Devolutionist (Druid Archetype)
If there was ever an archetype in Pathfinder that screamed “Saturday Morning Cartoon Villain”, it would be the devolutionist archetype for the druid.
Evolution is, as most know, is the process by how a species grows and adapts to its environment over the generations. Even sapient beings are the product of evolution, their environmental pressures leading to powerful sapient minds and bodies able to interact with their environment.
Some druids, however, view the adaptation of sapience to be a mistake. They might have become disillusioned with sapient species after personal interactions and disappointments with them, or they might have seen the capacity sapient beings have for despoiling nature and found themselves unable to reconcile the existence of civilization with the need to protect nature. Either way, they find themselves travelling down a dark and malicious path.
If a devolutionist has their way, they would see all sapient species reduced to the forms of their early ancestors, and all animals and plants they domesticated returned to a similar prehistoric state. In their eyes, this would lead to a simple and peaceful utopia of animals living in harmony with nature.
Whether this is in any way accurate is beside the point, for they have learned the rituals to enact the transformations they seek, and may take over distant villages to use as testing grounds and proofs of concepts for their ideal world, or they may have more grand plans in mind.
Like I said, with how often supervillains in comic books and cartoons try to turn victims into apes, this archetype borrows a lot of tropes from those sources. However, examining their powers for even a little bit is where we get the horror elements, since the idea of being removed from sapience, unable to make sense of formerly simple concepts and parts of your own identity smacks of body and psychological horror.
Before we press on, however, it’s worth noting that there are a lot of ways to do this archetype wrong, as the “ape-ification” concept has been used to very racist ends in the past, so keep that in mind.
The monstrous horror elements of this archetype start strong, as the animal companion that they invariably take is a formerly sapient humanoid, devolved into a near-sapient bipedal ape, no doubt their first victim that they have bound to their will.
With a one-minute ritual with a domesticated animal that is either restrained or willing, these druids can remove all memory of training and generations of docility, transforming them into a fully wild animal which may behave dangerously and unpredictably around sapient beings, lacking any trust in them.
At greater levels of mastery, they can take a whole day to revert animals to undomesticated states, and even transform them into fierce megafauna ancestors, while they can fully convert humanoids into their ancestor species, robbing them of intellect and memories, leaving even tool use beyond their simple minds. Luckily, however, these magics can be reversed as if they were curses.
A simple archetype more useful for an NPC villain than a player, if you plan on playing a druidic villain, this might prove useful. The archetype only gets rid of some defensive abilities, so you could build them however you like, ready to amass your monkey army however you see fit.
To be clear, though there is no alignment restriction on this archetype, one cannot make use of the full suite of it’s abilities and remain a good person. At best, there may be devolutionists that work to free domesticated animals and return them to the wild, or perhaps rehabilitate those that are abandoned by civilization so they may survive without their shepherds, all without ever turning their powers on sapient beings. At the other end of the spectrum are the full villains, who may seek to unmake all civilization and theoretically even turn their power on themselves eventually, or they may be cruel tyrants who would rather rule a trackless expanse populated by former sapients than civilized subjects.
Also, it’s worth noting that in a fantasy setting, plenty of races may exist that straight up don’t have ancestors as they were created by divine beings or otherwise didn’t follow the forces of evolutionary pressure, so this archetype might not be as relevant, or at least as effective against certain targets.
Travelling far and wide with a leashed ape that was once a man, the druid Elvanar has traveled to the Mireholt in search of an ogrekin witch who is said to have mastered a way to spread a hex through clouds of enchanted mist. The cruel druid seeks to combine their techniques to unleash a primal plague upon the cities and towns.
The ifrit clans of Mount Ashmortar borrow a lot from their efreeti ancestors, perhaps too much, as they enjoy taking slaves from the surrounding mortal civilizations, and even subjecting them to strange magics that rob them of their minds.
The path of the devolutionist is a lonely one, fraught with peril, and not just for the people that fear being turned into beasts. In fact, a clan of troglodytes has caught wind of a devolutionist’s power, and seeks to use it to revert them back to the psychic overlords they once were as xulgath. While the party may be loath to rescue such a villain, the danger their secrets could have if stolen from them could be devastating.