The Blanks (Final Version) - Edit

Hey all! It's time for another update!
You've caught me in a good mood today, so I thought I'd show you all one of my favorite creatures, The Blank.

For those who haven't played Story of the Blanks, do it. Now. I'll wait (it only takes about 10 minutes to beat).

Blanks are one of my favorite pieces of fanon, and I think they could make a terrifying enemy. Below I'll post its stats, and then I'll give a little insight on why I wrote it up the way I did. Kind of a "behind-the-scenes" thing. I'll put my supplimentary text in my personal color, Goldenrod. So, without further ado, here's...


[size=+1]The Blanks[/size]
"Thoughout Equestria, relics of the past lay forgotten and alone, never truly resting, awaiting recognition..."
Blanks are undead equines which have only recently been discovered in Equestria. During the day, they take the form of a “blank flank” Equinus Faust, but when night falls, they become jet black, skeletal versions of themselves with glowing, red eyes. They are capable of speech, and will often try to “reason” with their prey. They only appear in the Everfree Forest, and have a settlement there called “Sunny Town”. I normally don't write descriptions for something like this; I usually save it for the Monstrous Lore section. The reason I have it up here is because not everyone knows what a Blank is, so for their convenience, I added this short description.
Undead Equine – CR = 6 This is the first thing I come up with when I create a monster. This part tells you how the creature is classified. Undead creatures have different mechanics than living creatures, the least of which is that killing one does not add to your Kill Count (you know, since it's already dead). The CR stands for Challenge rating. This is how you determine what kind of creature to send against your party of adventurers. Reasonably, 1 player with a CR of 6 should be able to take a single Blank in combat. Here's a bit of trivia: I gave the Blank the same CR as I gave the Windigo.
Size: Average
HP: 300 WP: 150
MP: 80 SP: 40
Init: +10 Hit: +16
Dodge: +10 Block: ---
Def: 14/0 (14) M.Def: 6/0 (6) All of this stuff is determined by the Challenge Rating. Eight Star provided me with a nice, big table to use to calculate all of this stuff. ^_^ WP (Weapon Points) are always half of your total HP and SP (Soul Points) are always half of your total MP.
Deadly Touch: The Blank doesn’t attack by biting or kicking its enemy, like a normal equine. Just a touch from this nightmare is enough to make the target lose its will to live. Upon contact, the Blank casts Dread Touch for 1d20+90 Touch-cast Death damage (Ignores Magic Defense from worn items). The target must also make a Will save of 70 or suffer Crushing Depression (target cannot perform normal actions besides walking for 1d4 rounds). Deadly Touch does not affect anyone who attacks it with a weapon or magic. The contact must be body-to-body. The first attack listed is its primary attack. In the game, you die by touching a Blank. That was kind of hard to translate into game mechanics, so I made the attack high damage with some kind of after effect for any who survive it. In TwV terms, Applebloom is a CR1 Blank Flank Juvenile Adventurer. An attack like this would kill her on contact.
Charge: At a cost of 20 WP, the Blank can dash toward, and crash into, its opponent dealing damage equal to its WU + Endurance in addition to damage dealt by Deadly Touch. Blanks walk pretty slowly in the game, so I thought I'd give them a fighting chance against speedier oppenents with this one-off move. WU is Weight Units, or how much something weighs divided by ten. For reference, your average Pony has about 30 WU.
Rise from the Grave: As an action, the Blank can sink into the ground and rise from anywhere on the field, except a spot occupied by another object or creature. This action takes 2 rounds to complete. (Sinks into the ground on the first round, rises on the second round.) If the Blank rises close enough to a target, the target gets an Attack of Opportunity (PER vs. SPD). If the fails, the Blank may use Deadly Touch as part of its action. They can do this in the game, so I had to include it in the write up. Besides, it makes the encounter more exciting! ^_^
Aspect Haters: Blanks consider Aspects, (or “Cutie Marks”) a curse, and will seek to destroy any creatures that are Aspect Producers before any others, when faced with multiple targets. This hatred extends to any target that has an Aspect Stone equipped as part of their armor or weapon. In TwV lore, Equinus Faust (ponies) are Aspect Producers and the source of their Cutie Mark is actually a stone that's located in their spine, just above their tailbone. This stone also gives them an Aspect, or persistent enchantment, usually in the form of a bonus of some kind. Players of "A Shadow Over Ponyville" will understand what I mean.
Life Apathy: The Blank is unable to count any of its Willpower and only half of its Endurance against Life-based attacks. Like any good zombie, Blanks have a weakness to Life-type spells and attacks.
Fear of Light: During the night, when a Blank becomes skeletal, they will refuse to go near a source of light. If they are so inclined, they will stay just out of the light’s radius until an opportunity to attack presents itself. They can also counter this effect by Charging at a cost of double the normal WP.
“One of Us”: An Equinus Faust that has been killed by a Blank (and has not been resurrected, or similarly healed) has a 40% chance of becoming a Blank itself. Upon becoming a Blank, the Equinus Faust loses all of the abilities that it had during life (this includes Racial and Class abilities), and gains all of the abilities that a Blank has. The new Blank doesn’t lose any memories of its life, and can, in some cases, seek healing. Just like in the game. Sorta... This was inspired by some pieces of fanart that I saw of Applebloom as a Blank and I thought it would be an interesting mechanic.
Base Stats:
Str: 10 End: 14
Mag: 18 Will: 6
Spd: 10 Sth: 20
Per: 16 Kno: 4 The table that I have determines what the single highest stat can be for a certain CR. From there, you just throw the rest of the stat points wherever you want. Trivia: The CR can be found by adding all of the stats together and dividing by 16. Blanks are what I call a "Low" 6.
Monstrous Lore:
Check 85: It is said that the Blanks are all that remains of the settlement of Sunny Town after an outbreak of Cutie Pox. From that day forth, the survivors saw Cutie Marks as a curse, and have killed any among them who’ve obtained one. Ironically, this has cursed them to a fate of never truly knowing what their respective talents are…
Monstrous Lore is what the player can find out by rolling Knowledge. If the player rolls less than 85, the GM tells them "OMG ZOMBIE PONEES!!11!!1!" or something to that effect.

I hope this has been a fun and informative trip into how to make a monster.
Your friend, Quilliam Bartholomew Inkwell