Living Zombie

''The man before you is armed with a short sword. He wears leather armor and a vacant expression.''

Human Living Zombie (CR 1/2) XP 200 N Medium humanoid Init +0; Senses Perception +0 --- AC 14, touch 10, flat-footed 14 (+2 leather armor, +2 natural) hp 12 (2d8+3) Fort +0, Ref +0, Will +3 DR 5/slashing --- Speed 30 ft. Melee shortsword +4 (1d6+3/19-20) --- Str 17, Dex 10, Con 10, Int —, Wis 10, Cha 10 Base Atk +1; CMB +4; CMD 14 Feats Toughness (B) SQ flesh puppet, staggered --- Environment any land Organization any Treasure leather armor, shortsword --- Flesh Puppet (Ex): If a living zombie goes more than 24 continuous hours without being subject to a dominate person or magic jar effect, it is immediately reduced to 0 hit points and destroyed. Each time the controller of a dominate person effect affecting a living zombie concentrates to receive full sensory input from the living zombie, the living zombie gains that creature's skill ranks and languages for 1 round. It can use those skills and languages as if it had an Intelligence score equal to that of the controlling creature, but only while following direct orders. Staggered (Ex): Living zombies have poor reflexes and can only perform a single move action or standard action each round. A living zombie can move up to its speed and attack in the same round as a charge action.

A living zombie is a varaint zombie whose body remains fully alive, despite the permanent departure of its soul. The living zombie retains the appearance it had in life, though its gaze is noticably vacant. It counts as a living creature, as opposed to an undead creature, for all purposes.

A creature transformed into a living zombie cannot be restored from the dead until its living zombie body is slain. Essentially, the creature that became a living zombie is treated as if it were alive but subject to an unbreakable compulsion effect that forces it to live on as a living zombie.

 Creating a Living Zombie A creature that can cast both animate dead and dominate person can target a living creature subject to a dominate person spell it cast with an animate dead spell as if that dominated creature were a corpse. A dominated creature targeted by an animate dead spell in this manner becomes a living zombie instead of a normal zombie or skeleton.

Only humanoids under the effect of a dominate person spell can become living zombies. A living zombie uses the normal zombie template with the following changes.

Alignment: Always neutral.

Type: The base creature retains its normal creature type instead of becoming undead. Do not change the Hit Dice, base attack bonus, and base saving throw bonuses granted by the normal zombie template, despite those being based upon the undead creature type.

Defensive Abilities: The base creature does not gain the qualities and immunities of the undead type.

Abilities: The base creature retains its normal Constitution score.

Special Qualities: In addition to the changes made by the normal zombie template, a living zombie gains the flesh puppet special quality described above.