Occult Bestiary pg. 24
Acquired/Inherited Template Acquired
Simple Template No
Usable with Summons No
Echohusks are the walking corpses of creatures slain by powerful psychic attacks and animated by the mental energies that caused their deaths. The mind and soul of an echohusk are erased from its being, leaving nothing but the psychic echo of the creature that scoured its mind.
Left unattended, echohusks do little other than attack creatures that disturb them. However, anyone who creates an echohusk possesses an innate mental link to the undead creature, and is able to command the echohusk to perform whatever gruesome tasks she desires.
Echohusks are common in and around Geb, where death from the powerful mental attacks of psychic spellcasters—even liches—is an all too common occurrence. In such areas, echohusks are found in groups, obeying the commands of their dark masters. In the deep reaches of the underworld, where lost travelers or wayward patrols might encounter psychic horrors like neothelids, masterless echohusks are more common; the ancient and terrible creatures that happen to spawn them typically have little use for mindless servants.
Many psychic creatures have attempted to perfect the technique of creating echohusks, but only the attacks of the incorporeal undead known as psychic stalkers (see page 45) can create echohusks without fail. The horrific nature of psychic stalkers is likely the reason for this phenomenon.
“Echohusk” is an acquired template that can be added to any living, intelligent corporeal creature, referred to hereafter as the base creature.
Challenge Rating: This depends on the creature’s new total number of Hit Dice, as given below.
| HD | CR | XP | | 1 | 1/4 | 100 | | 2 | 1/2 | 200 | | 3–4 | 1 | 400 | | 5–6 | 2 | 600 | | 7–8 | 3 | 800 | | 9–10 | 4 | 1,200 | | 11–12 | 5 | 1,600 | | 13–15 | 6 | 2,400 | | 16–17 | 7 | 3,200 | | 18–20 | 8 | 4,800 | | 21–24 | 9 | 6,400 | | 25–28 | 10 | 9,600 |
Alignment: Always neutral evil.
Type: The creature’s type changes to undead. It retains any subtypes except for alignment subtypes (such as good) and subtypes that indicate kind (such as giant). It doesn’t gain the augmented subtype. It uses all the base creature’s statistics and special abilities except as noted here.
Armor Class: The creature’s natural armor bonus is based on the echohusk’s size, indicated below.
| Echohusk Size | Natural Armor Bonus | | Small or smaller | +0 | | Medium | +1 | | Large | +2 | | Huge | +3 | | Gargantuan | +6 | | Colossal | +10 |
Hit Dice: An echohusk retains the number of HD the base creature possessed (except those from class levels), and gains a number of additional Hit Dice given on the following table. An echohusk uses its Charisma modifier (instead of its Constitution modifier) to determine bonus hit points.
| Echohusk Size | Bonus Hit Dice | | Medium or smaller | — | | Large | +1 | | Huge | +2 | | Gargantuan | +4 | | Colossal | +6 |
Saves: Base save bonuses are Fortitude +1/3 Hit Dice, Reflex +1/3 Hit Dice, and Will +1/2 Hit Dice + 2.
Defensive Abilities: Echohusks lose their defensive abilities and gain all of the qualities and immunities granted by the undead type.
Weaknesses: Echohusks gain the following weakness.
Vulnerable to Psychic Magic (Ex): Echohusks are particularly susceptible to psychic spells and attacks, as the entire force that animates them is composed of psychic energy. They take a –4 penalty on saving throws against psychic spells and effects.
Speed: An echohusk retains all of the base creature’s movement speeds. However, its maneuverability for flight drops to clumsy.
Attacks: An echohusk retains all the natural weapons, manufactured weapon attacks, and weapon proficiencies of the base creature. It gains a slam attack that deals damage as if it were one size category larger than its actual size.
Special Attacks: An echohusk retains none of the base creature’s special attacks.
Ability Scores: An echohusk’s Strength score increases by 2. An echohusk has neither a Constitution score or an Intelligence score, its Wisdom score changes to 10, and its Charisma score changes to 14.
BAB: An echohusk’s base attack bonus is equal to 3/4 of its Hit Dice.
Skills: An echohusk has no skill ranks and loses any racial bonuses to skills that the base creature possessed.
Feats: An echohusk loses all feats possessed by the base creature, and doesn’t gain feats as its Hit Dice increase.
Special Qualities: An echohusk loses most special qualities of the base creature, but it retains any extraordinary special qualities that improve its melee or ranged attacks. An echohusk gains the following special qualities.
Psychic Servitude (Su): Echohusks are animated not by typical necromantic energies, but rather by the mental energies of a powerful psychic creature. They cannot be commanded or created by animate dead, command undead, control undead, and similar necromancy spells and effects. However, any creature that creates an echohusk with its psychic attacks can command that echohusk as if it had animated it using the animate dead spell (up to 4 HD of echohusks per HD of the animating creature, and no one echohusk can possess more than twice the HD of the animating creature). Echohusks under a creature’s control don’t count against the number of other undead that the creature can control with the animate dead spell, the Command Undead feat, or other similar effects.
Shattered Psyche (Ex): Psychic attacks that are powerful enough to destroy minds leave behind a powerful but unstable force that lashes out at those nearby. When an echohusk takes damage from a melee attack, a ranged attack from within 30 feet, or a psychic spell or effect from any distance, the creature that initiated the attack must succeed at a Will saving throw (DC = 10 + 1/2 the echohusk’s Hit Dice + the echohusk’s Charisma modifier) or take 1 point of Charisma damage and be dazed for 1 round as the psychic energies in the echohusk shatter once more.
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