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The Demented One
2007-03-31, 12:03 PM
Morgellian
Size/Type: Tiny Aberration
Hit Dice: 8d8+24 (60 hp)
Initiative: +8
Speed: 20 ft., burrow 10 ft.
Armor Class: 22 (+2 size, +8 Dex, +2 natural), touch 20, flatfooted 14
Base Attack/Grapple: +6/-7
Attack: Bite +14 melee (1d3-5 plus poison)
Full Attack: Bite +14 melee (1d3-5 plus poison) or Touch +15 melee (infest)
Space/Reach: 2 ½ ft./0 ft.
Special Attacks: Infest, consume ego, poison
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft., tremorsense 20 ft., DR 10/magic, resistance to acid 10 and cold 10, SR 19
Saves: Fort +5, Ref +10, Will +10
Abilities: Str 1, Dex 26, Con 16, Int 18, Wis 18, Cha 26
Skills: Bluff +19, Disguise +19, Hide +27, Listen +15, Move Silently +19, Spot +15
Feats: Weapon Finesse (B), Dodge, Ability Focus (Poison), Weapon Focus (Touch Attack)
Environment: Underground
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 8
Treasure: None
Alignment: Neutral Evil
Advancement: 9-16 HD (Tiny)

Morgellians are a bizarre species of subterranean aberration, resembling colorful, threadlike worms. Their simple appearance belies a complex intelligence, and a devious nature. Morgellians seek to invade into the bodies of other creatures, which initiates a process in which the Morgellian slowly becomes a copy of the creature. Once a Morgellian absorbs the traits of a creature, it kills it, and goes out into the world to experience life free from the constrictions of their minute form.

Infest (Ex)
As a full-round action, a Morgellian can attempt to enter the body of a small or larger creature. To do so, it must make a touch attack. If it succeeds, it enters the creature’s body. The Morgellian can abandon the body at any time, although doing this takes 1 full round. Any attack against the host deals half damage to the Morgellian as well. A remove disease or heal spell cast on an inhabited victim forces the Morgellian to abandon its host.

Consume Ego (Su)
Each round a creature is infested by a Morgellian, it and the Morgellian must make opposed Charisma checks. The loser takes 1 point of Charisma drain. If the Morgellian is reduced to 0 Charisma this way, it dies and exits the hosts body. If the host is reduced to 0 Charisma, it goes under the total control of the Morgellian, as if with the dominate monster spell. Meanwhile, the Morgellian begins absorbing the memories and physical traits of the host. After 1d6 days, it emerges from the host, in a bloody process dealing 20d6 damage to the host. The Morgellian gains all memories of the host, and it becomes a physical copy, gaining the size, natural armor bonus, movement modes, natural attacks, physical ability scores, and racial extraordinary abilities of the host. If the host dies, or the Morgellian abandons it, before the process is complete, the whole process is reversed.

Poison (Ex)
A Morgellian’s teeth and skin are covered in a potent neuotoxin. Any creature hit by the Morgellian’s bite, or that hits the Morgellian with a natural weapon, unarmed strike, or touch attack must save or be affected by it. Both the initial and secondary damage are 1d4 Cha damage, the Save DC is 19. The save is Constitution based.

Icewalker
2007-03-31, 08:07 PM
I like it. Disgusting, and evil, but very interesting. I dunno about gaining the memories of the infested. That'd make them almost a copy of the original, even in mind...I suggest rephrasing it at least to imply that they merely know the memories of the host, instead of gaining the memories.

I like it though.

Abjurer
2007-03-31, 09:24 PM
That's brilliant. In a very violent, maniacal way.

martyboy74
2007-04-01, 07:01 PM
Couldn't this be another way to create pun-pun?

crazedloon
2007-04-01, 07:33 PM
very interesting however I would add character traits for this guy in case someone wanted to play it.

Demented
2007-04-01, 08:09 PM
Well, for a tiny creature with 8 hit dice that spends the significant portion of its life inside someone else, I think this would make a... difficult player race.

(As a sidenote, this only has a superficial connection to Morgellen's disease. What gives? :smalltongue: )

crazedloon
2007-04-01, 08:35 PM
I meant one that has already eaten someone :smallwink: though that may just be a template

The Demented One
2007-04-01, 10:13 PM
(As a sidenote, this only has a superficial connection to Morgellen's disease. What gives? :smalltongue: )
The idea of the creepy little fibers beneath the skin was the inspiration for this beastie.

henebry
2007-04-02, 09:59 AM
Intriguing, but suffers from HD inflation. I'd prefer a creature with ridiculously low HD, in keeping with its size: maybe 1d8, or even just 2 hp. Perhaps treat as a swarm if you need high HD for the sake of BAB.

There are several new undead from the 3.0 book Libris Mortis which suffer from the same problem of HD inflation: the skin of a flayed corpse shouldn't be a 10 HD creature.

TempusCCK
2007-04-03, 10:44 AM
I agree with the HD, and it seems to me that this wouldn't be a very potent monster anyway.

You figure in a party of 4 8th level characters and one of them starts figuring out that they're losing charisma by failing a check, he's going to go to the cleric about removing a disease. I mean, even if you keep their character sheets and make the rolls in secret, someone is going to know that their personality is being effected somehow, not telling them would be just plain stupid.

Also, the speed is way too high for a worm-like creature.

It's a very good monster, don't get me wrong, just don't be surprised if it never actually works against your players if you run it.

Lord Iames Osari
2007-05-11, 02:40 PM
Bump. Keep voting, people!

DragonTounge
2007-06-03, 09:15 PM
awesome and creepy. I LOVE IT!

I vote yes :-)

Mysticaloctopus
2007-06-17, 08:43 AM
The idea of the creepy little fibers beneath the skin was the inspiration for this beastie.

Morgellan's "disease", right? Heh, obscure weird references are great.

Ceres
2007-06-17, 09:10 AM
Dang! why didn't I see this one before? It is in many ways the same concept as the nameless (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=47825), the monster I'm working on...

Well, I guess MitP II can hold two tiny, evil, possessing, trait-stealing, charisma-draining monsters...

Matthew
2007-06-21, 06:07 PM
I'm a bit confused on the Attack Line. Shouldn't it be [BAB 6 + Dexterity 8 + Size 2] 16 and why does the Touch Attack use a different Attack Bonus?