Rogues Gallery for Shemmy's Planescape Storyhour #1 (up to date 5-9-06)

[Dialexis]

Shemeska,

Thanks for the link to the site and for the wonderful stats. I have a few questions, and understand if you are either uninterested in the stat tinkering/polishing, but I would like to attempt the Astraloth's stat completion (at the very least, for my own inclusion/game-play).

Perhaps I missed it, but I do not see a Challenge Rating listed for the Astraloth -did you not come up with one?

I see that the skills are not completed: the Intelligence of 18 and being an outsider would give it a plethora of skills (with its 20 HD): which all totals to a whopping 276 skillpoints!

Frankly, I'd advise bumping the intelligence down -as a guardian type yugoloth, I don't see the Astraloth as having human-genius intelligence (being as more intelligent that an average Illithiad). Sure, for a 20 HD outsider, 18 is comparatively low, but 18 Int quite high for a construct. High Wisdom (15 being OK) represents their supernatural awareness and senses of perception -as well as their willpower (since they have been combined with the devout essence of the Nycaloth(?)). It would also represent their natural cunning of the hunt, tracking, reading the behaviour of its prey, etc.

They seemed more like supernatural hunters, versus intelligent yugoloths (like the constructs -they are given orders and obey -though their "will" makes them zealous, instead of "robot" obediance).

Going along with Dhergaloths as rapacious slayers, yet dull of wit, I back down their Intelligence to a mere 14-15 (and maybe giving them the Wisdom of 18). They will still have a plethora of skills representing the lore instilled in them by their creation.

(At any time, please offer correction/alternatives as desired).

With a 10 Int and 20 HD, the Astraloths have 230 -still a ton, but more representative and managable with their given flavor.

Suggested skill points (with modifiers) as such: Bluff +25, Hide +26, Intimidate +27 (31 versus medium-sized creatures), Knowledge (The Planes)+25, Listen+27, Move Silently+30, Search +25, Spot +25, Sense Motive +27, Survival +27 (+29 when tracking on the Planes)

How does that sound?

I also noticed there were no assigned feats:

With 20 HD, the Astraloth would have 8 feats.

I'd propose Improved Initiative, Track, Weapon Finese (for Tentacles and maybe tail), Power Attack, Cleave, Combat Reflexes, Multiattack, and then Improved Grapple.

Consequent Changes: Grapple becomes +34, and all attacks go up by 1 more (although I am not sure which is intended as the primary attack -bite?).

As for updating to 3.5, the Damage reduction becomes a little more tricky. Most constructs have DR/adamantine, and most yugoloths have DR/good. In previous editions they were vulnerable to silver (I actually do mithral -i.e truesilver, thus, law-silver, nuetral-mithral, and chaos-cold iron) and to good aligned attacks.

I'd prefer this -the magic DR is somewhat irrelavant in a creature of this HD/CR.
You can't do silver and adamantine at the same time -I'd actually say to do silver (or in my case mithral). I would also give it good DR, thus having DR 15/good and mithral -which is really hefty since few might have both.

Also, I'd assume that with the tentacles, they only need to make a touch attack.

I would advise not having a DM roll the variable number of tentacles each round (it slows down battle needlessly). Retain the flavor, but just like a chaos beast and other such creatures, it only has the coordination to bring a certain amount to bear in each round (I'd suggest 5 -the average of 10 would be insanely difficult -possible saping 10 levels in one round, with its intendant -50 damage on top of all the other damage -more importantly, 10 tentacle attacks make a DM roll at least 14 times each full attack -even sadistic DM's get tired or rolling that much after a few rounds (if any PCs could stand up to the barrage anyways).

Lastly, what are the ranges for its sensory abilities (including telepathy). Does it have any known languages (I'd suggest Yugoloth, Celestial, Common, and ?)

I'd also give it a few SLA -like planeshift, locate object/person, hold monster, teleport? and some others (but not too many, just relative to travel and tracking).

Comments? (I'm not trying to step on toes -hopefully this is viewed as a compliment to your creation).

 

[Solarious]

I was compelled to do this... by what dark impulse, I do not know. But I now present, for the first time in full 3.5 MM stat block glory....

Astraloth, Spawn of the Ebon
Large Outsider [Evil, Extraplanar, Incorperal, Yugoloth]
Hit points: 20d8 + 200 (290 hp)
Initiative: +11 (+7 Dex, +4 Improved Initiative)
Speed: Fly 60' (perfect)
AC 31 (+7 Dex, +10 Deflection, +5 Profane, -1 Size), Flat AC 24, Touch 31
BAB: +20; Grap: +34
Attack: Tail +26 (1d10+9)
Full Attack: Tail +26 (1d10+9), Bite +26 (1d8+9), 2 Claws +26 (1d8+6), 4 Tentacles +26 incorporeal touch (1d4+Energy Drain)
Space/Reach 10'/10'; tentacles 20', tail 25'
Special Attacks: Energy Drain, Devour Essence
Special Qualities: Aura of Dispair, Blindsight 100', DR 15/Silver and Good, Immunity to Poison, Cold, Acid, Elec/Sonic Resistance 20, Incorporeal traits, Inscrutable Mind, Scent, Spawn of the Ebon, Spell Eater, Spell-Like abilities, SR30, Telepathy 600', Thoughtouch
Saves: Fort +22, Reflex +19, Will +14
Abilities: Str 22 Dex 25 Con 30 Int 15 Wis 18 Cha 15
Skills: Bluff +25, Concentration +29, Hide +32, Intimidate +27 (+31 vs medium-sized creatures), Knowledge (The Planes) +25, Listen +27, Search +25, Spot +25, Sense Motive +27, Survival +27 (+29 when tracking on the Planes)
Feats: Improved Initiative, Track, Power Attack, Stand Still [XPH], Combat Reflexes, Multiattack, Improved Multiattack, Improved Grapple
Environment: The Grey Waste
Organization: Solitary, pair, or pack (3-7)
CR: 19
Alignment: Always Neutral Evil
Advancement: 21-31 (Large); 32-45 (Huge)

Astraloths understand Yugoloth, Infernal, Abyssal, Celestial, and Planar Common

Aura of Dispair (Su)
Everyone in a 60' radius of an Astraloth must make a Will DC 25 save or take a -3 morale penalty to all rolls. The save DC is Con based.

Devour Soul (Su)
If a creature is grappled an Astraloth's and dies while still grappled, the Spawn of the Ebon extracts and consumes the victim's soul in a manner similar to a Bharagest. True Ressurection, Wish, or Miracle are required to return the victim to life, and even then it only has a 50% of success.

Energy Drain (Su)
An Astraloth attmepts to suck out the very soulstuff of creatures with every brush of a tentacle; each time a creature is hit by a tentacle, it must make a Fort DC 21 save or suffer a negative level. On a critical, it inflicts 2 negative levels. The DC for removing this negative level is the same as for resisting it.

Inscrutable Mind (Ex)
Due to their construct natures and bizzare construction, Astraloths are immune to mind affecting spells, and anyone who foolishly attempts mental contact with one must make a Will DC 22 save or take 2d4 points of ability damage to all mental ability scores for touching pure evil and peering into the mechanations of the Ebon; even on a successful save, the victim suffers 1d4 damage to all their mental ability scores. The save DC is Charisma based.

Spawn of the Ebon (Ex)
Although living, Astraloths are more sentient, living contructs rather than true living beings. Thus, they possess many of the standard immunities granted to Constructs, although they are as true outsiders in every other sense. Astraloths possess immunity to Poison, sleep effects, paralysis, stunning, disease, death effects, and necromancy effects. They are not subject to critical hits, nonlethal damage, ability damage, ability drain, fatigue, or energy drain. It is not at risk of death from massive damage. Holy or Blessed weapons ignore all these traits and immunities. Astraloths have a bizzare use of negative energy imbued into their structures, which renders them vulnerable to damage from positive energy a 1/2 the rate normal for undead and other negatively powered beings. Astraloths seems to be incorpereal regardless of the plane they happen to be in, even on the Etheral, and only hints at the insane and bizzare methodology behind their creation. Their tail, bite, and claw attacks, despite being incorporeal, resolve normally as if the Astraloth were not incorporeal.

Spell Eater (Su)
Spells and spell effects that fail to overcome an Astraloth's spell resistance can be absorbed fully on the Astraloth's next turn as a free action, recovering 1d4 per spell level, or alternatively redirected at a legal target within range at the original spellcaster's caster level and any original alterations to it at the time of casting, such as metamagic or Wild Surges.

Spell-Like Abilities (CL20, DC 12 + Spell Level)
at will/ - Detect Thoughts, Locate Object, Locate Creature, Teleport Without Error, Planar Transition [for a 2ED planar cosmology; replace with Plane Shift 3/day for 3.5 cosmology]
3/day - Hold Monster, Interplanar Sending (100 word limit, works across planes)

Thoughtouch (Su)
An Astraloth can vaugely detect locations of intelligent creatures within range of it's telepathy, which consists mostly of direction and little else. Nondetection and equivilant protection from divinations or mind-affecting spells cannot be detected by Thoughtouch.

*Astraloths recieve a +6 racial bonus to Hide, due to it's translucent nature blending into the surroundings

Design Note: Astraloths were originally made to have anywhere from 4 tentacle attacks to 20. They could only bring so many to bear, like Chaos Beasts, but each had a varying number of those attacks. Increasing the number of tentacles as you advance is recomended, or simply to make it more lethal without making it any harder to kill.

These creatures were originally created as servitor creatures, and as a whimsical attempt to explore the uses of the breeding pools and infernal engines constructed beneath the Wasting Tower of Khin-Oin, largely abandoned for any uses beyond the prosaic since the days of the original Baernaloth hegemony across the Waste (during the ancient days of the experiments by Armala the Reprobate, the fracture of the House of Shartalan, and the ideological wars prior to the exile of Apomps the Triple Aspected).

Initially the first five Astraloths were gifted to the Yugoloth Lord Shylara (the Manged) Akt'Atarm explicitely for patrol and security surrounding the Citadel of Shattered Faith within the massive Astral Storm fixed upon the godisle of Aoskar. The Astraloths themselves appear as ghostly, translucent, faintly phosphorescent rail thin humanoids with exaggeratedly long limbs and a seemingly random number of long, similarly translucent tentacles trailing from their backs, shoulders and upper arms that wave and weave through the air almost like the sensory organs of a deep sea creature. They have skeletal, elongated, vaguely reptilian or canine heads, wearing a perpetually hungry, ricktus grin. Their hands and feet are wickedly clawed, and a single long tail that weaves along with the tentacles, but typically hangs below the form of the critter, longer than its body by almost double its length.

They have no visible eyes, and what might have been eyesockets are covered over by translucent hide, somewhat similar to a Canoloth in that they are intentionally blind from their 'birth'. Likewise, they have large nostrils, and they sniff constantly when they sense something. Beyond the mundane senses, the creatures have some bizarre form of psionic abilities, similar to those possessed by phrenic creations of the Illithids, or those of Cerebreliths.

Designed for use on the transitive planes, the creatures are constantly out of phase with normal reality, either existing partially on some freakish sublayer of the Astral, Ethereal, Shadow, or something else entirely (since they seem to be incorporeal regardless of what plane they are on) despite having what would appear to be a solid, non gaseous form. Some sages have seen a link in their capacity here to something similar, a 'yugoloth ghost' created by the Baernaloth, Daru Ib Shamiq, as a servitor guarding a portal in the gatetown of Torch.
-------------------------------
Once I grab access to my copy of the Complete Warrior, I'm making a Mindspy Astraloth. They'll be an unholy terror worthy of soiling one's pants.

EDIT: TINKERING!!!!

 

[Shemeska]

Shemeska,

Thanks for the link to the site and for the wonderful stats. I have a few questions, and understand if you are either uninterested in the stat tinkering/polishing, but I would like to attempt the Astraloth's stat completion (at the very least, for my own inclusion/game-play).

Perhaps I missed it, but I do not see a Challenge Rating listed for the Astraloth -did you not come up with one?

I've never made a CR for any creature I've created. I don't give out numerical XP in my games, so I prefer to simply eyeball any creature with how strong or weak I want the encounter to be. Feel free to make a CR for the critter though.

I see that the skills are not completed: the Intelligence of 18 and being an outsider would give it a plethora of skills (with its 20 HD): which all totals to a whopping 276 skillpoints!

I only assigned some of the skill points, largely because I rarely write down the skills of any monster beyond possibly spot and move silently, the things immediately applicable to a combat encounter. I usually just wing the social skills entirely, using a bonus that 'seems appropriate at the time'.

Frankly, I'd advise bumping the intelligence down -as a guardian type yugoloth, I don't see the Astraloth as having human-genius intelligence (being as more intelligent that an average Illithiad). Sure, for a 20 HD outsider, 18 is comparatively low, but 18 Int quite high for a construct. High Wisdom (15 being OK) represents their supernatural awareness and senses of perception -as well as their willpower (since they have been combined with the devout essence of the Nycaloth(?)). It would also represent their natural cunning of the hunt, tracking, reading the behaviour of its prey, etc.

The Astraloths require the essence of a greater yugoloth in their creation, and most of their intelligence is derived from that which goes into them. I think the example I used in the storyhour was an arcanaloth being tossed into one of the vats [the nycaloth turned arcanaloth drowning himself willingly in a later scene isn't related to the astraloths, but something else entirely, though they won't be seen till -much- later on in the storyhour].

Going along with Dhergaloths as rapacious slayers, yet dull of wit, I back down their Intelligence to a mere 14-15 (and maybe giving them the Wisdom of 18). They will still have a plethora of skills representing the lore instilled in them by their creation.

*nodding* Seems appropriate to me. The stats I originally created weren't intensely proofed since I was more keen on the concept rather than a well polished statblock. But I can see your point certainly.

Perhaps a 15 Int, 18 Wis, something like that.

Suggested skill points (with modifiers) as such: Bluff +25, Hide +26, Intimidate +27 (31 versus medium-sized creatures), Knowledge (The Planes)+25, Listen+27, Move Silently+30, Search +25, Spot +25, Sense Motive +27, Survival +27 (+29 when tracking on the Planes)

It's a pretty nice selection of appropriate skills. I might add a racial bonus to one or two skills, deriving from their translucency and partial incorporeality.

I also noticed there were no assigned feats:

With 20 HD, the Astraloth would have 8 feats.

I'd propose Improved Initiative, Track, Weapon Finese (for Tentacles and maybe tail), Power Attack, Cleave, Combat Reflexes, Multiattack, and then Improved Grapple.

Works for me, though I did briefly consider giving them access to some of the potentially applicable feats from the BoVD (the vile damage feats etc), but they're already pumped up as is, so it's probably safe to leave such off unless it's an advanced example of the creature.

Consequent Changes: Grapple becomes +34, and all attacks go up by 1 more (although I am not sure which is intended as the primary attack -bite?).

The bite is the primary attack, though the tentacles are more deadly.

As for updating to 3.5, the Damage reduction becomes a little more tricky. Most constructs have DR/adamantine, and most yugoloths have DR/good. In previous editions they were vulnerable to silver (I actually do mithral -i.e truesilver, thus, law-silver, nuetral-mithral, and chaos-cold iron) and to good aligned attacks.

I'd make it silver and good DR to reflect the 'loths original flavor with regards to being harmed by silver.

Also, I'd assume that with the tentacles, they only need to make a touch attack.

Yes, the tentacles are touch attacks.

I would advise not having a DM roll the variable number of tentacles each round (it slows down battle needlessly).

I didn't have it in the statblock very clearly, but the # of tentacles is rolled randomly, and it will then have that many tentacles for attacks. They're not rerolled each round.

Lastly, what are the ranges for its sensory abilities (including telepathy). Does it have any known languages (I'd suggest Yugoloth, Celestial, Common, and ?)

I'd give them outright communicative telepathy out to the range of most greater yugoloths, which I don't recall off the top of my head. The other senses I'm less clear on, but I'd likely take a look at giving them something like a racial bonus feat for the one feat that lets you detect minds in a rough sort of location through the use of telepathy, and then extending that telepathy out to several hundred feat, and then giving them equivalent to blindsight at closer ranges of 100 feet or so. Yugoloths, Infernal, Abyssal, Celestial, Planar Common would be on the list.

I'd also give it a few SLA -like planeshift, locate object/person, hold monster, teleport? and some others (but not too many, just relative to travel and tracking).

They have an at will greater teleport and rather than a true planeshift, they have an ability to transition onto any adjacent transitive plane [or from a transitive plane onto any adjacent plane's 1st layer]. I use the 2e layout of the Astral and Ethereal, rather than the setup in 3e in which the astral touches everything and the ethereal is largely nerfed. If you use the 3e setup, it's probably easier to just give them planeshift 3/day or so.

I'd also give them a 'sending' SLA to convey messages across planes, and the locate object/person seems rather appropriate.

 

[Shemeska]

Comments? (I'm not trying to step on toes -hopefully this is viewed as a compliment to your creation).

Oh heck no, I'm flattered if anyone likes my stuff enough to tinker with it or use it. Thank you!

Please tinker away!

I was compelled to do this... by what dark impulse, I do not know. But I now present, for the first time in full 3.5 MM stat block glory....

You rock

Once I grab access to my copy of the Complete Warrior, I'm making a Mindspy Astraloth. They'll be an unholy terror worthy of soiling one's pants.

Eeep!

I had particular fun with an Ultroloth 'Master of the Unseen Hand', had him pulling a Darth Vader act with a cloud of bladed weapons suspended around his person, hurling or wielding them at range via some advanced TK. That was pretty late in the campaign by that point, but I had fun with that PrC from Complete Warrior.

 

[Solarious]

I've never made a CR for any creature I've created. I don't give out numerical XP in my games, so I prefer to simply eyeball any creature with how strong or weak I want the encounter to be. Feel free to make a CR for the critter though.

Well, I've eyeballed the thing. It has a lot of potent defences, but lacks any powerful magical offense to fall back on. It also doesn't have the sheer damage potential that a CR20 has, and the deadliest part of an Astraloth, it's tentacles and it's accompanying Energy Drains, can be held at bay by Death Ward. The AC also is a shade under a Pit Fiend's. I'd say it is somewhere in the upper shade of 18, maybe the lower end of 19.

It's a pretty nice selection of appropriate skills. I might add a racial bonus to one or two skills, deriving from their translucency and partial incorporeality.

I bombed Move Silently completely and invested in Concentration instead. Astraloths are incorpereal, and incorpereals don't make any noise if they don't want to. I'd say the physical brute it can unload can be explained off as a side effect of the bizzare dimensional mechanics involved in making one, seeing as they're incorpereal even on the Etheral.

Works for me, though I did briefly consider giving them access to some of the potentially applicable feats from the BoVD (the vile damage feats etc), but they're already pumped up as is, so it's probably safe to leave such off unless it's an advanced example of the creature.

I'd like examples of which feats you would use on such a example. I don't have the BoVD, and lots of those sound wicked for an Epic-threat level Mindspy Astraloth prowling around for it's prey.

By the by, I passed up Weapon Finesse (you'll only get a +1) and grabbed Improved Multiattack instead, eliminating any attack bonus woes. Makes the die rolling easy.

The bite is the primary attack, though the tentacles are more deadly.

I would argue the tail is the primary. It has more damage, and more range over the bite.

I'd make it silver and good DR to reflect the 'loths original flavor with regards to being harmed by silver.

Already done.

I didn't have it in the statblock very clearly, but the # of tentacles is rolled randomly, and it will then have that many tentacles for attacks. They're not rerolled each round.

That puts a new spin on things. I've bumped up the 'average' Astraloth's tentacle attacks to 8, which should be plenty of negative energy fun. I'll remember to give Paragon Astraloths the maximum 20 tentacle attacks.

I'd give them outright communicative telepathy out to the range of most greater yugoloths, which I don't recall off the top of my head. The other senses I'm less clear on, but I'd likely take a look at giving them something like a racial bonus feat for the one feat that lets you detect minds in a rough sort of location through the use of telepathy, and then extending that telepathy out to several hundred feat, and then giving them equivalent to blindsight at closer ranges of 100 feet or so. Yugoloths, Infernal, Abyssal, Celestial, Planar Common would be on the list.

I thought there was a feat for it, but I didn't see it where I thought I saw it before. I gave up on the idea and just gave Astraloths a new ability, the Thoughtouch quality. Just direction shouldn't be too much of a problem, since they can pass through walls and floors with ease. I hope you don't mind the restrictions I put on it. Astraloths are plenty nasty as they are already.

They have an at will greater teleport and rather than a true planeshift, they have an ability to transition onto any adjacent transitive plane [or from a transitive plane onto any adjacent plane's 1st layer]. I use the 2e layout of the Astral and Ethereal, rather than the setup in 3e in which the astral touches everything and the ethereal is largely nerfed. If you use the 3e setup, it's probably easier to just give them planeshift 3/day or so.

I'd also give them a 'sending' SLA to convey messages across planes, and the locate object/person seems rather appropriate.

Done, done, and done. I made up a Interplanar Sending SLA with a quadruple word capacity. Oh, and reliable planar penetration rate, since we all know our resident maker of new Yuggies won't settle for second best.

Oh heck no, I'm flattered if anyone likes my stuff enough to tinker with it or use it. Thank you!

Please tinker away!

I reiterate: TINKERING!!!!!!

You rock

*swoon*

Eeep!

I had particular fun with an Ultroloth 'Master of the Unseen Hand', had him pulling a Darth Vader act with a cloud of bladed weapons suspended around his person, hurling or wielding them at range via some advanced TK. That was pretty late in the campaign by that point, but I had fun with that PrC from Complete Warrior.

Oooh! Looks like I have a new encounter to look forward to in the future, in a time far, far away.....

 

[Dialexis]

Solarious,

Excellent synthesis -as well as improving upon the build.

I had likewise considered some feats from the BoVD, or from the Champions of Ruin, but decided initially against sure to make the more core, and usable (with the idea of advanced picking up a few Vile Feats and such).

You are absolutely correct in the lack of need for Move Silently -and the need for a high Concentration is self-evident with its construct-like flavor and SLA's. Great Job.

I also fully agree with your switch of feats (Weapon Finesse was more to reflect flavor, but is accomplished with the tentacles being touch attacks). Improved Multiattack is much better (and as you said -easier on the DM).

Languages look great.

You also did an awesome job on the SA/SQ -especially with Thoughtouch, and Spawn of the Ebon (the holy/good bypassing the immunities is a great touch -mechanically and flavor-wise). The 2d4 damage to all mental stats is much cleaner/better than the 1 random one -and the 1d4 for a successful save is likewise perfect.

I do have a problem with giving it d10 Construct HD -The HD of monsters are so inimical to their type -I say we keep it as d8, the Astraloth doesn't really need the extra hit points, and the d10 Construct HD, but still Outsider unnecessarily messy/confusing. Everything else is great with the SQ.

As for the primary attack -well, the main context (and only context) is from the story-hour's battle with Kiro and Clueless. That said, there was no strong description of a tail or of any tail attacks. I'd actually just say to do away with the tail. It already has a whopping 12 attacks, far more than any other fiend. Dropping it down to 11 wouldn't really hurt the thing, but it would slightly streamline combat -especially since only the tentacles would have a different reach than the bite and claws.
Shemeska, if there is a strong story reason for the tail -please let me know (or if you are just enamored and don't want to de-tail the beast).

Like Shemeska said, I'd say that bite might be the primary but from the way the story-hour battle went, I would actually say that a claw attack would be the primary attack (but either way, I have no strong partiality between the two).

As for the tentacle attack's critical, I'd actually make it conform to most other similar attacks -since it is an attack roll, a tentacle that criticals bestows 2 negative energy levels. (This is more for continuity, and doesn't seem to take away from its flavor).

As for its CR -I'd venture to say 19. It can track you even across planes endlessly so escape is ery difficult -especially with its planar incorporealness. It has 11 attacks! 8 are touch attacks that deal negative energy levels. It is extremely hard for rogues and straight fighters to kill due to its immunities. Magic users face problems in that, for average 19th level casters, they have less than 50% chance of their magic even potentially affecting the astraloth, otherwise, it heals from the magic or directs back at you.

Its only weakness is against clerics -who could cast healing/holy spells (SR is still an issue).

It doesn't really need offensive magic since it has such maneuverability, and so many magical defenses/immunities. Put me up against a greater stone golem or an astraloth, and I'd pick the stone golem any day (a party of PCs can almost always escape it, and it has way less attacks, and has fewer special defenses/attacks).

Hit points for a CR 19 might be a little low, and so I'd venture to bump it up from a 23 (which is pretty measly for a outsider hunter) to an even 30 (makes sense with the contructy-ness) -which would peg its final hp at 290. (this makes it still less than Balors and Pit Fiends, but they are CR 20 and lack the immunity to criticals and precision damage).

Once again, Solarious, you did a tremendous job (and of course tribute still flows to Shemeska for the original brilliance).

Oh, and one last thing -besides the spell eater SQ, how can it be healed -we haven't made it immune to negative energy (and I don't think we should -having it be an outsider, but like an undead construct would be a bit too much), positive energy harms it, and it is not exactly a construct. Do repair damage spells heal it? Of must it rely upon its spell eater SQ and other terrible alchemical/magical devices in the vaults of the Wasting Tower and other 'lothy labs?
(I think I prefer the later -it plays up the balance of being in-between existence -and thus none of the usual healing works).

 

[Solarious]

Solarious,

Excellent synthesis -as well as improving upon the build.

I had likewise considered some feats from the BoVD, or from the Champions of Ruin, but decided initially against sure to make the more core, and usable (with the idea of advanced picking up a few Vile Feats and such).

Heh. Don't flatter me.

I'm also interested in which feats from the BoVD you would use. Like I said, I don't have it, and so.... Can you help me out?

I usually perfer using Core and SRD stuff when creating more standardized monsters myself, unless I want the creature in question to be either a memorial BBEG, or an exemplar of it's kind. Upon further consideration, I have dropped Cleave as a feat and instead picked up Stand Still from the XPH... also found in the SRD. It's wonderfully wicked when an Astraloth suddenly surges from the floor beneath you, and then consequently threatens everything in a 25' radius from a 10'/10' creature. Then keeps them from running, gunning up into a full attack flurry of tentacles.

You are absolutely correct in the lack of need for Move Silently -and the need for a high Concentration is self-evident with its construct-like flavor and SLA's. Great Job.

I also fully agree with your switch of feats (Weapon Finesse was more to reflect flavor, but is accomplished with the tentacles being touch attacks). Improved Multiattack is much better (and as you said -easier on the DM).

Languages look great.

Hmn. You can always drop Stand Still back for Cleave, but I like it. It's a general feat with few psionic links anyways. You can thank my interest in the Incarnate class: it made me look more closely at the incorporeal rules.

You also did an awesome job on the SA/SQ -especially with Thoughtouch, and Spawn of the Ebon (the holy/good bypassing the immunities is a great touch -mechanically and flavor-wise). The 2d4 damage to all mental stats is much cleaner/better than the 1 random one -and the 1d4 for a successful save is likewise perfect.

I do have a problem with giving it d10 Construct HD -The HD of monsters are so inimical to their type -I say we keep it as d8, the Astraloth doesn't really need the extra hit points, and the d10 Construct HD, but still Outsider unnecessarily messy/confusing. Everything else is great with the SQ.

I wanted to convey the 'Contruct immunities, save by Holy or Blessed wepons' without being confusing, so I made the Spawn of the Ebon quality to explain it, as well as being able to stuff anything else that was strange about Astraloths (which is plenty). As for the Inscrutable Mind quality, my thought was that since the random stat damage was being too random and strange, hit all of them at once. Violence to the rescue one again! I made it deal only 1d4 damage on a save, because I think there aren't enough partial Will/Fortitude effects, and to make Mettle matter more.

The origianal Astraloth writeup had d10 die, so I used it here too. If I change it back to d8s, and combine it with your Con boost suggestion below, it will have 10 more hp and a +4 bonus to it's Fortitude saves, making it the highest save with a +22.

As for the primary attack -well, the main context (and only context) is from the story-hour's battle with Kiro and Clueless. That said, there was no strong description of a tail or of any tail attacks. I'd actually just say to do away with the tail. It already has a whopping 12 attacks, far more than any other fiend. Dropping it down to 11 wouldn't really hurt the thing, but it would slightly streamline combat -especially since only the tentacles would have a different reach than the bite and claws.
Shemeska, if there is a strong story reason for the tail -please let me know (or if you are just enamored and don't want to de-tail the beast).

Like Shemeska said, I'd say that bite might be the primary but from the way the story-hour battle went, I would actually say that a claw attack would be the primary attack (but either way, I have no strong partiality between the two).

I get a vision of something similar to Ridley (from Metroid) from Shemmy's description of the Astraloth, except with a jackal-like head (plus the absent eyes) and a ton of tentacles floating around it. The tail of Ridley is one of his nastier weapons in his arsenal, as it is very prehensile and is used to repeatedly stab/lash at Samus or smash the ground like a jackhammer. I can't drop it, the imagery is too good!

As for the tentacle attack's critical, I'd actually make it conform to most other similar attacks -since it is an attack roll, a tentacle that criticals bestows 2 negative energy levels. (This is more for continuity, and doesn't seem to take away from its flavor).

Done. It doesn't make too much of a difference either way.

As for its CR -I'd venture to say 19. It can track you even across planes endlessly so escape is ery difficult -especially with its planar incorporealness. It has 11 attacks! 8 are touch attacks that deal negative energy levels. It is extremely hard for rogues and straight fighters to kill due to its immunities. Magic users face problems in that, for average 19th level casters, they have less than 50% chance of their magic even potentially affecting the astraloth, otherwise, it heals from the magic or directs back at you.

Hmn. You might be right... I'm going to boost the CR to 19 for the time being. Can you do me a favour and compare the Astraloth to the Nightcrawler and the Nightwalkers? Especially since Nightwalkers are on par with Greater Stone Golems with a CR of 16, plus all kinds of lovely spell-like abilities... Greater Dispel Magic at CL21, Invisibility, Haste, Cone of Cold, and Finger of Death, as well as many Undead immunities plus Desecrating Aura for a touch of pump and -6 on turning checks. Nightcrawlers have all that, and worse (at CL25 to boot), standing at CR 18 and about AC 35, 212 hp, and so on....

Its only weakness is against clerics -who could cast healing/holy spells (SR is still an issue).

Interesting idea... I've added a small line under the Spawn of the Ebon stating spells with the Good subtype bypass those listed immunities as well. Thoughts?

EDIT: On second thought, nah. No real point.

It doesn't really need offensive magic since it has such maneuverability, and so many magical defenses/immunities. Put me up against a greater stone golem or an astraloth, and I'd pick the stone golem any day (a party of PCs can almost always escape it, and it has way less attacks, and has fewer special defenses/attacks).

Well, of course. A Greater Stone Golem is CR 16! Which is on par with a Cornugon, definitely inferior to an Astraloth.

Hit points for a CR 19 might be a little low, and so I'd venture to bump it up from a 23 (which is pretty measly for a outsider hunter) to an even 30 (makes sense with the contructy-ness) -which would peg its final hp at 290. (this makes it still less than Balors and Pit Fiends, but they are CR 20 and lack the immunity to criticals and precision damage).

Done! Note they are still vulnerable to an archtypical Holy Avenger-weilding Paladin: sure to bring on plenty of critical hit, holy smite-backed pain.

Once again, Solarious, you did a tremendous job (and of course tribute still flows to Shemeska for the original brilliance).

Argh, stop buttering up my ego! I just collected Shemmie's and your thoughts and made them readable, nothing really creative on my own. You're going to make me do something silly, like stat up a bunch of MtG creatures and overstep my abilities and end up crashing and burning.

Oh, and one last thing -besides the spell eater SQ, how can it be healed -we haven't made it immune to negative energy (and I don't think we should -having it be an outsider, but like an undead construct would be a bit too much), positive energy harms it, and it is not exactly a construct. Do repair damage spells heal it? Of must it rely upon its spell eater SQ and other terrible alchemical/magical devices in the vaults of the Wasting Tower and other 'lothy labs?
(I think I prefer the later -it plays up the balance of being in-between existence -and thus none of the usual healing works).

Nope. Negative energy busts it, and positive energy... err... burns it.

Mind you, anything with a Unholy Smite at will can blast it until it absorbs enough to fully heal. Even if you don't allow those CL checks to be intentionally failed, Unholy Smite won't hurt it, and it will eventually absorb some spells because of it's fairly hefty SR 30.

Oh, and Astraloths can also heal naturally: nothing stops that. Maybe they're construct-like, but they're also alive. Of course, for anything faster than that, you probably have to go back to the 'lothy labs. Powerful Hunter-Killer 'loths they are, but expensive too.

I also have a question for our resident King of Crosstrade. Should any of the Save DCs be linked to stats? Things like Aura of Dispair look like they are linked to Constitution, but what about thinks like the Energy Drain (which could be DC 22 if linked to Charisma)? This is especially relavant if we monkey around with the stats, like we just did. I'm updating the Astraloth stat block from my master file here, but when I crossposted the second most recent Astraloth block in the Homebrew forums (over here, with acknowledgements to Shemeska and you, of course ), these questions came up (I gave Astraloths perfect manuverability, btw).

Also, I just realized we haven't applied the size modifiers for Astraloths. Should be pump up a bonus to cover that, or take the hit?

EDIT: Extra tinkering done.

 

[Dialexis]

Solarious,

Sorry for the long interlude there.

Anyways, I'll try to answer your excellent questions (and once again, kudos for the job well done).

Heh. Don't flatter me.

Praise given where praise is earned -too often on public gaming forums, criticism is given (even if constructive) and not enough positive endorsement is given.

I'm also interested in which feats from the BoVD you would use. Like I said, I don't have it, and so.... Can you help me out?

I'll get back to you on this later.

I usually perfer using Core and SRD stuff when creating more standardized monsters myself, unless I want the creature in question to be either a memorial BBEG, or an exemplar of it's kind. Upon further consideration, I have dropped Cleave as a feat and instead picked up Stand Still from the XPH... also found in the SRD. It's wonderfully wicked when an Astraloth suddenly surges from the floor beneath you, and then consequently threatens everything in a 25' radius from a 10'/10' creature. Then keeps them from running, gunning up into a full attack flurry of tentacles.

Agreed -on all points.

Hmn. You can always drop Stand Still back for Cleave, but I like it. It's a general feat with few psionic links anyways. You can thank my interest in the Incarnate class: it made me look more closely at the incorporeal rules.

No, Stand Still is a much better choice -mechanically, it makes the Astraloth more powerful (which is good for a creature of said HD/CR, but it also establishes a psionic undercurrent (not enought to repulse psionic-hating gamers, but enough to draw in the psionic-loving gamers) which helps to establish its strange and alien psyche.

I wanted to convey the 'Contruct immunities, save by Holy or Blessed wepons' without being confusing, so I made the Spawn of the Ebon quality to explain it, as well as being able to stuff anything else that was strange about Astraloths (which is plenty). As for the Inscrutable Mind quality, my thought was that since the random stat damage was being too random and strange, hit all of them at once. Violence to the rescue one again! I made it deal only 1d4 damage on a save, because I think there aren't enough partial Will/Fortitude effects, and to make Mettle matter more.

The SQ's, as I have said, are wonderful -and the partial Will/Fort is always nice (your comment on Mettle is apt).

The origianal Astraloth writeup had d10 die, so I used it here too. If I change it back to d8s, and combine it with your Con boost suggestion below, it will have 10 more hp and a +4 bonus to it's Fortitude saves, making it the highest save with a +22.

Yeah, I'd definately suggest to change it to d8 (there just isn't enough convention for Hybrid HD-monster type -thus, keep the Astraloth as an Outsider and switch to d8's (as well as the Con boost). The additional HP is good for the CR -as well as the Fortitude (since at that level, there are many "save-or-die" spells that are Fort saves).

<oh, nevermind, I see you have changed it already -good job! silly me>

I get a vision of something similar to Ridley (from Metroid) from Shemmy's description of the Astraloth, except with a jackal-like head (plus the absent eyes) and a ton of tentacles floating around it. The tail of Ridley is one of his nastier weapons in his arsenal, as it is very prehensile and is used to repeatedly stab/lash at Samus or smash the ground like a jackhammer. I can't drop it, the imagery is too good!

Ok, I can go with this -the allusion works for me as well (it takes a little artistic license, but you've earned the right, and it helps the moster build).

Hmn. You might be right... I'm going to boost the CR to 19 for the time being. Can you do me a favour and compare the Astraloth to the Nightcrawler and the Nightwalkers? Especially since Nightwalkers are on par with Greater Stone Golems with a CR of 16, plus all kinds of lovely spell-like abilities... Greater Dispel Magic at CL21, Invisibility, Haste, Cone of Cold, and Finger of Death, as well as many Undead immunities plus Desecrating Aura for a touch of pump and -6 on turning checks. Nightcrawlers have all that, and worse (at CL25 to boot), standing at CR 18 and about AC 35, 212 hp, and so on....

Comparisons:

I'll really only compare the Nightcrawler (the Nightwalker is really no comparision in power -which is good since it is only a CR 16).

The Nightcrawler has 5 more HD, but that is only important with spells dependant upon the comparitive CL versus HD.

Ok, the Intiative is way better on the Astraloth (by 7!, meaning it can usually get the jump on more PCs, which can be really deadly with its negative energy levels -since highest level spells go first). (It also has higher Int than the Balor/Pit Fiend, CR 20 Baddies)

Ok, on movement, the Astraloth kicks the NC to the curb -perfect incorporeal flight with 60' AND at will greater teleport/planar transition -versus 30' movement (60' burrow) for the NC, and only 1/day planeshift. This means, that generally, the AL is not only better than the NC, but is porbably far better than most PCs -meaning escape is far less viable -or pursuit. (Once again, this is far better than the Pit Fiend/Balor) -also, it has a far bigger reach with its attacks -coupled with Stand Still make it PC-uber scary).

AC: Well, in total score, the NC is 35, to the AL's 32 -However, the NC only has a 6 touch, whereas, the AL's touch is still a whopping 32! -meaning most touch spells will always get the NC, but hardly ever against the AL (also, I just realized that the current AL has no natural armor bonus -weird? Maybe we should drop the Profane armor bonus, or give it a +4 Natural armor bonus -total of 36 -which is the same as the Balor, 4 less than the Pit Fiend, and 1 more than the NC).

As for Grapple, the AL has the same as the Pit Fiend (less than the Gargantuan NC, but that's to be expected)

The NC only has 2 attacks (with one being 3 higher and the other being two lower) -the Pit Fiend/Balor has 6/5 attacks, compared to the AL's 12! (8 of which are touch based). I still think we need to scale back the # of Tentacle attacks to about 4 -which would still give it a total of 8 attacks (4 touch-based) which is still a lot more than the NC -as well as the CR 20's.

As for damage -average amount of damage for all attacks:
NC: 45 bite+ 20 tail=65.
AC: 15 tail + bite 14 + claws 21 + tentacles 20 (+40 from negative energy levels)= 70/110 hp!
*This doesn't include the NC poison or the AL's negative energy levels (besides raw damage)
Balor: 60 sword + 16 whip=76 (97 with Body Flames) -not including chance of Vorpal.
Pit Fiend: Claws 42 + wings 26 + Bite 20 (poison not factored -which is Con) + 15 =103
This is another reason to back down the Tentacles -lowering to 4/round lowers the total to 60/80 -which is much more in line with CR 19+

Senses: The AL wins against all -100 Blindsight vs. 60' temorsense for NC. Even True Seeling doesn't make it immpossible to sneak up on a Balor.
DR is comparable for CR 20.
SR: AL has 30, NC has 31, Balor 28, Pit Fiend 32 -so all is in order here.

Saves: The AL has a much better Fort & Ref, while the Will is much lower (which makes sense with the whole constructy-ness thing) -However, its saves are nearly identical to the Balor's. Moreover, it is immune to mind-affecting effects so the low Will is largely moot.

Actually, after looking at everything, I'd venture to say that the Astraloth is definately a CR 19 -or maybe a very good case for a CR 20 (Especially with all the SA/SQ's).

Oh, and Astraloths can also heal naturally: nothing stops that. Maybe they're construct-like, but they're also alive. Of course, for anything faster than that, you probably have to go back to the 'lothy labs. Powerful Hunter-Killer 'loths they are, but expensive too.

Good points -all. It gives them the tiniest of weaknesses -which is good, since they really have none otherwise.

Also, I just realized we haven't applied the size modifiers for Astraloths. Should be pump up a bonus to cover that, or take the hit?

I'd say to just take the hit and bump tentacles to 4/round (even though they have more, they just can bring them all to bear in 6 seconds with also coordinating its tail, bite, and claws) -this makes it a solid CR 19.

 

[Solarious]

Solarious,

Sorry for the long interlude there.

Anyways, I'll try to answer your excellent questions (and once again, kudos for the job well done).

No problem, your contributions and observations are invaluable in crafting these monstrosities. I can afford to wait.

Praise given where praise is earned -too often on public gaming forums, criticism is given (even if constructive) and not enough positive endorsement is given.

You know, I've noticed myself how often flame wars are easily sparked by Grendes, and things quickly spiral out of control. On hindsight, it is nice to hear good things now and then.

I'll get back to you on this later.

Don't take too long - The fully-advanced Paragon Astraloth awaits, and I'm naming it Dialexis in your honor.

Agreed -on all points.

No, Stand Still is a much better choice -mechanically, it makes the Astraloth more powerful (which is good for a creature of said HD/CR, but it also establishes a psionic undercurrent (not enought to repulse psionic-hating gamers, but enough to draw in the psionic-loving gamers) which helps to establish its strange and alien psyche.

Thanks. I was just suggesting Cleave as an alternative in case anyone doesn't want to use Stand Still. And for the record, I love psionics.

The SQ's, as I have said, are wonderful -and the partial Will/Fort is always nice (your comment on Mettle is apt).

The people demand more partial Fort/Will effects! Give us our desires, WotC!

Yeah, I'd definately suggest to change it to d8 (there just isn't enough convention for Hybrid HD-monster type -thus, keep the Astraloth as an Outsider and switch to d8's (as well as the Con boost). The additional HP is good for the CR -as well as the Fortitude (since at that level, there are many "save-or-die" spells that are Fort saves).

<oh, nevermind, I see you have changed it already -good job! silly me>

Heh, the fact that I made the change was a little ambiguous. I suppose it does make the Astraloth more streamlined anyways.

Ok, I can go with this -the allusion works for me as well (it takes a little artistic license, but you've earned the right, and it helps the moster build).

Whoohoo! Ridley sneaks into the world of DnD via-backdoor!

Comparisons:

I'll really only compare the Nightcrawler (the Nightwalker is really no comparision in power -which is good since it is only a CR 16).

The Nightcrawler has 5 more HD, but that is only important with spells dependant upon the comparitive CL versus HD.

Ok, the Intiative is way better on the Astraloth (by 7!, meaning it can usually get the jump on more PCs, which can be really deadly with its negative energy levels -since highest level spells go first). (It also has higher Int than the Balor/Pit Fiend, CR 20 Baddies)

Ok, on movement, the Astraloth kicks the NC to the curb -perfect incorporeal flight with 60' AND at will greater teleport/planar transition -versus 30' movement (60' burrow) for the NC, and only 1/day planeshift. This means, that generally, the AL is not only better than the NC, but is porbably far better than most PCs -meaning escape is far less viable -or pursuit. (Once again, this is far better than the Pit Fiend/Balor) -also, it has a far bigger reach with its attacks -coupled with Stand Still make it PC-uber scary).

AC: Well, in total score, the NC is 35, to the AL's 32 -However, the NC only has a 6 touch, whereas, the AL's touch is still a whopping 32! -meaning most touch spells will always get the NC, but hardly ever against the AL (also, I just realized that the current AL has no natural armor bonus -weird? Maybe we should drop the Profane armor bonus, or give it a +4 Natural armor bonus -total of 36 -which is the same as the Balor, 4 less than the Pit Fiend, and 1 more than the NC).

As for Grapple, the AL has the same as the Pit Fiend (less than the Gargantuan NC, but that's to be expected)

The NC only has 2 attacks (with one being 3 higher and the other being two lower) -the Pit Fiend/Balor has 6/5 attacks, compared to the AL's 12! (8 of which are touch based). I still think we need to scale back the # of Tentacle attacks to about 4 -which would still give it a total of 8 attacks (4 touch-based) which is still a lot more than the NC -as well as the CR 20's.

As for damage -average amount of damage for all attacks:
NC: 45 bite+ 20 tail=65.
AC: 15 tail + bite 14 + claws 21 + tentacles 20 (+40 from negative energy levels)= 70/110 hp!
*This doesn't include the NC poison or the AL's negative energy levels (besides raw damage)
Balor: 60 sword + 16 whip=76 (97 with Body Flames) -not including chance of Vorpal.
Pit Fiend: Claws 42 + wings 26 + Bite 20 (poison not factored -which is Con) + 15 =103
This is another reason to back down the Tentacles -lowering to 4/round lowers the total to 60/80 -which is much more in line with CR 19+

Senses: The AL wins against all -100 Blindsight vs. 60' temorsense for NC. Even True Seeling doesn't make it immpossible to sneak up on a Balor.
DR is comparable for CR 20.
SR: AL has 30, NC has 31, Balor 28, Pit Fiend 32 -so all is in order here.

Saves: The AL has a much better Fort & Ref, while the Will is much lower (which makes sense with the whole constructy-ness thing) -However, its saves are nearly identical to the Balor's. Moreover, it is immune to mind-affecting effects so the low Will is largely moot.

Actually, after looking at everything, I'd venture to say that the Astraloth is definately a CR 19 -or maybe a very good case for a CR 20 (Especially with all the SA/SQ's).

I'll take your word for it. I'm no good at analysis: which is why I'm doing this instead. Your comparisons make a good case on the CR, so we'll drop the tentacles down to the base 4 add tentacles as we go along. As you'll see shortly....

Also, incorporeal creatures don't have natural armor. It's usually replaced by Deflection... which is what Astraloths already get. -1 AC isn't that big of a deal, so we'll stick with gimping the Astraloth at an AC of 31, enough to make Fighters cringe.

Good points -all. It gives them the tiniest of weaknesses -which is good, since they really have none otherwise.

I only thought it was prudent to point that out, since it made sense to me in my head, bur not neccessarily in other people's minds. I'm given to understand we're not all hivemind clones, so we should expand on our points to make misunderstandings less frequent.

I'd say to just take the hit and bump tentacles to 4/round (even though they have more, they just can bring them all to bear in 6 seconds with also coordinating its tail, bite, and claws) -this makes it a solid CR 19.

Done. The Astraloth Dialexis shall have 20. Just because we can.
---------------------------------------------

And now, allow me to introduce...

Delinaser, Astraloth Mindspy
Large Outsider [Evil, Extraplanar, Incorperal, Yugoloth]
Hit points: 20d8 + 5d8 + 200 (313 hp)
Initiative: +11 (+7 Dex, +4 Improved Initiative)
Speed: Fly 60' (perfect)
AC 31 (+7 Dex, +10 Deflection, +5 Profane, -1 Size), Flat AC 24, Touch 31
BAB: +23; Grap: +37
Attack: Tail +28 (1d10+9)
Full Attack: Tail +28 (1d10+9), Bite +28 (1d8+9), 2 Claws +28 (1d8+6), 8 Tentacles +28 incorporeal touch (1d4+Energy Drain)
Space/Reach 10'/10'; tentacles 20', tail 25'
Special Attacks: Energy Drain, Devour Essence
Special Qualities: Aura of Dispair, Blindsight 100', DR 15/Silver and Good, Immunity to Poison, Cold, Acid, Elec/Sonic Resistance 20, Incorporeal traits, Inscrutable Mind, Scent, Spawn of the Ebon, Spell Eater, Spell-Like abilities, SR30, Telepathy 600', Thoughtouch
Saves: Fort +24, Reflex +21, Will +16
Abilities: Str 22 Dex 25 Con 30 Int 15 Wis 18 Cha 16
Skills: Bluff +31, Concentration +34 Hide +32, Intimidate +33 (+37 vs medium-sized creatures), Knowledge (The Planes) +25, Listen +27, Search +25, Spot +25, Sense Motive +32, Survival +27 (+29 when tracking on the Planes)
Feats: Improved Initiative, Track, Power Attack, Stand Still [XPH], Combat Reflexes, Multiattack, Improved Multiattack, Improved Grapple, Quicken Spell-Like Ability (Detect Thoughts), Improved Aura of Despair
Environment: The Grey Waste
Organization: Solitary, Hunting Party (Delinaser and 2-3 Astraloths)
CR: 24
Alignment: Always Neutral Evil
Advancement: 21-31 (Large); 32-45 (Huge)

Delinaser understand Yugoloth, Infernal, Abyssal, Celestial, and Planar Common

Aura of Despair (Su)
Everyone in a 60' radius of Delinaser must make a Will DC 27 save or take a -6 morale penalty to all rolls. The save DC is Con based.

Devour Soul (Su)
If a creature is grappled by Delinaser and dies while still grappled, the Spawn of the Ebon extracts and consumes the victim's soul in a manner similar to a Bharagest. True Ressurection, Wish, or Miracle are required to return the victim to life, and even then it only has a 50% of success.

Energy Drain (Su)
Delinaser attmepts to suck out the very soulstuff of creatures with every brush of a tentacle; each time a creature is hit by a tentacle, it must make a Fort DC 21 save or suffer a negative level. On a critical, it inflicts 2 negative levels. The DC for removing this negative level is the same as for resisting it.

Inscrutable Mind (Ex)
Due to their construct natures and bizzare construction, Astraloths are immune to mind affecting spells, and anyone who foolishly attempts mental contact with one must make a Will DC 25 save or take 2d4 points of ability damage to all mental ability scores for touching pure evil and peering into the mechanations of the Ebon; even on a successful save, the victim suffers 1d4 damage to all their mental ability scores. The save DC is Charisma based.

Spawn of the Ebon (Ex)
Although living, Astraloths are more sentient, living contructs rather than true living beings. Thus, they possess many of the standard immunities granted to Constructs, although they are as true outsiders in every other sense. Astraloths possess immunity to Poison, sleep effects, paralysis, stunning, disease, death effects, and necromancy effects. They are not subject to critical hits, nonlethal damage, ability damage, ability drain, fatigue, or energy drain. It is not at risk of death from massive damage. Holy or Blessed weapons ignore all these traits and immunities. Astraloths have a bizzare use of negative energy imbued into their structures, which renders them vulnerable to damage from positive energy a 1/2 the rate normal for undead and other negatively powered beings. Astraloths seems to be incorpereal regardless of the plane they happen to be in, even on the Etheral, and only hints at the insane and bizzare methodology behind their creation. Their tail, bite, and claw attacks, despite being incorporeal, resolve normally as if the Astraloth were not incorporeal.

Spell Eater (Su)
Spells and spell effects that fail to overcome Delinaser's spell resistance can be absorbed fully on the Astraloth's next turn as a free action, recovering 1d4 per spell level, or alternatively redirected at a legal target within range at the original spellcaster's caster level and any original alterations to it at the time of casting, such as metamagic or Wild Surges.

Spell-Like Abilities (CL20, DC 13 + Spell Level, DC23 vs. Detect Thoughts)
at will/ - Detect Thoughts, Locate Object, Locate Creature, Teleport Without Error, Planar Transition [for a 2ED planar cosmology; replace with Plane Shift 3/day for 3.5 cosmology]
3/day - Hold Monster, Interplanar Sending (100 word limit, works across planes), Quickened Detect Thoughts

Thoughtouch (Su)
An Astraloth can vaugely detect locations of intelligent creatures within range of it's telepathy, which consists mostly of direction and little else. Nondetection and equivilant protection from divinations or mind-affecting spells prevents detection by Thoughtouch.

Mindscan (Su): Delinaser can instantly detect the thoughts of up to four creatures, gaining all information in the 1st round (surface thoughts, Int scores, presence or absence of minds). It detects in a 60’ radius centered on her. Targets get a Will save DC 23, including a +8 profane bonus.

Combat Telepathy (Su): Delinaser can anticipate it's foe’s every move. With a successful Concentration check (DC 10 + the damage taken in the previous round) Delinaser can maintain concentration on detect thoughts as a free action.

Anticipate (Su) Delinaser gains a +5 insight bonus to AC and attacks vs. foes it is detecting thoughts on.

Against Mindscanned opponents:
AC 36 (+7 Dex, +10 Deflection, +5 Profane, +5 Insight, -1 Size), Flat 24, Touch 36
Full Attack: Tail +33 (1d10+9), Bite +33 (1d8+9), 2 Claws +33 (1d8+6), 8 Tentacles +33 incorporeal touch (1d4+Energy Drain)

*Astraloths recieve a +6 racial bonus to Hide, due to it's translucent nature blending into the surroundings. Delinaser recieves a +8 profane bonus to it's Detect Thoughts DC.

Design Note: Astraloths were originally made to have anywhere from 4 tentacle attacks to 20. They could only bring so many to bear, like Chaos Beasts, but each had a varying number of those attacks. Increasing the number of tentacles as you advance is recomended, or simply to make it more lethal without making it any harder to kill.
--------------------------------
Afterthoughts: I used the Epic rules for characters over level 20 to make Delinaser, because it felt right. The Fantasy Name Generator was used to produce this exceptional beast's designation. Astraloths have a low Charisma, and DC 15 seems awfuly... inadequate for something that will get negated by Mind Blank anyways. So I blessed it with a completely arbitrary +8 profane bonus to Detect Thought's DC. Improved Aura of Despair was interpeted in this case to double the standard Aura of Despair's penalties, so in it went. I retained the original 8 tentacle attacks for Delinaser, because Epic baddies need the love, and wasn't getting any nice equipment to make it a better soul eater, isn't that right my precious? *coos to Delinaser and pets the tentacles*
--------------------------------
Now, I need to somehow get my dirty hands on the BoVD and make a Souleater Astraloth. With energy drain feats from the Libris Mortis. And maybe a few of those Vile feats from BoVD for good measure. Oh! And I'm making that Master of the Unseen Hand Ultroloth. When I get more spare time, anyways.

 

[TarionzCousin]

Praise given where praise is earned -too often on public gaming forums, criticism is given (even if constructive) and not enough positive endorsement is given.

Speaking of which, great stuff here. Thanks to everyone.

If my future Planescape game ever needs big baddies, I'll start with these.