Stone Wolf

Because each is shaped by hand from stone, no two stone wolves need look alike beyond a general wolfish form. All of them, however, have eyes of white-hot fire opal.

A stone wolf shifts from statue to predator so smoothly that it gains +4 on initiative in the first round. A natural 20 on its attack means it has pounced and pinned its target, adding 1d6 crushing damage. While pinned, the victim loses all Dexterity and shield bonuses and the wolf attacks at +4; escaping takes a successful bend bars/lift gates roll, attempted once every five rounds.

Arrows, sling stones and bolts deal just 1 point each. Edged weapons do half damage and crushing weapons full damage, while magical weapons always add their full bonuses.

The eyes are its weak spot. With the optional called-shot rules, a character may aim for them; on a hit, roll 1d20, and a 1 or 2 shatters both opals and destroys the wolf at once. Any other result breaks one eye, leaving the wolf at -4 to hit on that blind side.

Sleep, hold, charm, and any cold or paralysis magic have no effect. Fire and electrical spells deal half damage, or none if it saves vs. spell. Magic missile works normally. Several earth spells are devastating, each allowing a save vs. spell: stone to flesh drops it to AC 10 and makes it vulnerable to all weapons; transmute rock to mud or disintegrate destroys it outright; earthquake deals 6d8 (half on a save); move earth freezes it permanently as a statue; and wall of stone absorbs its body into the new wall, while a successful save still leaves a 50% chance it ends up on the caster's side.

Stone wolves have no society beyond their bond with the mage who made them. At his call they go straight to him; they cannot track by scent, but can follow by sight or sound when needed. They own no treasure, but since they are usually posted beside something a mage prizes, finding them suggests a reward close by.

These constructs stand outside nature. A mage of 9th level or higher shapes up to four masses of purified clay with a modified stone shape, each containing a wolf skull and two fire opals worth 1,000 gp apiece to serve as eyes. The following day a modified animate dead brings them to life, and during that day between the spells the mage can cast nothing else. The finished guardians, up to four, never sleep, standing motionless over a chosen room or object until a stranger comes near.