Vigil (3.5e Monster)

The Vigils are wardens of ancient crypts, guardians of hidden tombs, and protectors of the legacy of the Ancients, a civilization whose name has been lost to history, that had existed and attained pinnacles of culture, magical learning and technology long before contemporary races rose to eminence and power. They are named for the act of being ever wakeful. The Ancients have mastered the skill of affixing souls to objects to let them remain into the world of the living forever, and there they languish, in the long forgotten tombs and ruins of ancient cities, and continue to protect the remnants of their lost civilization.

Vigils are ancient constructs of intricate construction, built to be receptacles of the souls of loyal warriors and nobles wishing to transcend their mortal coil. Weaker vigils are animated with artificial souls of rudimentary intellect. Their bodies are a dark brass color, patterned with ornate markings and engravings, and sophisticated mechanisms that move smoothly and flawlessly upon countless of interlocked components. Vigils are constructed of orichalcum, a mystical alloy invented and popularized by ancient civilizations, that current day scientists and metallurgists are still struggling to reproduce.

Vigils can speak the Ancient tongue, but rarely do so. When they do speak, their voice sounds disjointed and mechanically hollow.

Combat
Vigils are all immune to electricity, have high spell resistance, and possess a deflection bonus to Armor Class equal to their Charisma bonus (if any). More powerful vigils have personal shields that function independently from their deflection bonuses, and some carry orichalcum weapons, and are the prime source of such weaponry for aspiring adventurers seeking to claim one.

Vigils are constructs with the Augmented Undead subtype, giving them Hit Dice, base attack bonus, base save bonuses and skills as an intelligent undead, with construct traits.

A vigil's natural weapons are considered orichalcum, ignoring all deflection bonuses to AC and bypassing up to 10 points of hardness and damage reduction/adamantine (higher damage reductions are effectively lessened by 10 points when attacked by a vigil or an orichalcum weapon).

All Vigils have the following special abilities.

 : Vigils are mentally keyed to any traps laid out in the immediate vicinity of their resting place. If within 30 feet of a sleeping Vigil a trap is sprung or a sarcophagus or coffer opened, it immediately wakes up and readies for combat.

Susceptibility to Turning/Rebuking: Since vigils are souls of the dead kept within this world by a mechanical body, they can be affected, albeit only partially, by turning or rebuking attempts. A vigil that is turned or rebuked is dazed for one round, and a vigil that is commanded or destroyed becomes numbed for 1 round. A vigil has effective +4 turn resistance.

= Types of Vigils =

Vigils come in many shapes and sizes, from the small, insect-like drones all the way to the immensely powerful sentinels and praetorians. They are, however, always lawful of alignment, and zealous in their protection duties. An overview of all known mass-produced Vigil types follows below.