Child of Llymic
Image by Wayne England, © Wizards of the Coast.
[Commissioned by @tar-baphon. It’s a template, and hoo boy is it a long one! It’s actually less complicated than the original, which added racial HD and stripped off the special attacks of the base creature. At that point, why make it a template?
As you’ll notice in the art, this template was originally called “brood spawn”. I’ve changed the name to embrace the “Father” theme of Father Llymic, the Elder Evil that these are associated with. I’ve got plenty of problems with Llymic, but my complaints will wait until that entry specifically.]
Child of Llymic CR +2 Template (acquired) This hulking creature appears roughly humanoid, with a stooped posture and a metallic blue exoskeleton. It has three solid black eyes overlooking a drooling, fanged maw. Instead of hands, its forelimbs end in oversized claws like those of a mantis.
The children of Llymic are monstrous mutants, warped by exposure to the alien entity known as Father Llymic. The hands of a child of Llymic are warped into large talons, rendering them incapable of wielding weapons or using anything but the most basic of tools. Although sapient children of Llymic do not lose any intelligence, and indeed become more in tune with their surroundings, they rapidly abandon material culture, although they may wear a few scraps of jewelry or clothing as reminders of their previous lives. They have no society or behavior except for pursuing their basic survival and tending to Father Llymic’s needs. Regardless of their original species, they cooperate with each other as park carnivores.
The children of Llymic despise the touch of sunlight. During the long polar summers, they hide in caves and burrows, hibernating until winter in a reversal of many other creatures. In the darker seasons, they are more active. The children of Llymic are stronger and tougher than they were as mere mortals, and gain access to a number of magical powers manipulating cold and darkness. Their freezing breath carries the chill of the void, and creatures that are exposed to it, even if they take no cold damage, begin to dwindle. If not saved through magic, these victims transform into children of Llymic themselves.
Creating a Child of Llymic “Child of Llymic” is an acquired template that can be applied to any living corporeal creature that is not immune to curses (hereafter referred to as the base creature). A child of Llymic retains all of the base creature’s statistics and special abilities, save as noted here.
CR: Same as the base creature +2 (minimum CR 3) Alignment: Chaotic evil Type: Change to outsider (native). Do not recalculate BAB, HD or saves Armor Class: Natural armor improves by +4 Special Qualities and Defenses: A child of Llymic gains the see in darkness universal monster quality as well as the following Damage Reduction: A child of Llymic has DR 5/magic. A child of Llymic with 10 or more HD has DR 10/magic. Immunities: A child of Llymic is immune to ability damage, ability drain, cold, mind-influencing effect, petrifaction and polymorph effects Resistances: A child of Llymic has electricity and fire resistance 10. A child of Llymic with 20 or more HD has electricity and fire resistance 20 Spell Resistance: A child of Llymic gains spell resistance equal to its adjusted CR +11. Weaknesses: A child of Llymic gains the following weaknesses Light Sickness (Ex) A child of Llymic is sickened in an area of normal or bright light. It takes damage as if it were undead from light based spells and abilities that deal damage, such as searing light or sunbeam Vulnerable to Sonic: A child of Llymic takes 150% damage from sonic based spells and effects. Speed: Increase the base creature’s land speed by 20 feet. A child of Llymic also has the following special ability Ice Walking (Ex) A child of Llymic ignores all difficult terrain and movement penalties from natural or magical snow and ice. Melee: A child of Llymic has no hands and loses the ability to use manufactured weapons. They gain two claw attacks and a bite attack. The bite attack deals damage as normal for a creature of the child of Llymic’s size. The claw attacks deal damage as if they were two sizes larger. A Gargantuan child of Llymic deals 3d8 points of damage with its claw attacks, and a Colossal child of Llymic deals 4d8 points of damage with its claw attacks. Special Attacks: A child of Llymic gains a breath weapon that deals 1d6 points of cold damage per 2 HD of the creature. Creatures that take damage from the breath weapon are also exposed to the curse of Llymic (see below). The save DC for the breath weapon is Constitution based. This breath weapon can be used three times per day, but the child of Llymic must wait 1d4 rounds between uses. The size of the breath weapon is as follows:
Size Cone Length Tiny or smaller 10 ft. Small 15 ft. Medium 20 ft. Large 30 ft. Huge 40 ft. Gargantuan 50 ft. Colossal 60 ft.
If the base creature has a better breath weapon, it retains that breath weapon instead, but deals the curse of Llymic to creatures that take damage from it. Curse of Llymic (Su) Breath weapon—contact; save Fortitude, Charisma based DC; onset 1 hour; frequency 1/day; effect 1 temporary negative level. Negative levels dealt by the curse of Llymic can only be removed through magic, and only if the creature is in natural sunlight. A creature that has as many temporary negative levels as HD from this ability is transformed into a child of Llymic over the course of one minute. Spell-like Abilities A child of Llymic with an Intelligence or Wisdom of 8 or higher gains access to the following spell-like abilities. CL = HD.
HD Abilities 1-2 snowball 3/day 3-4 darkness 3/day 5-6 sleet storm 7-8 dispel magic 3/day 9-10 deeper darkness 3/day 11-12 wall of ice 13-14 enervation 15-16 cone of cold 17-18 greater dispel magic 3/day 19-20 polar ray
Abilities: Change from base creature as follows: Str +6, Con +6, Wis +2, Cha +4 Skills: A child of Llymic gains skill ranks from its racial HD as a creature of the outsider type (6+Int modifier). Do not change class skills for racial HD. Feats: A child of Llymic gains Improved Critical (claw) and Power Attack as bonus feats.