Dread Mummy (CR +3)[3pp]

Cradled in the scorching sands beneath the relentless sun lie the tombs of kings and pharaohs. But those interred within these structures do not always rest quietly—some rise from their sarcophagi and crypts to walk the land as mummies. A few, known as dread mummies, become kings among the undead. These lords of death learn to command their fellows and visit destruction upon those who dare to stir their wrath.

A dread mummy’s flesh atrophies after death, allowing its skin to shrink tightly against its bones. Although not all dread mummies are wrapped in funerary cloth, many are.

Creating a Dread Mummy

Dread Mummy” is an acquired template that can be added to any living corporeal creature (referred to hereafter as the base creature). A dread mummy uses all the base creature’s statistics and special abilities except as noted here.

Challenge Rating: Same as base creature +3.

Alignment: Any evil.

Type: The creature’s type changes to undead. Do not recalculate base attack bonuses, saves, or skill points.

Aura: A dread mummy gains the following aura:

Greater Despair (Su)

Any creature within 100 feet of a dread mummy must succeed on a Fortitude save or be paralyzed by fear for 1d4 rounds. Once a creature recovers from the paralyzation effect, it remains staggered for 1 additional round. Whether or not the save is successful, that creature cannot be affected again by the same mummy’s despair ability for 24 hours. This is a paralysis and mind-affecting fear effect. The save DC is Charisma-based.

Armor Class: Natural armor class improves by +10.

Hit Dice: Change all of the base creature’s racial HD to d8s.

Defensive Abilities: A dread mummy, in addition to normal undead traits, has DR 5/—, cold immunity, and channel resistance +4.

Weaknesses: Dread mummies have fire vulnerability.

Attacks: A dread mummy gains a primary slam attack if it has no other natural attacks. The damage for this attack depends on the base creature’s size, as if the base creature was two size categories larger.

Special Attacks: All of a dread mummy’s natural attacks transmit mummy rot (see Mummy). The dread mummy gains the following. All save DCs are Charisma-based unless otherwise specified.

Breath of Death (Su)

Once every 1d4 rounds, a dread mummy can breathe a 30-foot cone of tomb gas, sand, and dust. Each living creature in the area must succeed a Fortitude save or gain 1d4 negative levels. A creature killed by a dread mummy’s breath of death ability rises as a juju zombie or dread zombie in 1d4 rounds. A zombie created in this manner is under the command of its creator (as command undead spell) and remains so until either it or the creator is destroyed.

Create Spawn (Su)

Any creature killed by a dread mummy’s mummy rot ability turns to dust and blows away on the wind. If the dread mummy that infected the creature with the disease is not destroyed within 1 week, the dust reforms a new dread mummy. A dread mummy created in this manner is under the command of its creator (as the dominate monster spell) and remains so until either it or the creator is destroyed.

Spell-like Abilities: A dread mummy gains the following spell-like abilities. It caster level is equal to its total HD. All saves DCs are Charisma-based.

At willanimal messenger, calm animals, command undead, heat metal, summon swarm
3/daycommune with nature, control winds, dominate animal, insect plague
1/daycontrol weather, creeping doom, earthquake, sunbeam.

Abilities: Str +14, Dex +4, Int +2, Wis +4, Cha +4. As an undead creature, a dread mummy has no Constitution score.

Different Mummies

By altering a few aspects of this template, a GM can easily create a dread mummy for a different environment. Make the special abilities of the dread mummy reflective of the new environment. For example, a bog dread mummy’s breath of death attack could be a torrent of putrid bog water. Further, switch the dread mummy’s spell-like abilities for different ones of the same or lower spell level as appropriate for the environment. For example, a bog dread mummy might be able to use control water while a dread mummy created on the frozen peak of a mountain might be able to use cone of cold.

Section 15: Copyright Notice

Advanced Bestiary, Copyright 2014, Green Ronin Publishing, LLC; Author Jeff Hersh, Developer Owen K.C. Stephens

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