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View Full Version : The Sangrolu (Bloodlich) Updated to 3.5 with Extras! [PEACH] [3.5]



Rolep
2013-08-11, 07:30 AM
Opening Comments
Recently, I found an old thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=185813)on the forums by umbrapolaris. They posted that they had found a 3e conversion of a really cool 2e monster a couple of years back, which they used to great effect, but they couldn’t find it any more. They decided to post what they could of it for others to see and use. I looked at it, and decided that it had excellent fluff and was a cool idea, but its abilities were badly written and not all of them worked. Here I have attempted to update it for 3.5e and fix some of its problems. Many of the abilities have changed, and some of the fluff has been changed and lost, but that it how conversions tend to work (at least when I’m around). I would like people to peach everything about it, from its brokenness to its power to its CR to its presentation to its (probably bad) spelling. I know that they are both powerful and difficult to kill, but remember that this is epic level, where characters have a vast array of options and can do almost anything. Also, note that these templates are to be added to a creature that must already be at least CR 20 and ECL 26. Anyway, here is my take on the sangrolu (along with my own creation, the zolhkaarolu, and some other planned stuff).
THE SANGROLU (BLOODLICH): Mark II

http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs48/i/2009/178/f/9/Vampire_Girl_by_catzav3ncu.jpg
Image by catzav3ncu of DeviantArt

“Power is whatever you need to win. To win you must be unslayable, hold power over life and death and make worlds bow to your will. There is but one true path to power. They call me the sangrolu.”
-Zolhkaar

This impenetrable mist that flows about you part, revealing an emaciated, bone-white figure. Its muscles and bones show clearly through the translucent miasma of its skin, and ink-black veins pulse across its regal body. It stands proudly, like an emperor, and wears long, flowing robes and cloaks woven with rich metals and precious jewels. It seems almost human, until you look at its face. Long, drawn and bony, the jawbones seem sharp enough to cut, and its hair is long and straight. Its eyes glow blood-red, burning with inner fire, and from its frightening array of fangs drips vile, viscous ichor. It wears a calculated smile as it hovers towards you, moving with cold efficiency.

Undead are perhaps the most fearsome of foes that adventurers can face. Nigh invulnerable to almost any attack that a fighter, wizard or rogue can muster and equipped with devastating special powers, they are as much the bane of a quest as any dragon. And the pinnacle of such power is a goal that all who hunger for power desire. That goal is the sangrolu.
Two of the most powerful undead in existence are the vampire and the lich. The vampire is immensely strong and possessed of frightening strength-draining abilities, and can save itself from the brink of death by retreating into its coffin. The lich is a skilled spellcaster who augments their power with a phylactery that hides their soul, preventing their death. Many eons ago, their existence spawned an abomination.
Tales are still told of Zolhkaar. Before time was defined and the material plane created, the gods strove against nameless demons who sought to topple them. These demons lacked the raw power of the gods, but they were born with cunning. They tricked and mislead their foes, sending them to their doom against nameless threats and even each other. Their onslaught never ceased, though countless gods died in battle against them.
Zolhkaar was a minor deity, fighting in the front line. He had millennia of experience and understood the thought processes of his foes. He brewed a plan, which he showed to the goddess of life and death, whose name has been lost to the annuls of time.
She granted him life eternal, as long as he could sustain himself of the blood of his foes. Invigorated, he leapt into battle, and legions upon legions of demons fell before him. The god who was beyond death, he quickly grew in power until he was among the mightiest of deities. The gods praised and worshipped him, and within a few decades he had driven the menace of demonkind from the multiverse. To honour him, they held a great feast, filled with succulent meat and ambrosia.
Zolhkaar was not hungry. He seemed moody and angry at everyone. The gods could not understand it. It was his victory, after all. Only the goddess of life smiled gravely at his snappy remarks. She knew exactly what was going on.
The next day she was found dead in her own palace, and two punctures on her neck were her only injury. Zolhkaar had disappeared, and no matter what the gods did, they could not find him. Ages passed, and he passed from memory. The material plane was wrought as the haven of mortals, a land which the gods could protect and rule. Then their servants began to change.
It was a slow process. Every now and then a mortal would sway from the path of godhood and choose a darker road, developing strange abilities. Nothing could slay it, and it hungered for the blood of its fellows. The gods began to wonder, and they remembered their turned hero Zolhkaar. Angrily, they scoured the entire plane for him, cornering him in a palace of obsidian and adamantine.
He did not balk before their anger. He merely shrugged. “It is my price for saving you,” he told them. They were not happy with his words, and told him to cease his murder and return to heaven to answer for his crimes. He merely chuckled at their threats.
More gods died in that battle than in the entire war against the demons. He walked among them striking them down, while they could not so much as touch him. In the end, the survivors warped the very essence of the plane to be his bane. They made the wood of trees fatal to the touch, and the sheen of water and metal a repellent. Armed with these weapons, they slew Zolhkaar and proceeded to eradicate the vile spawn that he had left behind.
Zolhkaar was gone. He faded into oblivion for the rest of time. But some say that he still lives, that he invented a ritual that could make him survive the torments of life. Others followed in his footsteps, and claimed to find the ritual themselves. And so Zolhkaar brought the sangrolu into the world.

COMBAT

In combat, a sangrolu is a nightmare. They rarely engage without a full tank of blood points, spells per day, a horde of minions and a specially designed trap. They begin by sending their magically-enhanced minions to distract and hinder their foes. Once the minions have engaged, the sangrolu will make liberal use of their domination and possession abilities to set their foes against each other, using their copious magical power to urge them on. If foes are not neutralized by this, the sangrolu will use their spells more directly. A sangrolu never enters melee unless severely pressed, preferring to incapacitate foes before moving in to drink blood. A sangrolu is not afraid of being slain, since it is just forced to revert to gaseous form, but it is still a cautious combatant that never takes unnecessary risk.

RITUAL OF THE DEATHWEAVE

Ritual of the Deathweave
Necromancy
Effective Level: 9th
Skill Check: Craft (alchemy) DC 40, 3 successes, Knowledge (arcana) DC 40, 3 successes, Knowledge (religon) DC 40, 3 successes
Failure: Mirrorcast
Components: V,S,M,F,Ritual
Casting Time: One Night (Lunar Eclipse)
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: Instantaneous

At the zenith of a Lunar Eclipse you feed a maiden of your race poisoned soil from your grave (Fort; DC 20 + 1 per HD you have) and then drink her blood as she dies. The poison, mixed with her blood, causes your body to wither into ash and you to die. You soul enters your Phylactery for the first time and your body is reformed after 3 days. When the sun rises, you will fear it no more. You are a Sangrolu now.

Failure: Mirrorcast. The creature becomes a Sangrolu either way, however if you fail you instead rise as a Broken Sangrolu (see below). A Broken Sangrolu’s phylactery is immediately destroyed, but it may remake it and try to ascend again at a later date. The ritual automatically fails if the creature is not a Vampire.

Material Component: Poisoned Soil. This must be created by the aspirant himself and requires the spells Poison, Undeath to Death and Create Greater Undead, the Brew Potions feat and the expenditure of 80,000gp and 2,000xp.

Focus: Phylactery. This must be created by the aspirant himself and requires the spells Astral Projection and Magic Jar or Soul Bind, the Craft Wondrous Items feat and the expenditure of 120,000gp and 6,000xp.

Backlash: In addition to the temporary death of the caster, the newly created Sangrolu is nauseated (despite the usual Undead immunity) for a year and a day after their rebirth.

BROKEN SANGROLU

A broken sangrolu is formed when a sangrolu fails the ritual of the deathweave or has their phylactery destroyed. A broken sangrolu loses their overcome weakness, entropic essence, incarnadine manipulation and death state abilities and is forced to imbibe 1 blood point per HD per day or die.
They resemble sangrolu’s in many respects, but their flesh is yellow-green and falling from their bones, and their black juices coat their skin with a sickly sheen.

TEMPLATE

“Sangrolu” is a template that can be added to any creature with one or more of the vampire, monstrous vampire, dread vampire or vampiric dragon templates, and that has completed the ritual of the deathweave and has a caster level of 18 or higher (hereafter referred to as the base vampire).

Hit Dice: The base vampire gains maximum hit points per hit die, and gains bonus hit points equal to the number of hit die that the base vampire has multiplied by their charisma modifier.

Size and Type: The base vampire gains the [evil] subtype.

Speed: The base vampire’s speed triples, for all movement types. In addition, the base vampire gains a supernatural fly speed equal to its new base land speed (perfect manoeuvrability).

Armour Class: The base vampire gains a profane bonus to armour class equal to its HD.

Attack: The base vampire retains any natural weapons and weapon proficiencies, and gains a touch attack that is useable once per round.

Full Attack: The touch attack may be used as a secondary attack as part of the full attack action.

Damage: The sangrolu’s touch attack does 1d6/HD negative energy damage to living creatures. Against undead and other beings healed by negative energy damage, this attack instead heals an identical number of hit points. The sangrolu can use this attack to heal itself.

Special Attacks: The sangrolu retains all the base vampire’s special attacks, and gains the ones described below. Unless otherwise mentioned, the saving throw DCs for a sangrolu’s special attack is equal to 10 + half the Sangrolu’s HD + the sangrolu’s charisma modifier.

Blood Drain (Su): The sangrolu possesses an insatiable desire for blood, which it satisfies liberally and greedily. This ability functions as the base vampire’s ability of the same name, but a sangrolu’s blood drain inflicts 2d6 points of Constitution drain each round the pin is maintained. Furthermore, the sangrolu does not gain temporary hit points from draining blood, but instead gains 1 blood point per HD of the drained creature. These blood points are added to a blood point pool, from where they can be spent to perform a variety of special attacks. A sangrolu may never have more blood points than 20 times its HD.

Children of Unlight (Su): The sangrolu can send out terrible waves of hate and fear, drawing the terrors of the dark to its side. This ability functions like children of the night, but all creatures summoned by this ability serve the sangrolu until released. Further, the sangrolu can sense through the senses of any such creatures, and communicate telepathically with them, to a range of 10 miles. By spending 10 blood points, all creatures summoned by a use of this ability gain the Zombie template and the following benefits:
• Improve the creatures natural armor bonus by 10
• The creature gains Fast Healing 3.
• Improve the creatures Strength and Charisma by +20.
• The creature gains a Spell-like ability, which it can use once per day, from the following list: Circle of Death, Cloudkill, Cone of Cold, Confusion, Contagion, Creeping Doom, Greater Dispel Magic, Greater Invisibility, Haste, Hold Monster, See Invisibility, Unholy Blight. The save DC is charisma-based.

Crimson Doom (Su): A sangrolu is the undisputed master of blood, and can imbue it with malevolent intelligence. By spending 13 blood points as a swift action, it may summon a single crimson death anywhere within the range of its mist. The sangrolu can sense through the senses of any summoned crimson death and communicate telepathically with them to a range of 10 miles. These crimson deaths serve the sangrolu until released.

Domination (Su): A sangrolu can seize control of people’s minds with a simple look or word, such is its power over life. This ability functions as the base vampire’s ability of the same name, but the range is 300ft, and this ability can target any creature that can hear or see the sangrolu. In addition, the sangrolu may use this ability once per round as a free action, in addition to any other uses.

Energy Drain (Su): A sangrolu hungers for blood, but it can survive of raw vitality. This ability functions as the base vampire’s ability of the same name, but a creature struck by its touch attack or natural attack now takes five negative levels.

Entropic Essence (Su): A sangrolu can send its blood into the minds of living things, twisting them to its desires. Any living being that drinks the sangrolu’s blood (requiring the sangrolu to spend 10 blood points) must make a Will save or become the Sangrolu's unwilling thrall, as under the effects of a Dominate Monster spell, with the following modifications:
• Whenever they would attempt an action against their nature, they receive a -4 penalty to the Will save to resist it (instead of a +2 bonus).
• Self-Destructive actions are performed unless the subject succeeds a new Will save at a -4 penalty.
• Drinking an additional 10 blood points of the Sangrolu’s blood causes the creature to suffer a cumulative -2 penalty to all saves induced by this ability for 24 hours.
• The effect is permanent.
• The subject does not receive a new save if the sangrolu does not concentrate on the spell for one round each day.
The Sangrolu's blood is highly addictive and is treated as having an Addiction rating of Vicious (DC 36 or the creature feels the endless desire to have more blood). Casting a Miracle spell at a Caster level higher than the Sangrolu's HD and then having the Victim drink Holy Water will cure the Victim. The Victim will fight to it's very best to resist any attempts to cure it of its addiction.

Feral Spawn (Su): The spawn of a sangrolu drain a little of their master’s essence, gaining powers beyond those of a normal vampire. Any humanoid or monstrous humanoid killed by a sangrolu rises as a feral vampire under the sangrolu’s control. All spawn of a sangrolu serve until their or their master’s death, and nothing else can free them from their servitude. This replaces the vampire’s Create Spawn ability.

Incarnadine Manipulation (Ex): The mind, like blood, is easy to control, and sangrolus have refined this art to it vile pinnacle. A sangrolu in gaseous form may possess another creature of the humanoid or monstrous humanoid types, as long as they are within the area of its ephemeral miasma. This is done by spending a standard action to pass into their body by any orifice available. The creature that is to be possessed immediately makes a Will save. If they succeed, they expel the sangrolu from their body into an adjacent space. If they fail, the sangrolu takes control of their body. The sangrolu replaces its hit points, strength, dexterity, natural and extraordinary abilities with the creature’s ones, with the following exceptions:
• The Sangrolu uses its own Fast Healing and Regeneration.
• The Sangrolu may take actions as normally and may use the possessed body as it were its own.
The sangrolu can voluntarily cease their possession of the creature as an immediate action, but apart from a Banishment spell cast with a caster level that exceeds the HD of the Sangrolu, there is nothing that can force a Sangrolu to leave the body of a possessed creature. By spending a full 10 minutes, the Sangrolu can kill the possessed creature and cause it to reanimate as a Feral Vampire under the Sangrolu's control.

Lurid Demise (Ex): A sangrolu pollutes and corrupts in drained blood into a sickly poison, which it can re-inject into its victims with a bite. Whenever the sangrolu drains blood via its blood drain ability, the sangrolu may sacrifice 5 blood points to replace the drained blood with its vile ichor. This is a poison effect, and is negated by a fortitude save. Initial damage is paralysis, as if the target has failed their saving throw against the sangrolu’s paralyzing touch ability. Secondary damage is death.

Paralyzing Touch (Su): A sangrolu can freeze the very blood within its victim’s body with just a touch. Any living creature that a sangrolu hits with its touch attack must succeed on a Fortitude save or be permanently paralyzed. A Break Enchantment spell casted at a higher level than the Sangrolu's HD removes this condition. This effect cannot be dispelled. Anyone paralyzed by a sangrolu seems dead, though a DC 50 Heal check or a DC 70 spot check reveals that the victim is still alive.

Sanguine Arcana (Su): A sangrolus ascension to power would have been impossible without mighty magic, and it has learned to use the life force of its victims to fuel its necromantic rituals. A sangrolu can burn up its blood to enhance its magical powers. They may spend no more blood points than 1 point per HD per round. The points can be spent as follows:
• For every three points spent, the sangrolu can increase their effective caster level by one for all purposes of the spell.
• For every five points spent, the sangrolu can increase the range by one stage (personal to touch to close to medium to long), or the damage dice size by one stage (as if each damage die were a weapon wielded by a creature one size category larger than normal).
• For every six points spent, the sangrolu can increase the save DC of the spell by one.
• For every nine points spent, the sangrolu can increase the duration of a spell by one stage (rounds to minutes to hours to days to weeks to months to years).
• For every twelve points, the sangrolu can ignore a single immunity possessed by the target of the spell.

Special Qualities: A sangrolu retains all the special qualities of the base vampire and gains those listed below.

Alternate Form (Su): Mastery over life and death is in a sangrolu’s hands. Compared to that, mastery over bodily form is a trifle. The Sangrolu can change into any form as per the Polymorph spell as a Standard action. This is cast at a caster level equal to the Sangrolu's HD.

Damage Reduction (Ex): A sangrolu is highly resistant to mortal weapons. It gains DR 25/epic and silver and good. A sangrolu’s natural attacks are considered epic, silver and evil for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.

Deathspell: The interplay of life and death itself fuels a sangrolu’s magic, and no action is required to summon it. A sangrolu’s spells are treated as if they have the silent spell and still spell metamagic feats applied to them, without any difference to their level, whenever the sangrolu is in gaseous form.

Death State (Ex): A sangrolu has learned the secrets of surviving beyond destruction. Should a sangrolu fall to zero hit points, its body crumbles to grave dirt and black poison, and it immediately revert to gaseous form. It may not take their natural form until 3 days have passed, nor may it use their teleport object effect on its phylactery. This replaces what happens to a normal vampire upon reaching zero hit points.

Drain Knowledge: Death is but the first peril for those who suffer the terrible fate of being slain by a sangrolu. Whenever a Sangrolu drinks the blood of a creature, it may enter a trance to pick information from the blood of the creature. This must be done within an hour after drinking the Blood of the creature. During this trance the Sangrolu is considered helpless and may now interrogate the creature as through a Speak with Dead spell with the following limitations:
• The Sangrolu may ask a single question per 4HD that the creature possessed (rounded down, minimum 1).
• Each question takes a full round to ask and receive answers.
• The question will be answered as honestly as possible. If the creature does not know the answer it will admit to it.

Ephemeral Miasma (Ex): A sangrolu’s body is far more than what it seems. The very air about it is its to command. A Sangrolu in its natural or gaseous form continuously emits a thick mist from its bodies. The mist is heavier than air, and slowly falls from its bodies and washes across the ground. The mist is supernatural in origin, and is not affected by wind or even submersion.
If the Sangrolu spends a Full-round action, it can control the flow of the mist and may see and hear in any location where the mist is present. The nature of the mist forces it to remain within 5 feet of a surface (solid or otherwise). By spending a Full-round action, the Sangrolu may deactivate its mist and allow it to dissipate over a number of rounds equal to the Sangrolu's HD.
The sangrolu, its spawn and its crimson deaths gain special benefits from the mist. They gain concealment against all creatures adjacent to them and total concealment against all nonadjacent creatures. In addition, while is gaseous form, they gain a +20 circumstance bonus to hide checks while within the mist. Finally, they may use any natural attack that they possess as if they are corporeal, even when incorporeal or in gaseous form.

Fast Healing (Ex): A sangrolu’s injuries heal at an impossible rate. This ability functions as the vampire ability of the same name, but a sangrolu’s fast healing increases to 25.

Gaseous Form (Su): A sangrolu can dissolve their physical form into their mist, granting it incredible manoeuvrability and alacrity. This ability functions as the vampire ability of the same name, but a sangrolu can assume gaseous form as a free action, fly at a speed of 500ft while in it, and cast spells normally while in it.

Gore Potency (Su): A sangrolu never needs to resort to brute force, but it can augment its power should it need to. A sangrolu may increase its Strength or Dexterity; 1 point of blood must be spent per point of Strength or Dexterity gained. This increase lasts for one minute, and a sangrolu may never raise a single ability score via this ability by more than their HD at any one time.

Host Memory Retention (Ex): The memories of those whose bodies the sangrolu steals are like an open book for those cruel enough to read. A sangrolu can read the memories of any creature that it is possessing. As a free action, the sangrolu gains access to all memories possessed by the possessed creature. The sangrolu does not gain skill ranks, feats, spells, class abilities or any other ability of the possessed creature, but it does gain knowledge of what abilities the possessed creature possesses.

Immunities (Ex): A sangrolu is immune to cold, electricity, turn undead and polymorph. In addition, all vile damage dealt to a sangrolu is treated as normal damage instead.

Overcome Weakness (Ex): Nothing can constrain the black power of the sangrolu. A sangrolu does not possess any of the weaknesses possessed by the base vampire (such as vampire weaknesses, vulnerability to fire or light sensitivity).

Phylactery (Su): A sangrolu who completes the ritual of the deathweave (see above) gains a phylactery in which it hides its sundered soul. The phylactery has hardness 25, 50 hit points and fast healing 25. If the sangrolu’s phylactery is destroyed, the sangrolu becomes a broken sangrolu (see above). A sangrolu may use teleport object on its phylactery at will as a swift action. No magic may prevent this effect.

Vile Vigour (Su): A sangrolu may spend the energy in their blood to repair damage to themself. A sangrolu may, as a free action that may be taken even when it is not the sangrolu’s turn, heal 5 hit point by spending 1 blood point.

Abilities: Dex: +6, Int: +4, Wis: +4, Cha: +6

Skills: A sangrolu has a +16 racial bonus to bluff, hide, listen, search, sense motive and spot checks.

Feats: A sangrolu gains dextrous fortitude, epic reflexes, ignore material components, improved combat reflexes and superior initiative as bonus feats.

Environment: Any

Organization: Solitary or Hunting Party (1 sangrolu + 1-12 feral vampire slaves + 12 crimson deaths).

Challenge Rating: Same as base vampire +4

Treasure: Triple Standard

Alignment: Always evil (any)

Advancement: By character class

Level Adjustment: +4

Mark I
“Sangrolu” is a template that can be added to any humanoid or monstrous humanoid with the vampire template (hereafter referred to as the base vampire).

Hit Dice: Double the base vampire’s hit dice. Whenever the base vampire gains a level in a class, they gain an additional hit die (but not an additional level in the class).
Size and Type: Size and Type are Unchanged
Speed: A sangrolu’s speed triples, for all movement types. In addition, a sangrolu gains a supernatural fly speed of 200ft (perfect manoeuvrability).
Armour Class: The sangrolu gains a profane bonus to armour class equal to one-half its HD.
Attack: The sangrolu gains a touch attack that it can use once per round. If the base vampire can use weapons, the sangrolu retains that ability. A base vampire with natural weapons retains those natural weapons. A sangrolu fighting without weapons may use its touch attack or its primary natural weapon (if it has any). A sangrolu armed with a weapon uses its touch attack or a weapon.
Full Attack: A sangrolu fighting without weapons uses its touch attack 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).
Damage: The sangrolu’s touch attack does 1d6/2HD negative energy damage to living creatures. Against undead and other beings healed by negative energy damage, this attack instead heals an identical number of hit points. The sangrolu can use this attack to heal himself.
Special Attacks: The sangrolu retains all the base vampire’s special attacks, and gains the ones described below. Unless otherwise mentioned, the saving throw DCs for a sangrolu’s special attack is equal to 10 + half the Sangrolu’s HD + the sangrolu’s charisma modifier.
Blood Drain (Su): As base vampire, but a sangrolu’s blood drain inflicts 2d6 points of Constitution drain each round the pin is maintained and grants the sangrolu 15 temporary hit points. Furthermore, any temporary hit points gained by this ability are instead added to the sangrolu’s blood point pool, from where they can be spend to perform a variety of special attacks. A sangrolu may never have more blood points than 10 times their HD.
Blood Venom (Ex): The sangrolu gains the ability to inject some of its own vile blood with its bite. Whenever the sangrolu drains blood via its blood drain ability, the sangrolu may sacrifice 1 blood point per point of constitution drained by the blood drain ability to replace the drained blood with its vile ichor. This is a poison effect. Initial damage is vile Constitution burn equal to the Constitution drain dealt by the blood drain. Secondary damage is death.
Blood Spell Power (Su): A sangrolu can spend blood points to increase the power of their spells. They may spend no more than 1 point per HD on a single spell. The points can be spent as follows:
• For every two points spent, the sangrolu can increase their effective caster level by one for a single purpose of the spell (e.g. range, duration etc.).
• For every three points spent, the sangrolu can increase their effective caster level by one for all purposes of the spell.
• For every five points spent, the sangrolu can increase the damage dice size by one stage (d4 to d6 to d8 to d10 to d12 to d20) or the range by one stage (personal to touch to close to medium to long).
• For every six points spent, the sangrolu can increase the save DC of the spell by one.
• For every ten points spent, the sangrolu can increase the duration of a spell by one stage (rounds to minutes to hours to days to weeks to months to years).
• For every fifteen points, the sangrolu can ignore a single immunity possessed by the target of the spell.
Children of the Night (Su): As base vampire, but the sangrolu may also summon blood amniotes by spending 10 points for each blood amniote created. The amniotes have the evolved undead template applied to them ten times. The blood point cost is also subtracted from the maximum blood points of the sangrolu until the amniote is destroyed. The amniotes appear in any area where the sangrolu’s mist is present. All creatures summoned by this ability serve the sangrolu until released. Further, the sangrolu can sense through the senses of any such commanded creatures, and communicate empathically with them, to a range of 10 miles. There may never be more than twelve amniotes under the sangrolu’s control at any one time.
Create Spawn (Su): As base vampire, but any humanoid or monstrous humanoid killed by a sangrolu’s blood venom ability rises as a feral vampire under the sangrolu’s control. In addition, a sangrolu always creates vampires when they kill humanoids or monstrous humanoids via their energy drain and blood drain abilities (never vampire spawn). All spawn of a sangrolu serve until their or their master’s death, and nothing else can free them from their servitude.
Dark Blood (Su): The necrology of a Sangrolu twists the blood it takes and bonds it to the creature's dark essence. Thus, any being that drinks the blood of a Sangrolu must make a Fortitude Save or become the Sangrolu's absolute slave, as if under the effects of the monstrous thrall spell. Each consecutive time a creature drinks a Sangrolu's blood, they suffer a cumulative -2 penalty to the save. The only way to break the servitude is to use epic magic with the heal seed on the victim after the victim has imbibed a flask of holy water. This process is painful to the slave, and a Fortitude Save must be made, or the slave will permanently lose 1 point of Constitution, whether or not the process is successful.
Domination (Su): As base vampire, but the range is 300ft, and a sangrolu can dominate with his voice as well as his gaze. Thus, as long as the target can either see or hear the vampire, this ability can be used.
Energy Drain (Su): As base vampire, but a creature struck by his touch attack or a natural attack now takes five negative levels. In addition, the sangrolu can add his energy drain to an additional natural attack by spending ten blood points.
Paralyzing Touch (Su): Any living creature a sangrolu hits with its touch attack must succeed on a Fortitude save or be permanently paralyzed. Only pgic with the heal seed can free the victim. The effect cannot be dispelled. Anyone paralyzed by a sangrolu seems dead, though a DC 70 Heal check reveals that the victim is still alive.
Possession (Ex): A sangrolu in gaseous form may possess another creature of the humanoid or monstrous humanoid types. This is done by entering the creature’s space and spending a standard action to pass into their body by any orifice available. The creature that is to be possessed immediately makes a Fortitude save. If they succeed, they expel the sangrolu from their body into their space. If they fail, the sangrolu takes control. The sangrolu replaces their hit points, strength, dexterity, natural and extraordinary abilities with the creature’s ones, with the following exception: the sangrolu does not use the creature’s fast healing or regeneration, instead using its own. The sangrolu may take actions as normal, as if the possessed body were their own. The sangrolu can voluntarily cease their possession of the creature as a swift action, but apart from this only an epic spell using the banish seed cast within either a hallowed, consecrated area or the nine hells of Baator can remove the sangrolu from the creature. If the sangrolu leaves a creature, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, the creature dies and immediately reanimates as a feral vampire under the control of the sangrolu, just as if it had died of the sangrolu’s blood venom.
Special Qualities: A sangrolu retains all the special qualities of the base vampire and gains those listed below.
Alternate Form (Su): A sangrolu can assume the form of any creature as per the spell shapechange used with a caster level equal to the sangrolu’s HD. The sangrolu can use this power at will. The sangrolu can change from one shape to another without having to revert to its humanoid form.
Blood Healing (Su): A sangrolu may spend the energy in their blood to repair damage to themself. A sangrolu may, as a free action that may be taken even when it is not the sangrolu’s turn, heal one hit point by spending one blood point.
Blood Lore: After taking a creature's blood, a Sangrolu may enter a trance, whereby it delves into the life-force of the blood it has taken to learn information about the victim. This must be done within one hour of drinking the blood, any longer means the blood is no longer whole and has mixed with that of the sangrolu. The trance demands absolute concentration, during which the creature is immobile and (relatively) defenceless. In the trance, the sangrolu enters the spirit of the victim, which is still contained in the stolen blood, although it is fading. The sangrolu may gain the answer to a number of questions from the victim's blood, similar to the way a necromancer uses speak with dead. There a number of limitations to this ability:
- Sangrolu may ask one question for every four levels/HD it possesses. In practice, it may only get one answer for each hit point of the victim's blood that it has drained.
- Each question takes at least a full round to ask and receive answer (long answers are up to the DM as to how long they take). Bear in mind the blood is only fit for questioning for 6 turns after drinking.
- The questions will always be answered truthfully. There will be no deceit, for the Sangrolu is not questioning an intelligent creature. However, information cannot be gained from the blood if the victim didn't know it at the time the blood was taken. Sangrolu can get around the time limitation by keeping the victim's blood in a container for later use. As long as it is kept in liquid form, and is kept pure, it will remain useful for questioning.
Blood Force (Su): A sangrolu may increase their Strength or Dexterity; 1 point of blood must be spent per point of Strength or Dexterity gained. This increase lasts for one round, and a sangrolu may never raise a single ability score via this ability by more than their HD at any one time.
Damage Reduction (Ex): DR 25/epic. A sangrolu’s natural attacks are considered epic and silver for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.
Dark Mist (Ex): A Sangrolu in their natural or gaseous form continuously emits a thick mist from their bodies that trails behind them when they move. The mist is heavier than air, and slowly falls from their bodies and washes across the ground like a ghostly waterfall. The mist eventually dissipates, but it adds a distinct, haunting aura to the creature. The mist is supernatural in origin, and is not affected by wind, or even submersion.
The sangrolu's trailing mist is far more than a supernatural oddity. The mist is actually a part of the creature's physical form and dark essence. If the sangrolu remains still and concentrates, it may control the direction of the mist's flow, and may see and hear normally in any location where the mist is present. A sangrolu may extend the mist 30 feet from themselves for every Hit Die they possess. The mist's nature prevents it from moving through empty air, and it must remain attached to a surface. The surface may be vertical or upside-down, and the mist can move through any space that is not airtight, such as keyholes or window shutters.
Death State (Ex): Should a sangrolu fall to zero hit points, their body crumbles to grave dirt and black poison, and they immediately revert to gaseous form. They may not take their natural form until 1d10 days have passed, nor may they use their teleport object effect on their phylactery. However, they may still use their possession ability. This replaces what happens to a normal vampire upon reaching zero hit points.
Gaseous Form (Su): As base vampire, but a sangrolu can assume gaseous form as a free action, and the sangrolu can fly at a speed of 500ft. While in this state, the sangrolu is considered invisible because they look identical to their dark mist.
Hellfire Vulnerability (Ex): A sangrolu has done everything in their power to keep their soul from hell, and so the material of that plane is toxic to them. Any damage dealt by such materials (such as baatorian green steel weapons or hellfire damage) is doubled (however, due to regeneration, it is probably nonlethal damage).
Host Memory Retention (Ex): An ugly side ability of a sangrolu possessing a creature is Memory Retention. Again, this must be learned by the sangrolu from experience...he doesn't automatically know it unless he’s found the information somewhere. In most worlds, these creatures are so rare that it will be extremely difficult to find such information.
Memory Retention is the ability to retain the new host's memories, but saving them from the host's blood before it putrefies (similar to the sangrolu ability to question a victim's blood after taking it).The first time the sangrolu takes a new body, it must make a wisdom check against a DC equal to 10 + ½ the target’s HD. Success means the sangrolu has retained 1d10% of the host's memories. The sangrolu gains a fraction of the host's knowledge, skills, proficiencies, feats, and other such things. Failing the wisdom check means all memories of the host were lost, and the sangrolu is none the wiser.
After this, the sangrolu may actually attempt to salvage host memory when switching bodies. Success indicates a yield of one more d10% of memory than was gained last time. Thus, the second try yields 2d10%, the third 3d10%, and so forth. After ten successes (not ten tries), the sangrolu will now salvage 10d10% of host memories on a success. All retained memories of each host stay with the sangrolu forever, even into the next host body, forming a bank of stolen knowledge. 100%, of course, retains all the abilities.
Immunities (Ex): A sangrolu is immune to fire, cold, electricity, acid, sonic, insanity and polymorph. In addition, all vile damage dealt to a sangrolu is treated as normal damage instead.
Overcome Weakness (Ex): A sangrolu does not possess any of the weaknesses possessed by the base vampire (such as vampire weaknesses, vulnerability to fire or light sensitivity).
Perfect Automatic Still and Silent Spell: A sangrolu’s spells are treated as if they have the silent spell and still spell metamagic feats applied to them, without any difference to their level.
Phylactery (Ex): See the phylactery section, above, for details on how a phylactery is made and what it does. A sangrolu may use teleport object on his phylactery at will as a free action. No magic may prevent this effect.
Regeneration (Ex): A sangrolu loses any fast healing that they had previously, and gains regeneration, even though they are an undead creature. They are immune to the nonlethal damage taken from this source. This regeneration is bypassed by a special stake crafted on Baator with a mixture of silver, lead and holy water in non-magical sunlight (not a daylight spell or equivalent) using a hallowed, consecrated forge heated by hellfire, and polished so much that its surface shines like a mirror.
Silence (Ex): Sangrolu’s make no sound as they walk, and so always succeed on their move silently checks unless they want to be heard.
Telepathy (Su): A sangrolu can communicate telepathically with any living creature within 1000 feet that has a language, and with any vampire under its direct control to a range of 1 mile.
Abilities: Same as base vampire.
Skills: A sangrolu has a +20 racial bonus to bluff, hide, knowledge (arcana), listen, search, sense motive, Spellcraft and spot checks.
Feats: A sangrolu gains ignore material components, dextrous fortitude, improved combat reflexes, epic dodge, spell opportunity and spellcasting harrier as bonus feats.
Environment: Any
Organization: Solitary or Hunting Party (1 sangrolu + 1-2 feral vampire slaves + 1-36 crimson deaths).
Challenge Rating: Same as base vampire +???
Treasure: Triple Standard
Alignment: Always evil (any)
Advancement: By character class
Level Adjustment: +??? (a lot)

Rolep
2013-08-11, 07:31 AM
THE ZOLHKAAROLU (DEMIBLOODLICH)

http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20101102213208/forgottenrealms/images/5/55/Pale_Night_-_E._M._Gist.jpg
Image Property of Wizards of the Coast. I do not own this Image. It is not mine.

The mist about you is a uniform grey. Your vision cannot penetrate it, even with magic. You walk forward. You meet no physical resistance, but every step seems hard, as if some will is holding you back. The corner of your eye catches a pale flicker to your right. Whirling, grey uniformity greets your eyes. A will-o-the-wisp. Nothing more. A low chuckle floods the silence, coming from all directions. Your face sways about, trying to catch the light in your tangled net. A white flash consumes you. Before you hovers a figure of white flame. You can feel the heat scorching your very soul. Its form is indistinct, but your mind fills in the blanks. Raw, primal fear fills you, as your eyes rise up its body and meet its ink-black eyes. Eternity is sketched there, everything that those eyes have seen, everything that they have done. You can feel your mind burning with the fires of hell. A smile fills its lips as it slowly hovers forward…

The sangrolu is considered by almost all sages who study undeath to be the most powerful undead in existence. However, there are a rare few who disagree. They are historians, readers of forbidden and forgotten scriptures, members of secret cults of madness and entropy, seeking to learn the key to power. They have found a hidden power in tales of long ago. Among the mighty sangrolus, one stands out.
Zolhkaar was the mightiest sangrolu ever to be. He rediscovered the knowledge of the secret cult of sangrolu and learned to use their power. He came, in his most powerful days, to be the malevolent dictator of an interplanar empire. He defeated a thousand foes intent on his demise. He should not have survived as well as he did.
The historians have found consistent reports implying that he could not be killed. He was utterly immortal. Not even a special stake could bring him to his end. And they also mentioned complex experiments that he spent his time performing, supposedly to remove his last weaknesses. The interest of the historians was piqued.
They investigated deeper than any man should, and discovered long-lost secrets. They found out that he had saturated his body with hellfire and hidden his soul from the devils who wished to claim it. He had removed the very idea of death from his body, and nothing could kill him until, in desperation, his 1379th adversary threw his phylactery at him as a last ditch attack. This returned his soul to its rightful place and made him vulnerable again.
The historians were gleeful and set off to complete the process themselves. The first step was to become a vampire, so they found one that agreed to complete the transformation. However, the historians were not scholars on the nature of the foul coffin-dwellers, and the vampire immediately made them into thralls when he drained them. They died along with him, and knowledge of the zolhkaarolu was taken from the world.
They are said not to exist. They are nothing more than a rumour. There only ever was one, and he is dead. They do not matter. They will not come back. Or so the good gods hope…

COMBAT

Should you somehow end up in combat with a zolhkaarolu, prepare for the fight of your life. They will use their extensive magical power to debilitate their foes, only moving into combat when absolutely necessary. They use their mist to hide from their targets and keep them confused, and sometimes make use of their possession ability to force them against each other. One of their most powerful abilities is their gaze, which they will attempt to use at every opportunity that presents itself. Once all foes are neutralized, they move into close combat to drain blood. Their touch causes devastating damage, and they are not afraid to use it when pressed. They use their minions to keep foes busy and set up flanking and distractions.
Harming a zolhkaarolu is the most challenging part of the battle. You must first obtain their phylactery, which will probably involve an exploration into an extremely well-protected dungeon, more likely than not with the zolhkaarolu attacking you the whole way down, unless he can be distracted. Once you have the phylactery, you must bring it into contact with the zolhkaarolu. This will make them vulnerable to attacks, but only from a specially prepared stake. If you manage to force them into their death state, you must then use the stake to destroy the phylactery, while all the while the zolhkaarolu will be possessing your teammates and turning them against each other. Finally, you must keep the broken zolhkaarolu from reaching their coffin before they are slain. An arduous task even for the most prepared.

TEMPLATE

The zolhkaarolu template may be added to any humanoid or monstrous humanoid with the vampire and sangrolu templates (hereafter referred to as the base sangrolu).

HD: A zolhkaarolu possesses maximum hit points per hit die.
Size & Type: Same as the base sangrolu, but the zolhkaarolu gains the incorporeal subtype.
Speed: A sangrolu loses any natural or extraordinary speed.
Armour Class: Because of its incorporeal subtype, a zolhkaarolu loses any natural armour or armour bonus to AC that the base sangrolu had, but gains a deflection bonus equal to their charisma modifier (minimum 1).
Attack: The zolhkaarolu loses any natural or extraordinary attack form, but gains an incorporeal touch attack that may be used in melee as a normal or reach weapon or at a range of up to 400 feet + an additional 40 feet per HD of the zolhkaarolu. They keep any weapon proficiency that they had in the previous form, but they can only wield weapons with the ghost touch ability.
Full Attack: The zolhkaarolu may make a weapon attack as their primary attack and their touch attack as a secondary attack, as long as they have a least one hand free with which to make the touch attack.
Damage: The touch attack of a zolhkaarolu does 1d6 vile hellfire damage per HD of the zolhkaarolu.
Special Attacks: The zolhkaarolu retains all the base sangrolu’s special attacks, and gains the ones described below. Unless otherwise mentioned, the saving throw DCs for a zolhkaarolu’s special attack is equal to 10 + half the zolhkaarolu’s HD + the zolhkaarolu’s charisma modifier.
Bloody Fury (Ex): By spending ten blood points, a zolhkaarolu may make an additional touch attack as part of a full attack action. This may be done up to three times in a single round.
Constrict (Ex): A zolhkaarolu deals 1d6 damage per HD of the zolhkaarolu on a successful grapple check.
Create Spawn (Su): As base sangrolu, but any humanoid or monstrous humanoid killed by a zolhkaarolu’s touch attack, energy drain, blood drain, blood venom or gaze of aeons immediately rises as a feral vampire under the zolhkaarolu’s control. In addition, a zolhkaarolu has no limit to the total HD of spawn that they may have under their command.
Energy Drain (Su): As base sangrolu, but a zolhkaarolu now transmits it through their incorporeal touch attack and constrict ability, and does not need to spend any blood points to add this ability to additional natural, touch or constrict attacks: they do it automatically.
Gaze of Aeons (Su): A zolhkaarolu loses the domination and dark blood abilities of the base sangrolu and gains a gaze attack. The range is 100 feet and everyone affected must make a will save or be consumed by the eternity that the zolhkaarolu has seen. Their brains are immediately consumed by hellfire, causing them to die instantly unless they can survive without any brains. This bestows the zolhkaarolu with blood points equal to the creature’s HD. The hellfire in their skulls congeals into a black shard, which replaces the creature’s brain. This rock functions as the creature’s brain, but only if it is under the zolhkaarolu’s control through the create spawn ability. Should the targeted creatures cease to be under the zolhkaarolu’s control, or should they have never been under the zolhkaarolu’s control, their brains cease working, and they die unless they can function without a brain. When any creature with solidified hellfire for a brain dies in this way, its soul is trapped in the rock as if by a soul bind spell. Not even epic magic can break this effect.
Improved Grab (Ex): If the zolhkaarolu successfully strikes a creature with its touch attack in melee and that creature is within range of the zolhkaarolu’s rapture lash ability, the zolhkaarolu, as a free action, may initiate a grapple attempt against the target. This does not provoke opportunity, and if the zolhkaarolu succeeds, they may continue to take actions normally, as if they were not involved in the grapple, and they may use their constrict ability on the grappled foe. The grapple ceases whenever the zolhkaarolu wishes it to or when the target leaves the area of the zolhkaarolu’s dark mist ability. The zolhkaarolu uses its dexterity modifier in place of its strength modifier for this purpose.
Paralyzing Touch (Su): As base sangrolu, but a zolhkaarolu uses this ability on a successful incorporeal touch attack or constrict.
Possession (Ex): As base sangrolu, but a zolhkaarolu does not need to be in gaseous form when it uses this ability. However, if it is not in gaseous form, the zolhkaarolu must make a touch attack as a free action against the foe as part of the possession process. If the target survives, the possession works normally, but if they die, the zolhkaarolu cannot possess their body.
Rapture Lash (Ex): Though they are ethereal, a zolhkaarolu may manifest their touch attack on the material plane. They may make disarm, trip, feint and sunder attempts with it, as long as their target is within the area of their dark mist. In addition, they do not provoke attacks of opportunity when using it for this purpose. For this purpose, treat its strength as equal to its dexterity.
Special Qualities: A zolhkaarolu retains all of the special qualities of the base sangrolu, and gains those described below.
Blood Healing (Su): As base sangrolu, but a zolhkaarolu heals 2 hit points for every blood point spent.
Blood Force (Su): As base sangrolu, but a zolhkaarolu cannot raise his strength using this ability.
Dark Mist (Su): As base sangrolu, but it is much thicker, so in addition to its other effects, creatures gain total concealment against all nonadjacent creatures and concealment against adjacent creatures. A zolhkaarolu can see through the mist perfectly, so other creatures do not gain this benefit against them. They may also, as a free action, move to any other place within the range of the dark mist, as per the greater teleport spell.
Invulnerability (Ex): A zolhkaarolu has transcended life and death, hiding their very soul from the rigorous system that is run by the outer planes, and this grants them complete control of their soul. The zolhkaarolu cannot take damage of any kind, nor can they die.
Invulnerable Phylactery: A zolhkaarolu’s phylactery cannot take damage of any kind, nor can it be destroyed. Furthermore, a zolhkaarolu can use teleport object on his phylactery at a range of up to 300 feet.
Phylactery Vulnerability: Should a zolhkaarolu’s phylactery enter the zolhkaarolu’s space, the zolhkaarolu immediately loses their invulnerability ability and incorporeal subtype. The zolhkaarolu’s phylactery then attaches to the zolhkaarolu for a number of rounds equal to the zolhkaarolu’s HD, and nothing can break the contact between them, not even epic magic or a zolhkaarolu’s teleport object effect, unless the zolhkaarolu is forced to enter their death state. If the zolhkaarolu is forced to enter their death state, the contact is immediately broken, and the zolhkaarolu loses their invulnerable phylactery ability for a number of minutes equal to the zolhkaarolu’s HD. The zolhkaarolu does not gain the incorporeal subtype and the invulnerability ability back until they are not in their death state and not in contact with their phylactery.
Twisted Nature (Ex): A zolhkaarolu is an abomination, but one grounded in reality. Should any effect interact with one of the zolhkaarolu’s abilities in a way that would change depending on whether the ability is extraordinary or supernatural, the may choose which it is treated as for the purpose of this effect (so an incorporeal foe in an antimagic field can be affected by paralyzing touch, as the ability can be treated as extraordinary for the purpose of working in the field but supernatural for the purpose of affecting incorporeal foes).
Abilities: Increase from the base sangrolu as follows: Dex +20, Int +10, Wis +10, Cha +10. As an incorporeal creature, a zolhkaarolu has no strength score.
Skills: A zolhkaarolu has a +32 racial bonus to bluff, hide, knowledge (arcana), listen, search, sense motive, Spellcraft and spot checks.
Feats: Same as base sangrolu.
Environment: Any
Organization: Solitary or Hunting Party (1 zolhkaarolu + 1 or more feral vampire slaves + 1-36 crimson deaths).
Challenge Rating: Same as base sangrolu +???
Treasure: Quadruple Standard
Alignment: Always evil (any)
Advancement: By character class
Level Adjustment: +??? (a lot)

Rolep
2013-08-11, 07:32 AM
FERAL VAMPIRE

http://th03.deviantart.net/fs27/PRE/f/2009/255/a/6/Vampire_Lacerator_by_SteveArgyle.jpg
Image by SteveArgylle of DeviantArt

Whenever a sangrolu slays one of their countless victims, an abominable metamorphosis occurs. The blood of the corpse warps and mutates, sucking a portion of the sangrolu’s corrupt essence from their master and fusing it to their necromantic energies. When they rise from the grave, their mind has changed. Unlike normal vampires there is no seductive charm in their voice and gaze, and they do not form spawn of their own, but their minds are filled with primal instinct. Their limbs stretch and extend, and their muscles and reflexes develop unnaturally. In combat, they clearly outmatch a standard vampire, and their very touch paralyzes their foes. Though they hunger for blood, they savour the taste of flesh and bone. They are the lifelong servants of their sangrolu, and are often trusted with special tasks. Though feral, they are not stupid, and can perform intelligent tasks with ease.

TEMPLATE

“Feral Vampire” is a template that can be added to any living, corporeal creature. Treat any feral vampire as a vampire for all purposes, and the template is identical to the vampire template, with the following exceptions:

Speed: The feral vampire’s speed triples, for all movement types, and it gains a dig speed of 30 feet, if it does not already have a greater dig speed.

Armour Class: The feral vampire gains a +10 natural bonus to AC instead of +6.

Attack: The feral vampire does not gain slam attacks like a normal vampire; instead, it gains one primary bite attack and two secondary claw attacks. If the base creature already has one or both of these natural attacks, use whichever attack deals more damage.

Damage: The feral vampire’s claw and bite attacks deal damage as normal for a creature one size category larger than the feral vampire.

Special Attacks: The feral vampire gains all of the vampire’s special attacks except domination and create spawn. In addition, it gains the attacks described below. Unless otherwise specified, the DC for its special attacks is equal to 10 + half the feral vampire’s HD + the feral vampire’s Cha modifier.

Blood Drain (Su): This ability functions as the vampire ability of the same name, except that the feral vampire also drains a single point of constitution on a successful bite attack.

Energy Drain (Su): This ability functions as the vampire ability of the same name, except that the feral vampire afflicts only 1 negative level, but it afflicts it with every natural attack or rake that it makes.

Fear Gaze (Su): Become panicked for 2d4+2 rounds, 30 feet, Fortitude negates.

Improved Grab (Ex): To use this ability, the feral vampire must hit with its bite attack. It can then attempt to start a grapple as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity. If it wins the grapple check, it establishes a hold and can rake or drain blood.

Paralysis (Su): Any creature struck by a feral vampire’s natural attack must make a fortitude save. Success means that the creature cannot be affected by this ability again for 24 hours. Failure means that the target is permanently paralyzed. Remove paralysis or any spell that can remove a curse can free the victim (see the bestow curse spell description). The effect cannot be dispelled. Anyone paralyzed by a feral vampire seems dead, though a DC 20 Spot check or a DC 15 Heal check reveals that the victim is still alive.

Pounce (Ex): If the feral vampire charges a foe, it may make a full attack, including two rake attacks.

Rake (Ex): The feral vampire gains two rake attacks, which are treated as claw attack for the purposes of attack bonuses and damage.

Rend (Ex): If the feral vampire hits with both of its claw attacks or both of its rake attacks, it deals extra damage equal to twice its claw damage plus one and a half times its strength modifier.

Special Qualities: The feral vampire gains all of the vampire’s special qualities as well as those listed below.

Acrobatic Charge (Ex): The feral vampire does not need to charge in a straight line and can charge through friendly creatures’ spaces and difficult terrain.

Blur (Ex): The feral vampire moves so quickly that it is treated as if it is constantly under the effect of a blur spell.

Berserk (Ex): The feral vampire has a chance to enter a berserk rage every time that it is damaged. The chance is 5% per round during which the feral vampire makes an attack. The berserk rage lasts until the feral vampire spends one round without attacking or being attacked. To end the frenzy before its duration expires, the feral vampire may attempt a DC 20 Will save once per round as a free action. Success ends the frenzy immediately; failure means it continues. While in a berserk rage, the feral vampire is treated as if under the effect of the haste spell, and gains a +4 bonus to strength.
While raging, a feral vampire cannot use any Charisma-, Dexterity-, or Intelligence-based skills (except for Balance, Escape Artist, Intimidate, and Ride), the Concentration skill, or any abilities that require patience or concentration, nor can it cast spells or activate magic items that require a command word, a spell trigger (such as a wand), or spell completion (such as a scroll) to function. It can use any feat that it has except Combat Expertise, item creation feats, and metamagic feats.

Deny Coffin (Ex): The feral vampire does not possess a coffin like a normal creature, and may treat any and all areas that are never touched by sunlight as its coffin for all purposes.

Feral Strength (Ex): For the purposes of grapple checks and reach, treat the feral vampire as if it is one size category larger than it actually is.

Opportunist (Ex): Any creature that is struck in melee for damage by another creature that is not the feral vampire provokes an attack of opportunity from the feral vampire.

Suppress Weaknesses (Ex): Whenever the feral vampire would be affected by its vampire weaknesses, it must make a fortitude save at DC 20. This DC increases by 1 for every additional round which it must make this save. This value resets if the feral vampire spends a minute without interacting with any of its vampire weaknesses.

Abilities: The feral vampire does not gain the vampire’s racial ability bonuses. Instead, it gains the ones listed here: Str +12, Dex: +8, Wis: +2. Since the feral vampire is undead, it has no constitution score.

Challenge Rating: Same as base creature +4

Rolep
2013-08-11, 07:34 AM
Reserved for if I get creative

Arcanist
2013-08-12, 02:57 AM
I actually like this template... Frighteningly so actually. Cleaning the text, making certain abilities more clear, defining the fluff in a more menacing light would be a welcome improvement to this, but overall, it is really well made :smallsmile:


The Sangrolu (Bloodlich)

http://th02.deviantart.net/fs50/PRE/f/2009/332/9/5/Snuff_Out___Alternate_Version__by_SteveArgyle.jpg
Image by steveargyle (http://steveargyle.deviantart.com/)

Across the dusk covered field, beyond the mist, stood a man. A man of mystery, but of obvious prestige, refine and wealth. As I wanted towards him in my nightgown I kept feeling a dark, tingling sensation along my veins as if the entirety of my body wished for me to flee in the opposite direction, but my legs would not obey. As I approached closer and closer to the man, I saw the paleness of his skin and the red in his eyes and although this frightened me, still my legs would not obey and continued to travel towards him... Until I finally came within range to see the man's smile as I approached him. By the time I managed to convince my legs to flee in the other direction, I was already cloaked in the man's arms and the only realm I was able to flee to was a realm reserved for eldritch abominations the likes of which only the mad can dream...
-Diary of Lilia Foxgrove, the Duchess of Fenium

Undead are perhaps the most frightening and fearsome creatures an Adventurer can encounter. Invulnerable to almost any attack that even the most seasoned explorer can muster and equipped with consuming abilities use to take away from the creature in hopes to make them a little bit more like them... In this way perhaps the Undead are the most lonely of creatures? Cursed with a void in their meager existence that can often only be filled with power... The Sangrolu promises such power, however at a dreaded curse, often perceived as being much more worse than even the Dark Gift could endow. A combination of the two most frightening creatures ever spawned: The Vampire and the Lich. The strengths of both, the weaknesses of neither.

Eons ago, in times primordial, before even the first mortal had condemned death by accepting Undeath. In the blackest pits of the Abyss, existed a Demon Lord whose name has been lost to the annals of history. This Demon Lord hated the very concept of life and wished to one day replace it with a perverted corruption of it that he soon named "Undeath". To this end he approached the Goddess of Life in her earlier years and charged her with a challenge:

"You love these creatures so much, but you allow them to die. Why is this? If you were a truly loving mother you would allow them to remain with you forever and ever." said the Demon. The Goddess retorted with "I let them die, because nothing should last forever and through death they truly cherish the gift of life I grant to them." and the Demon responded by smiling at the Goddess by saying "Why not die with them to truly understand the blights of Life?" The Goddess stared at the Demon puzzled and with an annoyed smile killed herself so that she might know death as her children do. Little did she know, was that death was permanent and all consuming and so the Goddess truly remained sealed into Death for all time... If not for the designs of the Demon.

For the Demon took her corpse and introduced his concept of Undeath unto her and thus she arose as the worlds first Vampire. Flabbergasted, by the Demon's trick, she awoke for the first time infuriated yet grateful for his return of life, or lack thereof, to her. And thus she became the first Goddess of Death and spread the gift of Undeath upon her children till the point where not a drop of blood remained for her to consume. The Demon satisfied with his work offered her an alternative... "You've experienced life, you've experienced death and you've experienced undeath... Maybe you would be willing to try something beyond this? This time the Goddess was not willing to be tricked by the Demon's words and in a fit of hunger induced rage struck at the Demon and commanded him to tell her what he had been planning and to her surprise the Demon said I plan nothing, only to return you the gift of life... And with that lie, the world's first Sangrolu was born...

The Sangrolu
Creating a Sangrolu

“Sangrolu” is an acquired template that can be added to any creature with the Vampire template (referred to hereafter as the Aspirant).

Hit Dice: Sangrolu gain their main casting stat's modifier as a bonus to their HP in stead of their Constitution modifier.

Size and Type: The Aspirant gains the Evil subtype. Size is unchanged.

Speed: The Aspirant's speed for all movement types doubles.

Armour Class: The Aspirant's base Natural Armor increases by +8 and they now gain a profane bonus equal to their spellcasting modifier.

Attack: The Aspirant gains a touch attack that it can use once per round. If the Aspirant can use weapons, the Sangrolu retains that ability. An Aspirant with a natural weapon retains those natural weapons. A Sangrolu fighting without weapons may use its touch attack or its primary natural weapon (if it has any). A Sangrolu armed with a weapon uses its touch attack or a weapon.

Full Attack: A Sangrolu fighting without weapons uses its touch attack 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).

Damage: The Sangrolu’s touch attack does 1d6/5HD negative energy damage to living creatures; a Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 Sangrolu’s HD + the Sangrolu's spellcasting modifier) halves the damage. Against undead and other beings healed by negative energy damage, this attack instead heals an identical number of hit points.

Special Attacks: The Sangrolu retains all the Aspirant's special attacks and gains those described below. Save DCs are equal to 10 + 1/2 the Sangrolu's HD + the Sangrolu's Spellcasting modifier.

Blood Magic (Ex): Similar to standard Vampire, the Sangrolu's Blood Drain attack inflicts 2d6 points of Constitution Drain instead of the standard 1d4. This damage is dealt each round the pin is maintained and grants the Sangrolu 10 temporary Hit points. Furthermore, the Sangrolu develops a pool of points from which they can perform a number of Special Attacks. Each time a Sangrolu gains temporary Hit Points from the use of this ability an equal number of those points are added to the pool. A Sangrolu may never have more points than their HD times 10.

Blood Venom (Ex): The Sangrolu's blood has been cursed in a way that exposure to the living would cause a death so excruciatingly painful that even the "Dark Gift" would be a blessing in comparison. Whenever the Sangrolu drains blood through the use of their Blood Drain attack, the Sangroul can spend 1 blood point per point of Constitution drained to replace the creatures blood with a vile ichor. This is a poison effect. There is no Initial damage, however there is a Secondary damage which is automatic death. The time between effects is 1 year and a day. The only known cure is to Slay the Sangrolu permanently and feed it's remains to the victim after which they become a Vampire.


Sanguine Arcana (Ex): A Sangrolu can augment it's spells by spending Blood Points to empower them. They can never spend more than 1 point per HD of the Sangrolu. The points can be spent as a free action in the following ways, however as the Sangrolu's very nature is an enigma, this list might be imcomplete:


The Sangrolu can increase their caster level by one while casting a spell. This ability cost 2 points to active for every increase.
The Sangrolu can Disjoin any magical effect. This ability cost 3 points to activate per spell level of the effect.
The Sangrolu can increase the dice size of a spell by a single stage. This ability cost 4 points for every increase.
The Sangrolu can increase the range of a spell from Touch to Long by a single stage. This ability cost 5 points for every increase.
The Sangrolu can increase the the DC for a spell by +1. This ability cost 6 points for every increase.
The Sangrolu can increase the duration of a spell from rounds to minutes to hours to days. This ability cost 10 points for every increase.
The Sangrolu can overcome the Immunity held by one of their targets. This ability cost 15 points and can only be used once per day. It also cannot overcome the Immunities held by a creature with a Divine Rank.


Children of Nightmares (Su): The children of a Sangrolu are far superior than that of the standard Vampire, due to an unexplainable bond with the Negative Energy Plane. You summon the same creatures as with the standard Children of the Night ability, however by spending 10 blood points, instead they have the Zombie template applied to them and gain the following benefits:

Improve the creatures natural armor bonus by 10
The creature heals 3 HP each round as long as it has at least 1 HP.
Improve the creatures Strength and Charisma by +20.
The creature gains a Spell-like ability, that it can use once per day, from the following list: Circle of Death, Cloudkill, Cone of Cold, Confusion, Contagion, Creeping Doom, Greater Dispel Magic, Greater Invisibility, Haste, Hold Monster, See Invisibility, Unholy Blight.
In addition to this the Sangrolu can sense through the creatures and telepathically command them.

Create Spawn (Su): For a Sangrolu, drinking blood has ceased to be a problem as they are perfectly capable of living without it, however to spawn children? That is another discussion all together. Any creature killed by the Sangrolu's Blood Venom, Blood Drain, Energy Drain or Spell is risen as a Feral Vampire, standard Vampire or Vampire Spawn under the Sangrolu's Control and remain enslaved to them until the Master's destruction.

Dark Blood (Ex): The Sangrolu's necrology, is a twisted combination of the Lich and the Vampire, each creatures of hunger in their own right. Any living being that drinks the blood of a Sangrolu must make a Will save or become the Sangrolu's unwilling thrall, as under the effects of a Dominate Monster spell, however instead whenever they would attempt an action against their nature, they instead receive a -4 penalty to the Will save to resist it and Self-Destructive actions are still performed, however they allow a new Will save. Drinking additional blood of the Sangrolu causes the creature to suffer a cumulative -2 penalty to the save.

The Sangrolu's blood is highly addictive and is treated as having an Addiction rating of Vicious (DC 36 or the creature feels the endless desire to have more blood). Casting a Miracle spell at a Caster level higher than the Sangrolu's HD and then having the Victim drink Holy Water will cure the Victim. The Victim will fight to it's very best to resist any attempts to cure it of it's addiction.

Domination (Su): Control of the mind? No, the Sangrolu is a creature of great mystery and enigma. The Sangrolu can use it's Domination ability through its voice as well as through its gaze.

Energy Drain (Su): Corruption of the Soul, the anima of the creature, the drive for it is a malevolent act and the consumption of such a driving force is a Sin that only a demon can perform. Living creatures hit by the Songrolu's slam attack receive 5 negative levels.

Paralyzing Touch (Su): Nerve endings and natural responses from the body seemingly die at the touch of a Sangrolu. Any living creature a Sangrolu hits with its touch attack must succeed on a Fortitude save or be permanently paralyzed. A Break Enchantment spell casted at a higher level than the Sangrolu's HD removes this condition. Anyone Paraluzed by a Sangrolu seems dead, however a DC 40 Spot check or a DC 30 Heal check reveals the victim to be alive.

Possession (Ex): The mist of the Sangrolu is a cunning ploy used to distract for when it turns into Mist itself and possesses the unexpecting. A Sangrolu in gaseous form may possess another creature. This is done by entering into the creature's space and spending a standard action to waft into their orifaces (nose, mouth, ears, etc.). The creature immediate makes a Will save. If they succeed, they expel the Sangrolu from their body into an adjacent space. If they fail the Sangrolu takes control of the creatures body. The Sangrolu replaces their hit points, Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Natural abilities and Extraordinary Abilities with the creatures with the following exceptions:


The Sangrolu uses it's own Fast Healing and Regeneration.
The Sangrolu may take actions as normally and may use the possessed body as it were their own.

The Sangrolu can end their possession as an Immediate action, but apart from a Banishment spell with a HD that exceeds the Sangrolu, there is nothing that can force a Sangrolu to leave the body of a possessed creature. By spending a full 10 minutes, the Sangrolu can kill the possessed creature and cause it to reanimate as a Feral Vampire under the Sangrolu's control.

Special Qualities: The Aspirant retains all special qualities and gain those described below.

Alternate Form (Su): Forms are temporary when it comes to a Sangrolu. Each one a different page to be added to a diary of sorts. The Sangrolu can change into any form as per the Polymorph spell as a Standard action. This is casted at a caster level equal to the Sangrolu's HD.

Sanguine Rejuvenation (Su): Blood is life, Blood is living. A Sangrolu may spend a blood point to heal themselves by 1 hit point. They may also apply this effect to their Phylactery if it is damaged.

Blood Lore (Ex): Whenever a Sangrolu drinks the blood of a creature, it may enter a trance to pick information from the blood of the creature. This must be done within an hour after drinking the Blood of the creature. During this trance the Sangrolu is considered helpless and may now interrogate the creature as through a Speak with the Dead spell withe the following limitations:

The Sangrolu may ask a single question per 4HD the creature possessed.
Each question takes a full round to ask and receive answers (longer questions might have longer answers).
The question will be answered as honestly as possible. If the creature does not know the answer it will admit to it.


Gore Potency (Su): Power of any kind is power in and of itself. A Sangrolu can gain a +1 Morale bonus to their Strength or Dexterity by spending 1 blood point. This increase last for 1 minute. A Sangrolu may never raise a single ability score via this ability beyond it's own HD.

Damage Reduction (Ex): A Sangrolu has Damage reduction 25/Epic, Good and Silver. A Sangrolu's natural attacks are considered Epic for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.

Dark Mist (Ex): A Sangrolu in their Natural or Gaseous form continuously emits a mist that surrounds their body. The mist is thick and heavier than air and slowly falls to the ground creating a ghostly waterfall around their body. The mist dissipates after expanding out to 50ft around the Sangrolu. The mist is not affected by the wind or even submersion.

The Sangrolu's mist is far from a supernatural oddity. The mist is apart of the creature's physical form and dark essence. If the Sangrolu spends a Full-round action, they can control the flow of the mist and may see and hear in any location where the mist is present. The nature of the mist forces it to cling to any solid surface may it be vertical or otherwise. By spending a Full-round action, the Sangrolu may deactivate it's mist and allow it to dissipate over a number of rounds equal to the Sangrolu's HD.

Death State (Ex): If Reduced to 0HP a Sangrolu's body falls and crumbles into a mixture of blackened ash, grave dirt, blood and smoke. Immediately they revert to their Gaseous Form and cannot take their natural form until 3 days have passed. During this time, they cannot use their Teleport Object effect on their Phylactery, however they may still use their Possession ability. This effect replaces the normal effect of what occurs when a Vampire would reach 0HP.

Gaseous Form (Su): The Sangrolu does not simply turn into smoke, they turn into a living mist. The Sangrolu can assume a Gaseous Form as a swift action, and while in this state the Sangrolu can fly at a speed of 100ft and may travel at 15 miles per hour and 120 miles per day. While a Sangrolu is in this state, if their Dark Mist ability is active, they are considered invisible. You can return to your normal form as a Free action while Gaseous.

Immunities (Ex): A Sangrolu is immune to immunity to cold, electricity, polymorph (though they can use polymorph effects on themselves), Clerical Turning and Vile damage.

Overcome Weakness (Ex): A Sangrolu is immune to the weakness and repellents of a standard vampire (Ex: Sunlight, Water Emerson, Garlic).

Speak through the Mist (Ex): Spells casted by a Sangrolu while in their Gaseous form are casted without Verbal and Somantic components.

Phylactery (Su): See the Phylactery section for construction details on the Phylactery. A Sangrolu may cast Teleport Object or Refuge with their Phylactery as a target as a standard action.

Abilities: Increase from the Aspirant as follows: Int +4, Wis +4, Cha +6

Skills: A sangrolu has a +16 racial bonus to Bluff, Hide, Listen, Move Silently, Search, Sense Motive, and Spot checks. Otherwise same as the Aspirant.

Feats: Epic Reflexes, Improved Combat Reflexes and Superior Initiative as bonus feats.

Environment: Any, usually same as base creature.

Organization: Solitary, Pair, or Clan (1 Sangrolu, 1-2 Feral Vampires, 6-12 Vampires and Liches and 24-36 Vampire Spawn)

Challenge Rating: Same as base creature +4

Treasure: Triple Standard

Alignment: Always evil (any)

Advancement: By character class

Level Adjustment: Same as base creature +8

Phylactery
A Sangrolu, as part of their ascension must create a specialized Phylactery in which they hide their soul in. This is usually an urn marked with a combination of Abyssal, Draconic and Common detailing the Sangrolu's entire existence and is filled with dirt from the Sangrolu's homeland mixed with the ashes of the Vampire which turned them into a Vampire originally and Black Lotus extract. After the Phylactery is completed it is used as the focus for a vile ritual that must be performed during a Lunar Eclipse (detailed below):

Ritual of the Endless Mist

Ritual of the Endless mist
Necromancy
Effective Level: 9th
Skill Check: Craft (alchemy) DC 40, 3 successes, Knowledge (arcana) DC 40, 3 successes, Knowledge (religon) DC 40, 3 successes
Failure: Mirrorcast
Components: V,S,M,F,Ritual
Casting Time: One Night (Lunar Eclipse)
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: Instantaneous

At the zenith of a Lunar Eclipse you feed a female virgin of your same race poisoned soil from your urn (Fort; DC 20 + 1 per HD you have) and then drink her blood as she dies. The poison, mixed with her blood, causes your body to wither into ash and you to die. You soul returns to your Phylactery for the first time and your body is reformed and when the sun rises, you will fear it no more as you are a Sangrolu now.

Failure: Mirrorcast. The creature becomes a Sangrolu either way, however if you fail you are instead risen as a Broken Sangrolu, losing their overcome weakness, regeneration, possession and death state abilities and being forced to imbibe 1 blood point per HD per day or die. A Broken Sangrolu’s phylactery is immediately destroyed, but it may remake it and try to ascend again at a later date. The ritual automatically fails if the creature is not a Vampire.
Material Component: Poisoned Soil. This must be created by the aspirant himself and requires the spells Poison, Undeath to Death and Create Greater Undead, the Brew Potions feat and the expenditure of 80,000gp and 2,000xp.
Focus: Phylactery. This must be created by the aspirant himself and requires the spells Astral Projection and Magic Jar or Soul Bind, the Craft Wondrous Items feat and the expenditure of 120,000gp and 6,000xp.
Backlash: In addition to the temporary death of the caster, the newly created Sangrolu is nauseated (despite the usual Undead immunity) for a year and a day after their rebirth.

Note: The Phylactery is tiny sized, has 40 hit points, hardness 20, and a break DC of 40. It can only be damaged by a weapon that bypasses the Sangrolu’s regeneration.

I removed the Host Memory Retention, Hellfire Vulnerability, added some features to becoming a Sangrolu, gave a solid LA and CR, applied ability bonuses, altered the ability bonuses and now I am left here asking: What the hell happened to the Crimson Deaths? It is only referenced once in it's Organization and never appears again. I really liked the concept of turning your Vampire Spawn into Crimson Death that remain in your Mist. Ah well. :smallsigh:

I made it more core friendly, which I personally believe any good template should have. Ah well... :smallsigh:

EDIT:

Finally doing something on the Zolhkaarolu (seriously, that name is a mouthful and will NEVER come up in conversation... I would not be surprised if it was Asmodeus' truename).


The Zolhkaarolu (Demibloodlich)

http://th02.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/i/2012/095/6/3/cyan_skull_by_arsfeb-d4v2yr5.jpg
Image by arsfe (http://arsfeb.deviantart.com/)

Deep into the tomb we trekked searching for Gold. Fortune. What have you. The undead were the first sign that we were not alone in this tomb, but we assumed that it was a pesky Necromancer looking to further pervert the world with his vile art and we just lurked deeper and deeper into the tomb until we finally entered the inner sanctum. A room crowded with gems, jewels, and wealth beyond our vast imagination. With greed in our eyes, we charged into the room to take our fill of the treasure throwing out every little piece of trash we deemed worthless... The Skull, obviously perched as a warning to superstitious graverobbers, was the first to go... It wasn't until the skull arose and with a blood curdling scream shouted "I AM DEATHLESS! I AM INVINCIBLE! I AM ZOLHKAAROLU!"
-Excerpt from "The Adventures of Squall the Explorer."

Can the Undead change over time? Some scholars believe that the Undead are just derelicts from a distant age forced to live amongst the living for a short while longer, but others disagree. Surely if a Zombie is intelligent enough to walk around a wall instead of into one, it must be intelligent enough to change tactics or perhaps even evolve?

Legend has it that in these lands there exist a skull with precious gems as teeth, but nothing else to denote significance. From whence it came in the lands of dustless time, nobody knows and to whom is it's owner is an even greater mystery, but it is speculated that this skull is perhaps the results of an Undead creature changing or "evolving" over time. I have consulted a number of scholars, priest and diviners on the matter and each time they return to me with tales of horror and destructive power from a monstrous skull of unknown origin and a name: Zolhkaarolu.


The Zolhkaarolu

Creating a Zolhkaarolu

"Zolhkaarolu" is an acquired template that may be applied to any Sangrolu (hereafter referred to as the Sangrolu).

Hit Dice: A Zolhkaarolu possess the maximum hit points per hit die.

Size & Type: The Zolhkaarolu decreases in size by 3 size categories down to a minimum of Diminutive.

Speed The Sangrolu gains a fly speed of 180 ft. (perfect). This form of flight is supernatural.

Armor Class: The Sangrolu gains a +1 Deflection bonus for every 5HD they have.

Damage: The touch attack of a Zolhkaarolu deals 10d6 Negative energy damage every 5HD instead of 1d6 Negative energy damage every 5HD.

Special Attacks: The Zolhkaarolu retains all the Sangrolu's special attacks and gains those described below. Save DCs are equal to 10 + 1/2 the Zolhkaarolu's HD + the Zolhkaarolu's Spellcasting modifier.

Trap the Soul (Su): As part of the ascension to becoming a Zolhkaarolu, the Sangrolu sheds all of it's material wealth and worldly possession and dedicates it self strictly to a cause of sort (Ex: Divinity, Omniscience, Conquest of a Plane, etc.) and shatters it's own phylactery capturing it's soul into another vessel or "vessels" known as "Soul Gems" (see creation below). These new vessels must be the bones of a loved one to show your dedication to your cause. A Zolhkaarolu can trap the souls of up to eight living creatures per day. To use this power, it selects any target it can see within 300 feet. The target is allowed a Fort saving throw (DC 10 + Zolhkaarolu’s HD + Zolhkaarolu’s spellcasting modifier). If the target makes its saving throw, it gains four negative levels (this does not count as a use of trap the soul). If the target fails its save, the soul of the target is instantly drawn from its body and trapped within one of the soul gems incorporated into the Zolhkaarolu’s form. The gem glows a malevolent crimson for 24 hours, indicating the captive soul within. The soulless body collapses in a mass of corruption and molders in a single round, reduced to dust. If left to its own devices, the Zolhkaarolu slowly devours the soul over 24 hours—at the end of that time the soul is completely absorbed, the victim is forever gone and the Zolhkaarolu's Blood point pool gains 20 Blood points every HD the creature had. If the Zolhkaarolu is overcome before the soul is eaten, crushing the gem releases the soul, after which time it is free to seek the afterlife or be returned to its body by the use of either resurrection, true resurrection, clone, or miracle. A potential victim protected by a death ward spell is not immune to trap the soul, but receives a +5 bonus on its Fortitude saving throw and is effective against the level loss on a successful saves.

Blood calls to Blood (Ex): In becoming a Zolhkaarolu, the Sangrolu has lost all flesh and by association it's blood which would normally prevent it from using it's Dark Blood ability, however instead the Zolhkaarolu produces blood from it's fangs which have greater potency. The creature instead gains a cumulative -6 penalty instead of the normal -2.

Perfect Automatic Still Spell: The Zolhkaarolu can cast all the spells it knows without gestures.

Spell-Like Abilities
At will—alter self, astral projection, create greater undead, create undead, death knell, enervation, greater dispel magic, harm (usually used to heal itself), summon monster I-IX, telekinesis, and weird; 2/day— greater planar ally. Zolhkaarolu use these abilities as casters of a level equal to their HD, but the save DCs are equal to 10 + the Zolhkaarolu’s HD + the Zolhkaarolu's Spellcasting modifier.

Special Qualities: A Zolhkaarolu retains all of the special qualities of the Sangrolu, and gains those described below.

Blood into Bones (Su): A Sangrolu, in the process to become a Zolhkaarolu, has destroyed it's own phylactery and replaced them with Soul Gems. During this transition the flesh and unnecessary bones on the Sangrolu have rapidly rotted off revealing only the skull and bones of the creature. The Zolhkaarolu now heals 2 HP for every blood point spent and now they may spend Blood points.

Arcane Force (Su): The Sangrolu may now apply it's bonuses from Gore Potency to any thralls it might possess. In addition to this, it now decreases the cost of every ability requiring a Blood point by 1 (to a minimum of 1).

Crimson Mist (Su): The Sangrolu, in it's experience is wisened to the point where it realizes that it is better to be surrounded by controlled allies than wild ones. It's mist becomes blood red, expands out 100ft and now provides creatures in it with a 20% miss change against all non-adjacent creatures. A Zolhkaarolu can see through this mist without incurring such a miss chance. This is not the main benefit of this, however. Any Sangrolu, Feral Vampire, Vampire and Vampire spawn that you control that assume Gaseous form while in your mist merge with it. While merged with your Mist these creatures are treated as being incorporeal when attacked and corporeal when they would attack.

Soul Gems (Su): Scattered through out the planes, there are bones which contain the fragmented soul of the Zolhkaarolu. While these bones are on separate planes the Zolhkaarolu, is treated as being immune to 50% of the damage it would receive from any source.

Magic Immunity (Ex): Magic? Pfft. You are immune to all mortal magic casted at you (magic not casted by a creature with a Divine Rank 0+). You are also immune to Supernatural effects from the same source.

Phylactery Transference (Su): Although you've sworn of the material world, you've still found use with some of your old materials. Wearable magical items kept in close proximity of one of a Zolhkaarolu's Soul gems transfer all their benefits to the Zolhkaarolu no matter how far apart the Zolhkaarolu and the Soul Gems are located. The standard limits on types of items utilized simultaneously still apply.

Abilities: Increase from the base sangrolu as follows: Int +10, Wis +10, Cha +10.

Skills: A Zolhkaarolu has a +32 racial bonus to Bluff, Hide, Listen, Move Silently, Search, Sense Motive, and Spot checks. Otherwise the same as the Sangrolu.

Feats: Same as Sangrolu.

Environment: Any

Organization: Solitary or Clan (1 Zolhkaarolu, 2 Sangrolu, 4-8 Feral Vampires, 9-18 Vampires and Liches and 36-42 Vampire Spawn)

Challenge Rating: Same as base creature +6

Treasure: Quadruple Standard

Alignment: Always evil (any)

Advancement: By character class

Level Adjustment: Same as base creature +8

Soul Gems

To become a Zolhkaarolu, you must make a grievous decision for power or the preservation of what remains of your humanity. As part of becoming a Zolhkaarolu you destroy your own Phylactery and scatter the contents on to 8 bones from a single person who has declared their love for you. These bones are then washed and cleansed in special oils costing grand total of 1,600,000gp (200,000gp for each bone) and 640,000xp (8,000xp for each bone) using a mixture of your own blood and the blood of a person of royalty that you must have personally killed.

Ritual of Ascension

Necromancy
Effective Level: 9th
Skill Check: Craft (alchemy) DC 50, 3 successes, Knowledge (arcana) DC 50, 3 successes, Knowledge (religon) DC 50, 3 successes
Failure: Death
Components: V,S,M,F
Casting Time: One night
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: Instantaneous

During the night of a special meteorological event known as "The Sailing of The Stillborn God" in which an unknown celestial body is as as close to your planet as possible without the inhabitants detecting life from it, you must perform this ritual.

You must destroy your Phylactery and spread the remains over a the still living body of a person. After this you must wash the [erson's body with a mixture of oils and your blood while applying arcane marks across their body.

Nearing the Zenith of the evening you're sacrifice must willingly tell you they love you as you kill them. Before the sun rises, you extract 8 bones from the creatures body and completely drain the blood from the creature.

The sacrificed creature's soul is obliterated. He or she may not be resurrected save by a greater god with the Life and Death Divine Salient Ability.

Failure: Death to the Caster. However the sacrificed creature's soul is not obliterated, instead only the caster cannot be resurrected.
Material Component: Phylactery. The Sangrolu's Phylactery is consumed in the casting of this spell and replaced by 8 Soul Gems. The Soul Gems must then be polished and cleaned using special oils and blood costing 80,000gp (640,000gp) and 2,000xp (16,000xp) each.
Focus: Corpse of a loved one. Sacrificed personally by the Sangrolu. The creature must wash the corpse using the same oils and blood as listed above (960,000gp; 48,000xp)

Note: The Soul Gems are tiny sized, have 40 hit points, hardness 20, and break DCs of 40.

Been up all night. must. sleep. :smallsigh:

Rolep
2013-08-12, 03:22 AM
@Arcanist: Your termplate is definitely more core-friendly, and I agree that you have added some good abilities and better wording, but host memory retention is one of the coolest/creepiest abilities in the sangrolu's arsenal, and should be kept, if only for the sake of fluff. Perhaps reworded to say that they automatically get all memories of the subject. I've already nerfed it compared to the original.
You have removed the regeneration ability but still reference it at several points. I liked the regen (if only because it stopped casters from turning an epic boss into rocket tag and actually gave the fighters a chance to shine; maybe make it less specific, but still) and think that it should stay in.
Your fluff for it beats mine hands down!
The touch does very little damage for an epic moster and the energy drain should be channelable through it, as well as the slam attack.
If you're going to half the HD, you should reconsider the blood points per HD, since both the original and my version were made with effectively 20 blood points per level of spellcasting.
By adding CHA to AC and HP as well as special attacks, your version really provides a greater benefit to sorcerers than other casters. It's just a little unbalanced; all caters should get ROUGHLY the same benefit.
Spellcasters kill your version FAR too easily. Just sayin'. They can kick the excrement out of it.
Silence and Telepathy should be kept, if just for fluff and awesomeness, based on the rule that epic challenges should have more abilities than they need.
Epic dodge shoud be a bonus feat, since the sangrolu would never take it normally and it allows them to survive uberchargers.

Anyway, critiquing your stuff over. Is there anything in particluar that you think is wrong with mine? Also, what do you think of the zolhkaarolu? It was an extra idea that moved further and further from demilich as I continued to conceive it. I like it, but I know that it is powerful. Finally CR/LA for mine? Any ideas?

EDIT: I don't know about you, biut I create monsters by comparing them to PCs, not other monsters. By this level, PCs have 9th level spells, and uberchargers and co will make this game rocket tag. A boss monster should not be a one round fight. Your version lacks the durability needed at epic levels. Just summarizing my main criticism.

Arcanist
2013-08-12, 03:51 AM
@Arcanist: Your termplate is definitely more core-friendly, and I agree that you have added some good abilities and better wording, but host memory retention is one of the coolest/creepiest abilities in the sangrolu's arsenal, and should be kept, if only for the sake of fluff. Perhaps reworded to say that they automatically get all memories of the subject. I've already nerfed it compared to the original.

It can be kept, however it shouldn't have any mechanical effects (or at least not that one) since it is pretty much Illithid Savant: The template. You can have the effect function mechanically to gaining a +X knowledge bonus where X is equal to the number of HD the creature has.

While it is a part of the core fluff of the Sangrolu, as it was written it is WAYYYYYY too overpowered.


You have removed the regeneration ability but still reference it at several points.

Lacking a constitution means a creature cannot have regeneration. I didn't remember that until I got to Regeneration and was to tired to correct myself earlier. I'll change that right now.


I liked the regen if only because it stopped casters from turning an epic boss into rocket tag and actually gave the fighters a chance to shine

As an Undead the Sangrolu is immune to Non-lethal damage. Regen makes all damage Non-lethal, therefore the Sangrolu is immune to all damage. Being able to possess creatures makes a boss fight, especially if the goal is to not kill a certain character (i.e. your class save the princess type game).


Your fluff for it beats mine hands down!

Try making your fluff as world neutral as humanly possible and to keep it out of your mechanics. Hellfire vulnerability and the such was sourced through fluff.


The touch does very little damage for an epic moster with your wording, and the energy drain sdhould be channelable through it, as well as the slam attack.

Remember, in Epic the characters can go up infinitely. I'd also like to note: If you're relying upon your touch attack to deal damage as a Spellcaster, you're doing your job WRONG. I should reword the Energy drain ability as being usable through the Touch attack, which would allow it to be used through the Slam attack, by default.


If you're going to half the HD, you need to double the blood points per HD, cos 360 is the right number for them (give or take).

It's the creatures HD *10. To get 360, points, the creature must have 36HD. I have no idea what you said here.


Spellcasters kill your version FAR to easily. Just sayin'.

If I brewed everything based on whether or not a Spellcaster could kill it, I wouldn't homebrew anything since two words just say "NOPE!": "Ice Assassin". :smalltongue:


Silence and Telepathy should be kept, if just for fluff and awesomeness, based on the rule that epic challenges should have more abilities than they need.

But they're unnecessary. The creature is effectively at the same level of the Party and if Sangrolu is fighting at the same level of intelligence as the PC's would make for an obscurely deadly encounter.

The Sangrolu, is a Lich, Vampire, Spellcaster. Fighting a Challenge Rating equivalent one is a suicide mission.


Anyway, critiquing your stuff over. Is there anything in particluar that you think is wrong with mine?

Everything you see above is what I thought was wrong with yours.


Also, what do you think of the zolhkaarolu? It was an extra idea that moved further and further from demilich as I continued to conceive it. I like it, but I know that it is powerful. Finally CR/LA for mine? Any ideas?

Oh god, the Zolhkaarulo... No idea where you got the name, but I like it. I understand that it is supposed to be a Demilich Sangrolu and, ironically enough, I don't think it's high enough powered... Is it balanced? No. Not even close, but than again neither is the Demilich. It's 3am for me so I'm gonna go enjoy some pie and see what I think about the Zolhkaarulo... It will not have a LA, by the way. Giving a PC access to such a class would be considered campaign suicide.

EDIT:


If you're going to half the HD, you should reconsider the blood points per HD, since both the original and my version were made with effectively 20 blood points per level of spellcasting.

Why would it really matter though? Hell, an intelligently built Sangrolu would have a Bag of Tricks and drink the blood of those creatures to keep an optimal level of Blood points making it fairly moot :smalltongue:

Besides, the Sangrolu suffers no penalties from NOT drinking Blood. It just can't access a number of it's racial features.


By adding CHA to AC and HP as well as special attacks, your version really provides a greater benefit to sorcerers than other casters. It's just a little unbalanced; all caters should get ROUGHLY the same benefit.

The alternative is making the abilities dependent on the creatures casting stat. Personally? I went with the standard statement which is: Your Special attacks are based off your Cha unless noted otherwise, AC was... Meh, and HP is a knock towards Undead Toughness.

Why not make it Constitution based? :smalltongue:




Epic dodge should be a bonus feat, since the sangrolu would never take it normally and it allows them to survive uberchargers.

It wouldn't qualify though. Usually when you give a creature a bonus feat from a template, it should qualify for it at least. Hell, in the first round of combat, the Sangrolu already casted Forcecage on the Ubercharger :smalltongue:


I don't know about you, but I create monsters by comparing them to PCs, not other monsters. By this level, PCs have 9th level spells, and uberchargers and co will make this game rocket tag. A boss monster should not be a one round fight. Your version lacks the durability needed at epic levels. Just summarizing my main criticism.

The durability to survive at Epic level, is Immunity: Yes since by it's very definition the style of game play is that there is always someone stronger. Yes, building your monsters to be able to perform the traits of what the creature is expected to encounter is very good, however you've got to remember that a Sangrolu advances by class level so it is a character by itself and should be able to do everything they do.

At Epic level, you are fighting Demon Lords, Gods, Angels, and the lords of Hell itself. Think Mortal Kombat... Now imagine that being forced across a plane.

Rolep
2013-08-12, 05:54 AM
While it is a part of the core fluff of the Sangrolu, as it was written it is WAYYYYYY too overpowered.
Oh god, I just realised that I didn't reword it properly. I was about to upload the template when I relised that I hadn't edited that ability so I kind of rushed through it!:smalleek: It was only supposed to give skill bonuses, but your variant idea works just about as well.


Lacking a constitution means a creature cannot have regeneration. As an Undead the Sangrolu is immune to Non-lethal damage. Regen makes all damage Non-lethal, therefore the Sangrolu is immune to all damage. Being able to possess creatures makes a boss fight, especially if the goal is to not kill a certain character.

Firstly, I know that it should not have regeneration, but baator, at epic levels you can twist the rules a little. And the immunity to non-lethal damage part I did know about, and I thought that it was actually sensible, because at the end of the day unconsciousness (0 non-lethal HP) and death (0 HP) mean pretty much the same thing in the hands of your enemies (in fact, 0 non-lethal is worse, since they can capture you and prevent you from enetering death state and escaping). The possession effect is fun, but was originally intended for when it entered it sdeath state, as a sort of failsafe attack. I can see how it would make a boss fight, but not all players appreciate that style of play (and some are to stupid to work out how to deal with it). It should be able to hold up even without it, albeit not as much.

Also, according to your rules, all a chara has to do to kill it is stake it once? At epic level, that can be done so easily that it won't even be a fight. Teleport object, major creation etc are literally death effects to it.


If I brewed everything based on whether or not a Spellcaster could kill it, I wouldn't homebrew anything since two words just say "NOPE!": "Ice Assassin".

There is a difference between "could kill it" i.e. with pun-pun, broken spells, gramarie & cheap tricks that require specialised builds etc. and "can kill it easily" i.e. a meteor swarm/disintegrate/any other simple, non-broken tactic. The sangrolu should be able to stand up to the latter (at least to an extent, since flat-out immunities are dull).


Oh god, the Zolhkaarulo... No idea where you got the name, but I like it. I understand that it is supposed to be a Demilich Sangrolu and, ironically enough, I don't think it's high enough powered... Is it balanced? No. Not even close, but than again neither is the Demilich.

The name comes from zolhkaar, a sangrolu mentioned on the original thread. It's supposed to be CR 30+ and capable of just about anything. I can't wait to see how broken you show it to be. And why you think its underpowered...


The alternative is making the abilities dependent on the creatures casting stat. Personally? I went with the standard statement which is: Your Special attacks are based off your Cha unless noted otherwise, AC was... Meh, and HP is a knock towards Undead Toughness.

I understand perfectly why you did it, it was part of my original idea, but I thought that I should be more fair to wizards & clerics, who are just as likely, if not more so, to take this template, at least from a fluff standpoint. The double HD & HD-based AC bonus had similar effects, but were more class-equal. Also, I just noticed that your version of the sangrolu can easily be turned by a CR-equal cleric!

Arcanist
2013-08-12, 06:46 AM
Oh god, I just realised that I didn't reword it properly. I was about to upload the template when I relised that I hadn't edited that ability so I kind of rushed through it!:smalleek: It was only supposed to give skill bonuses, but your variant idea works just about as well.

Indeed :smalltongue:


Firstly, I know that it should not have regeneration, but baator, at epic levels you can twist the rules a little. And the immunity to non-lethal damage part I did know about, and I thought that it was actually sensible, because at the end of the day unconsciousness (0 non-lethal HP) and death (0 HP) mean pretty much the same thing in the hands of your enemies (in fact, 0 non-lethal is worse, since they can capture you and prevent you from enetering death state and escaping). The possession effect is fun, but was originally intended for when it entered it sdeath state, as a sort of failsafe attack. I can see how it would make a boss fight, but not all players appreciate that style of play (and some are to stupid to work out how to deal with it). It should be able to hold up even without it, albeit not as much.

There is a difference between being Invulnerable and being really hard to kill. The purpose here is to make the Sangrolu really hard to kill, not utterly invincible which Immunity to damage could very well mean. To paint a picture of how I believe a vampire of this creatures caliber should be is equal to Alucard's abilities from Hellsing: Ultimate. Not taking damage should be a combination of skill and ability and not just one or the other. Through out most of a fight with a Sangrolu, they will most likely be Gaseous as to possess any creature the attacker might have been with to force them to waste utilities and options just trying to keep the Sangrolu still so they can even stake the guy. The only time the Sangrolu will be Corporeal is to Dominate a number of creatures, feed blood into the mouths of an enemy creature it has deemed worthy of being a living thrall, or to regain blood points.

If a Sangrolu is casting spells, it has probably already won the encounter already.


Also, according to your rules, all a chara has to do to kill it is stake it once? At epic level, that can be done so easily that it won't even be a fight. Teleport object, major creation etc are literally death effects to it.

Staking a vampire in D&D isn't as easy as you'd believe. Sure, I've seen people at the table say before while fighting a vampire "I aim to stake at the heart", hell I've even seen people try the Teleport Object and Major Creation trick. It doesn't turn out the way you'd believe it would... Mostly because it is highly unlikely the Sangrolu would be still enough (or solid enough) for you to do this.


There is a difference between "could kill it" i.e. with pun-pun, broken spells, gramarie & cheap tricks that require specialised builds etc. and "can kill it easily" i.e. a meteor swarm/disintegrate/any other simple, non-broken tactic. The sangrolu should be able to stand up to the latter (at least to an extent, since flat-out immunities are dull).

One question: Why would I be using Gramarie to fight a Vampire, let alone a Sangrolu? Granted I'm tempted to use them for my Gramarie setting as a sort of supernatural element in a world of science, but why?


Also, I just noticed that your version of the sangrolu can easily be turned by a CR-equal cleric!

So can the Demilich and yours as well for that matter :smallconfused: It's not even immune to Turning or Commanding done by a Cleric. Hell, it's still vulnerable to command undead and control undead. In hindsight I probably should have increased the creatures turn resistance or made it specifically immune to the effects of Clerical turning.

Debihuman
2013-08-12, 07:35 AM
Here is the source material if anyone is interested: http://members.tripod.com/hawk_wind/trinalia/sangrolu.html#Sangrolu

First, there are no Humanoids with the Vampire Template. If they have the Template, they have the Undead Type already. This Template should affect only Undead with the Vampire Template. The vampire template can only be added to Humanoid and Monstrous Humanoids in the first place unless you include the Monstrous Vampire Template as well (which is how I made the pixie vampire in my creations).

I actually have no idea why you decided that the sangrolus needed twice as many hit dice. It seems like a bad idea to start.

Here is the original wording on host memory retention:


HOST MEMORY RETENTION

An ugly side ability of a sangrolu changing hosts is Memory Retention. Again, this must be learned by the lich from experience...he doesn't automatically know it unless he's read up on Blood Liches. In most worlds, these creatures are so rare that there is liable to be no such information floating around about them.

Memory Retention is the ability to retain the new host's memories, but saving them from the host's blood before it putrefies (similar to the sangrolu ability to question a victim's blood after taking it).

The first time the sangrolu takes a new body, it must make a Wisdom check at -8. Success means the sangrolu has retained 1d10% of the host's memories. The sangrolu gains a fraction of the host's knowledge, class abilities, proficiencies, innate abilities, and other such things. Failing the Wisdom check means all memories of the host were lost, and the sangrolu is none the wiser.

After this, the sangrolu may actually attempt to salvage host memory when switching bodies. The Wisdom check is still made at -8 every time, but success indicates a yield of one more d10% of memory than was gained last time. Thus, the second try yields 2d10%, the third 3d10%, and so forth. After ten successes (not ten tries), the sangrolu will now salvage 10d10% of host memories on a success. All retained memories of each host stay with the sangrolu forever, even into the next host body, forming a bank of stolen knowledge. Even innate powers or abilities are gained, and the DM will have to decide which ones are kept to equal the percentage of retention. I suggest roughly one innate power per 5% of memory retained. 100%, of course, retains all the abilities. A sangrolu possessing a balor on it's tenth try could get really disgusting...

With practice, a sangrolu may actually learn to leave his physical form as a Crimson Death at will, for the purpose of stealing other's memories. This mastery cannot be achieved until at least ten successes of forced sang-wraithdom-to-host have been logged. Thus, a sangrolu who has never been destroyed knows nothing about this ability. In this way, destroying a sangrolu's body may actually serve to teach the monster to better use its power? The only way to get rid of these bastards is to empty the phylactery, which, of course, will be very well protected.

Debby

Rolep
2013-08-12, 07:53 AM
There is a difference between being Invulnerable and being really hard to kill. The purpose here is to make the Sangrolu really hard to kill, not utterly invincible which Immunity to damage could very well mean. To paint a picture of how I believe a vampire of this creatures caliber should be is equal to Alucard's abilities from Hellsing: Ultimate. Not taking damage should be a combination of skill and ability and not just one or the other.

Once again, an exscellent point. The only reason that I gave regen in the first place was to make up for its garbage for HP, but with clever playing, I see that you would not need it.


Through out most of a fight with a Sangrolu, they will most likely be Gaseous as to possess any creature the attacker might have been with to force them to waste utilities and options just trying to keep the Sangrolu still so they can even stake the guy. The only time the Sangrolu will be Corporeal is to Dominate a number of creatures, feed blood into the mouths of an enemy creature it has deemed worthy of being a living thrall, or to regain blood points.

If a Sangrolu is casting spells, it has probably already won the encounter already.

There must be a spell of immunity to possession somewhere, and if not they willl research one.


One question: Why would I be using Gramarie to fight a Vampire, let alone a Sangrolu?

Hmm, let's see...infinite damage from arcanodynamics won't work, you won't be able to use your biollurgical chasses, it's immune to a sunmetal detonation, it can fly much faster than an eldrikinetic machine, an adamantine transformer can be ignored, you can't create your own terms with which to oppose it, and an army of automated killing machines is simply out of the question...


So can the Demilich and yours as well for that matter

Excuse me mine has double the HD of yours! Assuming level 18, yours has TR 22 and mine has TR 40...


Here is the source material if anyone is interested: http://members.tripod.com/hawk_wind/....html#Sangrolu

Thanks debby!

Arcanist
2013-08-12, 08:09 AM
There must be a spell of immunity to possession somewhere, and if not they willl research one.

"There must be a spell of immunity to damage somewhere, and if not they will research one." When you throw Spell Research into the mix it's kind of a moot point.


Hmm, let's see...infinite damage from arcanodynamics won't work, you won't be able to use your biollurgical chasses, it's immune to a sunmetal detonation, it can fly much faster than an eldrikinetic machine, an adamantine transformer can be ignored, you can't create your own terms with which to oppose it, and an army of automated killing machines is simply out of the question...

I'd just like to politely point out here that I've developed Biollurgical Chassis with immunity to damage meaning I've already developed a method for banishing a creature into a plane of eternal unpleasentness. It won't kill it, but it won't be able to leave or die. I call it the Gramarist Jail Cell :smalltongue:


Excuse me mine has double the HD of yours! Assuming level 18, yours has TR 22 and mine has TR 40...

... I don't think you know what a "CR equivalent cleric" pertains to... Also, I just noticed the text for your race, which can literally make a Fighter 10/Wizard 10 into a Fighter 20/Wizard20 overnight... And you found no problem with this?

Rolep
2013-08-12, 10:09 AM
... I don't think you know what a "CR equivalent cleric" pertains to... Also, I just noticed the text for your race, which can literally make a Fighter 10/Wizard 10 into a Fighter 20/Wizard20 overnight... And you found no problem with this?

Sorry I wasn't using very clear wording. What I meant was something like:
Your template: wizard 18, TR 4, total 22
My Template: wizard 18, undead 18, TR 4, total 40
CR: 24 (ish)
Your template can be turned easily by a 24th level cleric, whereas mine cannot.
Also, I should've made the wording more clear on mine. It was supposed to read: "For each HD that the base vampire possesses, the sangrolu gains an additional Undead HD". So a Fighter 10/Wizard 10 would become a Fighter 10/Wizard 10/Undead 20 (ignoring the fact that it does not meet the prerequisites).
I think unclear wording is going to be a running theme (and there I was this morning thinking that I was actually OK at it. It's OK. I don't need Self-Esteem.)

Debihuman
2013-08-12, 10:31 AM
20 undead levels isn't CR 24 any more. It's 18 level wizard +2 for vampire template +8 LA before even becoming sangrolu and then you add 18 more HD so far it is ECL 28 and that doesn't account for any of the sangrolu's abilities and it's LA. This monstrosity is a huge headache.

There is no way CR 24 comes close.

Debby

Rolep
2013-08-12, 11:08 AM
20 undead levels isn't CR 24 any more. It's 18 level wizard +2 for vampire template +8 LA before even becoming sangrolu and then you add 18 more HD so far it is ECL 28 and that doesn't account for any of the sangrolu's abilities and it's LA. This monstrosity is a huge headache.

There is no way CR 24 comes close.
I think that the extra HD is included in the template: I mean, what does 130 HP honestly mean at epic levels, and he's a spellcaster so the BAB means nothing either. My formula was:
18 Wizard +2 Vampire +4 sangrolu. Thats CR 24. If you think that the CR is higher then that actually proves my point. His TR is too low, whereas mine is untouchable (which is frankly commonplace at epic levels).

EDIT: @Arcanist I noticed that you have added your Zolhkaarolu take/version/fix/whatever. My first reaction was "meh". It's literally the demilich applied to the sangrolu, my second was "hang on, isn't that the point of a demibloodlich", and my third was "dammit, I went off on a tangent again!" Honestly, yours is pretty much what the original idea for mine was, complete with producing the dark blood from the fangs and using teeth as soul gems. Maybe rename yours to something else and I'll remove demibloodlich from mine and they could easily be independant templates, since both fluff and crunch are different enough. On that tack, what do you think of mine (ignoring that it is COMPLETELY off topic!). :smallredface:

Network
2013-08-12, 11:58 AM
I think that the extra HD is included in the template: I mean, what does 130 HP honestly mean at epic levels, and he's a spellcaster so the BAB means nothing either. My formula was:
18 Wizard +2 Vampire +4 sangrolu. Thats CR 24. If you think that the CR is higher then that actually proves my point. His TR is too low, whereas mine is untouchable (which is frankly commonplace at epic levels).
It doesn't change a thing. Hit Dices are a waste of ECL (except in monster classes, where you get class features). Assuming the character is level 20, so ECL 28 with the vampire template, he suddenly becomes ECL 48 and must go through 20 levels worth of experience without gaining anything from it (not counting the LA of the Sangrolu template, which is presumably negligible).

Honestly, immunity to turning is definitely a better idea. Furthermore it has already been done in the past, both in homebrews and official works, so it's not something without antecedence.

Rolep
2013-08-12, 12:03 PM
It doesn't change a thing. Hit Dices are a waste of ECL (except in monster classes, where you get class features). Assuming the character is level 20, so ECL 28 with the vampire template, he suddenly becomes ECL 48 and must go through 20 levels worth of experience without gaining anything from it (not counting the LA of the Sangrolu template, which is presumably negligible).

The sangrolu is not meant to be useable by characters. Its for monsters. And monsters don't give a d*mn about ECL. I see where your coming from, though. It's also equally possible to give the sangrolu a negative level adjustment to balance its ECL. And one of the main reasons for doubling the HD was because the original sangrolu on which mine is based did it as well. It could go either way. TBH I don't see what difference it makes, but to each their own.

Debihuman
2013-08-12, 02:22 PM
Actually, when I'm trying to pit homebrewed monsters against a party ECL and CR do indeed come to play, although getting a grasp on the true CR of the template would help.

LA is --. That is for Templates that are not suitable for PCs.

CR is a lot harder to judge. While often HD don't come into play, I have often said that CR be lower than HD and that there should be no more than 1 special ability per HD and that each special ability should really do one thing as clearly and concisely as possible.

You didn't update this to 3.5 per se. You reskinned completely with a bunch of HD that it never had and shouldn't have.

Your template isn't CR +4; I'm not sure what it is but CR +4 is too low.

thethird
2013-08-12, 02:47 PM
Wow there a load of things... some notes/nitpicks.

Fluff/Formatting could be better, as it is it is hard to see what is fluff and what is not fluff. For example, the Phylactery section clearly has crunch but it is not in the crunch section. Why all the spoiler tags? I dislike clicking buttons to read.

Hit die: Double the base vampire’s hit dice. Whenever the base vampire gains a level in a class, they gain an additional hit die (but not an additional level in the class). This is a bad ideaTM seriously, there are two readings of this, first as they gain levels they gain undead HD (which suck) or whenever they gain levels they gain extra levels. Whatever you are thinking please, rethink this. If you need a monster with even moar HD give it moar HD at creation, don't screw over its progression.

Speed: Why is there an increase here? Do they actually need a speed bump?

Armour class: Give them a bonus equal to HD and don't double the HD.

Attack: So... you can touch enemies every round for 1d6/2HD (why would you double the HD and then double them?). Still that's quite a lot of damage, or healing. Since a Sangrolu can touch himself to full health quite quickly.

Blood Drain: It doesn't give temporary hit points, since it gives them blood points? Why does it mention temporary hit points? Again reduce the "blood points" to 5 per HD and DON'T double the HD.

Blood Venom: Even if most enemies are probably immune to poison by this level, this is quite a strong ability. It basically doubles the constitution damage. If this is a poison effect, why doesn't it have a save?

Blood Spell power: Seriously, keep the HD as normal... I would erase the first option, it complicates things. Increasing the range of the spells is bad ideaTM. Increasing the duration is probably a bad idea too. Ignoring immunities... well... probably a bad idea too.

Children of the night: So you summon things... with self spawn that have 10 evolved undead... Yea this is a terrible ideaTM . It basically means that the Sangrolu always has 12 of this around.

Create spawn: Okay

Dark blood: Okay

Domination: Okay

Energy Drain: Okay

Paralyzing touch: What is the DC of the save? 1? What is pgic? Don't make this permanent.

Possession: Again what is the DC?

Alternate form: Shapechange at will :smallannoyed: Why would a Sangrolu have this? It loses all the cool things of the template. Take this away.

Blood Healing: meh, okayish

Blood Lore: Relatively defenseless? :smallconfused:

Blood force: Okay

DR: Should be Epic & Silver

Dark mist: What does this do? Does it grant concealment?

Death state: So they aren't immune when dead?

Gaseous form: Invisibility here is stupid.

Hellfire vulnerability: Do they have regen :smalleek: Do you know that they are undead, do you? :eek: Even if they weren't undead, why wouldn't their regen be bypassed by their vulnerabilities?

Memory retention: :eek: Terribad ideaTM

Immunities: Acceptable

Overcome weakness: Why?

Perfect automatic still spell & silent spell: Ok, but why?

Phylactery: Okay

Regeneration: :eek: Terribad ideaTM

Silence: Ok

Telepathy: Ok

Skills: Huge bonuses... why so huge?

Level adjustment: With proper changes probably around 8 or so.

---

I might keep revising things later, but take into account that almost all sangrolu will also be Vampire lords (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/mm/20021018a)

Rolep
2013-08-13, 03:37 AM
You reskinned completely with a bunch of HD that it never had and shouldn't have.
You other points are valid, but this isn't. If you look carefully at the orginial update (which only goes to 3e), you will see that it actually ets double HD +4, which is even more than I gave it.


For example, the Phylactery section clearly has crunch but it is not in the crunch section. Why all the spoiler tags? I dislike clicking buttons to read.
It's based on the format of the lich template, which has the phylactery separate from the crunch. The spoiler tags are to make scrolling down quicker.


This is a bad ideaTM seriously, there are two readings of this, first as they gain levels they gain undead HD (which suck) or whenever they gain levels they gain extra levels. Whatever you are thinking please, rethink this. If you need a monster with even moar HD give it moar HD at creation, don't screw over its progression.
Since I'm getting so many complaints about this, I'll change it.


Speed: Why is there an increase here? Do they actually need a speed bump?
At epic levels, 30ft speed is garbage.


Armour class: Give them a bonus equal to HD and don't double the HD.

Attack: So... you can touch enemies every round for 1d6/2HD (why would you double the HD and then double them?). Still that's quite a lot of damage, or healing. Since a Sangrolu can touch himself to full health quite quickly.

Blood Drain: It doesn't give temporary hit points, since it gives them blood points? Why does it mention temporary hit points? Again reduce the "blood points" to 5 per HD and DON'T double the HD.
If I half the HD, I'll change all HD-based things to be appropriate. The demilich can cast harm and will. 18d6 is piddling compared to 150.


Blood Venom: Even if most enemies are probably immune to poison by this level, this is quite a strong ability. It basically doubles the constitution damage. If this is a poison effect, why doesn't it have a save?

Paralyzing touch: What is the DC of the save? 1? What is pgic? Don't make this permanent.

Possession: Again what is the DC?
Read the top of the special attacks section. It lists the standard DC for ALL special attacks. This is a VERY common format for templates. Also, the lich's paralyizing touch is permanent, and that's CR 13. I think that it's OK here. Also, pgic should read epic magic.


Blood Spell power: Seriously, keep the HD as normal... I would erase the first option, it complicates things. Increasing the range of the spells is bad ideaTM. Increasing the duration is probably a bad idea too. Ignoring immunities... well... probably a bad idea too.

Children of the night: So you summon things... with self spawn that have 10 evolved undead... Yea this is a terrible ideaTM . It basically means that the Sangrolu always has 12 of this around.
Why are all of these bad ideas? They make the template more interesting, and they don't seem broken to me. If you could go into more detail on this, that would be helpful.


Alternate form: Shapechange at will Why would a Sangrolu have this? It loses all the cool things of the template. Take this away.
It's a more powerful version of the vampire ability, and since it only has 18HD (:smalltongue:) it can't turn into anything overly powerful. Alkso, as arcanist pointed out, it will spend most of its time possessing foes.


Blood Lore: Relatively defenseless?
Good point. Will clarify.


DR: Should be Epic & Silver
Redundant with regeneration, but I'm going to remove the regen so this will change.


Dark mist: What does this do? Does it grant concealment?
The sangrolu can see anywhere within its dark mist.


Death state: So they aren't immune when dead?
To what?


Gaseous form: Invisibility here is stupid.
They look identical to the dark mist, which extends to a 300ft radius. How is that not invisibility?


Hellfire vulnerability: Do they have regen Do you know that they are undead, do you? Even if they weren't undead, why wouldn't their regen be bypassed by their vulnerabilities?

Memory retention: Terribad ideaTM

Regeneration: Terribad ideaTM
I know :smalltongue:. Those are getting fixed.

Overcome weakness: Why?

Perfect automatic still spell & silent spell: Ok, but why?
Overcome weakness is one of the main reasons that you become a sangrolu in the first place: to remove your vampire weaknesses. PASS&SS is so that they can cast spells while being stealthy.


Skills: Huge bonuses... why so huge?
See demilich. The bonuses are similar for similar CRs. Also, a sangrolu probably won't have ranks in most of theses skills so it allows them to set up ambushes for the PCs effectively.


Level adjustment: With proper changes probably around 8 or so.
A fir few peeps seem to say this, so I'll put it in.


take into account that almost all sangrolu will also be Vampire lords
I drew a little inspiration from that template, and this one largely makes it redundant, but I suppose that they could stack.

I will update my template at some point when I have the time, possibly not until the weekend, possibly today. I'll have to see. Thanks all for your comments.

Arcanist
2013-08-13, 04:02 AM
You other points are valid, but this isn't. If you look carefully at the orginial update (which only goes to 3e), you will see that it actually ets double HD +4, which is even more than I gave it.

Needs less HD.


At epic levels, 30ft speed is garbage.

At epic level, anything less than Greater Teleport -at will is garbage.


Also, pgic should read epic magic.

I still have no idea what pgic is and I actually PLAY epic :smallconfused:


Why are all of these bad ideas? They make the template more interesting, and they don't seem broken to me. If you could go into more detail on this, that would be helpful.

I agree that it is pretty bad. I kept it in my version because it was actually thematic with the creature as a Vampire-Lich hybrid type creature.


It's a more powerful version of the vampire ability, and since it only has 18HD (:smalltongue:) it can't turn into anything overly powerful. Alkso, as arcanist pointed out, it will spend most of its time possessing foes.

Actually I stated that against multiple enemies they will be possessing enemies. In solitary encounters they will most likely be in a shapechanged form. I weakened it to Polymorph at will. The Caster level is at the creatures HD, which can be well over 25.


They look identical to the dark mist, which extends to a 300ft radius. How is that not invisibility?

"Hey Ted, that cloud is moving pretty fast..."
"Yep... Just ignore it..."


Overcome weakness is one of the main reasons that you become a sangrolu in the first place: to remove your vampire weaknesses. PASS&SS is so that they can cast spells while being stealthy.

Indeed. A Sangrolu is a vampire-lich. The strengths of both, the weaknesses of neither. I changed that ability to only function while in it's Gaseous form. I'm removing the part where it is invisible and stating that it just gains a bonus to hide, while hiding in it's mist.



See demilich. The bonuses are similar for similar CRs. Also, a sangrolu probably won't have ranks in most of theses skills so it allows them to set up ambushes for the PCs effectively.

That is a terrible reason. I gave them the bonuses because it was a combination of the two templates and since they are both racial bonuses they don't stack and the greater source supersedes the other.


A fir few peeps seem to say this, so I'll put it in.

I'm still torn on the entire LA thing since it is the Vampire's LA plus the Sangrolu's LA added together to the character which can result in an absurdly high LA and make the character completely unplayable. For me, it would be a total LA of +12 meaning they wouldn't get a buy off until 36th level and it would only decrease the LA down to 11.

Rolep
2013-08-13, 04:19 AM
Needs less HD.
I know!


At epic level, anything less than Greater Teleport -at will is garbage.
True. I guess we can live without, but in literature vampires are always absurdly fast.


I still have no idea what pgic is and I actually PLAY epic :smallconfused:
pgic is a typo. It is meant to say 'epic magic'. Every now and then my keyboard freezes and misses a few letters.


I agree that it is pretty bad. I kept it in my version because it was actually thematic with the creature as a Vampire-Lich hybrid type creature.
You have summarized why I want to keep it, but I'm still wondering why it's bad. It gives sangrolu control over their spells, and it's no more broken than metamagic.


Actually I stated that against multiple enemies they will be possessing enemies. In solitary encounters they will most likely be in a shapechanged form. I weakened it to Polymorph at will. The Caster level is at the creatures HD, which can be well over 25.
I see your point (though, as a spellcaster, they can use shapechange anyway; though, in turn, that means that it shouldn't have the ability twice, so i'll remove it).


"Hey Ted, that cloud is moving pretty fast..."
"Yep... Just ignore it..."
Yes, but where is a 5ft-by-5ftby-5ft cloud of gas amongst an identical, larger 300ft-radius cloud of gas? It's like looking for a specific troll on Ask: they all look the same.


Indeed. A Sangrolu is a vampire-lich. The strengths of both, the weaknesses of neither. I changed that ability to only function while in it's Gaseous form. I'm removing the part where it is invisible and stating that it just gains a bonus to hide, while hiding in it's mist.
All very good points. You are by far the hardest person to argue against! :smallbiggrin: My britishness is failing!!! My arguementative powers are fading!


That is a terrible reason. I gave them the bonuses because it was a combination of the two templates and since they are both racial bonuses they don't stack and the greater source supersedes the other.
Calling it terrible is a bit harsh! Your reason is better, though, definitely.


I'm still torn on the entire LA thing since it is the Vampire's LA plus the Sangrolu's LA added together to the character which can result in an absurdly high LA and make the character completely unplayable. For me, it would be a total LA of +12 meaning they wouldn't get a buy off until 36th level and it would only decrease the LA down to 11.
Since 12 is the vampire's LA + the lich's LA, that total is also appropriate. I'm bad at working that kind of thing out, so I'll leave that to the experts!

Arcanist
2013-08-13, 04:29 AM
All very good points. You are by far the hardest person to argue against! :smallbiggrin: My britishness is failing!!! My arguementative powers are fading!

I'd like to publicly admit this: I am a TERRIBLE debater. If anything I say sounds like an intelligent argument you need to get your eyes checked and your head examined.


True. I guess we can live without, but in literature vampires are always absurdly fast.

Neither template adds it and the increase in speed is a construct of 2nd edition.


You have summarized why I want to keep it, but I'm still wondering why it's bad. It gives sangrolu control over their spells, and it's no more broken than metamagic.

I wouldn't say that. Sure, it gives them better control over their spellcasting, but it certainly isn't any better than a metamagic. Limiting it to Spell level instead of the casters HD would be more similar to Metamagic.


I see your point (though, as a spellcaster, they can use shapechange anyway; though, in turn, that means that it shouldn't have the ability twice, so i'll remove it).

By this logic, they shouldn't have Domination because they can cast Dominate person. By this logic they shouldn't have Gaseous Form because they can cast it. It's just an overpowered spell and granting it as an at will ability would be ridiculous.


Yes, but where is a 5ft-by-5ftby-5ft cloud of gas amongst an identical, larger 300ft-radius cloud of gas? It's like looking for a specific troll on Ask: they all look the same.

I don't know what is more shocking, this clever argument or the fact people still use Ask.

But seriously, when you see a Cloud moving above you at 100ft ever 6 seconds, you're going to get suspicious. You might not do anything about it, but you're going to ask questions.


Since 12 is the vampire's LA + the lich's LA, that total is also appropriate. I'm bad at working that kind of thing out, so I'll leave that to the experts!

I'm even worse, but I assure you are total LA of 16 is overkill and totally unnecessary. Hell, I think the vampire template should be reworked down to a +4 LA or +3 LA and I'm still experimenting with that. :smallannoyed:

At least with that, this combination will be a LA at 24 instead of 36 and a total LA of 7. If you perform them separately, it is a +5 LA. And treating the Sangrolu as some sort of Patriarch tier Vampire sort of deal as detailed in Van Richten's Guide to Vampire (recommended reading material).

Rolep
2013-08-13, 04:39 AM
I'd like to publicly admit this: I am a TERRIBLE debater. If anything I say sounds like an intelligent argument you need to get your eyes checked and your head examined.
On my way to the clinic right now!


Neither template adds it and the increase in speed is a construct of 2nd edition.
I don't know second deition. As I've said, the increase in speed comes from literature.


I wouldn't say that. Sure, it gives them better control over their spellcasting, but it certainly isn't any better than a metamagic. Limiting it to Spell level instead of the casters HD would be more similar to Metamagic.
I'm not saying that it's like or better than metamagic, I'm just saying that I think that it's less broken. And no-one has explained why it's a bad idea yet!


I don't know what is more shocking, this clever argument or the fact people still use Ask.
Or that it hasn't been taken down despite multiple suicides?


But seriously, when you see a Cloud moving above you at 100ft ever 6 seconds, you're going to get suspicious. You might not do anything about it, but you're going to ask questions.
If you see an empty point in space where the rain/snow/sand isn't, or those footprints being left by no one, your going to get suspicious. The person is still invisible, just other poeple have relaised that they are invisible.


I'm even worse, but I assure you are total LA of 16 is overkill and totally unnecessary.
I could definitely believe that!

Debihuman
2013-08-13, 09:50 AM
The previous templates indicate that the creation of a bloodlich adds 4 HD and that they gain 1 HD for gaining a level in their spellcasting class. I have no idea why you changed that.

Adding the additional HD isn't updating the existing template, it is remaking it altogether. The original 2e creature had 12+ HD.

I'd be inclined to add Monstrous Vampire to the list of creatures that can take this template in addition to Vampire Lords.

Hit Dice: As base vampire’s hit dice plus 4 additional Hit Dice.


Here is a rather simplified version of Memory Retention

Memory Retention (Ex): Memory retention is the ability to permanently retain memories from creatures a sangrolu has killed. Anytime a sangrolu kills a creature, it may make a Wisdom check at -8 to gain access to the victim's skills, feats, class features, special qualities and special attacks. If the sangrolu fails this initial check, it cannot access that victim's memories and gains no abilities.

If the check is successful, the sangrolu can make new attempts to access each of the victim's features. Accessing a feature can be done as a standard action with a Wisdom check -8. The sangrolu must touch the victim in order to gain the features. Victims that leave no bodies cannot be accessed.

The acquisition of new abilities must be done in order. New skills are gained first. If the Wisdom check is successful, the sangrolu gains 1 rank in a new skill. This ability cannot be used to increase ranks of skills the sangrolu already has or has already acquired from a previous victim. If there are no new skills to be learned, then the sangrolu may learn new feats (these are acquired as bonus feats), followed by new class features, then new special qualities and finally new special attacks. As soon as a sangrolu fails a Wisdom save, he can no longer continue to learn anything from that particular victim. Furthermore, none of this guarantees that the sangrolu can use all the victim's features. Features gained from one victim do not stack with features the sangrolu already has or has already gained, however they may overlap.

Debby

Rolep
2013-08-14, 12:10 PM
The previous templates indicate that the creation of a bloodlich adds 4 HD and that they gain 1 HD for gaining a level in their spellcasting class. I have no idea why you changed that.
:smallredface:I misread the orginal template!:smallredface:


I'd be inclined to add Monstrous Vampire to the list of creatures that can take this template in addition to Vampire Lords.
Haven't heard of monstrous vampires. Where are they from? And vampire lords can take this template, since they are humanoid/monstrous humanoid and have the vampire template (which is required to take vampire lord). If you think that I should specify anyway, I shall.


Memory Retention (Ex): Memory retention is the ability to permanently retain memories from creatures a sangrolu has killed. Anytime a sangrolu kills a creature, it may make a Wisdom check at -8 to gain access to the victim's skills, feats, class features, special qualities and special attacks. If the sangrolu fails this initial check, it cannot access that victim's memories and gains no abilities.

If the check is successful, the sangrolu can make new attempts to access each of the victim's features. Accessing a feature can be done as a standard action with a Wisdom check -8. The sangrolu must touch the victim in order to gain the features. Victims that leave no bodies cannot be accessed.

The acquisition of new abilities must be done in order. New skills are gained first. If the Wisdom check is successful, the sangrolu gains 1 rank in a new skill. This ability cannot be used to increase ranks of skills the sangrolu already has or has already acquired from a previous victim. If there are no new skills to be learned, then the sangrolu may learn new feats (these are acquired as bonus feats), followed by new class features, then new special qualities and finally new special attacks. As soon as a sangrolu fails a Wisdom save, he can no longer continue to learn anything from that particular victim. Furthermore, none of this guarantees that the sangrolu can use all the victim's features. Features gained from one victim do not stack with features the sangrolu already has or has already gained, however they may overlap.
Very well worded :smallbiggrin:, but do you agree with the others that it should be taken out as it is a little OP?

Mark II is coming. It will take into acount a wide array of sugestions. I'm still waiting for an answer to why blood spell power is broken.

Network
2013-08-14, 12:38 PM
Haven't heard of monstrous vampires. Where are they from? And vampire lords can take this template, since they are humanoid/monstrous humanoid and have the vampire template (which is required to take vampire lord). If you think that I should specify anyway, I shall.
Monstruous vampires are in Ghostwalk. The template is nearly identical to the vampire template, but it applies to non-humanoids and is more powerful.

Talking about which, why not allow the dread vampire template from Advanced Bestiary, by Green Ronin Publishing?

Arcanist
2013-08-14, 12:45 PM
Monstruous vampires are in Ghostwalk. The template is nearly identical to the vampire template, but it applies to non-humanoids and is more powerful.

Since they are effectively the exact same template, I figured they would both apply... Odd...

Debihuman
2013-08-14, 03:06 PM
Haven't heard of monstrous vampires. Where are they from? And vampire lords can take this template, since they are humanoid/monstrous humanoid and have the vampire template (which is required to take vampire lord). If you think that I should specify anyway, I shall.

The monstrous vampire template is from Ghostwalk. See a bit about it here: https://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20031225a

[/quote]Very well worded :smallbiggrin:, but do you agree with the others that it should be taken out as it is a little OP?[/quote]

It is a bit overpowered but having to take a -8 penalty to the Wisdom check is going to result in failure at least some of the time. Creatures don't get Wisdom bonuses from turning into vampires, vampire lords gain +2 Wisdom, and monstrous vampires don't gain any Wisdom points. The sangrolu template doesn't add to Wisdom. So unless the DM is using a creature with a ridiculously high Wisdom bonus to start, this should't be a problem. And it will still fail on a 1. And as I said, knowledge about a special ability doesn't grant you the ability to use it. The again, if the creature's wisdom bonus is +10 what the heck are its other bonuses?

A balor monstrous vampire sangrolu can't use a pixie's fiddle unless he can first gain Perform (String Instrument) skill (1st check); then must buy an appropriate sized fiddle and then must succeed at the 2nd Wisdom check to gain fiddle supernatural ability. That's two checks. Pixies have 4 ranks in Perform (fiddle) so you can make a case that the balor vampire can't use the Fiddle Special Ability until he has 4 ranks in Perform Fiddle.


Mark II is coming. It will take into acount a wide array of sugestions. I'm still waiting for an answer to why blood spell power is broken.

Here is the Blood Spell Power:


Blood Spell Power (Su): A sangrolu can spend blood points to increase the power of their spells. They may spend no more than 1 point per HD on a single spell. The points can be spent as follows:
• For every two points spent, the sangrolu can increase their effective caster level by one for a single purpose of the spell (e.g. range, duration etc.).
• For every three points spent, the sangrolu can increase their effective caster level by one for all purposes of the spell.
• For every five points spent, the sangrolu can increase the damage dice size by one stage (d4 to d6 to d8 to d10 to d12 to d20) or the range by one stage (personal to touch to close to medium to long).
• For every six points spent, the sangrolu can increase the save DC of the spell by one.
• For every ten points spent, the sangrolu can increase the duration of a spell by one stage (rounds to minutes to hours to days to weeks to months to years).
• For every fifteen points, the sangrolu can ignore a single immunity possessed by the target of the spell.


Here is where it is overpowered.

1st, they can spend no more than 1 blood point per HD. That's good. It's a limiting factor as long as the Sangrolu doesn't get a lot of extra free HD. With the extra hit dice, this is indeed overpowered.

2nd, For 2 points, they can increase one factor of a spell. You need to list every factor. Using etc. doesn't cut it. What exactly do you mean by "one factor?" Spells don't have "factors" per se, they're not equations. You need to spell this out better.

3rd, that's not a standard damage progresses. See chart on Bigger and Smaller weapons in the SRD. 1d6 becomes either 2d4 or 1d8 depending on the weapon. Also there should no 1d12 and certainly no 1d20. Progression from 1d8 goes to 2d6, then 3d6, then 4d6, etc.

4th, Increasing the save DC should only be able to be gained once per spell. The effects do not stack.

5th. Overcoming an immunity doesn't always make sense. I'd be leery of this one.

Debby

Rolep
2013-08-15, 10:55 AM
1st, they can spend no more than 1 blood point per HD. That's good. It's a limiting factor as long as the Sangrolu doesn't get a lot of extra free HD. With the extra hit dice, this is indeed overpowered.

2nd, For 2 points, they can increase one factor of a spell. You need to list every factor. Using etc. doesn't cut it. What exactly do you mean by "one factor?" Spells don't have "factors" per se, they're not equations. You need to spell this out better.
Both of these problems are being fixed (i.e. removed).


3rd, that's not a standard damage progresses. See chart on Bigger and Smaller weapons in the SRD. 1d6 becomes either 2d4 or 1d8 depending on the weapon. Also there should no 1d12 and certainly no 1d20. Progression from 1d8 goes to 2d6, then 3d6, then 4d6, etc.
True. I didn't realise that it was that much of an issue. It's an easy fix: i'll do it.


4th, Increasing the save DC should only be able to be gained once per spell. The effects do not stack.
Really? It's an untyped bonus, so it should stack. Why should it only be able to be gained once per spell? A basic, 18HD sangrolu can provide +3 to the DC. Any min-maxer can concoct a much bigger bonus from feats alone.


5th. Overcoming an immunity doesn't always make sense. I'd be leery of this one.
True, but it could be used to awesome effect, whether it makes sense or not, just based on sheer epicness/bad*ssery. Take into account the power of the sangrolu, and the fact that it can bypass immuntiies only addes to its presence as a boss.

Rolep
2013-08-16, 09:27 AM
Soz about the double post by I nhave uploaded Mark II of the sangrolu. Some things that I was unsure about have been left uneidted until I can receive more feedback aout them, but overall it should be mostly fixed. Some of the abilities (Dark Mist/Incarnadine Manipulation) have been powered up, so it may warrant and extra CR/LA, but it's not my area of expertise.

Debihuman
2013-08-16, 09:48 AM
Soz about the double post by I nhave uploaded Mark II of the sangrolu. Some things that I was unsure about have been left uneidted until I can receive more feedback aout them, but overall it should be mostly fixed. Some of the abilities (Dark Mist/Incarnadine Manipulation) have been powered up, so it may warrant and extra CR/LA, but it's not my area of expertise.

Quite the overhaul. Not at all what I was expecting. My first impression is that you threw out the baby with the bathwater. I kinda wish you'd been a little more respectful to the source material.

Otherwise, it's going to take me a while to go through the new template. There are changes that are new and that I like and others that seem to have cropped up out of the blue and leave me wondering why they are there.

Debby

Rolep
2013-08-16, 01:50 PM
There are changes that are new and that I like and others that seem to have cropped up out of the blue and leave me wondering why they are there.

Really? Most of the changes are fixes and tweaks suggested by commenters and rewordings to make the abilities shorter, simpler and flow better. Can't wait to read your comments!

Carl
2013-08-16, 02:57 PM
I'm not going to be giving any kind of detailed feedback since my familiarity with epic level stuff is near zero, but:

overall i like it. Huge HP's huge range of horrifically dangerous powers and so many ways to go lol nope in peoples faces just really gives it a solid feel. The Fluff is also great and i adore that picture, it's already got me thinking about some sort of necromancer style class based off her, compliment the artist for me please.

Overall when i look at this i can see an opponent that from a storytelling perspective is truly beyond brilliant, it really has a feel of the terror of the night you never want to meet and yet likely never even knew could exist.

Arcanist
2013-08-16, 05:01 PM
Having just read the template I can honestly say the new one is a much needed improvement. Not a fan of the Artwork and the Fluff, but to each their own.

You've decreased the HP, added an Incantation (and renamed it because I'm assuming you hate me), Phylactery should be a Supernatural ability because the Phylactery, as a magical item, would not work in an Anti-magic field, the Skill bonuses still make no sense, but to each their own, It gains feats it does not qualify for, Crimson Deaths are still not a thing (to my knowledge), The damage from the Sangrolu's touch attack easily surpasses the Demilich's by 10th level, and is still basically asking to be abused by Sorcerers with how Cha dependent these abilities are.

I would like to note that requiring the creature to have the Vampire template OR the Vampire Lord template is redundant.

Still not sure how I feel about the Fly speed and increased land speed since they appear to be in place for the added reasons of "moar +'s!!!!" as well as certain abilities that allow too many free actions (Ex. Domination and Gaseous Form, which in combination of each other just make it a matter of the Sangrolu going Gaseous to avoid attacks and possess creatures and becoming non-Gaseous to dominate people into attacking other creatures for them.)

Rolep
2013-08-17, 03:42 AM
overall i like it. Huge HP's huge range of horrifically dangerous powers and so many ways to go lol nope in peoples faces just really gives it a solid feel. The Fluff is also great and i adore that picture, it's already got me thinking about some sort of necromancer style class based off her, compliment the artist for me please.

Overall when i look at this i can see an opponent that from a storytelling perspective is truly beyond brilliant, it really has a feel of the terror of the night you never want to meet and yet likely never even knew could exist.
Thanks!


Not a fan of the Artwork and the Fluff, but to each their own.
I keep searching for good fluff, but I can't think of asny. Every edition that I post will probs have this radically different as I search for one that works, but I prefer this one to the first one, so it stays for now!


I'm assuming you hate me
Not hate, just sadistic pleasure in your demise! But seriously, your feedback has been really useful, I just changed the names to ones that I felt fitted slightly more.


Phylactery should be a Supernatural ability because the Phylactery, as a magical item, would not work in an Anti-magic field.
Valid point.


the Skill bonuses still make no sense.
Cr*p! forgot to change them!:smallredface:


It gains feats it does not qualify for
Isn't that how monstrous bonus feats work?I didn't think that you had to be able to qualify for them.


Crimson Deaths are still not a thing (to my knowledge)
What do you mean by this. If you mean, I haven't included them in the template, then look again, cos I have. If you mean, they don't exist in 3.5 (which they don't to my knowledge), I'm planning on udating them (if there isn't an update already) at the same time as I post the feral vampire.


The damage from the Sangrolu's touch attack easily surpasses the Demilich's by 10th level
And when, perchance, will either of them actually use it? How much difference will it make? I just did per HD to make maths easier.


is still basically asking to be abused by Sorcerers with how Cha dependent these abilities are.
One minute you argue for all things being CHA-based, the next you argue the other way. Do you think that there is enough of an issue that it should be tweaked to be based of spellcasting stat, or could it just be left?


I would like to note that requiring the creature to have the Vampire template OR the Vampire Lord template is redundant.
LOL I point this out then completely forget about it!


Still not sure how I feel about the Fly speed and increased land speed since they appear to be in place for the added reasons of "moar +'s!!!!"
And so the sangrolu lives up to the literature vampire and can make an epic entrance more easily, and in reality it makes little difference either way.


certain abilities that allow too many free actions (Ex. Domination and Gaseous Form, which in combination of each other just make it a matter of the Sangrolu going Gaseous to avoid attacks and possess creatures and becoming non-Gaseous to dominate people into attacking other creatures for them.)
The reason is so that the sangrolu can use domination on the party and possess a creature in a single round. Do you think that this is a little/a lot OP? If so, I'll change it.

Debihuman
2013-08-17, 09:23 AM
Are there already rules for casting rituals in 3.5? Please cite to the book.

What is meant by "mirrorcast"? Obviously, I'm missing some references.

Sangrolu is an "acquired" template. That term is missing.


Hit Dice: The base vampire gains maximum hit points per hit die, and gains bonus hit points equal to the number of hit die that the base vampire has multiplied by their charisma modifier.

I like this a bit better, though Size and Type should come first, as a good template should follow the creature's statistics block.

However, it is still far too overpowered for a +4 template. Gaining maximum hit points is great, gaining more is pushing it for CR +4.


Speed: The base vampire’s speed triples, for all movement types. In addition, the base vampire gains a supernatural fly speed equal to its new base land speed (perfect manoeuvrability).

Tripling the speed is too much for a CR +4. Paragon creature template does triple speed BUT it adds +15 to CR while your template adds +4. There is no way this is appropriate for CR +4.

I recommend changing this to the following:

Speed: The base vampire's land speed doubles. Base vampires without a fly speed gain the supernatural ability to fly equal to their land speed with perfect maneuverability. Base vampires that have a natural ability to fly gain an additional 50-foot increase to their flight speed and gain perfect maneuverability if they do not already possess it.

More to come.

Debby

Rolep
2013-08-17, 11:39 AM
Are there already rules for casting rituals in 3.5? Please cite to the book.
What is meant by "mirrorcast"? Obviously, I'm missing some references.
I...uh...sorta copy-pasted arcanist for it!:smallredface: You'll have to ask him. I'm pretty sure that there are rules, though (I recognize the format and wording from elsewhere).


I like this a bit better, though Size and Type should come first, as a good template should follow the creature's statistics block.
OK, will change.


Gaining maximum hit points is great, gaining more is pushing it for CR +4.
But remember that, lacking a constitution bonus at a level when most creatures have 500+HP, it will still be lower than the average encounter.


Tripling the speed is too much for a CR +4.
I'd tend to agree with others that triple speed means nothing when you can teleport. At epic level, your speed is just an insignifincance.

Can't wait to see the rest!

Carl
2013-08-17, 01:04 PM
@Debihuman: As other have mention at epics it's trivial to teleport everywhere, there are rings of wizadry all the way up and feats that let you cast 2 (or more) quickened spells a day whilst getting automatic quicken at no spell slot increase. You can basically throw down a dozen plus Dimension door AND Teleport spells a day that way, and with spontaneous spell fats you don't even need to prepare them as a prepared caster. And thats before we get into improved staff/wand use that lets you store such spells in them and then expend spells slots of the same or higher level to cast them or expanded spellcasting or overmassive ability modifiers or...

I think i'll stop, you get the point. Teleports of one kind or another are trivial to acquire by epics so a speed increase has little utility in real power terms, it's pure fluff by this point.

Debihuman
2013-08-17, 03:16 PM
@Debihuman: As other have mention at epics it's trivial to teleport everywhere, there are rings of wizadry all the way up and feats that let you cast 2 (or more) quickened spells a day whilst getting automatic quicken at no spell slot increase. You can basically throw down a dozen plus Dimension door AND Teleport spells a day that way, and with spontaneous spell fats you don't even need to prepare them as a prepared caster. And thats before we get into improved staff/wand use that lets you store such spells in them and then expend spells slots of the same or higher level to cast them or expanded spellcasting or overmassive ability modifiers or...

I think i'll stop, you get the point. Teleports of one kind or another are trivial to acquire by epics so a speed increase has little utility in real power terms, it's pure fluff by this point.

This is NOT supposed to be an epic level template. Vampire adds LA +8 to a creature and this is supposed to add +4.

As it is it adds about +12 LA and CR should be +15 from eyeballing it.
I don't think making this epic is appropriate. It certain isn't what the original 2e design was and that's why I object to this being so powerful.


Debby

Carl
2013-08-17, 04:05 PM
This is NOT supposed to be an epic level template. Vampire adds LA +8 to a creature and this is supposed to add +4.

Check Ritual of the Deathweave, It requires a Phylactery, only a character with access to 11th level spells can create one.

EDIT: And checking on the original inspiration material it's explicitly a melding of Lich and Vampire, that's unavoidably Epic Level regardless of how the template is acquired because a Lich requires a Phylactery which requires epics.

Arcanist
2013-08-17, 04:28 PM
Are there already rules for casting rituals in 3.5? Please cite to the book.

Unearthed Arcana,v Incantation rules (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/magic/incantations.htm).

Mirrorcast is supposed to mean that the spell does the opposite effect of the spell. Normally failing a ritual to become a Lich results in Death, however I figured that applying it to a Vampire, who would just return to their coffin, would be moot so I decided to just leave them in a weakened state.


This is NOT supposed to be an epic level template. Vampire adds LA +8 to a creature and this is supposed to add +4.

As it is it adds about +12 LA and CR should be +15 from eyeballing it.
I don't think making this epic is appropriate. It certain isn't what the original 2e design was and that's why I object to this being so powerful.

I agree, however I agree because I don't think any template should have a Level adjustment so high that it is impossible to use before Epic Level. Even as far as Epic goes, this Template is too much if you are playing with the most limited amount of intelligence and even goes to the point where in Epic Optimization it becomes incredibly moot to even try and fight since you will never touch it.

Debihuman
2013-08-17, 05:33 PM
Liches are +4 CR and aren't epic either. Caster level 11 is not epic. Epic starts at level 21 or higher.

However, this is epic obviously, so it should have LA +15 and CR +12.

I was attempting to fit in the LA +4 parameters but clearly that is not the case.

Debby

Carl
2013-08-17, 05:46 PM
Okay i'm on a roll for screwing up rules lately, i mis read caster 11th as needing 11th level spells, i need to stop posting whilst tired.

However wealth by level still dictates 14th level normally for the Phylactery, the extra GP for the deathweave ritual brings it up another level and the level adjustment of the vampire template puts it well past epic, (23 minimum). That's discounting the ritual is a 9th level spell which puts a character at a minimum ECL of 26th.

Debihuman
2013-08-17, 05:56 PM
My point was that the original post indicates a +4 LA which it clearly is not. I was trying (badly) to rein it in to that parameter.

vampire's LA is +8. This template adds at least nearly double that. I was eyeballing LA +15.

Debby

Carl
2013-08-17, 06:00 PM
My point was that the original post indicates a +4 LA which it clearly is not. I was trying (badly) to rein it in to that parameter.

vampire's LA is +8. This template adds at least +12 and probably higher.

Debby

I wasn't arguing for or against that, only that the movement choice isn't a valid point in that because anything that can get this template can also get access to a huge range of utterly ludicrous options for mass movement.

I'd be disinclined to think it's +4 too, but it's not going to be anywhere near as high as a non-epic template because at epic level;s there's a whole new power level in play that i still only have the barest grasp on that makes wish and miracle look like fluffy bunny's.

Arcanist
2013-08-17, 06:08 PM
Liches are +4 CR and aren't epic either.

Lich is a +2 CR.

Network
2013-08-17, 06:18 PM
Okay i'm on a roll for screwing up rules lately, i mis read caster 11th as needing 11th level spells, i need to stop posting whilst tired.

However wealth by level still dictates 14th level normally for the Phylactery, the extra GP for the deathweave ritual brings it up another level and the level adjustment of the vampire template puts it well past epic, (23 minimum). That's discounting the ritual is a 9th level spell which puts a character at a minimum ECL of 26th.
The maths are wrong. Assuming LA +8 for the vampire template and access to 9th-level spells, that's only an ECL of 25. WBL is not an issue ; even if it was, PCs use their ECL to calculate their wealth, not their character level.

I'll have to check the template again to have a good opinion of the LA/CR.

Rolep
2013-08-18, 04:58 AM
OK everyone, I'll throw out some maths to aid this discussion.

ECL
9th level Spells = 17 minimmum (discounting Beholder Mage)
Vampire = 8 (which is overkill)
This template = 4, to make up for the redundancy of the vamp's LA at epic levels, when most of its abilities are garbage. IMO, +12 LA for the combined templates seems reasonable, since you are losing out on 12 levels of casting (complete with 8 epic feats and the skill points in Spellcraft & Knowledge for epic spells).

CR
class levels = 17
vampire = 2
This Template = 4, since an equivalent-CR mage would have epic spells, tenth-level slots etc., and this guy will remain permannetly behind in these key fronts.

I may have underestimated a little, but I would not raise the LA more than another 1 or 2, and the CR no more than another 4 (15, to me, at epic level, seems complete overkill).

And for those commenting about how this should not be epic, the combination of vamp, lich and CL 11 (for phylactery) is ECL 23, so how can this not be, especially if it is to keep a lot of its signature abilities.

Debihuman
2013-08-18, 05:54 AM
OK everyone, I'll throw out some maths to aid this discussion.

ECL
9th level Spells = 17 minimmum (discounting Beholder Mage)
Vampire = 8 (which is overkill)
This template = 4, to make up for the redundancy of the vamp's LA at epic levels, when most of its abilities are garbage. IMO, +12 LA for the combined templates seems reasonable, since you are losing out on 12 levels of casting (complete with 8 epic feats and the skill points in Spellcraft & Knowledge for epic spells).

CR
class levels = 17
vampire = 2
This Template = 4, since an equivalent-CR mage would have epic spells, tenth-level slots etc., and this guy will remain permannetly behind in these key fronts.

I may have underestimated a little, but I would not raise the LA more than another 1 or 2, and the CR no more than another 4 (15, to me, at epic level, seems complete overkill).

And for those commenting about how this should not be epic, the combination of vamp, lich and CL 11 (for phylactery) is ECL 23, so how can this not be, especially if it is to keep a lot of its signature abilities.

However, your base creature doesn't say that it require 11 or more caster levels so that requirement doesn't need to be met.

Your sangrolu needs to have that clear in the requirements see lich template for wording:

"Lich" is an acquired template that can be added to any humanoid creature (referred to hereafter as the base creature), provided it can create the required phylactery. Emphasis in bold is mine. You need to fix your template to make this clearer.

This is what your template says:


“Sangrolu” is a template that can be added to any creature with one or more of the vampire, monstrous vampire, dread vampire or vampiric dragon templates, and that has completed the ritual of the deathweave (hereafter referred to as the base vampire).

It seems to me that the Sangrolu template should require both the completion of the ritual AND the creation of the phylactery as follows:

“Sangrolu” is a template that can be added to any creature with one or more of the vampire, monstrous vampire, dread vampire or vampiric dragon templates, and that has completed the ritual of the deathweave and created the required phylactery (hereafter referred to as the base vampire).

Debby

Rolep
2013-08-18, 06:09 AM
However, your base creature doesn't say that it require 11 or more caster levels so that requirement doesn't need to be met.

Your sangrolu needs to have that clear in the requirements see lich template for wording:

Emphasis in bold is mine. You need to fix your template to make this clearer.

This is what your template says:

It seems to me that the Sangrolu template should require both the completion of the ritual AND the creation of the phylactery as follows:
To perform the ritual of the deathweave, a ohylactery must be provided, which must be created by the base creature and which requires ninth-level spells. It's a little hidden, but you must have 9th level spells to become a sangrolu. Arcanist has that hole covered!

Debihuman
2013-08-18, 06:26 AM
To perform the ritual of the deathweave, a phylactery must be provided, which must be created by the base creature and which requires ninth-level spells. It's a little hidden, but you must have 9th level spells to become a sangrolu. Arcanist has that hole covered!

I recommend that you don't hide it but spell it out. The template needs to be clearer.

Debby

Rolep
2013-08-18, 06:37 AM
I recommend that you don't hide it but spell it out. The template needs to be clearer.
Also, I noticed that you need to able able to cast 9th level spells to even cast the ritual in the first place (it specifies in the statistics block). Is that clear enough, or should I add a note in the template section?

Arcanist
2013-08-18, 06:38 AM
It's a little hidden, but you must have 9th level spells to become a sangrolu. Arcanist has that hole covered!

You do not need to have 9th level spells to become a Sangrolu. At any time that you can provide the spells, you can easily become a Sangrolu. Hell, you just need a caster level of 3 and a lot of ranks in Use Magic Device to become one (you just won't gain the full benefits of the template, but you can still become one).

Having said this, I'm going to resume work on this template, however at the moment I am a bit lost as to where I should start since classes start back up in a couple of days and I've been experimenting with some new template building methods provided by our good old friends over at Dicefreak.

Rolep
2013-08-18, 06:57 AM
OK just looked up incantations and my last point is moot, and Arcanist also makes a good point, so I'll specify CL 18 in the template.

Rolep
2013-08-19, 11:10 AM
I've uploaded my initial take on the feral vampire. It does gain a lot of abilities, but these are to create a sense of total domination in combat.

Network
2013-08-19, 11:48 AM
I'm worried that in some circumstances, a feral vampire may be a less advantageous spawn than an ordinary vampire for the sangrolu. Most notably, if the sangrolu kills a spellcaster, wants to manipulate a court of nobles discreetly, or simply needs a chain of spawns under his command for some reason.

Rolep
2013-08-19, 02:02 PM
I'm worried that in some circumstances, a feral vampire may be a less advantageous spawn than an ordinary vampire for the sangrolu. Most notably, if the sangrolu kills a spellcaster, wants to manipulate a court of nobles discreetly, or simply needs a chain of spawns under his command for some reason.
Valid point. I've just finished lessons, so my creativity has deserted me. Any ideas on how best to fix this.

umbrapolaris
2013-08-22, 11:06 AM
1 - i didn't expected my post will generate such fervor ^^
2- Zolhkaar was the name of my character :p
3- i thought about the demibloodlich upgrade but was lazy to write it down
4- thanks Debby to found out the original post, i only had a copy-paste of it

finally, both conversion are great jobs to me