Drachenchor Creature

A drachenchor creature slays dragons, claiming their heads in a foul, soul-stealing ritual, and set facsimiles spinning about its own head, like so many ioun stones. It believes all creatures should be singing its praises—or screaming in fear, it doesn’t matter. This self-obsessed creature typically broods in its lair and plots the conquest and destruction of neighboring lands, while the dragon heads serenade it. When confronted, the choir augments its abilities, protects it, and directly combats its foes.

Creating a Drachenchor Creature

“Drachenchor” is an acquired template that can be added to a corporeal creature, provided it can behead 6 of the same type of true dragon, 1 of which must be at least old. A drachenchor creature uses all the base creature’s statistics and abilities except as noted here.

CR: +3

Type: The creature gains the dragon’s subtype.

Armor Class: A drachenchor creature gains a insight bonus equal to the number of dragon heads currently circling the creature.

Defenses/Qualities: While any of the creature’s choir remains, it gains uncanny dodge and immunity to blindness, paralysis, sleep, and energy of the same type as its breath weapon.

Melee: A drachenchor gains a bite attack delivered by one of the circling heads, using the creature’s base attack bonus plus its Charisma modifier, that deals 1d4 points of damage plus its Charisma modifier, it can use its other attack without penalty.

Special Abilities: The creature gains the following special ability.

Dragon Choir: Miniature dragon heads float above the creature’s own head, staying in its space. At the beginning of an encounter, the drachenchor is encircled by singing, chanting, or droning replicas of the creature’s beheaded trophies. Each head has hit points equal to twice the creature’s hit dice. Each has an Armor Class equal to 11, with a natural armor bonus equal to the creature’s hit dice, and any deflection bonuses the base creature has. The creature gains the following benefits while at least one head survives.

  • +1 to all saving throws for each head.
  • If the creature casts spells, it gains +1 to caster level for every 2 heads (minimum +1).
  • The creature can employ a breath weapon, usable once every 1d4 rounds, which deals +1d6 damage per HD (Reflex half; DC 10 + 1/2 base creature’s HD + its Constitution modifier). The breath weapon type varies by dragon type: Black/Copper — 40-foot line of acid, Brass — 40-foot line of fire, Blue/Bronze — 40-line of electricity, Gold/Red — 20-foot cone of fire, Green — 20-foot cone of acid, Silver/White — 20-foot cone of cold. If only one head remains, the creature cannot use the additional bite attack and the breath weapon. The original dragon heads leave the creature vulnerable to anyone who finds them and destroys them (treat each as an object with hardness 5, 20 hit points, and a break DC of 22). If enough originals are destroyed to reduce the total below 6, the creature loses all benefits of the template. Destroying the entire collection forces the creature to succeed at a saving throw or be immediately reduced to -1 hit point. For this reason, many drachenchor collect more members for their choirs than the minimum required by the ritual. Additionally, the creature loses the drachenchor template if it ever gets separated across a planar boundary from the original heads. For this reason, few of these creatures traverse the planes.

Abilities: Increase from the base creature as follows: Wis +4 (+2 to Will saves, +2 to Heal, Perception, Profession, Sense Motive and Survival checks, add +2 to any of the base creature’s Wisdom-based DCs), Cha +4 (+2 to Bluff, diplomacy, Disguise, Handle Animal, Intimidate, Perform, and Use Magic Device; attempts to influence others; Channel Energy DCs; and any of the drachenchor creature’s Charisma-based DCs).

Feats: Gain Combat Reflexes (limited to the number of heads in the halo) as an additional feat.

Skills: Drachenchor gain +8 on Perform checks, as the choir harmonizes with the creature.

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