Were-Pity of Doves
Prerequisites: To become a were-pity, a character must meet the following requirements.
Race: Any Small, Medium, or Large humanoid or giant.
Special: Must have been injured by another were-pity's natural attacks or swarm attacks and contracted lycanthropy.
HD: d8
| Level | BAB | Fort | Ref | Will | Feature |
| 1 | +0 | +0 | +2 | +0 | Lunar Body, Pitying Form (Swarm), Dove Empathy, Scavenger's Sense |
| 2 | +1 | +0 | +3 | +0 | Pitying Form (Hybrid), Lunar Plumage, Explosive Transformation |
| 3 | +2 | +1 | +3 | +1 | Growth, An Eye For An Eye |
| 4 | +3 | +1 | +4 | +1 | Curse of Lycanthropy, Dispersal of Doves |
Class skills (2+Int per level): Handle Animal, Listen, Search, Spot, Survival.
Proficiencies: A were-pity is proficient with her own natural weapons.
Features:Lunar Body (Ex): The were-pity retains all her previous racial modifiers. She gains the shapechanger subtype, as well as low-light vision if she did not already possess that trait.
The were-pity also gains a natural armor bonus equal to her Constitution modifier when in swarm or hybrid form. In humanoid form, she instead gains a natural armor bonus equal to half her Constitution modifier.
Pitying Form (Su): At 1st level, the were-pity may assume the form of a pity of doves--hundreds and hundreds of pity acting as one massive body, crawling over each other in midair. In this form, she gains the Swarm subtype, and the following traits:
- She takes up a 5 foot space. The swarm may squeeze through a space big enough to accommodate any single member. (A typical dove is Diminutive size.)
- She loses the ability to speak intelligibly, as well as to perform tasks which require fine manipulation, and does not retain any natural attacks of her previous form.
- Her gear is subsumed into the swarm, where it remains functioning. She cannot activate any item which requires a command word, fine manipulation, or anything beyond a mental action.
- She gains a flight speed of 40 feet with average maneuverability, as well as a +4 size bonus to her Armor Class.
- She is not subject to critical hits, flanking, or any spell which targets a specific number of creatures (including single-target spells such as disintegrate, unless it is a mind-affecting effect such as a charm, compulsion, pattern, phantasm, or morale effect.
- She takes only half damage from piercing and slashing weapons.
- She takes an extra 50% damage from spells or effects which affect an area, such as splash weapons and many evocation spells.
- She is vulnerable to the effects of strong winds. Treat the swarm as a Diminutive creature for the purposes of determining the effects of similar abilities.
- She deals 1d6 damage per 5 Hit Dice (round up) to any creature whose space she occupies at the end of her move, or at the end of her turn if she does not move. This damage does not require a successful attack roll and is not subject to a miss chance due to concealment or cover.
- She loses the ability to make attacks of opportunity, though she can provoke them.
- She cannot be grappled, tripped, or bull rushed, nor can she grapple.
- Any living creature which begins its turn sharing a space with her must succeed on a Fortitude save (DC 10+1/2 HD+Con modifier) or be nauseated for 1 round.
At 2nd level, she may instead choose to take hybrid form. In this form, she appears as a Medium sized, vaguely humanoid mass of doves, moving in tandem and attacking in unison with beak and claw. Instead of the above traits, she gains two claw attacks which each deal 1d4 points of damage and a bite attack which deals 1d6 points of damage. The hybrid form has a flight speed of 20 feet with the same maneuverability as the swarm.
She may transform in this manner once per day for every Hit Die she possesses. Transformation between forms requires a standard action, but lasts indefinitely.
Both swarm and hybrid forms grant bonuses to her ability scores according to the sum of her were-pity levels and half her other Hit Dice:
| Level+1/2 HD | Bonuses |
| 1 | +1 Dex |
| 2 | +1 Dex, +1 Wis |
| 3 | +2 Dex, +1 Wis |
| 4 | +2 Dex, +2 Wis |
| 5 | +3 Dex, +2 Wis |
| 6 | +3 Dex, +3 Wis |
| 7 | +4 Dex, +3 Wis |
| 8 | +4 Dex, +4 Wis |
The were-pity may communicate with doves and pigeons, no matter which form she has taken. She gains a +4 bonus on any checks made to influence them.
Scavenger's Sense (Ex): While in swarm or hybrid form, the were-pity gains a bonus to Spot checks equal to half her Hit Dice. She also gains the scent ability and a bonus to Survival checks made to track by scent equal to half her Hit Dice. At 2nd level, this ability applies no matter which form the were-pity has adopted.
Lunar Plumage (Su): At 2nd level, the were-pity gains DR/silver equal to half her Hit Dice while in swarm or hybrid form.
Explosive Transformation (Su): At 2nd level, the were-pity can take on swarm form in a highly dramatic fashion. By spending two daily uses of her transformation ability instead of one, she explodes outwards into a mass of doves which coalesce into the swarm. Every creature within 30 feet takes swarm damage as though she had ended her turn in the creature's square. A successful Reflex save (DC 10+
1/
2 HD+Dex modifier) halves this damage and negates the blindness. The swarm appears in any contiguous four squares within this area.
At 3rd level, any creature which fails its save is also blinded as per An Eye For An Eye.
A were-pity of 10 Hit Dice or more may instead choose to spend three daily uses to increase the area to 100 feet.
Growth (Ex): At 3rd level, the were-pity occupies a 10-foot space when she takes swarm form. Unlike other creatures, this space is shapeable, and she may choose to take up any four contiguous squares.
An Eye For An Eye (Ex): At 3rd level, any creature damaged by the were-pity's swarm attack must make a Reflex save (DC 10+
1/
2 HD+Dex modifier) or be blinded. This blindness can be removed by healing the damage dealt or through a
remove blindness/deafness spell. In addition, both her swarm attack and her natural attacks in hybrid form are treated as magic and silver.
Curse of Lycanthropy (Su): At 4th level, the were-pity can spread lycanthropy to other creatures. If a Small, Medium, or Large humanoid or giant takes damage from either her swarm attack or her natural attacks granted by hybrid form, it must make a Fortitude save (DC 10+
1/
2 HD+Con modifier) or contract lycanthropy. (See the Lycanthrope entry in the Monster Manual for details on lycanthropy.)
Dispersal of Doves (Ex): At 4th level, as an immediate action when the were-pity is struck by an attack that would otherwise kill or incapacitate her, she may expend one of her daily transformation uses. If she is in hybrid or humanoid form, she switches to swarm form; if she is in swarm form, she switches to hybrid or humanoid form. This can help mitigate or even negate the attack made against the were-pity. Using this ability renders her fatigued until she can rest for eight hours, and using it a second time before resting renders her exhausted. This ability cannot be used while exhausted.
In addition, her maneuverability in swarm and hybrid forms improves to good, and in swarm form she is now immune to weapon damage.
CommentsThe were-pity is very similar to the were-murder, with a few minor changes.
First, since the dove is a Diminutive creature rather than a Tiny one, it gets a larger size bonus to AC and eventual immunity to weapon damage. I counterbalanced this, hopefully, by adding in the vulnerability to strong winds and changing the capstone to something less powerful. You also have to go all four levels to pick up weapon damage immunity.
Changes:
7-25-11: Fixed the class by making it four levels long instead of three. Dispersal of Doves and Curse of Lycanthropy were moved to fourth level, while the natural weapons buff stayed at three. The blindness rider on the swarm attack is now delayed. Finally, the swarm starts off as a 5-foot space and grows to full size at third level.
