Templates


Templates are for NPCs only.

HIT DICE CONVERSION
All racial hit dice have been converted to one of four categories: caster (d6 HD), rogue (d8 HD with 6+ skill points per level), seer (d8 HD with spells and 4 or less skill points), warrior (d10 HD). The exception are aberrations and outsiders that all converted to Seers.

All templates are converted to racial hit dice. Triple the CR adjustment (if positive) and add that many racial hit dice to the creature including attribute boosts, feats, hit points, skill points, etc. as well as all the benefits of the template. The template benefits are effectively the class features gained from these levels.

Mythic creatures gain a number of hit dice equal to their mythic rank/tier INSTEAD of mythic hit points, treating their mythic abilities as their class features and their mythic attribute boosts and mythic feats as their normal attribute boosts and feats from level.


BOSS (+3 CR)
Boss monsters are meant to be able to solo a party of adventurers.
Defenses: Boss monsters have a +5 bonus to all attack rolls, defenses, and saving throws. They have advantage on all saving throws against death effects, sleep effects, and any effect or condition that would hinder their action economy in any way or instantly kill them.
Dual Initiative: Boss creatures have the Dual Initiative as per the Mythic ability, even if they are not mythic. If they already have this ability from another source, they gain
Healing: Boss monsters can spend 2 actions and 1 surge to gain the benefits of lesser restoration, 2 surges for restoration, or 3 surges for greater restoration, and +2 surges to do this without using actions.
Hit Points: Boss monsters have +5 additional hit points per hit dice and fast healing equal to their hit dice while they have at least 1 hit point but no more than half their maximum hit points. This stacks with fast healing and regeneration from other sources.
Surge: Boss monsters gain a temporary Surge per enemy player character in combat with it at the start of its turn every round.


MINION (-4 CR)
Instead of hit points, minions have a Damage Threshold (DT) equal to 1/2 their primary HD (d6=3, d8=4, d10=5, d12=6) + their Constitution modifier + 1/2 level. If they take damage equal to or greater than their DT (after damage reduction and resistances), they are staggered for 1 round. If they take twice this amount of damage or more or if take this amount of damage while already already dazed, nauseated, staggered, stunned, helpless, or unconscious, they are knocked out (if the attack was nonlethal) or killed (if the attack was lethal). Any effect that would restore 1 or more hit points or remove 1 or more nonlethal damage revives a minion back to consciousness, including a short rest. Minions with fast healing or regeneration increase their DT threshold by 2.


MYTHIC (+3 CR)
Rather than hassle with mythic ranks/tiers, monsters can simply have the mythic template added to them. They gain the following adjustments.

Attributes: +4 to all attribute scores that are already 3 or higher.
Hit Points: +2 hit points per hit dice.
Natural Armor: +2 natural armor.
Spell Resistance: Gain spell resistance 11 + CR (after applying this template) or +2 to existing SR, whichever is better.
Mythic Abilities: Gain 1 rank's worth of mythic abilities per hit dice. Monster is treated as having a mythic rank/tier equal to half its hit dice for the purposes of effects that take mythic into account. They can gain Mythic Feats in place of these as well. They also have the Hard to Kill, Recuperation, Mythic Saving Throws, Force of Will, Unstoppable, and Immortal based on their effective mythic rank/tier.
Surges: Mythic monsters (not players) gain a temporary Surge per enemy player character (not NPC) in combat at the start of its turn every round.


SKINWALKER (+1 CR)
Skinwalker is an acquired template that can be applied to any humanoid capable of casting a polymorph effect that affects themselves (not including items).

Morph Master (Su): Any size or enhancement bonuses provided to a skinwalker from a polymorph or morph effect are increased by 2 and the duration of all such effects are doubled, but only for the purposes of affecting the skinwalker.

Natural Spell: A skinwalker gains the Natural Spell feat as an innate feat and can apply its benefits to any of their forms regardless what class feature, spell, spell-like ability, or innate ability it's from.

Shapechanger (Su): A skinwalker gains the Shapechanger subtype, allowing them to return to their natural form as a single action that does not provoke an attack of opportunity, even while under the effects of a harmful polymorph effect.

Skincasting (Su): A skinwalker that casts any morph or polymorph effect that only affects themselves can do so in half the normal casting time (minimum 1 action) without provoking attacks of opportunity.


SWARM (+3 CR)
A swarm is 3 times larger than the base creature but gains no adjustment to their reach or speed as a result of size and still treated as their previous size before this template was added for all purposes other than the space they occupy, carrying capacity, combat maneuvers, and their swarm abilities (see below).

Swarm Aura: An enemy creature moving through or starting its turn inside a swarm's space or swarm's reach takes damage as if struck by one of the swarm's basic attacks (randomly selected). A successful Reflex saving throw DC10 + swarm's level + attribute associated with the basic attack (usually Strength) halves this damage. This is a selective unavoidable spread aura effect.

Swarm Distraction: A creature damaged by a swarm must make a Fortitude save of the same DC or lose concentration and take a -4 penalty to caster level checks, Concentration checks, and any attack rolls, checks, and DCs with spells or any other effect requiring concentration for 1 round.

Swarm Resilience: Swarms can share spaces with non-swarm creatures unhindered. Before damage reduction, resistances, or saving throws are applied, swarms take 1/2 damage from all effects that are not area attacks filling half or more of their space and are immune to conditions and afflictions created by such effects. They take +50% damage from area attacks that include their entire space.

Swarm Strike: All of a swarm's single-target attacks become selective unavoidable spread area attacks that target an area equal to the swarm's size. Because it is selective, they can choose not to hit allies. Any area attacks they already have function the same way but double their size.




WILD HUNT (+1 CR)
Unless noted otherwise in a creature's entry, all creatures that ride as a part of the wild hunt are chaotic neutral fey that have the following abilities:

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