Pyrefly Rift (3.5e Template)
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Pyrefly Rift[edit]
A magnitude of small wispy specks of ethereal prismatic colours dance around one another in place, as if reveling and having fun while guarding a sacred spot.
A pyrefly rift may be created when a certain kind of monster dies. Its soul is transported to the outer plane appropriate for it, forced through a zero-dimensional rift in space-time where it died.
These things come to be when a certain kind of monster dies -- or rather, they can come to be, because it would be rather silly if they showed up at every death of a creature whose type is compatible. While I imagine there'd always be a zero-dimensional rift when a creature dies, most of these cease to be immediately after the soul passes through. Sometimes though? Sometimes they don't for some reason, like the soul getting "stuck" in the rift or magic forcing it to remain existing (the aura of a deity briefly manifesting its power on the Material Plane would have such an effect).
While the rift itself is merely the core of this creature, it is the soul wisps (or "pyreflies") that give it its true sentience, however little. These pyreflies retain vague memories of the base creature, pertaining to those they were closest to in life, things they often did and, in case of a violent death (most often the cause of the existence of a pyrefly rift), their cause of death and whomever was involved. Pyrefly rifts do pretty much nothing at all until first approached by a living creature. If this creature threatens it (even if it is incapable of attacking incorporeal or swarm creatures), the pyrefly rift responds in kind and attacks it until it flees (Evil pyrefly rifts may attack even without provocation, Good pyrefly rifts tend to wait until the creature attempts to attack it). Afterwards, pyreflies tend to linger still in the same location, though through magical or divine influence they may seek out what and whom they knew in life; yet others aimlessly wander around.
While the name "pyreflies" was taken from FFX as I liked the name and hadn't seen a similar concept before, it is by no means meant to be the same. Though right now, I'm thinking of perhaps making a normal "pyrefly" creature and make this concept the focal point of a future campaign. (Prior to now, I thought of making it only a minor thing, such as pyrefly rifts being encountered at an old battlefield, near a temple or possibly at a graveyard.)
The zero-dimensional core of a pyrefly rift continually spawns new pyreflies, but this does not increase its size or abilities due to it being a swarm. It is merely growing its swarm to "maturity" (explaining why a pyrefly rift has potentially hundreds or thousands of component pyreflies while the death of a single creature does not nearly create that many) or replenishing those it lost (explaining its fast healing ability).
Creating a Pyrefly Rift[edit]
A pyrefly rift can be created from any living creature that is not incorporeal, a swarm, an elemental, an ooze, an outsider, a plant, vermin or the Tarrasque (basically any creature that has a soul and can die), which becomes known as the “base creature”. The sample pyrefly rift was created from a mighty wizard’s raven familiar.
Size and Type[edit]
If the base creature was evil, a pyrefly rift is an Undead type. If the base creature was good, a pyrefly rift is a Deathless type. If the base creature was neutral, a pyrefly rift has a 50% chance of being either undead or deathless type.
The creature gains the swarm and incorporeal subtypes. Stats are recalculated.
The space a pyrefly rift takes up is equal in size to the monster whose death created it, with a minimum size of 5’ (usually this is 10’ for Large, 15’ for Huge, 20’ for Gargantuan and 25’ for Colossal creatures). This is only the swarm of soul-wisps (the pyreflies) that fly around the rift. The rift itself is zero-dimensional. A pyrefly rift has no reach.
Hit Dice[edit]
A pyrefly rift has an amount of HD equal to that of the base creature. The size of the base creature's HD changes accordingly with the change in its type. (Undead and Deathless have a hit die of d12)
Speed[edit]
A pyrefly cannot move like a normal creature does. Instead its zero-dimensional core slips between the folds of space and time to move around, allowing it to move up to 70 feet as a move action. If a pyrefly rift is affected by antimagic, it disappears to the ethereal plane as normal for incorporeal monsters, but in the ethereal plane it can still move, allowing it to re-appear outside of the antimagic field.
Attack[edit]
A pyrefly rift gains a swarm attack.
Full Attack[edit]
A pyrefly rift does not make attack options. It deals damage through its swarm attack.
Special Attacks[edit]
At will- daze, flare; 3/day- haste. Caster level 20th. A pyrefly rift can also still use any spell-like abilities the base creature had, as long as they require no attack roll or something else that a pyrefly cannot do, and uses the caster level of the base creature.
Special Qualities[edit]
A pyrefly rift has none of the extraordinary and supernatural abilities of the base creature.
Immunities and resistances: A pyrefly rift has all the standard immunities and resistances of undead and incorporeal creatures and has the same energy immunities and resistances as the base creature. Furthermore, it has the same damage reduction and spell resistance (or power resistance) as the base creature. It also has most of the same traits as a swarm, except as follows: magic bludgeoning weapons deal half damage, but also have a 50% miss chance.
Weaknesses: A pyrefly rift is susceptible to spells like dismissal and banishment. If it fails its save it is effectively destroyed, unless, in the case of dismissal, the 20% chance for it to be sent to "a plane other than its own" kicks in, which forces the pyrefly rift fully into the Ethereal Plane for the next 24 hours.
A pyrefly rift cannot wear equipment or activate magical items.
Control Immunity: A pyrefly rift is immune to any spells that control undead or deathless creatures or other spells that would take control of them. It is also immune to turning and rebuking.
Fast Healing: The base creature gains fast healing 1.
Abilities[edit]
A pyrefly rift loses its strength, constitution, dexterity, and intelligence scores.
Challenge Rating[edit]
+1 (minimum 2)
Treasure[edit]
None
Alignment[edit]
Changes to neutral on the chaos/law axis.
Advancement[edit]
Does not advance
Back to Main Page → 3.5e Homebrew → Monsters → Templates
| Author | Morpholomew Bark + |
| Identifier | 3.5e Template + |
| Rating | Undiscussed + |
| Summary | A pyrefly rift may be created when a certain kind of monster dies. Its soul is transported to the outer plane appropriate for it, forced through a zero-dimensional rift in space-time where it died. + |
| Title | Pyrefly Rift + |
| Type | Undead + and Deathless + |
