One of my players is playing a LN cleric worshiping purity. She is looking for a cohort and I would like to give her a special cohort, especially an outsider. What creature would do? Most LN outsiders, such as formians, are simply too warlike for the role. So I am thinking of using an axiomatic version of some kind of other creature. Any ideas?
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Unicorn springs to mind.
Yes, but that is a chaotic creature, also associated with freedom. I was looking for something more lawful.
I made some Lawful outsider templates for my games, you can look at them if you are interested. You can pick a more standard creature, that strikes you as "pure", and put one of these templates on it.
AXIOMATIC CREATURE
Axiomatic creatures dwell on the upper planes, the realms of law, although they resemble beings found on the Material Plane. They may have a more rigid appearance than their earthly counterparts.
Axiomatic creatures tend to have earth tone colored skin and eyes. They can be mistaken for half-axiomatics, more powerful creatures that are created when an axiomatic mates with a non-axiomatic creature. All axiomatic creatures understand Syntaxis*, but only speak it if the base creature is capable of speech.
CREATING AN AXIOMATIC CREATURE
“Axiomatic” is an inherited template that can be added to any corporeal animal, aberration, animal, dragon, fey, giant, humanoid, magical beast, monstrous humanoid, plant, or vermin of good or neutral alignment (referred to hereafter as the base creature).
An axiomatic creature uses all the base creature’s statistics and abilities except as noted here. Do not recalculate the creature’s Hit Dice, base attack bonus, saves, or skill points if its type changes.
Size and Type: Animals or vermin with this template become magical beasts, but otherwise the creature type is unchanged. Size is unchanged. Axiomatic creatures encountered on the Material Plane have the extraplanar subtype.
Special Attacks: An axiomatic creature retains all the special attacks of the base creature and also gains the following attack.
Smite Chaos (Su): Once per day an axiomatic creature can make a normal melee attack to deal extra damage equal to its HD (maximum of +20) against a chaotic foe.
Special Qualities: An axiomatic creature retains all the special qualities of the base creature and also gains the following qualities.
—Darkvision out to 60 feet.
—Damage reduction (see the table).
—Resistance to electricity, fire, and sonic (see the table).
Hit Dice...Resistance to Electricity, Fire, Sonic...Damage Reduction
1–3 .....................5....................................... —
4–7 .....................5..................................... 5/magic
8–11 ...................10.................................... 5/magic
12 or more ..........10.................................... 10/magic
—Spell resistance equal to HD + 5 (maximum 25). If the base creature already has one or more of these special qualities, use the better value.
If an axiomatic creature gains damage reduction, its natural weapons are treated as magic weapons for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.
Abilities: Same as the base creature, but Intelligence is at least 3.
Environment: Any lawful-aligned plane.
Challenge Rating: HD 3 or less, as base creature; HD 4 to 7, as base creature +1; HD 8 or more, as base creature +2.
Alignment: Always lawful (any).
Level Adjustment: Same as the base creature +2.
HALF-AXIOMATIC
No matter its form, a half-axiomatic is always an intimidating creature to behold. Half-axiomatics are solidly built and rarely express emotions. While not hideous by any means that are not beautiful to behold.
All half-axiomatic creatures understand Syntaxis*, but only speak it if the base creature is capable of speech.
CREATING A HALF-AXIOMATIC
“Half-axiomatic” is an inherited template that can be added to any living, corporeal creature with an Intelligence score of 4 or more and non-chaotic alignment (referred to hereafter as the base creature).
A half-axiomatic uses all the base creature’s statistics and special abilities except as noted here.
Size and Type: The creature’s type changes to outsider. Do not recalculate Hit Dice, base attack bonus, or saves. Size is unchanged. Half-axomatics are normally native outsiders.
Speed: A half-axiomatic has metallic scaled wings. Unless the base creature has a better fly speed, the creature can fly at the base creature’s base land speed (average maneuverability).
Armor Class: Natural armor improves by +1 (this stacks with any natural armor bonus the base creature has).
Attack: A half-axiomatic has two slam attacks. If the base creature can use weapons, the half-axiomatic retains this ability. A half-axiomatic fighting without weapons uses a slam when making an attack action.
When it has a weapon, it usually uses the weapon instead.
Full Attack: A halfaxiomatic fighting without weapons uses its slam attacks when making a full attack. If armed with a weapon, it usually uses the weapon as its primary attack and if it has a free hand one of its slams as a natural secondary attack.
Damage: Half-axiomatics have slam attacks. If the base creature does not have this attack form, use the damage values in the table. Otherwise, use the values in the table or the base creature’s damage values, whichever are greater.
Size ..........Slam Damage
Fine ..........—
Diminutive .....1
Tiny ............1d2
Small ...........1d3
Medium ..........1d4
Large ...........1d6
Huge ............1d8
Gargantuan ....2d6
Colossal .........3d6
Special Attacks: A half-axiomatic retains all the special attacks of the base creature and gains the following special attack.
Smite Chaos (Su): Once per day the creature can make a normal melee attack to deal extra damage equal to its HD (maximum of +20) against a chaotic foe.
Spell-Like Abilities: A half-axiomatic with an Intelligence or Wisdom score of 8 or higher has spell-like abilities depending on its Hit Dice, as indicated on the table. The abilities are cumulative. Unless otherwise noted, an ability is usable once per day. Caster level equals the creature’s HD, and the save DC is Charisma-based.
HD Abilities
1–2 Protection from Chaos 3/day
3–4 Calm Emotions
5–6 Magic Circle Against Chaos
7–8 Order’s Wrath 3/day
9–10 Dispel Chaos
11–12 Command, Greater
13–14 Dictum 3/day
15–16 Demand
17–18 Summon Monster IX (Lawful only)
19–20 Imprisonment
Special Qualities: A half-axiomatic has all the special qualities of the base creature, plus the following special qualities.
—Darkvision out to 60 feet.
—Immunity to poison.
—Resistance to electricity 10, fire 10, and sonic 10.
—Damage reduction: 5/magic (if HD 11 or less) or 10/magic (if HD 12 or more).
—A half-axiomatic’s natural weapons are treated as magic weapons for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.
—Spell resistance equal to creature’s HD + 10 (maximum 35).
Abilities: Increase from the base creature as follows: Str +4, Dex +2, Con +4, Int +2, Wis +4.
Skills: A half-axiomatic gains skill points as an outsider and has skill points equal to (8 + Int modifier) x (HD). Do not include Hit Dice from class levels in this calculation—the half-axiomatic gains outsider skill points only for its racial Hit Dice, and gains the normal
amount of skill points for its class levels. Treat skills from the base creature’s list as class skills, and other skills as cross-class.
Challenge Rating: HD 4 or less, as base creature +1; HD 5 to 10, as base creature +2; HD 11 or more, as base creature +3.
Alignment: Always lawful (any).
Level Adjustment: +4.
*Syntaxis is a Lawful outsider language I created for my games, similar to Celestial, Infernal, and Abyssal.
You can download the book with these templates in it on Lulu.com for free.
The Parai could offer a rather twisted and hardcore slant on the LN "purity" theme...
They would have to be updated though.
I believe the Parai was updated to 3.5 in one of the later Monster Manuals (4?) and renamed "Visilight."
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I believe the Parai was updated to 3.5 in one of the later Monster Manuals (4?) and renamed "Visilight."The Parai could offer a rather twisted and hardcore slant on the LN "purity" theme...
They would have to be updated though.
Ah, that's right. There were some slight changes to their appearance and flavor, IIRC. (The Planescape version goes into much more detail about what they do and why)
The visilight version was all about absorbing the best features of others rather than adding their chosen targets to their race, right?
Ah, that's right. There were some slight changes to their appearance and flavor, IIRC. (The Planescape version goes into much more detail about what they do and why)
The visilight version was all about absorbing the best features of others rather than adding their chosen targets to their race, right?
Planescape went into more detail about everything. =)
It's been too long since I looked at it, so I don't recall specifics of the visilight version, except that I preferred the diTerlizzi illustration.
An advanced moigno might also be worth considering. From a lawful perspective there's nothing that better embodies purity than mathematics. I don't think moignos were ever converted though.
What level cohort can your player character attract? You could give her a lawful neutral cohort of that level or a lawful good cohort of either the same level or one level lower, depending on level, charisma, and other factors. The who purity thing seems to move the cohort in the good direction. Would a hound archon work?
Yes, but that is a chaotic creature, also associated with freedom. I was looking for something more lawful.
You can still apply the axiomatic template to represent unicorns dwelling on one of the lawful planes. Monster Manual pg. 305: "Always: The creature is born with the indicated alignment. The creature may have a hereditary predisposition to the alignment or come from a plane that predetermines it. It is possible for individuals to change alignment, but such individuals are either unique or rare exceptions." (emphasis mine) Creatures born and raised on an aligned plane tend to have an alignment that matches the plane's alignment.
Are they "typical" unicorns that live on the Prime Material? No. But they are thematic for a cleric of purity. Magic Circle against Evil (continuous), detect evil (at will), cure light wounds 3x/day, cure moderate wounds 1x/day, neutralize poison 1x/day, immune to poison, charm and compulsion.
Thanks for all the input everybody.
In the meantime I have solved the problem by using a LN githzerai monk who is striving for purity. I play her as a very stern and taciturn character. She also did not want to give her true name and purpose and the PCs are forbidden to ask, or otherwise she leaves the group (I actually borrowed this from the opera Lohengrin; it is meant as a sort of loyalty test, i.e. whether they are pure enough to keep their word).