Publication:Dread Codex/Monsters/Carcaetan

''This clearly unnatural humanoid shambles toward you with open scars, blackened limbs, and wounds that should be lethal. A sliver of flesh from its last meal dangles lazily from its chin and sharp teeth.''

Summary::Separated from the natural world, not quite alive and unable to die, carcaetans maintain their existence through a diet of mortal flesh.

Carcaetans vary dramatically in appearance. Some look exactly as they did before their transformation, with only a slight pallor and lack of scent to differentiate them from the living. Others are quite disturbing, bearing horrible wounds and a clearly unnatural bearing. A few, who maintain some degree of sanity and adapt to their new existence, learn to replace their destroyed extremities with parts from other creatures, rebuilding their bodies piece by piece.

A carcaetan is created by magic designed to remove a creature from the cycle of life. The ritual is sometimes used as punishment or a powerful curse, but some evil individuals undergo it intentionally. The carcaetan loses its ability to grow, heal, reproduce, and die, and must steal energy from the living to gain the strength to act. The blood and flesh of animals and humanoids provide the greatest amount of nourishment, but carcaetans can survive off grass and leaves for days. A rat can keep a carcaetan energetic for hours, while a human can satiate one for a week. Without nourishment, carcaetans lose the capacity to exert themselves, becoming thinking lumps of inanimate flesh.

An injured carcaetan's wounds never close, but even burnt or mutilated carcaetans eventually pull themselves back together. Carcaetans who suffer grave injuries often lost the ability to think clearly, becoming mindless, flesh-eating monsters. Carcaetans speak any languages they spoke in life (usually Common).

Combat
Carcaetans tend to be fearless in combat, tearing wildly with their mouths and claws. However, only the most dangerous or powerful do not flee from creatures wielding positive energy.

 (Ex): Upon striking a successful critical hit against a living, corporeal creature with a bite or claw attack, a carcaetan can feed on the creature's torn flesh and blood. If the carcaetan hits with a claw attack, it must take a move action to feed, or the meat and blood loses its potency and is wasted. A carcaetan that feeds gains 1d4+1 points of Strength for 1 hour.

 (Su): Unless destroyed by some form of positive energy (such as turning or cure spells), a destroyed carcaetan rises again with maximum hit points after 1d4 hours. If its body is mutilated, the rejuvenation usually takes 1d4 days instead, unless the body parts are actively prevented from gathering in one place. (In this case, the rejuvenation can be prevented indefinitely.) Cremated, frozen, or similarly treated carcaetan bodies take 1d4 weeks to reassemble. Dealing damage from a positive energy source to a carcaetan corpse permanently destroys it, regardless of what kind of damage reduced it to 0 hit points.

This process takes several hours under the best of circumstances, and the carcaetan must succeed on a DC 15 Will save or gain no benefit. No foe can grant a carcaetan more than one ability, and some creatures simply do not have compatible physiologies that a carcaetan can use. Guidelines for granting carcaetans new abilities are (but are not limited to) as follows:


 * Attacks: A carcaetan can replace its bite attack, and either of its claw attacks, with the bite or claw attack of a Small to Large creature. This grants the carcaetan the damage and threat range of the grafted natural weapon but does not change the carcaetan's attack bonus or grant it any supernatural abilities. Extraordinary abilities carried over with natural weapons include poison and disease effects, and extra energy damage, but not improved grab, swallow whole, or rend.
 * Breath Weapon: By wearing the head or skull (as a helm or mantle, or by replacing the carcaetan's head) of a Small to Large creature, a carcaetan can gain the creature's breath weapon. The effect is identical to the creature's, but the save DC is 10 + 1⁄2 carcaetan's HD.
 * Fast Healing: A carcaetan who grafts on part of the anatomy of a creature with fast healing gains fast healing 1, or adds to its current level of fast healing.
 * Gaze Attack: By wearing the eyes of a Small to Large creature, a carcaetan can gain the creature's gaze attack. The effect is identical to the creature's, but the save DC is 10 + 1⁄2 carcaetan's HD + carcaetan's Charisma modifier.
 * Resistance to Energy: A carcaetan can gain one-half (maximum 20) of an energy-resistant creature's resistance to one type of energy. If the creature is immune to the type of energy instead, the carcaetan gains a resistance of 20.
 * Spell-Like Abilities: Drinking a creature's blood can give a caracetan access to one of its spell-like abilities. The carcaetan can choose the ability from those available to the creature, but the ability must emulate a spell of a level no higher than onehalf the carcaetan's HD. The carcaetan can use the ability once per day, or at the same frequency as the creature, whichever is less frequent. The ability operates at a caster level equal to the carcaetan's HD, and the save DC is Charisma-based.
 * Spell Resistance: As resistance to energy.

Treasure
None &mdash; But it is very possible that a grafted limb from a civilized humanoid might still have a piece of jewelry attached. Carcaetans don't go out of their way to hoard treasure, but the occasional bracer or ring (whether magical or mundane) on a body part will not be removed from the creature automatically. Who knows? A PC might just get lucky.

In Your Campaign
A carcaetan that gains Hit Dice or advances by character class is likely to gain abilities from other creatures along the way. To randomly determine these abilities and their sources, use the following table. Roll once per added HD or level. A roll indicating a feature which already exists (a second head, or a third claw) means that the caracetan gains no ability.