Card Soldiers

The Card Soldier is essentially a golem made of pressed paper.

Originally Posted by Johnny Cache of the Wizards Community forums.

On this Thread

Its appearance from the front of back is that of a 3 ft. by 4 ft. vertical rectangle with a humanoid head attached to the top and humanoid forelimbs attached to the sides and bottom. The front of each rectangle is mostly white with a variable number of identical symbols, and the back is usually a brightly-colored design. These construct are rather expensive to create, as an entire deck must be constructed at one time.

The process of creating Card Soldiers also creates their weapons, also made of pressed paper. While they function as normal +1 weapons for the constructs, they are useless in the hands of anyone else and have no value except as souvenirs.

Card Soldier
Medium construct
Hit Dice	2d10 (11 hp)
Initiative	+0
Speed	20 ft. (4 squares)
Armor Class	11(+0 size, +0 Dexterity, +1 natural), touch 9, flat-footed 11
Base Attack/Grapple	+1/na
Attack	Paper halberd+1 (1d8) or Paper longsword+1 (1d6)
Full Attack	see above
Space/Reach	5 ft. by 0 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks	–
Special Qualities	construct traits, Stacking, Wall Defense, Edge-on, Flutter, Air resistance, Flammable, Immunities, Damage Reduction, Short Limbs ,Frail (optional)
Saves	Fort +0, Ref +2, Will +0
Abilities	Strength 8, Dexterity 10, Constitution -, Intelligence -, Wisdom 10, Charisma 1
Skills	–
Feats	lightning reflexes
Environment	Any not too moist
Organization	Single, Hand(5), Suit(10) or Deck(40 or 42)
Challenge Rating	1
Treasure	None
Alignment	Always neutral
Advancement	2-5 HD (Medium); 6-10 HD (Large); 10-16 HD (Huge)
Level Adjustment	–

Flammable (Ex)

Being constructed of pressed paper means that, when a Card Soldier is damaged by a fire-based attack, there is a 50% chance of it catching fire and taking a similar amount of damage each turn until it is destroyed. Electricity-based attacks have a 30% chance of igniting the construct. A Card Soldier cannot extinguish its own flames, unless it can find water to immerse itself into.

Immunities (Ex)

A Card Soldier is immune to cold-based and sonic-based attacks. Its waxy coating also gives it immunity to acid-based attacks until it takes damage, and even then it only takes one point of acid damage per round.

Damage Reduction (Ex)

A Card Soldier’s flexible body gives it DR4/slashing or piercing.

Wall Defense (Ex)

If a Card soldier can place itself against a smooth, hard, flat surface, it gains complete immunity to bludgeoning attacks, takes only half damage from slashing weapons, and damage from piercing weapons is reduced to 1 point per attack. Remaining damage is dealt to the surface behind the construct. This ability may be used as part of a move action whenever a single card soldier is within 5′ of a suitable vertical surface, or as a free action when a card soldier is prone on a suitable surface.

Short Limbs (Ex)

Due to the structure of a Card Soldier’s body, it is incapable of initiating a grapple. If an opponent attempts to grapple it, it may still make a grapple check to resist.

In addition, a Card Soldier’s exceptionally flat body gives it the following features

Stacking (Ex) – An entire deck of the constructs can fit in one 5′ sqaure, one behind the other. Only the front card in a stack may take any action other than movement. Said front card suffers no penalties for the other cards sharing its square.

Edge-on (Ex) – As a move action, a Card soldier can position his paper-thin body sideways in relation to an observer or attacker. A card soldier can use this ability to make a special Hide check, without need for concealment, as if he rolled a 20 on the check. A card soldier takes a -2 circumstance penalty on this check for each observer beyond the first. In combat, a Card Soldier can use this ability to give himself concealment against a single opponent. A “stack” of Card Soldiers may use this ability as a group; they take a -1 circumstance penalty on the check for each card after the first.

Flutter (Ex) – A Card Soldier can effectively Featherfall at will.

Air Resistance (Ex) – A Card Soldier’s body, due to it’s shape and material construction, is especially vulnerable to the effects of high wind. For the purposes of wind effects (including artificially-created winds, like those created by a Gust of wind spell), treat a Card Soldier as being two size categories smaller than its actual size.

Frail (Ex) – The flimsiness of the materials used in making Card Soldiers means that they do not get the normal bonus HP for a construct of their size. Optional rule: This flaw may be omitted for use with high-level or Epic parties; doing so increases the CR of an individual Card Soldier to 3.