Sanguine Blade (3.5e Creature, PEACH)

[Milo v3]

Sanguine Blade
Medium Ooze
Hit Dice 1d8+3 (7 HP)
Speed 30 ft. (6 square)
Initiative: +1
Armor Class 15 (+1 Dex, +4 natural), touch 11, flat-footed 14
Base Attack/Grapple +0/+1
Attack: Bloodblade +2 melee (1d8+1/19–20) or Bloodshard +3 ranged (1d8/x3)
Full-Attack: Bloodblade +2 melee(1d8+1/19–20) or Bloodshard +3 ranged (1d8/x3)
Space:5 ft./ 5 ft.
Special Attacks: Blood Weapons, Vampiric Feast
Special Qualities: Blood Mark, Bloodstain, Blindsight 60ft, Ooze Traits
Saves: Fort +0 Ref +1 Will -1
Abilities:Str 13, Dex 13, Con 18, Int -, Wis 9, Cha 8
Skills:
Feats
Environment: Any Underground
Organization: Solitary or pool (2–4)
Challenge Rating: 1/2
Treasure: Standard
Alignment:Always True Neutral
Advancement: 2 - 3 (Medium)

Sanguine Blades are blood-like oozes which can crystallize their bodies while still remaining liquid. This allows them to form weapons and armor. When it creates a Bloodblade it forms a razor sharp blade of crystalline blood. When it creates a Bloodshard it crystalizes several pieces of blood in it, the Sanguine Blade can then twist itself in such a way to launch them towards their enemies.

Combat
They generally don't use tactics. They use Bloodshards when at a distance and Bloodblades when close.

Blood Mark (Ex): A Sanguine Blade starts with a Blood Mark Count of zero.

Whenever a Sanguine Blade attacks with its Bloodshard attack it adds one to its 1 Blood Mark Count. If a Sanguine Blades Blood Mark Count reaches 5 then its Blood Mark Count is reduced to zero and it loses 1 hitpoint. This damage cannot be restored via the healing skill, healing magic, or resting, but can be restored by Bloodstain and Vampiric Feast.

If attacking with Bloodshard would cause it the Sanguine Blade to be reduced to zero because of its Blood Mark Count reaching 5, the Sanguine Blade can't attack with Bloodshard.

Bloodstain (Ex): If a Sanguine Blade succeeds in hitting with its Bloodshard attack the creature is counted as Bloodstained for either 48 hours or until they clean the blood from themselves.

Whenever a Sanguine Blade goes within 5ft of a Bloodstained creature, its Blood Mark Count is reduced by one. If this would reduce its Blood Mark Count to -1 then it is instead reverted to zero and the Sanguine Blade gains one hitpoint.

Blood Weapons (Ex): At will as a standard action the Sanguine Blade can crystallize some of his blood and creates either a Bloodblade or Bloodshard. If Bloodshard is created then Sanguine Blade gains 2d6 ammunition for this weapon, and can only be recreated upon a second use

Both weapons are classed as natural weapons and as natural weapons they can't be disarmed, given to another, or stolen.
Bloodblades have the following statistics: Size Medium, Damage 1d8, Type Slashing, Critical 19-20/x2.
Bloodshards have the following statistics: Size Medium, Damage 1d8, Type Piercing, Critical x3, Range Increment 40ft. The ammunition launched by Bloodshard is destroyed after being fired.

Only one Bloodweapon can be made at once with this ability, if used again then the Sanguine Blade can either change weapon or gain 2d6 ammunition for Bloodshard.

Vampiric Feast (Ex): A sanguine blade can drain the blood of a slain creature with 5ft as a full action. This causes the sanguine blade to gain 1d6 hit points and for its Blood Mark Count to revert to zero. A sanguine blade can use this ability even if disabled or dying.

[Debihuman]

How often can it create a weapon? X times per day? once every X rounds?

The ranged weapon is a shard? Really with a Str and Dex of 13, it can throw something 100 feet? If it were a bow-like projectile I could suspend my disbelief a lot better but there is just no way I can see some crystalline blob throwing a shard of itself that far, especially since it has no feats or skills. Throwing a crystal shard would be the same as throwing a dagger. However, you have it as doing 1d8 damage, which suggests it is bigger. Daggers do 1d4 and I recommend the shard do the same. Otherwise, you have this creature effectively throwing crystal swords at its enemies and that presents a few issues.

First, you left off how often it can throw a shard. If it can throw one every round that's going to be a lot of shards (more on this later).

How far can it even sense enemies? Please see Ooze Type and in particular Traits (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/typesSubtypes.htm#oozeType). Oozes are blind and should have blindsense. Generally, blindsense is 60 feet, but this should have blindsense 120 ft. Otherwise, its weapon range exceeds its blindsense and it would miss its target.

Let's play with verisimilitude here. How much does your ooze weigh and how much does each shard weigh? I ask because if it is throwing weapons willy-nillly, it loses bits of itself. Does it get any smaller or lose hit points if it throws too many? How often can it use its special ability? Once per round? If it is throwing significant chunks of itself, it loses mass and probably hit die.


Example: Let's say your ooze weighs 800 lbs. A single shard (assuming size of a longsword since the damage is comparable) weighs 4 lbs. It is made up of 200 shards effectively. If it uses up too many of its shards, eventually it will shrink down to a Small ooze. Let's say it does that at 600 lbs. So it has 200 lbs of weapons to throw. Basically it can throw shards for 50 rounds. Yikes. It's not quite an hour of solid combat but it is significant.

The best thing the PCs can do is put an unseen servant between themselves and the ooze. It will distract the ooze for up to an hour. Note: An unseen servants cannot be killed, but it dissipates if it takes 6 points of damage from area attacks. Since the ooze has no area attacks, the unseen servant sticks around and annoys the ooze until the ooze has run out of weapons while the party stays out of range. It's a boring encounter, but defeats the monster.

Debby

[Milo v3]

How often can it create a weapon? X times per day? once every X rounds?

It can be done once each round, but then they don't get to attack.

The ranged weapon is a shard? Really with a Str and Dex of 13, it can throw something 100 feet? If it were a bow-like projectile I could suspend my disbelief a lot better but there is just no way I can see some crystalline blob throwing a shard of itself that far, especially since it has no feats or skills. Throwing a crystal shard would be the same as throwing a dagger. However, you have it as doing 1d8 damage, which suggests it is bigger. Daggers do 1d4 and I recommend the shard do the same. Otherwise, you have this creature effectively throwing crystal swords at its enemies and that presents a few issues.

That was a copy and paste error from a previous ability which created organic longbows from a homebrew creature I made a long time ago (and is severely broken). I've put to 50ft which was my orginal idea for this creature.

First, you left off how often it can throw a shard. If it can throw one every round that's going to be a lot of shards (more on this later).

Once per round. It is a normal attack.

How far can it even sense enemies? Please see Ooze Type and in particular Traits (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/typesSubtypes.htm#oozeType). Oozes are blind and should have blindsense. Generally, blindsense is 60 feet, but this should have blindsense 120 ft. Otherwise, its weapon range exceeds its blindsense and it would miss its target.

I can't believe I forgot this after making two other oozes recently.

Let's play with verisimilitude here. How much does your ooze weigh and how much does each shard weigh? I ask because if it is throwing weapons willy-nillly, it loses bits of itself. Does it get any smaller or lose hit points if it throws too many? How often can it use its special ability? Once per round? If it is throwing significant chunks of itself, it loses mass and probably hit die.

I didn't think about this. I'll try and put it into a mechanical form. But if it gets to a stage were it would get too weak it will lose its bloodshards.

Example: *Snip*

The best thing the PCs can do is put an unseen servant between themselves and the ooze. *Snip* It's a boring encounter, but defeats the monster.

Debby

The damage and statistics of Bloodshard are actually based off a Longbow, the shards are only a bit larger than an arrow its just they are amazingly sharp and it throws them with a good amount of strength. So the weight would be different than your given but I see your point.

[Debihuman]

With blindsight 60 feet and a natural weapon with a range of 40 feet, it misses everything that goes beyond 60 feet. It can't shoot an arrow where it can't see. It has a max range of 60 feet. I wouldn't bother with range increments. Also, what happens to the arrow after it is shot? Does it revert to ooze?

Debby

[Milo v3]

With blindsight 60 feet and a natural weapon with a range of 40 feet, it misses everything that goes beyond 60 feet. It can't shoot an arrow where it can't see. It has a max range of 60 feet. I wouldn't bother with range increments. Also, what happens to the arrow after it is shot? Does it revert to ooze?

Debby

I makes a creature bloodstained. As seen with the bloodstain ability.

[Debihuman]

What if the arrow misses its target? Normally arrows that miss have a 50% chance of being destroyed or lost. However, if they aren't destroyed or lost, they can be recovered. In the case of the sanguine blade, you need to advise what happens in the event that arrow misses its target. I'd just say that missed arrows are destroyed to keep things simple.

I don't understand what you mean when you say the sanguine blade gains +1 blood drain (see sanguine arrow).

Blood drain as a special attack is missing as a special ability and from the stat block. Blood drain is a standard special ability see dire weasel. Normally. to drain blood from a victim, the attack has to be on-going. That's why the attach ability goes with it. I'm not convinced that having a ranged attack causing blood drain is appropriate.

To complicate matters, the amount of damage from the blood drain is constantly changing depending on whether there is a penalty due to bloodstain or a bonus due to sanguine arrow. This requires a DM to make a new calculation every time someone takes an action. It will slow combat to standstill while the DM has to figure it all out and is guaranteed to take all the fun out of the game.

I recommend changing its special abilities to keep the flavor while making it much easier to adjudicate. Also, blood shard should be two words as should blood blade.

Here are the changes I recommend:

Special Attacks: Blood drain, blood weapons, vampiric feast
Special Qualities: blindsight 60 ft., ooze traits

Blood Drain (Ex): Whenever a sanguine blade successfully hits a creature with its blood blade, the victim takes 1d4 points of constitution damage and the sanguine blade gains one temporary hit point up to a maximum of 5. Any additional hit points are wasted and the sanguine blade gains no benefit from them. All hit points gained are temporary and are lost within one hour.

Blood Weapons (Ex): At will as a standard action, a sanguine blade can crystallize some of its blood and create either a blood blade or a blood shard.

Both weapons are classed as natural weapons and as natural weapons they can't be disarmed, given to another, or stolen. Blood blades have the following statistics: size Medium, damage 1d8, type slashing, critical hit 19-20/x2. Blood shards have the following statistics: size Medium, damage 1d8, type piercing, critical x3, range increment 40 ft (maximum range is 60 ft due to blindsense). If a blood shard misses its target, it is destroyed.

Only one blood weapon can be made at once with this ability, if used again, then the sanguine blade changes weapon.

Whenever a sanguine blade shoots a blood shard at a target, it loses one hit point. This damage cannot be restored via the healing skill, healing magic, or resting, but can be restored by vampiric feast. If reduced to zero or fewer hit points, the sanguine blade loses the ability to create blood weapons until it has at least one hit point.

Vampiric Feast (Su) A sanguine blade can drain the blood of a slain creature as a full action. This causes the sanguine blade to gain 1d6 hit points. A sanguine blade can use this ability even if disabled or dying.

Debby

[Milo v3]

What if the arrow misses its target? Normally arrows that miss have a 50% chance of being destroyed or lost. However, if they aren't destroyed or lost, they can be recovered. In the case of the sanguine blade, you need to advise what happens in the event that arrow misses its target. I'd just say that missed arrows are destroyed to keep things simple.

The ability is called Sanguine Arrows, it doesn't actually create arrows. It deals damage and on a hit it activated Bloodstain.

I don't understand what you mean when you say the sanguine blade gains +1 blood drain (see sanguine arrow).

A Sanguine Blade has a thing called Blood Drain. Each time it uses the Blood Shard attack it gets 1 blood drain. So if it attacks again it gets 2 blood drain, and so on. Until the number of blood drain reaches 5, when this happens its Blood Drains are reduced to zero and it loses 1 hitpoint.

Blood drain as a special attack is missing as a special ability and from the stat block. Blood drain is a standard special ability see dire weasel. Normally. to drain blood from a victim, the attack has to be on-going. That's why the attach ability goes with it. I'm not convinced that having a ranged attack causing blood drain is appropriate.

Its not Vampiric or Dire Weasel style blood drain. Its just a number which goes up under certain circumstances which represent the lose of blood in the Sanguine Blade. It doesn't deal damage and isn't an ability, it is part of Sanguine Arrow.

I would've named it something else, but nothing came to mind.

I recommend changing its special abilities to keep the flavor while making it much easier to adjudicate. Also, blood shard should be two words as should blood blade.

Here are the changes I recommend:

*Snip*

Debby

Bloodblade and Bloodshard each being one word is because of Longsword and Longbow each being only one word. But if this comes off as a flimsy reason I'll change it.

As for the changes, they are based off a misunderstanding.

[Debihuman]

You can't just give a creature a natural attack called blood shard and then not explain what it looks like and how it functions. You said it was a ranged attack. Since ranged attacks usually involve throwing something at a creature that something can usually be picked up if it misses and then used by someone else. Claws aren't detachable and therefore aren't ranged weapons. However, if I pick up a creature's leg that I've severed, I could certainly use it as an improved weapon. It may not be a good weapon but it is probably not bad as a last resort.

When you are creating a monster, you should think not only in terms of challenging the players with a new thing but also how you are going to run it. Messy math sessions during in combat aren't fun for anyone. I should be able to run a creature without having to calculate if someone with bloodstain is within 5 feet and then remember to give a -1 penalty or to give a +1 (or higher) bonus from sanguine arrow. Note, I never said that the blood shard was an arrow. I asked you to define what +1 blood drain was. You still haven't adequately described it.

If it is just "something that goes up and down" then it effectively wastes my time to keep track of it. It's rubbish.

Debby
Sorry forgot to delete the stuff below my name. Edited it now.

[Milo v3]

You can't just give a creature a natural attack called blood shard and then not explain what it looks like and how it functions. You said it was a ranged attack. Since ranged attacks usually involve throwing something at a creature that something can usually be picked up if it misses and then used by someone else. Claws aren't detachable and therefore aren't ranged weapons. However, if I pick up a creature's leg that I've severed, I could certainly use it as an improved weapon. It may not be a good weapon but it is probably not bad as a last resort.

When you are creating a monster, you should think not only in terms of challenging the players with a new thing but also how you are going to run it. Messy math sessions during in combat aren't fun for anyone. I should be able to run a creature without having to calculate if someone with bloodstain is within 5 feet and then remember to give a -1 penalty or to give a +1 (or higher) bonus from sanguine arrow. Note, I never said that the blood shard was an arrow. I asked you to define what +1 blood drain was. You still haven't adequately described it.

I've edited the description. Also you still seem to be misunderstanding the abilities so I have edited them as it obviously only made sense to me.

If it is just "something that goes up and down" then it effectively wastes my time to keep track of it. It's rubbish.

The Blood Drain (now renamed Blood Mark Count) goes up and down. But if it reaches 5 then the Sanguine Blade gets damaged and if it goes to -1 then it gets healed. The Healing is detailed in Blood Stain and Damage is detailed in

Since there is already a special ability called blood drain, it is generally accepted that that's what you mean. There is no such thing as blood drain damage.

I never said it dealt blood drain damage...

I never said that sanguine arrow created an an arrow. My complaint was that blood drain is an already defined thing. Blood drain is already a special ability and you can't just call a new thing blood drain without explaining what it is and what it does. There are plenty of damage types to choose from without

It isn't Blood Drain Damage....
But I've changed the name none the less.