One of the things I really liked about 3E in terms of monsters were the new templates. With those, you could modify an existing monster into something a little different than what the players were expecting, and have some new fun with old monsters.
I have been considering the addition of a simple template to the Hammersong's Legacy Campaign Setting, inspired in some ways by the simple templates provided in the Pathfinder SRD. This template would be watered down from the usual 3E approach, of course, since it would be for Swords & Wizardry, but I'm not sure how it would be received. After all, if simple templates were well-received by the Old School crew, then someone would have created a bunch of them and published them already. Still, I guess I could post my thoughts here and see what kind of feedback I get from my readers.
With that in mind, here's my suggestion:
Template: Divinely Warped Creatures
Divinely warped creatures have absorbed some of the chaotic divine power released when a god dies . Although commonly encountered near sites of a deity's passing, they can be found anywhere where such energies have been released. A divinely warped creature appears much as a normal creature of its type appears, with an additional feature of obvious supernatural origin, such as an aura of light, glowing eyes, or some similar feature. Divinely warped creatures effectively cease to age, as the divine energy coursing within them grants them an extremely extended lifespan.
You can add the “divinely warped” template to any living creature. A divinely warped creature has of the base creature's statistics and special abilities except for the following:
- Bonus Hit Dice: A divinely warped creature gains two bonus hit dice.
- Elemental Resistance: A divinely warped creature takes half damage from elemental energies, such as acid, cold, fire and electricity.
- Hit Only By Magical Weapons: An attacker requires a magical weapon of a particular bonus in order to deal damage to a divinely warped creature. The minimum bonus of the magical weapon is based on the base creature's original Hit Dice.
- Magic Resistance: A divinely warped creature has innate magic resistance, as determined by the base creature's original Hit Dice.
Base HD Bonus Required Magic Resistance 1-9 +1 20% 8-14 +2 30% 15+ +3 40%
Okay, here are my questions:
1. What is your overall opinion of the idea?
2. In this example, how do you feel about the special abilities themselves?
3. Should I include this in the sourcebook? And if so, should I include other templates in the sourcebook beyond the divinely warped template?
Thanks In Advance For Your Time,
Flynn
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2 comments:
I think this is a sound idea. It seems simple enough to implement. Would I like to see more of these included? Probably not. Codifying too many monster "mods" could lead a Referee to believe that the templates are an exhaustive list of all possibilties, rather than a small set of suggestions.
Could you include maybe 2 or 3 templates as [i]examples[/i] of how to modifiy other monsters?
I suppose it depends how prescriptive you want your setting book to be, but my impression is you are aiming more for the "here are the bare bones, make of it what you will" angle.
Thanks for the input. I am definitely looking for something that is more "bare bones sandboxy", if you will, rather than restrict creativity too much.
With Regards,
Flynn
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