Keeper

Most sages believe that keepers were someone’s attempt to create a race of constructs that would act as spies or guardians of some secret knowledge. At some point the process went awry, and keepers began to be born as free-willed living beings. Now they roam the planes, driven to discover the secrets of others and make «certain that no one else can learn them.

A keeper looks human or half-elven at first glance, but a close examination reveals that its bald, pale-skinned, humanoid form moves oddly; all its joints are capable of bending in any direction. Adding to their alien appearance, keepers all look remarkably similar; each wears a dark leather coat that serves as armor and black goggles to disguise the fact that the creatures have no eyes.

Keepers are driven to discover things that others do not want known. They are insatiably curious, but prefer to observe the knowledge they seek rather than interact with the creatures that have it. Once they have learned what they think they can from a creature, keepers often attempt to silence that creature so that others cannot learn what it knows. Despite these draconian tactics, keepers can be bargained with and will hold to the letter of any deal made. Such bargains usually involve simply buying off the keepers with knowledge rather than an exchange of information: No keeper willingly parts with its secrets.

Keepers have a disturbing and abrupt manner, finding the subtleties of the cultures of other creatures chaotic and difficult to understand. Keepers seem too intense and driven to most creatures and are often unsettling to others even when they are trying to be diplomatic.

Keepers rarely speak, since they can communicate with each other telepathically, but they can converse in Common, Celestial, and Infernal.

Combat

Although highly intelligent, keepers tend to be poor innovators. When they discover a tactic that works, they often rely on it slavishly until it proves ineffective on multiple occasions. Thus, keeper attacks often come in waves. Keepers often test a strategy by sending a single keeper or a small team to attack, Other keepers remain hidden nearby, observing through their brethren the tactics and weaknesses ofthe foe. If the foe proves too strong for the testing team to overcome, fresh keepers use their body switch ability to teleport in and attempt to further wear down the foe. If this tactic fails to defeat the enemy, more fresh keepers take their place and then flee to formulate a new plan of attack.

Mimic Weapon (Ex): A keeper can form the malleable flesh and bone of its arms into any melee weapon (even an exotic weapon) it has witnessed in use and then wield the weapon with proficiency. It can form either arm into any melee weapon of up to Medium-size. It must fuse and form both its arms to mimic a weapon of Large size or a double weapon. A keeper cannot use its arms to create melee weapons ofa size larger than it could normally wield. A mimicked weapon has all the properties of a standard weapon of that type.

A keeper’s attacks with its mimicked weapons are treated as natural attacks; thus, keepers do not incur the normal penalties for fighting with two weapons, cannot be disarmed, and do not gain iterative attacks with their mimicked weapons. Keepers are capable of wielding normal weapons, even ranged weapons, but they rarely do so.

Poison Spit (Ex): Once every 1d4 rounds, a keeper can spit a nauseating contact poison in a 20-foot cone.

Keeper Poison: Contact DC 14; Initial damage nauseated for 2d6 rounds; Secondary damage 2d6 Con; Craft (poisonmaking) DC 20; Price 1,200 gp.

Body Switch (Su): A keeper’s hive mind and its unique mental link to other keepers grants it a supernatural ability to exchange places with any other living keeper within 500 feet. As a standard action, a keeper can use greater teleport to reach the exact location of another keeper, instantaneously teleporting the other keeper away and effectively switching positions with that keeper. A keeper may use this ability to switch places with an unconscious, dying, or otherwise helpless keeper. Keepers often use this ability to surprise opponents or to harry foes that have sealed themselves off from the attacks of the other keepers.

Dissolution (Ex): When a keeper is captured, pinned, or held helpless, it has 10 rounds to free itself or be freed by another creature. If it is not freed before that time, it dissolves into a 5-foot-wide puddle of the same contact poison the keepers spit. The puddle and any poison taken from it evaporate in 4 rounds⁠—​except that a Craft (poisonmaking) check (DC 20) made during that time will preserve enough poison from the puddle for one dose of keeper poison.

A keeper that dies also dissolves into a puddle of poison. Any creature that touches the keeper as it dissolves (such as with a natural attack that dealt the death blow) or that touches a puddle of poison before it evaporates must make Fortitude saving throws to avoid the poison’s effects.

Hive Mind (Ex): All keepers within 500 feet of each other are in constant communication. If one is aware of a particular danger, they all are. If one in the group is not flat-footed, none of them are. No keeper within range is considered flanked unless all are.

Immunities (Ex): Keepers have an alien physiology and incomprehensible minds that make them more like constructs than living creatures. A keeper is immune to mind-affecting effects, poison, sleep, paralysis, stunning, disease, death effects, necromantic effects, and any effect that requires a Fortitude save unless it also works on objects. They are not subject to critical hits, sneak attacks, subdual damage, ability damage, ability drain, energy drain, or death from massive damage.

Skills: Keepers have a +8 racial bonus on Climb checks and can always choose to take 10 on Climb checks, even if rushed or threatened. In addition, their strange and malleable physiology grants keepers a +8 racial bonus on Jump and Escape Artist checks. Keepers are not limited by their height when determining the distance they can jump.

Keeper Characters

A keeper’s favored class is rogue. A keeper PC’s effective character level (ECL) is its class level + 7. For example, a 1st-level keeper rogue has an ECL of 8 and is the equivalent of an 8th-level character.

Source: Fiend Folio, page 111. Changes applied as per the D&D^® v.3.5 Accessory Update.