Give the Splinter Zombie a hand! (courtesy Indion Entertainment Group).
Monster Madness looks at forgotten monsters from the early days of gaming, when creativity ran rampant, game balance was an afterthought, and critters with little rhyme or reason plagued dungeons for the sole purpose of brutally murdering adventurers. Today's Mad Monster is a worthy addition to the adventurer-slaughtering canon: the plant monster from the movie Splinter.
There aren't many plant monsters in Dungeons & Dragons. The two that are best known have ruined it for all the other monsters: treants and shriekers. Of course, treants are analogues for Ents; good-aligned and usually lecturing local villagers on forest conservation. Unless your PCs are big meanies, killing them isn't likely. It's no surprise that desperate game masters often include "insane treants" – AKA, a reason to kill treants by making them evil.
Subsequently, there's been quite a few evil treant variants. But they're still just that – big walking trees. Players immediately break out the torches and pretty soon Smokey the Bear is crying.
Shriekers, on the other hand, are part of the old school madness that made D&D great. Of course there's a fungus whose sole purpose is to scream its head off, thereby attracting wandering monsters! It's like the old neighbor who always calls the police on you even when you're taking your dog for a walk because you "look suspicious."
With poster children like these two, it's no wonder adventurers aren't afraid of plants. The Splinter Zombie will change that perception quickly.
Similar to other contagious monsters, like the ghoul and the wraith, Splinter Zombies infect you -- quickly. Worse, Splinter Zombies merge into a larger form. Though it has the word "zombie" in the title, Splinter Zombies are anything but slow-moving undead.
We all know that druids are jealous of clerics. Clerics get all the glory with the healing and the turning and the resurrecting. But with a Splinter Zombie, the druid gets an opportunity to one-up the cleric. The expression on the cleric's face will be priceless when he realizes that the zombie bashing its head against the door isn't a zombie at all.
"What's that? Oh NOW you want my 'stupid plant spells'? I'll just chill out behind my anti-plant shell while I think about it…"
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"Splinter zombie" is an acquired template that can be applied to any living creature. The creature's type becomes plant. It uses all the base creature's statistics and abilities except as noted here.
Mindless (Ex): A splinter zombie is mindless. Plant Traits (Ex): A splinter zombie is immune to poison, sleep, paralysis, stunning, and polymorphing. It is not subject critical hits or mind-affecting effects. Absorb (Ex): As a full-round action, a splinter zombie can absorb the body (but not the equipment) of any creature to which it has successfully embedded its splinter (see Embed Splinter, below). The splinter zombie gains a size category whenever it has absorbed creatures whose combined size categories equal its own, according to the following equivalencies: Four Tiny creatures equal a Small creature, four Small creatures equal a Medium-size creature, and four Medium-size creatures equal a Large creature. Thus, a Huge splinter zombie could have resulted from a Large splinter zombie absorbing one Large creature, four Medium-size creatures, or any mix of sizes that equals Large. The splinter zombie’s statistics remain the same after absorption unless it gains a size category. Any hit point or ability damage that the splinter zombie has taken before absorbing its prey still applies to its new statistics. A splinter zombie cannot absorb a creature larger than itself, nor can it absorb another splinter zombie.
Cold Vulnerability (Ex): A splinter zombie suffers 50% more damage from any cold attack.
Heatsense (Ex): Splinter zombies notice and locate creatures that give off heat within 60 feet, just as if it possessed the blindsight ability. It hunts heat to exclusion of all other things, and can be distracted by a variety of diversionary tactics that involve fire or heat. If a creature's body temperature is below the ambient temperature, the splinter zombie is unable to detect it. Convert (Ex): A splinter zombie converts any creature to which it has successfully embedded its splinter (see Embed splinter, below) into a new splinter zombie as a full-round action. A converted creature becomes in all ways a splinter zombie of the appropriate size category, losing all its own ability scores, Hit Dice, class levels, skills, feats, species traits, and allegiances and replacing them with those of a splinter zombie. A creature with more than 16 Hit Dice cannot be converted.
Embed Splinter (Ex): A splinter zombie can transfer a splinter to a living creature with a successful claw attack. The opponent may attempt a Fortitude save (DC 10 + 1/2 splinter zombie’s Hit Dice + its Constitution modifier) to resist. Success indicates that the splinter zombie has failed to transfer its splinter to the opponent, but it can attempt to do so again using another claw attack. Failure indicates that the splinter was successfully embedded and the opponent’s body has begun to transform into a splinter zombie. Within one hour, the victim suffers the loss of 1d3 Con and 1d3 Dex. When the creature dies, the opponent can be either absorbed by the splinter zombie or converted into a new splinter zombie (see Absorb and Convert, above), at the attacker’s option. An opponent smaller than Tiny or larger than Large cannot be either absorbed or converted. If the opponent cannot be either absorbed, and a creature with less than 1 Hit Die or more than 16 Hit Dice cannot be converted, it simply becomes a dead splinter zombie when the process is complete.
Hive Mind (Su): All splinter zombies within 200 feet of one another are in constant mental communication. If one is aware of a particular threat, they all are. If one splinter zombie in a particular group is not flat-footed, none of them are. No splinter zombie in such a group is considered flanked unless they all are.
Immunities (Ex): Because a splinter zombie does not need to breathe, it is immune to suffocation, inhaled poisons, and other detrimental atmospheric effects.
Regeneration 5 (Ex): A splinter zombie regenerates 5 points of damage each round but cannot regenerate fire, acid, or electricity damage. If a splinter zombie loses a limb or body part, the lost portion regrows in 3d6 minutes. The creature can reattach the severed member instantly by holding it to the stump.
Split (Ex): If a splinter zombie wants to escape bonds, or enter an area of smaller confines than its current size would permit, or diminish its size to mimic a creature it has absorbed, it can split off part of its body at will. Splitting is a full-round action that provokes attacks of opportunity. The detached portion is a new splinter zombie of a size category smaller than the original, with the normal statistics for a splinter zombie of its size category. (Use the size equivalencies given in the Absorb ability, above, to determine the results of splits.) Any damage or other negative effects previously suffered stay with the larger portion, or are randomly assigned to one portion if both are the same size category. Neither portion of the split splinter zombie can be smaller than Tiny. A splinter zombie can initiate a split at any point on its body—a fact that makes binding one nearly impossible.
Curing a Splinter Zombie : The victim can attempt to cut out the splinter infection before it spreads, suffering 1d4 points of Constitution drain and remaining helpless for 2d4 rounds from the pain. This grants the creature another Fortitude saving throw for the Embed Splinter attack.A druid of at least 12th level must blight on the character before the implanted splinter germinates. |
Comments
If I were to be killed by a zombie - which can't actually happen because I'm way too awesome - I'd choose a Splinter Zombie off the name alone.
Stay fearful and vigilant
Well said. Some day, please let me borrow your +10 Armor of Awesome. When the zombies apocalypse arrives, I'll need it.
Probably tomorrow.
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