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Ability Focus (A Rabbit Skin for Baby Bunting), TrackB, Weapon FinesseB, Point Blank Shot, Rapid Shot
Environment:
Temperate forests
Organization:
Solitary plus 1+ woodland creature swarms
Challenge Rating:
4
Treasure:
Standard
Alignment:
Usually Chaotic Evil
Advancement:
By character class
Level Adjustment:
--
At first glance, Daddy Bunting seems friendly and harmless. He appears to be a young middle-aged man of slight build clad in the green and brown rough-spun tunic and breeches of a simple woodland huntsman. He wears a peaked cap crowned with a feather and carries a bow and quiver of arrows that look like they’ve seen a lot of hard use. A number of animal pelts hang from his belt. His eyes are grey and twinkle brightly under his bushy brown eyebrows. The day or two of stubble that coats his chin and cheeks looks more fatherly than shifty, like he uses it to tickle his children’s cheeks after a long day’s work.
The wholesomeness of Daddy Bunting’s appearance conceals his sinister goals. Physically weak and lacking in the tricky spells and concealing glamors of other fey, Daddy Bunting defends himself by turning lonely children into small woodland creatures and building a swarm of loyal defenders.
Combat
Daddy Bunting relies heavily on his woodland servant for protection, directing it toward the most powerful-looking opponent he can see. He knows full well the power of magic and will focus on any obvious spell-caster first, preferring to eliminate an arcane caster before a cleric or druid. He will then use any skins he has available to acquire more allies. When these options are exhausted, he will turn to his trusty longbow, relying on his allies to keep the foes at bay while he shoots from a distance.
A Rabbit Skin for Baby Bunting (Su): Daddy Bunting always carries a number of animal skins that he can use to transform humanoid creatures into animals under his control. As a standard action, Daddy Bunting flings the skin over the target humanoid. Doing so requires a successful ranged touch attack with a thrown weapon with range increment of 5 feet. Daddy Bunting is considered proficient with skins flung in this manner. A successful attack ensnares the target in Daddy Bunting’s magic and permanently transforms it into an animal as the Baleful Polymorph spell, save that it lacks a size limitation and is subject to the limitations described here. The target can make a Fortitude save (DC 18, Charisma-based) to resist this transformation. A successful save negates the transformation and renders the skin harmless unless Daddy Bunting uses it again for this ability.
Daddy Bunting can only use this ability on a creature the same size or smaller than the skin he is throwing. Infants of Medium-sized species or race count as Tiny for this purpose, while children count as Small. When under the effect of this ability, Tiny or smaller creatures become a part of Daddy Bunting’s Woodland Servant (see the ability of the same name) while Small or larger creatures take the form of the creature from which the skin that transformed them was taken and are under Daddy Bunting’s control.
Most of the skins in Daddy Bunting’s possession are of creatures like rabbits, raccoons, and squirrels. Such skins can only be used to target Tiny or smaller humanoids. He is assumed to have an unlimited number of such skins; hides from Tiny creatures of the Animal type and appropriate environment. Daddy Bunting also always has 1d4 Small skins and 1d2 Medium skins (any creature of Animal type and the appropriate size and environment) that he can use for this ability. Additionally there is a 5% chance that Daddy Bunting also possesses a single skin of Large size. These skins have no value beyond what a normal hide would be worth.
Daddy Bunting can control any creatures transformed using this ability as a free action. He must be able to speak and gesture in order to do so. Daddy Bunting can only give simple commands, such as “attack,” “stop,” “go there.” and the like. If Daddy Bunting is killed, any creatures under his control through this ability are freed and behave as they naturally would, but are not returned to their original forms. Only Break Enchantment, Limited Wish, Miracle, or a spell of similar power can restore a creature to its original form.
Woodland Servant (Su): Daddy Bunting is always accompanied by a swarm of rabbits, squirrels, and other tiny creatures. This swarm has the statistics of a rat swarm, but lacks the rat swarm’s disease ability. Daddy Bunting can control his woodland servant as a free action but must be able to speak and gesture to do so. Given the nature of the creatures in this swarm, Daddy Bunting can only give simple commands, such as “attack,” “stop,” “go there.” and the like. If Daddy Bunting is killed, the swarm dissipates harmlessly.
Daddy Bunting’s woodland servant is composed of infants he has turned into animals. Every 5 infants he affects with his A Rabbit Skin for Baby Bunting ability increases his woodland servant’s hit dice by 1. If his woodland servant is killed, he must assemble another by abducting and changing more babies until he has enough to create his woodland servant.
Skills: Daddy Bunting has a +8 racial bonus on Climb checks. He can always choose to take 10 on Climb checks, even if rushed or threatened. He uses his Dexterity modifier instead of his Strength modifier for Climb checks.
Ability Focus (A Rabbit Skin for Baby Bunting), TrackB, Weapon FinesseB, Point Blank Shot, Rapid Shot
Environment:
Temperate forests
Organization:
Solitary plus 1+ woodland creature swarms
Challenge Rating:
4
Treasure:
Standard
Alignment:
Usually Chaotic Evil
Advancement:
By character class
Level Adjustment:
--
At first glance, Daddy Bunting seems friendly and harmless. He appears to be a young middle-aged man of slight build clad in the green and brown rough-spun tunic and breeches of a simple woodland huntsman. He wears a peaked cap crowned with a feather and carries a bow and quiver of arrows that look like they’ve seen a lot of hard use. A number of animal pelts hang from his belt. His eyes are grey and twinkle brightly under his bushy brown eyebrows. The day or two of stubble that coats his chin and cheeks looks more fatherly than shifty, like he uses it to tickle his children’s cheeks after a long day’s work.
The wholesomeness of Daddy Bunting’s appearance conceals his sinister goals. Physically weak and lacking in the tricky spells and concealing glamors of other fey, Daddy Bunting defends himself by turning lonely children into small woodland creatures and building a swarm of loyal defenders.
Combat
Daddy Bunting relies heavily on his woodland servant for protection, directing it toward the most powerful-looking opponent he can see. He knows full well the power of magic and will focus on any obvious spell-caster first, preferring to eliminate an arcane caster before a cleric or druid. He will then use any skins he has available to acquire more allies. When these options are exhausted, he will turn to his trusty longbow, relying on his allies to keep the foes at bay while he shoots from a distance.
A Rabbit Skin for Baby Bunting (Su): Daddy Bunting always carries a number of animal skins that he can use to transform humanoid creatures into animals under his control. As a standard action, Daddy Bunting flings the skin over the target humanoid. Doing so requires a successful ranged touch attack with a thrown weapon with range increment of 5 feet. Daddy Bunting is considered proficient with skins flung in this manner. A successful attack ensnares the target in Daddy Bunting’s magic and permanently transforms it into an animal as the Baleful Polymorph spell, save that it lacks a size limitation and is subject to the limitations described here. The target can make a Fortitude save (DC 18, Charisma-based) to resist this transformation. A successful save negates the transformation and renders the skin harmless unless Daddy Bunting uses it again for this ability.
Daddy Bunting can only use this ability on a creature the same size or smaller than the skin he is throwing. Infants of Medium-sized species or race count as Tiny for this purpose, while children count as Small. When under the effect of this ability, Tiny or smaller creatures become a part of Daddy Bunting’s Woodland Servant (see the ability of the same name) while Small or larger creatures take the form of the creature from which the skin that transformed them was taken and are under Daddy Bunting’s control.
Most of the skins in Daddy Bunting’s possession are of creatures like rabbits, raccoons, and squirrels. Such skins can only be used to target Tiny or smaller humanoids. He is assumed to have an unlimited number of such skins; hides from Tiny creatures of the Animal type and appropriate environment. Daddy Bunting also always has 1d4 Small skins and 1d2 Medium skins (any creature of Animal type and the appropriate size and environment) that he can use for this ability. Additionally there is a 5% chance that Daddy Bunting also possesses a single skin of Large size. These skins have no value beyond what a normal hide would be worth.
Daddy Bunting can control any creatures transformed using this ability as a free action. He must be able to speak and gesture in order to do so. Daddy Bunting can only give simple commands, such as “attack,” “stop,” “go there.” and the like. If Daddy Bunting is killed, any creatures under his control through this ability are freed and behave as they naturally would, but are not returned to their original forms. Only Break Enchantment, Limited Wish, Miracle, or a spell of similar power can restore a creature to its original form.
Woodland Servant (Su): Daddy Bunting is always accompanied by a swarm of rabbits, squirrels, and other tiny creatures. This swarm has the statistics of a rat swarm, but lacks the rat swarm’s disease ability. Daddy Bunting can control his woodland servant as a free action but must be able to speak and gesture to do so. Given the nature of the creatures in this swarm, Daddy Bunting can only give simple commands, such as “attack,” “stop,” “go there.” and the like. If Daddy Bunting is killed, the swarm dissipates harmlessly.
Daddy Bunting’s woodland servant is composed of infants he has turned into animals. Every 5 infants he affects with his A Rabbit Skin for Baby Bunting ability increases his woodland servant’s hit dice by 1. If his woodland servant is killed, he must assemble another by abducting and changing more babies until he has enough to create his woodland servant.
Skills: Daddy Bunting has a +8 racial bonus on Climb checks. He can always choose to take 10 on Climb checks, even if rushed or threatened. He uses his Dexterity modifier instead of his Strength modifier for Climb checks.
Very nice
I like the creepy vibe that the song and the creature evoke.
The only problem I can see is, that the avarge hit points look wrong (likely it's me being a fool)
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The only problem I see is that requiring a 9th level (or higher) caster to cast the 5th level spells needed remove the effects of a CR4 creature seems a bit unbalanced for what a CR4 encounter should be.
I think it could be fixed by making an easier way to remove the effect... Like taking 1 min and a Survival check allows the skin to be removed and breaks the effect... or something a level-appropriate party could have access to like a Dispel.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Keneth
Evil Guy: Your reckless display of power shall have a steep price today, mageling! *attempts to throw an undisclosed number of babies in the fiery pillar*
You: NOOOOOOOOOOO!! *hero point => standard action (dismiss spell)*
Babies: *bounce "harmlessly" off the ground*
Evil Guy: Damn you, sorcerer! This is not over!!
The only problem I see is that requiring a 9th level (or higher) caster to cast the 5th level spells needed remove the effects of a CR4 creature seems a bit unbalanced for what a CR4 encounter should be.
I think it could be fixed by making an easier way to remove the effect... Like taking 1 min and a Survival check allows the skin to be removed and breaks the effect... or something a level-appropriate party could have access to like a Dispel.
FWIW, that's actually fairly common; medusas and allips in MMI, say, or sea hags (3 days of dazing?). Not that those are necessarily the best models to use, but it's not unique by any means.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Water_Bear
That's RAW for you; 100% Rules-Legal, 110% silly.
Quote:
Originally Posted by hamishspence
"Common sense" and "RAW" are not exactly on speaking terms
Anyone knows blue is for sarcas'ing in · Use of gray may indicate nitpicking · Green is sincerity · "Take 10 SAN damage from Dark Orchid"
I often hop into threads for just one thing
I do have to agree with OzymandiasX on the subject- the ability is essentially a save-or-die effect due to the lack of ability to remove it until much later or through the aid of a more powerful NPC. The save is also very high for the point one would encounter it, making it unlikely a party member would be able to make it. The fact it also creates a new minion for the daddy bunting every time is salt in the wound.
If it were to wear off if the Daddy Bunting responsible were felled or allowed new saves after every (insert period of time) for small or bigger creatures it would be a bit more reasonable, if still a bit questionable due to how quickly that would become an uphill battle.
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Thanks to Akrim.elf for the avi of my OC.
Perhaps it can be removed with Dispel Magic if less than 24 hours old, but after 24 hours it requires Break Enchantment etc?
The save DC also needs to be toned down substantially, or else the CR increased; for comparison, look at the Aranea's abilities.
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Daddy Bunting [3.5 fey creature]
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