General Rules: Monsters - Gauntlet Guardian

Gauntlet Guardian (from Complete Warrior)
Small Construct

Hit Dice: 4d10+10 (32 hit points)
Initiative: +0
Speed: 20 feet
Armor Class: 19 (+1 size, +1 Dexterity, +7 natural); touch 12, flat-footed 18
BAB/Grapple: +3/+4 (see below)
Attack: Slam +9 melee (1d6+5, bludgeoning, 20 x2) (see below)

Full Attack: 2 slams +9 melee (1d6+5, bludgeoning, 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, low-light vision, spell storing

Saves: Fortitude +1, Reflex +2, Will +1
Abilities: Str 20-, Int -, Wis 10, Dex 12, Con -, Cha 1
Skills: -
Feats: -
Environment: Any
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 4
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always neutral
Advancement: 5 - 8 HD (Small); 9 - 12 HD (Medium)

Gauntlet guardians are created by wizards and sorcerers to be implacable, frightening bodyguards. They perform that task very well: They punch anyone who gets in their master's way. It is common for members of the Collegium to have gauntlet guardian familiars.

Gauntlet guardians can handle detailed tactical plans, sentry duty, and similar tasks. Unless ordered not to, a gauntlet guardian focuses its attacks on anyone who attacked its master.

A gauntlet guardian is about 4 feet tall and weighs more than 200 pounds.

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

Combat
Gauntlet guardians aren't exactly subtle. They simply move adjacent to their foes and start pummeling with their immense fists.

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

Spell Storing (Sp): A gauntlet guardian can store one spell of 2^nd 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: Gauntlet 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. Gauntlet 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. Gauntlet 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). Gauntlet 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 gauntlet guardian cannot be raised or resurrected. Gauntlet guardians do not eat, sleep, or breathe.

Gauntlet Guardians as Familiars
Gauntlet 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 9^th-level caster, and construct the gauntlet guardian himself.

Gauntlet 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 gauntlet guardian. Because they are mindless constructs, they do not get smarter when their master attains higher level. Gauntlet guardians never speak.

If a gauntlet 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 gauntlet guardian is built from brass, stone, and steel. The materials cost 3,000 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 gauntlet 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 gauntlet guardian with more than 4 Hit Dice can be created, but each additional Hit Die adds 2,000 shillings to the market price, and the price increases by 10,000 shillings if the creature's size increases to Medium, modifying the cost to create accordingly.

Caster Level: 9^th; Prerequisites: Craft Construct, fabricate, locate creature, stone shape; Market Price: 20,000 shillings; Cost to Create: 11,500 shillings and 800 experience points.

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