Wallmaster (3.5e Monster)



''You had just gotten out of the Electric Eel Pool trap and was drying yourself off, when you you hear a whistling of wind. Something drops atop you and before you know it you're back in the pool!''

Wallmasters are giant blue hands made of darkened aether and animated flesh who have the sole purpose of keeping people out of dungeons. They drop from the ceiling with haste, grabbing their opponents and catapulting up into the roof to deposit the victim to a pre-determined spot, usually the front of the dungeon, or back within a trapped room or deep pit. As such they are both monsters and traps, and a bane to any adventurers seeking to delve into a dungeon's depths.

Combat
Wallmasters rely on surprise, rather than direct confrontation. Often triggered into action by an event such as the opening of a door or the invasion of a certain room, they lurk within the ceilings, phased into the ethereal plane. When the target moves near it slips out into the material plane and rushes the opponents, grabbing one and zooming back into the roof and ethereal plane. If attacked it will shrug off the damage and heal when it finds moment to rest. In the event it misses, it proceeds to use physical attacks, grabbing at the same time, until it captures someone. Only if prevented from fleeing will it stay and fight to the death. For all its dim intelligence it understand the function of running to let its fast healing take another crack at it when the party least expects. Once activated, a wallmaster's territory often extends throughout the entire dungeon until the threat is removed for good.

Improved Grab (Ex): To use this ability, a wallmaster must hit with a claw attack. It can then attempt to start a grapple as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity. Typically a wallmaster uses Rush to grapple the target without needing to damage them, ejecting them unharmed but annoyed, unless its master had commanded more violent tactics, or when the wallmaster has found itself in combat. A favorite tactic is to grab a single opponent, then withdraw, hauling the opponent away from its allies.

Rush (Ex): As a full round action which does not provoke attacks of opportunity, a wallmaster may move up to three times its speed and make a charge attack or grapple, or maintain a current grapple, so long as the wallmaster only moves in a straight line. It is by this power that a wallmaster often drops unnoticed from roofs up to 90 ft. tall, grabbing the target, and then next round zooming away just as swiftly with target in hand.

Antimagic Aura (Ex): Similar to golems, a wallmaster is immune to all magical and supernatural effects, except as follows. A hold monster spell negates its ethereal shift powers for 1d4 rounds, while an animate dead spell restores 1d6 hit points per level of the caster (maximum 20d6) or restores its ethereal shift, if previously negated by a hold monster spell. Multiple hold monster spells simply extend the duration of the effect. In addition, it's antimagic effect extends out to a distance of 5 ft. from the wallmaster, allowing it to suppress the magical abilities of those it has captured.

Durability (Ex): The magics which bind a wallmaster are unusually strong, augmenting it's physical toughness. A wallmaster gains an additional +10 hp per HD.

Ethereal Shift (Su): A wallmaster may slide between the material and ethereal planes at will, with no more effort than walking, but it can only pass through rooftops to do so. The presence of a nearby wallmaster who is hiding in the ethereal plane is very difficult to detect, but a rogue or another class with trapfinding can notice something is just beyond the ceiling with a DC of 10 + the wallmaster's HD, whenever the wallmaster is 100 ft. of the wall.

On the ethereal plane, a wallmaster's fly speed rises dramatically to 300 ft., typically fast enough for the wallmaster to find another cieling to pass through and deposit its prey within 1 round. In the event that the wallmaster is slain on the ethereal plane, the victim may find themselves stranded with no way to return.

Mindsight (Su): In addition to normal construct vision, a wallmaster can detect any creatures subject to mind-affecting abilities within 100 ft. This ability crosses both the material and ethereal planes, allowing the wallmaster to hunt their targets invisibly.

Powerful Build (Ex): The physical stature of wallmasters lets them function in many ways as if they were one size category larger. Whenever a wallmaster is subject to a size modifier or special size modifier for an opposed check (such as during grapple checks, bull rush attempts, and trip attempts), the wallmaster is treated as one size larger if doing so is advantageous to it. A wallmaster is also considered to be one size larger when determining whether a creature’s special attacks based on size (such as improved grab or swallow whole) can affect him. A wallmaster can use weapons designed for a creature one size larger without penalty. However, its space and reach remain those of a creature of his actual size. The benefits of this racial trait stack with the effects of powers, abilities, and spells that change the subject’s size category.

Construction
A wallmaster’s body must be sculpted from a severed hand of a giant or other creature with hands of at least Huge size, treated with rare oils and ethereal regeant worth 3,000 gp. Creating the body requires a DC 15 Craft (taxidermy) check or a DC 25 Knowledge (the planes) check.

CL 13th; Craft Construct, animate dead, grasping hand, plane shift, caster must be at least 13th level; Price 50,000 gp; Cost 28,000 gp + 2,000 XP.