General Rules: Monsters - Blade Guardian

Blade Guardian (from Complete Warrior)
Medium Construct

Hit Dice: 8d10+20 (64 hit points)
Initiative: +0
Speed: 20 feet
Armor Class: 20 (+10 natural); touch 10, flat-footed 20
BAB/Grapple: +6/+13 (see below)
Attack: Claw +13 melee (1d6+7, slashing, 20 x2) (see below)

Full Attack: 2 claws +13 melee (1d6+7, slashing, 20 x2) (see below)

Space/Reach: 5 feet by 5 feet/5 feet
Special Attacks: -

Special Qualities: Construct, damage reduction 5/-, darkvision 60 feet, fast healing 1, find master, guard, low-light vision, spell storing

Saves: Fortitude +2, Reflex +2, Will +2
Abilities: Str 24, Int -, Wis 10, Dex 10, Con -, Cha 1
Skills: -
Feats: -
Environment: Any
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 6
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always neutral
Advancement: 9 - 13 HD (Medium); 14 - 24 HD (Large)

When they are created, blade guardians are forever tied to their masters with a familiar's bond. Unlike the general assistance that most familiars provide, blade guardians exist only to fight on their master's behalf. Powerful members of the Collegium often have blade guardian familiars.

A blade guardian is capable of carrying out complex tasks that involve combat in some way. If it is not carrying out a specific command, it stays near its master, attacking anyone who attacks her.

A blade guardian is about 6 feet tall and weighs more than 400 pounds.

Note: Because it is always a familiar, a blade guardian has the same base attack bonus as its master.

Combat
Blade guardians are relentless combatants, striking at foes with their whirling blade-arms and rarely straying from their masters.

Find Master (Su): No matter the distance, as long as it is on the same plane, a blade guardian can find its master.

Guard (Ex): A blade guardian moves swiftly to defend its master by its side, blocking blows and disrupting foes. All attacks against the master take a -2 penalty if the blade guardian is adjacent.

Spell Storing (Sp): A blade guardian can store one spell of 3^rd level or lower that is cast into it by another creature. It uses this spell when commanded or when a predetermined situation arises. Once this spell is used, it can store another spell (or the same spell again).

Construct: Blade guardians are immune to all mind-affecting effects (charms, compulsions, phantasms, patterns, and morale effects), poison, sleep effects, paralysis, stunning, disease, death effects, and necromancy effects. Blade guardians cannot heal damage on their own, but often can be repaired through the use of the Craft Construct feat or arcane magic. A construct with the fast healing special quality still benefits from that quality. Blade guardians are not subject to critical hits, nonlethal damage, ability damage, ability drain, fatigue, exhaustion, or energy drain. They are immune to any effect that requires a Fortitude save (unless the effect also works on objects, or is harmless). Blade guardians are not at risk of death from massive damage but are immediately destroyed when reduced to 0 hit points or less. Since it was never alive, a blade guardian cannot be raised or resurrected. Blade guardians do not eat, sleep, or breathe.

Blade Guardians as Familiars
Blade guardians can serve as familiars for characters eligible to obtain familiars including arcane engineers, hexblades, mind weavers, shadowsworn, sorcerers, and wizards. To do so, the character must take the Improved Familiar feat, be at least a 11^th-level caster, and construct the blade guardian himself.

Blade guardians retain their own hit points if they are higher than one-half of their master's total. Their effective Hit Dice is their master's character level or the guardian familiar's Hit Dice, whichever is greater. They lack the improved evasion and empathic link abilities of most other familiars and do not confer the Skill Augmentation (Listen and Spot) feat on their master. They respond to the master's verbal commands and they understand any language the master knew when she created the blade guardian. Because they are mindless constructs, they do not get smarter when their master attains higher level. Blade guardians never speak.

If a blade guardian dies, its master does not have to wait a year and a day to replace it (as is the case with normal familiars). However, a character cannot start to build a new guardian familiar if he or she already possesses one.

A blade guardian is built from wood, silver, stone, and steel. The materials cost 4,000 shillings. The guardian's master may assemble the body or hire someone to do the job. Creating the body requires a DC 16 Profession: Engineering check. After the body is sculpted, the blade guardian is animated through an extended magical ritual that requires a specially prepared laboratory or workroom, similar to an alchemist's laboratory and costing 500 shillings to establish. If the creator is personally constructing the creature's body, the building and the ritual can be performed together.

A blade guardian with more than 8 Hit Dice can be created, but each additional Hit Die adds 3,000 shillings to the market price, and the price increases by 15,000 shillings if the creature's size increases to Large, modifying the cost to create accordingly.

Caster Level: 11^th; Prerequisites: Craft Construct, fabricate, locate creature, Maþ's transformation; Market Price: 30,000 shillings; Cost to Create: 18,000 shillings and 1,200 experience points.

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