Solarious
Explorer
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 Despair, 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 Despair (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 attempts 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 22 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. The save DC is Charisma based.
Inscrutable Mind (Ex)
Due to their construct natures and bizarre 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 machinations 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 constructs 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 bizarre 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 incorporeal regardless of the plane they happen to be in, even on the Ethereal, and only hints at the insane and bizarre 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 vaguely detect locations of intelligent creatures within range of it's telepathy, which consists mostly of direction and little else. Nondetection and equivalent protection from divination or mind-affecting spells cannot be detected by Thoughtouch.
*Astraloths receive 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 recommended, 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 explicitly 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 eye sockets 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.
As incredibly alien life forms, more sentient, living constructs that true living beings, they have a number of standard immunities normally reserved for constructs, though in every other way they are true outsiders, crafted from the spiritual matter of the Gray Waste (and potentially Carceri, within the Reflective Chasm of the Tower of Incarnate Pain). Also, some bizarre use of negative energy is seemingly incorporated into the Astraloths' construction, leaving them susceptible to damage by positive energy at 1/2 the rate normally done to undead and other negative energy powered beings.
---------------------------------------------------
Originally created by Shemeska, the King of Crosstrade! With many suggestions from Dialexis. They did all the work, I just pieced it together from their scattered notes.
Comments appreciated! Help in appraising the CR welcome. Anything to make them nastier is asked to share your deviousness.![Devious :] :]](http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png)
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 Despair, 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 Despair (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 attempts 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 22 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. The save DC is Charisma based.
Inscrutable Mind (Ex)
Due to their construct natures and bizarre 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 machinations 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 constructs 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 bizarre 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 incorporeal regardless of the plane they happen to be in, even on the Ethereal, and only hints at the insane and bizarre 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 vaguely detect locations of intelligent creatures within range of it's telepathy, which consists mostly of direction and little else. Nondetection and equivalent protection from divination or mind-affecting spells cannot be detected by Thoughtouch.
*Astraloths receive 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 recommended, 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 explicitly 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 eye sockets 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.
As incredibly alien life forms, more sentient, living constructs that true living beings, they have a number of standard immunities normally reserved for constructs, though in every other way they are true outsiders, crafted from the spiritual matter of the Gray Waste (and potentially Carceri, within the Reflective Chasm of the Tower of Incarnate Pain). Also, some bizarre use of negative energy is seemingly incorporated into the Astraloths' construction, leaving them susceptible to damage by positive energy at 1/2 the rate normally done to undead and other negative energy powered beings.
---------------------------------------------------
Originally created by Shemeska, the King of Crosstrade! With many suggestions from Dialexis. They did all the work, I just pieced it together from their scattered notes.
Comments appreciated! Help in appraising the CR welcome. Anything to make them nastier is asked to share your deviousness.
![Devious :] :]](http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png)
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