Vaust Template

[samael]

Vaust Template
Ability Level Adjustment
Undead +2
Natural Armor Bonus +1
Ability Score Damage +1
Spell Casting Ability +0 (N/A if non-spellcaster)
Shapechange +1 (+2 if applied to non-spellcaster)
Gaze +1
Ability Score Adjustment (+4 Str, +2 Dex, +2 Int, +2 Wis, +4 Cha) +1
Damage Reduction +1
Turn Resistance +0
Total Level Adjustment +8 (+9 if non-spellcaster)

Size and Type: The creature’s type changes to undead (augmented humanoid or monstrous humanoid). Do not recalculate base attack bonus, saves, or skill points. Size is unchanged.

Hit Dice: Increase all current and future Hit Dice to d12s.

Speed: Same as base creature (in corporeal form), or Fly 30 ft. (perfect, if ethereal/incorporeal form)

Armor Class: The base creature’s natural armor bonus improves by +5

Attack: A Vaust retains all the attacks of the base creature (unless in ethereal/incorporeal form and then it must manifest, and have at least a +1 weapon (with 50% miss chance) or have a ghost touch weapon).

Full Attack: A Vaust retains all the attacks of the base creature (unless in ethereal/incorporeal form and then it must manifest, and have at least a +1 weapon (with 50% miss chance) or have a ghost touch weapon).

Special Attacks: A Vaust retains all the base creature’s special attacks and gains those described below. Save DCs are equal to 10 + ½ Vaust’s HD, +Vaust’s Charisma Modifier.

Paralyzing Gaze (Su): Paralyzing, 30 feet. A creature that meets the Vaust’s gaze must succeed on a Fortitude Save (DC calculated as above) or become paralyzed for 1d4 minutes. Whether or not the save is successful, that creature cannot be affected again by the same Vaust’s gaze for 24 hours. The save DC is Charisma based.

Rotting Touch (Su): A Vaust that hits a living target with its touch attack deals 1d4 points of ability damage from any one ability score it selects. If Corporeal the vausts touch attack can roll a critical attack, and adds its Strength modifier to attack rolls only. If Ethereal/Incorporeal the vausts touch attack drains 1d4 points from any one ability score it selects, and heals 5 points of damage to itself. In this form the attack cannot critically hit, and adds its Dexterity modifier to attack rolls only. The corporeal form attack is instant disease-like rotting damage, and in ethereal/incorporeal form it is a negative energy drain attack.

Spells: A vaust can cast any spells it could cast while alive.

Special Qualities: A vaust retains all the special qualities of the base creature and gains those described below.

Etherealness (Su): A vaust’s natural state is corporeal. However as a standard action, a vaust can assume an ethereal form. This ability is similar to a polymorph spell cast by a 12th level character, except that the vaust does not regain hit points for changing form and can only choose to make itself ethereal. It can remain in this form indefinitely, but can choose to change back to its natural form with another standard action. While ethereal/incorporeal the vaust has a fly speed of 30 feet with perfect maneuverability, and can choose to manifest in order to affect the Material Plane, or not if he changed for the purposes for running away for example.

Manifest (Su): An ethereal/incorporeal vaust dwells on the Ethereal Plane and, as an ethereal creature, it cannot affect or be affected by anything in the material world. When a vaust manifests, it party enters the Material Plane and becomes visible but incorporeal on the Material Plane. A manifested vause can be harmed only by other ethereal/incorporeal creatures, magic weapons, or spells, with a 50% chance to ignore any damage from a corporeal source. A manifested vaust can pass through solid objects at will, and its own attacks pass through armor. A manifested vaust always moves silently.
A manifested vaust can strike with its touch attack or with a ghost touch weapon, but cannot use its gaze attack. A manifested vaust can be attacked by opponents on either the Material Plane or the Ethereal Plane. The vaust’s incorporeality helps to protect it from foes on the Material Plane, but not from foes on the Ethereal Plane.
When a spellcasting vaust is not manifested and is on the Ethereal Plane, its spells cannot affect targets on the Material Plane, but they work normally against ethereal targets. When a spellcasting vaust manifests, its spells continue to affect ethereal targets and can affect targets on the Material Plane normally unless the spells rely on touch. Force spells affect creatures on the ethereal plane as well as the material plane, and can damage a vaust even if not manifested if cast in the area it is in, or if it can somehow target the vaust. A manifested vaust’s touch spells don’t work on non ethereal targets.
A vaust has two home planes, the Material Plane and the Ethereal Plane. It is not considered extraplanar when on either of these planes.

Damage Reduction (Su): A vaust has damage reduction 10/silver and magic.

Turn Resistance (Ex): A vaust has +5 turn resistance.

Undead Traits

Incorporeal Traits

Abilities: Increase the base creature as follows: Str +4, Dex +2, Int +2, Wis +2, Cha +4. As an undead creature, a vaust has no Constitution score.

Skills: The same as the base creature.

Feats: The same as the base creature.

Environment: Any, usually the same as the base creature.

Organization: Any.

Challenge Rating: Same as the base creature +4

Treasure: Double Standard

Alignment: Always evil (any).

Advancement: By character class.

Level Adjustment: Same as the base creature +8 (or +9 if non spellcaster).

[Katdoral]

Hmmm, I never really looked at this, but now that I have there are some problems with the ECL. I note that it has turn resistance of 5, but up top that apparently doesn't raise it's ECL at all? Turn resistance is pretty rare in undead, and it would seem that that ability would increase ECL to some extent. Also, I note that the disease touch also doesn't appear to be adjusted. I did note that you used shapechange as an adjuster, though I don't know if that was meant to represent the etherealness or the manifestation. And finally a +14 to stats seems like it would be worth more then a +1. for instance, in lycanthropy you can get some pretty obscene bonuses, but you also have to equate for the hit die of the animal type, like bears get the largest, but they also add 6 to the ecl for a total of 8 or 9, depending on whether it's inflicted or natural. Anyways, just things that weren't adding up when I really looked at it.

[samael]

That template is built to the specific guildlines and follows all the rules in savage species for creating a new template/creature. So unfortunately while you may have disagreements, it follows the rules in that book completely

[Katdoral]

Oct 23, 2013 14:13:22 GMT -5 samael said:

That template is built to the specific guildlines and follows all the rules in savage species for creating a new template/creature. So unfortunately while you may have disagreements, it follows the rules in that book completely

Odd, when I look at page 13, specifically ability score damage.

Ability Score Damage: This special attack is worth a +1 level
adjustment unless the affected ability score is Constitution,
in which case the level adjustment rises to +2.


Since the vaust can choose to do constitution damage, and constitution damage is a level adjustment of +2, shouldn't the overall ecl adjustment be +2 also?

Also, I note that it can use an ability similair to polymorph, cast at 12th level, to become ethereal. However in the spell casting ability adjustment it's set to 0.

Spellcasting Ability: Since characters of the standard races
can generally duplicate this ability, it is worth a level adjustment
only when the monster’s spellcasting ability exceeds
what a character of a level equal to the creature’s CR could
do. If the creature can cast spells at a caster level higher than
its Hit Dice, it gains a +1 level adjustment.

In the above, it states that if a character of a level equal to a vaust's cr can reproduce the effect then it's not generally worthy of an increase in level adjustment. So, what 8th level caster can use an effect similair to polymorph indefinately?

Ability scores

On pages 13, 14, 18(twice), and 21 it shows us unbalanced ability scores. when you do the numbers you get an overall gain of the following, repsectively, 4, 6, 12, 14, 32. Only on pages 13, 14, and the second entry on 18 are they +1 adjustments. The first entry on 18 is either 1 or 2, and the entry on 21 is 2. This appears to be only basing a +2 increase on one specific number being higher but doesn't really touch on what "higher" might actually be. Another point is that the only one that does not have a negative modifier is also set at +2, so perhaps that also enters into the formula. As it is now, the vaust gets +14 with no deficit. Admittedly the second entry on page 18 also gives a net of 14 it also has a -4 to STR for that entry. It just seems like you are getting a considerable net effect for a +1 level adjustment, and to say that it "follows the rules" is misleading I'm afraid, as all of these rules are based on subjective inturpretation.