Vampire Garden Rose and Rose Tender Template

Vampire Garden Rose

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Vampire Garden Rose CR 9

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XP 6400
Advanced 8 HD size‑increased variant quickling vampire rose (Tome of Horrors Complete 623, Green Ronin Advanced Bestiary 241, Bestiary 6 137)
N Medium plant
Init +9 (+13 with hive mind); Senses blindsight 30 ft., deathwatch 30 ft., low‑light vision, hive mind; Perception +8 (+12 with hive mind)

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DEFENSE
AC 28, touch 20, flat‑footed 18 (+5 Dex, +5 dodge, +8 natural)
hp 84 (8 HD; 8d8+48); fast healing 2
Fort +12, Ref +7, Will +5
Defensive Abilities blood healing, camouflage, mobility; Immune plant traits; Resist cold 5
Weaknesses aging vulnerability

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OFFENSE
Speed 20 ft.
Melee 2 stalks +12 (1d6+6 plus 1d4 bleed, grab, and rose tender curse)
Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft. (10 ft. with stalk)
Special Attacks bleed 1d4, blood drain (1d4 Con), rapid actions (third attack or additional move action), rose tender curse (Fort DC 22), spring attack

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TACTICS
A vampire rose stands motionless until prey moves within range, then it strikes with a thorny stalk. Opponents are grabbed and drained of blood. When fully sated with blood, a vampire rose's petals flush red.

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STATISTICS
Str 22, Dex 20, Con 22, Int —, Wis 18, Cha 12
Base Atk +6; CMB +12 (+16 grapple); CMD 29 (can't be tripped)
Feats Dodge^B, Mobility^B, Quick Draw^B, Spring Attack^B
Skills Acrobatics +15, Perception +8 (+12 with hive mind), Stealth +5 (+13 among vegetation); Racial modifers +10 acrobatics, +4 perception, +4 perception with hive mind, +8 stealth among vegetation
SQ freeze (rose bush), hive mind, rapid aging, take root

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ECOLOGY
Environment cold or temperate forests
Organization Solitary or garden (2‑9 roses and 2‑9 rose tenders)
Treasure incidental

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SPECIAL ABILITIES
Aging Vulnerability (Ex) A quickling takes 50% more damage from aging effects, including the number of years aged.
Blood Healing (Ex) A vampire garden rose attacks with up to three thorny stalks—these are primary natural attacks that deal slashing damage, cause bleeding wounds, and have the grab ability. When a vampire garden rose damages a creature that can be affected by its bleed attack, the vampire garden rose has 2 hit points restored. If the creature is already suffering from a bleed effect, the vampire garden rose instead has 1d4+1 hit points restored for each successful stalk attack. If the vampire garden rose deals any Constitution damage with its blood drain it heals 5 hit points.
Camouflage (Ex) A vampire garden rose appears as a normal white rose when at rest, granting it the freeze universal monster ability. It also gains a +8 circumstance bonus to Stealth to hide among vegetation. Anyone with ranks in Survival or Knowledge (nature) can use one of those skills instead of Perception to detect the vampire garden rose. Dwarves can use stonecunning to notice the subterranean version.
Hive Mind (Ex) Each vampire garden rose is in constant communication with all other vampire garden roses created during the same casting of the vampire garden ritual while they are within 1 mile of each other per ritual caster. A vampire garden rose can relay the hive mind between members of the collective that are not within range of each other, but still within hive mind range with it. On any round when it relays the hive mind, the only actions it may take are purely mental actions and the attack or movement granted by its rapid actions ability. It relays the hive mind automatically on any round when it takes no other actions. Vampire garden roses gain +4 racial bonus on Initiative checks and Perception checks while in telepathic range of at least one other member of the hive mind. Vampire garden roses within sight of one another cannot be caught flat-footed or flanked unless all of them are. Vampire garden roses treat casters of the vampire garden ritual as members of their hive mind but these ritual casters are not granted the properties of a hive mind. The hive mind, consisting of at least two member creatures, has an Intelligence score equal to 1 per member of the hive mind or equal to the Intelligence score of the most intelligent creature in the hive mind, whichever is greater. Individual creatures in the hive mind do not gain skill points or feats from the intelligence score of the hive mind.
Rapid Actions (Ex) A quickling gains one extra attack or move action each round. This does not stack with other haste effects.
Rapid Aging (Ex) A quickling ages 4 years for every 1 year that passes.
Rose Tender Curse (Su) The vampire garden rose's natural attacks transmit a curse that functions like a disease. Participation in the vampire garden ritual makes living creatures vulnerable to this disease‑like effect even if they are immune to diseases. Depending on the particular ritual that created it, a vampire garden rose may affect all creatures with its curse or only participants in the vampire garden ritual that grew it, as detailed in the ritual. This curse applies the rose tender template, a variant plantblood template.
Take Root (Ex) A vampire garden rose can embed its roots in soil as a full‑round action or uproot itself as a standard action. The plant gains a +8 circumstance bonus to CMD against bull rush and other combat maneuvers that attempt to shift its location while it has taken root.

Vampire roses are a hybridization of roses and gluttongrass (Bestiary 6 page 137).
Vampire roses look like normal white rose bushes and are often mistaken for such. The typical vampire rose bush stands about 3 feet tall. Some vampire rose bushes, particularly those that have been cared for by vampires or nourished by magic, grow much larger. Vampire garden roses reach maturity quickly and vary in height between 5 and 8 feet tall.

Rose Tender Template

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Rose Tender CR +2
Variant plantblood template (Green Ronin Advanced Bestiary 222)

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CREATING A ROSE TENDER

“Rose tender” is an acquired template that can be applied to any creature that does not have the construct, ooze, plant, or undead type (referred to hereafter as the base creature). A rose tender uses all of the base creature's statistics and special abilities except as noted here.

Challenge Rating: As base creature +2
Senses: Rose tenders gain low‑light vision.
Armor Class: Natural armor class improves by +1.
Defensive Abilities: A rose tender gains the following:
Plant Flesh (Ex): When a creature becomes a rose tender, many of its internal organs are replaced by vegetable matter. Whenever a sneak attack, critical hit, or other form of precision damage is scored against the rose tender, there is a 50% chance that the extra damage is negated and damage is rolled normally.
Attacks: If the base creature possesses at least one arm but has no natural attacks (except slam) with it, the rose tender gains a primary claw attack with each such limb. In the case where the base creature has slam attacks with its arms, they become claw attacks.
Abilities: Dex –2 (minimum 0), Con +4. A creature with Dexterity 0 has grown roots and cannot move.
Skills: A rose tender has a +5 racial bonus on Stealth checks in forests and flora‑heavy areas.
Special Qualities: The rose tender retains all the base creature's special qualities and gains those described here.
Implant (Ex): Once per month, under the same conditions as the vampire garden ritual, and as a full-round action, a rose tender may implant a single seed into a helpless animal, humanoid, magical beast, or monstrous humanoid, or into the corpse of such a creature. This implanted seed functions like a rot grub infestation with only one rot grub. The vampire rose seed burrows into the creature's flesh and toward its heart. In its slain victim or in a corpse, the seed grows over the course of the next month until an adult vampire rose pulls free of the remains of its first meal. This resulting vampire rose is not part of the vampire garden rose hive mind and behaves as a standard vampire rose.
Plant Feeding (Ex): If a rose tender remains in the direct sunlight for at least 4 hours, it does not need to eat that day.
Plantblood (Ex): A rose tender creature counts both as a plant and the base creature's type for the purpose of spells and effects that specifically affect creatures of the plant type. Rose tenders can use magic items with powers or abilities that work specifically for creatures of the plant type. A rose tender also has a +4 bonus on saving throws against poison, sleep, paralysis, stunning, polymorphing, and mind-affecting effects.
Rose Tender Curse (Su): When attacking, with natural attacks or unarmed strikes, the rose tender transmits the rose tender curse as though it were one of the vampire garden roses, using the same DC (usually Fort DC 22).
Subjugated Mind (Ex): Each rose tender gains the hive mind ability of the vampire garden rose(s) it serves, and counts as a member of the hive mind for all hive mind effects that rely on number of members within the hive mind. If the hive mind exists, each rose tender is in constant communication with all other rose tenders and vampire garden roses associated with the same casting of the vampire garden ritual while they are within 1 mile of each other per ritual caster. A rose tender can relay the hive mind between members of the collective that are not within range of each other, but still within hive mind range with it. On any round when it relays the hive mind, the only actions it may take are purely mental actions. A rose tender relays the hive mind automatically on any round when it takes no other actions. Rose tenders gain a +4 racial bonus on Initiative checks and Perception checks while in telepathic range of at least one other member of the hive mind. Rose tenders within sight of one another, within sight of vampire garden roses, or within sight of associated vampire garden ritual casters (whether allied or opposed), cannot be caught flat‑footed or flanked unless all of them are. Rose tenders, like vampire garden roses, treat casters of the vampire garden ritual as members of their hive mind, but these ritual casters are not granted the properties of a hive mind. The hive mind, consisting of at least two member creatures, has an Intelligence score equal to 1 per member of the hive mind or equal to the Intelligence score of the most intelligent creature in the hive mind, whichever is greater. Individual creatures in the hive mind do not gain skill points or feats from the intelligence score of the hive mind. Rose tenders are under the command of the hive mind to which they belong and remain enslaved so long as they retain the rose tender template.

Rose Tender Curse

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Rose Tender Curse

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Type lingering curse—injury; Save Fort DC 22; Onset  1 round; Frequency 1/day; Effect 1 Con damage, 1 Cha damage, 1d6 bleed, and after 7 days gain rose tender template; Cure 4 consecutive saves, making one save postpones rose tender transformation for an additional day.
Special Any effect that would cause a creature suffering from rose tender curse to be cured of it (including remove curse) instead counts as a single successful save for the purposes of curing the disease-like curse through consecutive saving throws. No more than 1 successful save can be accrued in this way within a single period of the curse's frequency (1 day), even if multiple effects would cure the creature of the curse. The ability damage cannot heal naturally until the afflicted creature receives a successful remove curse effect. Ability damage from the rose tender curse is removed when the creature gains the rose tender template. The rose tender template is only applied if at least one of the vampire garden roses remains alive. The template can be removed with a break enchantment cast on the afflicted creature under the same conditions as the vampire garden ritual, or by slaying all the vampire garden roses created during the ritual. In either case, the template fades from the afflicted creature over the following twenty-four hours. Even if a creature is cured of the curse, including using break enchantment to remove the rose tender template, traces of the curse remain on the creature. There is a 35% chance per day that the curse manifests again, and the creature must succeed at a new saving throw or fall under the curse again. This chance decreases by 5% per day, until it reaches 0%.