Animated Furniture - a Monstrous Monday Item

This thing looks like it'd come to life...

I created a mess of this stuff for an area of the HMS Apollyon that was overrun by an NPC party and never saw players, but I've also used it as an enemy for more ASE home-group.  The statistics below aren't really meant to stand in for any particular type of animated furniture so it's a bit limited in contextual information.

 

ANIMATED FURNITURE

	Metal	Hardwood	Light Wood
No Enc. Movement: Armorclass: Hit Dice: Attacks: Damage: Save: Morale: Hoard Class: XP:	1-12 30' 0* 3/6/9/12 1-4 1D10+1 F3-F12 12 (automaton) Nil 80/620/2,400/2800	1-12 40' 4 2/4/6/8 1-4 1D8 F2-F8 12 (automaton) Nil 20/80/320/560	2-200 40' 7 1-4 1-2 1D6 F3-F12 12 (automaton) Nil 10/20/50/80

*Special – Immune to Normal and Silver Weapons (+1 better to hit)

Animated furniture occurs in two ways, first, when intentionally created by a magical practitioner and second, as a result of poltergeist infestation. In the first case the furniture may be docile, but has usually been instructed to defend a certain area from intruders. When the result of an undead infestation, necromantically charged furniture pieces will invariably attack.  All animated furniture is obviously immune to mental spell effect and poison.

In appearance, animated furniture is simply that, a piece of furnishing that has been suffused with magical power to give it a parody of life. The rigid surfaces of animated furniture move in a life-like manner, chair legs gallop across floors and tabletops buck and sway like the bodies of large animals. Obviously animated furniture varies greatly in its ability depending on its size and material. All furniture attacks with its clubbing limbs or by ramming opponents when lacking limbs, and Number. Of Attacks should be determined by the complexity and number of free limbs on a piece of furniture (A chair might attack with both front legs, while a couch would only be able to attack by ramming and trampling.

Size of furniture generally determines its HD using the rough categories below.

Small Furniture (1HD multiplier) – dinner chair, end tables, carpet runner, table lamp

Medium Furniture (2HD multiplier) – lounge chair, wardrobe, kitchen table, bookshelf, coat rack

Large Furniture (3HD multiplier) – dining table, large wardrobe, area carpet, stove, couch

Huge Furniture (4HD multiplier) – throne, laboratory equipment, furnace, banquet table

Most other statistics for animated furniture are governed by the material it is made out of. Light Furniture such as softwood, cane or plush furniture fits into the light wood category and in addition to having a higher AC and less HP is generally susceptible to fire – suffering an additional +2 HP damage per die of fire damage inflicted.

Hardwood Furniture is sturdier stuff, any well made wooden or hollow metal furniture fits into this category.

Metal Furniture includes furniture that is made of solid metal, including furniture specifically designed as a guardian.   Solid Metal furniture also requires a considerable amount of power to animate, and this power, as well as the durable material of the creature, makes this class of animated furniture immune to normal and silver weapons, requiring magical weapons to hit.  It is also immune to non-magical fire damage.

Note on Treasure: Animated Furniture has no interest in collecting valuables, but it is often used as a guardian for treasure or found in rooms that incidentally contain treasure. Incidentally animated furniture is sometimes made of valuable material, but such material (such as rare hardwoods) is almost always destroyed, valuable inlays or inset gems may remain intact when the furniture is destroyed.