Huecuvas are undead creatures created from clerics, druids, paladins, or monks who have failed in their vows. As punishment for their heresies, they are doomed to undeath. Huecuvas are sometimes created when a good at neutral cleric changes his alignment to evil and dies without seeking atonement for his wrongs, or when an evil priest is subjected to a particularly powerful curse by her patron deity.
Huecuvas retain dim memories of their old lives and often dwell in desecrated shrines and broken temples that mock their former orders. They hate all living things, but they especially loathe good-aligned priests.
Huecuvas appear as humanoid skeletons wrapped in tarnished, corroded, or tattered vestments.
Creating A Huecuva
"Huecuva" is an acquired template that can be added to any humanoid (hereafter referred to as the base creature with at least one level in the cleric, druid, paladin, or monk class. The creature's type changes to undead. Unlike lich-dom, which preserves the intellect and powers of the base creature, the transformation to a huecuva exacts a terrible toll on the victim's mind, reducing its Intelligence to barely sentient levels. The huecuva uses all the base creature's statistics and special abilities except as noted here.
Hit Dice: Increase to d12.
AC: The base creature's natural armor increases by +4. Huecuvas often wear the armor they wore in life - especially armor intended for ceremonial purposes.
Attacks and Damage: A huecuva retains all the attacks of the base creature and also gains a slam attack if the base creature does not have one. If the base creature does not have a slam attack, use the appropriate value based on the huecuva's size (see the table below) but only humanoids are eligible. A base creature with natural attacks uses the value from the table below or the base creature's damage, whichever is greater.
Special Attacks: A huecuva retains all the special attacks of the base creature. In addition, huecuvas expose any victims hit with a natural attack to a deadly disease known as huecuva blight.
Huecuva Blight (Su): Victims hit by a huecuva's slam attack must succeed on a Fortitude save (DC 14) or fall prey to the disease called huecuva blight. The incubation period is 1 day; at the end of that time, the disease deals 1d2 points of Strength and Constitution damage. An infected victim must make a saving throw each day thereafter or take another 1d2 points of Strength and Constitution damage. The effects of huecuva blight are cumulative each day until the victim reaches 0 Constitution (and dies), makes two consecutive successful saves, or receives magical treatment (such as a remove disease spell).
Special Qualities: Huecuvas retain all the special qualities of the base creature and gain the following additional qualities.
Turn Resistance (Ex): A huecuva is treated as an undead with 2 more Hit Dice than it actually has for the purposes of turn, rebuke, command, or bolster attempts.
Damage Reduction (Ex): A huecuva has damage reduction 15/silver.
Divine Conversion: A cleric who becomes a huecuva loses access to the domains he had in life and replaces them with the Death and Evil domains. A cleric who previously was able to turn undead loses that ability and gains the ability to rebuke or command undead, like other evil clerics.
A paladin who becomes a huecuva gains special abilities much like a fallen paladin who becomes a blackguard. See the information on fallen paladin blackguard abilities to determine the huecuva's special abilities.
Abilities: Change from the base creature as follows: Str +2, Int -6, Wis +2, Cha +2. As undead creatures, huecuvas have no Constitution score.
Feats: Huecuvas gain Toughness as a bonus feat.
Climate/Terrain: Any land and underground.
Organization: Solitary or gang (2-12).
Challenge Rating: Same as the base creature +2.
Alignment: Always evil (any).