Airmark's Guide to Planar Vegetables: Lotus Anchorite
These curious plants are found spotted throughout the Astral Plane, drifting in a meditative trance with their humanoid-shaped root systems trailing beneath their flower, which takes the place of the 'head'. The flower typically has a midnight-blue hue that fades into a rich maroon near the tips of the petals, with rich orange innards.
Due to the timeless nature of their home plane, lotus anchorites remain healthy without any need for sun, water, or nutrients of any kind; if transported to other planes, they demonstrate typical needs for a flowering plant of their size, favoring warm, wet environments. Lotus anchorites are exceedingly rare, potentially due to the divinatory use of their petals.
Lotus anchorite petals can be eaten, and if consumed provide revelatory visions that many attest to be the gods themselves contacting the consumer. Anchorites do not often consent to others consuming their petals, as they only grow a single flower in their lifetimes, and petals do not grow back.
If pressed to defend themselves, lotus anchorites bring both formidable psychic power and physical prowess to bear, equally adept at nonlethally escaping or ending combats as bringing would-be assailants to an untimely end. However, they are conversational if approached peacefully, and prove knowledgeable on a variety of topics. Consulting with them has proven invaluable to my research.
A tall and imposing Shadar Kai astride a Nightmare, a Blue skinned hobgoblin in a fez and robe, a chalk white Satyr with an oversized head, a huge vaguely humanoid shaped burlap sack filled with all matter of bugs and vermin. There are but a few of the shapes taken by the most infamous of the Archfey, the Bogeyman.
The Bogeyman is the lord of fear, in particular nameless irrational fear. The fear there might be someone hiding under your bed or closet, the fear that the old furnace in your basement may spring to life and devour you, the fear of the nameless things that lurk in the dark that pulls children to their doom, never to be seen again.
And like most nameless, irrational feats, the Bogeyman turns out to be not so bad when you get to know him.
The Bogeyman has never been really respected as a Fae lord. A coward and bully by nature, most people aren't truly afraid of him despite his claims on being the lord of fear. Only children are truly afraid of him, and so the Bogeyman began to slowly develop a fondness for them, even as he lurked under their bed to frighten them.
One fateful night, while lurking under the bed of a young noble to frighten her, he was shocked to hear the sounds of violence and fear coming from up above. The Bogeyman investigated and was shocked to discover the poor girl being beaten by her mother over some perceived slight earlier in the day. This was a changing moment for the Bogeyman. As he immediately frightened the noblewoman off and spirited the girl back to his domain, not to harm her but to save her.
This was when the Bogeyman's entire paradigm changed. He became the secret protector of children. He lurked under their beds and in closets to watch after them, if he did frighten them, it was to teach them to be brave, to stand up to the realm monsters in the world. And if the Bogeyman did spirit children away, it was to get them out of terrible situations.
A natural shapeshifter, few people have seen the Bogeyman's true form. And in truth it is...not that impressive. In his true form he is a weathered, gaunt pale skinned figure with long boneless arms and a one eye, dressed in a ragged jesters outfit.
The Nighmare Palace
The Nightmare Palace is the Bogeyman's domain of delight, a huge gothic castle sitting atop a lonely hill on a mountain where its always night, and the full moon always hangs. Inside the palace is huge winding network of hallways, filled with beds and closets which contain portals to the real world. The floors are strewn with all manner of candy and toys, and the walls are patrolled by all manner of monsters; ranging from goblins ans skeletons, mummies and werewolves, ghosts and vampires, and others. Despite their monstrous appearance, these monsters are much nicer than their counterparts in other domains, not requiring the feeding methods they use on other plains. These monsters aid the Bogeyman in his job of "scaring" kids, and follow strict rules to make sure they don't accidentally traumatize their charges. Any kids brought to the Nightmare palace who opts to stay will eventually turn into one of these monsters, with a prime example being Ivana, the Bogeyman's adopted daughter (who is the young noble the Bogeyman saved all those years ago) now a Vampire who feeds on the color red instead of blood, and acts as the steward of the palace when the Bogeyman is away on business.
[I think the highest level I've ever run any DnD game was 17, and it was for one boss fight. I don't play high levels often (does anyone?) so it's a bit tricky to design stuff for it. But I think Pathfinder's psychopomps are rad as heck so here's the big one for fun! Why did the original absorb lightning? I dunno, 3e and variants loved giving monsters a bunch of random resistances and immunities.]
[Regarding the Primordial type, yes I made that up. It's for extraplanar beings that are neither elementals nor traditionally good or evil. A glaring hole in the cladistics there, WotC.]
[Also featuring villain actions! Villain actions are a mechanic created by Matt Colville to take the thing Legendary Actions were trying to do and make them actually cool (cause let's be honest most legendary actions are boring.) Check out his video on "Action-Oriented Monsters" for the straight dope on that.]
Yamaraj (CR 20)
Huge Primordial (psychopomp), Neutral
Space 15 ft. Reach 10 ft.
Initiative +5
HP 300 (24d10 +168 Con)
AC 21 (natural armor)
Proficiency Bonus +7
Str 19 (+4) Dex 21 (+5) Con 25 (+7) Int 18 (+4) Wis 23 (+6) Cha 25 (+7)
Saves Str +11, Con +14, Int +11, Wis +13
Skills Arcana +11, History +11, Insight +13, Perception +13
Condition Immunities poisoned
Damage Resistances radiant, necrotic; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from weapons that aren’t magical
Languages Abyssal, Celestial, Draconic, Infernal, Primordial; telepathy 1 mile
Speed 40 ft., fly 60 ft.
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Legendary Resistance (3/day): If the yamaraj fails a saving throw, it can choose to succeed instead.
Magic Resistance: The yamaraj has advantage on all saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
Spirit Touch: A psychopomp’s weapons are magical, and can target creatures in the Ethereal Plane (such as those under the effects of Blink.)
Spiritsense: A psychopomp can automatically pinpoint the location of any creature with a soul within 60 ft. of them.
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Innate Spellcasting (Spell DC 22, spell attack bonus +14): The yamaraj’s innate spellcasting ability is Charisma. It can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components.
Constant - Detect Thoughts
At Will - Etherealness, Zone of Truth
3/day - Circle of Death, Counterspell, Reincarnate
1/day - Power Word Kill, Soul Cage, True Resurrection
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Actions
Multiattack: The yamaraj uses its Frightful Presence, then makes one bite attack, two claw attacks, and one tail attack. The tail attack must be made against a creature that it didn’t target with any of its other attacks.
Breath Weapons (Recharge 5-6): The yamaraj uses one of the following breath weapons:
Grave Chill: The yamaraj inhales, tearing at the souls of all creatures in a 60 ft. cone. Affected creatures must make DC 22 Constitution saves or take 28 (8d6) cold and 28 (8d6) necrotic damage, and be affected as by the Slow spell until the end of the yamaraj’s next turn. On a successful saving throw, a creature takes half damage and isn’t slowed.
Carrion Breath: The yamaraj exhales a swarm of carrion beetles in a 60 ft. cone. All creatures in the area must make DC 22 Dexterity saves or take 28 (8d6) piercing damage and be covered in beetles. While covered in beetles, a creature takes 28 (8d6) piercing damage at the start of each of its turns and is poisoned. A creature covered in beetles can use their action to brush off the beetles; if the creature submerges itself in water or takes any fire damage, the beetles fall off as well. On a successful saving throw, the creature takes half damage and is not covered in beetles.
Frightful Presence: Each creature of the yamaraj’s choice that is within 120 feet of the yamaraj and aware of it must succeed on a DC 22 Wisdom saving throw or become frightened for 1 minute. A creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success. If a creature's saving throw is successful or the effect ends for it, the creature is immune to the yamaraj's Frightful Presence for the next 24 hours.
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Villain Actions
The yamaraj has three villain actions. It can take each action once during an encounter after an enemy creature’s turn. It takes villain action 1 during the first round of combat, villain action 2 during the second round, and villain action 3 during the third round.
Villain Action 1: Summon the Jury: The yamaraj plucks souls from the Astral Current to aid it in battle. A soul appears in an unoccupied space next to each enemy within 60 feet of the yamaraj that it can see. The souls use the statistics for wraiths, but they lack the Sunlight Sensitivity trait and gain Turn Immunity, making them immune to features that turn undead. These souls act immediately when summoned, then roll initiative at the start of the next round. The souls fight until they’re destroyed, and follow the yamaraj’s commands. The souls disappear if the yamaraj dies.
Villain Action 2: Call the Witnesses: The yamaraj calls forth memories from its foes’ pasts. Each creature of its choice within 120 ft. must make a DC 22 Wisdom save or be entranced by the memory. An entranced creature is forced to relive a moment from its past that exemplifies its personality. While reliving the memory, the creature is incapacitated and cannot move, and it is unaware of its actual surroundings. At the end of each of the creature’s turns, it can attempt a new saving throw to end the effect, and any effect that would cure the charmed condition ends the effect. The yamaraj knows what an entranced creature sees.
Villain Action 3: Pronounce the Verdict: The yamaraj pronounces judgment on one creature it can see. The creature must make a DC 22 Charisma saving throw. On a success, the creature takes force damage equal to half its maximum hit points. On a failure, its soul is torn from its body and it drops to 0 HP and begins dying. The soul appears in the creature’s space, assumes its appearance, and uses the statistics of an Avatar of Death, treating the target as its summoner. The Avatar of Death obeys the yamaraq’s commands and acts on the target’s initiative. While the Avatar of Death is alive, the creature cannot regain hit points or accumulate successes on death saves; if it would succeed on one, it simply does not accumulate a failure.
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Tactics
The yamaraj is a very control oriented boss. It doesn’t output enough damage to threaten a high-level party on its own, so it’s gonna need some backup dancers. The villain actions bring some low-level backup, but it’ll need more than that, wraiths only have +6 to hit so they’re not gonna hit vs. high-level PC’s too often. They don’t need to be too complex, they just need to have damage, let the yamaraj do the weird fun stuff. That said, it can finish weakened characters off.
Regarding Pronounce the Verdict, yes that is the Avatar of Death summoned by the Death card in the Deck of Many Things.
I would consider it poor sportsmanship to have the yamaraj Counterspell a player trying to Counterspell its Power Word Kill. Give them the chance to be cool.
Etherealness can be used to flee if needed. While the psychopomps believe even they are bound to the cycle of death and reincarnation, they do not fault creatures for attempting to preserve their lives, and the death of a yamaraj can be quite inconvenient for them.
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Lore
Appearing as great black dragons with feathers instead of scales, yamaraj are the greatest of the psychopomps, the final judge a soul might face in their journey to the Beyond. The vast majority of souls never see these great wyrms, and are simply sorted by lesser psychopomps like vanths, but occasionally they will bring a yamaraj a soul whose appropriate destination is unclear, or a soul of great importance that the yamaraj might take interest in. For these souls, the yamaraj hold a trial, weighing the defendant’s actions in life to determine its fate in the Beyond.
The psychopomps are a mysterious group of creatures that oversee the machinery of death. While they are infamously reticent about their history, methods, and motives, scholars have uncovered evidence of a time before the Astral Current and reincarnation, and a popular theory states that the psychopomps, or their predecessors, created it. They certainly maintain and safeguard it now, as anyone who has found the Current in the Astral Sea can attest, having likely been driven off by waves of the creatures. Their realm lies somewhere in the Astral Sea, but no one has yet found it and returned to tell of it. A few who have been invited to take a portal there directly report an island made of bone, and buildings made of stone embedded with fossils.
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9th-level Transmutation
Casting Time: 10 hour
Range: Touch
Components: V, S, M (10,000 GP worth of precious minerals, A focus worth at least 5,000 GP, Be within the middle of a city)
Duration: Instantaneous
Classes: Druid
Description: You touch the ground and cause the earth to erupt, causing the earth to grow legs and arms and lift itself up bringing the city with it. The creature's stats are listed below. This elemental does not follow your commands and will act on its own. Killing it causes it to slowly descend, dropping the city to the ground wherever it currently is.
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Bone Ooze
Gargantuan ooze, unaligned
Armor Class 10 (natural armor)
Hit Points 429 (22d20 + 180)
Speed 20 ft.
Str 28 Dex 1 Con 28 Int 1 Wis 4 Cha 1
Damage Immunities necrotic, poison; bludgeoning, piercing and, slashing damage from nonmagical attacks
Condition Immunities blinded, charmed, deafened, frightened, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned, prone, restrained, stunned
Senses blindsight 120 ft. (blind beyond this radius) passive Perception 7
Languages -
Challenge 20 (25000 XP)
Amorphous. The ooze can move through a space as narrow as 1 foot wide without squeezing.
Magic Resistance. The ooze has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
Magic Weapons. The ooze's weapon attacks are magical.
Actions
Multiattack. The bone ooze makes two pseudopod attacks or four bone jab attacks.
Pseudopod. Melee Weapon Attack: +15 to hit, reach 15 ft., one target. Hit: 27 (4d8+9) bludgeoning damage plus 18 (4d8) necrotic damage. If the target is a creature other than an elementa, undead or a construct, it must succeed on a DC 23 Constitution saving throw or have its hit point maximum reduced by an amount equal to the necrotic damage taken, and the bone ooze regains hit points equal to that amount. The target dies if this effect reduces its hit point maximum to 0.
Bone Jab. Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +15 to hit, reach 15 ft., or range 60/120 ft., one target. Hit: 19 (4d4+9) piercing damage. If the target is a creature other than an undead or a construct, it must succeed on a DC 23 Constitution saving throw or lose 5 (1d10) hit points at the start of each of its turns due to a terrible wound. Each time the ooze hits the wounded target with this attack, the damage dealt by the wound increases by 5 (1d10). Any creature can take an action to stanch the wound with a successful DC 23 Wisdom (Medicine) check. The wound also closes if the target receives magical healing.
Engulf. The ooze moves up to its speed. While doing so, it can enter Huge or smaller creatures' spaces. Whenever the cube enters a creature's space, the creature must make a DC 23 Dexterity saving throw.
On a successful save, the creature can choose to be pushed 5 feet back or to the side of the ooze. A creature that chooses not to be pushed suffers the consequences of a failed saving throw.
On a failed save, the ooze enters the creature's space, and the ooze can make a pseudopod and bone jab attack against the creature as a free action. The engulfed creature can't breath, is restrained, and must make a DC 23 Constitution saving throw at the start of each of the ooze's turns or take 49 (14d6) necrotic damage. If this damage reduces the creature to 0 hit points and it has a skeletal structure, the creature dies and its skeleton is extracted.
An engulfed creature can try to escape by taking an action to make a DC 17 Strength (Athletics) check. On a success, the creature escapes and enters a space of its choice within 5 feet of the ooze.
Bone oozes slide along underground, scavenging for bones. These disguising creatures are called rolling graveyards because of all the bones suspended in their bodies. It’s body is filled with enzymes and materials that leech through the skin of the creatures they touch and engulf, weakening and dissolving their bones. They are slow and very easy to hit however, and so while not particularly stealthy they stick to underground tunnels where their prey can’t easily flee, and shoot down distant foes with chunks of bone coated in anticoagulants that cause terrible wounds that leave them bleeding out in seconds.
Originally from the 3.0 Monster Manual 2. Despite the horrendous damage output and abilities, the bone ooze may be an easy target for most high level parties. Low mobility, low line of sight, low AC. Letting a party kite it will mean it goes down with very little effort, so any setup you can arrange to let it get the drop on them instead will turn the tide of the battle horrendously. If they get trapped in close quarters, it can put on quite the show with its hard to resist hit point maximum reduction, bleeding wounds, and skeleton digestion. If you like this post, consider following my Patreon to get access to content like this a week ahead of everybody else, plus updates on other projects I’m working on!
As one would expect, deep dragons are found deep, deep in the earth. It's not completely certain whether deep dragons are their own species, or some kind of mutated version of a true dragon. Regardless, they're just as powerful as true dragons. Surface dwellers may now give a sigh of relief as it's made known that deep dragons have no interest in leaving their dark world. They sometimes make pacts with drow, but that's mostly to keep an eye on them and make sure that whatever the drow do, it won't interfere with the deep dragon's well-being.
Deep dragons cannot be trusted. They’re especially tricky creatures, and similarly difficult to fool. Even a wyrmling is born with innate true seeing, making them immune to the effects of illusions and invisibility. Older deep dragons become more attuned to their cavernous and stony environment. They start out being able to easily burrow through stone and worm their way though small cracks. By the time end of their lifespan, deep dragons can command the stone to open, close and warp as they please.
Why fight some repugnant humanoid skulking in the tunnel you've left behind when you can simply command the tunnel to seal itself, crushing the intruder?
