Cadaver Collector (3.5e Monster)

Cadaver Collector
"What does it look like it does? It takes out the garbage."

''This hunched, metallic humanoid monstrosity is covered in sloping metal armor plates adorned with large numbers of spikes, each stained with blood. Attached to one arm is a tube cradling a massive harpoon with an attached cable apparatus, while the other boasts an oversized spade with an edge sharp enough to rip your head from your shoulders.''

As its name suggests, a cadaver collector scavenges places where people tend to die, looking to harvest remains for whatever purpose it serves. That purpose is usually nefarious (let’s face it, it takes a sick bastard to create a machine with the express purpose of collecting bodies), but doesn’t strictly have to be so.

Combat
A cadaver collector is a slow and lumbering thing that cannot run or charge. It performs its tasks with deliberation and purpose; it’s not like the dead are going anywhere fast. In order to help it locate corpses, the cadaver collector views the status of all creatures as though it were under the effect of a deathwatch spell and possesses tremorsense out to a distance of 120 feet.

A cadaver collector’s spade may deal either slashing or bludgeoning damage based on the whim of the collector, which suffers no penalties to attack rolls for changing the damage type. The collector also adds its Strength bonus to attack and damage rolls made with its harpoon; these bonuses are accounted for in its stat block.

 (Ex): A cadaver collector picks up corpses at least one size category smaller than itself and attaches them to the spikes on its form as a means of temporary storage. A creature that is still alive and not helpless can only be attached in this fashion when successfully reeled in by the cadaver collector’s man fishing ability. On any turn in which it wins a grapple check, the cadaver collector may take a move action to affix the victim to its body, dealing 1d6 points of damage per CR of the cadaver collector (normally 5d6). The creature must then make a Reflex save (DC 10 + ½ the collector’s CR + the cadaver’s Strength modifier, DC 19 by default) or be considered to be immobilized and sharing the cadaver collector’s space. A cadaver collector may store up to one corpse per point of CR it possesses (normally five).

Each turn thereafter in which the cadaver collector moves, the creature takes additional damage equal to the CR of the collector. By attempting another Reflex save using the same DC, the victim may attempt to remove itself from the collector’s body and move to the nearest adjacent space of its choosing; failure causes them to take the initial damage again.

The sample stat block above assumes that the cadaver collector begins an encounter with a number of corpses attached to it equal to one half its CR, rounded down (normally two, for a +4 bonus).

If it wishes, the cadaver collector may shake itself violently to drop one or more of the corpses attached to it, reducing the armor bonus accordingly but causing one of the spaces immediately adjacent to it to become difficult terrain for each corpse dropped in this fashion.

 (Ex): A cadaver collector can detect burrowing creatures with impeccable accuracy. As a result, it may attack them normally with its spade attack. A burrowing creature successfully hit by the cadaver collector must make a Fortitude save (DC 19) or be forced to surface.

 (Ex): A cadaver collector’s body surges with powerful electrical energy which flows to creatures in contact with it, dealing electricity damage to any creature that is currently engaged in a grapple with or attached to the collector based on the action(s) spent. If more than one of the actions on the chart are spent using this ability, the damage stacks.

Should the collector use this ability while touching the corpse of a creature with a CR of 3 or less, the creature is instead animated as a zombie for 1 round per die of damage dealt.

 (Ex): A cadaver collector can make an attack with its harpoon against any creature within 30 feet. On a successful harpoon attack may initiate a grapple against that opponent as a free action; should the cadaver collector win this grapple check, it may spend a swift action to reel in the target creature. Doing so brings it into the cadaver collector’s melee reach and allows the collector to attempt to attach it to its body (see the cadaver storage ability above).

If the cable is attached but the creature has not yet been reeled in, the cable connecting it to the collector can be cut by a slashing weapon. The cable has an armor class of 18 (+4 for half the collector's default natural armor bonus, +4 for being the equivalent of a Fine-sized creature) and 10 hit points. Once the cable is broken, so is the grapple the collector has on the creature who was struck, but the collector automatically reattaches a new harpoon by the beginning of it's next turn.