Post/Author/DateTime	Post
JarionSilverblades 09-08-07, 06:14 PM	Deathforged are undead constructs, living constructs given new life through powerful magics. This is a template I created for 2 reasons, 1) You can never have to many undead templates. and 2) The idea of a undead warforged has been racing through my mind for awhile. This is my first attempt to create a template and I know it needs work, so any ideas, thoughts, or suggestions you may have please feel free to post them. TEMPLATE: DEATHFORGED Deathforged is a template that can be added to any living construct that has damaged to a point that would require a resurrected or true resurrection spell. They still carry the wounds and damage they did in life, the metal of their bodies has begun to rust, and the wood rots and oozes foul smelling black liquid. Size and Type: The living construct’s type changes to Undead Construct. It loses all previous subtypes, but gains the Augmented subtype. It uses all the base creature’s statistics and special abilities. Speed: A deathforged’s speed is reduced by 10 ft. Hit Dice: All hit dice become d12s. All hit dice, both racial and class based become d12s. Armor Class: The deathforged’s natural armor bonus increases by 2. Attack: Deathforged gains a slam attack 1d8 if it didn't have one already, and can use any manufactured weapon. A deathforged armed with a weapon uses its slam or a weapon, as it desires. Full Attack: A deathforged fighting without weapons uses its slam attack. If armed with a weapon, it usually uses its primary attack along with a slam as a natural secondary attack. Damage: Slam attack damage increases to 1d8. The damage from a deathforged’s slam attack increases to d8. Special Attack: Create Deathforged, Disease, Constitution Drain Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft, Diet Dependent Abilities: Str +4, Dex -2, Int -2, Wis +2, Cha +2, a deathforged has no constitution score. Skills: A deathforged gains a +4 on intimidation. Feats: A deathforged retains all of it’s feats, aslong as it still meet all prerequisites, it gains Improved Turn Resistence as a bonus feat. CR: +2 Alignment: Always evil (any) Advancement: By character level. LA: +4 Undead Construct Traits: See below. Create Deathforged (Su): Any living construct reduced to Con 0 by a deathforged’s constitution drain attack will arise a deathforged in 1d6 rounds. A humanoid slain by a deathforged’s drain attack simply die. Disease (Su): A deathforged’s twisted and rusting metal ,as well as it’s rotting wooden body composition carries a dangerous disease, Forged Plague*- slam, Fortitude DC, incubation period 1d4 day, damage 1d4 Str and 1d4 Con. The save DC is Constitution based and includes a +4 racial bonus. *The unique nature of the Forged Plague over rides a living construct’s immunity to diseases. Constitution Drain (Su): A deathforged can siphon the life force from a living humanoid or living construct by making a successful grapple check. If it pins the foe, it begins to siphon the foes life force, dealing 1d4 points of constitution drain each round the pin is maintained. On each successful attack, the deathforged gains 5 temporary hit points. Diet Dependent (Ex): A deathforged is driven by an unending hunger for life energy. It must feed on the life force of a living humanoid or living construct each day. Each day a deathforged must drain 4 points of constitution from a living construct or humanoid. If it doesn’t it must make a Fort save (DC equal to 10+ the number of days since it last feed), a deathforge that fails its save takes 1 point of permanent Intelligence damage, a deathforged reduced to 0 Int is destroyed. DEATHFORGED RACIAL TRAITS • Undead Construct Subtype (Ex): Deathforged are constructs with the undead construct subtype. A undead construct is a created being given unnatural sentience through powerful necromantic magic. Deathforged are undead constructs that combine aspects of both constructs and undead creatures, as detailed below. Features: As a undead construct, has the following features. Traits: A undead construct possesses the following traits, unless noted in it’s entry. —A undead construct has no Constitution score. — Darkvision 60ft. —Like other undead, a undead construct is immune to mind-affecting spells and abilities. —Immunity to poison, sleep effects, paralysis, disease, nausea, fatigue, exhaustion, effects that cause the sickened condition, and energy drain. —A undead construct cannot heal damage naturally. —Like other undead, undead construct are not subject to critical hits, nonlethal damage, stunning, ability damage, ability drain, and death effects. —A undead construct can be affected by spells that target undead creatures as well as by those that target constructs. Damage dealt to a undead construct can be healed by a inflict light wounds spell or a repair light damage spell, for example, and a undead construct is vulnerable to disable construct. However, spells from the necromancy school and supernatural abilities that restore hit point damage to undead provide only half their normal effect to a undead construct. —Undead Constructs gain the same benefits as undead do from desecrate, unhallow and any other spell that benefits undead. —The unusual nature of undead construct makes them vulnerable to certain spells and effects that normally don’t affect undead creatures. A undead construct takes damage from heat metal and chill metal as if he were wearing metal armor. Likewise, a undead construct is affected by repel metal or stone as if he were wearing metal armor. A undead construct is repelled by repel wood. Spells such as stone to flesh, stone shape, warp wood, and wood shape affect objects only, and thus cannot be used on the stone and wood parts of a undead construct. —The iron in the body of a undead construct is not vulnerable to rusting grasp or the damage from a rust monster’s touch. —A undead construct with 0 hit points or less is destroyed, just like a undead creature. —A undead construct can be raised or resurrected if willing, doing so restores a undead construct to it’s previous living state. —A undead construct does not need to eat, sleep, or breathe.
bhu 09-09-07, 02:50 AM	Im liking this. Is the FOrged Plague some sot of rust type thing?
JarionSilverblades 09-09-07, 08:35 AM	Im liking this. Is the FOrged Plague some sot of rust type thing? The Forged plague is a magical disease that effects anything with a life force.
JarionSilverblades 09-13-07, 07:02 AM	I still need some feedback, if you have any ideas or suggestions please post them.
JarionSilverblades 09-15-07, 06:48 PM	I hate bumping threads, but I would like some feedback on this template.
DoomedHero 09-18-07, 09:36 PM	I'll work on yours if you work on mine. Just follow the link in my Sig. First thoughts: Very cool idea. Has some nice flavor, and opens the doors for some other interesting ideas. Also seems pretty balanced based on the +4 LA that you've given it. A couple of questions: How did the first one come about? Was it random? did some crazy warforged wizard do it to themselves intentionally? Did some Warforged hero lose the wrong fight? Having a legend to attach to it is kind of important given it's fairly unique nature, especially given the nature of Warforged society. Why limit the template to Warforged? Making a Deathforged Spawn template that could be applied to any construct would be really cool. (and scary) What happens to other creatures who are killed by Deathforged Energy Drain? Something should. I'm really digging this.
DoomedHero 09-18-07, 09:37 PM	I'm picturing all kinds of crazyness coming off of this idea-- Deathforged Master: A PrC or Template that allows some crazy Warforged Necromancer to control these things. Deathforged Titan: Slap this onto the Warforged Titan, hollow it out, and turn it into a suit of undead power armor. Or fill it with Deathforged Scouts wielding poisoned darts... Spelletched Deathforged: Apply the Spellstiched template on top of this one. Now that they're undead, there are lots of other options like this one.
DoomedHero 09-18-07, 09:42 PM	What happens if they do not meet their Diet Dependent requirement? If something dies of the Deathforged Disease, do they become Deathforged?(assuming they're warforged)
JarionSilverblades 09-20-07, 04:29 PM	I'll work on yours if you work on mine. Just follow the link in my Sig. First thoughts: Very cool idea. Has some nice flavor, and opens the doors for some other interesting ideas. Also seems pretty balanced based on the +4 LA that you've given it. A couple of questions: How did the first one come about? Was it random? did some crazy warforged wizard do it to themselves intentionally? Did some Warforged hero lose the wrong fight? Having a legend to attach to it is kind of important given it's fairly unique nature, especially given the nature of Warforged society. I was think that during the War a powerful Necromancer attempted to raise an entire battle field, using a powerful artifact. It worked, but the release of so much necro power had a side-effect on the heavily damaged warforged on the field. Why limit the template to Warforged? Making a Deathforged Spawn template that could be applied to any construct would be really cool. (and scary) I limited it to warforged because they are currently the only "Living" constructs, and sense their drain ability drains life force it would have no effect on normal constructs. What happens to other creatures who are killed by Deathforged Energy Drain? Something should. I'm really digging this. I was thinking that my either die, or return as ghouls. What happens if they do not meet their Diet Dependent requirement? I don't know that's one of those things I need help on. If something dies of the Deathforged Disease, do they become Deathforged?(assuming they're warforged) No, the Constitution drain creates new Deathforged, not the Forged Plague.
DoomedHero 09-21-07, 01:38 AM	Are they free-willed or controlled by something? Based off the vampire/wraith-esq nature of the deathforged, it seems like non-constructs killed by their energy drain should come back as something like a Shadow or a Wraith (negative energy based, spreads to their victims also) rather than a Ghoul. Just a thought. I still think something should happen to a creature killed by the Forgeplague. Maybe *they* become ghouls or zombies. As far as their Diet Dependancy goes, one of my favorite things to add to any undead that has to kill to survive is from the Midnight setting (which is awesome) Here's how it works: Undead come back with all of the same personality traits and mental capacities that they had in life, just with a compusion to feed. They can make Will saves to resist (DC 10+ the number of days since they last fed.) Every day they go without feeding *permanantly reduces their intellegence by 1. They'd figure this out pretty quick and then be faced with the choice of killing others to retain their conciousness or eventually loosing control and becoming a mindless force of evil, and at some point before they become completely mindless they're going to fail a save. The inevitability and guilt of it makes them particularly horrifying and tragic. This means that some of the Deathforged would retain their intelligence and be able to continue gaining class levels and others would be creatures of savage animalistic impulse.
JarionSilverblades 09-23-07, 08:40 AM	Are they free-willed or controlled by something? Based off the vampire/wraith-esq nature of the deathforged, it seems like non-constructs killed by their energy drain should come back as something like a Shadow or a Wraith (negative energy based, spreads to their victims also) rather than a Ghoul. Just a thought. I still think something should happen to a creature killed by the Forgeplague. Maybe *they* become ghouls or zombies. As far as their Diet Dependancy goes, one of my favorite things to add to any undead that has to kill to survive is from the Midnight setting (which is awesome) Here's how it works: Undead come back with all of the same personality traits and mental capacities that they had in life, just with a compusion to feed. They can make Will saves to resist (DC 10+ the number of days since they last fed.) Every day they go without feeding *permanantly reduces their intellegence by 1. They'd figure this out pretty quick and then be faced with the choice of killing others to retain their conciousness or eventually loosing control and becoming a mindless force of evil, and at some point before they become completely mindless they're going to fail a save. The inevitability and guilt of it makes them particularly horrifying and tragic. This means that some of the Deathforged would retain their intelligence and be able to continue gaining class levels and others would be creatures of savage animalistic impulse. I like the Diet Dependancy Idea. I think a humanoid killed by the deathforged's drain ability I think should become a shadow, while ones killed by its disease would become Zombies.
chiaboco 09-23-07, 02:21 PM	nope you can never have too many undead templates. as for the deathforged? awsome. just plain awsome. now if a deathforged would be killed and rise as a ghoul (if i red that right) wholdnt they grow some kind of flesh? I think that the war-ghoul would be far stronger than an average ghoul. kinda like a ghoul wearing a natural suit of plate mail. for some reason an armor plated version of resident evil's licker pops into mind.
JarionSilverblades 09-23-07, 06:48 PM	nope you can never have too many undead templates. as for the deathforged? awsome. just plain awsome. now if a deathforged would be killed and rise as a ghoul (if i red that right) wholdnt they grow some kind of flesh? I think that the war-ghoul would be far stronger than an average ghoul. kinda like a ghoul wearing a natural suit of plate mail. for some reason an armor plated version of resident evil's licker pops into mind. I'm not clear on what you mean by "grow some kind of flesh". Deathforged are more like a Vampire. They have Int and need to feed to survive.
JarionSilverblades 10-02-07, 04:27 PM	I'd still like to here any more suggestions anyone may have. :bump:
SquireCrow 10-02-07, 06:42 PM	First of all....I have to tell you, this is one of the cooler things I've seen on the boards lately. I think you've got something here and I encourage you to stay with it. Here's my $0.02. 1 - Having to kill one humanoid/warforged a day to survive seems....a little high. I mean, to last a month you'd have to kill 30 people, which means you'd be takign a pretty good chunk out of an "average" village every month. Now...if you want to make them that dangerous, that's cool....but anything that is cutting that wide a swath of destruction through the countryside is going to draw a lot of heat very quickly. I'd think it would also limit their use as guardians/bodyguards/"pets" for other evil NPCs. If you dropped it to 1-2x/week...over the course of a few months it'd still do a lot of damage but it'd be more versitile I think. Again, just MHO. Alternatively you could have Deathforged that don't "eat" enough go inert...that way your typical 'evil mastermind' could keep them in stasis or just on the edge of survival without having to go out and find new victims on a daily basis. 2 - There are already a lot of critters out there that can turn humanoids into undead. I think your Deathforged becomes more unique, more interesting, if it's attacks treat 'forged and humanoids differently. I think you were on the right track by having only 'forged raised as undead, by the Con Drain. Humanoids killed by the Con Drain attack should just be dead. From a story perspective I think this would be awesome. Imagine the possibilities for a battle between a 'forged priest and a Deathforged. Imagine what it says about whether or not 'forged have "souls"...after all, there has to be something there to raise, right? 3 - Likewise, I think the "Forged Plague" should impact 'forged and humanoids differently. It'd be a chance for 'forged, normally immune to disease, to experience one of the uniquely "living" experiences that 'meatbags' have to deal with. I'd suggest that the Plague attack have a reduced and temporary (or more temporary) effect on living humanoids BUT..what about adding an element similar to the effects of a rust monster attack? So the Deathforged hits a humanoid, it potentially rots/rusts/ruins some valuable equipment, and makes them sick for a period of time. Meanwhile, 'forged it with the same attack would, I suppose, have the same chance of having their equipment wrecked but for them the risk is greater from the disease effect itself. I like the image of the "oozing black liquid" splattering someone's plate mail and eating into it somehow. Just some ideas. Keep up the good work. :D
JarionSilverblades 10-05-07, 03:24 PM	First of all....I have to tell you, this is one of the cooler things I've seen on the boards lately. I think you've got something here and I encourage you to stay with it. Here's my $0.02. 1 - Having to kill one humanoid/warforged a day to survive seems....a little high. I mean, to last a month you'd have to kill 30 people, which means you'd be takign a pretty good chunk out of an "average" village every month. Now...if you want to make them that dangerous, that's cool....but anything that is cutting that wide a swath of destruction through the countryside is going to draw a lot of heat very quickly. I'd think it would also limit their use as guardians/bodyguards/"pets" for other evil NPCs. If you dropped it to 1-2x/week...over the course of a few months it'd still do a lot of damage but it'd be more versitile I think. Again, just MHO. Alternatively you could have Deathforged that don't "eat" enough go inert...that way your typical 'evil mastermind' could keep them in stasis or just on the edge of survival without having to go out and find new victims on a daily basis. It's my bad, I should have put that a deathforged must drain maybe 4 points of Constatusion, each day to survive. Also I think that it should be changed from "Humanoid" to any living creature. As far as the Diet Dependancy goes, I really like DoomedHero's idea. 2 - There are already a lot of critters out there that can turn humanoids into undead. I think your Deathforged becomes more unique, more interesting, if it's attacks treat 'forged and humanoids differently. I think you were on the right track by having only 'forged raised as undead, by the Con Drain. Humanoids killed by the Con Drain attack should just be dead. From a story perspective I think this would be awesome. Imagine the possibilities for a battle between a 'forged priest and a Deathforged. Imagine what it says about whether or not 'forged have "souls"...after all, there has to be something there to raise, right? I think I will change it back so that once a non-forged creature is killed by the drain ability they are dead. Also I think I might reword it so that the drain raises any "Living Construct" as a Deathforged. 3 - Likewise, I think the "Forged Plague" should impact 'forged and humanoids differently. It'd be a chance for 'forged, normally immune to disease, to experience one of the uniquely "living" experiences that 'meatbags' have to deal with. I'd suggest that the Plague attack have a reduced and temporary (or more temporary) effect on living humanoids BUT..what about adding an element similar to the effects of a rust monster attack? So the Deathforged hits a humanoid, it potentially rots/rusts/ruins some valuable equipment, and makes them sick for a period of time. Meanwhile, 'forged it with the same attack would, I suppose, have the same chance of having their equipment wrecked but for them the risk is greater from the disease effect itself. I like the image of the "oozing black liquid" splattering someone's plate mail and eating into it somehow. Just some ideas. Keep up the good work. :D I kinda like the forged plague as is, but I like your ideas. thanks for all the feedback, I hope to hear from more people on this Template.
JarionSilverblades 11-01-07, 10:32 PM	I've made a few changes base on the feedback I've received. I've changed all references of "warforged" to "Living Constructs". I've also changed and defined the Create Deathforged and Diet Dependancy. Create Deathforged (Su): Any living construct reduced to Con 0 by a deathforged’s constitution drain attack will arise a deathforged in 1d6 rounds. A humanoid slain by a deathforged’s drain attack simply die. Diet Dependent (Ex): A deathforged is driven by an unending hunger for life energy. It must feed on the life force of a living humanoid or living construct each day. Each day a deathforged must drain 4 points of constitution from a living construct or humanoid. If it doesn’t it must make a Fort save (DC equal to 10+ the number of days since it last feed), a deathforge that fails its save takes 1 point of permanent Intelligence damage, a deathforged reduced to 0 Int is destroyed.