Armorphage

Description

The Armorphage, sometimes caller simply, an Armorer, is a magical parasite whose body outwardly appears to be an elaborate, ornamental suit of armor. The parasitic nature of the armorphage means that 80% of the time they will be found on a victim.

The type of armor it resembles should be chosen by the Referee, or rolled locally: 1-2 leather, 3-4 chain, 5 plate, 6 shield. If the armor is meant to appear magical, use the White Box magical weapons and armor rules to choose any bonus or curse. The armorphage is able to determine who the most likely to want the type of armor they resemble, and will focus on the most likely victim, enthralling them to desire, and want to wear the armorphage at any cost, unless they succeed in a saving throw.

Once the armorphage is on its victims tendrils will slowly pierce the victim; these tendrils themselves will not harm the victim but will allow the creature to slowly feed off its victim, and control the hosts body like a puppet. Each day, the victim must make a saving throw or deduct a level of energy drain, until they reach level 0 and death, when the armorphage will abandon the corpse.

While the armorphage is attached to the body it controls them physically, though their mind is still their own. Their body is completely under the control of the armorphage, which still has access to the victim’s instincts and learned physical skills, allowing the armorphage to attack as if it was the host. Additionally, it can extrude tendrils from its body and attack with a single tendril.

Attempting to forcefully remove an armorphage will cause it to constrict itself on the victim’s body, causing 1d6+1 points of damage every round. Attacking the armorphage while it is encasing a victim will split the damage (half to the victim, half to the armorphage, which may constrict its victim as well). Someone who is able to survive having an armorphage removed will recover the energy drain at 1 level per week of rest.

Though they do their very best to avoid it ever happening, if necessary an armorphage without a host can defend itself using an extruded tendril it can manifest, though it is more likely to attempt to flee anyone who attacks it in its vulnerable state.

Source note: This creature is converted from The Basic Fantasy Field Guide of Creatures Malevolent and Benign – Omnibus Edition, 1st Edition Release 4, © 2010–2025 Chris Gonnerman, R. Kevin Smoot, James Lemon, Matt Sluis, and Contributors. The Basic Fantasy Field Guide textual material is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International; this page adapts that creature to White Box.

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