I thought I'd give you guys a bit of a sneak peek at some of the stuff I'm doing behind the scenes for this story. Here's a template that could be applied to creatures in D&D 3.5, and a monster that will be relevant pretty soon.

Ordinal Template

ORDINAL CREATURE

Ordinal creatures dwell on the upper planes, the realms of law, although they resemble beings found on the Material Plane. They are more regal and more statuesque than their earthly counterparts.

Ordinal creatures often come in stony colors (usually grey, white, or black).

CREATING AN ORDINAL CREATURE

“Ordinal” is an inherited template that can be added to any corporeal animal, aberration, animal, dragon, fey, giant, humanoid, magical beast, monstrous humanoid, plant, or vermin of lawful or neutral alignment (referred to hereafter as the base creature).

An ordinal creature uses all the base creature’s statistics and abilities except as noted here. Do not recalculate the creature’s Hit Dice, base attack bonus, saves, or skill points if its type changes.

Size and Type: Animals or vermin with this template become magical beasts, but otherwise the creature type is unchanged. Size is unchanged. Ordinal creatures encountered on the Material Plane have the extraplanar subtype.

Special Attacks: An ordinal creature retains all the special attacks of the base creature and also gains the following attack.

Smite Chaos (Su): Once per day an ordinal creature can make a normal melee attack to deal extra damage equal to its HD (maximum of +20) against a chaotic foe.

Special Qualities: An ordinal creature retains all the special qualities of the base creature and also gains the following qualities.

Darkvision out to 60 feet.

Spell resistance equal to HD + 5 (maximum 25).

Damage reduction (see the table below).

Resistance to acid, cold, and electricity (see the table below).

Hit Dice Resistance to Damage Reduction

Acid, Cold, Electricity

1–3 5 —

4–7 5 5/magic

8–11 10 5/magic

12 or more 10 10/magic

If the base creature already has one or more of these special qualities, use the better value.

If an ordinal creature gains damage reduction, its natural weapons are treated as magic weapons for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.

Abilities: Same as the base creature, but Intelligence is at least 3.

Environment: Any lawful-aligned plane.

Challenge Rating: HD 3 or less, as base creature; HD 4 to 7, as base creature +1; HD 8 or more, as base creature +2.

Alignment: Always good (any).

Level Adjustment: Same as the base creature +2.

Basically, these guys are like Celestial or Fiendish creatures, but while those two are Good and Evil aligned, respectively, Ordinals are lawful aligned, as a rule. So, they have powers much like those two, but they smite chaos instead of Good or Evil.

BLACKMANE WOLVES

Paragon Ordinal Dire Wolf

Large Magical Beast

Hit Dice: 18d8+216 (540 hp)

Initiative: +20

Speed: 150 ft. (30 squares)

Armor Class: 48 (–1 size, +10 Dex, +12 Insight, +12 Luck, +5 natural), touch 43, flat-footed 38

Base Attack/Grapple: +12/+32

Attack: Bite +53 melee (1d8+44)

Full Attack: Bite +53 melee (1d8+44)

Space/Reach: 10 ft./5 ft.

Special Attacks: Trip, Smite Chaos

Special Qualities: Low-light vision, scent, Air Walk, Acid Resistance 10, Cold Resistance 10, Electricity Resistance 10, Fire Resistance 10, DR 10/Epic, SR 43, Fast Healing 20

Saves: Fort +32, Ref +31, Will +30

Abilities: Str 42, Dex 30, Con 32, Int 18, Wis 28, Cha 25

Skills: Escape Artist 27, Hide +39, Intimidate 27, Listen +44, Move Silently +43, Spot +44, Survival +27*

Feats: Alertness, Run, Track, Weapon Focus (bite), Combat Reflexes, Power Attack, Cleave, Great Cleave, Improved Toughness

Environment: Any Lawful plane

Organization: Solitary or pack (5–8)

Challenge Rating: 24

Treasure: None

Alignment: Always lawful (any).

Level Adjustment: —

Blackmane Wolves are efficient pack hunters that will kill anything they can catch.

Blackmane Wolves are mottled gray or black, about 9 feet long and weighing some 800 pounds.

Combat

Blackmane Wolves prefer to attack in packs, surrounding and flanking a foe when they can.

Paragon Creature: A Blackmane Wolf's natural weapons are treated as magic and epic for the purposes of overcoming DR. Blackmane Wolves always have maximum HP per HD. Blackmane Wolves gain +12 Insight and +12 Luck bonus to AC, and a +5 Natural Armor bonus (or the base creature's bonus, if better). A Blackmane Wolf gains +25 luck bonus on all attack rolls and +20 luck bonus on damage rolls for all melee and thrown weapon attacks. A Blackmane Wolf gains +10 insight bonus on all saving throws.

Trip (Ex): A Blackmane Wolf that hits with a bite attack can attempt to trip its opponent (+33 check modifier) as a free action without making a touch attack or provoking an attack of opportunity. If the attempt fails, the opponent cannot react to trip the dire wolf. The Blackmane Wolf gains a +13 insight bonus on the trip attempt.

Smite Chaos (Su): Once per day a Blackmane Wolf can make a normal melee attack to deal extra damage equal to its HD (maximum of +20) against a chaotic foe. They gain a +13 insight bonus on the attack roll for a Smite attack.

Air Walk (Su): A Blackmane Wolf gains a continuous Air Walk ability, as the spell, allowing it to hunt regardless of terrain.

Spell-like Abilities (Sp): 3/day can use Greater Dispel Magic, Haste, and See Invisibility, CL 15.

Skills: A Blackmane Wolf has a +2 racial bonus on Hide, Listen, Move Silently, and Spot checks. It has a +10 competence bonus on all skill checks.

*It also has a +4 racial bonus on Survival checks when tracking by scent.

And these beauties are some of the threats that just so happen to be hanging out in the upper planes.