Bleachwood Beast [Plant/Animal/Construct/Undead Fusion!][Template]

[Admiral Squish]

Bleachwood Beast

Spoiler: Bleachwood Lion

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Spoiler: Bleachwood Horse

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Spoiler: Bleachwood Rhino

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BLEACHWOOD RHINOCEROS CR 5
XP 1,600
N Large construct
Init +0; Senses darkvision 60 ft., scent

DEFENSE

AC 15, touch 9, flat-footed 15 (+6 natural, –1 size)
hp 58 (5d10+30)
Fort +1, Ref +1, Will +2
Immune construct traits
Weaknesses Vulnerability to Fire

OFFENSE

Speed 40 ft.
Melee Gore +8 (2d6+9 +2d6 Negative)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
Special Attacks powerful charge (gore, 4d6+12), Negative Strikes (+2d6)

STATISTICS

Str 22, Dex 10, Con —, Int —, Wis 13, Cha 11
Base Atk +5; CMB +12; CMD 22 (26 vs. trip)
Feats —
Skills —

ECOLOGY

Environment warm plains
Organization solitary, pair, or herd (3–12)
Treasure: None

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Construct Traits (Ex) Constructs are immune to death effects, disease, mind-affecting effects (charms, compulsions, phantasms, patterns, and morale effects), necromancy effects, paralysis, poison, sleep, stun, and any effect that requires a Fortitude save (unless the effect also works on objects, or is harmless). Constructs are not subject to nonlethal damage, ability damage, ability drain, fatigue, exhaustion, or energy drain. Constructs are not at risk of death from massive damage.

A bleachwood beast is something of an oddity. A construct in the shape of an animal made of driftwood bleached white by the sun and salt. The driftwood is never carved or shaped in any way, and is entirely free of glues or nails, simply assembled together in such a way that it forms the shape of the animal and interlocks solidly around a large black onyx stone at the core. Bleachwood beasts have a strong affinity with negative energy, a surprising trait in druidic constructs. The design was first developed by a druid that many regard as mad, with the help of a necromancer. The intent was to create a form of undead that could be raised from plant creatures, but the result was a surprising new form of construct. The design has since spread widely, though the amount of effort required to make the body makes them rather rare.


Bleachwood beast is an inherited template that can be applied to any non-augmented animal.

Spoiler: Sizes

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Size	Bonus Hit Points	Natural Armor	Slam
Tiny or Smaller	-	+4
Small	10	+5
Medium	20	+6
Large	30	+6
Huge	40	+7
Gargantuan	60	+10
Colossal	80	+14

CR: +1

Alignment: Always True Neutral

Type The creature’s type changes to construct. It retains any subtypes. It does not gain the Augmented subtype. It uses all the base creature’s statistics and special abilities except as noted here.

Hit Dice The bleachwood beast changes its racial hit dice to d10s. A bleachwood beast is hard to destroy, and gains bonus hit points based on its size, as shown on the table above. In addition, the bleachwood beast uses its charisma modifier (instead of its constitution modifier) to determine bonus hit points.

Saves Base save bonuses are Fortitude +1/3 HD, Reflex +1/3 HD, and will +1/3 HD.

Armor Class Natural Armor bonus changes as indicated on the table above.

Defensive Abilities The bleachwood beast retains any defensive abilities of the base creature, and gains DR 5/adamantine. It also gain all the standard traits possessed by constructs. Additionally, a bleachwood beast is healed by negative energy and damage by positive energy as an undead creature.

Weaknesses A bleachwood beast gains vulnerability to fire.

Speed A bleachwood beast cannot use wings to fly. If the base creature could fly supernaturally, so can the bleachwood beast. All other movement speeds are retained.

Attacks A bleachwood beast retains all natural weapons of the base creature. If the base creature has no natural weapons, the bleachwood beast gains a primary slam attack that deals damage as indicated on the table.

Spoiler: Slam Damage

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Size	Damage
Fine or Diminutive	1d2
Tiny	1d3
Small	1d4
Medium	1d6
Large	1d8
Huge	2d6
Gargantuan	3d6
Colossal	4d6

Special Attacks A bleachwood beast retains none of the base creature’s special attacks, but gains the Negative Strike special attack.

Negative Strike: A bleachwood beast is suffused with negative energy as part of the construction process, which imbues their natural weapons with destructive potential. When a bleachwood beast makes a successful natural attack or melee touch attack, the target takes 1d6 negative energy damage. This damage increases by 1d6 for every 5 HD the bleachwood beast possesses.

Abilities A bleachwood beast gains a +6 bonus to charisma. A bleachwood beast has no intelligence or constitution score. Its other scores are unchanged.

BAB A bleachwood beast’s base attack bonus is equal to its hit dice.

Skills A bleachwood beast loses all skill ranks possessed by the base creature and gains none of its own.

Feats A bleachwood beast loses all non-bonus feats possessed by the base creature.

Special Qualities: A bleachwood beast retains any extraordinary special qualities that improve its melee attacks, but loses all other special qualities.

Environment Any, usually same as base creature.

Organization Any

Treasure Generally none, though it may have magic weapons wedged into the gaps between its driftwood logs.

Construction ?????

[Admiral Squish]

Another challenge met.
My brother came to me with a picture of a white driftwood statue of a horse and told me 'homebrew that'. Well, bro, challenge complete!
I think it's pretty solid, what do you think? Let me know!

I really should elaborate on the fluff a bit more, but I really just wanted to get it off my computer and out somewhere.
I'm kind of awful at figuring out costs/spell requirements and such, so I hope the playground can help me get that part completed.

[SuperDave]

I like your take on this, bro. I'd say you've met my challenge splendidly.

Would these creatures have undead immunities AND construct immunities AND plant immunities? Because that would make them pretty seriously tough to damage.

Were you going to include stsblocks for the three pictured animals? Examples of specific bleachwood beasts would be awesome.

Can they be turned, rebuked, or commanded like undead?

[Debihuman]

Are you familiar with the Construct Type at all? You deviate from it in a lot of ways so it looks like you made a lot of mistakes.

When you are writing a New Template, it helps to present it in a standard format. here is another Construct Template so you can use it as a guideline: http://realmshelps.net/monsters/templates/index.shtml

Here are the Features for Constructs:

A construct has the following features.

• 10-sided Hit Dice.
• Base attack bonus equal to ¾ total Hit Dice (as cleric).
• No good saving throws.
• Skill points equal to (2 + Int modifier, minimum 1) per Hit Die, with quadruple skill points for the first Hit Die, if the construct has an Intelligence score. However, most constructs are mindless and gain no skill points or feats.

Here are the standard Construct Traits

• No Constitution score.
• Low-light vision.
• Darkvision out to 60 feet.
• Immunity to all mind-affecting effects (charms, compulsions, phantasms, patterns, and morale effects).
• Immunity to poison, sleep effects, paralysis, stunning, disease, death effects, and necromancy effects.
• Cannot heal damage on their own, but often can be repaired by exposing them to a certain kind of effect (see the creature’s description for details) or through the use of the Craft Construct feat. A construct with the fast healing special quality still benefits from that quality.
• Not subject to critical hits, nonlethal damage, ability damage, ability drain, fatigue, exhaustion, or energy drain.
• Immunity to any effect that requires a Fortitude save (unless the effect also works on objects, or is harmless).
• Not at risk of death from massive damage. Immediately destroyed when reduced to 0 hit points or less.
• Since it was never alive, a construct cannot be raised or resurrected.
• Because its body is a mass of unliving matter, a construct is hard to destroy. It gains bonus hit points based on size, as shown on the table.
• Proficient with its natural weapons only, unless generally humanoid in form, in which case proficient with any weapon mentioned in its entry.
• Proficient with no armor.
• Constructs do not eat, sleep, or breathe.

Whenever you change from the above you should note it, otherwise it looks like a mistake.

The first problem I see is that your template gives Full BAB as a Fighter rather than 3/4 BAB as normal constructs. Not sure why you did this but it makes it harder to judge CR. I'd say this add +1 CR to the base Creature

Second, this goes on Animals as an inherited Template then it can't apply to Augmented Animals because they already have Template. Inherited Templates mean the creature is born with it. This should be an ACQUIRED template or if you are making it like a golem then it shouldn't be a template at all. Constructs aren't required to have construction costs.

Third, first you say it can't fly and then you say it can. Pick one.

Fourth, These have 2 sets of bonus hit points which is overpowered and makes it really hard to judge CR because it can be negative numbers for low Charisma too. For Charisma 5 or less, CR -2, for Charisma 6-9 CR -1, for Charisma 10-11 CR +0, For Charisma 12-17 CR +1 and for Charisma 18+ CR +2.

Fifth, as soon as you said they had Negative Energy Strike I started to dislike this. Negative energy is what fuels undead as a power for evil things most often as opposed to positive energy. Unless these are inherently evil, this doesn't make a lot of sense. Creating these should be an evil act.

Sixth, normally only mindless creatures have no feats or skills except racial bonus feats. Are specifically you trying to make these weaker?

Seventh, not sure how the scaling natural armor affects the base creature since you never mention it. It might add to the CR or not.

CR: varies. You have too many variables to assign a single CR value.

I'm not sure why there is a construction cost. Driftwood is free. Nothing in your original premise is articulated in the Template. What druid magic is used to create this and what necromancy spells are needed. That helps to define the cost of the spells at least.

I would think that creatures made of driftwood would be Vulnerable to Fire and take 50% more damage from fire. They would be immune to desiccation damage. This would give them a nod to their plant-like origins.

Debby

[Admiral Squish]

Superdave
Thanks!

I looked into the stacked immunities, but it turns out, they all pretty much overlap under the staggering amount of immunities constructs possess.

I could probably draw up stat blocks for the pictured critters easily enough, I'll see if I can fit it into my schedj.

I'm gonna say no to turning/rebuking/commanding, making them vulnerable to those would require some fancy wording, I believe.

Debihuman
Well, firstly, I'll be honest, that seems a rather rude way to say it, Debihuman. If you see problems, point them out, don't ask if I'm basically familiar with the material.

Secondly, that's the 3.5 construct, this is the PF construct type. It has full BaB. The rest of your review will likely have problems if you failed to note the pathfinder tag in front of the title.

I did use a standard template, one based off the templates from the pathfinder SRD.

The difference between inherited and acquired is that an acquired template is applied to a creature well after its birth/creation. This is templates like Lich, that converts an existing being into the templated form. An Inherited template, in contrast, describes a template that a given creature possesses from birth/creation. As the bleachwood beast is a construct, that does not actually involve a living creature, it's inherited. The note about non-augmented animals was to clarify you couldn't stack inherited templates, making it so you couldn't make, say, a half-dragon bleachwood beast lion.

It can't fly if it uses wings, it can fly if it uses magic to do so. What's hard about that?

To be perfectly fair, construct's size-based bonus HP are, in my experience, utterly useless. an ever +20 or +30 is nice, but nowhere near enough to compensate for the loss of con to HD. The PF undead type solves the frailty of no bonus HP with bonus HP based on Cha, and since negative energy is infused into the process, I put that into this creature.

Negative energy is indeed part of the construction process, and I wanted to give them a more obvious way to express that connection than just the healed/harmed energy note and the bonus HP. Yes, undead are evil, generally, but I think that druids would apply negative energy in the sense of death in balance to life. And unless the Inflict spells became evil while I wasn't looking, nothing the bleachwood beast does is inherently evil.

...it is mindless. I clearly stated it has no intelligence score.

They lose existing natural armor, and gain the value on the table. That's the same wording I pulled from skeleton, it should be relatively clear.

The construction cost would be in the onyx core, for the most part, the rest would be labor cost.

you do raise a good point on the fire vulnerability, I may just add that. However, I don't think desiccation damage normally applies to constructs anyways.

What do you mean 'nothing in the original premise is articulated in the template'?

[Debihuman]

Sorry, didn't mean to come off as so rude and I totally botched my Spot check on the Pathfinder Tag!

Here's the Pathfinder Construct information: more for my edification since I'm not as familiar with the Pathfinder rules as I am with 3.5.

Spoiler

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A construct is an animated object or artificially created creature. A construct has the following features.

• d10 Hit Die.
• Base attack bonus equal to total Hit Dice (fast progression).
• No good saving throws.
• Skill points equal to 2 + Int modifier (minimum 1) per Hit Die. However, most constructs are mindless and gain no skill points or feats. Constructs do not have any class skills, regardless of their Intelligence scores.

Traits: A construct possesses the following traits (unless otherwise noted in a creature's entry).

• No Constitution score. Any DCs or other statistics that rely on a Constitution score treat a construct as having a score of 10 (no bonus or penalty).
• Low-light vision.
• Darkvision 60 feet.
• Immunity to all mind-affecting effects (charms, compulsions, morale effects, patterns, and phantasms).
• Immunity to bleed, disease, death effects, necromancy effects, paralysis, poison, sleep effects, and stunning.
• Cannot heal damage on its own, but often can be repaired via exposure to a certain kind of effect (see the creature's description for details) or through the use of the Craft Construct feat. Constructs can also be healed through spells such as make whole. A construct with the fast healing special quality still benefits from that quality.
• Not subject to ability damage, ability drain, fatigue, exhaustion, energy drain, or nonlethal damage.
• Immunity to any effect that requires a Fortitude save (unless the effect also works on objects, or is harmless).
• Not at risk of death from massive damage. Immediately destroyed when reduced to 0 hit points or less.
• A construct cannot be raised or resurrected.
• A construct is hard to destroy, and gains bonus hit points based on size, as shown on the table. See below
• Proficient with its natural weapons only, unless generally humanoid in form, in which case proficient with any weapon mentioned in its entry.
• Proficient with no armor.
• Constructs do not breathe, eat, or sleep.

Construct Size	Bonus Hit Points
Fine	—
Diminutive	—
Tiny	—
Small	10
Medium	20
Large	40
Huge	30
Gargantuan	60
Colossal	80

So lemme look at your Template with FRESH EYES now.

1. You still cannot put an Inherited Template on a creature with the Augmented Subtype. If you really want it to be an inherited Template then it should apply to Animals only and not to creatures with the Augmented Subtype since they are not "new" creatures. The only way to gain the Augmented subtype if the creature gains it through another template. An awakened creature wouldn't be considered a "new" creature either.

2. Hit points can be better or worse depending on the base creature's charisma modifier. I suggest rewording it so it gains a minimum of 1. There is no point in it gaining bonus hit points to size then losing them to low charisma.

Here are my suggestions: The first is if you decide to allow it to apply to creatures with the Augmented Animal Subtype.

Creating a Bleachwood Beast

A bleachwood beast is an acquired template that can be put on any Animal Type or creature with the Augmented Animal Subtype, referred to hereafter as the base creature. A bleachwood beast retains all the base creature's statistics and abilities except as noted here.

Challenge Rating: If the base creature was an Animal, it has CR +1. Creatures with the Augmented subtype have CR equal to their their HD +1.

Alignment: As base creature [should this be evil since it is healed by negative energy?]

Hit Dice: Drop Hit Dice gained from class levels (minimum of 1) and change racial HD to d10s. Recalculate hit points. A bleachwood beast is hard to destroy and gains bonus hit points based on its size, as shown on the table indicated rather than on the standard Construct table. In addition to the bonus hit points gained from its size, a bleachwood beast also gains bonus hit points based equal to its charisma score modifier (minimum 1).

Saves: Recalculate the creature's saves. As a construct, a bleachwood beast has no good saves.

OR

If you really want the bleachwood creature to be an inherited Template then it only apply to Animals and not to creatures with the Augmented Subtype. I can't think of too many ways to gain that subtype that don't include adding a template already or awakening the creature first, neither of which allows it it be a "new" creature.

Creating a Bleachwood Beast

A bleachwood beast is an inherited template that can be put on any creature with the Animal Type, referred to hereafter as the base creature. A bleachwood beast retains all the base creature's statistics and abilities except as noted here.

Type: The creature’s type changes to construct. It retains any subtypes. It does not gain the Augmented subtype. It uses all the base creature’s statistics and special abilities except as noted here.

Challenge Rating: A bleachwood creature has base creature's CR +1.

Alignment: As base creature [should this be evil since it is healed by negative energy?]

Hit Dice: Change racial HD to d10s and recalculate hit points. A bleachwood beast is hard to destroy and gains bonus hit points based on its size, as shown on the table indicated rather than on the standard Construct table. In addition to the bonus hit points gained from its size, a bleachwood beast also gains bonus hit points based equal to its charisma score modifier (minimum 1).

Saves: Recalculate the creature's saves. As a construct, a bleachwood beast has no good saves.

BTW half dragons have the Dragon Type but not the Augmented Subtype so in neither case could you have a half-dragon bleachwood beast lion.

EDIT

Here is the sample creature for the Rhino

BLEACHWOOD RHINOCEROS CR 5
XP 1,600
N Large construct
Init +0; Senses darkvision 60 ft., scent

DEFENSE

AC 15, touch 9, flat-footed 15 (+6 natural, –1 size)
hp 58 (5d10+31)
Fort +1, Ref +1, Will +2
Immune construct traits

OFFENSE

Speed 40 ft.
Melee gore +8 (2d6+9)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
Special Attacks powerful charge (gore, 4d6+12)

STATISTICS

Str 22, Dex 10, Con —, Int —, Wis 13, Cha 9
Base Atk +5; CMB +12; CMD 22 (26 vs. trip)
Feats —
Skills —

ECOLOGY

Environment warm plains
Organization solitary, pair, or herd (3–12)
Treasure: None

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Construct Traits (Ex) Constructs are immune to death effects, disease, mind-affecting effects (charms, compulsions, phantasms, patterns, and morale effects), necromancy effects, paralysis, poison, sleep, stun, and any effect that requires a Fortitude save (unless the effect also works on objects, or is harmless). Constructs are not subject to nonlethal damage, ability damage, ability drain, fatigue, exhaustion, or energy drain. Constructs are not at risk of death from massive damage.

Debby

[Admiral Squish]

I may have been a bit harsh in my response. I do apologize.

Inherited
I apparently messed that line up, it was supposed to specify it wouldn't apply to augmented animals.
It's definitely an inherited template, no matter what, because you can't turn an animal into a bleachwood beast. You can make a bleachwood beast representation of an animal, but you can't actually change an animal into one.

HP
I don't think applying a minimum is a valid option, losing HP to a low cha is as acceptable as losing HP to low con. I do thing I should bump the cha bonus, tough, it seems most animals have a cha of ~6.

Alignment
I don't know about evil. It is mindless, after all, if they are intended to focus on the 'death balancing life' concept, then they would just be neutral. If I wanted to focus on the undead aspect, then I would go with evil.

Saves
The saves line is fine as is, that's how it's written in PF entries.

EDIT: Didn't see the rhino! I shall add it into the first post momentarily, thank you very much!