Defacer
HD:d12| Level | BAB | Fort | Ref | Will | Feature |
| 1 | +0 | +0 | +0 | +2 | Defacer Body, Steal Face, Dread Disguise, Frightful Keening, +1 Str |
| 2 | +1 | +0 | +0 | +3 | Defiled Skin, Tremorsense +1 Str |
| 3 | +1 | +1 | +1 | +3 | Stunning Possession, +1 Str |
| 4 | +2 | +1 | +1 | +4 | The Masquerade, +1 Str |
| 5 | +2 | +1 | +1 | +4 | Face Possession, +1 Str |
| 6 | +3 | +2 | +2 | +5 | Earth Glide, Cruel Deceiver, +1 Str |
2 Skill points+Int mod per level, quadruple at 1st level. Class skills: none.
Proficiencies:its own natural weapons only.
Features:
Defacer Body: The Defacer loses all other racial bonuses, and gains the following Undead traits.
* No Constitution score.
* Darkvision out to 60 feet.
* Immunity to all mind-affecting effects (charms, compulsions, phantasms, patterns, and morale effects).
* Immunity to poison, sleep effects, paralysis, stunning, disease, and death effects.
* Not subject to critical hits, nonlethal damage, ability drain, or energy drain. Immune to damage to its physical ability scores (Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution), as well as to fatigue and exhaustion effects.
* Heals naturaly.
* Immunity to any effect that requires a Fortitude save (unless the effect also works on objects or is harmless).
* Uses its Charisma modifier for Concentration checks.
* Not at risk of death from massive damage, but when reduced to 0 hit points or less, it is immediately destroyed.
* Not affected by raise dead and reincarnate spells or abilities. Resurrection and true resurrection can affect undead creatures. These spells turn undead creatures back into the living creatures they were before becoming undead.
* Undead do not breathe, eat, or sleep.
It is a medium sized undead with two slam natural attacks dealing 1d8+ Str mod each and base speed of 30 feet, plus a burrow speed of 15 feet. It is unable to speak or peform fine manipulation of any kind, altough it can perform basic body communication with its flexible body.
In addition, it gains a bonus to natural armor equal to its Str mod.
Steal Face:If a Defacer's slam attack kills a creature with an Intelligence of 3 or higher, or if the Defacer touches the body of such a creature whitin 1 day of its death, the Defacer steals its face as an immediate action. This physically erases the facial features of the body, including bone structure, mouth, and teeth, leaving a smooth and blank surface. Attempts to cast speak with dead or any kind of divination on victims of this attack always fail.
This defilement of the corpse also draws the soul of the creature to the defacer, and it becomes one of the keening faces that whirl about the defacer's head. This prevents the soul from reaching the afterlife, becoming undead, or being raised or ressurected. Nothing short of destroying the Defacer restores a corpse's face and frees the soul.
As a free action, the Defacer can make its blank visage take the shape of a face it has stolen. There's no limit to how many faces a Defacer can hold, and they're always hungry for more!
If a defacer stole a creature's face by killing it and is destroyed whitin 24 hours of that act, its victim returns to life (stable at 0 hit points) if its body is largely while. Its face is restored. This return to life does not result in level loss or ability drain.
Dread Disguise: If the Defacer attempts to disguise as someone whose face it has stolen, it gains a racial bonus on the disguise check equal to its Defacer level+Str mod, provided it has heavy clothing to cover the rest of its body.
Frightful Keening: As a fullround action the Defacer can make the faces it has stolen whirl about its head, wailing and screaming. The noise produced can be heard trough earth and stone as easily as it can trough air. Any creature that can hear the sound and that is whitin 10 feet per face stolen (up to 10 feet per HD) of a Defacer is automatically shaken. This is a sonic, mind-affecting fear effect. Ending is another fullround action. The Defacer can affect a smaller area than maximum when he starts the keening, but can't change its size untill he ends it and starts anew.
In addition, the Defacer gets a racial bonus to Spot and Listen checks equal to the number of stolen faces (up to its HD) while it is using Keening as the floating heads are literally extra eyes and hears.
At 10 HD, even those that would be immune to the Defacer's Frightful Keening can become shaken, but they're allowed a Will save with DC 10+1/2 HD+ Cha mod to resist it.
Ability Score Increase:The defacer gains +1 Str at every level, for a total of +6 Str at 6th level.
Defiled Skin: At 2nd level the Defacer gains DR/silver equal to half the number of stolen faces (up to its HD).
Tremorsense: At 2nd level the Defacer gains tremorsense with a range of 10 feet per HD number of stolen faces (up to its HD)
Stunning Possession: Creatures struck by a Defacer's slam attack must succeed on a DC 10+1/2 HD+Str mod or be stunned for 1 round. While Stunned, the creature's face takes on the shape of one of the defacer's victim (Defacer's choice) and screams for help and release using the languages that soul knew in life for 1 round, after which it returns to the defacer.
At 8 HD this can affect even creatures immune to it, but they gain a +5 bonus on their saves.
The Masquerade: Defacers are created from doppelgangers or other beings that can mimic others, but they lost that ability on undeath, instead developing the power to steal faces. That doesn't mean they stop trying to impersonate others however. At 4th level if the Defacer wears clothes and a hood so only its face is revealed, it gains a racial bonus on disguise checks to impersonate those whose face it stole equal to 10+HD, and a racial bonus to Bluff checks equal to its HD. Using Frightful Keening removes those bonus as no diguise can hold itself up to a bunch of screaming floating flaces, but in return the Defacer now gains a racial bonus on Intimidate checkes equal to its HD while using Frightful Keening.
Haunting Despair: At 4th level as a fullround action, useable only if its already using Frightful Keening, the Defacer can “throw” the faces around it to any point whitin 50 feet per HD (demands line of sight and effect). The faces concentrate their screams around the target point, as if the Defacer itself was there. Flying creatures caught by this effect are forced to drop 1d10*5 feet per HD as the faces fly above them and push them downwards.
Face Possession: At 5th level, as a swift action, the Defacer can concentrate his possessing power. Its next sucessful Slam attack whitin 1 round, on top of Stunning Possession, forces the creature to make a Will save with DC 10+1/2HD+Str mod or have its face replaced by a stolen screaming face anyway for 2d6 rounds! This renders the creature blind, deafened and unable to taste or scent for the duration, plus a penalty on Concentration and Cha-based skills equal to the Defacer's HD for the duration.
Earth Glide: At 6th level the Defacer can glide trough stone, dirt and any sort of earth except metal as easily as a fish swims trough water at its base speed. This burrowing leaves behind no tunel or hole, nor does it create a ripple or any other signs of its presence (altough its frightful keening can still be heard).
Cruel Deceiver: At 6th level, 1/day when the Defacer's disguise is found out by someone, the Defacer may react by pulling out its current face and summoning forth his remaining ones in a macabre ritual as an immediate action. It can activate its Frightful Keening, except on the 1st round afterwards all other creatures whitin range are panicked for 1 round.
In alternative, in combat 1/day, it may as an immediate action focus its floating faces on one single oponent inside its Frightful Keening range to make them panicked. Both options share the same pool of uses so only one can be used each day.
This is a sonic, mind-affecting fear effect. At 10 HD, even those that would be immune to this can become panicked, but they're allowed a Will save with DC 10+1/2 HD+ Cha mod to resist it.
Comments
Can't believe I hadn't noticed this one before, really cool undead.
The original one had a lot of half-random limitations like losing faces while gliding and it only lasting one day, which I don't consider very fun for a player who wants to go around stealing faces, so removed all of that.
Earth glide is very powerful so only gained at last level, altough the Deceiver gets normal burrowing until then. Then had to add some custom abilities to fill in the levels following the whole “steal faces” premise.
So if you want to play an undead that goes around stealing identities, the Defacer's for you!
