Curse-Touched [Creature]

[UndeadJames]

The creature staggers toward you, gibbets of rotting flesh hanging from it's chin and cheeks as it levels the broadsword toward you. It's eyes betray a hint of mad intelligence, shrunken and withered though they are. As it mutters a string of foul words in your general direction, you think to yourself "Zombies can't speak, can they?"

Basically, I fancied creating a new monster for my campaign world, and what I came up with is the Curse-Touched, a template for any humanoid with a higher intelligence of 6, in three flavours.

- Abhorrent Cursetouched.
- Malicious Cursetouched.
- Blasphemous Cursetouched.

For now I'll just show the Abhorrent variety, the weakest of the three, which is intended for low-level players.

The Curse-Touched is not a risen undead, as Zombies, Skeletons or Liches, nor a spirit manifest, such as the Allip. The Curse-Touched is, for want of a better explanation, an undead host to a living parasite. When a powerful curse such as Irrestible Decree (I'll come to that spell and others in a seperate post) is cast upon a humanoid, compelling it to a certain action for an indefinite amount of time, the creature's body cannot escape the ravages of time, but the strength of the magic involved in such a curse does not
permit the victim to die, he/she becomes trapped in the rotting shell of their former body.


Creating an Abhorrent Curse-Touched

Size and Type The Creature's type changes to Undead. Size is Unchanged.

Hit Die Raise all current and future hit die to d12s.

Armor Class Reduce the creature's existing natural armor score by 1 point, if it has a natural armor score.

Attack An Abhorrent Curse-Touched has a touch attack it can use once
per round, and can use any weapons it could use in life. A creature with
natural weapons retains those natural weapons.

Special Attacks

Withering Touch A successful touch attack causesChill Touch as
the spell (1d6 Damage) A Successful Fortitude Save (DC 12) halves the
damage. Additionally, the negative energy that imprisons the Curse-Touched's
spirit within it's body draws upon the affected creatures health, draining d4-1
points of Constitution and d4-1 points of Strength, converting these into HP
to regenerate the Curse-Touched (e.g -1 point of constitution, +1 of hp.)
The ability score damage is negated with a successful Fortitude Save.

Abhorrent Aura A Curse-Touched's body pulses with an aura of unholy
energy. Any Creature within 30ft is affected by Cause Fear as the
spell. A Will Save (DC 12) causes the target to be shaken for 1 round, otherwise the character is frightened for d4 rounds. Regardless of success, the ability only affects a target once for the duration of combat.

Spells A Curse-touched can cast any spells it could while it was alive.

Special Qualities

A Curse-Touched retains all the special qualities of the base creature, as
well as those below.

Unique Constitution Due to the unique combination of positive and negative energy animating the Curse-Touched, the creature has a +2 Turning/Rebuking Resistance, effectively resisting Turn attempts as if the creature had an additional 2 Hit Dice.

Cankerous Growth As the Curse-Touched's existence wears on, various
cankers form across it's body, having various effects, depending on their
placement. A cankerous growth may form on the Curse-Touched's body every 5d10 years.



Legs - Curse-touched gains 10ft bonus to Move
Arms - Curse-touched gains +2 bonus to Strength
Chest - Curse-touched gains +4 to Natural AC.


Bound Spirit A fallen Curse-Touched regenerates 24 hours later,
reattaching all dismembered limbs. Only a Remove Curse spell can
negate this quality, leaving a Curse-Touched truly dead, and unwilling
curse-touched must fail a Will Save (DC 15 + caster level) for such a method
to be effective.

Damage Reduction The odd combination of energy coursing through a
Curse-Touched's vein gives it a damage reduction of 5/Holy or Magic

Abilities Reduce -2 Str and from the Base Creature, and increase +2
Wis. Curse-Touched, as Undead creatures, have no constitution score

Organisation Solitary, Pair or Group [3-5]

Alignment Always Lawful Evil



That's what I have so far, I was hoping for some constructive criticism about
whether this creature is over- or under-powered for low-level players, and a
likely challenge rating.

Any feedback would be great.

[UndeadJames]

Sample Curse-Touched

Human 2nd Level Warrior Curse-Touched
Medium Undead

Hit Dice: 2d12+3(18)
Initiative: +2
Speed: 30ft (6 squares)
Armor Class: 12 (+2 Dex), Touch 12, Flat-Footed 10
Base Attack/Grapple: +2/+4
Attack: Longsword +5 Melee (1d8+2)
Space/Reach: 5ft/5ft
Special Attacks: As in first post
Special Qualities: As in first post
Saves: Fort +3 Rflx +2 Will +0
Abilities: STR 14, DEX 15 CON - INT 8 WIS 11 CHA 12
Skills: Climb +8 Intimidate +5
Feats: Weapon Focus (Longsword), Toughness
Advancement: By Character Class

[Dryad]

Well...
Ouch. I mean; giving this creature a bonus to wisdom is giving it a bonus to divine casting capabilities. Add armor, a weapon, some reasonable stats...

One thing, though: Undead never get a con score. It's kind of a prereq to being undead. Hit dice of undead are d12 by default, but can be altered if this suits the creature better, but con.. Nope. Doesn't get any.
Concentration by undead is cha-based, and so are the little fortitude saves an undead has to make. (Against spells such as disintegrate and the like.)

The touch special isn't very impressive, as a HD-1 curse touched probably wouldn't land her first touch before dying, but since this creature has an aura with blindness/deafness going on... Putting a HD1 curse-touched in is out of the question. In a party of four, probably no player would see the creature, and with a bit of ranks in sneaking skills, the improved unarmed strike feat and sneak attack.. Well...

A troupe of 2 Curse Touched, consisting of one rogue and one cleric, will tear a party of over four lvl 2 characters to shreds, when used properly, with a dm that uses proper crowd control and use of area.

They're a bit tough.

*edit* By the way, how does a second level warrior gain three hit dice, once her con modifier on hit points, no strength bonus to grapple checks and no con modifier to fortitude saves?

[UndeadJames]

Well, the idea was that because the Curse-Touched were a unique form of undead, they would have a constitution score, however, I take your point, and I'll edit it the constitution score momentarily. What's your opinion on the immunity to turning/rebuking?

I'm considering altering the Abhorent Curse-Touched touch attack to Chill Touch, and the Aura to a Cause Fear effect, they're a little bland, but more level appropriate.

*Edit* Consider the poor sample structure sheer laziness in proof-reading.

[Dryad]

Well, the immunity to turning and rebuking.. I'm against it, because a cleric's turn or rebuke ability doesn't come in handy that much, but I would agree that turning, or rebuking, these buggers should be extremely hard, so.. Either give them a whopping turn resistance, or leave it at immune, indeed.

Chill touch would be a grand idea! But keep the self-healing thingy, of course. ;)

The fear aura isn't as strong as a blindness one, I agree on that one, while it still always manages to kick a party's ass big time. Don't make it hd-dependant, and I'm all for it! Perhaps, just for flavor, add something like sickening. :smallbiggrin:

[UndeadJames]

What's the average Turn/Rebuke score for a third-level cleric with above-average charisma? As this creature is intended for low-level characters, full immunity is probably not the best idea, but it should be bloody hard to turn them at low-level.

*Edit* Right, so a 3rd Level Cleric with a charisma modifier of +3 can rebuke undead creatures of 4HD or more. 2d6+3+3 = 13 on average. That means the Curse-Touched has to have a turn resistance of at least 10 to be a minor irritance in terms of Cleric effectiveness.

[Dryad]

A third level cleric can never turn an undead with 8 or more HD. (lvl+4 is max hit dice of single undead turned.) So a turn resistance of 4 is quite big. (It would mean the undead is counted as having four hit dice more than she should have for turning purposes.) Liches and vampires get this kind of resistances.
The 2d6+cha+clLvL is the total number of hit dice you can turn in the affected area, not the maximum hit dice turned per creature.

So if I roll a natural 20 on my turn check, as 3rd lvl cleric with 16 cha, the strongest undead I can turn has seven hit dice.

Now I roll my two d6 for turning damage. Average seven, plus 3 cha, plus 3 lvl, is 13 hd. That means that is there are two undead in my area with six hd both, I can turn them both. If there are two in the room, one HD 7, one HD 6, I can still turn them both. But if there are two HD 7 undead in the room, I can turn only one of them.

Ah, the wonders of the Tunring Check... The most complicated rule in the book.

[UndeadJames]

Okay, so a 4 turn resistance is a little too tough considering I'm aiming for a 1-4 CR, would 3 be reasonable?

*Edit* I knew there was a reason I never played cleric characters.

[Dryad]

Well, let's say the average cleric has a cha score of 14. She'd need to roll a twenty to get the lvl+4 turning, then.

I'd say make it turn resistance +2. In a third lvl party, you're gonna put one of these guys in with 5 hit dice, or two with three, so resistance +2 is very reasonable, +3 if you like it. All in all, they're probably gonna get killed by a fighter or barb who crithit their will save, but to be on the safe side, I'd say +2. :smallsmile:

By the way, do you mind if I use this critter of yours myself? I really enjoy it.

[UndeadJames]

+2 Turn Resistance it is then.

Sure you can use it, my own campaign setting is at least a month from it's debut, so at least someone can get some enjoyment out of it.

Due to the nature of their creation, I was thinking whether I should have some sort of Geas effect on the Curse-Touched, seeing as the Curses that create them are about fulfilling a certain purpose, sort of like an Unholy Mark of Justice. That would definitely bring some balance to the creature.

[UndeadJames]

Irresistable Decree
Enchantment
Level: Sor/Wiz 7
Components: V,S,M
Casting Time: 10 Minutes
Range: Close (25ft + 5ft/2 levels)
Target: One Humanoid of Int 6 or higher.
Duration: Permanent
Saving Throw: Will negates.
Spell Resistance: Yes.

Your word is as law, in the eyes of your target at least. Beholden to this spell, your servants cannot be freed by even death itself, though the ravages of time affect them somewhat.

You can command your target to perform one single duty for the duration of this spell, however, once that duty is considered discharged, the target's bonds are broken. For instance, if you ordered your servant to "guard that chest", and it did so to the best of its capabilities, but the chest was stolen, then the servant's duty would be considered discharged.

Duties must be task-specific, so an order of "stay alive" would have no effect. As a matter of economy, Necromancers rarely use a decree on a subject for a task that can be discharged in a short span of time, a Geas would be more effective. However, orders such as "Guard my Fortress" or "Lead my Armies" are within the limits of the spell and provide the subject with a task that cannot easily be discharged.

Once the subject's natural life-span has passed, or the subject has been mortally wounded, they become a form of undead known as the Curse-Touched, this has no effect on their duties, they merely continue in their service.

Altering a servant's purpose requires a recasting of the spell and a standard action. If the recasting fails for some reason, then the servant's bonds are considered broken. If the servant is a Curse-Touched, they die, so to speak, and cannot be re-animated or raised.

This spell can be countered with Remove Curse, however, to be successful, the subject must fail their will save. A Curse-Touched will die after a successful Remove Curse.

Material Component: A sheet of Parchment and Ink made from crushed Black Pearls and Liquid Mercury costing at least 5,000gp.

[I'm guessing Black Pearls are fairly rare, so the cost and the rarity of the components should make this a fairly difficult spell to cast regularly or on a whim.]

[Dryad]

Um.. I don't think the spell should be accessible by PCs, as you'll get teams of viciousness.
For example, wizard and cleric. Wizard casts spell on cleric. Duty: Keep existing. The cleric is free to choose whatever she desires, has a better wisdom score, natural armor or speed, or no strength penalty, has a fear/sickening aura and a chill touch/heal to boot. It's not as good as lichdom, but it hey; eternal life plus extras without a level adjustment is pretty neat.

[UndeadJames]

It definitely needs more strict rules regarding duties and such-like, I'm just testing it for a fit.

I definitely need to add that the spells leaves no free will beyond the duty ordered by the caster, and that the duty has to be task-specific, so ordering the subject to merely stay alive won't really work. A wizard could order a particularly strong fighter to "Burn the Green Valley Kingdoms" or such-like, but the subject would do nothing other than that (maybe even a DC based on impossibilty of task, fail the DC and the minion's head explodes) and I'm going to tweak it so that every time a recast is attempted, the chance of failure accumulates, so each minion has a definite shelf-live.

But bang for buck, you get a reasonably-intelligent minion who will certainly do better than your run-of-the-mill zombie or skeleton.

[Dryad]

Good ideas, and I agree.
Perhaps add a bit of casting time so you can't instantly turn an enemy into a fighting minion in two rounds notice?

[JackMage666]

Irresistable Decree
Enchantment
Level: Sor/Wiz 7
Components: V,S,M
Casting Time: 2 Rounds
Range: Close (25ft + 5ft/2 levels)
Target: One Humanoid of Int 6 or higher.
Duration: Eternal.
Saving Throw: Will negates.
Spell Resistance: Yes.

Your word is as law, in the eyes of your target at least. Beholden to this spell, your servants cannot be freed by even death itself, though the ravages of time affect them somewhat.

You can command your target to perform one single duty for the duration of this spell, however, once that duty is considered discharged, the target's bonds are broken, and (if a number of years have gone by) falls dead to the ground. For instance, if you ordered your servant to "guard that chest", and it did so to the best of its capabilities, but the chest was stolen, then the servant's duty would be considered discharged.

Altering a servant's purpose requires a recasting of the spell and a standard action. If the recasting fails for some reason, then the servant's bonds are considered broken.

Duration should be Permanent, not Eternal. Technically, it means the same thing, but it's best to stick with the pre-used term.

Also, what's the material component needed? It should be quite expensive.

What's the number of years? It should read more clearly, like "If the humanoid is freed of his duties after his natural life would be over, or if he is killed while under the effects of this spell, he falls to the ground dead." Also, it should include something about them becoming Curse-touched after their life would be ended (naturally or otherwise).

[UndeadJames]

Is 5,000 gp too little or too much for the material component?

Also, I worked out from Fax_Celestis's thread on Homebrewing that the sample Curse-Touched has a CR of 3 1/2, does that seem reasonable, should add in some level-adjustment or is fine how it is?

[Dryad]

Ehm... Well, if you'd give it some gear, like a breastplate or other armor, and a greatsword, I'd think it'd be very happy with you. After all, 14 hit points might be doable for a CR3 creature, but that creature is supposed to have all sorts of spells and spell like abilities to it's command, then. You could raise the HD to undead default; d12, and end up with 12+7+7= 26 hit points, which I would use against a third lvl party, since there's no way to instakill it at third lvl.

[UndeadJames]

Right, I've raised the HD to d12s, if I add armour and weaponry appropriate to the class level (so a longsword and Chainmail for a 2nd level warrior), I think that should make it appropriate for a CR 2 or 3.

[UndeadJames]

Anyone got any comments on the first spell and creature? I should have the malicious curse-touched template up by this evening.

[Maldraugedhen]

Irresistible Decree should have the [Evil] and [Law] modifiers. Definitely [Law], anyway. Evil is somewhat debatable, I guess.