Monster Prestige Class : Slaad Brooder

Slaadi are chaos personified - no two are exactly identical. Only a few of the baser sorts live long enough to advance to the rank of gray slaad or death sladd, but the slaad brooder is another path of development. The brooder's sole purpose is to implant as many egg pellets as he can to produce the widest possible range of progeny.

Only red slaadi can naturally implant egg pellets, but they are the most common and the most widespread of their ilk. Those not gifted with the ability may acquire it by taking this prestige class. A superior brooder can aspire to a rank of great respect in slaad society, second only to gray slaadi in power. The path, though, is one whose end few survive to attain.

Slaadi don't get along well with one another, let alone with non-slaadi. Slaad brooders are always loners, roving through Limbo and traveling to other planes to establish rookeries.

Requirements

To qualify to become a Slaad Brooder, a character must fulfill all the following criteria:

Class Skills

The slaad brooder's class skills are Climb, Concentration, Hide, Jump, Listen, Move Silently, Search, and Spot.

Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier.

Class Features

All of the following are Class Features of the slaad brooder prestige class.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A slaad brooder neither gains nor loses proficiency with any weapons, armor, or shields by gaining levels in this class.

Implant (Ex): A slaad brooder gains the ability to implant pellets with any of his natural attacks. If he previously had a similar ability (red slaad's implant ability or blue slaad's disease ability), he can now use that ability with any of his natural attacks. The affected creature must succeed on a Fortitude save (DC 10 + slaad brooder's character level + slaad brooder's Con modifier) to avoid implantation. The egg gestates for one week before hatching into a slaad that eats his way out, killing the host. Twenty-four hours before the egg fully matures, the host falls extremely ill (-10 to all ability scores). A remove disease spell rids a host of the pellet, as does successful Heal check (DC 20). If the check fails, the healer can try again, but each attempt (successful or not) deals 1d4 points of damage to the patient. If the brooder is a blue slaad, the pellet hatches into a red slaad. If the brooder is a red slaad, the pellet hatches into a blue slaad. If the host is an arcane spellcaster, the egg pellet instead hatches into a green slaad.

Improved Grab (Ex): If a slaad brooder hits with one or more claw or rake attacks, it deals normal damage and attempts to start a grapple as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity. The ability works only against opponents of the same size or smaller. The slaad brooder has he option to conduct the grapple normally, or simply use its natural weapons to hold the opponent. Each successful grapple check it makes during successive rounds automatically deals bite damage.

Imbue Pellet (Su): At 2nd level, a slaad brooder imbues a single egg pellet with an additional feature randomly determined from the options described below (roll d4 and apply the appropriate feature). This feature affects the host as indicated. Where a save is permitted, the DC is equal to 10 + slaad brooder's character level + slaad brooder's Con modifier. Roll separately for each implant attack.

  1. Burn: The pellet deals 1d6 points of heat damage to the host on the round of implantation. A successful Fortitude save halves the damage. The pellet deals an additional 1d6 points of heat damage on the next round unless the host makes a successful Fortitude save.
  2. Caustic: As the burn feature, except that the damage is acid damage.
  3. Chill: As the burn feature, except that the damage is cold damage.
  4. Shock: As the burn feature, except that the damage is electricity damage.

Deep Implant (Ex): At 3rd level, a slaad brooder can implant his pellet more deeply within the host's body, adding +2 to the DC of the Fortitude save to resist implantation. In addition, repeated Heal checks after the first to remove the pellet deal 1d6 points of damage to the patient instead of the usual 1d4 points, as the healer must cut more deeply into the host's body

Rapid Hatching (Ex): On reaching 4th level, a slaad brooder gains the ability to transfer some of his own vitality into the egg pellet, allowing it to mature more quickly. The egg hatches in 24 hours instead of 1 week. Six hours before it hatches, the host comes down with the severe illness, losing 10 points from each ability score.

Chaos Focus (Su): At 5th level, a slaad brooder's imbue pellet ability becomes more potent: The DC to halve or negate the damage from the additional feature of the pellet (burn, caustic, chill, or shock) increases by +2.

Multiple Implant (Ex): At 6th level, a slaad brooder can implant more than one pellet within the host's body. Each of his natural attacks that hits can implant an egg pellet.

Color Choice (Ex): At 7th level, a slaad brooder can choose the color of his spawn. He can produce a green slaad even if the host creature is not an arcane spellcaster. He can determine the color of each pellet's spawn if he has implanted more than one in the same host.

Heighten Chaos (Su): At 8th level, the DC to halve or negate the damage from the additional feature of an egg pellet increases by +2. This bonus stacks with the bonus provided by the chaos focus ability.

Corporeal Instability (Su): On reaching 9th level, a slaad brooder can effect a terrible transformation on the host creature. Unless she makes a successful Fortitude save (DC 10 + slaad brooder's level + Slaad brooder's Con modifier), the host's shape melts into a formless mass. She cannot hold or use any item, nor can she wear clothing or armor. Her speed drops to 10 feet or one-quarter normal, whichever is lower. She can no longer cast spells or use magic items, and she cannot distinguish between friend and foe, attacking blindly (-4 penalty on attack rolls, 50% miss chance).

For each round the host spends in an amorphous state, she takes 1 point of permanent Wisdom drain from mental shock. If the creature's Wisdom score falls to 0, she becomes catatonic and unresponsive. A creature can regain her own shape for 1 minute with a successful Charisma check (DC is). On a failure, the creature can still repeat the check each round until successful.

A shapechange or stoneskin spell fixes the affected creature's form for the duration of the spell, although it does not cure the affliction. The corporeal instability can be removed with a restoration, greater restoration, or heal spell; a separate restoration spell is required to restore Wisdom drain.

Death Spawn (Ex): At 9th level, a slaad brooder's extraordinary vitality gives his egg pellets the ability to hatch even from a host that has died (the death of a host becomes an increasingly likely event as a brooder becomes more powerful). Neither remove disease spells nor Heal checks can destroy the pellets growing in a dead host, but destruction of the body by fire, acid, disintegrate spells, and the like will do so.

Dominate Spawn (Sp): On reaching 10th level, the slaad brooder becomes the undisputed master of spawn. If he is present at the hatching of a red, blue, or green slaad, he can take control of the newborn as with a dominate monster spell. The effect lasts one day per slaad brooder's character level. The hatchling can resist the effect with a successful Will save (DC 10 + slaad brooder's level + slaad brooder's Con modifier). A slaad brooder that has reached this level of power is a threat to the dominance of death slaadi, who are his implacable enemies.

Slaad BrooderHit Dice: d8
CLBABFortRefWillSpecial
1st+1+2+0+2Implant, improved grab
2nd+2+3+0+3Imbue pellet
3rd+3+3+1+3Deep implant
4th+4+4+1+4Rapid hatching
5th+5+4+1+4Chaos focus
6th+6+5+2+5Multiple implant
7th+7+5+2+5Color choice
8th+8+6+2+6Heighten chaos
9th+9+6+3+6Corporeal instability, death spawn
10th+10+7+3+7Dominate spawn

Source: Savage Species

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Monster Prestige Classes