	+8/–2	+2
	18	129		4	Large	2d6	+8/–2	+2
	19	134	+	4	Large	2d6	+8/–2	+2
	20	140		5	Large	2d6	+8/–2	+2
	21	145	+	5	Large	2d6	+8/–2	+2
	22	161 (121+40)		5	Huge	2d8	+16/–4	+5

Composite attacks (Ex): The shardling horde's slams deal bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage, and are treated as primary natural attacks even while the horde is using manufactured weapons. Due to the excessively sharp and violent nature of its slam attacks, it deals damage as though it were two sizes larger than it actually is.

Vulnerability to Sundering: Opponents can attempt to damage the strongest, most stable parts of a shardling horde and undermine its structure and mobility from within. Opponents can attempt to sunder the shardling horde itself, rather than any items it is holding or using, and the horde takes 50% more damage from successful sundering attempts used against it.
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Ecology

Environment Armories, castles, museums.
Organization Single. Shardling hordes are competitive and the strongest one will consume all weaker ones in its vicinity.
Treasure Plenty.

[Admiral Squish]

Looks like a very cool creature!

The stat block has a few empty spots, but it should be easy enough to fix.

Spoiler: Numbers

Show

Init: +0, Perception: +0, Touch AC: 10, Flat-footed: 21.

Strictly speaking, the amorphous quality in unnecessary, since it's a construct and thus immune to critical hits in the first place.

As a mindless creature, it shouldn't have feats, though you could make those bonus feats programmed into it.

I definitely like the amalgamation of metal ability! It seems very comprehensive, and it seems a more efficient way to handle the adding of new material than my way.
You don't mention an action to bring more things into the horde. Is it just automatic whenever they come into contact with a suitable bit o' metal?
I would point out that by the wording, you don't gain any HP from intact items until they break under the motion of the horde, which seems unusual. While you're at it, you should specify how long the temporary HP last, since I don't see it mentioned.
Speaking of the horde breaking the items, wouldn't such a horde be eventually reduced to metallic sand if it exerted that much damaging force in its own pieces? I think it wouldn't be too unusual to 'program' the thing to keep intact weapons/armor mostly isolated from the grating action, such as by having the intact thing on the surface of the horde, or held inside a part that doesn't move,
Hmm... What if you made it so incorporating new shards into the whole and gaining HD takes a little while? Mostly so you can't trade temp HP for HD in the middle of combat and make everything stop while you adjust the stats. Maybe the process takes one minute, but you can trade as much temp HP as you want in a single use?
Personally, I would drop the max HP column from the table and drop out the levels where nothing changes, just to simplify everything.

Technically speaking, you don't have to justify why the slam damage is better than normal, the die size isn't set in stone, it's a suggestion.

I remember you mentioning the whole creature gaining the qualities of weapons it absorbs. While it does have the abilities when using the item, I would love to see some ability to make it apply to the creature as a whole. Maybe have a certain max number of abilities it could have at a given HD, if you feel the need to strictly limit it.
Oooh, and what about special materials? Maybe all such hordes have enough different materials involved in their construction that their attacks count as adamantine, cold iron, silver, and maybe a couple others?

Finally, I have no idea how this thing comes to be. Is it intentionally made, is it created by broken items exposed to positive energy, are they ancient constructs from a mysterious prehistory?

[Debihuman]

Mindless creatures don't get feats (except as bonus feats) or skills as previously mentioned.

"When it acquires a destroyed suit of armor, shield, or weapon, the horde gains temporary hit points equal to the maximum HP of the item it acquired." If the items are destroyed, they don't have any hit points. I think you need to rephrase this. When it acquires a broken suit of armor, shield or weapon, the horde gains temporary hit points equal to the maximum hit points the item originally had.

See the chart here for hit points: http://www.d20srd.org/srd/exploration.htm#hardness

Debby

[gr8artist]

I actually posted the creature just before work. When my shift's over, I plan to take another stab at it. Thanks for the input.
I will probably take away the feats and give it a racial bonus on sunder and disarm.
Acquiring items is a free action that occurs when it moves over the top of a suitable item.
Temp HP were intended to last until spent. Intact items are not fully integrated into the creature, so they don't give HP.
I was debating giving it magic item effects for a while after "eating" a magic item, so destroying/absorbing a flaming sword would set it on fire for 1 day/HD.
Spending temp HP will take 1 hour.
Good point on the grinding to sand. I may make it an impulsive action, damaging and absorbing any item of lower quality (mwk, +1, +2, etc) than the highest quality item it has acquired.
I will likely add a refinement ability that allows it to improve itself at the expense of resources or as it gains HD.
Hordes are most commonly caused by cursed intelligent items, often destroyed and improperly disposed of by their creators. They are also self-modifying weapons of war, often released among enemy armories.

[...]

In my opinion, the magic item effects are a bad idea, if only because of the scope of all of the magic items in all the scourcebooks.

[gr8artist]

It wouldn't include wondrous items or wands, just weapon and armor abilities

[...]

Well, that lowers it down by half, but half isn't very much when we're talking about every magic item.

[Debihuman]

Rust monsters must love these guys!

[SuperDave]

Rust monsters must love these guys!

Good. Freakin'. Point! A fight between those two could turn real ugly, real fast.

I feel like this creature deserves an expanded ecology section. Who created them, and for what purpose? Or do they just, as Squish suggested, arise spontaneously out of abandoned armories exposed to positive energy? You should add that bit about them being "commonly caused by cursed intelligent items, often destroyed and improperly disposed of by their creators" to its Ecology section.

A very interesting creature!