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View Full Version : D&D 3.x Other Jack o' the Harvest (3.5 monster)



Zaydos
2015-10-11, 10:36 PM
Jack o’ the Harvest
Large Fey
Hit Dice: 16d6 (152 hp)
Initiative: +9
Speed: 50 ft (10 squares)
Armor Class: 21 (-1 size, +5 Dexterity, +7 natural), touch 14, flat-footed 16
Base Attack/Grapple: +8/+22
Attack: Claw +18 melee (1d6+10 and soul wounding)
Full Attack: 2 Claws +18 melee (1d6+10 and soul wounding) and bite +12 melee (1d8+5 plus 2d6 fire)
Space/Reach: 10 ft/10 ft
Special Attacks: Breath Weapon, Fear Burst, Frightful Presence, Soul Wounding , Spell-like Abilities
Special Qualities: Damage Reduction 10/cold iron or good and 5/cold iron and good, Darkvision 60 ft, Fire Immunity, Genius Loci, Lantern Head, Low-Light Vision, Nightvision, Regeneration 8, Tongues, Vulnerabilities.
Saves: Fort +11, Ref +15, Will +12
Abilities: Str 27, Dex 20, Con 23, Int 12, Wis 15, Cha 16
Skills: Escape Artist +13, Intimidate +22, Jump +37, Knowledge (Nature) +22, Listen +23, Profession (Farmer) +23, Spot +23, Survival +21
Skill Tricks: Never Outnumbered
Feats: Ability Focus (Breath Weapon), Cleave, Improved Initiative, Power Attack, Track, Weapon Focus (Claw)
Environment: Any inhabited land.
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 10
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always Lawful Evil
Advancement: 17-20 HD (Large), 21-32 HD (Huge), 33+ HD (Gargantuan) or by Character Class
Level Adjustment: –

Even hunched it rises more than 9 ft tall. Its body is inhumanly thin for its height, its body twisting at inhuman angles. It has no visible ‘chest’ seemingly little more than an inhumanly flexible spine, from which a carven pumpkin head emerges fire burning within, and two pairs of multi-jointed limbs. Its flaming eyes follow you in the night as it begins to lope towards you on its oddly fluid legs, its four jointed arm reaching for your face, sharp talon-like claws stretching out towards you.

A Jack o’ the Harvest is a type of ancient fey loosely detached from time. For most of the year they have a discorporate existence, living only as a genius loci vaguely aware of the region under their purview. It is only at the end of the harvest period that they on occasion take corporeal form. A Jack o’ the Harvest that does take corporeal form will act dependent upon the reverence the local populace has shown them. A yearly blood sacrifice during the harvest will at the worst keep a Jack o’ the Harvest from bothering a village, and a greater sacrifice may even cause it to bless their crops; even while not truly a corporeal entity a Jack o’ Harvest can bless its village. A Jack o’ the Harvest which has not received its due will emerge from the fields and into the homes of the village and extract its sacrifice personally with an interest it finds appropriate. Woe to the village whose Jack o’ the Harvest has slept a century and awakens to find itself forgotten. Hamlets and thorps have been known to be wiped from existence by the Jack o’ the Harvest that reigns over them.

A Jack o’ the Harvest speaks Sylvan, the native tongue of its village, and a number of bonus languages based on its intelligence modifier (usually 1); they also benefit from a Tongues spell at all times.

Combat:
A Jack o’ the Harvest initiates combat differently depending upon whether it has become completely corporeal yet or not. Upon first forming as a distinct entity for the year, a Jack o’ the Harvest is invisible and incorporeal and in this form will prowl a village. It uses its knowledge obtained as a genius loci to pick its battlefield deciding whether it can handle any mercenaries hired to defend the village from it. If mildly upset a Jack o’ the Harvest will kill its victim and retreat back to its field vanishing once more into the aether. If more thoroughly angered a Jack o’ the Harvest will begin a murdering spree, killing one to three victims a night until satisfied. They use their Frightful Presence to weaken a foe’s resolve and their wounding claws to lead one towards inevitable demise, following them and hounding them to make certain they cannot rest.

Breath Weapon (Su): A Jack o’ the Harvest is capable of releasing a fiery breath in a 30 ft cone. This deals 10d6 fire damage in the area, a successful Reflex save (DC 26) halves. Once a Jack o’ the Harvest has used this ability they cannot use it again for 1d6 rounds.
Fear Burst (Su): Whenever a Jack o’ the Harvest strikes a creature suffering a fear effect they deal +2d6 damage.
Frightful Presence (Ex): Whenever a Jack o’ the Harvest attacks, charges, or uses its breath weapon enemies within 30 ft with less hit dice than the Jack o’ the Harvest must make a Will save (DC 21) or be shaken for 5d6 rounds. A creature with 5 or less hit dice is panicked instead. A creature which succeeds on this saving throw is immune to that Jack o’ the Harvest’s frightful presence ability for 24 hours.
Genius Loci: A Jack o’ the Harvest is a variety of Genius Loci. They do not wholly exist except during a few days or weeks during the harvest season. In the remaining time they exist as a discorporate intelligence spread out over a radius of 1 square mile per hit die, centered on a field which is part of their village. While in this discorporate form a Jack o’ the Harvest is able to sense events in the region, in effect allowing it to make Bardic Knowledge, and Knowledge checks about the region untrained (and despite not being a bard) with a circumstance bonus equal to the Jack o’ the Harvest’s Hit Dice, as well as knowing anything that could be learned about the region with a DC 26 (10 + HD) Gather Information check. While discorporate a Jack o’ the Harvest can use Bless Crop, Control Weather (may only use to improve the weather for farming purposes), and Plant Growth as a spell-like ability anywhere within this region each 1/month.
A Jack o’ the Harvest can be contacted while in this discorporate state with a Commune with Nature spell cast for this purpose in its field. If this is done instead of the normal effect of the spell the caster is put into communication with the Jack o’ the Harvest and may talk to it as if it were there for 10 minute per caster level; a Jack o’ the Harvest will often require blood sacrifices in exchange for answers to questions.
A Jack o’ the Harvest can materialize within its field at night 1/year during the harvest season. It can remain manifested this way for no more than 1 month. When a Jack o’ the Harvest manifests it is incorporeal and invisible. In this state it cannot use Spell-like Abilities or harm other creatures (unless it finds a ghost touch weapon), has AC 17 (-1 size, +5 Dex, +3 Cha), touch AC 17, and Flat-Footed AC 12, and the Incorporeal subtype. A Jack o’ the Harvest’s lantern head ability is suppressed when it is in this state. At night Jack o’ the Harvest may become fully corporeal and visible as a free action as part of making an attack, in which case it is treated as if it was invisible when making the attack. A Jack o’ the Harvest within its field during the day may return to this state at-will as a full-round action.
A Jack o’ the Harvest subsists purely on the blood sacrifices of its village; they have no need to eat, sleep, drink, or breathe.
If a conterminous Plane of Faerie is used in setting, a Jack o’ the Harvest is fully manifest there while it is ‘discorporate’. A Jack o’ the Harvest loses its vulnerabilities while on the Plane of Faerie.
Lantern Head (Ex): A Jack o’ the Harvest’s head appears to be a hollowed out pumpkin in which a fire is lit. It produces light as a torch. There is no actual fire within, though its head does radiate a pleasant warmth.
Nightvision (Ex): A Jack o’ the Harvest can see even in the darkest night as if it were bright day. While outdoors a Jack o’ the Harvest can see in non-magical darkness as easily as if it were full light.
Regeneration (Su): A Jack o’ the Harvest is extremely difficult to kill with ordinary weapons. Good aligned cold iron weapons and cold deal normal damage to a Jack o’ the Harvest. If a Jack o’ the Harvest loses a limb or body part it may regrow it in 3d6 rounds. The creature can reattach the severed member instantly by holding it to the stump.
Soul Wounding (Su): A Jack o’ the Harvest’s claws rend the animating force of a creature struck by its claw. Any creature which is damaged by a Jack o’ the Harvest’s claw suffers 1 damage per round until they spend 1 full round doing absolutely nothing including free or immediate actions. This damage is cumulative for each claw attack a Jack o’ the Harvest successfully lands on a creature.
Spell-like Abilities: At-will Entangle; 3/day Blight; 1/day Bless Crops, Control Weather, Plant Growth. Caster Level: 16.
Tongues (Sp): A Jack o’ the Harvest benefits from a continual Tongues spell, CL 16. If dispelled the Jack o’ the Harvest can reactivate this ability as a standard action.
Vulnerabilities: A Jack o’ the Harvest has several special vulnerabilities. When exposed to natural sunlight or within a Magic Circle against Evil a Jack o’ the Harvest’s regeneration is reduced to 1, and it takes 3d6 minutes to regrow lost limbs and organs. A Jack o’ the Harvest within the area of a consecrate spell, a hallow spell, or the area warded by a Jack o’ the Pumpkin Patch loses its regeneration completely, has its DR reduced to 5/cold iron, and is sickened. When confronted with a mirror, a jack-o’-lantern, or a visual depiction of a Jack o’ the Harvest, a Jack o’ the Harvest suffers a -2 penalty to saves versus fear, and a -1 penalty to attack rolls and AC.

Ecology:
A Jack o’ the Harvest has an interesting relationship with humanoids, often parasitic but at times mutualistic. A Jack o’ the Harvest is born of humanoid society. Where there are no humanoids there are no Jacks o’ the Harvest. Where there are only hunter-gatherers there are no Jacks. A Jack o’ the Harvest is a spirit of the harvest, a spirit of that time of year when sapient races gather food for the long dark of the Winter. A Jack o’ the Harvest is a spirit of plenty, their magical powers allowing them to break droughts, ease winters, protect crops from blight, and ensure large harvests even when they slumber, and it is not unheard of for a satiated Jack o’ the Harvest to appear corporate and whole to offer advice to the village or even to defend it from marauding monsters and raiders; once orcish hordes knew not to attack during the harvest season lest they find themselves harvested. Yet at the same time they are an incarnation of that last dusk before the long dark. They extract a price in blood for their services, whether the inhabitants of the village want them or not.
Jacks o’ the Harvest are born from farming villages. Once they were ubiquitous, and any village could expect to have a Jack o’ the Harvest watching them within a year or two of founding. Now they are far rarer and most villages have never had one till one night it appears, extracts its “sacrifice” and leaves a demand for further sacrifices. When corporeal a Jack o’ the Harvest can be slain by mortal skill, or winter’s frost, and if the local Jack is slain it is centuries before another will form, and few villages remain farming villages that long. If a Jack’s village is destroyed the Jack will not become corporeal again unless another farming village is founded within its area of influence in which case they will on occasion “adopt” it. A Jack o’ the Harvest knows this, knows that their life is linked to their village like a dryad’s to a tree, yet they will willfully destroy a disrespecting village. If a Jack’s village ceases to be a farming village, moving towards a true city, the Jack will remain in the old fields its influence and power waning, and most that suffer this fate eventually find themselves killed by mortal heroes; a city will never generate a new Jack o’ the Harvest.
Oddly a Jack o’ the Harvest never seems fully satisfied with sacrifices unless they are autochthonous inhabitants of the Jack’s own village. While one can be placated by sufficient captives of war, or even livestock, a Jack o’ the Harvest offered what is to it so paltry fair will become less and less active as if their year long sleep is harder to shake off, and will almost never act to better their village. While 20 captives might serve to avert a Jack’s wrath, even a thousand will not obtain its blessing as merely 2 native sons might. Interestingly a Jack o’ the Harvest never attacks children (pre-pubescents that is), nor will they accept pre-pubescent sacrifices. Most Jacks o’ the Harvest seem to entirely ignore such sacrifices, though a rare few seem actively angered by it and most become ‘irate’ (i.e. murderous) if a large number are made. If asked a Jack o’ the Harvest will typically answer that one does not harvest a fruit ere it has ripened.
Jacks o’ the Harvest prefer high profile targets for their vengeance, but will typically avoid consecrated ground or the area protected by a Jack o’ the Pumpkin Patch. A Jack o’ the Harvest attacks only by night as well. A Jack o’ the Harvest’s favorite targets are local mayors, village heads, guild masters (especially farmers’ guilds or leagues), and priests. If a priest has decried and prevented the sacrifice to the Jack it is the most certain way to ensure a Jack o’ the Harvest attacks the village and they will often systematically hunt and stalk the congregation of such a priest, gruesomely desecrating their bodies, and using their blood or organs to leave written messages to the priest proclaiming that it is the priest’s acts which have led to this fate. A Jack o’ the Harvest will do this for several nights before at last risking entering hallowed or consecrated ground to kill the priest; most will then “decorate” the altar of the temple with the strewn organs and dismembered body parts of the priest.
If would be heroes, or mercenaries, prepare to take up arms against a Jack o’ the Harvest it will often seek out confrontation with them. It does this to prove the futility of attempted resistance, and a Jack o’ the Harvest will risk fatal confrontation to prove this. The only exception is if they attempt to hide in a protected region; a Jack o’ the Harvest will dismiss this as futile in and of itself and go after those they’ve left unprotected. If they hide the whole village in a protected region the Jack o’ the Harvest will sometimes resort to unorthodox methods, such as burning the building down.