[Template] Don't you ever die?!

[The Vorpal Tribble]

Survivor


There are beings and creatures of a different fiber than that of their brethren. They continue on when mortal wounds should see them stiff and cold. Need is but an inconvenience, and neither the deepest cold nor cruelest heat seems to be felt. They endure the unendurable, and stand alone after war, plague, and famine have left the land lifeless. When all else has shriveled and died they are the Survivors.

Sample Survivor

Spoiler

Treant Survivor


A forest dead and stagnating surrounds you, all the trees leafless and their peeling bark speckled with mold and fungus. Only one being stands amidst the ruin of once vibrant life, trudging through the mould with silent grimness...

Huge Plant
Hit Dice: 7d8+56 (112 hp)
Initiative: –1
Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares)
Armor Class: 20 (–2 size, –1 Dex, +13 natural), touch 7, flat-footed 20
Base Attack/Grapple: +5/+22
Attack: Slam +12 melee (2d6+9)
Full Attack: 2 slams +12 melee (2d6+9)
Space/Reach: 15 ft./15 ft. S
pecial Attacks: Animate trees, double damage against objects, trample 2d6+13
Special Qualities: Cockroach, damage reduction 10/slashing, endure, fast, low-light vision, plague innured, plant traits, regeneration 7, scavenger, vital, vulnerability to fire
Saves: Fort +13, Ref +1, Will +8
Abilities: Str 29, Dex 8, Con 21, Int 12, Wis 18, Cha 12
Skills: Diplomacy +3, Hide –9*, Intimidate +6, Knowledge (nature) +6, Listen +9, Sense Motive +9, Spot +9, Survival +13 (+15 aboveground)
Feats: Endurance(B), Improved Sunder, Iron Will, Power Attack, Quick Recovery
Environment: Temperate forests
Organization: Solitary or grove (4–7)
Challenge Rating: 11
Treasure: Standard
Alignment: Usually neutral good
Advancement: 8–16 HD (Huge); 17–21 HD (Gargantuan)
Level Adjustment: +9

This treant is an incredible specimen of vigorous health and size, with leaves remaining a lush green year round. It's eyes though are hard and weary as if having seen and experienced more than it wished.

Combat
Treants prefer to watch potential foes carefully before attacking. They often charge suddenly from cover to trample the despoilers of forests. If sorely pressed, they animate trees as reinforcements.

Animate Trees (Sp): A treant can animate trees within 180 feet at will, controlling up to two trees at a time. It takes 1 full round for a normal tree to uproot itself. Thereafter it moves at a speed of 10 feet and fights as a treant in all respects. Animated trees lose their ability to move if the treant that animated them is incapacitated or moves out of range. The ability is otherwise similar to liveoak (caster level 12th). Animated trees have the same vulnerability to fire that a treant has.

Cockroach (Ex): If a survivor's head is cut off, such as from a Vorpal weapon, it does not die, but are instead rendered deaf, blind and mute, as well as losing their intelligence score, until the damage dealt from the blow is healed. Instinct usually dictates they flee from the source of the blow.

Double Damage against Objects (Ex): A treant or animated tree that makes a full attack against an object or structure deals double damage.

Endure (Ex): A treant survivor suffers no harm from being in a hot, cold, or rarefied environment. They can exist comfortably in high altitudes and conditions between –50 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit without having to make Fortitude saves.

Fast (Ex): A treant survivor does not die from starvation, thirst or asphyxiation. Instead they go into a state of indefinite suspended animation that they may survive in for a number of months equal to their constitution score. They are not conscious of anything that occurs while suspended.

Plague Inured: A survivor is immune to non-magical disease and gains a +10 bonus against poison.

Regeneration (Ex): A survivor gains regeneration 7. Fire and acid deal normal damage.

Scavenger (Ex): A survivor gains nourishment from eating any organic material, despite its freshness or source.

Vital (Ex): A survivor is not subject to death by massive damage and takes only half damage from sneak attacks and critical hits.

Trample (Ex): Reflex DC 22 half. The save DC is Strength-based.

Skills: *Treants have a +16 racial bonus on Hide checks made in forested areas.

-=-=-=-=-

Creating a Survivor

"Survivor" is an inherited template that can be added to any living creature, hereafter referred to as the base creature. A survivor uses all the base creature’s statistics and special abilities except as noted here.

Size and Type: A survivor's type is unchanged.

Hit Dice: A Survivor always has maximum hit points.

Special Attacks: A survivor retains all special attacks of the base creature.

Special Qualities: A survivor retains all qualities of the base creature. They also gain the following special qualities.

Cockroach (Ex): If a survivor's head is cut off, such as from a Vorpal weapon, it does not die, but are instead rendered deaf, blind and mute, as well as losing their intelligence score, until the damage dealt from the blow is healed. Instinct usually dictates they flee from the source of the blow.

Endure (Ex): A survivor suffers no harm from being in a hot, cold, or rarefied environment. They can exist comfortably in high altitudes and conditions between –50 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit without having to make Fortitude saves.

Fast (Ex): A survivor does not die from starvation, thirst or asphyxiation. Instead they go into a state of indefinite suspended animation that they may survive in for a number of months equal to their constitution score. They are not conscious of anything that occurs while suspended.

Plague Inured: A survivor is immune to non-magical disease and gains a +10 bonus against poison.

Regeneration (Ex): A survivor gains regeneration equal to their HD. Fire and acid deal normal damage.

Scavenger (Ex): A survivor gains nourishment from eating any organic material, despite its freshness or source.

Vital (Ex): A survivor is not subject to death by massive damage and takes only half damage from sneak attacks and critical hits.

Skills: A survivor gains Survival as a racial skill with a +4 bonus.
Abilities: Increase from the base creature as follows: Con +6, Wis +2
Feats: Endurance, Quick Recovery
Challenge Rating: +3
Level Adjustment: +4

[Lappy9000]

Survivor Monstrous Cochroach

Nice work, VT

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

Oh my... this would be a fun disturbing BBEG to throw at a party.

"I chopped his head off, but it kept moving!"
"I didn't know he was undead..."
"HE WASN'T!"

[Icewalker]

Yeah, make for some fun horrible being. Something more wild and less villainous than a BBEG, but showing up as a repeated enemy nonetheless.

[Fan]

This would be absolutely cruel in gestalt... A half red dragon, half black dragon survivor.. Congrats you just cut about 6 LA off my current build...
So, regneration 15 (at gestalt 15.) with the ability to cut off my own head, and have it grow back.
This WOULD make a pimping BBEG.

[Lord Mancow]

Wonderful work Mr VT.
Could cause some real pains for PC's.

[Elder Brain]

You rock! I've been wanting something like this for my PCs for a long time, I've just never had the time to build it.

[Fax Celestis]

I don't know if you noticed this, but the Cockroach ability doesn't actually work. A creature with Int 0 goes into a coma. You either need to specify that they switch to Int -- and become Mindless, or that they go to Int 1.

[merge]

Fast (Ex): A treant survivor does not die from starvation, thirst or asphyxiation. Instead they go into a state of indefinite suspended animation that they may survive in for a number of months equal to their constitution score. They are not conscious of anything that occurs while suspended.


How can they be woken? And fed?

[sigurd]

I imagine that in a treant's case ambient water would be received and transferred by whatever root system it had, like a dry sponge. At some point the creature would gather enough energy to 'wake up'.

Actually this sounds like a normal ability for a treant - the survivor version might be longer perhaps 6 months per con or even a year.

Sigurd

[Roderick_BR]

Haha, I love it :D that's what I needed for a character I've been working for a while. Can I remove (no pun intended) the Croackroach ability (I don't see how someone "thougher than their brethren" can survive withouth a head, but the rest is fine), and lower the LA (or maybe replace with something else), to use it on a PC? Maybe the ability to minimize lethal injuries, like being able to move when bellow 0 HP normally, and dieing only at -20 or -30 HP or something, or the ability to roll, once a day, a Fort save to avoid a death effect.
But still, I love it.