B.5 Creature Origins

Each creature has exactly one origin. Unlike traits, which are defined above, an origin is an intrinsic property of a creature that cannot be granted or removed temporarily by any means. Unless otherwise specified, all creatures have the following default traits: blooded, corporeal, dynamic, ensouled, living, mortal, and sighted.

Artificial: Artificial creatures are composed of matter that would not ordinarily support life, such as metal, water, or essentia. Common artificial creatures include constructs, elementals, and demons.

Artificial creatures normally have the following traits: bloodless, immortal, and nonliving.

Natural: Natural creatures are composed of biological matter that naturally supports life. Most creatures are natural, including humans, animals, and dragons.

Undead: Undead are creatures that are made from the corpse or spirit of a dead creature. They are animated by some part of the soul of the original creature.

Although undead are nonliving, they are damaged by some forms of healing. Undead can be targeted as if they were living allies by magical ✨ Life effects. If a magical ✨ Life ability would cause an undead to regain hit points, it instead takes damage equal to the hit points that it would have regained. Any other effects beyond simple hit point recovery are ignored. For example, if a cleric uses their divine aid ability to heal an undead creature, the undead would take damage, but it would not gain any bonus to its defenses.

Undead creatures normally have the following traits: bloodless, immortal, nonliving, and static.

B.5.1 Creature Types

Each creature has one or more creature types.

Aberration: Aberrations have souls that are owned by the Precursors in the Eternal Void. When an aberration dies, its soul drifts through the Astral Expanse for centuries until it finally returns to the Eternal Void.

Animal: Animals are simple, mundane creatures. They cannot have magical ✨ abilities, and cannot have an Intelligence above -8. The Creature Handling skill is more effective on animals, as indicated in that skill’s description.

Beast: Beasts are fairly unintelligent creatures, but they are smarter or more magical than animals. They have a maximum Intelligence of -5, and are incapable of speech or language. Beasts are typically found in the wilderness, and seem to naturally avoid civilized areas.

Construct: A construct is a creature that is made of non-sapient matter. Its inanimate body is given a semblance of life and sentience by some form of magic. Like other creatures, they can move and follow instructions. However, they lack agency and cannot make independent decisions. Instead, they simply follow the instructions they were given when created. A construct’s Intelligence reflects the complexity and nuance of the instruction it was given.

Constructs normally have the following traits: mindless, nonliving, soulless, static.

Constructs are not affected by the Medicine skill, and do not normally remove vital wounds when they take a long rest. Instead, their vital wounds must be repaired manually. This functions like accelerate recovery ability from the Medicine skill, except that it uses an appropriate Craft skill and raw materials appropriate to the construct’s construction.

Dragon: A dragon is a powerful magical creature with four legs and two wings. Dragons can feed on magic and valuable metals, including gold. They are known for their vast hoards of wealth. Since dragons never stop growing in size or strength, elder dragons are some of the most powerful creatures in existence.

Dragons normally have the following traits: immortal.

Fey: Fey are chaotic creatures that are highly magical.

Fey normally have the following traits: immortal.

Ghost: A ghost is the soul of a deceased creature that lingered after death instead of proceeding to its proper afterlife. Ghosts are incorporeal and resistant (+4 defenses) to Cold and Earth abilities. However, they are vulnerable (-4 defenses) to Fire abilities. Despite being incorporeal, they are affected by even mundane Fire effects.

Ghosts normally have the following traits: bloodless, immortal, incorporeal.

Humanoid: Humanoid creatures have two arms, two legs, and one head. Most civilized creatures and societies are predominantly humanoid.

Indwelt: An indwelt is a creature that is made of non-sapient matter. Its inanimate body was awakened to a semblance of life by connection to an external soul. Unlike constructs, indwelt have agency and true intelligence.

The soul of an indwelt did not originally belong to to the matter that composes its body. This contrasts with undead, which always maintain a connection between a body and its original soul. As a result, an indwelt’s connection to its physical body is weak. If an indwelt is killed, it can be resurrected, but its previous body is not considered its corpse in the same way that a human’s dead body is. This means it cannot be resurrected by magic that uses the corpse of the deceased creature.

If the body of an indwelt is made of organic matter, it is dynamic and living. Otherwise, it is static and nonliving.

Insect: Insects are multi-legged invertebrates that often have a tough exoskeleton. They generally have highly organized social structures. Even simple-minded insects can be capable of highly coordinated behavior in groups.

Ooze: Oozes are amorphous, gelatinous creatures that lack defined organs or skeletons.

Oozes normally have the following traits: simple-minded, soulless.

Plant: Plants are alive, but do not have flesh or blood. They are vulnerable (-4 defenses) to Fire abilities. Some plants are creatures, but most plants are living objects.

Plants normally have the following traits: bloodless, soulless.

Soulforged: A soulforged is a creature made from the essentia of a Spiritual Plane. They are called soulforged because they are made of essentia, which comes from souls. Most such creatures do not have their own souls. They are agents of deities and other powerful figures, used to enforce their will.

When a soulforged is destroyed, its essentia is absorbed by the plane it is on. This is one reason that soulforged creatures rarely leave their home plane, since dying on other planes is a net loss of essentia to their creators. If a soulforged has a soul and a strong will, the soul travels to its home plane like mortal souls do. It can generally make a new body for itself within a week if it died on another plane, or within a day if it died on its home plane. Soulforged that die without a soul, or with a soul too weak to reconstitute itself, do not reform.

Soulforged normally have the following traits: bloodless, immortal, nonliving, soulless.