Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="LordVyreth" data-source="post: 1888270" data-attributes="member: 9626">Okay, this is that last contribution of the week that I promised.  Here are the default rules on Sanity damage and the corresponding template, and a pair of advanced, Epic level villains.  A word of warning, though; if I remember right, your party likes to work under the effects of Mind Blank a lot, right?  If so, they might argue that Sanity Damage is Mind-affecting effect, and that they're thus immune to it.  It's up to you do decide if this is true, but if you do agree with that stance, I recommend you pair these guys with someone capable of stripping their magical defenses, as they'll be much weaker than their CR suggests if unable to inflict Sanity Damage.  On the other hand, be careful about focussing too much on one target with them.  Both of them have multiple attacks, especially the Mouth of Madness, and can easily strip a target of all of its Wisdom and most of its hit points very easily with a few good rolls.  And so, without further ado:All Children of the Ancients have some properties in common.  All have the Sanity Damage and Critical Vulnerability traits.  Except for Zombies, all are also Children of Chaturgha (Matter,) Ulyoth (Magic,) or Xellotath (Mind.)  Children of Mantarok also theoretically exist, but since they are not dealt with in the context of the game, their exact properties are up to the individual’s imagination.  The exception are Zombies, who sometimes are Children of Mantarok, but are essentially regular zombies with the other Children of the Ancients properties.Sanity Damage (Su): All Children of the Ancients that have some sort of visual ability possess a gaze attack.  Thus, most normal living beings, as well as undead and constructs, have this ability, but creatures that really on tremorsense or blindsight as their only means of detection do not.  Sanity Damage works as a normal gaze attack, but it normally only affects the first non-Children of the Ancient who enters the gaze’s range.  After that, it will not work again for 1d4 rounds.  At that point, it will again affect the first person to look at the monster, or one at random if multiple targets are in range.  However, very powerful Children of the Ancients sometimes have a Sanity Damaging Gaze that works as normally, affecting every non-Ancient in range every round until it is destroyed!  The attack causes a certain amount of sanity damage, with a Will save for half.  The DC for the savie is 10 + ½ the creature’s Hit Die + Charisma Bonus.    Essentially, Sanity Damage is like Wisdom Ability Damage in most ways.  It affects a character’s Will Saves, Wisdom checks and relevant skills, Divine spellcasters, and so on.  However, Sanity Damage doesn’t cause the victim to fall into a coma if their Wisdom drops to 0 as a result.  Instead, no more Sanity Damage can normally be taken, but the character takes 1 point of damage per Hit Die/level (to a maximum of 10 HD/level, and thus 10 hit points,) for every point of sanity damage taken until some of the sanity damage can be healed, as the madness that has infected the victim literally suffers brain damage from the insanity around them.    The sanity damage has another nasty side effect.  When a person is reduced to 75% or less Wisdom as a result of it, they start having hallucinations.  Some of these are constant, but fairly minor.  For example, the character can see blood spurt from the walls or ceiling, hear footsteps, or have strange voices whisper in their ears in some alien, twisted language.  The lower the Wisdom gets, the more extreme the effects, to the point where the victim sees statues turn their heads to watch him or her, paintings and other artwork appear to be scenes of horror, the whole world appears skewed at an angle or tinted blood red, and the voices are now a constant stream of demonic laughter or weeping.  Those around the victim will notice that he or she is increasingly agitated.  They might start mumbling to themselves, or even screaming about seemingly random things.  Every three rounds of stressful situations (like combat) or three minutes of more normal situations, this damage can manifest as something more extreme.  The character must make a Will Save, with the DC equal to 10 + the amount of Sanity Damage taken.  Upon failing a check, the character is dazed for 1d4 rounds.  During that time, the victim imagines him/herself in some sort of usually horrible vision.  They could imagine themselves surrounded by monsters, or shrunken to nothing, or sinking into the ground like quicksand, or their head and limbs start to literally explode.  At the end of the dazed period, the character suddenly realizes this vision isn’t really happening, and can act as normal again…until the next failed check.  Sanity Damage can be recovered like any ability damage.  For example, the Restoration spells can be used, and it also recovers with rest.  In addition, killing a monster with the Sanity Damage ability can help boost one’s sanity.  The recovered amount is equal to half the monster’s maximum, so a monster with a 1d4 Sanity damage will give the user 2 more points of Sanity back.  Normally, this can be used to more or less keep one’s sanity at an even amount.  However, some unusual effects can do sanity damage above and beyond the normal gaze effects.  In addition, when dealing with a group of adventurers, it’s entirely possible that someone other than the person affected by the sanity damage performs the kill, wasting the possible recovery.  If the Child of the Ancient killed is one of the stronger types mentioned above with the persistent gaze effect, the recovered Sanity will instead be released in a burst around it equal to the range of the gaze attack, potentially healing many affected individuals, and it will also give the specific killer another double-strength restoration, potentially giving said killer three times the normal healing effect if within the gaze range!  Extreme strong, especially epic, Children of the Ancients might cause additional Sanity Damage in excess of the victim’s total Wisdom Score in addition to the physical damage mentioned above.  However, since Wisdom has already been zeroed out, the only purpose of this additional damage is the make the hallucinations harder to save against, and any healed Sanity Damage (including that earned from killing a Child of the Ancients,) will reduce the Sanity Damage back to the normal Wisdom maximum and then also recover more as normal.  Critical Vulnerability (Ex): All children of the ancients are affected by critical hits, and other abilities like critical hits, like favored enemy and sneak attacks.  This is even true for monsters that are normally immune, like undead or constructs.  In addition, the limbs these beings are surprisingly easy to sever.  There is a 50% chance that any critical hit will sever a limb. If so, roll randomly to see if it is a hand or head.  Besides removing any attack associated with the limb (slams for arms, bites, for heads, etc.) removing a head will normally afflict the creature with blindness, and remove any chance of using further sanity damage.  Of course, if the creature is a living being normally susceptible to critical hits, decapitation also usually kills it.Effects of the Ancients (Ex or Su): Each of the three main types of Children of the Ancients adds additional effects to the creature.  A Child of Matter gains fast healing 2, has two more Hit die than an equivalent creature, and has +4 Strength.  In addition, all damage from natural weapons are treated as if the creature was one size larger.  For example, a weapon that normally does 1d4 damage now does 1d6.  Children of Magic gain +4 intelligence.  In addition, every successful attack, including special attacks and spells, that they do drains one randomly chosen spell of the highest level from a spellcaster.  It drains 4d4 power points from psionic beings instead of levels.  From non-spellcasters, it does 1d4 points of Intelligence damage.  These drained points or spells can be regained using normal means.  Children of Mind cause additional sanity damage equal to their normal gaze effect with every attack they make, including magical ones, with the same save for half.Template:Any of the three Children of the Ancients templates can be added to any type of monster.  Humanoids change their type to monstrous humanoids, all other living beings change their type to aberration.  Outsiders, Elementals, Monstrous humanoids, aberrations, undead and constructs have unchanged types.HD: Give Children of Matter 2 extra Hit Dice.Attacks: If a Child of Matter, all natural attacks are treated as if the creature was one size higher.  Children of Magic gain the magic drain ability to all natural attacks, and Children of Mind gain sanity damage equal to their gaze attack.Special Attacks: Sanity Damage (Su): All children of the ancients with some sort of visual ability gain the sanity damage ability.  The amount of damage is based on the hit die of the creature as indicated on the table below.  Alternately, a Child of the Ancients with at least 10 HD can have a persistent gaze instead of the normal one-shot gaze.  However, they are treated as having half their normal HD for the purpose of the Sanity Damage they do.  For example, a 15 HD Child of the Ancients would normally have a 1d8 Sanity Damage gaze, but if it had a persistent gaze, it would instead do 1d6 damage.HD        Sanity damageUp to 4    1d45-9        1d610-19        1d820+        1d10Singing (Ex): Zombies, and only zombies, with this template also gain Singing if they are Children of Mind.  Zombies of Magic are filled with a deadly mix of volatile gasses.  When reduced to 0 or more hit points, a zombie Child of Magic will remain standing for one round.  During that time, they will start uttering a wailing noise, which has been morbidly called singing by those who fought them.  After 1 round, or after taking any other damage, the zombie will explode, doing 2d6 points of damage to all within a 5-foot radius.  This effect can be halved with a reflex save at DC 10.  Even worse, if any other zombies are caught in the blast, they will automatically explode as well, doing the same damage to all within their 5-foot radius.  A zombie who has been decapitated will lose this ability, as the gas has safely been released through the neck.Special Qualities: All Children of the Ancients gain Critical Vulnerability.  Zombies, and only zombies, may gain other abilities as well.  Unmodified Children of the ancients gain fire vulnerability, Children of Matter gain fast healing 2, and Children of Sanity gain spectral limbs and fire vulnerability.Abilities: Children of Matter gain +4 strength unless it’s a non-ability.  Children of Magic gain +4 intelligence unless it’s a non-ability.CR: For base children of the ancients, CR is +1 normally, or unchanged if the creature lacks visual ability.For any of the three main children types, CR is +2 normally, or unchanged if the creature lacks visual ability.Alignment: Creatures with intelligence scores of less than 3 or a non-ability in Intelligence change a good alignment to neutral, but are otherwise unchanged.  Creatures with intelligence scores of 3 or higher are always chaotic evil.And now the monsters:The Voice of UnreasonAdvanced 33 HD Child of Mind LipidoGargantuan Outsider (Evil, Chaotic)Hit Dice: 33d8+264 (412 hp)Initiative: +2 (-2 Dex, +4 Improved Initiative)Speed: 30 ft, (6 squares) fly 20 feet (4 squares) (perfect).AC: 20 (-4 Size, -2 Dex, +16 Natural,) touch 4, flat-footed 20Base Attack/Grapple: +33/+59Attack: Tentacle +44 melee (4d6+14 + Sanity Damage, 19-20/x2)Attacks: 4 Tentacles +44 melee (4d6+14 + Sanity Damage, 19-20/x2)Space/Reach: 20 feet/20 feetSA: Improve Grab, Darkness Scatter, Consume Souls, Spell-Like Abilities, Sanity DamageSQ: Damage Reduction 5/magic, SR 33, Poison Immunity, Fire Resistance 10, Critical VulnerabilitySaves: Fort +28, Ref +18, Will +21Abilities: Str 38, Dex 6, Con 27Int 13, Wis 12, Cha 15Skills: Climb +42, Jump +42, Hide +23, Move Silently -12*, Spot +37, Listen +37, Search +37, Sense Motive +37, Spellcraft +37, Knowledge (planes) +37Feats: Combat Reflexes, Blind Fighting, Ability Focus (Darkness Scatter,) Weapon Focus (Tentacles,) Lightning Reflexes, Iron Will, Great Fortitude, Improved Initiative, Power Attack, Cleave, Improved Critical (Tentacles,) Improved Natural Weapon (Tentacles)Climate/Terrain: Any land or undergroundOrganization: Solitary or gang (2-4)Challenge Rating: 23 (currently 21)Treasure: StandardAlignment: Always chaotic evilAdvancement: 8-9 HD (Large,) 10-15 (Huge,) 16-33 (Gargantuan)Though the creature resembled some sort of massive, prehistoric jellyfish or other marine creature, every aspect of the being revealed how truly alien it was. It glowed a bright, sickly green colored that bathed all around it its nauseating aura, and its four massive tentacles ended in cruel hooks darkened in the blood of its many victims.  But the worst thing about the creature was the screams that emanated from its transparent, ovoid “head.”  Besides the vile fluids that filled it, there were the ghostly faces of the dozens, if not hundreds of creatures that the demon butchered and fed off of.  Two glowing points of light focused on you, sucking your very sanity out if it while it floated towards you, and you realize that you will soon be the next to join in the agonized chorus.The Voice of Unreason is a massive Lipido that pledged its eternal loyalty to dark powers beyond the understanding of mortal beings.  It has become one with these twisted minds, and now can transfer some of the twisted thoughts that make up its psychotic mind to others with a touch or even a glance.Combat: The Voice of Reason prefers to hover into the middle of a group of enemies, driving all of them slowly insane, and then attacking their bodies and minds with a Darkness Scatter or its tentacles.  It often grabs weaker foes, and then floats away with the grappled victim, slowly destroying it before dining on its soul after it finally dies.  When threatened The Voice of Unreason often uses its darkness magic, then using Blind Fighting to attack its unaware enemies.  Sanity Damage (Su): The Sanity Damage for The Voice of Unreason is 1d8 points of damage, with a DC of 28 for half the effect. The range is 30 feet.  Unlike other children of the ancients, this is a constant effect; affecting all creatures in the area that don’t hide their eyes, and repeating this effect every round until it dies.  As a Child of Mind, The Voice of Unreason also does this sanity damage with every attack made.  In addition, The Voice of Unreason does additional Sanity Damage even after Wisdom reaches 0 for the purpose of increasing the save DC.  Upon dying, a The Voice of Unreason heals eight points of sanity damage for the killer, and half that for all non-Children of the Ancients still in the Voice of Unreason’s gaze area.Critical Vulnerability (Ex): There is a 50% chance that any critical hit will sever one of the Voice of Unreason’s limb. If so, roll randomly to see which limb.  The Voice of Unreason lacks a distinct head, so it only has the four tentacles for limbs.Improved Grab (Ex): If The Voice of Unreason successfully hits with a tentacle, it can immediately attempt to grab a hold of their target.  If successful, it will pull the victim to its body, and inflict automatic tentacle damage each round.Darkness Scatter (Su): Three times a day, The Voice of Unreason can generate eight orbs of darkness around its body as a standard action that doesn’t provoke an attack of opportunity.  The next round, it can release these as a free action.  The orbs fly outward in the eight cardinal directions for 10 feet, effectively creating eight line areas of effect.  The four diagonal lines always fly directly from the four corners of The Voice of Unreason, but The Voice of Unreason can choose to fire the four straights shots through any of the four more clockwise or the more counterclockwise lines, though all four lines must be aligned the same way.  Those caught in a line takes 16d8 of unholy damage unless they make a Reflex Save (DC 30) to take only half damage.  The Save is Charisma-based.Consume Soul(Su): If The Voice of Unreason kills a victim with a tentacle, it pulls the victim’s soul into itself.  The soul is then bound inside The Voice of Unreason, and can’t be resurrected unless The Voice of Unreason is killed or banished from the plane.  In addition, The Voice of Unreason heals 1d10 points of damage after consuming the soul.  If at full health, The Voice of Unreason instead gains 1d10 temporary hit points for five rounds.Spell-Like Abilities (Sp): At will: Darkness, Teleport Without Error (DC 17) (Self and 50 pounds only,) Silence (DC 14,) Detect Good, See Invisibility.  1/day: Confusion (DC 16.)  All spells are cast as a 12th level sorcerer.  The Save DCs are Charisma-based.Spell Resistance (Su): The Voice of Unreason’s Spell Resistance is equal to 10+the The Voice of Unreason’s CR.The Voice of Unreason has a –10 racial penalty to Move Silently checks, because of the constant wailing of the lost souls within it.  This penalty is not present if The Voice of Unreason does not have any souls consumed.  It also could use its silence power to cancel this effect, but rarely does so, as it enjoys using the screams to demoralize its enemies. The Mouths of MadnessAdvanced 33 HD Child of Mind Canor Factum Medium Outsider (Evil, Chaotic)Hit Dice: 33d8+297 (445 hp)Initiative: +3 (+3 Dex)Speed: 30 ft (6 squares) or 60 ft when Tongue Walking (12 squares.) AC: 26 (-1 size, +3 Dex, +14 Natural,) touch 12, flat-footed 23Base Attack/Grapple: +33/+48Attack: Tongue-Blade +46 melee (1d8+11 + Sanity Damage)Full Attack: 10 Tongue-Blades +46 melee (1d8+11 + Sanity Damage)Space/Reach: 10 ft./15 ft.SA: Extended Breath Weapon, Spell-Like Abilities, Improved Grab, Sanity DamageSQ: Tongue Walk, Damage Reduction 10/good and cold iron, SR 38, Acid, Electricity, and Fire Resistance 10, Fast Healing 3Saves: Fort +27, Ref +23, Will +22Abilities: Str 33, Dex 16, Con 28Int 15, Wis 18, Cha 19Skills: Climb +45, Jump +45 (+55 when starting a Tongue Walk,) Spot +38, Listen +38, Search +36, Sense Motive +38, Spellcraft +36, Intimidate +38, Concentration +43, Bluff +38Feats: Combat Reflexes, Improved Trip, Dodge, Mobility, Ability Focus (Extended Breath Weapon,) Run, Weapon Focus (Tongue-Blades,) Spring Attack, Lightning Reflexes, Improved Disarm Epic Feats: Epic Weapon Focus (Tongue-Blades,) Fast HealingClimate/Terrain: Any land or undergroundOrganization: Solitary or gang (2-4)Challenge Rating: 27Treasure: Double coins; double goods; standard items.Alignment: Always chaotic evilAdvancement: 16-21 (Medium) 21-45 (Large)Already repulsive, the scarred, red demon soon revealed how hideous it truly was.  While it initially appeared to just be a massive humanoid demon with great muscles and littered with unusually placed horns and scars, the truth was revealed as the scars open, revealing that they were really mouths!  Out of a dozen mouths at one, barbed tongues that were longer than the beast was tall lashed out like whips.  It suddenly towers above you, supported by two tongues growing on its feet, and in one bound it was among you, driving you and your companions mad while simultaneously tasting you into ribbons with a half-dozen tongues at once.The Mouth of Madness was already among the most powerful Canor Factums in existence when it became a loyal servant to an ancient being so outside the realms of mortal comprehension that its very existence drives those aware of it made.  The Mouth is one of its most powerful servants, and travels the planes, shredding the body and minds of those who displease its master.  Even one cut or a look at The Mouth of Madness suffices to expose a being to the madness that dwells within it, and The Mouth uses this fact to its advantage gladly.Combat: The Mouth of Madness uses its tongues as deadly reach weapons.  Against powerful foes, it likes to use its Tongue Walk ability to move swiftly across the battlefield.  However, it is so well-trained at this point that it no longer has the weaknesses of a normal Canor Factum, and thus is happy using all of its tongue blades on a single enemy or trapping one and then using its Extended Breath Weapon to incinerate enemies without the danger of exhaustion that lesser beings of its kind must deal with.Sanity Damage (Su): The Sanity Damage for The Mouth of Madness is 1d8 points of damage, with a DC of 30 for half the effect. The range is 30 feet.  Unlike other children of the ancients, this is a constant effect; affecting all creatures in the area that don’t hide their eyes, and repeating this effect every round until it dies.  As a Child of Mind, The Mouth of Madness also does this sanity damage with every attack made.  In addition, The Mouth of Madness does additional Sanity Damage even after Wisdom reaches 0 for the purpose of increasing the save DC.  Upon dying, a The Mouth of Madness heals eight points of sanity damage for the killer, and half that for all non-Children of the Ancients still in the The Mouth of Madness’s gaze area.  Critical Vulnerability (Ex): There is a 50% chance that any critical hit will sever one of the Mouth of Madness’s limb. If so, roll randomly to see what was severed.  The Mouth of Madness has 12 distinct limbs: the head and two arms (which each have one of the 10 tongue-blades,) two legs (which contain the two Tongue-Walking tongues,) and seven free-standing tongues across the rest of his body.  As a living being, decapitation would kill the Mouth of Madness.Extended Breath Weapon (Su): The Mouth of Madness can breath fire out of all of its mouths at once as a standard action once every 1d4 rounds.  This creates a burst of flames around its body in a 10-foot radius, doing 17d6 points of fire damage to all caught inside it (Reflex Save DC 37 for half, DC is Constitution-based.)  Even worse, it can continue to breathe until the start of its actions in the next round.  As a result, anyone who enters, remains in, or passes through the area for that time will also get hit!  Improved Grab (Ex): If The Mouth of Madness successfully hits with a tentacle, it can immediately attempt to grab a hold of their target.  If successful, it can inflict automatic tongue-blade damage each round.  The Mouth of Madness often will take a -20 on this check, and then walk away while still holding the grabbed target, and try to drop him into something harmful, or off a cliff.Tongue Walk (Ex): As a free action, The Mouth of Madness can extend the tongues on the soles of his feet, and use them to walk up to 15 feet above the ground!  When in this position, his movement increases to 60 feet, and he can gains the ability to pass over creatures unable to reach him based on his height above the ground.  For example, Medium-sized or smaller creatures with only 5 feet or less reach can’t reach him when he’s 10 feet above the ground, and neither can Medium creatures with 10 feet of reach or Large creatures with 5 feet of reach.  However, this tends to limit his targets if he’s at his maximum height, as the only ground-level target he can hit is right under him.  He also can use this right before a jump, to add +10 to the jump and remove the maximum jump limit based on height.  He can also pull the tongues in as a free action, but has to have a space available to land for him to do so.  Extending or Retracting the tongues normally provokes an attack of opportunity as it moves through multiple threatened spaces on the vertical plane.Spell-Like Abilities (Sp): At will: Expeditious Retreat, Jump (DC 15,) Detect Good, Detect Law, Melf’s Acid Arrow.  3/day: Acid Orb (DC 18,) Hold Monster (DC 19.)  All spells are cast as a 16th level sorcerer. The Save DCs are Charisma-based.</blockquote>

Verification