Welcome to Monsters Down the Path! I specialize in monsters and monster accessories (mainly deities) from the Pathfinder RPG! Specifically 1st Edition, though I’m still sinking my teeth into 2nd Edition content. New articles pop up every Friday (and sometimes Mondays!) reviewing creatures from across every 1e Bestiary, module, and Adventure Path! Sometimes I even mix in my own homebrew content!
Whether it’s me showing you a monster you’ve never seen before, revealing tactics or ideas of monsters you’ve never thought of, or because you actually like my homebrew stuff, you can show me a little love and/or thanks by buying me a Coffee!
Once had an idea for a potential (as in, it's unclear if they actually.... Exist) fey eldest called The Green Fairy. A fey of psychotropic plants and hallucegnic mushrooms that only people utterly high as a kite could see. Hence the potential part, no one's sure if their just a hallucination or actually real and the other eldest ain't telling
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I thought this sounded familiar for a reason I couldn't put my finger on, and scoured my blog because I could have sworn I answered this before! Then I found this,
Sitting in my inbox from... a year and a half ago. I had a response for it and just plain completely forgot to post it, then went on with my day thinking I did. I'm so sorry!
In any case, it sounds like a good idea! Mysterious fairies acting as muses to those deep in their cups, appearing only when no one would ever believe them... It's a fun concept! One that you're not alone in working on, actually. Don't tell anyone I told you about this, but I hear Gigi Thecreaturecodex might be spinning up something similar...
These mounds of gorgeous glittering goo are natives of Elysium, where they presumably congeal from sheer heroic resolve or from the blood spilled by powerful azata. Far from your usual mindless eating machines typically found with the Ooze typing, Sapphire Oozes are intensely curious, unrelentingly brave, innocently cheerful, and possess an unquenchable thirst for adventure that endears them to most of the plane's residents. While there's no shortage of exciting adventures to be had in the untamed wilds of Elysium, there IS a shortage of genuine, helpful good to do, and these Oozes will sometimes venture into the Material Plane to pursue actual villains to fight and lives to save.
Granted, they're not going to be doing much fighting on their own. They dream big, but struggle to put their money where their amorphous mouth is with their sole means of offense being a pair of weak slams for 1d4+2 damage each, which is enough to wallop only the lowliest of lowlifes. They DO have a decent number of defenses, mostly from their Ooze typing which renders them impervious to sneak attacks, flanking, sleep, stunning, poison, paralysis, and being polymorphed, and their blindness renders them immune to most visual tricks--sorry, wait, they have All-Around Vision? AND blindsight? Why do they have AAV if they're already an Ooze? Does this mean they can see? Hm. Something to adjust as needed, probably.
Besides this, they've got DR 5/Bludgeoning to deflect incoming slashes and stabs and are immune to Acid... and infinitely more importantly, they're immune to all mind-affecting effects despite being an intelligent Ooze. Yes, when I said "money where their mouth is" I wasn't kidding; they not only talk a big game, they talk in general, being quite chatty and friendly AND fluent in both Common and Celestial! Something they use to approach adventurers from fresh-faced to experienced and offer their services, services you may have guessed by the image above.
Indeed, while they're not so good at attacking, a Sapphire Ooze is phenomenal at defending. They can become an Amorphous Aegis at will, glomming onto any Medium or Small creature to become the equivalent of a mithral breastplate, which means the wearer gets armor with the following stats: +6 AC, +5 max Dex, 15% arcane spell failure, Armor Check Penalty -1, no speed penalty. That's some pretty beefy protection from a little ball of goo! But the utility goes beyond this, because remember the Ooze has 30ft of blindsight. Imagine if your armor could tap you on the shoulder whenever an invisible foe was nearby, tell you about illusions, or whisper guidance through mist and/or darkness! The book does say the Ooze can't take any actions while shifted into armor, so I suppose it really just comes down to whether or not the DM qualifies "talking" as an action, or whether or not free actions in general count towards that restriction. I do want to point out that blindsight requires no action to use and is just passively on all the time, and the rules state "the creature usually does not need to succeed at Perception checks to notice creatures within range of its blindsight ability," so a DM might want to keep this in mind if they want to use the Ooze for its intended purpose!
Also, at the very least, this is medium armor that requires only a full-round action to get into or out of, which is more of a boon than you'd think if you're deep in enemy territory and can be ambushed at any moment. There is one weakness to this symbiosis, though: If the wearer takes more than 6 damage from any one attack, the Sapphire Ooze automatically takes 1d6 damage which ignores its DR. This might not sound like a lot, but the goo's only got 22 HP, and enemies start hitting for 6+ damage pretty damn early in Pathfinder, so you'd best hope the AC you're getting from it keeps that damage to a minimum, because once the protective putty hits 0 HP it falls off immediately and leaves you naked! If you thought having to stop and mend your armor was bad before, now it's taking some precious healing resources instead of a cantrip!
Sapphire Oozes make for fun potential encounters for a normal party, granting someone some higher protection than they may be used to at early levels, or as a stopgap measure if the main tank's armor is being repaired but you really can't wait to march out against Vilejerk the Foul, the same guy this ooze just happens to be opposing! It's even got a second ability, Heroic Infusion, for boss fights with especially frightening foes, granting its wearer +4 to saves against fear effects for 1 round as a swift action, either letting them shake off an ongoing effect or dodge it entirely if the Ooze saw it coming. Unfortunately, for all its power at lower levels and the charm of being able to wear a friendly monster, without some serious HP buffs or the ability to increase the AC it conveys, Sapphire Oozes simply don't have the staying power to keep up with a party advancing past level 6 or 7, when they can start affording actual mithral armor WITH their own enchantments.
It does make for a cute and funny story, though. The party Fighter passing their prized armor to a new recruit, and the recruit being overjoyed at the prospect right up to the point the armor liquefies itself and leaps over onto them like a symbiote. If a DM wanted to keep the Oozes useful at high levels, the Symbiotes may just be the right kind of inspiration...
Writing a homebrew that made me dive back into researching the Negative Energy Plane, and I was delighted to learn that a lot of the life "in" the plane is more accurately around it. There's essentially a titanic accretion disk of matter and energy that's formed around its outer edge like a planetary crust, and this is where the majority of the plane's non-native inhabitants dwell.
The actual Void has crystals of immense entropic power that the Sceaduinar and their ilk make their homes on, as well as bits of matter ranging from the size of cities to the size of planets that have broken away from the outer shell and drifted inwards to be slowly consumed over the years unless something stops the decay.
If you're wondering how that "crust" forms, I invite you to go outside and look along the edges of the streets for a storm drain, and observe the collection of junk slowly building up along its edges. The Negative Energy Plane is essentially the storm drain of the Inner Sphere, flushing away all excess into nothingness, but sometimes stuff gets caught right on the edges in just such a way that other stuff can start catching on, too.
Kingmaker Bestiary, pg. 24
(image from 2e Monster Core 2, pg. 139)
These massive, bloodthirsty bushes are one of a handful of significant monsters backported from 2e to 1e via the updated Kingmaker Bestiary like the Gogiteth I've previously talked about, and unfortunately that means its stats do not exist on the Archives of Nethys or the d20PFSRD despite being around since 2022. And it's a shame, too, because much like @thecreaturecodex says in her own take on the 1e of the Drainberry Bush, these profiteering Plants are one of the most delightful concepts Paizo has created. Side note: the Codex's entry for this critter is almost identical to the official one except for a few very important differences, so it's really up to you which one you prefer to use!
Getting into it, though, Drainberry Bushes are a unique type of encounter with a potentially helpful monster. These patches of bargainer brush are frequently laden with all manner of treasure and valuable art objects that they willingly trade away for anything that catches their fancy, though they have little grasp of actual market value (due to possessing a -1 in Appraise). They'll gladly trade a powerful magic item for an especially impressive song being performed in front of them, or a priceless heirloom in exchange for a statue of one of the Eldest Fey, all depending on their own personal tastes. They have little actual use for any of their gathered treasure except as bargaining pieces to get more, so a DM could very well have one act as a pseudo-merchant with an eclectic collection of market items to sell and trade in areas no sane merchant would travel to for prices no being would ever accept... or a valuable piñata for the party to whack apart, but we'll get to why that's a bad idea in a moment.
Adorably, the Bushes are capable of communicating via telepathy, but do so in short, terse phrases like "deal good," "deal no good," "want that," and even "thank you, customer," letting them set up trades without people needing resort to elaborate pantomime or blowing a spell slot on Speak With Plants. The main trade deal Drainberry Bushes offer in order to amass their wealth in the first place lays in their namesake berries; the Bushes can use their Blood Drain ability on any creature they grapple, hollow thorns burrowing into the body and siphoning 1d2 Con a round, and every single time the Bush uses Blood Drain, it magically grows a cluster of Blood Berries somewhere on its body. These berries glow with a soft light that signals that they contain pure life essence, and any creature that consumes a cluster of the berries regains 2d8+10 HP instantly, making them as potent as a Cure Moderate Wounds potion. These potent and delicious restoratives are unfortunately unstable, turning to rotting mush after only a single day, so Drainberry Bushes have to constantly be on the move in their search for customers to sell them to... and for unwitting prey to create more.
Given that they can turn any creature with blood into a whole bushel of berries, most Drainberry Bushes survive/stock up off regular wildlife, snaring hapless woodland animals with their prodigious reach... if they don't use their Wild Empathy (+11) to simply ask for donations. Yes, they'll even barter with wildlife if they feel it will get them a better deal with less fuss, but most critters have nothing of worth for the brush, so they end up beaten and drained. Each Bush can make two vine attacks a round for 2d6+6 damage each, attempting to automatically Grab (+13 CMB) any victim struck, and they've got a 10ft space and 20ft reach to make their Combat Reflexes feat an absolute terror. While their vines are their only means of offense, it's all they need, because they're tenacious enough to outlast just about anything but an entire group of foes.
They've got a decent 20 AC and all the immunities that come with being a Plant, plus a unique immunity to negative energy effects due to the overwhelming life within their leaves. However, their 85 HP is more of a suggestion than an absolute value, because they can use Consume Berries to nibble on their own supply every single round as a swift action! As long as they continue to grapple and drain people for even 1 Con, they essentially regenerate 2d8+10 HP every single round until people stop hitting it, one way or another. The most surefire way to end a Drainberry Bush's hostilities is with sure fire, as they have a Vulnerability to Fire that means even the lowly Scorching Hands is a serious threat to them.
If one wants to get the better of a Bush, they can also just reach over and steal a berry cluster for their own use. Any creature adjacent to the Bush's 10ft space can reach over to pluck one, which draws an AoO, but they may also attempt a DC 20 Sleight of Hand check which, if successful, swipes the berries and avoids the retaliatory AoO altogether. The problem then becomes swiping them without ending up contributing to them, since being slapped and grabbed just means it'll grow another one next round, and the DM is encouraged to have the Bushes already laden with berries (1d6+3 clusters!) as both products to sell and life insurance for itself.
Given their wide threat range, grapple shenanigans, and Blood Drain leading directly into their own healing, Drainberry Bushes can make surprisingly deadly early-game encounters despite being so goofy. Of course, if they appear too late in a campaign, there's little to stop players from just killing it and taking all its stuff plus the temporary healing items; unlike the Mercane, Drainberry Bushes aren't known to surround themselves with powerful bodyguards, though this isn't to say they don't get bodyguards by accident. Being able to turn even a common deer into 10~12 Potions of Cure Moderate Wounds is a valuable enough talent that the Bush itself may not be the main threat a party needs to worry about!
As their 1e stats don't exist online, here's their 2e stats, and here's TCC's take on them again. The biggest differences between the two is the Paizo version deals Con damage with its blood drain, has 20ft of reach, and deals more damage with its vines, while TCC has lower vine damage but its Drain Blood acts as a pseudo-Constrict, and has less reach but the Great Cleave feat to make its melee threatening in an entirely different way. Use them as you see fit!
These disturbingly intelligent fungi hail from another planet entirely, but an endless curiosity about other creatures sees them traveling from world to world to perform experiments ranging from ridiculous, to nonsensical, to cruel as they attempt to understand the minds of other beings. Their telepathic deluge of questions is unsettling enough when one finally sees their source (or if one sees the source; +7 to Stealth!), but a Fungus that's especially inquisitive or running more invasive experiments can be an eerie threat to the party's sanity, if not their bodies.
An outright fight to the death with a Cerebric Fungus is rare, given that most of them are hunting knowledge rather than flesh (though they are carnivores with no qualms about eating sapients), but they have the tools they need to make themselves an actual threat against parties who haven't been valuing their Will saves. For one, just seeing the Fungus imposes a -2 penalty to attack rolls if you fail a DC 14 Will save, as they project an Unsettling Appearance illusion as a self-defense measure whenever they're in combat. If you're within 60ft of a Fungus and can see it, it's passively reading your mind for bits and bobs it can use for its own theories and projecting tiny illusions of its process, and seeing your own memories dancing around the tentacles of a mouthy mold is enough to make anyone hesitate, even just subconsciously. Notably, there is no 24-hour immunity clause here, so the save must be made EVERY round to avoid the penalty.
Speaking of its tentacles, the Fungi possess some shocking reach for a Medium creature, their two tendril attacks capable of reaching 15ft outwards to deliver a hard slap (1d4+1) to anyone in this zone. Not only do they have prodigious reach, and unlike most plants with lengthy vines, they have a full 30ft movespeed as well! This makes them deceptively dangerous enemies for any party member whose shenanigans can be interrupted by an Attack of Opportunity, but it also means their Touch of Madness ability and 3/day Touch of Idiocy spell-like are more useful than they appear to be at first glance due to the distance it can deliver them from. Touch of Idiocy is dangerous for every member of the party at this level, lowering the victim's ability to resist the rest of the Fungi's mind-bending abilities, and any caster just skirting by with a 14 in their relevant ability score (like a 3/4ths caster or a half-caster) may lose access to their spells entirely, leaving them open to being slapped by the tentacles and pulled towards that threatening mouth.
Yes, every tentacle attack also comes with a free 5ft Pull to reduce the effectiveness of the 5ft Step and keep people in its thrashing range. Anyone that's adjacent to the Fungus can also be bitten for 1d6+2 damage, but unless it's hungry and/or fighting to kill, it's likely not going to be looking to pull people into bite radius, just to keep them in its reach so it can deliver the aforementioned Touch of Madness. ToM is a touch attack the Fungus can deliver at will, prompting a DC 14 Will save or the victim becomes dazed for 4 rounds (+1 round per HD of the Fungus), rendering the victim harmless and allowing the Fungus to probe its mind deeper with its constant Detect Thoughts or telepathic contact. A dazed victim is also, obviously, no longer a threat to the Fungus so long as nothing snaps them out of their temporary coma, allowing the Fungus to rifle through their belongings or attack and slay other combatants at its leisure. Because Touch of Madness ALSO has no 24-hour immunity, it can also renew the daze with constant pokes and prods, keeping a victim insensate until the alien plant is satisfied with what it has learned from them.
Cerebric Fungi also have one more trick to make fighting them frustrating: their 1/day Star Shriek. This full-round action unleashes a wave of psychic disruption that causes 1d4 rounds of nausea in everyone within 30ft who fails a DC 15 Will save. There is also its niche Otherworldly Mind, which causes 1d6 rounds of confusion in anyone that attempts to mentally contact it or read its mind, but this is unlikely come into play. With so many methods to stop people from fighting against it, the Cerebric Fungus can be a frustrating beast to fight despite possessing only 15 AC and no real defenses aside from the Plant trait's immunities (and a meager 5 Cold Resistance). When everyone in the party is nauseated or dazed, the Fungus' Fast Healing 2 can restore an irritating amount of HP and draw out a battle longer than it has any right to.
These frustrating fungi have several ways to displace or disable party members, but they're unlikely to actually be dangerous on their own because they're motivated more by curiosity than malice. Depending on what KIND of experiments they're running--or if they're just hungry--they CAN potentially be lethal encounters or alien mastermind boss fights, but in my opinion they work best as disturbing roadblock encounters or (at higher levels) supplemental enemies in a larger fight where their dazing touch can go from an annoyance to a lethal danger, the whole fight potentially even orchestrated by the Fungi because they want two groups to battle it out for their own strange reasons. Funny enough they can also stop a fight if they want to (if only to give a DM a way out of a potential TPK), as they have Calm Emotions at 3/day to ease hostilities altogether.
These disturbingly intelligent fungi hail from another planet entirely, but an endless curiosity about other creatures sees them traveling from world to world to perform experiments ranging from ridiculous, to nonsensical, to cruel as they attempt to understand the minds of other beings. Their telepathic deluge of questions is unsettling enough when one finally sees their source (or if one sees the source; +7 to Stealth!), but a Fungus that's especially inquisitive or running more invasive experiments can be an eerie threat to the party's sanity, if not their bodies.
An outright fight to the death with a Cerebric Fungus is rare, given that most of them are hunting knowledge rather than flesh (though they are carnivores with no qualms about eating sapients), but they have the tools they need to make themselves an actual threat against parties who haven't been valuing their Will saves. For one, just seeing the Fungus imposes a -2 penalty to attack rolls if you fail a DC 14 Will save, as they project an Unsettling Appearance illusion as a self-defense measure whenever they're in combat. If you're within 60ft of a Fungus and can see it, it's passively reading your mind for bits and bobs it can use for its own theories and projecting tiny illusions of its process, and seeing your own memories dancing around the tentacles of a mouthy mold is enough to make anyone hesitate, even just subconsciously. Notably, there is no 24-hour immunity clause here, so the save must be made EVERY round to avoid the penalty.
Speaking of its tentacles, the Fungi possess some shocking reach for a Medium creature, their two tendril attacks capable of reaching 15ft outwards to deliver a hard slap (1d4+1) to anyone in this zone. Not only do they have prodigious reach, and unlike most plants with lengthy vines, they have a full 30ft movespeed as well! This makes them deceptively dangerous enemies for any party member whose shenanigans can be interrupted by an Attack of Opportunity, but it also means their Touch of Madness ability and 3/day Touch of Idiocy spell-like are more useful than they appear to be at first glance due to the distance it can deliver them from. Touch of Idiocy is dangerous for every member of the party at this level, lowering the victim's ability to resist the rest of the Fungi's mind-bending abilities, and any caster just skirting by with a 14 in their relevant ability score (like a 3/4ths caster or a half-caster) may lose access to their spells entirely, leaving them open to being slapped by the tentacles and pulled towards that threatening mouth.
Yes, every tentacle attack also comes with a free 5ft Pull to reduce the effectiveness of the 5ft Step and keep people in its thrashing range. Anyone that's adjacent to the Fungus can also be bitten for 1d6+2 damage, but unless it's hungry and/or fighting to kill, it's likely not going to be looking to pull people into bite radius, just to keep them in its reach so it can deliver the aforementioned Touch of Madness. ToM is a touch attack the Fungus can deliver at will, prompting a DC 14 Will save or the victim becomes dazed for 4 rounds (+1 round per HD of the Fungus), rendering the victim harmless and allowing the Fungus to probe its mind deeper with its constant Detect Thoughts or telepathic contact. A dazed victim is also, obviously, no longer a threat to the Fungus so long as nothing snaps them out of their temporary coma, allowing the Fungus to rifle through their belongings or attack and slay other combatants at its leisure. Because Touch of Madness ALSO has no 24-hour immunity, it can also renew the daze with constant pokes and prods, keeping a victim insensate until the alien plant is satisfied with what it has learned from them.
Cerebric Fungi also have one more trick to make fighting them frustrating: their 1/day Star Shriek. This full-round action unleashes a wave of psychic disruption that causes 1d4 rounds of nausea in everyone within 30ft who fails a DC 15 Will save. There is also its niche Otherworldly Mind, which causes 1d6 rounds of confusion in anyone that attempts to mentally contact it or read its mind, but this is unlikely come into play. With so many methods to stop people from fighting against it, the Cerebric Fungus can be a frustrating beast to fight despite possessing only 15 AC and no real defenses aside from the Plant trait's immunities (and a meager 5 Cold Resistance). When everyone in the party is nauseated or dazed, the Fungus' Fast Healing 2 can restore an irritating amount of HP and draw out a battle longer than it has any right to.
These frustrating fungi have several ways to displace or disable party members, but they're unlikely to actually be dangerous on their own because they're motivated more by curiosity than malice. Depending on what KIND of experiments they're running--or if they're just hungry--they CAN potentially be lethal encounters or alien mastermind boss fights, but in my opinion they work best as disturbing roadblock encounters or (at higher levels) supplemental enemies in a larger fight where their dazing touch can go from an annoyance to a lethal danger, the whole fight potentially even orchestrated by the Fungi because they want two groups to battle it out for their own strange reasons. Funny enough they can also stop a fight if they want to (if only to give a DM a way out of a potential TPK), as they have Calm Emotions at 3/day to ease hostilities altogether.
This isn't about monsters, but I am wondering if you have any thoughts on Dason, Urgathoa's first antipladin and author of Serving Your Hunger. I can't find much about him on the wiki or in sources, and I wonder what his deal was? When did he live, why did he become an antipadin of Urgathoa, ect? Do you know where I could find additional information? The only other thing I can find is that he was apparently given the Defiled Disks of Urgathoa as payment.
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Well, I've went and looked through every book I could think to look through--all the ones listed as sources on the wiki article for both Dason and Serving Your Hunger, plus all the updated lore in 2e's Gods and Magic and Divine Mysteries--and even went and grabbed No Plunder, No Pay to see if it could tell me anything... and no. Nope, not a thing. Much to my disappointment, even the Defiled Disks of Urgathoa were almost entirely undescribed in the module aside from the fact they Desecrate any area they're kept in and they have some vague power to grant one Urgathoa's favor under specific conditions.
Dason seemingly exists only to grant a name to the author of Serving Your Hunger, and there's basically no details about the man available. The only thing we can do is extrapolate that he was extremely selfish, saw life only as something he could consume, was an experienced chef and cannibal, and deeply studied every Undead being that it's possible to turn one's self into. One pictures a studious man nonetheless willing to hunt down his own food like Hannibal Lecter in full-plate, and perhaps with just as much class and penchant for psychological manipulation; Serving Your Hunger is noted to contain all manner of riddles and critical thinkpieces meant to make the reader question their own held beliefs and wear away at their internal sense of what is truly taboo and what is just a meaningless barrier between themselves and a joy they've been denying.
Dason clearly wasn't a dumb brute who dumped Intelligence like many Paladins/Antipaladins. He knows to present just enough tempting tidbits to draw curiosity, but prompts others to take the final steps themselves. Serving Your Hunger is meant to give people recipes to try and methods of immortality to seek, but leaves it up to the reader to actually do the work to find out if their happiness really does lay in a nice, slow-roasted elf heart.
Unfortunately, this is all just speculation. Again, Dason's entire existence in Pathfinder is basically "the guy who wrote the evil cookbook." We don't even know if the guy was human, elf, dwarf, etc, or if he's still alive in some form or fashion.
[One of my many other interests beyond monsters is food and food history. Food is something that tabletop RPGs take mostly for granted, despite being one of the prime driving forces of human society. So I'm going to be intermittently writing some monsters associated with food. First up is the cockentrice, an edible gaff from the Middle Ages, made by sewing a pig to a capon. I first learned about it through Tasting History, which did it as the featured dish for the 1st anniversary of the channel. The inspirations for this entry also include the Star Trek episode "The Trouble With Tribbles", the scene with the cow who wants to be eaten in The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, and a conversation I had with @monstersdownthepath about the horror manga Bio-Meat: Nectar. Since the realm of Cockaigne is said to have roast pigs walking around just asking to be carved up, these guys seemed like logical residents.
If you'd like to sponsor your own monsters, read bonus monsters including monster girls and kaiju, or just help an unemployed writer out, check out the Creature Codex Patreon here!]
Cockentrice
CR ½ N Fey
This strange little creature has the head and forelimbs of a pig, but the hindquarters of a plucked bird. Its eyes are bulging and red and its skin golden. Despite its bizarre appearance, it seems harmless, and smells of cooked meat.
The land of Cockaigne exists in the First World, a paradise of plenty to reward the faithful petitioners of the Eldest. Wine flows like water, the streets are paved with pastries, and fish jump out of lakes into fisherman's boats. One of the species native to this land is the cockentrice; a beast with the front half of a pig, the back half of a chicken and an insatiable desire to be eaten. Cockentrice flesh is essentially precooked, and smells and tastes like the best qualities of both its component beasts’ meat. They can speak, and usually speak in short clipped phrases such as “hello,” “please eat me,” “try a thigh” or “serve me with potatoes or dressing!” Cockentrices are obsessed with food, eating and cooking, and if allowed to will plan elaborate feasts, their own bodies being served as one of the courses. The act of eating a cockentrice is the trigger for its reproduction, and if a cockentrice is consumed, two more of the little beasts appear in the vicinity of their predecessor’s death site.
In the First World, this repeated cycle of consumption and spawning is constrained. Cockentrices can gorge themselves on the other magical comestibles of Cockaigne without worry, and periodic culls by more brutal fey prevent overpopulation. If one of these little critters finds itself on the Material Plane, however, their population can rapidly spiral out of control. Although a self-replenishing meat source may seem like a blessing, the quick reproductive rate of the cockentrice, combined with their own need for food, may result in the fey beasts being the only source of food in a region, as they eat all the rest of it, which only causes their numbers to spike even more rapidly. If cockentrices escape from captivity into the wild, they can collapse food chains, as they consume all plants in an area, starve out other herbivores and overwhelm predators with their sheer numbers. Lastly, they are omnivorous as both pigs and chickens are. Humanoids are by no means their preferred prey, but as food supplies dwindle, the cockentrices will turn on their usual consumers to keep their own bellies full.
Cockentrice CR ½
XP 200
N Small fey (extraplanar)
Init +1; Senses low-light vision, Perception +4
Defense
AC 12, touch 11, flat-footed 11 (+1 size, +1 Dex)
hp 9 (2d6+2)
Fort +1, Ref +4, Will +3
Defensive Abilities respawn
Offense
Speed 30 ft.
Melee bite +2 (1d4)
Special Attacks delicious
Statistics
Str 11, Dex 12, Con 13, Int 6, Wis 11, Cha 14
Base Atk +1; CMB +0; CMD 11
Feats Skill Focus (Profession [cook])
Skills Diplomacy +6, Perception +4, Profession (cook) +5
Languages Common
Ecology
Environment temperate and cold land (First World)
Organization solitary, pair, herd (3-12) or flock (13-48)
Treasure none
Special Abilities
Delicious (Ex/Su) A cockentrice smells delicious. It can be detected and pinpointed at twice the normal distance by scent, and creatures gain a +2 morale bonus to attack it with a bite attack. The smell becomes supernaturally alluring when the cockentrice dies; a creature within 30 feet that can smell a freshly dead (less than 24 hours) cockentrice must succeed a DC 13 Will save or be compelled to consume it. Creatures with the scent ability suffer a -2 penalty on this saving throw. This compulsion lasts until the cockentrice is consumed or 24 hours have passed, whichever comes first. This is a mind-influencing compulsion effect, and the save DC is Charisma based.
Respawn (Su) If a cockentrice is consumed within 24 hours of being slain, two new cockentrices appear within 100 feet of the location where the initial cockentrice was slain.
Adventure Path: Return of the Runelords: It Came From Hollow Mountain, pg. 82-83
These violent and hateful spirits are born from poor souls perishing from asphyxiation, their final hours spent in helpless panic and agony that often sees them breaking their own bodies against whatever barriers are preventing airflow. Like many undead that perish in torturous circumstances, Choking Shades are no longer the person they were in life, their personalities overridden by a hatred and envy for the living who so arrogantly continue to breathe when they could not, and thus they seek to choke out any being they encounter to make them feel a fraction of the pain that now defines their existence.
Choking Shades share much of their DNA with the slightly-lower-CR Shadows, being disproportionately frustrating Incorporeal Undead who can Create Spawn out of anyone they kill to turn one dangerous encounter into an unwinnable fight if they get ahold of an NPC or a weaker PC. However, where the Shadow had moderate AC and pathetic hitpoints, the Choking Shades have 18 AC and a significantly more resilient 52 HP. The danger of the Shadow comes from the fact that level 1 to 3 adventurers likely won't have the magic weapons they need to fight against it--or their means of dealing with one are temporary measures (such as Oil of Magic Weapon)--and while a Choking Shade pops up at levels when the main frontliner of the group likely has a magic weapon, unless they have access to Ghost Touch, they'll be struggling to cut through what is essentially 104 HP.
It's got further defenses against being cheesed with healing magic because its touch AC is also 18 and it's got +2 Channel Resistance. With Improved Initiative raising its initiative to +8, it's also likely to go first in a fight, which is never a good thing but can swiftly spell doom for a single unfortunate party member. Choking Shades are surrounded by a 30ft aura of Desperation, forcing a DC 17 Will save every single round to avoid becoming shaken until you're no longer within 30ft, and while the ability specifically prevents the fear from stacking with itself to cause fright/panic/terror, there's no 24 hour immunity clause AND it also triggers each time it hits a creature with its touch attacks! It's got TWO touch attacks, and in addition to the fear, they also deal 2d6 negative energy damage.
Given that Choking Shades tend to pop up in mineshafts or cramped underground dungeons, the whole party is likely going to be spending the entire fight shaken up because they can't get out of close quarters. Shaken is annoying enough, inflicting a -2 to attacks, saves, and skill and ability checks, but it's life threatening here, because any creature suffering from a fear effect can be invaded by the spirit. As a standard action, a Choking Shade can dissolve into Gravedust and slip into the lungs of any adjacent living creature suffering from a fear effect, preventing them from breathing or speaking until they cough it out. The victim can resist this invasion by succeeding a DC 16 Fortitude save OR use their own standard action to blow it out of their lungs with another save... but recall the -2 penalty from shaken, essentially turning it into a DC 18 save. The Shade being inside your lungs counts as you being within 30ft of it, even if the aura isn't on.
Once a creature has been invaded, there's little that can be done. The statblock gives no options as to harming the Shade while it's inside, and no abilities can target it, extending the battle even further. There's no written way to assist the victims with their saves, leaving them to suffer until they either succeed the save or finally choke to death... At which point, 1d4 rounds later, a second full-powered Choking Shade rises from their corpse alongside the original one. As mentioned with the last asphyxiation enthusiast on this blog, suffocation is simultaneously and paradoxically both harmless and harrowing, as most beings can survive nearly a minute without being able to breathe unless they dumped Con, but once they run out of air, they die automatically two rounds later no matter their HP or defenses.
With just 10 Con, a creature can stay alive for 10 rounds before finally choking and dying... normally. Remember: Attempting to cough out the Shade is a standard action, meaning it costs an extra round of air to perform, so our hypothetical 10 Con victim has only 5 rounds to find a solution if they spend every round attempting to cough the thing out of themselves. Once they run out of air, they lose consciousness and can no longer take actions to expel the thing, assuring their death. Creatures with more Con have more time to think and more attempts to make the save, and even one success means ALL the Shade's work is undone and it must start again from the beginning, which IS a mercy.
There is also an additional mercy: If the victim is no longer scared, they immediately cough out the Shade and cannot be re-infected until they're affected by a fear effect again. Yet more Unbreakable Heart propaganda (and Remove Fear), though you'd better hope more than one person has it, lest the Shade slip into that victim's lungs first and prevent them from actually using it. There's also the irritating attrition battle going on here, because the incorporeal Shade is annoyingly resilient and can use Gravedust and its fear aura infinitely, but removing its fear and/or using a fear suppression effect are temporary measures it can simply wait out in someone else's lungs.
I don't entirely know where to go with this concept and am in fact lifting it wholesale from the SCP Log of Anomalous Items, but I greatly enjoy the idea of a chaos god being trapped inside of a deck of 52 cards that will be released if any other deck of cards in existence is ever in exactly the same order... meaning there's only ever going to be a 1 in 8x10^67 chance (that's an 80 followed by a number sixty-seven digits long) for its release at any given time.
Some type of Protean Cantor or a Demon Lord who took an unwise bet and indirectly became a demigod of gambling in order to keep people playing with cards in the vain hopes of ever being released
Some days, it feels like you really can't skip a stone across a river without hitting some waterway guardian or soaking spirit in the forehead with it. There's over two dozen different monsters in Pathfinder who specifically guard waterways, but it does at least make some sense as to why, especially in the context of THIS critter. Given the importance of water to most living creatures both in fantasy and in reality, having access to a source of it is literally worth fighting for, so most "guardians of untouched water sources" are typically just making sure no one else tears their territory away from them and/or squanders it away with short-sighted demands. In the case of the Uraeus, they're directly created by deities of nature to make sure anyone using a water source is doing so with at least some responsibility.
Side note: For those unaware, like I was until I looked it up to see if there were any fun facts to add to the article, the "Uraeus" is the name of the rearing serpent motifs you see among ancient Egyptian works, most famously on the headdresses of pharaohs. Fittingly enough, the Uraeus of Golarion are said to be creations/offspring of Wadjet, taking part in guarding the grand River Sphinx and all of its offshoots and guiding mortals towards responsible use with its waters. Weirdly, their appearance in Bestiary 5 removes all direct references to Wadjet in favor of making them servants of an unnamed guardian goddess, essentially allowing them to be used by any goddess of water should the need arise.
Uraeus spend the majority of their lives tending to their aquatic homes, swimming up and down the riverbanks on patrol for threats that need addressing, messes that need cleaning, travelers that require aid, their twin heads always on the lookout. If there's nothing to do along the banks, they take to the skies with their 50ft fly speed to survey the area from above, which is also how they hunt. They feed as snakes do, preying on anything small enough for them to swallow whole, though civilizations they live near often leave out tribute for them in the form of small game or fish, freeing up their time for guard work... and for chatting up the locals.
Yes, they can talk! And they're quite chatty at that, always listening closely for local gossip about the goings-ons in lands beyond their rivers, if only to keep a snake-ear out for trouble that may be coming their way. if they judge a problem may be too big for them--or a whole nest of them, as they can congregate in groups as large as eight!--they'll instead seek out more powerful heroes or like-minded individuals for aid. Thus, for the average party an Uraeus is often going to be a helpful quest-giver or unusual guide in unfamiliar lands rather than a monster to be fought, but if they aid the party in combats against greater threats and on the occasions they're actual encounters for the PCs to clear, they're a painful reminder of the importance of prepared actions.
Of course they have Flyby Attack. And with that 50ft fly speed they make obnoxious use of it, zipping past the party and delivering their bite attacks before flitting back out of range. As one may expect from what looks like a two-headed cobra, Uraeus have two bite attacks for 1d8+4 damage each, which carries a painful poison... but their poison has a unique effect, in that it has two effects. Back in ye olden days of D&D 3.5, poisons would have a single frontloaded effect followed by a secondary punch a few rounds/minutes later, typically doing the same amount of damage in one round that a Pathfinder poison would take three or four to do; the Uraeus hearkens back to that age, its poison having a primary effect on its first round and a secondary effect on the next, with a successful DC 15 Fortitude save needed to avoid suffering the effects at all.
When first bitten, the Uraeus' venom blinds and paralyzes the victim for one round, while the secondary effect is 2d4 further rounds of blindness, and there is no save to reduce that blindness duration; once you fail the second save, the poison has technically run its course. Given that the poison's duration is 2 rounds and it has two different effects, this does make it kind of a headache to guess what, precisely, multiple doses do. The Uraeus can deliver two bites a round, after all, but since the poison doesn't deal any sort of actual damage, do further doses cause the primary effect to trigger, or does it just keep re-triggering the secondary ability? I'm lead to believe it's just the secondary effect that keeps re-triggering, but I'd LIKE the paralysis to trigger with each new dose, because otherwise the poor Uraeus has little else going for it.
In fairness, blindness is no joke, especially against a flying enemy with Flyby Attack that can suddenly dive underwater if it needs further cover. Blindness causes half of all attacks against it to miss, making its above-average 19 AC even more formidable to make up for its complete lack of any defensive abilities aside from Fire Resistance 10 (and immunity to disease, which is a ribbon ability). An Uraeus can afford to make a Full-Attack to blind two different people or really blind one specific person before flying off to do hit-and-runs, ounce of prevention and all that. It's especially crushing against spellcasters, who normally need to be able to draw line of sight to their target, enemy OR ally. If they go blind, they won't be able to throw out helpful buffs OR debuffs!
I might be making a lot of assumptions here in regards to the snake actually managing to blind people it needs to blind, but the Uraeus typically will get the drop on anything it wants to get the drop on. It only has a +9 to Stealth, but it's an all-terrain monster capable of climbing, swimming, and flying, giving it plenty of ambush potential. Plus Improved Initiative, considerably raising its chances of going first... and, of course, there's its ranged attack, which I've been saving until just now! The Uraeus has a Breath Weapon it can use every 1d4 rounds, spraying its poison in a 30ft line and punishing people who've grouped up by potentially blinding two or three of them at once if they, for whatever reason, are walking in a neat little row.
Given the weapon's swift recharge, it can potentially keep every enemy it can see blind the entire fight, especially since each head can use the Breath Weapon, and each head tracks its recharge separately. Whenever an Uraeus makes a Full-Attack, it can choose to replace one or both of its bites with its poison spray if it's got the charges available, spraying in two different directions if need-be. It may not All-Around Vision, but it DOES have All-Around Venom! Given the range, it can also hover mid-air and spray its enemies from above, only landing to attack when it's sure its foes are unable to see it and easily fight back. The poison might not deal dreaded stat damage, but after the third round in a row of no one being able to hit the thing as it bites for 1d8+4 damage at a time might make the party wish it did, if only for everyone's sanity.
An Uraeus isn't a POWERFUL encounter, but it can be an annoying one as it grinds a party down in tiny chunks at a time and forces them to waste resources just trying to hit it. Inversely, it can make an extremely useful ally for a party whose goals align with its own, hosing down foes to turn their attacks into jokes. They may only have one trick, but it's an effective one they can do it nigh-constantly to several targets at once!
How do Proteans get along with Azata. Proteans really hate lawful beings, and Demon and Qillpoth. But nothing about Azata
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According to Concordance of Rivals, the Azata and Protean get along in matters of creation, with the Lillend being called out specifically as welcomed in their choruses. However, in matters of destruction, they frequently clash, and their love of freedom goes above and beyond the Azata's own due to it encompassing things like "freedom from shape" and "freedom from morals."
Do you think you could design colossus versions of the golems from Bestiary 2 onward, or did someone beat me to that?
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Stepping into the realm of true Mythic power is something I'm not fully prepared for right now, despite how I keep tricking myself into statting demigods. One day I may do it, but I'd need a big burst of inspo for it!
Homebrew Horror: Alichino, Jester Prince of the Cage
The great Alichino of a Thousand Voices has been the patient conqueror of Golarion since time immemorial, carefully working from the shadows to inveigle himself with all manner of powerful figures, gathering allies among society's elite through subterfuge, bribery, and good old-fashioned blackmail. His is an immaculately woven web, its many disparate and oft-redundant parts fragile individually but together are powerful enough to withstand any test. Though he has experienced numerous setbacks and damage to his web of influence, there is little he cannot bounce back from; even the loss of a valuable game piece is but moment's inconvenience for an immortal with infinite patience and nigh-endless resources.
Imagine his surprise, then, when one such setback came in the form of his own superior usurping his position as Golarion's would-be emperor, impatiently brushing aside the jester's creations in favor of transforming Cheliax into his infernal kingdom and spreading Hell's dogma from the new, tyrannical throne. As any good soldier in Hell's war on free will, Alichino dutifully stepped aside to allow Asmodeus to rule his grand country, assured that the far-spanning, far-reaching plots orchestrated directly by the King of Hell and his numerous, cosmically-powerful lieutenants would surely see Golarion come to heel far sooner than whatever meager tapestry the Jester Prince was weaving.
In less than a century since Asmodeus claimed the nation from beneath Aroden's cooling corpse, Cheliax went from an empire that touched every corner of the Inner Sea region to a dictatorship desperately clinging to its final bastion of power. In the last 60-odd years, Cheliax has been chipped away at all sides by its adversaries, carved to pieces from within by territories it once held absolute power over, lost truly staggering amounts of resources due to the grudges of its nobility, and overall been reduced to a trembling fraction of its former glory currently under the rule of a despot whose intelligence, cunning, and drive to preserve and expand the nation's borders once more is hindered by an ego barely more resilient than glass. "The very reflection of her own lord, I must say!" is a sentence none but Alichino could get away with openly saying. "Perhaps a glimpse into our own futures?" he jests amongst Hell's elite; such is the privilege of the jester that he may so openly mock his king.
There are some who whisper that the Jester Prince has been waiting for "the experiment that was Cheliax" to finally breathe its last so that he may return to his own former glory as Golarion's proper Malebranche, but the truth is that he hasn't been waiting, and he has no "former" glory to return to. Alichino has never rested on his laurels, and though his machinations may have slowed, they have never once stopped. His true opinions on Cheliax are obfuscated even from his own trusted lieutenants, calling it everything from a "crumbling egopolis" to a "glorious certainty" and everything in between, but his absolute devotion to Hell's order has never once wavered.
Despite this fact, his jests have perhaps been cutting a little too deeply for Asmodeus' liking. Whether he will move to do something about the uppity little clown or has already made a backup plan for his direct control over Golarion slipping away has yet to be seen. Regardless of what dangers may exist for Alichino himself, the dutiful dogmatic demigod continues to quietly rule a growing collection of nations from the shadows, assembling a dossier on Golarion's damned and all the ways they can be exploited the glory of Hell. "Might My Lord be convinced to use it?"
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Alichino possesses a unique Artifact he wields as a weapon, tool, and prop.
Jester's Staff of Crows: CL 26. Overwhelming Abjuration and Illusion, strong Conjuration. Alichino's staff is a unique Major Artifact he's crafted to assist himself or his minions in schemes and shenanigans. At will as a swift action, the wielder may change it into a pen with endless ink, a wand (it may use any stored spells while in this form), its normal staff form, a walking cane, or a lengthy shepherd's crook. Its most basic use is the ability to act like a +3 Axiomatic Light Mace of Spell Storing while in staff, cane, or crook form, but it may also perform the functions of a special metamagic rod. It possesses 10 charges which renew each day at dawn, and these charges may be spent to apply the Bouncing, Disruptive, Enlarge, Extend, Quicken, Reach, Selective, Still, or Silent Metamagic to the spell as if it were a metamagic rod of that type, spending 1 charge per level the chosen metamagic would have increased the spell by (min 1). In Alichino's hands, the staff instead gains 20 charges each day, and he may use its effects to alter his spell-like abilities. The Staff of Crows can only be destroyed if Alichino breaks it accidentally while laughing at a joke told by a mortal.
Alichino, Jester Prince of the Cage CR 25
Lawful Evil Medium Outsider (Devil, Evil, Extraplanar, Lawful)
Init: +11; Senses: Darkvision 120ft, Detect Chaos, Detect Good, See in Darkness, True Seeing; Perception +37
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Defense
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AC 40, touch 26, flat-footed 29 (+5 armor, +5 deflection, +11 Dex, +9 natural)
HP 390 (26d10+234) Regeneration 10 (Good or silver)
Fort +17 Ref +26 Will +23
Defensive abilities Fortification (75%); DR 20/Good and silver; Immune Charm and compulsion effects, death effects, Electricity, Fire, poison; Resist Acid 30, Cold 30; SR 32
Str 30 Dex 33 Con 28 Int 25 Wis 26 Cha 37
Base Atk: +26; CMB +36 (+40 to disarm, trip); CMD 57 (61 vs disarm, trip)
Feats Combat Casting, Combat Expertise, Craft Magic Arms and Armor, Craft Rod, Craft Wondrous Item, Flyby Attack, Greater Disarm, Greater Trip, Improved Disarm, Improved Trip, Multiattack, Signature Skill (Bluff)(B), Skill Focus (Perform (Comedy)), Weapon Finesse
Skills Bluff +42, Diplomacy +36, Disguise +42, Fly +19, Knowledge (Arcana) +27, Knowledge (Local) +33, Knowledge (Planes) +30, Knowledge (Nobility) +33, Perception +37, Perform (Comedy) +48, Sense Motive +37, Sleight of Hand +37, Stealth +34, Spellcraft +36, Use Magic Device +42
Languages Celestial, Common, Draconic, Infernal; telepathy 300 ft; Tongues
SQ Malebranche Traits, One-Thousand Faces, One-Thousand Voices
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Ecology
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Environment any
Organization unique
Treasure triple standard (Jester's Staff of Crows, Jester's Garb (enchanted outfit; +5 armor bonus to AC, Heavy Fortification), Ring of Protection +5, other gear)
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Combat: Alichino doesn't enjoy combat nearly as much as other devils, preferring deception to death, but when combat begins, he turns it into a protracted humiliation ritual for his opponents, targeting the most dangerous ones with Irresistible Dance and Dominate Monster to render them useless. He keeps to the skies, distracting his foes with illusory enemies and very real summons or minions, bombarding them with his damaging spell-likes modified by his powerful staff as he darts from cover to cover with Flyby Attack, until they're softened enough for him to dive in and finish off in melee. He normally keeps his staff loaded with Bestow Curse, Fireball, or Lightning Bolt to unleash on the first fool he hits with it, and will flutter back into the air to "reload" it as needed. His Clown Around ability allows him to afflict his foes one at a time with dangerous combat maneuvers from a distance, though since it relies on them being able to see and hear him, he cannot combine it with his Deeper Darkness or his illusory spells, which are his go-tos when entering melee in order to utilize his Sneak Attack. As needed, he will use Flyby Attack and one or more of his natural attacks to inscribe a weakening brand on his foes to make them more vulnerable to his spells.
Morale: Alichino has too much to prove to risk death, and like most Malebranche, is terribly vulnerable to its finality. Even if he is reborn within Melgart Keep, he will certainly be severely punished for his failure, and as such he attempts to cut and run if reduced below 100 HP. If he expects conflict on a given day, he tends to save his Mass Suggestion spell for precisely this occasion, convincing his enemies to lay down their arms and accept his "completely legitimate" and "totally unconditional surrender," alongside his "heartfelt" and """""entirely honest""""" promises that he will never again return to Golarion. Provided with a distraction, he teleports away, dons a disguise, and lays low for years if need be before resuming his plots. If his ploy fails, he has little choice but to fight to the death.
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Special Abilities
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Bonus Feat: Alichino gains Signature Skill (Bluff) as a bonus feat, granting him the following abilities: no penalty for failed Bluff checks; any magical attempt to read his mind, detect his alignment, or determine if he is lying must succeed a DC 53 caster level check or the attempt reveals nothing; and as a full-round action, he may verbally give a Suggestion to a creature (DC 26), though any creature that successfully saves cannot be targeted by this ability again for 24 hours.
Clown Around (Su): Alichino's impeccable comedy skills allow him to drag any nearby creature into a supernatural gag. Once per round as a swift action, he may make a dirty trick, disarm, steal, or trip combat maneuver check using his Perform (Comedy) instead of his CMB. He may make this check against any creature within 60ft that can see and hear him, and may apply his relevant feats to this check (+52 to trip and disarm, +48 all others). How these maneuvers manifest varies; steal may involve the creature witlessly giving the item to him or him suddenly producing the stolen item from an unseen pocket, while trip may manifest as the creature's shoes suddenly becoming loose or catching against a previously unseen obstacle, and disarm may be caused by the creature becoming incensed at Alichino's jests and ineffectually throwing their weapon at him (or, in the case of Greater Disarm, a random target). Whatever the case may be, a creature targeted by this ability cannot be targeted by it again for 1d4 rounds.
Malebranche Traits (Ex/Su) Alichino is a malebranche, a powerful unique fiend. He possesses the following traits:
Immunity to charm and compulsion effects, death effects, fire, and poison.
Resistance to acid 30 and cold 30.
Telepathy 300 feet.
Alichino natural weapons, as well as any weapon he wields, are treated as epic, evil and lawful for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.
Mocking Mark (Su): This ability has two functions, inscribing either a painful wound or a weakening brand. Alichino can place a mocking mark on any creature he successfully strikes with one of his natural attacks, as part of touching a creature to activate a touch spell, or as a touch attack on its own, but can only place one mark each round. The wound acts as the Infernal Wounds ability of the Horned Devil, except the DC is 36. The brand is a curse effect that causes a large scar to form on the creature's body in whatever shape Alichino desires. The cursed creature has a -4 penalty to saving throws against the spells and abilities of Alichino or any of his worshipers, and a -4 penalty to attack rolls against them as well. So long as the curse persists, the scar cannot be healed.
One-Thousand Faces (Su): Alichino has an inexhaustible list of different personas he can access, and can always add more with a moment's concentration; he can change his shape as a move action, becoming any Small or Medium Humanoid or Monstrous Humanoid he desires. At will as a standard action, he may shroud himself beneath an illusion of any creature of Small, Medium, or Large size, as the spell Veil (DC 29). He may assume the form of specific individuals when using an illusory shroud, and the disguise is a flawless imitation. This illusion lasts until he changes it, or dismisses it as a free action.
One-Thousand Voices (Ex/Su): Alichino can effortlessly alter his voice in any capacity he desires, his millennia of practice making him sound far more trustworthy than he truly is. This grants him a +4 circumstance bonus to Charisma-based skill checks involving speech. In addition, while in an illusory disguise from One Thousand Faces, he may imitate the voice of the creature he's disguised as, even if he has never heard them speak; this portion of the ability is supernatural.
