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Owrtho
2008-11-04, 03:51 PM
Well, this was my entry for the contest (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=5035172&postcount=3). Figured I'd make it a thread now that the contest is over to get some feedback on it.

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c273/AwakenedDreamer/RandomStuff/SpiritRealm.jpg
(A medium Spirit Gate)

As I entered the room I say in the middle a glowing portal surrounded by spirits floating in circles around it. As I moved to approach it some of the spirits suddenly began expanding their circles. I froze hopping it would resume its previous activity when those that had moved further out suddenly all moved to the exact distance from the portal that I was and began circling. I realized my error to late as one saw me. I ran as fast as I could back out of the chamber and turned to see the fifty additional spirits that had been on the other side of the portal return from their pursuit.

Spirit Gate

Medium Construct (Incorporeal)
Hit Dice: 40d10 + 20 (240)
Initiative: +4
Speed: 5 (1 square)
Armor Class: 23 (+9 deflection, +4 Dex), touch 23, flat-footed 19
Base Attack/Grapple: +30/+34
Attack: NA
Full Attack: NA
Space/Reach: 5ft/0ft
Special Attacks: Assimilate
Special Qualities: Incorporeal, Construct Traits, Fortified Will, Blind, Range of Influence, Soul Sense, Spectral Healing, Spawn Gate Spirits, Rejoin Spirit, Devour Gate Spirit, Ethereal Portal
Saves: Fort +24, Ref +17, Will +26
Abilities: Str NA, Dex 19, Con NA, Int 16, Wis 14, Cha 28
Skills: Knowledge (the planes) 30, Knowledge (religion) 30, Sense Motive 43
Feats: None
Environment: Any
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 25
Treasure: None
Alignment: Any neutral
Advancement: 40HD (Large), 55HD (Huge), 75HD (Gargantuan), 100HD (Colossal)
Level Adjustment: NA

Note: The advancement intentionally starts at 40HD as they usually have less than the default through use of their spawn gate spirit ability.

The Spirit Gate is a rare being made of a large number of departed spirits. No one is sure what causes them to come in to being or even how to make them artificially. However, that does not stop them from occurring. They appear to be a portal or in larger ones a gateway to the ethereal plane built entirely out of spirits. There are also always spirits flying around it protecting it from those who would do harm, and harvesting souls from others that they might expand upon the gate. These gate spirits are able to join with the gate or separate from it as the gate wills it in order to protect it. Those lucky few who can avoid having their soul stolen in the attempt can successfully use the gate to travel to the ethereal plane, but harder than avoiding the spirits is making it through the pocket dimension that exists within the gate between the two planes. For it is there that the gate converts the captured souls into more of its mindless minions. Fortunately the gate spirits cannot leave the range of influence of the gate, else all would soon be assimilated into it. The gates have however been known to slowly move from one place to another when they feel it in their best interest to do so. Some however are more peaceful and will allow travelers to pass through it either freely or in exchange for a service. Such gates will often still attack those who oppose them or their views.

A medium spirit gate often looks like little more than a portal, however, once they reach a large size they begin looking like ornate gates made of ethereal substance. They often seek nothing but to expand upon them self which they do by assimilating other's souls into them self making them more of its gate spirits.

Combat
Normally upon sensing a creature with a soul entering its area, it will have its gate spirits expand their patrol radius while keeping enough around itself to see if anything comes close. It will then if unable to find it, check its distance. Upon locating a creature it will attempt to steal its soul and will send out more of its gate spirits to accomplish this. There are usually at least 10 gate spirits circling it at any given time.

Assimilate (Ex): If one of its gate spirits brings it a soul, it may swallow it upon a successful grapple check (for which it uses BAB + Dex modifier). If swallowed, the soul is in a pocket dimension between the material plane and the ethereal plane. Every round it must make a will save (DC 10 +1 per 20HD of the spirit gate + Cha Modifier) or take 1 wisdom damage. Upon reaching 0 wisdom, they are turned into a gate spirit of the spirit gate and under its control. They are counted as dead and cannot be resurrected until a wish or limited wish is used to free their soul. Before fully assimilated, a soul may attempt to escape by attacking the inside of the spirit gate. They are treated as if the are unarmed and have non of their equipment (unless it had ghost touch). To escape they must deal 20 damage to the inside of the gate (AC 17), upon which they may exit (to the plane their body is in). They may then attempt to make it to their body and re-enter it without being caught again. Wisdom damage dealt by being trapped in the Spirit gate heals 1 point a round each round you are outside the spirit gate.

Fortified Will: Spirit gates have good Fort and Will saves unlike most constructs.

Blind: Spirit gates are blind. They also lack low-light vision and Darkvision 60 unlike most constructs.

Range of Influence: A spirit gate has a range of influence with a radius equal to its maximum number of possible HD in feet (rounded up to the nearest 5) in all directions. Gate spirits controlled by the spirit gate cannot leave this range. This is also the range of its soul sense.

Soul Sense: A spirit gate is able to sense the exact number of souls within its range of influence (see above to determine range). This does not tell them the direction or distance of the souls. Every 1d6 rounds they may as move action determine the exact distance that a soul is from them. This will not let it know the direction of the souls.

Spectral Healing: A spirit gate heals as normal creatures with the exception that positive energy hurts it and negative energy heals it. It cannot be healed through repairing.

Spawn Gate Spirits: As a standard action a spirit gate may sacrifice 1HD to create 2 gate spirits. These are spawned in squares the spirit gate occupies.

Rejoin Spirit: As a full round action, a spirit gate may rejoin as many pairs of gate spirits occupying squares it occupies to itself. Each pair of gate spirits it rejoins with add 1HD to it. This heals it for the total amount of that HD - ½ the combine damage the two gate spirits have taken (to a minimum of 0 health healed).

Devour Gate Spirit: The spirit gate may devour a gate spirit on a square it occupies to regain 1d3 health per hp it has remaining. This destroys the devoured gate spirit

Gate SpiritsMedium Undead (Incorporeal)
Hit Dice: 1d12 + X where X is 1/20 the spirit gates maximum possible HD (8.5)
Initiative: +10
Speed: 50 (10 squares)
Armor Class: 21 (+8 Dex, +3 deflection), touch 21, flat-footed 13
Base Attack/Grapple: +0/+8
Attack: Incorporeal touch +8 (1d6 +8)
Full Attack: Incorporeal touch +8 (1d6 +8)
Space/Reach: 5ft/5ft
Special Attacks: Corrupting Touch, Draining Touch, Improved Grapple, Soul Grab
Special Qualities: Incorporeal, Undead Traits, Blind, Improved Blindsight 5', Hivemind, Limited Range
Saves: Fort +0, Ref +8, Will +3
Abilities: Str 27 (- against non-ethereal), Dex 27, Con NA, Int 7, Wis 12, Cha 16
Skills: Tumble 12
Feats: Improved Grapple (B)
Environment: Any
Organization: Group (10 or more)
Challenge Rating: 1
Treasure: None
Alignment: Same as spirit gate
Advancement: NA
Level Adjustment: NA

Blind: Gates spirits are blind. They also lack and Darkvision 60 unlike most undead.

Improved Blindsight 5' (Ex): This ability functions sort of as a sixth sense and acts as blindsight. Improved blindsight cannot distinguish color, but it does reveal the shape and size of objects and people. Improved blindsight does not allow the creature to read. Gate spirits are immune to blinding and gaze attacks, and deafening does not thwart this ability. Improved blindsight works underwater and in vacuums; negates concealment, invisibility, displacement, and blur effects; and improved blindsight can detect ethereal or incorporeal creatures.

Hivemind (Ex): Gate spirits share a mind with the spirit gate. A Gate spirit is not considered flanked if another gate spirit is able to see any of the creatures flanking it. They use the spirit gate's stats for will saves, intelligence saves, and wisdom saves. All vision (from the blind sight) is shared between the gate spirits and the spirit gate.

Limited Range: A gate spirit cannot leave the range of influence of their spirit gate. If at any time they are forced outside its range they die.

Corrupting Touch (Su): A ghost that hits a living target with its incorporeal touch attack deals 1d6 points of damage. Against ethereal opponents, it adds its Strength modifier to attack and damage rolls. Against non-ethereal opponents, it adds its Dexterity modifier to attack rolls only.

Draining Touch (Su): A ghost that hits a living target with its incorporeal touch attack drains 1d4 points from any one ability score it selects. On each such successful attack, the ghost heals 5 points of damage to itself. Against ethereal opponents, it adds its Strength modifier to attack rolls only. Against non-ethereal opponents, it adds its Dexterity modifier to attack rolls only.

Soul Grab: A gate spirit may make grapple attempts against creatures with souls despite being incorporeal. If successful it pulls the creature's soul from its body and the soul is treated as being grappled. The soul has the same stats as the creature, but is incorporeal and lacks all equipment that didn't have ghost touch. Unlike most creatures, a gate spirit does not need to remain in place while grappling and may move around at will, forcing the grappled soul to come with it. It may not attack or deal damage while doing this. Opposed grapple checks are still made as normal. If the captured soul escapes, it may attempt to return to its body without being captured again.


Ethereal Portal: A gate spirit is connected to both the material and the ethereal plane. It may be used to travel between the two planes by both ethereal and material creatures. Doing so requires entering through one end and departing through the other.

Lore

Characters with ranks in Knowledge (the planes) or Knowledge (ghosts) can learn more about spirit gates. When the character makes a skill check, the following lore is revealed, including the information from lower DCs.

{table=head]
DC | Result
20 (the planes) | There exist gateways between the material and ethereal plane that are guarded by spirits.
20 (religion) | There exist gateways constructed of and guarded by spirits that can be used to travel between the material and ethereal planes.
25 (the planes) | Such gateways are made out of departed souls which seek to gather more souls to expand the gateway.
25 (religion) | These gateways are blind but can tell when a soul enters their domain and will often seek to assimilate it (player learns about assimilate and soul grab ability).
30 (the planes) | These gateways are blind but can tell when one enters their domain. (player learns about its soul sense and range of influence abilities)
30 (religion) | These gateways are protecting spirits are portions of its substance that it can deploy or recall (player learns about the spawn gate spirit and rejoin spirit abilities)[/table]

Note: If using the Knowledge (ghosts) skill from ghostwalk, then substitute it for Knowledge (religion).

Owrtho

Bhu
2008-11-04, 06:05 PM
Just for flavor purposes you might wanna have it heal from negative energy like undead instead of positive energy like living people do.

Debihuman
2008-11-04, 06:25 PM
Whle I liked the spirit gate, it used house rules that didn't work for me. As a result, I didn't vote for it.

Since it doesn't really interact with anyone on the prime material plane, I felt the focus should have been more on the gate spirits rather than on the spirit gates.

Can spirit gates speak? Can they be reasoned with or argued with? With 40 HD and Int of 16 why so few skills?


Skill points equal to (2 + Int modifier, minimum 1) per Hit Die, with quadruple skill points for the first Hit Die, if the construct has an Intelligence score. However, most constructs are mindless and gain no skill points or feats.

With an Int of 16 it has +3 modifier. it has 5 skill points per HD with 20 skill points for first level. This gives it 215 Skill points to work with. Since it does have an Int, why not give it appropriate ghostly feats?

Also, you still should use a standard progression for advancement or present a more typical gate spirit. Advancement is 41-54 for Large, then 55-74 for Huge, 56-75 Gargantuan and 76-100 for Colossal. Certainly there can be smaller gates but then you should have started with a more typical specimen and listed the progression for smaller spirit gates as well.

Debby

Owrtho
2008-11-04, 07:21 PM
Alright. In order.


Just for flavor purposes you might wanna have it heal from negative energy like undead instead of positive energy like living people do.
‣Bhu, good point. Changed.


Whle I liked the spirit gate, it used house rules that didn't work for me. As a result, I didn't vote for it.
‣which house rules? all I can think of was the knowledge (ghost) which I stated is replaced by knowledge (religeon) if not used. Maby I should swap the way I do that though...




Since it doesn't really interact with anyone on the prime material plane, I felt the focus should have been more on the gate spirits rather than on the spirit gates.
‣well, I thought I sorta did focus more on them. The abilities of the spirit gate mostly related to its manipulation of them, and they had all the real interacting abilities.



Can spirit gates speak? Can they be reasoned with or argued with? With 40 HD and Int of 16 why so few skills?
‣Thought I sorta eluded to that. Though now that I look back I realized I only said that some are peaceful in exchange for services. I'll add a means for them to comunicate. As for the few skills, I couldn't think of many that would fit it. It can barely move (and can't directly interact anyways), so all the active skills are pretty much out. And it didn't seems to fit alot of other stuff. I gave it sense motive so it would be able to judge those using it but that was all I could think of (the knowledges were realy just since they were the only other skills that I thought seemed apropriate). Now that I think of it though, they could probly also use lore (from the many souls assimilated into their colective).



With an Int of 16 it has +3 modifier. it has 5 skill points per HD with 20 skill points for first level. This gives it 215 Skill points to work with. Since it does have an Int, why not give it appropriate ghostly feats?
‣Thanks for the numerics of the skills. As for feats, I couldn't think of any to suit it. If you cansuggest any apropriate ones I'll look into it.



Also, you still should use a standard progression for advancement or present a more typical gate spirit. Advancement is 41-54 for Large, then 55-74 for Huge, 56-75 Gargantuan and 76-100 for Colossal. Certainly there can be smaller gates but then you should have started with a more typical specimen and listed the progression for smaller spirit gates as well.
‣Well, I used non standard progression because I figured it'd be somewhat more realistic. First, each HD basicaly represents 2 spirits of aprocimatly medium size. Now that means at 40HD that is a structye cunstructed of 80 medium sized spirits material (aproximatly). Now assuming that half of that goes to the interdeminsional pocket inside it, and equal portions go to the material and ethereal planes, then that means that for a standard, 40hd spirit gate has the noted portion (the portion on the material plane) consisting of 20 medium sized creatures. That should be large already. It is a streatch to say that removing 10 of them to make the gate spirits is medium. The advancment I used was done by adding 15, then increasing the required amount of hd to increase in size by 5 each time.

‣As for the size of gates, I made the stats for a medium one because they would on average likely be medium due to the number of gate spirits they have out. However I could try statting a huge or large one for the more ancient ones (maby even collosal).

Owrtho

Bhu
2008-11-06, 08:03 AM
Hit Points on the Gate Spiritis reads a lil confusing to me.

Owrtho
2008-11-06, 10:30 AM
Not quite sure how you mean that, but I'll try to explain generaly.
Stats are determined by the total hit dice (for dm convenience).
Max HP is an exception to the above an is determined by current amount of hit dice it has making up the spirit gate.
HD is also an exception in that any abilities that have a min/max HD of target use the current HD of the spirit gate.

Hope that helps.

Owrtho

Bhu
2008-11-07, 05:44 AM
No I meant this:

Hit Dice: 1d12 + X where X is 1/20 the spirit gates maximum possible HD (8.5)

Whats the 8.5 for?? 1/20 of 40 HD is +2 hp.

Owrtho
2008-11-07, 10:47 AM
And as I recall, 1d12 averages to 6.5. Thus average hp is 8.5

Owrtho

Bhu
2008-11-08, 02:57 AM
Aaah gotcha. Sorry the new meds are messing with me.:smallredface: