[3.5] Radiant Spirit Animal

[Thurbane]

So, just wondering how a pair of templates would interact on a creature.

Spirit Animal (Frostburn p.155) can be applied to any animal, changing it to an incorporeal fey.

Radiant Creature (Dragon 311) can be added to a fey (among other things).

Say I had a Radiant Spirit Animal Brown Bear (advanced to 10HD): here's my questions:

Alignment: Spirit Animal is "always neutral"; Radiant moves alignment "one step closer to chaotic" from the base creature. Would that make alignment CN?
Special Attacks: if the creature was advanced by HD and gained the Searing Light attack from Radiant, how does that react with being incorporeal/manifesting?
Ability Scores: since the creature is no longer of the animal type, I'm free to put increases into Intelligence, yes?


Just as an aside, the number of templates that can be added to an incoporeal fey are very limited, unless you want it to be eeeevil. :smallyuk:

Cheers - T



Size/Type: Large Outsider (Incorporeal, Native)
Hit Dice: 10d8+40 (85 hp)
Initiative: +3
Speed: 40 ft. (8 squares)
Armor Class: 17 (-1 size, +3 Dex, +5 natural), touch 12, flat-footed 14; (+0 natural armor, +3 deflection bonus when manifesting)
Base Attack/Grapple: +4/+16
Attack: Claw +11 melee (1d8+8); claw +11 melee (1d8) nonlethal when manifesting
Full Attack: 2 claws +11 melee (1d8+8) and bite +6 melee (2d6+4); 2 claws +11 melee (1d8) and bite +6 melee (2d6) nonlethal when manifesting
Space/Reach: 10 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Improved grab, rainbow attack, spell-like abilities
Special Qualities: Cannot be dazed, dazzled or stunned, damage reduction 5/magic, fast healing 2 (as long as in light), immunity to blindness, incorporeal traits, low-light vision, manifestation, scent
Saves: Fort +9, Ref +6, Will +5
Abilities: Str 27 (— when manifesting), Dex 17, Con 19, Int 3, Wis 16, Cha 16
Skills: Hide -6, Listen +12, Search +0, Spot +18, Swim +13
Feats: Endurance, Run, Track
Environment: Cold forests
Organization: Solitary or pair
Challenge Rating: 7
Advancement: —
Alignement: (Chaotic) Neutral
Level Adjustment: —

[Uncle Pine]

Answer to 1 and 3 would be yes. I'm AFB so I can't check the specific Special Attack in question (I assume it's not just a (Sp), which wouldn't be affected by incorporeality).

[Thurbane]

2. they are SLAs, no special interaction.

I should have expended, there's some specific clauses in the Spirit Animal description that indicate that any damaging attacks become nonlethal. It's referring to natural attacks, but not sure if it extends to other damaging attacks, such as SLAs.


radiant makes it an outsider, so you cant add spirit animal as is.

You can add templates in any legal order, can't you? Maybe I should have called it a Spirit Animal Radiant Creature, because that's what I was intending.

[Thurbane]

I mentioned the creature type change because radiant is inherited and spirit is acquired.

Hmm, good point. I has missed that. Thank you.

I'll have to go looking for templates that can be applied to animals, but don't change their type. There's not a lot, from memory.

[The Viscount]

Hmm, good point. I has missed that. Thank you.

I'll have to go looking for templates that can be applied to animals, but don't change their type. There's not a lot, from memory.

Only ones I can think of are warbeast, magebred, and horrid.

[Nifft]

Only ones I can think of are warbeast, magebred, and horrid.

Paragon too, if you're playing with Epic rules included.

[hamishspence]

Paragon too, if you're playing with Epic rules included.

Paragon kind of breaks the rules a bit when used on animals - since it would give them Int 16 or Int 17:

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/typesSubtypes.htm#animalType


Animal Type
An animal is a living, nonhuman creature, usually a vertebrate with no magical abilities and no innate capacity for language or culture.

Traits
An animal possesses the following traits (unless otherwise noted in a creature’s entry).

Intelligence score of 1 or 2 (no creature with an Intelligence score of 3 or higher can be an animal).

Alignment: Always neutral.


http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/monsters/paragonCreature.htm

Creating A Paragon Creature
“Paragon” is a template that can be added to any creature (referred to hereafter as the base creature).

The base creature’s type remains unchanged.

Abilities
All ability scores are 15 points higher than those of the base creature.

Thing is, since they gain a bunch of spell-like abilities and supernatural abilities, a case could be made that paragon animals "ought" to be considered Magical Beasts, even if the template doesn't actually say you must change an Animal's Type.

A similar principle might apply to Horrid creatures - since they have "Alignment: Always NE" as I recall (and fast healing, and acid immunity) they seem more like Magical Beasts than Animals, too.

[Thurbane]

Spirit animal is a pretty terrible template anyway. I'm not sure it deserves CR +1.

It makes an Animal an incorporeal Fey, with no ability boosts, which can only deal nonlethal damage. Incorporeal is great for defense, but little else.

I was hoping to use it to make a "guardian of the woods" type being, but I think I'm going to look at an entirely different set of templates. Maybe *something* + Phantom.