General Rules: Monsters - Ísern-Souled Creature (Template)

Ísern-Souled Creature (adapted from Hammer & Helm: A Guidebook to Dwarves)

The ironborn know the dark strength of metal ore. Knowing this, the ironborn created a powerful bonding ritual to dedicate themselves to special aspects of this element. One of these bonding rituals, known as the Oath of Iron, binds one's spirit to the magical essence of metal ore and opens the way to a deeper bonding - the Ísern-Soul.

In addition to those who actively bind their souls in this way, a few rare creatures of the deep caverns are born with the bond's gifts. These beings need not undergo the powerful ritual others need to achieve the blessings of iron, and their benefits are constant, not limited. This naturally occurring bond breeds true, and descendants of an ísern-souled creature also gain these benefits.

"Ísern-souled" is a template that can be added to any animal, dragon, fey, giant, humanoid, living construct, magical beast, monstrous humanoids, or vermin, hereafter referred to as the "base creature". The creature's type does not change.

Hit Dice: Same as the base creature.

Speed: 10 feet slower than the base creature, with a 10 foot minimum. This reduction does not affect burrow speeds. Ísern-souled creatures have their climb speed reduced by 20 feet and their fly speed reduced by 30 feet; if this reduces the creature's climb or fly speed to 0 feet or lower, the creature loses that movement mode.

Armor Class: Natural armor improves by +4.

Attacks: Same as the base creature plus a slam attack if it does not have one already. This slam attack replaces any claw attacks the base creature had. The attack form that deals the greater damage is the ísern-souled creature's primary attack; in the event of a tie, the slam attack is the secondary attack.

Damage: If the base creature does not normally have a slam attack, use the damage values given on the table to the right. Otherwise use the values on the table or the creature's value, whichever is greater. If the creature already had one or more claw attacks, it retains its old claw damage if it is better than the values listed below.

Special Attacks: Same as the base creature.

Size	Slam Damage
Fine	1
Diminutive	1d2
Tiny	1d3
Small	1d4
Medium	1d6
Large	1d8
Huge	2d6
Gargantuan	2d8
Colossal	4d6

Special Qualities: An ísern-souled creature retains all of the base creature's qualities and gains the following:

• Magnetism (Ex): An ísern-souled creature gets a free disarm attempt against any creature that strikes it with a metal melee weapon. This includes wooden-hafted weapons with metal tips such as saxes and spears. This disarm attempt does not provoke attacks of opportunity but does count against the ísern-souled creature's allotted number of attacks of opportunity for the round. The attempt occurs after the attacker's action has been resolved, so it does not prevent the weapon from dealing damage to the ísern-souled creature.

Saves: Same as the base creature.

Abilities: Change from the base creature as follows: Strength +4, Dexterity -4, Constitution +4.

Skills: An ísern-souled creature gains a +10 racial bonus on Appraise checks involving items made of metal and a +10 racial bonus on Craft checks involving working with and shaping metal. The base creature must have a high enough Intelligence score to be able to use such skills. It also receives a -10 penalty on all Move Silently checks.

Feats: Same as the base creature.

Climate/Terrain: Same as the base creature and underground.

Organization: Same as the base creature.

Challenge Rating: Same as the base creature +2.

Treasure: Same as the base creature.

Alignment: Same as the base creature.

Advancement: Same as the base creature.

Level Adjustment: Same as base creature +3.

Home     Three Worlds     Monsters