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Archives of Nethys

Archives of Nethys

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Broodpiercer

Source Howl of the Wild pg. 129 2.0
Broodpiercer The insects known as broodpiercers are particularly insidious parasites that target the eggs of birds, beasts, and dragons alike, piercing the shell with a needle-like proboscises and implanting their eggs into healthy embryos. The afflicted creature's cranium then develops around the larval broodpiercer, which lies dormant while subsisting off minimal resources from its host. It's not until years later, typically when the host creature has reached maturity, that the broodpiercer larva wrests greater control, pushing the host to travel far and wide—the better to disperse the parasite—and ultimately perish, as only upon the host's death can the now-adult broodpiercer break free and find new eggs to begin the cycle once again. Because of this, an infected creature often initiates fights and refuses to flee, even when death is certain.

Broodpiercer Host Adjustments

You can infect an existing animal, beast, humanoid, or dragon with a broodpiercer by completing the following steps.

Increase the creature's level by 1 and change its statistics as follows.
  • If the creature's Intelligence modifier is –4 or lower, increase it to –3.
  • Increase the creature's AC, attack bonuses, DCs, Perception modifier, saving throws, and skill modifiers by 1.
  • Increase the damage of its Strikes and other offensive abilities by 1. If the creature has limits on how many times or how often it can use an ability (such as a spellcaster's spells or a dragon's breath), increase the damage by 2 instead.
  • Increase the creature's HP by the amount listed on the table.

Starting LevelHP Increase
1 or lower10
2–415
5–1920
20+30

Broodpiercer Host Abilities

All host creatures gain the following abilities.

Cold Stasis A broodpiercer larva is vulnerable to cold. Any effect that deals cold damage causes the host creature to become slowed 1 for 1d4 rounds. While slowed from cold, the broodpiercer can't use Fumbling Dodge or Erratic Barrage. This occurs even if the base creature is immune to cold. Fumbling Dodge [reaction] Trigger The host creature is targeted with an attack, or an effect that requires a Reflex save and is aware of the attacker; Effect The host creature lurches suddenly, stumbling out of harm's way as if dragged by a puppeteer. The creature gains a +3 circumstance bonus to AC against the triggering attack or to its Reflex save. After using Fumbling Dodge, the creature becomes clumsy 2 for 1 round. Erratic Barrage [two-actions] The host creature attacks twice while spinning ceaselessly, aiming blows from unexpected, seemingly illogical directions. The host creature makes two melee Strikes against the same creature; the host's multiple attack penalty does not increase until it has made both attacks. The target is off-guard for the second Strike. The target creature then gets a sense for the erratic movement and becomes temporarily immune to Erratic Barrage for 1 day. Induce Frenzy [one-action] (emotion) The broodpiercer floods the brain of its host creature with adrenaline, amplifying the host's hunger and numbing its pain to drive it into an obsessive fugue. While frenzied, the creature gains a +2 circumstance bonus to Will saves, temporary Hit Points equal to its level, and a +10-foot circumstance bonus to its Speeds. The frenzy lasts for 1 minute, after which the host creature is fatigued for 1 minute and can't enter another frenzy for 1 minute.