Phantom Armor [MitPII]

[TheOOB]

Heres a creature I made recently influenced by malek from Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen (perhaps a little fullmetal alchemist too). Anyways, I'm submitting it for approval in the Monsters in the Playground II project, so vote away.

EDIT: Since polls don't seem to be allowed at the moment, please respond with a clear yes/no vote (hopefully more yes then no ;))

Phantom Armor
Medium Undead
HD 5d12 (32 hp)
Speed 30 ft. (6 squares)
Init: +6
AC 22; touch 12; flat-footed 20
(+2 Dex, +2 heavy steel shield, +8 natural)
BAB +2; Grp +5
Attack Longsword +5 melee(1d8+3/19-20) or Javelin +4 ranged(1d6+3/x2)
Full-Attack Longsword +5 melee(1d8+3/19-20) or Javelin +4 ranged(1d6+3/x2)
Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
Special Attacks Fear gaze
Special Qualities Damage reduction 5/magic, darkvision 60ft, freeze, reassemble
Saves Fort +1 Ref +3 Will +6
Abilities Str 16, Dex 14, Con -, Int 12, Wis 14, Cha 10
Skills Listen +12, Sense Motive +10, Spot +12
Feats Alertness, Improved Initiative
Environment Any
Organization Solitary or squad (2-4)
Challenge Rating 5
Treasure None
Alignment Always lawful neutral
Advancement 5-8 HD(Medium); 8-12 HD(Large)
Level Adjustment -

Before you stands a rusted suit of armor, dozens, perhaps even hundreds of years old, damaged and battered from many battles past. After dismissing the armor as worthless you turn and leave it behind, only to hear cold metallic footsteps behind you. Turning around you see the armor come to life behind you, brandishing a sword as it quickly approaches you. Fear builds up inside of you as it stares at you with it's cold, empty eyes.

A suit of phantom armor is the soul of a dead guard who died while protecting an important location. Their spirit is bound to the suit of armor they wore in life, allowing them to remain loyal and continue to guard that location for an eternity.
Phantom armor consists of an empty suit of armor the moves and fights on it's own. They usually stand about 6 and a half feet tall and weighs only about 75 pounds as there is nothing aside from the armor to give the creature much weight. Phantom armor is usually a suit full plate mail(though versions with lighter armor have been known), and their armor is usually many years old, and carries the symbols of the army or group they belonged to in life.
Only one thing matters to a suit of phantom armor, guarding the location where they died, allowing no one who is not suppose to be there get past alive. Phantom armor will oftentimes guard a single location for hundreds of years, long everyone who once lived there left and there is nothing left to guard. Only complete destruction can every end their eternal servitude.
A suit of phantom armor speaks in a deep and hollow voice with a metallic sound to it. They know any languages they knew in life.

COMBAT
If possible, phantom armor usually avoids combat, preferring to convince(or threaten) anyone who is not suppose to enter the location they guard to leave. They are witty and perceptive, which makes them quite difficult to trick or sneak past. If the trespasser does not head the armors warning and leave, they will attack without mercy, not stopping until the trespasser is dead or has ran away.
Phantom armor starts off most battles by using their fear gaze on whatever opponents looks the weakest in an effort to thin the numbers of their opposition. After that they rely on their weapon(usually a longsword) and their superior defensive abilities to lead them through battle.
Fear Gaze(Su): Once per a round as a free action a phantom may may gaze at someone with their empty eyes and fill their opponents heart with dread. This ability functions as cause fear(Will save DC 12) except that it has no HD limit. A creature can only be effected from an individual phantom armors fear gaze once per 24 hour period. This ability does not count as a gaze attack and does not require eye contact.
Freeze(Ex): By standing completely still, phantom armor is able to pose convincingly as a normal suit of armor. An observer must succeed a DC 30 spot check to notice that the suit of armor is animated.
Reassemble(Su): Phantom armor is extremely difficult to defeat. When a phantom armors hp is reduced to 0 or below they are not truly destroyed, but instead their armor just falls apart, giving the illusion that the armor has been defeated. 1D4+1 rounds after falling to 0 or less hp the phantom armor reassembles itself at full hp (assuming all the pieces of the armor are still within 10ft of eachother). This ability only functions if the phantom armor is reduced to 0 or less hp via damage, other methods of destroying (for example a turning attempt by a high level cleric) ignore this ability. Destroying the phantom armor's helmet permenatly destroys the creature, preventing it from reassembling itself.

[DracoDei]

What about a 'Destroyed' result from a turning attempt? Will that just make them fall apart and reassemble (although it never actually affects their hp)?

[TheOOB]

The reassemble ability only works if they are destroyed via hp damage, I'll clarify that.

[Icewalker]

First off, it's not like we don't already have enough living armor attacking people.

I have a problem with what it is and the AC. You say that it is a soul inside the armor. Does that mean it is like a ghost wearing the armor, or a soul actually inhabiting the metal? If the second one, which is what I think you are implying, the AC doesn't really work...

Full plate gives +8 armor to whatever is inside it. In fact, if you think about it, there would be no armor bonus because being made of armor wouldn't stop people from hitting you. It'd make sense as natural armor, so do that.

Pretending to be armor would be them making a disguise check vs. the player's spot check (I think). They should merely get a massive bonus to the disguise skill to be a normal suit of armor when immobile. I can't understand how you could actually tell that it's animated at all, so the bonus should be massive.

Other than that, it looks pretty good to me. I'll hold off voting for now.

[TheOOB]

There is no substance in the armor, the creature is the armor and the armor is the creature. I suppose that the +8 bonus should, in that case, be considered natural armor instead of an armor bonus.

I thought about giving them a disguise bonus, but I decided to use the garoyal freeze ability instead, as it i essentially the same thing. I might make the spot DC higher, as phantom armor doesn't need to breath (or have any of the other tell-tale signs of life.)

[Zherog]

Some comments and such. I will say that I agree with Icewalker - there's already an awful lot of "ZOMG! It's an animated suit of armor!" type creatures in existance already; you really need to do something to set yours apart from those.


Skills Listen +12, Sense Motive +10, Spot +12

You should have 40 skill points - Undead gain 4+Int mod per hit die, with quadruple at first. You have a +1 Int mod, so you get 5 per level, with 20 at first level. 20+5+5+5+5=40.

If I take your skill numbers and remove ability mods, then remove the bonus from Alertness, you've spent 24 skill points. So you have a lot more to spend. ;) Note that you'll need to pick new skills to spend those points on, since you've already maxed the three you have.


Challenge Rating 5

They really don't feel like a CR5 creature to me. I'm thinking 4, maybe even CR3.


Treasure None

Wouldn't the suit of armor and the weapons be treasure?


Alignment Always lawful neutral

Note that it's extremely uncommon for undead to be non-evil. So much so, in fact, WotC (wrongly, in my opinion) changes skeletons and zombies in 3.5 to be evil rather than neutral. I think Lawful Evil might be a better alignment.


Advancement 5-8 HD(Medium); 8-12 HD(Large)

Start your advancement at 6 HD, not at 5.


Before you stands a rusted suit of armor, dozens, perhaps even hundreds of years old, damaged and battered from many battles past. After dismissing the armor as worthless you turn and leave it behind, only to hear cold metallic footsteps behind you. Turning around you see the armor come to life behind you, brandishing a sword as it quickly approaches you. Fear builds up inside of you as it stares at you with it's cold, empty eyes.

I guess I can't say this enough. Do not ever assume actions or reactions on the part of the PCs in this text. You cannot, for example, assume the PCs "dismiss the armor as worthless." You certainly should not tell the PC how they feel ("Fear builds up inside you."). What if you're party is all paladins? They're immune to fear.

This text is supposed to be short - one or two sentences; and it's supposed to simply describe what the creature looks like, sounds like, feels like, etc.




...and weighs only about 75 pounds as there is nothing aside from the armor to give the creature much weight.[/quote]

You never mention that they carry a shield, yet the stat block seems to assume they have one.

As for your weight: full plate (and half plate) are the heaviest armor, at 50 pounds. A heavy steel shield weighs 15 pounds; a longsword weighs 4 pounds. So you have a "soul" that weighs 6 pounds...


Only one thing matters to a suit of phantom armor, guarding the location where they died, allowing no one who is not suppose to be there get past alive.

This is a bit clunky on the wording. While your intent comes across, it could be cleaned up a bit to flow a little smoother. Try something like:


The only task that matters to phantom armor is steadfastly guard the location of their death; only those who had permission in life are granted passage by the phantom armor.

Or something.


Phantom armor will oftentimes guard a single location for hundreds of years, long everyone who once lived there left and there is nothing left to guard. Only complete destruction can every end their eternal servitude.

You also have some grammar issues here that would need cleaning up.


If possible, phantom armor usually avoids combat, preferring to convince(or threaten) anyone who is not suppose to enter the location they guard to leave.

Sounds like the two skills you'll want to add to their skill list are Diplomacy and Intimidate...


If the trespasser does not head the armors warning and leave, they will attack without mercy, not stopping until the trespasser is dead or has ran away.

I believe the word you want is "heed," not "head."

Also, "has ran" is an incorrect usage; it should be "has run" (though "has retreated" might sound even better).



Phantom armor starts off most battles by using their fear gaze on whatever opponents looks the weakest in an effort to thin the numbers of their opposition. After that they rely on their weapon(usually a longsword) and their superior defensive abilities to lead them through battle.

It should either be "opponents look" or "opponent looks." Which you use depends upon whether they can target multiple creatures. It appears to be they can only target one creature, so you'd want "opponent looks."


Fear Gaze(Su): Once per a round as a free action a phantom may may gaze at someone with their empty eyes and fill their opponents heart with dread. This ability functions as cause fear(Will save DC 12) except that it has no HD limit. A creature can only be effected from an individual phantom armors fear gaze once per 24 hour period. This ability does not count as a gaze attack and does not require eye contact.

"Opponents" in this case is possessive, so you need an apostrophe.

What ability modifier is the save DC based upon? For that matter, how'd you calculate the DC? It should be 10 + 1/2 hit dice + some ability mod (with Charisma being the most likely). If you pick Charisma, the DC would indeed be 12.

It may sound like a dumb question, but is this a "fear" effect? If so, you need to say that. Is it a mind-affecting effect? If so you need to say that. (I would assume the answer to both questions is yes, but...)


Freeze(Ex): By standing completely still, phantom armor is able to pose convincingly as a normal suit of armor. An observer must succeed a DC 30 spot check to notice that the suit of armor is animated.

What is the DC based upon? Did you just make up a number? Does a fully advanced phantom have the same DC, or does that increase somehow?

I'll go on record here - I would much rather see you use an existing method (such as Disguise vs Spot), even if you grant the phantom a +30 racial bonus to Disguise to appear as a normal suit of armor.


Reassemble(Su): Phantom armor is extremely difficult to defeat. When a phantom armors hp is reduced to 0 or below they are not truly destroyed, but instead their armor just falls apart, giving the illusion that the armor has been defeated. 1D4+1 rounds after falling to 0 or less hp the phantom armor reassembles itself at full hp (assuming all the pieces of the armor are still within 10ft of eachother). This ability only functions if the phantom armor is reduced to 0 or less hp via damage, other methods of destroying (for example a turning attempt by a high level cleric) ignore this ability. Destroying the phantom armor's helmet permenatly destroys the creature, preventing it from reassembling itself.

"Phantom armors" in the second sentence is possessive, so it needs to have an apostrophe.

***

Overall, I find this creature to be rather bland to be honest. There isn't anything that really makes it stand out, in my opinion, from the other "suits of armor creatures" that are out there.