Huptzeen

A huptzeen is a minor magical construct brought to life through arcane ritual and the help of a being from the Outer Planes. Unlike golems or living statues, it has no limbs and looks like nothing alive. Instead it takes the shape of a beautiful object, a jewel, an ornament or some other curio of graceful lines and superb workmanship.

Spellcasting is its only attack. Each day it casts spells as a wizard whose level equals its Hit Dice, so a 4 HD huptzeen has a 4th-level wizard's spells. Its Hit Dice can never exceed its maker's level. The maker chooses its spells, only from those the maker knows, and the list is fixed forever at creation. Though it cannot speak or move, it casts spells with verbal and somatic components anyway.

Brighter than most constructs, it hears, adapts to events and plans sensibly. Because a target often cannot tell which trinket is attacking, it likes to open with subtle magic of no clear source, such as phantasmal force.

Mind-affecting magic such as charm, hold and sleep has no effect on it, and normal weapons inflict half damage. At 0 hit points or less it bursts apart, dealing 1d6 damage plus 2 per unused spell to everyone within 10 feet; a save vs. breath weapon halves this.

Wizards make huptzeens to guard temples, treasures and other important places or things, choosing a form that fits innocently into the setting: a large jewel in a vault, a fancy censer in a shrine, an ornate lectern in a workshop. Some owners wear or carry one as a bodyguard, perhaps as a big belt buckle, a showy amulet or a rune-carved staff. It moves only by slow magical flight, which rarely matters for a guardian. It needs only broad instructions, understands the common tongue and can even talk if it knows a spell like whispering wind.

Huptzeens never eat or sleep and last until destroyed, usually in battle, with no role in the natural world. Building one takes materials worth at least 5,000 gp per Hit Die. A destroyed one leaves fragments worth only 1d4 x 50 gp per Hit Die, while an intact one can fetch as much as 2,000 gp per Hit Die, though it obeys a new owner only if its creator commands it to.