Winged One
2006-08-25, 12:43 AM
The Aozo
Often, slave-owning wizards run into problems that require magic, requiring either their personal attention or that of an apprentice, rather then a slave. While one could own slaves with sorcerous talent, such a slave could concievably hide such ability or even develop it to the point where he could challenge his master. Therefore, the First Aozo were created in a series of horrific experiments on their base creatures. Aozo are "natural" sorcerers, but are prevented by a number of factors from magically harming their owners, typically evil wizards. Once a First Aozo has been created, additional Aozo are created in the usual way. The child of an Aozo is always another Aozo. Aozo look exactly like their base creature, except that their eyes do not appear to have pupils, and change color with their mood and when they cast spells. They also have birthmaks of two horizontal lines under each eye, which are the same color as their eyes. Enslaved Aozo tend to believe themselves superior to other slaves, setting themselves apart from other slaves. This arrogance is not present in free Aozo, who generally integrate into their base creatures' society. Free Aozo do, however, tend to base their subculture around their Purpose(see below). For example, if Aozo were created to keep fellow slaves in line, they gravitate toward law enforcement.
Creating an Aozo
Aozo is an inherited template that can be applied to any humanoid capable of taking levels in sorcerer.
A Aozo uses all of the base creature's statistics and special abilities except as noted here.
Special Qualities
An Aozo has all of the special qualities of the base creature as well as those described below.
Bond(su): An Aozo is unable to directly or indirectly harm whatever creature legally owns it in whatever nation they are in. If not in a nation, they default to the nation that they were born in. If in a nation where slavery is illegal, they default to the nation that they were born in unless there are laws specificly stating that Aozo are freed upon entering the nation. Such laws may be secret, but they must be legal according the the nations own laws. This protection extends for one day after ownership of the Aozo is transfered, but ceses immediately if the Aozo is freed. A Aozo instinctivly knows who owns it or if they are free. A Aozo must obey the orders of whoever legally owns it to the letter, and may be ordered to attack somebody who owned it less then a day ago. An Aozo can be owned by a group of people. If that is the case, they must obey orders with respect to the rank of who gave them(which they also know instinctively) and may only harm a member of the group on the orders of a higher-ranking member of the group. An Aozo can be magically or psionicly compeled to attack or disobey an owner, and often intentionally fails its save agianst such compulsions, but recieves Spell Resistance equal to its HD+10 against them which it cannot lower. An Aozo is unable to affect itself with Dominate Person, Dominate Monster, Psionic Dominate, Suggestion, Psionic Suggestion, or simmilar effects. It may target itself with spurn the supernatural or expunge the supernatural if it can cast those spells, although any owner who knows of such spells typically forbids an Aozo from casting them on itself.
Creature of Magic(su): An Aozo radiates magic(see Detect Magic) as a magic item of their Hit Dice(all schools, a First Aozo may radiate necromancy and/or transmutation instead at DM discression). If an Aozo enters an antimagic field, they have 1d4 rounds to exit, during which they are nauseated, until they become unconcious. If an Aozo is affected by a targeted dispel magic, greater dispel magic, or simmilar effect, it is stunned for 1 round. Slashing dispel deals an additional 2 points of damage if it stuns an Aozo in this way.
Containable(su): An Aozo can be affected by an inward-focused magic circle against evil, magic circle against good, magic circle against law, or magic circle against chaos spell as if it were a called creature. A calling diagram may be employed to prevent the Aozo from blasting the **** out of everything nearby that doesn't agree to break the circle escaping via magic or using ranged attacks or spells.
Purpose(ex): Aozo were designed with a specific purpose in mind. The DM should decide what that purpose was and it's according benifits. These benefits include a +2 racial bonus to one skill and an extra spell known per spell level for Aozo sorcerers(chosen by the DM). For example, if Aozo were created to keep fellow slaves in line, they will gain a +2 racial bonus to Intimidate and, if they are sorcerers, will know daze(sor1), whelm(sor1), whelming burst(sor4), inevitable defeat(sor6), mass whelm(sor8), hold monster(sor10), overwhelm(sor12), forcecage(sor14), power word stun(sor16), and dominate monster(sor18). Different Aozo may have different Purposes, but if that is the case they will have been descended from different First Aozo.
Craven: Aozo take a -2 penalty to saves against fear effects.
Unnatural(ex): The Aozo were created by the unnatural experiment of a wizard, and therefore are treated as abberations whenever doing so would be disadvantageous to them.
Ability scores: as base creature +2 CHA -2 WIS. Aozo have powerful personalities, but weak wills.
Favored class: changes to sorcerer.
Alignment: usually true neutral. If the base creature did not have this tendancy, the Aozo were changed to have it in order to be more easily contained in Magic Circle spells.
First Aozo
A First Aozo can be created by a wizard who does not have necromancy as a banned school, has access to laboratory equipment that would serve as a suitable focus for a clone spell, expends laboratory materials that would serve as a suitable material component for a clone spell, and expends an additional 1000 gp of materials per sorcerer level of the intended First Aozo(the DM should set a limit on the original level of a First Aozo if a player character is creating it) The process takes 1 day per 1000 gp it costs. A First Aozo is created at the equivalent of the lowest starting age given for a sorcerer of it's base race, knows all of it's spells, skills, and languages upon creation, and tends to be extremely angry if it's Bond is active upon creation. A magic circle against good and a calling diagram are typically employed to contain a First Aozo long enough to order it not to escape or destroy the laboratory it was created in. The creator may dictate the Aozo's Purpose and it's accompanying skill bonus and spells. The experiments to learn how to create a First Aozo without being told are a series of unspeakably evil acts, equivalent to becoming a lich. Once the knowledge has been discovered, a First Aozo can be created without commiting an evil act(but also note that slavery is an evil act as well), although many good creatures find it distasteful anyway.
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Okay, I get the feeling that this might be a tad unbalanced one way or the other. Thoughts? Suggestions on a name?
EDIT: thank you, Brickwall.
EDIT2: added the group thing.
Often, slave-owning wizards run into problems that require magic, requiring either their personal attention or that of an apprentice, rather then a slave. While one could own slaves with sorcerous talent, such a slave could concievably hide such ability or even develop it to the point where he could challenge his master. Therefore, the First Aozo were created in a series of horrific experiments on their base creatures. Aozo are "natural" sorcerers, but are prevented by a number of factors from magically harming their owners, typically evil wizards. Once a First Aozo has been created, additional Aozo are created in the usual way. The child of an Aozo is always another Aozo. Aozo look exactly like their base creature, except that their eyes do not appear to have pupils, and change color with their mood and when they cast spells. They also have birthmaks of two horizontal lines under each eye, which are the same color as their eyes. Enslaved Aozo tend to believe themselves superior to other slaves, setting themselves apart from other slaves. This arrogance is not present in free Aozo, who generally integrate into their base creatures' society. Free Aozo do, however, tend to base their subculture around their Purpose(see below). For example, if Aozo were created to keep fellow slaves in line, they gravitate toward law enforcement.
Creating an Aozo
Aozo is an inherited template that can be applied to any humanoid capable of taking levels in sorcerer.
A Aozo uses all of the base creature's statistics and special abilities except as noted here.
Special Qualities
An Aozo has all of the special qualities of the base creature as well as those described below.
Bond(su): An Aozo is unable to directly or indirectly harm whatever creature legally owns it in whatever nation they are in. If not in a nation, they default to the nation that they were born in. If in a nation where slavery is illegal, they default to the nation that they were born in unless there are laws specificly stating that Aozo are freed upon entering the nation. Such laws may be secret, but they must be legal according the the nations own laws. This protection extends for one day after ownership of the Aozo is transfered, but ceses immediately if the Aozo is freed. A Aozo instinctivly knows who owns it or if they are free. A Aozo must obey the orders of whoever legally owns it to the letter, and may be ordered to attack somebody who owned it less then a day ago. An Aozo can be owned by a group of people. If that is the case, they must obey orders with respect to the rank of who gave them(which they also know instinctively) and may only harm a member of the group on the orders of a higher-ranking member of the group. An Aozo can be magically or psionicly compeled to attack or disobey an owner, and often intentionally fails its save agianst such compulsions, but recieves Spell Resistance equal to its HD+10 against them which it cannot lower. An Aozo is unable to affect itself with Dominate Person, Dominate Monster, Psionic Dominate, Suggestion, Psionic Suggestion, or simmilar effects. It may target itself with spurn the supernatural or expunge the supernatural if it can cast those spells, although any owner who knows of such spells typically forbids an Aozo from casting them on itself.
Creature of Magic(su): An Aozo radiates magic(see Detect Magic) as a magic item of their Hit Dice(all schools, a First Aozo may radiate necromancy and/or transmutation instead at DM discression). If an Aozo enters an antimagic field, they have 1d4 rounds to exit, during which they are nauseated, until they become unconcious. If an Aozo is affected by a targeted dispel magic, greater dispel magic, or simmilar effect, it is stunned for 1 round. Slashing dispel deals an additional 2 points of damage if it stuns an Aozo in this way.
Containable(su): An Aozo can be affected by an inward-focused magic circle against evil, magic circle against good, magic circle against law, or magic circle against chaos spell as if it were a called creature. A calling diagram may be employed to prevent the Aozo from blasting the **** out of everything nearby that doesn't agree to break the circle escaping via magic or using ranged attacks or spells.
Purpose(ex): Aozo were designed with a specific purpose in mind. The DM should decide what that purpose was and it's according benifits. These benefits include a +2 racial bonus to one skill and an extra spell known per spell level for Aozo sorcerers(chosen by the DM). For example, if Aozo were created to keep fellow slaves in line, they will gain a +2 racial bonus to Intimidate and, if they are sorcerers, will know daze(sor1), whelm(sor1), whelming burst(sor4), inevitable defeat(sor6), mass whelm(sor8), hold monster(sor10), overwhelm(sor12), forcecage(sor14), power word stun(sor16), and dominate monster(sor18). Different Aozo may have different Purposes, but if that is the case they will have been descended from different First Aozo.
Craven: Aozo take a -2 penalty to saves against fear effects.
Unnatural(ex): The Aozo were created by the unnatural experiment of a wizard, and therefore are treated as abberations whenever doing so would be disadvantageous to them.
Ability scores: as base creature +2 CHA -2 WIS. Aozo have powerful personalities, but weak wills.
Favored class: changes to sorcerer.
Alignment: usually true neutral. If the base creature did not have this tendancy, the Aozo were changed to have it in order to be more easily contained in Magic Circle spells.
First Aozo
A First Aozo can be created by a wizard who does not have necromancy as a banned school, has access to laboratory equipment that would serve as a suitable focus for a clone spell, expends laboratory materials that would serve as a suitable material component for a clone spell, and expends an additional 1000 gp of materials per sorcerer level of the intended First Aozo(the DM should set a limit on the original level of a First Aozo if a player character is creating it) The process takes 1 day per 1000 gp it costs. A First Aozo is created at the equivalent of the lowest starting age given for a sorcerer of it's base race, knows all of it's spells, skills, and languages upon creation, and tends to be extremely angry if it's Bond is active upon creation. A magic circle against good and a calling diagram are typically employed to contain a First Aozo long enough to order it not to escape or destroy the laboratory it was created in. The creator may dictate the Aozo's Purpose and it's accompanying skill bonus and spells. The experiments to learn how to create a First Aozo without being told are a series of unspeakably evil acts, equivalent to becoming a lich. Once the knowledge has been discovered, a First Aozo can be created without commiting an evil act(but also note that slavery is an evil act as well), although many good creatures find it distasteful anyway.
---
Okay, I get the feeling that this might be a tad unbalanced one way or the other. Thoughts? Suggestions on a name?
EDIT: thank you, Brickwall.
EDIT2: added the group thing.