MesiDoomstalker
2017-07-20, 03:02 PM
=Picture
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/1b/2d/00/1b2d005f96b256e77158e022548b24cb.jpg
Artist Credit to Vivisektor (http://vivisektor.deviantart.com/)
A obelisk of pure obsidian rises from the ground, faint occult symbols glow in red, gold and silver across its glossy surface. A palpable aura of malice and disease radiates from it.
Midnight Spire’s come in several varieties, denoted by their size, ranging from the smallest (Protrusion) measuring only 6 inches high to the largest (Monolith) scraping the firmament at over 800 feet in height. The larger the Midnight Spire, the greater its capabilities. Use the tables below to determine the statistics of a Midnight Spire based on its size.
Name
CR
HD
Size
Aura of Midnight Size (ft/miles)
Aura of Midnight DC
Negative Levels
Con Drain
Protrusion
1/2
1
Tiny
0* / 0.1
11
0
1d2**
Pedestal
2
3
Small
5 / 1
13
1
1d4**
Pillar
4
5
Medium
30 / 5
15
1d2
1d4+1**
Tower
7
9
Large
60 / 10
18
1d3
1d6
Spire
11
14
Huge
120 / 50
22
1d4
1d8
Obelisk
15
20
Gargatuan
200 / 100
26
1d4+1
1d10
Monolith
19
28
Colossal
300 / 1,000
31
2d4+1
1d10+2
*Only creatures who come in direct contact with the Midnight Spire (Protrusion), either through touching it or by a natural or unarmed attack.
**This is Con Damage instead of Con Drain
Name
Natural Armor (AC)
DR/X
HP (HD)
Int
Wis
Cha
Protrusion
+0 (12)
1 (Magic or Adamantine)
6 (1d10+1)
2
11
13
Pedestal
+4 (15)
2 (Magic or Adamantine)
32 (3d10+16)
5
13
15
Pillar
+8 (18)
3 (Magic or Adamantine)
61 (5d10+35)
7
15
17
Tower
+12 (21)
5 (Magic or Adamantine)
115 (9d10+66)
13
17
19
Spire
+18 (26)
10 (Magic and Adamantine)
173 (14d10+110)
17
19
21
Obelisk
+25 (30)
15 (Magic and Adamantine)
290 (20d10+180)
21
21
23
Monolith
+30 (35)
20 (Epic and Adamantine)
430 (28d10+276)
25
23
25
All Midnight Spire’s, regardless of size have the following special qualities;
Senses (Su) Midnight Pillar’s lack eyes, but have the innate ability to sense their environment, granting them Blindsight out to the extent of its Aura of Midnight’s direct exposure radius (see below). It can automatically differentiate living, dead and Undead creatures it can perceive as well as identify any individual who has contracted Midnight Plague.
Aura of Midnight (Su) Midnight Spires exude a powerful aura of malice and disease. This Aura has two sizes, a direct exposure and midnight exposure radius, denoted on the table above in feet and miles respectively. A living creature within the direct exposure radius, which has line of effect of the Black Spire, must make a Fort save (DC 10+˝ HD+Cha) or contract Midnight Plague. If they fail, the disease is onset immediately. A living creature within the midnight exposure radius need only makes a Fort save when outside during the night, and does not suffer immediate onset.
Any single opening of at least 1 square foot is sufficient to be ‘outside’ for the purposes of this ability. An average house with all doors and windows closed would protect the inhabitants but large, open air structures such as barns or stables would be insufficient.
Regardless of how a creature is exposed to this Aura and if it made its save or not, it cannot be subject to the Aura of Midnight again for 24 hours.
Negative Suffusion (Ex) Black Spire’s are suffuse with negative energy and are inextricably linked to Undead. It is treated as an Undead and a Construct for any effect that cares about type. Additionally, it gains the Command Undead feat as a Bonus Feat. It can also use it’s Telepathy to communicate with any Undead, regardless if the Undead has the ability to speak or is Mindless though such communication is limited to simple, basic concepts such as “go there”, “attack”, or “wait”.
Channel Negative Energy (Su) A Black Spire has the Channel Energy Cleric class feature, as an Evil Cleric of its HD.
Midnight Plague (Su)
Type curse, disease (Aura, injury); Save Fortitude DC Variable (see Aura of Midnight)
Onset sunset; Frequency 1/day at sunset
Effect on a failed save the target suffers a variable number of negative levels and are nauseated for the duration of night. Unlike normal, these Negative Levels become permanent at sunrise, unless the target makes a Fort save (DC same as the disease) for each one. On a successful save they instead suffer a variable amount of Constitution Drain and do not suffer the nauseated condition. A Daylight spell (or other [Light] effects that simulates sunlight) can delay the frequency until the afflicted leaves the area. Additionally, such effects alleviate the nauseated condition while inside the area.
Additionally, any creature who dies because of the effects of Midnight Plague is immediately raised as an Undead, usually a Midnight (see below) Zombie. The transition from life to unlife is so swift and seamless, observers must pass a DC 15 Sense Motive, DC 20 Perception or DC 20 Knowledge (Religion) to realize the target has died and become undead.
Cure Midnight Plague can only be cured by successfully casting both remove curse and remove disease within 1 minute of each other. Casting one without the other allows the target to ignore a save made within 1 hour for every caster level of the spell and suffer no ill effects, but only if the caster passes a caster level check (DC 11+ the HD of the Black Spire that inflicted the disease). Additionally, successfully destroying the Black Spire that caused the disease removes the [Curse] tag, allowing a Cure Disease to cure the disease by itself, as well allowing the victim to cure itself with 2 consecutive successful saves.
Macabre Mastery (Su) Any living creature who dies within the direct exposure radius (regardless if they are outside or if it is night) of its Aura of Midnight as a result of Midnight Plague, a Midnight Spire may make an attempt to take control the resulting Undead using its Command Undead feat as an Immediate Action, without expending a use of Channel Energy.
A Black Spire can attempt to do the same for a creature who dies in the midnight exposure radius of it’s Aura Midnight, but only if they are in conditions which could contract the disease as described by the Aura of Midnight ability.
Additionally, if a Midnight Spire is at least Large size or larger, it may use one of its SLA’s which creates undead during the same immediate action, as long as the creature who died can create the undead selected. Unlike normal, undead formed in this manner do not transition seamlessly and take time to form, equal to the regular casting time of the SLA. Likewise, the Midnight Spire cannot take any other actions during this time, or waste the use of the SLA and fail to animate any undead from that creature.
Inscribed Facade (Ex) Unlike a normal construct, a Midnight Spire adds its Charisma modifier to its HP for every hit die it possesses, much like the Undead it creates and manipulates. It also adds its Charisma Modifier to its Fortitude saves as a Resistance bonus.
Immobile (Ex) Midnight Spires have no ability to move themselves, having nonability scores for both Strength and Dexterity. Even if another effect would give it a movement mode, it cannot use it, though effects that move a Midnight Spire still function normally. Additionally, a Midnight Spire automatically fails all Reflex saves and treats its Dexterity Modifier for it’s Touch AC as -5. Treat a Midnight Spire as a structure for any effects that affect structures.
Feast (Su) Midnight Spire’s exist to create and then feast upon undead. As a Standard Action, a Midnight Spire can automatically destroy any Undead within its direct exposure radius. Undead get a Will save (DC same as Aura of Midnight). Mindless undead under its control receive no save. If an Undead succeeds its Will save, it cannot be targeted by that Midnight Spire’s Feast for another 24 hours.
If a Midnight Spire feeds successfully, it heals itself by 5 points per HD of the Undead feasted upon. If this healing exceeds the Midnight Spire’s maximum HP, the extra are added as Temporary Hit Points. These Temporary Hit Points last for 1 hour and if it gains more, only the largest amount is used. If an Undead is feasted but not at its maximum HP, a Midnight Spire only heals 5 HP regardless of the Undead’s HD.
If these Temporary Hit Points are allowed to expire, they are added to the Midnight Spire’s advancement (use the Growth table below to see how much Temporary Hit Points are needed to grow to the next stage)
Growth Table
Name
Temp HP For Advancement
Protrusion
25
Pedestal
150
Pillar
250
Tower
450
Spire
700
Obelisk
1,000
As Midnight Spires grow, they gain access to greater necromantic power. The table below denotes what special attacks, special qualities and SLA’s it has available to it. The DC of these are 10+˝ HD+Cha unless noted otherwise. SLA’s are Charisma based and use the Midnight Spire’s HD as its Caster Level. The effects listed here are cumulative, but daily uses are not. Use the highest daily use listed.
Name
At-Will
1/day
3/day
Special Quality
Protrusion
-
-
-
-
Pedestal
-
Command Undead
-
-
Pillar
-
Animate Dead, Lesser, Flesh Puppet
Command Undead
Desecrated
Tower
-
Animate Dead
Animate Dead, Lesser, Flesh Puppet
Unhallowed
Spire
Animate Dead, Lesser
Flesh Puppet Horde, Repair Undead, Mass, Create Undead
Animate Dead
Desecrated (Shrine)
Obelisk
Animate Dead
Control Undead, Create Greater Undead
Flesh Puppet Horde, Ghoul Army, Repair Undead, Mass, Create Undead
-
Monolith
Flesh Puppet Horde
Control Undead, Epidemic, Create Greater Undead
-
Desecrated (Su) A Midnight Spire of Medium size or larger has a permanent Desecrate effect, as the spell, centered on itself. A Midnight Spire of Huge size or larger is considered to be a shrine for the purposes of this ability. If this effect is dispelled, it can be reactivated as a free action.
Unhallowed (Su) A Midnight Spire of Large size or larger has a permanent Unhallow effect, as the spell, centered on itself. By spending 24 hours working in concert with a willing, allied spellcaster or from its own innate spellcasting, a Midnight Spire can add an effect as per the spell. If this effect is dispelled, it can be reactivated as a free action.
Spellcasting
A Midnight Spire casts as a Sorcerer equal to it's CR (Protrusion's do not gain spellcasting). It may choose spells from Necromancy, Abjuration, Transmutation or Evocation schools and has Eschew Material's as a bonus feat. It can also pick spells from the Cleric list (they are treated as arcane spells and do not require Divine Foci), but only from the Necromancy school. If a spell appears on both lists, use the lowest level. Since Midnight Spire's have no limbs or ability to speak, it must spend a Full-Round action to cast any spell with a Verbal or Somatic component (double the duration if its casting time is greater than a Standard Action). If it cast's a spell with the range of touch, it does not get a free melee touch attack; instead the first valid target to touch the Spire's surface (including with Natural or Unarmed attacks) is automatically subjected to the spell's effect.
Hoo boy. So, first off I'm going to say my intent when designing the Midnight Spire. The Midnight Spire is designed as a campaign focus creature, something PC's fight multiple times (at different sizes)
and the higher CR varieties being more and more dangerous to the world as a whole. Such the danger of larger Spire's that I wanted to make sure the Monolith size were truly apocalyptic, hence the Midnight Exposure radius increasing by a factor of 10 progressing from Obelisk. Obviously, the Spire is designed as a Zombie Apocalypse generator (hence the thread title). It is with these facts in mind that the Aura of Midnight and Midnight Plague are rather overpowered; it is to instill urgency and lethality to what is fairly passive enemy. Additionally, I tried to make sure the effects of Midnight Plague are not Save or Lose/Die for PC's near a Spire's CR. This is mainly to prevent 'unfair' PC deaths by an unseen enemy while remaining lethal to the garden variety NPC.
Now that I've stated my intent, let me admit my faults. I think I went too far and overdesigned the Spire. It has a lot of abilities (though a fair few are passive and others only come into play outside of combat) which gets unwieldy to run.
I also gave it a lot of SLA's which adds to the above problem. At the same time, I don't want a Spire to be a completely passive enemy in a direct encounter (obviously an encounter with a Spire will include Undead Minions). I've also given it fairly beefy defesnse, having great than normal AC and HP for its CR and an inability to effectively end encounter till the higher CRs.
I'd like suggestions on how to make the Spire a more streamlined enemy with my intent in mind. I'm so bad at self editing. Of course, help on wording, spelling and such is appreciated as well.
v1.01 Removed most SLA's, keeping only those directly involved in creating or commanding Undead. Gave Sorcerer Casting equal to CR, with restriction to Necromancy, Abjuration, Transmutation and Evocation schools as well as limitation's on spellcasting based on lack of motility.
v1.02 Added structure clause to Immobile. Added caveat that Protrusion does not gain any spellcasting due to CR being less than 1.
v1.02 Added caveat that a Spire can take Necromancy Cleric spells as spells Known.
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/1b/2d/00/1b2d005f96b256e77158e022548b24cb.jpg
Artist Credit to Vivisektor (http://vivisektor.deviantart.com/)
A obelisk of pure obsidian rises from the ground, faint occult symbols glow in red, gold and silver across its glossy surface. A palpable aura of malice and disease radiates from it.
Midnight Spire’s come in several varieties, denoted by their size, ranging from the smallest (Protrusion) measuring only 6 inches high to the largest (Monolith) scraping the firmament at over 800 feet in height. The larger the Midnight Spire, the greater its capabilities. Use the tables below to determine the statistics of a Midnight Spire based on its size.
Name
CR
HD
Size
Aura of Midnight Size (ft/miles)
Aura of Midnight DC
Negative Levels
Con Drain
Protrusion
1/2
1
Tiny
0* / 0.1
11
0
1d2**
Pedestal
2
3
Small
5 / 1
13
1
1d4**
Pillar
4
5
Medium
30 / 5
15
1d2
1d4+1**
Tower
7
9
Large
60 / 10
18
1d3
1d6
Spire
11
14
Huge
120 / 50
22
1d4
1d8
Obelisk
15
20
Gargatuan
200 / 100
26
1d4+1
1d10
Monolith
19
28
Colossal
300 / 1,000
31
2d4+1
1d10+2
*Only creatures who come in direct contact with the Midnight Spire (Protrusion), either through touching it or by a natural or unarmed attack.
**This is Con Damage instead of Con Drain
Name
Natural Armor (AC)
DR/X
HP (HD)
Int
Wis
Cha
Protrusion
+0 (12)
1 (Magic or Adamantine)
6 (1d10+1)
2
11
13
Pedestal
+4 (15)
2 (Magic or Adamantine)
32 (3d10+16)
5
13
15
Pillar
+8 (18)
3 (Magic or Adamantine)
61 (5d10+35)
7
15
17
Tower
+12 (21)
5 (Magic or Adamantine)
115 (9d10+66)
13
17
19
Spire
+18 (26)
10 (Magic and Adamantine)
173 (14d10+110)
17
19
21
Obelisk
+25 (30)
15 (Magic and Adamantine)
290 (20d10+180)
21
21
23
Monolith
+30 (35)
20 (Epic and Adamantine)
430 (28d10+276)
25
23
25
All Midnight Spire’s, regardless of size have the following special qualities;
Senses (Su) Midnight Pillar’s lack eyes, but have the innate ability to sense their environment, granting them Blindsight out to the extent of its Aura of Midnight’s direct exposure radius (see below). It can automatically differentiate living, dead and Undead creatures it can perceive as well as identify any individual who has contracted Midnight Plague.
Aura of Midnight (Su) Midnight Spires exude a powerful aura of malice and disease. This Aura has two sizes, a direct exposure and midnight exposure radius, denoted on the table above in feet and miles respectively. A living creature within the direct exposure radius, which has line of effect of the Black Spire, must make a Fort save (DC 10+˝ HD+Cha) or contract Midnight Plague. If they fail, the disease is onset immediately. A living creature within the midnight exposure radius need only makes a Fort save when outside during the night, and does not suffer immediate onset.
Any single opening of at least 1 square foot is sufficient to be ‘outside’ for the purposes of this ability. An average house with all doors and windows closed would protect the inhabitants but large, open air structures such as barns or stables would be insufficient.
Regardless of how a creature is exposed to this Aura and if it made its save or not, it cannot be subject to the Aura of Midnight again for 24 hours.
Negative Suffusion (Ex) Black Spire’s are suffuse with negative energy and are inextricably linked to Undead. It is treated as an Undead and a Construct for any effect that cares about type. Additionally, it gains the Command Undead feat as a Bonus Feat. It can also use it’s Telepathy to communicate with any Undead, regardless if the Undead has the ability to speak or is Mindless though such communication is limited to simple, basic concepts such as “go there”, “attack”, or “wait”.
Channel Negative Energy (Su) A Black Spire has the Channel Energy Cleric class feature, as an Evil Cleric of its HD.
Midnight Plague (Su)
Type curse, disease (Aura, injury); Save Fortitude DC Variable (see Aura of Midnight)
Onset sunset; Frequency 1/day at sunset
Effect on a failed save the target suffers a variable number of negative levels and are nauseated for the duration of night. Unlike normal, these Negative Levels become permanent at sunrise, unless the target makes a Fort save (DC same as the disease) for each one. On a successful save they instead suffer a variable amount of Constitution Drain and do not suffer the nauseated condition. A Daylight spell (or other [Light] effects that simulates sunlight) can delay the frequency until the afflicted leaves the area. Additionally, such effects alleviate the nauseated condition while inside the area.
Additionally, any creature who dies because of the effects of Midnight Plague is immediately raised as an Undead, usually a Midnight (see below) Zombie. The transition from life to unlife is so swift and seamless, observers must pass a DC 15 Sense Motive, DC 20 Perception or DC 20 Knowledge (Religion) to realize the target has died and become undead.
Cure Midnight Plague can only be cured by successfully casting both remove curse and remove disease within 1 minute of each other. Casting one without the other allows the target to ignore a save made within 1 hour for every caster level of the spell and suffer no ill effects, but only if the caster passes a caster level check (DC 11+ the HD of the Black Spire that inflicted the disease). Additionally, successfully destroying the Black Spire that caused the disease removes the [Curse] tag, allowing a Cure Disease to cure the disease by itself, as well allowing the victim to cure itself with 2 consecutive successful saves.
Macabre Mastery (Su) Any living creature who dies within the direct exposure radius (regardless if they are outside or if it is night) of its Aura of Midnight as a result of Midnight Plague, a Midnight Spire may make an attempt to take control the resulting Undead using its Command Undead feat as an Immediate Action, without expending a use of Channel Energy.
A Black Spire can attempt to do the same for a creature who dies in the midnight exposure radius of it’s Aura Midnight, but only if they are in conditions which could contract the disease as described by the Aura of Midnight ability.
Additionally, if a Midnight Spire is at least Large size or larger, it may use one of its SLA’s which creates undead during the same immediate action, as long as the creature who died can create the undead selected. Unlike normal, undead formed in this manner do not transition seamlessly and take time to form, equal to the regular casting time of the SLA. Likewise, the Midnight Spire cannot take any other actions during this time, or waste the use of the SLA and fail to animate any undead from that creature.
Inscribed Facade (Ex) Unlike a normal construct, a Midnight Spire adds its Charisma modifier to its HP for every hit die it possesses, much like the Undead it creates and manipulates. It also adds its Charisma Modifier to its Fortitude saves as a Resistance bonus.
Immobile (Ex) Midnight Spires have no ability to move themselves, having nonability scores for both Strength and Dexterity. Even if another effect would give it a movement mode, it cannot use it, though effects that move a Midnight Spire still function normally. Additionally, a Midnight Spire automatically fails all Reflex saves and treats its Dexterity Modifier for it’s Touch AC as -5. Treat a Midnight Spire as a structure for any effects that affect structures.
Feast (Su) Midnight Spire’s exist to create and then feast upon undead. As a Standard Action, a Midnight Spire can automatically destroy any Undead within its direct exposure radius. Undead get a Will save (DC same as Aura of Midnight). Mindless undead under its control receive no save. If an Undead succeeds its Will save, it cannot be targeted by that Midnight Spire’s Feast for another 24 hours.
If a Midnight Spire feeds successfully, it heals itself by 5 points per HD of the Undead feasted upon. If this healing exceeds the Midnight Spire’s maximum HP, the extra are added as Temporary Hit Points. These Temporary Hit Points last for 1 hour and if it gains more, only the largest amount is used. If an Undead is feasted but not at its maximum HP, a Midnight Spire only heals 5 HP regardless of the Undead’s HD.
If these Temporary Hit Points are allowed to expire, they are added to the Midnight Spire’s advancement (use the Growth table below to see how much Temporary Hit Points are needed to grow to the next stage)
Growth Table
Name
Temp HP For Advancement
Protrusion
25
Pedestal
150
Pillar
250
Tower
450
Spire
700
Obelisk
1,000
As Midnight Spires grow, they gain access to greater necromantic power. The table below denotes what special attacks, special qualities and SLA’s it has available to it. The DC of these are 10+˝ HD+Cha unless noted otherwise. SLA’s are Charisma based and use the Midnight Spire’s HD as its Caster Level. The effects listed here are cumulative, but daily uses are not. Use the highest daily use listed.
Name
At-Will
1/day
3/day
Special Quality
Protrusion
-
-
-
-
Pedestal
-
Command Undead
-
-
Pillar
-
Animate Dead, Lesser, Flesh Puppet
Command Undead
Desecrated
Tower
-
Animate Dead
Animate Dead, Lesser, Flesh Puppet
Unhallowed
Spire
Animate Dead, Lesser
Flesh Puppet Horde, Repair Undead, Mass, Create Undead
Animate Dead
Desecrated (Shrine)
Obelisk
Animate Dead
Control Undead, Create Greater Undead
Flesh Puppet Horde, Ghoul Army, Repair Undead, Mass, Create Undead
-
Monolith
Flesh Puppet Horde
Control Undead, Epidemic, Create Greater Undead
-
Desecrated (Su) A Midnight Spire of Medium size or larger has a permanent Desecrate effect, as the spell, centered on itself. A Midnight Spire of Huge size or larger is considered to be a shrine for the purposes of this ability. If this effect is dispelled, it can be reactivated as a free action.
Unhallowed (Su) A Midnight Spire of Large size or larger has a permanent Unhallow effect, as the spell, centered on itself. By spending 24 hours working in concert with a willing, allied spellcaster or from its own innate spellcasting, a Midnight Spire can add an effect as per the spell. If this effect is dispelled, it can be reactivated as a free action.
Spellcasting
A Midnight Spire casts as a Sorcerer equal to it's CR (Protrusion's do not gain spellcasting). It may choose spells from Necromancy, Abjuration, Transmutation or Evocation schools and has Eschew Material's as a bonus feat. It can also pick spells from the Cleric list (they are treated as arcane spells and do not require Divine Foci), but only from the Necromancy school. If a spell appears on both lists, use the lowest level. Since Midnight Spire's have no limbs or ability to speak, it must spend a Full-Round action to cast any spell with a Verbal or Somatic component (double the duration if its casting time is greater than a Standard Action). If it cast's a spell with the range of touch, it does not get a free melee touch attack; instead the first valid target to touch the Spire's surface (including with Natural or Unarmed attacks) is automatically subjected to the spell's effect.
Hoo boy. So, first off I'm going to say my intent when designing the Midnight Spire. The Midnight Spire is designed as a campaign focus creature, something PC's fight multiple times (at different sizes)
and the higher CR varieties being more and more dangerous to the world as a whole. Such the danger of larger Spire's that I wanted to make sure the Monolith size were truly apocalyptic, hence the Midnight Exposure radius increasing by a factor of 10 progressing from Obelisk. Obviously, the Spire is designed as a Zombie Apocalypse generator (hence the thread title). It is with these facts in mind that the Aura of Midnight and Midnight Plague are rather overpowered; it is to instill urgency and lethality to what is fairly passive enemy. Additionally, I tried to make sure the effects of Midnight Plague are not Save or Lose/Die for PC's near a Spire's CR. This is mainly to prevent 'unfair' PC deaths by an unseen enemy while remaining lethal to the garden variety NPC.
Now that I've stated my intent, let me admit my faults. I think I went too far and overdesigned the Spire. It has a lot of abilities (though a fair few are passive and others only come into play outside of combat) which gets unwieldy to run.
I also gave it a lot of SLA's which adds to the above problem. At the same time, I don't want a Spire to be a completely passive enemy in a direct encounter (obviously an encounter with a Spire will include Undead Minions). I've also given it fairly beefy defesnse, having great than normal AC and HP for its CR and an inability to effectively end encounter till the higher CRs.
I'd like suggestions on how to make the Spire a more streamlined enemy with my intent in mind. I'm so bad at self editing. Of course, help on wording, spelling and such is appreciated as well.
v1.01 Removed most SLA's, keeping only those directly involved in creating or commanding Undead. Gave Sorcerer Casting equal to CR, with restriction to Necromancy, Abjuration, Transmutation and Evocation schools as well as limitation's on spellcasting based on lack of motility.
v1.02 Added structure clause to Immobile. Added caveat that Protrusion does not gain any spellcasting due to CR being less than 1.
v1.02 Added caveat that a Spire can take Necromancy Cleric spells as spells Known.