Guardian Monster
Dungeon builders are frustrated by intruders who focus on avoiding (rather than confronting) monsters that defend vaults or treasure. Many have responded by breeding animals and monsters that have unusual sensory perception, designed to detect interlopers and respond with deadly force. Domesticated guardian monsters might serve as living alarm systems for other sentries, while monsters that cannot truly be domesticated - such as the sample guardian gorgon below - are usually left to themselves somewhere in the dungeon.
Creating a Guardian Monster
"Guardian" is an inherited template that can be added to any living corporeal aberration, animal, magical beast, or vermin with an Intelligence of 3 or lower (referred to hereafter as the base creature). A guardian monster uses all the base creature's statistics and special abilities except as noted here.
Size and Type: If the base creature is an animal, its type changes to magical beast (augmented animal).
Special Qualities: A guardian monster retains the special qualities of the base creature, and also gains the following qualities.
- - Blindsense out to 60 feet.
- - Darkvision out to 120 feet.
- - Low-light vision.
- - Illuminated Eyes (Ex): A guardian monster's eyes glow strongly. While open, they illuminate a 60-foot-radius area around the monster.
- - Guardian monsters do not need to sleep. They have immunity to magical sleep effects.
- - Guardian monsters have a +2 racial bonus on saves against mind-affecting spells or abilities.
Abilities: Change from the base creature as follows: Wis +4, Cha -2.
Skills: A guardian monster has a +6 racial bonus on Listen checks and Spot checks. If the base creature already has a racial bonus on either check, the bonuses stack.
Feats: A guardian monster gains Blind-fight as a bonus feat. If the base creature already has that feat, the guardian monster instead gains any other feat for which it qualifies.
Challenge Rating: As the base creature + 1.
Sample Guardian Monster: Guardian Gorgon.