Infernal Puppet Template [PEACH]

[nxwtypx]

Infernal Puppet

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The entangling nature of the Nine Hells sometimes takes a literal twist, when the bonds of law corrupted by the tendrils of evil manifest as puppet strings of material plane creatures, forced to act as enforcers for powerful lawful evil beings.
An infernal puppet appears much as it did before its entanglement, but now, ghostly strings lashed to spiked manacles guide the creature's movements with unnatural speed and strength.

SAMPLE INFERNAL PUPPET
This hulking brute is around 9 feet tall, and is shackled to wispy strings reaching up five feet higher, suspending it in the air a few inches off of the ground.
This example uses an Ogre as the base creature
Ogre Infernal Puppet
Large Giant
Hit Dice: 4d8+11 (29 hp)
Initiative: +1
Speed: 30 ft. in hide armor (6 squares); base speed 40 ft; Fly 40 feet (perfect), (10 squares); base fly speed 60 ft.
Armor Class: 21 (-1 size, +1 Dex, +5 natural, +3 hide armor, +3 deflection)
Base Attack/Grapple: +3/+15
Attack: Greatclub +10 melee (2d8+10 plus Jagged) or javelin +3 ranged (1d8+7)
Attack: Greatclub +10 melee (2d8+10 plus Jagged) or javelin +3 ranged (1d8+7) Greatclub +10 melee (2d8+10 plus Jagged) or javelin +3 ranged (1d8+7)
Space/Reach: 10 ft./10 ft.
Special Attacks: Jagged
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft., infernal puppet strings, low-light vision
Saves: Fort +6, Ref +1, Will +0
Abilities: Str 25, Dex 12, Con 15, Int 6, Wis 8, Cha 7.
Skills: Climb +7, Listen +1, Spot +1.
Feats: Toughness, Weapon Focus (Greatclub)
Environment: Any underground
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 5
Treasure: Standard
Alignment: Always lawful evil
Advancement: By character class.
Level Adjustment: +4

An ogre infernal puppet is frustrated at the rigid, implacable orders of his puppet strings, but relishes the chance to use his newfound speed and strength in battle.
Combat
Once allowed to fight, the ogre infernal puppet will unleash his assault with reckless abandon. The ogre will use his speed to get into flanking positions with other enforcers.
Infernal Puppet Strings (Su): Four infernal puppet strings control the ogre infernal puppet's movement. The infernal puppet strings have an armor class of 18, 8 hit points, hardness 5 and are considered incorporeal. If all four puppet strings are destroyed, the ogre infernal puppet loses its fly speed, deflection bonus to AC, and loses 4 points of Strength and Dexterity and gains 2 points of Wisdom.
Jagged (Ex): The ogre infernal puppet is adorned and festooned with all manner of jagged chains, shackles, and manacles. Any living creature damaged by an infernal puppet's melee attack continues to bleed, losing 1d8 hit points per round. Multiple wounds do not result in cumulative bleeding loss. The bleeding can be stopped by a DC 10 Heal check or the application of a cure spell or some other healing magic.

CREATING AN INFERNAL PUPPET
"Infernal Puppet" is a new monster template you can add to any corporeal creature that is not of the elemental, ooze, or outsider type.
An infernal puppet uses all the base creature's statistics and special abilities except as noted here.
Speed: The infernal puppet is hoisted around by an unseen hand, granting it a fly speed of 60 ft, with perfect maneuverability. However, the infernal puppet is unable to gain any altitude higher than a few inches off of the ground.
AC: The infernal puppet gains a deflection bonus to AC equal to its Charisma modifier, or +3, whichever is higher.
Attacks: The infernal puppet retains all the attacks of the base creature.
Damage: The infernal puppet retains the damage values of the base creature; however, the creature's melee attacks all gain the jagged ability.
Special Attacks: An infernal puppet retains all the special attacks of the base creature. It also gains the following:
Jagged (Ex): The infernal puppet is adorned and festooned with all manner of jagged chains, shackles, and manacles. Any living creature damaged by an infernal puppet's melee attack continues to bleed, losing hit points per round based on the size of the infernal puppet. Multiple wounds do not result in cumulative bleeding loss. The bleeding can be stopped by a DC 10 Heal check or the application of a cure spell or some other healing magic.
{table=head]Size|Bleeding Damage
Small or Smaller|1d4
Medium|1d6
Large|1d8
Huge|2d6
Gargantuan|2d8
Colossal|4d6
[/table]

Special Qualities: An infernal puppet retains all of the special qualities of the base creature and also gains the following:
Infernal puppet strings (Su): Four infernal puppet strings control the infernal puppet's movement. The infernal puppet strings have an armor class equal to 14 plus the base creature's dexterity modifier and deflection modifier granted this template, 2 hit points/hit dice of the base creature, hardness 5 and are considered incorporeal. If all four puppet strings are destroyed, the infernal puppet loses its fly speed, deflection bonus to AC, and ability score adjustments.
Damaged puppet strings repair themselves at the rate of 1 hit point/hit dice of the base creature, per day.
Saves: Same as base creature.
Abilities: Modify from the base creature as follows: Str +4, Dex +4, Wis -2.
Challenge Rating: HD 10 or less, as base creature +2; HD 11 or more, as base creature +3.
Alignment: Always lawful evil.
Level Adjustment: Same as base creature +2.



/end statistics block
Well, a few minutes bashing random card on Gatherer got me the inspiration for this template. Cool stuff. at first, my CR adjustments were +1 @ <10 HD and +2 @ > 11 HD, but building that Ogre had my better judgment move the CR up. What are your opinions? PEACH, son!

[DracoDei]

Explaining the specific logic behind the deflection bonus would be nice.

Doesn't seem like the sort of thing that would make a good PC, but I guess the LA is nice.

Rules for creating them/repairing broken/damaged strings might be nice added bonus, but aren't strictly necessary. Actually it could be an effect of the plane itself, and the strings could just each heal 1 point per day that they aren't over-stressed, or 2 if they are completely motionless, like a 1st level character (if I am remembering the natural healing rules correctly).

I don't think that 60 fly speed modified by heavy armor is 50. I think it is 40. It is multiplying by a fraction, not subtracting 10 feet, unless I am making an error.

CR adjustment MIGHT be a bit high, but better too high than too low for play-test purposes.

[nxwtypx]

Explaining the specific logic behind the deflection bonus would be nice.

If the Deflection bonus doesn't fit, and the CR is high, do you think removing it will bring that back to balance and make it feel better, or should I update fluff?

Doesn't seem like the sort of thing that would make a good PC, but I guess the LA is nice.

Rules for creating them/repairing broken/damaged strings might be nice added bonus, but aren't strictly necessary. Actually it could be an effect of the plane itself, and the strings could just each heal 1 point per day that they aren't over-stressed, or 2 if they are completely motionless, like a 1st level character (if I am remembering the natural healing rules correctly).

I like your take on string regen - a good idea.

I don't think that 60 fly speed modified by heavy armor is 50. I think it is 40. It is multiplying by a fraction, not subtracting 10 feet, unless I am making an error.

CR adjustment MIGHT be a bit high, but better too high than too low for play-test purposes.

You are correct, per the SRD.

Thanks for the input and pardon my delay.