Hey, I was wondering, in order to juice a few creatures up, does anyone know of a good template which increases a creature's speed? Doubling would be awesome, but really whatever there is would be great! And if there is, what book would I find it in?
Thanks everyone!
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You could just call it the 'fast' or 'quickling' template, and rather than build it all out, just strap the effects of the haste spell onto the templated creature (adding language that allows the creature to gain an additional attack during any full attack action, without the limiting 'weapon attack' text, so that it can benefit a creature using natural weapons).
The full effects of this sort of 'template,' would be +1 AC, +1 attack rolls, +30 ft. to all movement types (max of twice base movement rate) and +1 attack at full BAB (minus any relevant penalties) during a full attack.
For a full-blown template, instead of this quick-and-dirty approach, I'd probably go with some combination of the followind adjustments;
Movement: x2 move (up to twice base movement rate)
Fast Attacks: as haste, but applying to natural weapon attacks as well
Bonus Feats: Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Improved Initiative, Lunge, Mobility, Move-by Attack, Spring Attack, Step Up
Ability Scores: +4 Dex
The extra feats would cover most of the cooler combat advantages of being able to move and react at blinding speed, and, depending on the creature, could make it quite effective. You could base the bonus feats on HD, rather than just hand them all out immediately, but the vampire template already has precedent for handing them out like candy. :)
Actually that's a really good idea, I don't homebrew much, but that seems feasible, what would the CR adjustment on something like that be? How about Expeditious Retreat as a SLA (on top of some of the rest of this), what do you think that'd raise the CR adjustment to, and do you think that'd be too much?
I love what you've done there, but for my purposes, that may be too many feats...
And for clarity's sake, the creatures I intend to use this template on are:
Dire Wolves
Grizzly Bears
Weasels
Wolves
Wolverines
And maybe some Bestiary II animals...
The odd man out, probably a giant ant and/or giant bee...
The thing is, I want my players to have a "Oh, another stupid wolf pack, lets... Ahhhhh, Holy $#~-!" moment... They are getting jaded with normal exploration type animal scenarios... I THINK a FAST creature could seriously mess with their little munchkin brains a bit *maniacal evil chuckling*, but I honestly know they would both appreciate it, and have fun with it...
I may long term use a template on other animals, or a Devil's mount or something...
There is a Quickling template in Green Ronin's Advanced Bestiary which quadruples the creatures speed, grants a dodge bonus to AC, an extra haste attack, +8 Dexterity, and a rather ridiculous number of bonus feats related to being fast, all for the price of a +1 increase to CR. If you have access to the book, you could use that.
Or, you could use Set's version, which seems to be a little less powerful, especially since it doesn't mess with spellcasting mechanics like Quickling does (which would be useless stat-block filler on an animal incapable of casting spells anyway).
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I love what you've done there, but for my purposes, that may be too many feats...
And for clarity's sake, the creatures I intend to use this template on are:
Dire Wolves
Grizzly Bears
Weasels
Wolves
Wolverines
Yanno, in retrospect, I think I like the idea of just stealing some properties from the Quickling rather than coming up with the ideas myself. 'Cause I'm all lazy like that.
Snag Supernatural Speed and Slow Susceptibility from the Quickling Special Abilities block, and give the templated animal the Quickling bonus feats of Mobilty and Spring Attack, and replace the animal's first feats with Dodge and whatever else seems appropriate.
Otherwise, double the movement rate, add +4 Dex, and bump it up to Magical Beast, since these animals are tainted with First World energies (or arcane pollution, or *something*) that is giving them Quickling-like speed boosts.
Their unnatural lives might burn out particularly fast, causing them to have half, or even a quarter, of the normal lifespan for their species, make them hungry all the time (much more aggressive than normal wolves, mountain lions, etc.) and able to repopulate their numbers in a surprisingly short time (come back next season, they've already replaced any killed, due to rapid breeding and fast growth).
Another aspect of this accelerated metabolism might be that they are also vulnerable to the haste spell, taking nonlethal damage and being fatigued by its effects, and perhaps even 'burning out' and dying of accelerated aging / system stress, if they take enough nonlethal damage to drop unconscious.
Rather than go through the nuisance of upgrading a normal Wolf to Magical Beast, I'd just use the base Worg stats, and then add x2 move, +4 Dex, Supernatural Speed and Slow Susceptibility (from the Quickling writeup), and Mobility and Spring Attack as bonus feats (and swapping out Skill Focus - perception for Dodge). AC goes up by 2, from Dex, as does Reflex save and Initiative and relevant skills, AC gets another +1 from Dodge, and otherwise it's pretty much good to go from the Worg stats. The evasion and uncanny dodge that come with Supernatural Speed give it some extra defensive punch against area spells and sneak attack, and the Run feat it already had, combined with it's 80 ft. ground speed allows the Fast Worg to make a 160 ft. double move, or a 400 ft. Run action, so that the party might see (or hear) them a hundred yards away and begin pre-buffing, only to be shocked as they cross the distance in a single round, and begin using coordinated Spring Attacks to wear down their quarry.
I'd skip bears, because, IMO, the visual of a 'zoom bear' is kinda silly. Mountain lions, actual lions, wolves, dire wolves, extra large snakes, montrous centipedes and spiders, and giant praying mantises, on the other hand, oh hell yes.