Monster: Scorched Hag (Template)

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Scorched Green Hag
A half-burned, twisted crone. Her long, messy hairs are miraculously untouched by the fire that consumed her body.

CR 7; XP 1,200
CE Medium Undead (augmented monstrous humanoid)
Init +7; Senses darkvision 90 ft.; Perception +16

Defense
AC 23, touch 13, flat-footed 20 (+3 Dex, +10 natural)
hp 85 (9d8+45); fast healing 5
Fort +9, Ref +9, Will +8
Defensive Abilities ashes to ashes, channel resistance +4; DR 10/cold iron; Immune undead traits; Resist cold 20, fire 20

Offense
Speed 30 ft., swim 30 ft.
Melee 2 claws +15 (1d6+6 plus 1d6 fire plus weakness)
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 9th, concentration +13)
Constant—pass without trace, tongues
At will—alter self, dancing lights, gaseous form, ghost sound (DC 14), invisibility, pyrotechnics (DC 16), scorching ray (+12, 2 rays), whispering wind

Statistics
Str 23, Dex 16, Con —, Int 17, Wis 15, Cha 18
Base Atk +9; CMB +15; CMD 28
Feats Alertness, Blind-Fight, Combat Casting, Combat Reflexes^B, Deceitful, Great Fortitude, Improved Initiative^B, Iron Will^B, Toughness^B
Skills Bluff +15, Disguise +18, Knowledge (arcana) +15, Knowledge (religion) +15, Perception +16, Sense Motive +13, Stealth +15, Swim +20
Languages Aklo, Common, Giant
SQ mimicry

Ecology
Environment temperate marshes, graveyards
Organization solitary or coven
Treasure standard

Mimicry (Su) As a regular green hag.

Weakness (Su) As a regular green hag.


Scorched hags are undead forms of hags and witches that died to flames but where not completely incinerated and returned to stalk the living. 


Creating a Scorched Hag
Scorched hag is an acquired template that can be applied to a hag or a witch (referred to hereafter as the base creature). A scorched hag uses the base creature's stats and abilities except as noted here.

Challenge Rating: Same as base creature +2.

Alignment: Any evil. Death in fires burns vestiges of goodness from the victim.

Type: The creature's type changes to undead (augmented). Do not recalculate class Hit Dice, BAB, or saves.

Senses: Scorched hag gains darkvision 60 feet.

Armor Class: Natural armor improves by 2.

Hit Dice: Change all racial Hit Dice to d8. Class Hit Dice are unchanged. As undead, scorched hags use their Charisma to determine their hit point totals instead of Constitution.

Defensive Abilities: A scorched hag gains ashes to ashes, channel resistance +4, fast healing 5, resist cold and resist fire 20. A scorched hag also gains DR 5/cold iron or 10/cold iron if her HD is 5 or more.

Ashes To Ashes (Su) A scorched hag that is destroyed instantly incinerates into a pile of ashes, rolling her hit dice as a fire damage to anyone within 10 feet burst (a successful Reflex saving throw with DC of 10 + 1/2 Hit Dice + Charisma modifier halves the damage). Unless the ashes are mixed with holy water or scattered over a river or a sea, or the scorched hag was destroyed with an effect or weapon that destroys undead permanently, the scorched hag reforms after 2d6 days. Gathering the ashes and storing them in sealed urn in a consecrated or hallowed area, or burying them under the roots of a sapling prevents the hag from reforming as long as they are kept safe.

Melee: A scorched hag gains 2 claw attacks if the base creature didn't have them, or increase damage die of existing claw attacks by 1 step. Each natural attack inflict additional 1d6 points of fire damage.

Spells And Spell-Like Abilities: A scorched hag can replace some of her old spells and spell-like abilities with new ones selected from: burning hands (1st), delayed blast fireball (7th), fire seeds (6th), fire shield (4th), fire storm (8th), fire trap (4th), fireball (3rd), flame strike (5th), flaming sphere (2nd), gaseous form (3rd, self only, a cloud of ash), meteor storm (9th), pyrotechnics (2nd), scorching ray (2nd), summon monster II or higher (2nd, fire elementals only), wall of fire (4th). A replaced spell has to be of the same or higher level than the spell taken in its place, and if it is a spell-like ability, it gains the same number of uses per day as the ability replaced (though they may replace constant effects with at will ones). A coven that includes a scorched hag can use flame strike (DC 18 or more) as one of their combined spell-like abilities.

Ability Scores: Str +4, Dex +4, Int +2, Wis +2, Cha +4. As an undead creature, scorched hag has no Constitution score.

Feats: Scorched hags gain Combat Reflexes, Improved Initiative, Iron Will, an Toughness as bonus feats.


New Occult Ritual: Unburned Witch

School necromancy [fire]; Level 4
Casting Time 4 hours
Components V, S, M (fragrant herbs and incenses worth 5000 gp), F (a bonfire), SC (up to two other coven members)
Skill Checks Knowledge (arcana) DC 24, 1 success; Knowledge (nature) or Knowledge (religion) DC 24, 1 success; Perform (dance) or Perform (sing) DC 24, 1 success; Spellcraft DC 24, 1 success
Range personal
Target hag or a witch casting the ritual
Duration until discharged, maximum 1 year
Saving Throw none; SR no
Backlash all casters are exhausted
Failure the casters believes the ritual succeeded, and the primary caster feels suicidal attraction to fire for the next year. This is an insanity enchantment effect that can be removed with break enchantment or heal, though the caster is unaware of being insane
EFFECT
A hag or a witch can perform this ritual by dancing and singing while making offering of fragrant herbs and incenses to the fires themselves. If the caster successfully performs the ritual, she has placated the flames to grant her a boon of undeath, turning her into a scorched hag if she dies in fire afterwards (including suffocation while being burned on stake, but not merely being burned after death) as per ashes to ashes conditions.

Monster: Ghosts...

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Today, instead of presenting a completely new monster, I decided to write down some new abilities for ghosts.

Ghosts are special monsters—special in that they are explicitly intended to be unique. Each ghost encounter is, or at least should be a memorable event... If you want a stock incorporeal monster for a simple hack-and-slash combat you should probably use some other monster filling that niche: wraith, spectre, etc. Of course, this is not a an unbreakable rule... As a template that is often applied to regular NPCs, ghosts make an excellent addition to larger encounters without being the central focus of the encounter. I did that myself when the party ventured into the tomb of a dead king—an evil tyrant who made a pact with the god of the dead to become a vampire after death... Only to be sealed within the crypt by his successor during the state funeral. The king was entombed with his general, who arose as a graveknight, and court wizard who returned as a ghost, both bound to the king, acting as his entourage.

If the ghost is the main part of the story, though, it should be special and its abilities should reflect it. The Bestiary offers a number of different abilities to fit the ghost's history and manner of death so I would like add a few more (hopefully) interesting options.

Simple Template: Restless (CR +1)

Ghosts with the restless template are more forceful in their interactions with the surrounding world and have more special abilities than their base CR would suggest.

Quick Rules: add 2 to AC, CMD, saving throw DC of special abilities, and all Charisma-based ability and skill checks; gain 2 extra hit points per HD; add two extra special abilities.

Rebuild Rules: Special Attacks: select two additional ghostly abilities; Ability Scores: Increase Charisma by 4.

New Ghostly Special Abilities

Animator (Su): The ghost can possess an object, usually a statue or a suit of armor, and animate it as per possess object spell. The ghost's CR determines the biggest size of the object it can possess—CR 4 Small, CR 5 Medium, CR 7 Large, CR 9 Huge, CR 11 Gargantuan, and CR 13 Colossal. Animator is an ability fitting ghosts that were craftsman or guardians in life, they might had voluntarily stayed behind to defend a place. Alternatively, the ghost might be the former owner or user of the animated object, desiring to deny its use to others, such as deceased captain animating his ship to roam the seas.

Blademaster (Su): The ghost is bound to a physical weapon that held deep significance to its life or death, usually magical, though sometimes merely masterwork. The weapon hovers in the air near the ghost. As a swift action, the ghost can force the weapon to make a single melee attack against a creature within 30 feet, applying the ghost's Charisma modifier instead of Strength on attack and damage roll. Any of the weapon qualities apply to the attack normally. Obviously, this ability is suitable for ghosts who were blademasters in life, or had a special bond with a special weapon that survived their own demise.

Burning Dead (Su): The ghost gains immunity to fire and projects an aura of unbearable heat. The whole location haunted by the ghost (be it the manor, the part of castle where it appears, the graveyard) is treated as having very hot conditions or increase by one step if already very hot (which might make resting within its boundaries problematic). The ghost can start fires with its corrupting touch, and any creature within 30 feet of the ghost has to make a Fortitude saving throw at the start of its turn or suffer 1d4 points of nonlethal damage from the heat. Burning dead ghosts are usually vestiges of people who were arsonists, had been burned alive, or died in scorching desert heat.

Dream Haunting (Su): The ghost can possess an adjacent sleeping creature and haunt the dreams. It allows the ghost to appear in dreams of the target as if using create mindscape or instigate psychic duel spells (caster level 12th or the ghost's HD, whichever is higher). If the target is subject of dream, nightmare or similar dream-affecting ability, the ghost may instigate psychic duel with the creature contacting the target instead, or include creator of such effect in a mindscape shared with the ghost and the target. This ability is common among less directly violent ghosts. A successful saving throw against any of such effects renders the target immune to dream haunting from the same ghost until the subject wakes up and falls asleep again.

Frozen Dead (Su): The ghost gains immunity to cold and projects an aura of unbearable cold. The whole location haunted by the ghost is treated as having cold weather (even if it is indoors) or decreases by one step if already cold. The ghost can freeze non-magical liquids and leave traces of ice with its corrupting touch, and any creature within 30 feet of the ghost has to make a Fortitude saving throw at the start of its turn of suffer 1d4 points of nonlethal damage from the exposure. Frozen dead ghosts are usually vestiges of people who froze to death or left others to freeze.

Noxious Dead (Su): The ghost was poisoner or died of poison. Anyone eating or drinking anything within 30 feet of the ghost is exposed to the effects of poison spell. Malicious ghosts with noxious dead ability can often create lavish feasts and excellent wines out of solidified ectoplasm, often lying around the tables in otherwise abandoned ghost-haunted places. Such foods and drinks lack any nutritional and might be either exceptionally tasty or completely bland.

Pocket Purgatory (Su): Powerful ghosts can have a personalized demiplane linked to them, similar to permanent effects of greater create demiplane. Such pocket purgatory might be a bleak place shaped by the ghosts most painful memories, or a place of blissful oblivion, representing the happiest moments of their lives. A pocket purgatory entrance is placed in the place haunted by the ghost, and often requires certain conditions to be opened. A ghost with pocket purgatory can only be put to rest by discovering the entrance conditions and resolving the situation within the demiplane. Some ghosts can also have an ability to abduct selected living beings to their pocket purgatory, usually those who resemble their loved (or hated) ones, and those who are suitable to play certain roles within the narrative of the ghost's ever-repeating story.

Sap Life (Su): The ghost's corrupting touch reinforces grants temporary hit points equal to hit points lost by a living victim, as per vampiric touch spell. It makes the ghost appear more solid, more alive (and possibly younger) as it accumulates temporary hit points. This ability fits misers and people who thrived on manipulating and exploiting others when alive.

Soul Collector (Su): The ghost collects souls of those it kills. Living creature killed by a soul collector has its soul captured after 1 round, and can't be revived until the soul collecting ghost is permanently put to rest. This is a death effect. A soul collecting ghost can keep up to one bound soul per point of Charisma bonus (minimum 1) and might need to release some of the collected souls to capture new souls, more desirable for eternal companionship. The captured souls usually appear as a ghostly visages as a part of the soul collecting ghost, though some ghost might keep them anchored in surrounding items, such as spectral dolls in a doll-house, or crew of a bottled ship. If the creature soul is already bound to another entity (e.g. powerful devil), the entity might seek the soul collecting ghost to reclaim its property.