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View Full Version : d20 3.5 Horror-themed monster: The Emotion-locked



Damos Taranth
2009-03-10, 08:44 PM
Designer's notes:

The Emotion-locked plague is a subtle strain of undeath in many ways - especially grueling because those infected and slain by it retain the semblance of life - often not realising that they have died - and their personalities remain mostly intact, if tortured.

Locked forever in the last natural emotional state they experienced before their death, even the most joyous of potential states can soon wear upon the victim, seeking them to alter their state the only way they can - by draining emotions from others.

In this way is the undeath spread, sometimes slowly, sometimes explosively. Only careful examination - or first-hand experience - can show that these creatures are not simply insane sentients. And even if they are killed, they will rise the next day, to once again threaten those around them.

Anyway, enough wall of text. Template! (More notes are found at the end of the post.)

Template: The Emotion-Locked

Creating an Emotion-locked
"Emotion-locked" is a template that can be added to any living creature capable of feeling emotions (not undead, plant, or construct - outsiders and abberations optional) The creature's base type changes to 'undead'. It otherwise uses all the base creature's statistics and special abilities except as noted here:

Special Attacks: The Emotion-locked retains all the special abilities it previously possessed except as noted under 'locked-in soul' below, and gains the following attack:

Emotion Drain: An emotion-locked can make a touch attack against any living foe and attempt to drain the emotions of their opponent. The target must immediately make two will saves and a fort save:
Will save 1: If this fails, the emotion that they were feeling at the time of the will save is temporarily drained from them - they become unable to feel it for 1d6 hours.
Will save 2: If this fails, the emotion currently being experienced by the emotion-locked is imprinted upon the target, forcing them into that unnatural emotional state (with all the relevant bonuses and penalties) for 3d6 minutes - this overwrites the first will save if the two are identical.
Fort save: If this fails, the character takes one negative level.
If the character fails any of the saves, the emotion-locked takes on the emotional state the character was experiencing at the time of the attack. If the character passes all the saves, there is absolutely no indication of anything occurring. If enough negative levels are gained to equal the HD of the character, they die and become emotion-locked themselves in the last NATURAL emotional state they experienced before dying - not including those forced upon them by the emotion-locked. The emotion-locked can permanently be locked into their new emotional state by inflicting the final negative level on a living creature, and killing them.
The DC for this check is (10+1/2 HD + Cha mod)


Special Qualities: The creature retains all special qualities it previously possessed, and additionally gains the following emotion-locked traits:

Veil of the Living: Emotion-locked appear, for all intents and purposes, to be living and breathing. A DC 25 heal check is required to tell that something is not right with their systems; a DC 40 heal check to tell that the body is simply imitating life rather than truly alive. They do not register as undead under 'detect undead', 'detect evil', or any other divination magic under level 5. For the purposes of all spells and effects which affect the base race and the undead differently, whichever has the greater effect will take place (whether beneficial or harmful). For the purposes of cure/inflict spells and similar positive/negative energy effects, they are treated as undead. At HP 0, they will die, all bodily functions ceasing. They are vulnerable to sneak attacks, poison, ability drain, fort save-requiring effects, and mind-affecting effects (with the exception of any which would change their mental state or produce morale or fear effects); they remain invulnerable to non-lethal damage, fatigue, and suffocation. Any effect which would normally kill an undead OR their base race instantly reduces them to 0HP.

Locked-in soul: The soul of the emotion-locked, as well as their personality, is trapped within their body, unable to move on. Until the individual is laid to rest properly, they cannot be raised or resurrected. Characters able to see spirits (such as the spirit shaman) can see that the soul remains within the body even when it is 'dead'. Unlike most forms of undead, once properly laid to rest, the body is not too tainted to use for Raise Dead.

Immortality: Although emotion-locked appear to die at HP 0, they will recover three times their HD per day even when 'dead'. If simply killed, this will often lead to their 'waking up' sans wounds. If dismembered or burnt, the recovery will take far longer - but eventually, they will return. The emotion-locked have no need for food, water, air, or sleep - but often do not KNOW this, and will still feel hungry, thirsty, or tired unless too lost in their emotions to think about it.

Power in Emotions: All of the Emotion-locked's abilities are tied to and powered by the strength of their emotion - removing that emotion will instantly sever their power, and end their existance permanently. A Calm Emotions spell, or equivilent effect, will instantly end both emotional effects of the power drain (but not the negative level) and destroy every emotion-locked in the area of effect, without a save.

Locked-in emotion: Emotion-locked are trapped in a single emotion, and cannot change this without 'stealing' an emotion from another. They are immune to all fear effects and morale effects both positive and negative, and cannot use rage or any similar emotion-requiring ability. (unless they are locked in that emotion) Their emotion may give them additional statistical benefits.

(Example emotional effects:
==> Anger: Effectively raging, gaining +4 str, -2AC, and attacks wildly.
==> Fear: +2 dex, +2 str +10 move speed, may be considered anywhere from shaken to panicked - although can ALWAYS attempt to use emotion drain, even when cowering.
==> Joy: Gains 2 additional hp per hit dice, always happy, ignores pain or suffering - of themselves or others.
==> Paranoia: Gains the uncanny dodge ability, +2 to resist charm effects
==> Calm: +1 on attack rolls and AC)

Abilities: Same as the base creature, except no constitution score. The creature may begin to lose wisdom over time as they are driven insane - GM's discretion.


Sample Emotion-locked: 1st-level commoner; Emotion: Fear

Medium Undead (Augmented Humanoid)
Hit dice: 1d4 (2hp)
Initiative: +0
Speed: 40ft
Armour Class: 11 (+1 dex)
Base Attack/Grapple: +0/+1
Attack: Flail -1 (1d3+1 nonlethal)
Full Attack: As above
Space/Reach: 5ft/5ft
Special Attacks: Emotion drain
Special Qualities: Emotion-locked traits, fear-locked, immortal
Saves: Fort +0, Ref +1, Will +0
Abilities: Str 12, Dex 13, Con -, Int 11, Wis 8, Cha 11
Skills: (commoner skills!)
Feats: (commoner feats!)
Environment: City
Organisation: Individual, gang (2-10), mob (11-100) or army (101-10000)
Challenge Rating: 1
Treasure: none
Alignment: Varies, usually leaning towards chaotic and/or evil
Advancement: By character class

A young woman in ragged clothes is curled up in the alleyway, filthy hair strewn wild, shaking and sobbing uncontrollably. As she notices you, she jumps and scoots away, staring at you with wide, terrified eyes, as if you were a pack of marauding demons. As you approach, she backs away until she can do so no more, cowering against the wall...

Combat
A fear-locked individual is permanently, unquestioningly, and irrevocably terrified. Everything, no matter how small or large, invokes the primal fear response in them, no matter what its previous associations. Different people deal with this in different ways - lashing out, running, cowering - but somewhere deep inside, there's that little kernel of knowledge that you can pass this fear onto something else... if you just touch them, no matter how terrifying that may be...

(for sake of not over-wall of texting, see ability descriptions above.)

~~~~~



Notes for GMs:

This template is NOT designed to be a direct threat to PCs - they are expected to be encountered at far higher than their given CR, as a plot device rather than a foe. For anything but a high-level 'infected' character, the DC is too low to directly threaten them with level drain. These creatures are designed as a horror element.

The major concern with these things is that they act entirely against expectations in so many ways. A frightened child forces a concerned, compassionate character to make will saves or become afraid, or lose the ability to feel compassion. Raging berserkers (first level commoners) go down, dead, after only one attack. Detect spells show absolutely nothing wrong with these people, but they are clearly insane. Attempting to cure them kills them. Attempting to calm them with calm emotions kills them. The group of bandits the party fought off and killed yesterday attacks again the next day, apparently fully healed - and the next day, and the next... The PCs should end up totally confused, with no idea what they're dealing with, as you parcel out clues. Many authorities call it a plague, a sickness of insanity, but none of the classic magic for dealing with such is of any use.

And that's not even taking into account the larger scale, in which entire towns or cities have been consumed and are in the throes of insane riots, with people locked in various emotions and preying on anything or anyone which might be able to sate their desire to change their emotional state. Alternatively, armies of these creatures might be raised as a prelude to - or as an act of - war, wiping out towns with a plague and - even once they have been discovered and watched out for - thousands of these descending on a city, completely unconcerned with their own deaths, is like a plague of fast, screaming, level-draining zombies. Especially when they create spawn out of everyone they kill - and there's no way to tell who's infected at a glance, for some of the emotions. Doubly especially when they all get up the next day to do it again.

The worst part is remembering that These people are still living, breathing, thinking, feeling humans but are at the same time undead - They're all already dead! There's no way of curing them without ending them and pushing into raise dead, which is completely beyond possibility for hundreds to hundred-thousands of unfortunates! They will scream, and beg, and rage, and plead, and strive. Many of them may be driven insane, and many others seek only to sate their own needs, but others may retain enough sanity to continue despite everything. Upon discovering that they can be permanently killed through the use of calm emotions, many of them may actually come to to the PCs and beg them to end it. For a good-aligned party, especially one which does not understand the full depths of what is happening, this can be devastating. Almost any authority that is not pure evil will do everything in their power to find a cure, trying to prevent further contamination and find a cure, avoiding the calm-emotions bomb whenever possible - but all in vain. And all the while, an escaped peasant - or even an escaped ANIMAL - infected might then go on to spread it through wildlife and neighbouring towns alike.

Note however that it is very important that if the PCs are going to feel the touch of these creatures directly, you need to make sure they are right for your game and players. Many players do not appreciate being told how their characters feel, and removing a character's capability of feeling a given (and probably central) emotion - or locking them into a potentially unnatural emotion - can be a difficult ask at the best of times, especially since these should be pulled by surprise for maximum effect. ("The terrified young woman you are attempting to comfort suddenly grabs your arm. And... make two will saves and a fort save." "WHAT?!")



Variants: Greater Emotion-locked - these are those who have submitted willingly to this curse, for reasons ranging from an evil desire for spreading a horrible undead plague to the effective immortality this offers. Such creatures should be given a greater capacity to control themselves and their emotions (though only barely) and the ability to make a will save to protect themselves from Calm Emotions, and perhaps the ability to control those they have cursed to some degree...

The Immortal army - A powerful being is behind the creation of this curse, and can - at some expenditure of power - gain control over all those under it. The emotion-locked are driven to follow his commands, and he can wield them as an army. Perhaps a devastatingly effective one if those so affected still retain their minds as they fight - begging and pleading with their attackers to stop or help them even as they attempt to drain their lives away. The effect on morale can only be devastating...

Of course, this also begs the question - what happens to the plagued if the being in charge is killed?



Comments, thoughts, improvements, theories, and tales of using these creatures in your games all welcome :)

Damos Taranth
2009-03-10, 08:52 PM
For quick reference, since the wall of text makes it a little hard to see what does what:

Immune: Fatigue, Morale effects, fear, changing emotion
Work as normal: Sneak attack, fort save effects, ability drain, poison, mind-effecting affects

Healed by inflict, damaged by cure

All other spells which effect undead and (base class) differently use the larger effect, whether positive or negative.

Do not require food, water, sleep or air - but usually do not know this.

'Die' when at 0 hp, but continue to naturally heal until they come back above 0 hp (3hp per HD per day)

All 'detect' spells - including detect evil, undead, and magic - show them as ordinary (base class), no lingering magic.

'Calm Emotions' destroys them instantly and permanently, no save.

SoD
2009-03-12, 06:42 PM
These are...brilliant. I love the concept, and you seem to have statted it up nicely. I can't wait to run a campaign centred around these sometime...

Arachu
2009-03-12, 08:49 PM
Holy damn, this is awesome :smalleek:

Also, I can easily see the infected disbanding, dying, or going even crazier when the source is killed. Here's some scenarios I can imagine-

A) (disband) [PCs] "Oh, ****, they're running! Stop them! Close the gates, do something!"

B) (die) well, that would just be depressing...

C) (frenzy) This is my favorite one; the infected are freed from their emotion-locks... Only to lose the ability to control their emotions at all. That terrified little girl's suddenly a howling demon. Those screaming, cackling, and crying masses suddenly go red-eyes and... Well, I'll assume you've played Half-Life, because this is a good one. You know the fast zombies? The screaming, growling, flesh-absent, gutter-climbing, roof-jumping zombies? Something like that... :belkar:


Now for nitpicking; how would an anger-locked react to a dead ally? Also - this is important - how quickly does it kill you? Is it possible to be infected by a leader and not know it? If so, could you drop dead laughing, or for that matter, playful?

Oh, dear gods, the playful ones... That'd just be... Terrifying... :smalleek: :smalleek: :smalleek:

And again, you are epic. This rocks. Keep this kinda work up :smallbiggrin:

Damos Taranth
2009-03-22, 06:04 PM
Holy damn, this is awesome :smalleek:

Also, I can easily see the infected disbanding, dying, or going even crazier when the source is killed. Here's some scenarios I can imagine-

A) (disband) [PCs] "Oh, ****, they're running! Stop them! Close the gates, do something!"

B) (die) well, that would just be depressing...

C) (frenzy) This is my favorite one; the infected are freed from their emotion-locks... Only to lose the ability to control their emotions at all. That terrified little girl's suddenly a howling demon. Those screaming, cackling, and crying masses suddenly go red-eyes and... Well, I'll assume you've played Half-Life, because this is a good one. You know the fast zombies? The screaming, growling, flesh-absent, gutter-climbing, roof-jumping zombies? Something like that... :belkar:


Now for nitpicking; how would an anger-locked react to a dead ally? Also - this is important - how quickly does it kill you? Is it possible to be infected by a leader and not know it? If so, could you drop dead laughing, or for that matter, playful?

Oh, dear gods, the playful ones... That'd just be... Terrifying... :smalleek: :smalleek: :smalleek:

And again, you are epic. This rocks. Keep this kinda work up :smallbiggrin:


An anger-locked would react the same way to a dead ally it would react to everything else: Angrily. XD The anger-locked are the least capable of realising when they're overmatched, and like raging berserkers tend to fight until they can't anymore.

It kills... as fast as you can lose levels. Something with one hit dice will die instantly (given a failed save, and having one hit dice, that's probably forgone), and probably never know what hit them - indeed, not knowing you're dead is a big part of this. (One awesome moment I had when using this was an attempted interrogation - unable to prevent a ragelocked attacking them long enough to get answers, they killed it and cast speak with dead, and actually got BETTER answers than they otherwise would have because the corpse's memory stopped when it DIED - and thus described the last people it saw before it went nuts, which it would have had trouble doing otherwise.)

Yes, you could most definately drop dead laughing or playful. The infector in my game used a two-pronged attack to get the peasant class and the noble class - the male (paranoia-locked) would go amongst the peasants claiming to be a doctor and attempting to 'treat' the disease - in reality, spreading it - and the female (lust-locked) would insinuate her way into the noble's houses and use her touch to convince them to have some fun... and they all died playful. ^_^