Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Dunamin 04-08-07, 08:09 PM	Anarchic, axiomatic, celestial and fiendish creatures are common in the Outer Planes, and I found that it helped my planar campaign to generalize the “aligned creature” templates mechanically. I present to you this general template, which is basically just an expansion of the fiendish creature template. I chose this template as my model over the others because it is fairly simple to apply and doesn’t affect the tactics of the base creature as much, points which I have found to be desirable in many situations, such as when revising Summon Monster lists and the like. Flavour-wise, I have also made slight changes to appearances – ignore it if it’s not to your tastes. - Aligned Creature An aligned creature dwell on the planes of either Chaos, Law, Good or Evil. Anarchic creatures (Chaos) appear more wild than their earthly counterparts, their hair or fur often move slowly on their own and their colours sometimes change to other shades over time - these features are often more pronounced when they’re agitated. Axiomatic creatures (Law) appear more symmetric and orderly and often display near-geometric shapes (shoulders form right angles, tails form line segments). Celestial creatures (Good) appear more regal and beautiful, a dim glow often surrounds them, and some of their features might be coloured like noble metals (such as silver or gold). Fiendish creatures (Evil) appear more fearsome and dangerous, their eyes often glow dimly red, yellow or green, and tiny spikes sometimes protrude through their skin. Creating An Aligned Creature “Aligned creature” is a general term for the 4 templates: “anarchic”, “axiomatic”, “celestial” and “fiendish creature”, corresponding to a relation to Chaos, Law, Good or Evil, respectively. They are inherited templates that can be added to any corporeal aberration, animal, dragon, fey, giant, humanoid, magical beast, monstrous humanoid, ooze, plant, or vermin of alignment other than the opposed one. Chaos and Law oppose each other, as does Good and Evil. An aligned creature uses all the base creature’s statistics and abilities except as noted here. Do not recalculate the creature’s Hit Dice, base attack bonus, saves, or skill points if its type changes. Size and Type Animals or vermin with this template become magical beasts, but otherwise the creature type is unchanged. Size is unchanged. Aligned creatures encountered on the Material Plane have the extraplanar subtype. Special Attacks An aligned creature retains all the special attacks of the base creature and also gains the following special attack. Smite Law/Chaos/Evil/Good (Su) Once per day the creature can make a normal melee attack to deal extra damage equal to its HD total (maximum of +20) against a foe of the opposing alignment. Special Qualities An aligned creature retains all the special qualities of the base creature and also gains the following. Hit Dice Resistances* Damage Reduction 1-3 5 — 4-7 5 5/magic 8-11 10 5/magic 12 or more 10 10/magic Darkvision out to 60 feet. Damage reduction (see table). Spell resistance equal to the creature’s HD + 5 (maximum 25). * Resistances depend on the template in question: Celestial creatures are resistant to electricity and acid. Fiendish creatures are resistant to fire and cold. Anarchic creatures are resistant to sonic and fire. Axiomatic creatures are resistant to cold and electricity. If the base creature already has one or more of these special qualities, use the better value. If an aligned creature gains damage reduction, its natural weapons are treated as magic weapons for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction. Abilities Same as the base creature, but Intelligence is at least 3. Environment Any plane with the corresponding alignment. Challenge Rating HD 3 or less, as base creature; HD 4 to 7, as base creature +1; HD 8 or more, as base creature +2. Alignment Anarchic creatures are always chaotic (any), axiomatic creatures are always lawful (any), celestial creatures are always good (any), and fiendish creatures are always evil (any). Level Adjustment Same as the base creature +2. - The types of energy resistance were chosen in part based on what the common natives of those particular planes typically are resilient to, and in part on what just seemed thematically appropriate. Slaadi, incarnations of Chaos, are immune to sonic energy, and while they are have minor resistance to all energy forms, fire seems particularly appropriate for chaos: it is often associated with passion, fury, or the like, and regions of fire are common in Limbo. Incarnations of Law are often associated with machinery, which seem to imply resilience against cold and arguably lightning as well. Constructive criticism would be very much appreciated. :)
Holy_Beholder 04-08-07, 08:34 PM	It is really good. They could probably use a few spell like abilities though.
Warforged Goblin 04-09-07, 07:43 AM	It is really good. They could probably use a few spell like abilities though. No SLA's, none of the "base" templates get them.
Dunamin 04-10-07, 03:25 AM	Exactly. Also, the focus here is simplicity, so that a DM can quickly apply the template without much forethought.
Holy_Beholder 05-08-07, 08:06 PM	You might want to copy this over to the new templates thread, I found it on the last page.
Dunamin 05-13-07, 02:43 AM	Good point, thanks for the heads up.
Garonak 05-13-07, 01:49 PM	Nevermind, I'm retarded
Borris 05-14-07, 02:26 AM	Check your Monster Manual again. Neither the fiendish not the celestial template give any sort of spell-like ability. You might be confusing them with the half-fiend and half-celestial templates, which are completely different. As for sonic resistance, it's no stronger than resistance to any of the other four basic elements. In fact, it's actually less useful as you'll be targeted with sonic damage far less often than fire, cold, electricity, or acid.
Garonak 05-14-07, 01:14 PM	Oops... My bad :blush: