A character [D&D 3.5/Tome]

[Prime32]

Combining some ideas I had, with some Fullmetal Alchemist influence thrown in. Most likely a villain, and one which should confuse the hell out of players.

"Nyss d'Cannith"
NE Female personality Warforged Shapeshifter druid 5/Bone rider 5/Conduit of the lower planes 1
Feats: A Feast Unknown, Fairy Eater, Fey Heritage, Fey Legacy, Fey Skin, Leadership (all followers have Tome's LA +0 vampire template), Least Dragonmark of Making, Mounted Combat, Unarmoured Body
Flaws: Light Sensitivity, Love of Nature
Spheres: Death

Cohort/Mount: Cloak, Swarm-shifter (bat swarm) ghoulish cloaker Ghoul paragon 3 (CR 9)
Feats: Combat Reflexes, Deformity (tall), Hold the Line, Willing Deformity
Equipment: Cloak of Charisma, Improved pectoral of maneuverability, Ring of evasion


Background
Kerold d'Cannith was once one of the most successful artificers House Cannith had ever known. And then his daughter Nyss died. He spared no expense finding clerical aid, but it could not restore her soul. And so, he turned to the only other method he could think of. Using notes surviving from the Last War, he managed to make a semi-functional replica of a warforged creation forge in a house he owned in a small town, with which he planned to "recreate" his daughter. However, his creations were crude, often having physical or mental defects, and his obsession was starting to affect his reputation.

Finally he decided that he could not restore his daughter with inanimate matter. He used the remainder of his fortune to accquire a livewood tree, which he shaped into Nyss's likeness. Such was his care and attention to detail that even the keenest eye would swear that his doll was a living girl. When he placed it within the adjusted forge he was overcome with joy, for she began to look around. From then on, Kerold spent nearly all his time with Nyss, "reminding" her of her life and being careful to hide her from the world with thick curtains. Still, on occasion she was spotted, and rumours began to spread of a strange girl who had seemingly returned from the dead, with strange influence over her father.

And then, one day, Kerold died. Nyss had suddenly cried out in anger and stabbed him. The reason why her creation was so perfect was because the vessel Kerold used had already contained a soul - a dryad who had entered a deep sleep for the winter. She had, for a brief moment, recalled some memories of her former life and the agony of the creation forge which caused her to lose them.

Now, "Nyss" had nowhere to go. Shocked at her own actions, she took on the mantle of "vampire" which the townspeople had called her and fled. Her returning druidic abilities helped her add to the illusion.

At some point she fought against a company from the Order of the Emerald Claw, who captured her and took her to their leader. Vol seemed oddly amused by the creature, and offered to let it work for her - it accepted, and Vol gifted her with an undead cloaker which serves as her cloak. However, what really interested Vol is that Nyss d'Cannith bore the Dragonmark of Making... and somehow, so does this Nyss d'Cannith...

Combat
The cloak uses its Engulf ability whenever Nyss would take damage, absorbing half of it, and releases her again when she wants to move. She can also use Mounted Combat to negate attacks against it. The cloak has 15ft reach and can make AoOs against charging opponents - its attacks also cause paralysis and disease. Once an opponent is paralysed it will consume them as a standard action with its Bone Rider abilities, killing them instantly and fully healing the cloak.

[PhaedrusXY]

Dude... that's a freakin' awesome backstory.  So what do all the fey feats do? And what does the Dragonmark do? I'm not so up to date on those...

[Venia]

That is one of the most brilliant things I've read.

[Prime32]

Dude... that's a freakin' awesome backstory.   So what do all the fey feats do? And what does the Dragonmark do? I'm not so up to date on those...

The fey feats grant some SLAs and DR/cold iron, and the dragonmark is mainly for flavour.

This was a combination of three things:

• Reading the ECS it said that dryads sometimes lived in livewood trees and survived when they were turned into objects (since livewood tissue is clinically immortal), meaning that dryads could be found in ships and furniture. Also, warforged are partly composed of wood. I then had the idea of a warforged being constructed out of livewood which contained a dryad - I wasn't sure what effects this would have - the warforged might simply be the "anchor" for the dryad, or it might not be able to leave. In either case, this would probably give the warforged an affinity for the druid class.
• In The Fall of Pun-Pun, some characters use Tome rules to get a bunch of minions, including some cloakers. On a whim, I decided to take another look at the cloaker's stats and realised that it would make an awesome mount and guardian by timing the use of Engulf. Swarmshifter (bat swarm) adds style points, like Evangeline from Negima and the "vampire" from Shaman King - plus you don't take swarm damage due to Bone Rider.
• The Dread Necromancer handbook suggested having your necromancer pose as a druid, with an imp familiar disguised as an animal companion. I decided to do the reverse.

I should point out that although this thing looks like a vampire it has DR/cold iron instead of silver, cannot be turned, and is healed by both positive and negative energy (though she will recoil from the former, partly to confuse enemies and partly out of delusion). And if the PCs manage to figure out she isn't really undead, they might not realise that her cloak is.

[Prime32]

Crossed out the Fey Heritage feats to make room for some more appropriate ones - would worshipping an Elder Evil for the bonus feats be appropriate here?

I might even play this character in an evil campaign.

Note that the cloak has a paralysing attack with 15ft reach which can be used to make AoOs, and at-will hold monster, and the ability to consume Medium or smaller helpless creatures as a standard action, healing fully by doing so. Oh, and it can debuff your saves, and has a fly speed of 140ft (perfect). You can't kill it because it has concealment or mirror image, improved evasion, takes half damage from all attacks, and attacks against it can be negated by Mounted Combat. I think I've created a monster.

[jojolagger]

Note that the cloak has a paralysing attack with 15ft reach which can be used to make AoOs, and at-will hold monster, and the ability to consume Medium or smaller helpless creatures as a standard action, healing fully by doing so. Oh, and it can debuff your saves, and has a fly speed of 140ft (perfect). You can't kill it because it has concealment or mirror image, improved evasion, takes half damage from all attacks, and attacks against it can be negated by Mounted Combat. I think I've created a monster.

That is the best cloak ever. I must have one.

[PlzBreakMyCampaign]

ew third party. I stopped reading at 'mount the dead' 

nice fluff though 

[bearsarebrown]

ew third party. I stopped reading at 'mount the dead' 

nice fluff though 

Tome might be the best Homebrew out there. They really have an understand on how the game works and created a solid system from it. It just so happens it's a super high powered system, but it works!