Triumphant Templates
Hello everyone and welcome to another exciting From the Workshop, where we bring you fascinating and diverse material for your game each and every week. This week I found myself considering creature templates, and as such I ended up making some new and, I hope, intriguing templates for you.
Mage’s Servant (CR +2)
A mage’s servant is the result of magical research conducted ages ago in order to create a more effective servitor for powerful mages. While the exact methods of creating a mage’s servant vary, with some wizards choosing to augment existing creatures, and others instead creating their servant from scratch, the end result is always the same. Mage’s servants resemble the creatures they once were, comprised of a deep sapphire vapor. While most such creatures can be found in the service of their sorcerous creators, others have broken free of their former master’s grasp, either because their creator met his or her end, or because their own intellect became too much for their master to handle.
Creating a Mage’s Servant
“Mage’s Servant” is an inherited or acquired template that can be added to any creature (hereafter called the base creature).
Challenge Rating: Same as the base creature + 2 (minimum 3).
Type: The creature’s type does not change.
Armor Class: Increase the base creature’s deflection bonus to Armor Class by +2.
Defenses/Qualities: A mages servant becomes incorporeal (unless it already was) and gains acid resistance 10, fire resistance 10, cold resistance 10, and electricity resilience 10.
Speed: A mage’s servant is exceptionally mobile for a creature of its kind and gains a +10-foot bonus to all of its movement speeds.
Melee: A mage’s servant can perform an incorporeal touch attack, which does 1d10 points of damage regardless of size.
Ranged: A mage’s servant gains the ability to fire off two energy rays every turn as a ranged touch attack, dealing 1d6 points of damage.
Spell-like Abilities: A mage’s servant retains all special attacks of the base creature. Additionally, a mage’s servant with an Intelligence score of at least 13 gains the ability to cast any one spell of 3rd level or lower as a spell-like ability usable 3 times per day (with an effective caster level of 5 or the creatures’ hit dice, whichever is higher). The mage’s servant also gains the ability to cast any three 1st-level spells as spell-like abilities (with an effective caster level of 5 or the creatures’ hit dice, whichever is higher), usable at will. The save DCs for these abilities are Intelligence-based.
Abilities: Increase from the base creature as follows: Dexterity +8, Intelligence +8.
Skills: A mage’s servant treats all Knowledge skills as class skills, and gains a +8 racial bonus on all Knowledge skill checks.
Primal Creature (CR +4)
Creating a Primal Creature
“Primal creature” is an inherited template which can be applied to any living corporeal creature.
CR: Same as the base creature +4 (minimum 5).
Type: The creature’s type does not change.
Armor Class: A primal creature’s natural armor increases by +8.
Defenses/Qualities: A primal creature has DR/- equal to 1/5 its hit dice.
Speed: A primal creature’s land speed is doubled.
Melee: A primal creature has a slam attack which deals damage as appropriate for a creature 1 size category larger than the base creature. (see the pathfinder bestiary for more information on natural attacks). If the base creature could use manufactured weapons the primal creature retains this ability.
Special Abilities: The primal creature retains all the special attacks of the base creature and gains the ability to enter a primal fury and to perform a final frenzy.
Primal Fury (Ex): The primal creature can enter a primal fury as a swift action. While in this state, the primal creature gains a +4 bonus to attack rolls and deals an additional 2d10 points of damage with each successful hit. While in this state, a primal creature must attack the creature nearest to him. A primal fury lasts for 1 minute, and the primal creature must wait at least one minute before entering a primal fury again.
Final Frenzy (Ex): When the primal creature is reduced to 0 or fewer hit points, it continues to act normally for 3 rounds, but if the primal creature is still at or below 0 hit point at the end of this time, he dies.
Abilities: Increase the ability scores from the base creature as follows: Strength +8, Dexterity +8, Constitution +8.