General Rules: Monsters - Salvage Rat

Salvage Rat (from Dragon Magazine #341)
Tiny Construct

Hit Dice: 1d10 (5 hit points)
Initiative: +2
Speed: 15 feet, burrow 5 feet (through metal only), climb 15 feet
Armor Class: 17 (+2 size, +2 Dexterity, +3 natural); touch 14, flat-footed 15
BAB/Grapple: +0/-10

Attack: Bite +4 melee (1d4-2 plus rust, Bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing, 20 x2)

Full Attack: Bite +4 melee (1d4-2 plus rust, Bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing, 20 x2)

Space/Reach: 2½ feet by 2½ feet/0 feet
Special Attacks: Rust

Special Qualities: Construct traits, low-light vision

Saves: Fortitude +0, Reflex +2, Will +1
Abilities: Str 6, Int 2, Wis 12, Dex 15, Con -, Cha 2

Skills: Balance +10, Climb +10, Hide +8, Move Silently +8

Feats: Weapon Finesse
Environment: Any

Organization: Solitary

Challenge Rating: 1
Treasure: -
Alignment: Any
Advancement: -
Level Adjustment: -

Salvage rats resemble large rats made from chunks of rusted metal. Gaps in the metal plates allow crimson light and black smoke to spill out.

Cowardly creatures, salvage rats attempt to run from any danger they encounter. Te rat possesses a terrible bite that rusts metal and as a result it tends to gnaw on any metal it can find unless expressly forbidden to by its master. The construct proves quite loyal to its creator, even overcoming its instinctual fear of combat to come to his aid.

Construct familiars are common among mages of the Collegium.

Combat
In combat, salvage rats dart from foe to foe, hiding in the shadows and biting whenever possible while avoiding drawn out melee confrontations.

Rust (Ex): A salvage rat that makes a successful bite attack causes the target's metal armor to corrode and lose some of its protective value. Each bite reduces the armor bonus granted by -1 until the armor grants no bonus and it destroyed. Magic armor receives a DC 10 Reflex save to avoid this effect. The save DC is Constitution-based. The bite does not affect shields, weapons, or other pieces of metal equipment.

Skills: Salvage rats have a +4 racial bonus on Hide and Move Silently checks and a +8 racial bonus on Balance and Climb checks. A salvage rat can always choose to take 10 on a Climb check, even if rushed or threatened. A salvage rat uses its Dexterity modifier instead of its Strength modifier for Climb checks.

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.

Salvage Rats as Familiars
Salvage rats 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 5^th-level caster, and must meet the prerequisites required to construct the familiar, including the creation cost, experience point cost, and time spent.

The creation of a salvage rat is a messy process requiring sifting through a great deal of scrap metal and other junk looking for just the right pieces. other small components for its form are simple to find, costing 500 shillings. The creation process requires either a DC 15 Craft: Armorsmithing check or DC 15 Craft: Blacksmithing check. After creating the body, the spellcaster continues by summoning a familiar in the normal manner. Upon completion of the summoning ritual a spark of the creator's consciousness inhabits and animates the prepared body. This personality mimics the animal form that it inhabits, but retains some of the creator's habits and traits.

Should a construct familiar become damaged, its master may repair it. This may be accomplished through spells like repair light damage, or through more mundane means. Physically repairing a construct familiar takes one hour and costs 10 shillings in supplies per hit point repaired.

Caster Level: 5^th; Prerequisites: Craft Construct, acid splash, shatter, caster must be at least 5^th level; Market Price: 6,500 shillings; Cost to Create: 3,500 shillings + 240 experience points.

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