Common Animator

A common animator has no visible form of its own. Stronger than the minor kind, it can take over sizable objects such as a carriage, a piano or a cast-iron stove, and once inside it can lend the host a strange power that ranges from irritating to murderous.

It never truly speaks. Now and then it passes a message to its ward by gouging letters into wood, tapping out a code, or something similar, but nothing goes the other way: words, magic and psionics all fail to reach it, and probing its mind directly may call for a madness check at the game master's discretion.

Every moving part of the host answers to the animator. A coach rolls off by itself, a piano plays untouched, a dresser's drawers bang open and shut without warning. If it does not hold a weapon, it must hurt people indirectly. That still takes an attack roll, using a THAC0 based on the host's weight and material (see Animator Overview), and usually deals no more than 1d8. Side effects may call for saves: a coach might try to buck its driver off, demanding a Dexterity check, and a driver who lands in front of a passing wagon might then need a save vs. paralyzation or die beneath its wheels.

It also grants its host one harmful magical power suited to the object, roughly equal to a wizard or priest spell of 4th level or lower. A big iron stove might belch fire when its door opens, a piano might cast irresistible dance on its listeners, and a fishing skiff might snarl its passengers in nets and lines. These powers are always harmful, never healing or helpful.

Like all animators, it cannot be affected by spells or attacks that work on minds or bodies, so charm, hold and poison all fail. What else can hurt it depends on what the host object is made of.

Outside a host, an animator is thought to drift like a bodiless mist, and apparently no barrier can stop it while it searches for a new home. It homes in on strong negative emotions and settles in to feed.

Common animators live on the feelings of the living, both fresh and lingering. Some haunt places where someone died in great anguish, and are often taken for ghosts or other incorporeal undead.