General Rules: Monsters - Ice Beast (Template)

Ice Beast (from Frostburn)

An ice beast is a magical construct of ice and snow created by means of a conjure ice beast spell (or similar effect) in the image of a real creature. It is a mindless automaton that follows its creator's orders. An ice beast resembles whatever creature it is modeled after in general shape and size, but it is composed entirely of palr blue ice.

An ice beast does only what it is ordered to do. It can draw no conclusions of its own and takes no initiative. Its instructions must always be simple, such as "Attack that giant" or "Stay close and attack anyone who threatens me".

"Ice beast" is a template that can be added to any corporeal creature other than an undead or a creature with the fire subtype. The creature's type changes to "construct". It loses all previous subtypes, but gains the cold subtype. It does not gain the augmented subtype. It uses all the base creature's statistics and special abilities except as noted here.

Hit Dice: Drop any Hit Dice gained from class levels (to a minimum of 1) and change remaining Hit Dice to d10s. As a construct, the creature loses any Constitution bonus to hit points, but gains bonus hit points based on its size, as shown to the right:

Ice Beast Size	Bonus Hit Points	Natural Armor Bonus	Slam Damage
Diminutive or Fine	None	+1	1
Tiny	None	+1	1d2
Small	10	+2	1d4
Medium	20	+4	1d6
Large	30	+6	1d8
Huge	40	+8	2d6
Gargantuan	60	+11	3d6
Colossal	80	+15	4d6

Speed: The creature loses any fly speed it formerly possessed. If it had a burrow speed, it keeps its burrow speed but may only burrow in snow and ice.

Armor Class: The creature's natural armor bonus changes to a number based on its size, as shown on the table to the right.

Base Attack: An ice beast's base attack bonus is equal to ¾ it's Hit Dice

Attacks: An ice beast retains all the natural attacks, manufactured weapon attacks, and weapon proficiencies of the base creature. A humanoid with no natural attacks gains a slam attack, as shown on the table to the right.

Damage: Natural and manufactured weapons deal damage normally. A slam attack deals damage based on the ice beast's size. If the base creature already had a slam attack, use the ice beast's slam attack only if it is better.

Special Attacks: An ice beast loses all special attacks of the base creature. It gains one (and only one) of the following special attacks, chosen by its maker at the time of its creation:

• Cold Aura (Su): The ice beast deals 1d6 cold damage to all creatures within 10 feet as a free action at the beginning of its turn each round.
• Engulf (Su): As a standard action, the ice beast can attempt to engulf a single opponent it threatens. The opponent must be one size smaller than the ice beast, so a Large ice beast can engulf a Medium or smaller creature. The target is entitled to a Reflex save (DC 10 + ½ the ice beast's Hit Dice + the ice beast's Strength modifier) to avoid being engulfed. A creature engulfed by the ice beast is considered to be pinned and trapped inside its body. The engulfed creature takes 2d6 points of cold damage per round on its turn, and may begin to drown (although it can hold its breath). An ice beast can only engulf one victim at a time. To escape, the victim must escape the pine and then escape the grapple by winning grapple checks against the ice beast. The victim can choose to make Escape Artist checks in place of grapple checks. If the ice beast is killed, any engulfed victims are freed.
• Frigid Touch (Su): The ice beast deals an extra 1d6 points of cold damage with each successful melee attack.
• Ice Breath (Su): As a standard action, the ice beast can breathe cold. Its breath weapon deals 1d6 points of cold damage per 2 Hit Dice it possesses (minimum 1d6, maximum 10d6) in a 30-foot cone with a Reflex save for half damage (DC 10 + ½ the ice beast's Hit Dice). Once an ice beast uses its ice breath, it must wait 1d4 rounds before it can use its breath weapon again.

Special Qualities: An ice beast loses all special qualities of the base creature. It gains the following special qualities:

Hit Dice	Damage Reduction
1 - 4	None
5 - 9	5/+1
10 - 19	10/+1
20+	15/+1

• Cold Subtype (Ex): An ice beast has immunity to cold. It has vulnerability to fire, which means it takes half again as much damage as normal from fire, regardless of whether a saving throw is allowed, or if the save is a success or a failure.
• Construct: Immune to mind-influencing effects, poison, disease, death effects, paralysis, stunning, sleep, and similar effects. Not subject to critical hits, nonlethal damage, ability damage, energy drain, or death from massive damage. Destroyed when reduced to 0 hit points, cannot be raised. Cannot be healed with healing magic unless it specifically says it works on constructs, and does not heal on its own.
• The ice beast gains damage reduction based on its Hit Dice, as shown on the table to the right.

If the base creature already has one or more of these special qualities, use the better value. If an ice beast gains damage reduction, its natural weapons are treated as +1 weapons for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.

Saves: Base save bonuses are Fortitude +⅓ Hit Dice, Reflex +⅓ Hit Dice, and Will +⅓ Hit Dice.
Abilities: An ice beast has no Constitution or Intelligence score. Its Wisdom changes to 10, and its Charisma changes to 1.
Skills: An ice beast has no skills.
Feats: An ice beast loses all feats except those that improve its attacks, such as Improved Natural Attack, Multiattack, or Weapon Finesse.
Climate/Terrain: Any, usually the same as the base creature.
Organization: Any.
Challenge Rating: An ice beast's Challenge Rating is 1 plus ½ its Hit Dice.

Treasure: None.
Alignment: Always neutral.
Advancement: Same as the base creature ( or "-" if the creature advances by character class).
Level Adjustment: -.

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