jdrich
2006-07-31, 10:19 PM
Rimeghral
A rimeghral is an undead creature, usually a powerful evil creature but sometimes a fallen hero who has inadvertantly given himself to the ice.
A rimeghral is withered corpse whose flesh has been preserved by the eternal cold. Similar in appearance to a mummy, a rimeghral's flesh is blackened with frostbite and its eyes glow with a cold inner light
Rimeghrals speak Common plus any other languages they knew in life. A rimeghral's voice is hoarse and scratchy, and they almost always speak in a whisper.
Becoming a Rimeghral
"Rimeghral" is an acquired template that can be added to any humanoid, giant, or monstrous humanoid (referred to hereafter as the base creature).
A rimeghral has all the base creature’s statistics and special abilities except as noted here.
Size and Type
The creature’s type changes to undead. Do not recalculate base attack bonus, saves, or skill points. Size is unchanged. The creature gains the cold subtype.
Hit Dice
Increase all current and future Hit Dice to d12s.
Armor Class
A rimeghral has a +7 natural armor bonus or the base creature’s natural armor bonus, whichever is better.
Attack
Upon becoming a rimeghral, the base creature gains a touch attack that drains 1d6 Strength from the target, Fortitude save for half.
Full Attack
A rimeghral fighting without weapons uses either its touch attack (see above) or its natural weapons (if it has any). If armed with a weapon, it usually uses the weapon as its primary attack along with a touch as a natural secondary attack, provided it has a way to make that attack (either a free hand or a natural weapon that it can use as a secondary attack).
Special Attacks
A rimeghral retains all the base creature’s special attacks and gains those described below.
Save DCs are equal to 10 + ½ rimeghral’s HD + rimeghral's Cha modifier unless otherwise noted.
Chilling Aura (Su)
Rimeghrals are shrouded in a heart shattering aura of cold, hatred, and death.
Creatures with less HD than the rimeghral in a 30-foot radius must succeed on a Will save or become exhausted. Success means that they are merely fatigued. All other creatures must save or become fatigued. A creature that successfully saves cannot be affected again by the rimeghral's aura for 24 hours.
Chilling Gaze (Su)
Any living creature that meets the gaze of a rimeghral must make a Will save. Failure means that the creature feels some portion of the icy torment that the rimeghral experienced. The target takes 2d6 charisma damage and is stunned so long as the rimeghral maintains its gaze.
Spells
A rimeghral can cast any spells it could cast while alive.
Special Qualities
A rimeghral retains all the base creature’s special qualities and gains those described below.
Turn Resistance (Ex)
A rimeghral has +8 turn resistance.
Immunities (Ex)
Rimeghrals have mmunity to cold, poison, sleep effects, paralysis, stunning, disease, death effects, all mind-affecting effects (charms, compulsions, phantasms, patterns, and morale effects) damage to its physical ability scores (Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution), as well as to fatigue and exhaustion effects.
Rimeghrals are vulnerable to fire and fire effects, and take extra damage from fire attacks (See Cold Subtype)
Abilities
Increase from the base creature as follows: Str +4, Wis +4, Cha +6. Being undead, a rimeghral has no Constitution score.
Skills
+8 to Spot, Listen, Search, and Sense Motive checks. Otherwise, Same as the base creature.
Organization
Solitary.
Challenge Rating
Same as the base creature + 3.
Treasure
Usually none
Alignment
Any evil or any chaotic.
Advancement
By character class.
Level Adjustment
Same as the base creature +5.
Rimeghral Characters
Becoming Rimeghral involves unspeakable pain and agony. The ritual can only begin on the longest night of the year. Within a circle of eight runed 12' pillars of volcanic glass worth at least 5000 GP each, soaked in frost giant or white dragon blood and pounded into the ice, the base creature must gouge out its eyes with shards of ice or the teeth of a white dragon and replace them with two ice crystals mined from deep within the core of a glacier. It must then remove all of its clothing and lay on the ice within the circle until its skin has turned to black from frostbite and its lungs have been consumed by the cold.
The rimeghral must wait in agony for the next snow - days, possibly months - held on the brink of death, feeling only the pulse of the terrible cold through its viens. When the next snow comes, and the base creature is caught beneath it, it is finally allowed to die.
After the base creature dies, it rises the next night as its undead self. At this point, the rimeghral perminantly loses one level. Completion of the ritual consumes the pillars of glass and leaves in thier place eight shards of unnaturally blackened ice which pulse with a dark inner light. The rimeghral usually hides seven of the shards of ice in deep caverns unaccessable to all but the most intrepid of explorers. The shards, called rimeghrairn, hold the living essence of the rimeghral and also act as beacons - a rimeghral may never be farther than ten miles away from one of its rimeghrairn.
Much like a lich, when a rimeghral is destroyed it is not truly dead. Each time a rimeghral is destroyed, its essence traces its way back to one of its rimeghrairn. The rimeghrairn, usually frozen within the ice, slowly alters the ice around it to be a new body for the rimeghral. The rimeghrairn is destroyed in the process. If the rimegrairn is not near any ice because it has been moved, the rimeghral will persist at that location until the rimeghral is destroyed, and then move on to the next rimeghrairn.
It takes a rimeghrairn 1d10 days to generate a new body. When the body is first created, it is fully intact as before the rimeghral took part in the ritual. The rimeghral must again remove its eyes (in any manner available, usually by hand), and then wait, encased within the ice for another 1d10 days, while the new body 'ripens'. Failure to do so means that the energy of the rimeghrairn expires after 10 days, and the rimeghral must travel to the next rimeghrairn or perish.
Unlike a lich, who persists until his phylactery is destroyed, a rimeghral can only perish after all of its rimeghrairn are destroyed, which is both a blessing and a curse - it can hide its rimeghrairn whereever it wishes, but can only perish eight times before being utterly destroyed.
A rimeghrairn must be kept at a temperature below freezing at all times. If at any time it is exposed to fire, it is instantly destroyed and explodes in a burst of negative energy, dealing 1d6 damage per HD of the rimeghrul to anyone within 120', Will save for half. If the rimeghrairn is moved to a location that is above freezing, it slowly leaks negative energy, persisting for 2d6 days before it loses its magical energy and becomes a simple block of ice, which soon melts.
Many different types of creatures become Rimeghals, though frost giants make up the largest of thier number. Many times a good or neutral creature will opt to become a rimeghral because he or she believes that they will be able to serve thier cause forever. Often times, the taxing of the ritual and the trauma involves twists them into putrid visages of thier former selves.
A rimeghral is an undead creature, usually a powerful evil creature but sometimes a fallen hero who has inadvertantly given himself to the ice.
A rimeghral is withered corpse whose flesh has been preserved by the eternal cold. Similar in appearance to a mummy, a rimeghral's flesh is blackened with frostbite and its eyes glow with a cold inner light
Rimeghrals speak Common plus any other languages they knew in life. A rimeghral's voice is hoarse and scratchy, and they almost always speak in a whisper.
Becoming a Rimeghral
"Rimeghral" is an acquired template that can be added to any humanoid, giant, or monstrous humanoid (referred to hereafter as the base creature).
A rimeghral has all the base creature’s statistics and special abilities except as noted here.
Size and Type
The creature’s type changes to undead. Do not recalculate base attack bonus, saves, or skill points. Size is unchanged. The creature gains the cold subtype.
Hit Dice
Increase all current and future Hit Dice to d12s.
Armor Class
A rimeghral has a +7 natural armor bonus or the base creature’s natural armor bonus, whichever is better.
Attack
Upon becoming a rimeghral, the base creature gains a touch attack that drains 1d6 Strength from the target, Fortitude save for half.
Full Attack
A rimeghral fighting without weapons uses either its touch attack (see above) or its natural weapons (if it has any). If armed with a weapon, it usually uses the weapon as its primary attack along with a touch as a natural secondary attack, provided it has a way to make that attack (either a free hand or a natural weapon that it can use as a secondary attack).
Special Attacks
A rimeghral retains all the base creature’s special attacks and gains those described below.
Save DCs are equal to 10 + ½ rimeghral’s HD + rimeghral's Cha modifier unless otherwise noted.
Chilling Aura (Su)
Rimeghrals are shrouded in a heart shattering aura of cold, hatred, and death.
Creatures with less HD than the rimeghral in a 30-foot radius must succeed on a Will save or become exhausted. Success means that they are merely fatigued. All other creatures must save or become fatigued. A creature that successfully saves cannot be affected again by the rimeghral's aura for 24 hours.
Chilling Gaze (Su)
Any living creature that meets the gaze of a rimeghral must make a Will save. Failure means that the creature feels some portion of the icy torment that the rimeghral experienced. The target takes 2d6 charisma damage and is stunned so long as the rimeghral maintains its gaze.
Spells
A rimeghral can cast any spells it could cast while alive.
Special Qualities
A rimeghral retains all the base creature’s special qualities and gains those described below.
Turn Resistance (Ex)
A rimeghral has +8 turn resistance.
Immunities (Ex)
Rimeghrals have mmunity to cold, poison, sleep effects, paralysis, stunning, disease, death effects, all mind-affecting effects (charms, compulsions, phantasms, patterns, and morale effects) damage to its physical ability scores (Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution), as well as to fatigue and exhaustion effects.
Rimeghrals are vulnerable to fire and fire effects, and take extra damage from fire attacks (See Cold Subtype)
Abilities
Increase from the base creature as follows: Str +4, Wis +4, Cha +6. Being undead, a rimeghral has no Constitution score.
Skills
+8 to Spot, Listen, Search, and Sense Motive checks. Otherwise, Same as the base creature.
Organization
Solitary.
Challenge Rating
Same as the base creature + 3.
Treasure
Usually none
Alignment
Any evil or any chaotic.
Advancement
By character class.
Level Adjustment
Same as the base creature +5.
Rimeghral Characters
Becoming Rimeghral involves unspeakable pain and agony. The ritual can only begin on the longest night of the year. Within a circle of eight runed 12' pillars of volcanic glass worth at least 5000 GP each, soaked in frost giant or white dragon blood and pounded into the ice, the base creature must gouge out its eyes with shards of ice or the teeth of a white dragon and replace them with two ice crystals mined from deep within the core of a glacier. It must then remove all of its clothing and lay on the ice within the circle until its skin has turned to black from frostbite and its lungs have been consumed by the cold.
The rimeghral must wait in agony for the next snow - days, possibly months - held on the brink of death, feeling only the pulse of the terrible cold through its viens. When the next snow comes, and the base creature is caught beneath it, it is finally allowed to die.
After the base creature dies, it rises the next night as its undead self. At this point, the rimeghral perminantly loses one level. Completion of the ritual consumes the pillars of glass and leaves in thier place eight shards of unnaturally blackened ice which pulse with a dark inner light. The rimeghral usually hides seven of the shards of ice in deep caverns unaccessable to all but the most intrepid of explorers. The shards, called rimeghrairn, hold the living essence of the rimeghral and also act as beacons - a rimeghral may never be farther than ten miles away from one of its rimeghrairn.
Much like a lich, when a rimeghral is destroyed it is not truly dead. Each time a rimeghral is destroyed, its essence traces its way back to one of its rimeghrairn. The rimeghrairn, usually frozen within the ice, slowly alters the ice around it to be a new body for the rimeghral. The rimeghrairn is destroyed in the process. If the rimegrairn is not near any ice because it has been moved, the rimeghral will persist at that location until the rimeghral is destroyed, and then move on to the next rimeghrairn.
It takes a rimeghrairn 1d10 days to generate a new body. When the body is first created, it is fully intact as before the rimeghral took part in the ritual. The rimeghral must again remove its eyes (in any manner available, usually by hand), and then wait, encased within the ice for another 1d10 days, while the new body 'ripens'. Failure to do so means that the energy of the rimeghrairn expires after 10 days, and the rimeghral must travel to the next rimeghrairn or perish.
Unlike a lich, who persists until his phylactery is destroyed, a rimeghral can only perish after all of its rimeghrairn are destroyed, which is both a blessing and a curse - it can hide its rimeghrairn whereever it wishes, but can only perish eight times before being utterly destroyed.
A rimeghrairn must be kept at a temperature below freezing at all times. If at any time it is exposed to fire, it is instantly destroyed and explodes in a burst of negative energy, dealing 1d6 damage per HD of the rimeghrul to anyone within 120', Will save for half. If the rimeghrairn is moved to a location that is above freezing, it slowly leaks negative energy, persisting for 2d6 days before it loses its magical energy and becomes a simple block of ice, which soon melts.
Many different types of creatures become Rimeghals, though frost giants make up the largest of thier number. Many times a good or neutral creature will opt to become a rimeghral because he or she believes that they will be able to serve thier cause forever. Often times, the taxing of the ritual and the trauma involves twists them into putrid visages of thier former selves.