#deh-nolo

[thecreaturecodex]

Deh-nolo

Image © Paizo Publishing

[The deh-nolo has a weird canonical spot in Pathfinder, even putting aside the links between Pathfinder and Starfinder (for those who aren’t aware, Starfinder is set in a possible far future of the solar system of Pathfinder, in which the planet Pathfinder is set on, Golarion, has mysteriously disappeared). The deh-nolo appeared in the Playtest Bestiary for Pathfinder 2nd Edition, but not the actual Bestiary (or either of the follow up volumes). Maybe they’re going to show up in Bestiary 4 or something, but as for now, they’ve fallen through the cracks.]

Deh-nolo CR 14 CE Aberration This creature appears as a pulsing, vaguely brain shaped entity, walking on four spindly legs that seem partway between biological and technological. It has a single tentacle growing from its underside, seeming to serve as a needle-tipped manipulator arm, and four stalks grow from its upper side, each containing a humanoid brain.

The deh-nolo are a sister species to the neh-thalggu, and like them are agents of the Dominion of the Black. Their role is primarily as engineers and intellectuals, creating the tools and ideologies that other creatures use to enforce the Dominion’s philosophy of destruction across the universe. A deh-nolo is a living laboratory. Their bodies can secrete a variety of fluids to serve as fuel, lubricants and toxins, and they produce biomechanical components inside their bodies and disgorge them in a process disconcertingly similar to giving birth. Although they only have one limb capable of manipulation, it can be fiendishly dexterous when the deh-nolo requires it.

A deh-nolo would rather leave combat to its underlings, but that does not mean they are unskilled. Their primary physical weapon is Dominion bile, an incredibly toxic secretion that results in widespread tissue death in even those that survive its ravages. They can inject this by extruding a hollow lancet from their tentacle, or fire crystalline shards (similar to weaponized kidney stones) coated in this secretion, or in acids, boiling or freezing fluids, or even electrically charged juices. A deh-nolo mixes these attacks with its powerful magical abilities—every deh-nolo has occult powers equivalent to a skilled humanoid psychic.

Deh-nolo are typically found in positions of authority, but not command. They defer to the yah-thelgaad when the two species are found together, although the two are roughly equal in abilities. On Dominion vessels, a deh-nolo can often be found tending to the shipmind. Deh-nolos are something of experts at keeping these finicky living life support systems healthy and happy. Scholars consider the deh-nolo important in terms of converting other creatures to the Dominion’s philosophy—not so much in terms of mind control (although many are capable of this as well), but in terms of relating cultural traditions of the new species to the Dominion’s beliefs. The deh-nolo have woven a powerfully syncretic philosophy that can contain many strange and dangerous entities under the same umbrella.

Deh-nolo             CR 14 XP 38,400 CE Large aberration Init +4; Senses darkvision 60 ft., Perception +19 Defense AC 28, touch 18, flat-footed 23 (-1 size, +4 Dex, +1 dodge, +4 insight, +10 natural) hp 200 (16d8+128) Fort +11, Ref +11, Will +14 DR 15/magic; Immune confusion, disease, poison; SR 25 Defensive Abilities open pustules; Weakness brain dependent Offense Speed 20 ft., fly 40 ft. (perfect) Melee sting +15 (3d6+6 plus poison) Ranged crystal shard +15 (4d8+4 plus augment) Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft. Spells CL 12th, concentration +24 (+28 casting defensively) 6th (5/day)—greater dispel magic, withdraw affliction 5th (7/day)—dominate person (DC 24), feeblemind (DC 24), mind thrust V (DC 24) 4th (8/day)—confusion (DC 23), dimension door, mind probe (DC 23), telekinesis (DC 22) 3rd (8/day)—analyze aura, haste, heroism, synaptic pulse (DC 22) 2nd (8/day)—alter self, anticipate thoughts (DC 21), blur, hypercognition, see invisibility 1st (8/day)—detect thoughts (DC 20), mage armor, magic missile, psychic reading, unseen servant 0th—arcane mark, bleed (DC 18), detect magic, grave words, light, mage hand, mending, read magic, stabilize Statistics Str 18, Dex 19, Con 22, Int 27, Wis 18, Cha 19 Base Atk +12; CMB +16; CMD 31 (35 vs. trip) Feats Combat Casting, Dodge, Improved Vital Strike, Lightning Reflexes, Logical Spell, Spell Focus (divination, enchantment), Vital Strike Skills Craft (alchemy) +20, Fly +25, Heal +16, Knowledge (arcana, dungeoneering, engineering, geography, planes) +27, Knowledge (all others) +12, Perception +19, Sense Motive +16, Spellcraft +23, Stealth +15 Languages Abyssal, Aklo, Common, 4 others SQ brain collection, strange knowledge Ecology Environment any land or underground Organization solitary, conference (1-4) or crew (1-2 plus 2-12 neh-thalggu) Treasure standard Special Abilities Augment Crystal (Ex) Whenever a deh-nolo uses its crystal shard ability, it may use a swift action to charge the shard with 3d6 points of acid, cold, electricity or fire damage, or coat the shard in its poison. Brain Collection (Ex) A deh-nolo can store up to four humanoid brains and use them to enhance its knowledge and power. Each stored brain grants a deh-nolo a cumulative +1 insight bonus to AC, concentration checks, and Knowledge checks, as well as the ability to understand and speak one language that the creature knew in life. A deh-nolo can make Knowledge checks untrained as long as it has at least one brain in its brain collection. A deh-nolo can extract a brain from a helpless opponent with a coup de grace attack, or as a standard action from a body that has been dead for no more than 1 minute. Brain Dependent (Ex) A deh-nolo that has fewer than four brains gains one negative level for each brain lost. If a deh-nolo takes at least 50 points of damage from a single attack, it must succeed a DC 20 Fortitude save or lose one of its brains. Crystal Shard (Ex) A deh-nolo can fire a crystal shard as a standard action. Treat this as a ranged attack with a thrown weapon, with a range increment of 60 feet. Open Pustules (Ex) Whenever a deh-nolo suffers a critical hit from a piercing or slashing weapon, its fluid sacs burst, spraying all creatures adjacent to the deh-nolo with its poison. Poison (Ex) Dominion bile—contact; save Fort DC 24; duration 1/round for 6 rounds; effect 1d6 Con damage; cure 2 consecutive saves. The save DC is Constitution based. Spells A deh-nolo can cast spells as a 13th level psychic. It does not gain other abilities of the psychic class, such as discipline spells or a phrenic pool, unless it takes levels in psychic. Strange Knowledge (Ex) A deh-nolo treats all Knowledge skills as class skills.

[aerial-ace97]

Honorable Mentions

As promised, I will be ranking the 50 aberrations throughout the modern D&D multiverse best to use for your next Big Monster Evil Guy over the course of January.  You can see the original post under the BMEG tag and this month will also fall under the tag of Janu-Alien, which is what the month for aberrations will now be referred to as.

But going into the meat of this, this was incredibly difficult to narrow down from the 141 aberrations that I was given to work with.  Even with today just being our honorable mentions, there were still phenomenal monsters that I couldn’t even make room for with 10 places given.

To clarify briefly, while I can’t guarantee that my bias won’t factor in on occasion, this list is what I believe to be the best aberrations to be the final villain of a questline.  It is NOT my favorite monsters and certainly not the BEST monsters.  Please bear that in mind and don’t be too upset if your faves didn’t make the list.  I won’t be going as deeply into these ones as when we get into the real list.  There were further rules given in my previous post but without further ado, my places for 60 through 51 are as follows:

#60 - Purple Sapient Orbs - Starfinder

This may be a bit fickle, but a large part of the reason this creature barely misses the list is simply because it is called a purple sapient orb.  That’s not true.  I actually kinda dig it.  But the creature has such a number of small things that I fluctuate between liking and finding too ridiculous to justify putting on this list.  It has some interesting lore about their desire to make contact with new species but with the lack of ability to commune.  Though they are Neutral Good, an interesting story could be made out of this frustration of disconnect dissolving into either obsession or vitriolic antipathy.  But a few things I both like and dislike.  Pairing this cartoonish name with a creature that is complex is something I like and dislike.  Making this an aberration instead of an outsider or ooze is something I like and dislike.  Making it specifically purple and not just different colors and giving us Sapient Orb as opposed to this far too long name is something I like and dislike.  Literally calling the language of their species orbian is something I like and dislike.  There is cool visuals and concepts in their lore but when the theme makes me so uncertain I can’t put it in this list.

#59 - Vaspercham - Pathfinder 2e

On occasion, Pathfinder 2e has one major flaw over its predecessor.  That flaw is its fairly meager one to two paragraph limit (usually) when it comes to giving us the lore, motivations, and ecology of its monsters.  The Vaspercham especially suffers in this realms.  It has style and some really neat water abilities revolving around creating tides that can make you lose your mind and I love water monsters.  For all these reasons, and the fact it has power that can rival the toughest powers gets it a spot in the runner-ups.  Its lore, however, prevents it from actually cracking the list, as it basically just amounts to being territorial.  Now mind you, there’s nothing wrong with simple motivations on occasion but when there is little to no detail given behind it, it just kind of feels like a waste.

#58 - Flumph - D&D 3.5, Pathfinder, Pathfinder 2e, Starfinder, 5e

The flumph is a divisive creature, with some who think it shouldn’t exist and others loving it deeply for its cartoonish nature.  I kind of fall into the territory of saying of course something like this exists.  How many ridiculous animals evolved in our regular world that could prove that.  More an acceptance than anything.  Flumphs have some genuinely interesting lore and I think it would be outrageously funny to have a final villain of a quest that was the above image, but not funny enough that I could put it on the official list.

#57 - Tychilarius - Pathfinder

The tychilarius is incredibly powerful and a great encounter for the end of any quest and most likely the end of a campaign.  At a whopping CR 23, it comes just shy of being a Great Old One and in fact was thought to have spawned from a black hole and is now imprisoned in a place no one knows.  There are just two big problems.  Number one is that there is only one, and while.you can change that for your world, I’m limited by having to follow the written word in judging these entities.  And two is more major and its this, knowing its origin and knowing that is is imprisoned gives us nothing to work with.  It has surprisingly great mechanics and a pretty major intellect, but no given motivations to utilize those things towards.  In a rare case, Pathfinder gives us nothing on this.  Sure any good DM can come up with good stories, as they can any monster, but a strong baseline always helps and that’s what I’m judging these on.  And I don’t wanna hear any nonsense about how its lovecraftian and so its desires are mysterious and unknowable.  Slapping that title on it doesn’t make it so.  Even lovecraftian entities have something specifically weird about them you can hook too without just being like *shrug* we just don’t know.  We can give credit to Tychilarius for the Dominion of the Black though (which is interesting because Starfinder has no stats on Tychilarius even though this is where the Dominion of the Black more heavily features), something which will spawn far more developed creatures down the road for us.

#56 - Tolokand - Pathfinder 2e

This thing oozes style to me, but ultimately is once again let down by minuscule lore from 2e.  It is an avatar creature.  Sometimes referred to as the waste walker, it embodies absolute desolation in an unknowable and unstoppable sense.  This alone makes for a good final boss but lacking much of a human connection.  Beyond a lack of lore, the other thing selling the Tolokand short is a lack of ability to speak.  The other problem is that they almost have to be actively engaged with, as they don’t seek out people but rather just land to ravage which kind of takes a bit away from a give and take relation you might desire from a Big Monster Evil Guy.

#55 - Mimic - D&D 3.5, Pathfinder, Pathfinder 2e, 5e

You might be surprised to know that mimics are quite intelligent given their simplistic predatory nature.  There are actually many very intelligent aberrations and other monsters that still mostly content themselves to the hunt.  Mimics have distinct advantages over many of these though.  One is the sheer variety available from the ability to become any inanimate object they desire, which I would invite for you to utilize for more varied mechanics than those provided.  The other lies in the fact that across many editions, their have always been references to elder mimics, which could be buildings or towers, or I would go on with space ships and sea ships for other settings.  This possibility can imply so much via the idea alone, but unfortunately must also be the place at which I keep mimics from entering the true list above.  While a neat concept, I’ve yet to see an official variant of this.  It therefore is a little presumptuous perhaps to assume that an elder mimic might be anything more than just a larger predator.  Take it forward with your own steps though, and you can imagine living wizard’s towers, cybernetically enhanced and evolved spacecraft mimics, and ecosystems designed of the very edges of the creature’s imaginations.  As the books leave it though, we must resign the mimic to honorable mentions.

#54 - Isqulug - Pathfinder 2e

The Isqulug suffers the same problem as we’ve seen from our other 2e placements so far.  The lore we have is quite interesting, but with only a single paragraph and a small subsidiary comment to go on, it is hardly enough to make it.  This creature has one fascinating quality.  It comes from the Feywild.  Or sorry.  The First World as it is known in Pathfinder.  The interplay of aberrations and the fey is a fascinating concept and one that you would think might instantly put the Isqulug in the top 50 just from being such a unique rarity.  You’d be surprised to know however that in doing my research, it’s actually not that rare of a notion.  There were two or three aberrations that have interplay that didn’t make it to honorable mentions, one that we’ll see farther down this post, and at least one more that made it to the top 50.  The Isqulug simply didn’t have enough motivation or lore to land it in that same running, even as unique its concept, design, and mechanics are.

#53 - Deh-Nolo - Starfinder

Now hear me out.  Are the Deh-Nolo one of the most powerful and frequently encountered creatures that make the ranks of the infamous Dominion of the Black?  Yes they are.  Are they on-brand for the uniquely disconnected, monstrous and creepy but yet undeniably intellectual, alien design prevalent throughout this organization?  Yes they are.  Do they give credence to the technologically aspects of Starfinders universe?  Yes they do.  Do they have their own unique lore that can function independently of the Dominion of the Black.  Um.  Eh.  Ok yes they do.  But when compared to many creatures in the Dominion they do not compare.  The Dominion’s inhabitants are mostly all there own thing.  The Deh-Nolo feel like they should’ve just been a variant of the Neh-Thalggu just like the Yah-Thelgaad are.  They all revolve around the extraction of brains.  In fact almost everyone of their traits feels like it could be a Neh-Thalggu.  This seems like the obvious choice.  Deh-Nolo feel somewhat unnecessary for how powerful and prevalent they are and while you could certainly make good villains out of them, the lore for other members of their guild feels like the more solid choice and with so many creatures in the Dominion, a few had to take the arrow of being just honorable mentions.

#52 - Will-O’-Wisp - D&D 3.5, Pathfinder, Pathfinder 2e, 5e

I love the idea of a final villain that is a will-o’-wisp if I’m honest even if there are significant barriers to it.  It can’t speak and it can’t manipulate objects but both of these things can be mitigated through clever story telling and class levels so that’s no significant problem.  Will-O’-Wisps pose a significant enemy for their CR/level with their crazy AC and invisibility and fairly powerful shocks and consume life ability though some of these things depend on the edition being used.  This unassuming creature can be so interesting as a luring and destabilizing villain reliant on tricks, illusions, and mazes.  Finally, they once again harken to the fey and we see that interaction again with the fey realm by aberrations.  There is one major problem though (admittedly not a problem for 5e) and that is that Will-O’-Wisps are almost entirely immune to magic.  Now taking your party’s ability to fight minor enemies is one thing, but that becomes a much bigger deal for the big boss.  I think its important to test characters, put things against them that outwit or resist parts of their kits, and all of these sorts of things, but personally I never think it is a good idea to make any singular character completely useless against a main boss and the Will-O’-Wisp comes dangerously close to doing that against all magic users.  For this reason alone, I must preclude Will-O’-Wisp.

#51 - Bee Man - Pathfinder

The bee man is a truly unique concept that merges aberration, swarm, and humanoid into a creative blend of mechanics.  It has an aesthetic I love and can conceivably be quite terrifying.  It can interact in roleplay while having an alien motivation and vile undertones.  The lore of being driven mad by the divination found in bee watching and absorbing that in to the self is freshly disturbing and cool.  Now the lore does technically say there is only one bee-man but that can be borrowed for your world and made into something more or just the singular bee-man.  This minor qualm does hold it back a bit though for me.  For some reason, it doesn’t feel quite right to put.a creature on this list that canonically only exists once.  As well as this fact, I do feel the bee-man might work a tad better as a fey than an aberration thematically.  In spite of me not being able to let it crack the top 50, I genuinely encourage you to look into this and most of the creatures mentioned here to see if they are right for your next big bad.  And tomorrow you can join me as we see our first 2 additions to the true list.