Escalation Gaming

Image © Wizards of the Coast.

[Volo’s Guide to Monsters only has two brand new monsters in it, and then only on a technicality. The deep scion and the sea spawn are basically deep ones from Lovecraft or skum from previous editions of D&D, except one of them can talk and change shape (deep scion) and one of them can’t (sea spawn). Since Pathfinder already has both deep ones and skum, this would seem to be especially redundant. But neither of those is a template. And by combining the two monsters and transforming it into a template, it makes an excellent model for Davy Jones and his crew of sea monsters from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.]

Sea Spawn CR +1 Template Sample Sea Spawn This creature is clearly humanoid, and may once even have been a man, but has been warped into some manner of piscine creature. His hands and feet are webbed, eyes bulging and he has irregular scales and fins along his moist skin.

A sea spawn is a humanoid creature that has pledged itself, body and soul, to a power of the ocean. Krakens are most notorious for creating sea spawn, but they can also be created through divine dispensation by gods of the water, the curses of aquatic fey or sea hags, or even by the designs of powerful merfolk sorcerers. Whatever the origin, transformation into a sea spawn causes the creature’s body to warp in various ways, gaining the features of one or more aquatic animals. Some sea spawn are dimwitted brutes, but others have their intellect sharpened by the transformation and are canny schemers. Many, but not all, of these more intelligent sea spawn can change shape, disguising themselves in the garb of their previous lives to act as spies and agents in the air-breathing world.

Creating a Sea Spawn “Sea spawn” is an acquired template that can be added to any humanoid creature without the aquatic subtype. A sea spawn retains the base creature’s statistics and special abilities, except as noted here.

Challenge Rating As base creature +1 (minimum CR 1)

Type The creature’s type changes to monstrous humanoid and the creature gains the aquatic subtype. Do not recalculate its Hit Dice, base attack bonus or saves

Senses A sea spawn gains darkvision 60 ft. and low-light vision.

Armor Class A sea spawn gains a +1 natural armor bonus.

Defensive Abilities A sea spawn gains the following defensive ability. Deep Dweller (Ex) A sea spawn is immune to cold and bludgeoning damage as a result of water temperature or depth

Speed Reduce the creature’s land speed by 10 ft (minimum 10 ft.). A sea spawn gains a swim speed equal to twice its new land speed if it didn’t already have a swim speed.

Attacks A sea spawn gains a slam attack as a primary natural weapon that deals damage as normal for a creature of its size.

Statistics A sea spawn gains a +4 bonus to two ability scores of its choice, and a -2 penalty to two ability scores of its choice.

Skills A sea spawn always treats Intimidate, Perception, Stealth and Swim as class skills.

Languages A sea spawn gains the ability to speak Aquan

SQ A sea spawn gains the amphibious special quality, and gains the following special quality. Water Reliant (Ex) A sea spawn must submerge itself in water for at least 1 full hour in order to gain the benefits of rest.

Aquatic Anatomy A sea spawn has one of the following benefits, plus an additional benefit per 4 HD it possesses. All-Around Vision (Ex) As the universal monster ability Alternate Form (Su) The sea spawn may change shape, as the universal monster ability, but only to appear as its original form before the transformation into a sea spawn. It gains a +10 racial bonus on Disguise checks to appear as its previous identity when using this ability. Bleeding Bite (Ex) The sea spawn gains a bite attack that deals damage as normal for a creature of its size, as well as 1 point of bleed damage. Blindsense (Ex) The sea spawn gains blindsense out to 60 feet. Camouflage (Ex) The sea spawn can change color at will, gaining a +8 racial bonus on Stealth checks. A sea spawn with this ability can make Stealth checks to hide without cover or concealment. Crushing Claw (Ex) One of the sea spawn’s hands becomes a claw that deals damage as a creature one size category larger. It cannot wield weapons with this claw, but gains the grab and constrict universal monster qualities. Electric Touch (Ex) As a standard action, the sea spawn may make a melee touch attack that deals 1d6 points of electricity damage per 2 Hit Dice. A sea spawn may use this ability once every 1d4 rounds. Fast Healing (Ex) The sea spawn gains fast healing equal to ½ its Hit Dice (maximum fast healing 10). Jet (Ex) Once per round as a full round action, a sea spawn may move six times its normal swim speed in a straight line without provoking an attack of opportunity. Keen Scent (Ex) The sea spawn can detect creatures by scent within 180 feet, and sense blood in the water at a range of one mile. Major Tentacles (Ex) The sea spawn gains two tentacle attacks as secondary natural weapons. These deal damage as normal for a creature of the sea spawn’s size. Minor Tentacles (Ex) The sea spawn can draw or stow a small item with its minor tentacles as a swift action. The minor tentacles can manipulate objects, but cannot wield weapons or a shield. Pain Poison (Ex) A creature struck by one of the sea spawn’s natural attacks must succeed a Fortitude save (Con based DC) or be sickened for 1d6 rounds. Multiple failed saves increase the duration. This is a poison effect. Resistance (Ex) The sea spawn gains cold and fire resistance 10. Shell Armor (Ex) The sea spawn gains an additional +1 natural armor bonus and fortification (25%). Spikes (Ex) A creature that strikes the sea spawn with a melee weapon, natural weapon, touch attack or unarmed strike takes piercing damage equal to the damage from a claw attack of a creature of the sea spawn’s size. Manufactured weapons with the reach property do not harm their wielders in this way.

“Undead Dragon” © Indigo Jenar. Accessed at their ArtStation page here

[Commissioned by @tar-baphon​ . The dracolich has been around for decades, first appearing as a vague plot hook in White Plume Mountain (”beyond to the land of Dragotha, the undead dragon…”) before being fleshed out in Dragon Magazine. As an Ed Greenwood creature, the original dracolich was overly complicated–if its soul couldn’t enter its own body, it could form a “pseudo-dracolich” which had some, but not all, of its original powers. Greenwood also didn’t think too much of the dracoliches in his own work; he seemed to be much more interested in the human Cult of the Dragon that makes them, and in his novel Spellfire, dracoliches are basically cannon fodder.

There are no canon dracoliches in Pathfinder, because the name is copyrighted. The ravener fills the same niche (undead dragon boss monster), but has the whole soul ward mechanic, which strikes me as being very fiddly. I’ve never run a ravener at the table, and I have avoided them for the extra paperwork. I can see both dracoliches and raveners existing in the same world, and thus have included a paragraph to that effect.]

Sample Dracolich CR 23 LE Undead This enormous dragon is clearly dead—its body is mostly skeletal, although patches of blue scales and mummified flesh are visible.

A dracolich is a dragon who has intentionally transformed themselves into an undead monster, to avoid death, as a shortcut to power, or both. Like a lich, a dracolich’s life force is tied to its phylactery, a reliquary in which it can store its soul. It requires the corpse of another draconic creature to rebuild its body, and so many dracoliches keep the bodies of their rivals as a combination of a trophy and a backup body.

Dracoliches and raveners view each other with mutual disdain and disgust. Raveners view the reliance on a phylactery to maintain undeath as a weakness, whereas dracoliches consider a soul ward to be too unreliable and inconsistent. The rituals to becoming a dracolich are longer, more expensive, and more intricate than those to become a ravener. Lawful dragons are somewhat more likely to take the path of dracolich, and chaotic ones slightly more likely to become raveners, but both types of undead can be found in either alignment.

A Dracolich’s Phylactery A dracolich’s phylactery requires the Craft Wondrous Item feat, 120,000 gp and a caster level of 11th to build. Some dracoliches build their own phylacteries, but others employ humanoid spellcasters to do this for them. This is rather shortsighted—if another creature builds the dracolich’s phylactery, the dracolich is controlled by them, as if it were just another undead they had created. Mortal spellcasters who know of this loophole do not tell the dragon they are trying to convince to pursue lichdom, of course.

Creating a Dracolich “Dracolich” is an acquired template that can be added to any evil true dragon of adult age or older (hereafter referred to as the base creature). A dracolich retains all of the base creature’s statistics and special abilities except as noted here

CR Same as base creature +2

Type The creature’s type changes to undead. Do not recalculate BAB, saves, or skill ranks. It keeps any subtypes possessed by the base creature

Armor Class The dracolich’s natural armor increases by +2

Hit Dice Change all of the base creature’s racial Hit Dice to d8s. All Hit Dice derived from class levels remain unchanged. As an undead, a dracolich uses its Charisma to determine bonus hit points instead of its Constitution.

Saving Throws: As undead, a dracolich uses its Charisma modifier on Fortitude saves (instead of Constitution).

Defensive Abilities: A dracolich gains channel resistance +4 and all of the immunities derived from undead traits. It gains immunity to cold and electricity. Its damage reduction changes from DR/magic to DR/bludgeoning and magic. A dracolich also gains the following ability: Rejuvenation (Su) When a dracolich’s physical body is destroyed, its soul moves into its phylactery. If there is a corpse of a creature with the dragon type within 60 feet of the phylactery, the soul moves into the corpse, transforming it into a new body for the dracolich in 1d10 days. If the phylactery is destroyed, the dracolich cannot use this ability. If the phylactery is destroyed while the dracolich is rebuilding a body, the dracolich is also destroyed.

Special Attacks A dracolich loses the crush special attack if the base creature had it. Any special attacks with a DC based on Constitution become based on Charisma instead. It also gains the following special attacks: Admixed Breath (Su) A dracolich can choose at will to deal half of the damage from its breath weapon as negative energy. Gaze (Su) Range—30 ft.; Save—Will (Cha based DC); effect paralyzed 2d6 rounds. A creature that has been exposed to a dracolich’s gaze, whether it passes or fails the save, cannot be affected by the gaze of that dracolich for the next 24 hours.

Spell-like Abilities A dracolich gains control undead as a spell-like ability, usable 1/day. It uses its HD as its caster level for this SLA.

Abilities Str +4, Dex +4, Cha +6. As an undead creature, a dracolich does not have a Constitution score.

Feats A dracolich gains Toughness as a bonus feat

Skills A dracolich gains a +8 racial bonus on Perception and Stealth checks.

Statistics for a sample dracolich are below the cut

Image © Paizo Publishing, accessed at Archives of Nethys here

[As part of PF2e's divesting from the OGL, a number of classic monsters inherited from the 3e Monster Manual and the Tome of Horrors have undergone some branding changes. Ankhegs are ankhravs, treants are arboreals, kytons are velstracs. And huecuvas are now herexens. The name "huecuva" was taken from Mapuche mythology, but the actual entity has nothing to do with undead clerics. And the mechanics of the D&D/PF1e huecuva are a remnant of a Gygaxian-era gotcha encounter--what looked like a kindly cleric infected you with disease by touch--and is weirdly low-intelligence. So I welcome this change to both name and mechanics wholeheartedly.]

Herexen CR 2 NE Undead This person is clearly dead, with rotting skin and half-missing facial features. It wears a holy symbol around its neck, but its talisman has been clearly defaced.

When a cleric forsakes their god before dying, their body may rise again as an undead heretic known as a herexen. Herexens hate the god they once worshipped, and go out of their way to desecrate holy spaces, interrupt festivals and slay adherents of the faith. They may attract necromancers or death cultists with their activities, and some even continue to advance as clerics, albeit turning to the worship of some demon lord, god of undeath or similar fell power. Herexens may be found as lone predators, or gathered together into parodies of worshipful congregations. In numbers, herexens often engage in cruel parodies of liturgical ceremonies.

A herexen focuses its attacks on divine spellcasters, especially those that worship the god that they once did. A formerly sacred weapon in their hands becomes a tool against all servants of the divine. Herexens are capable of using some clerical magic, thematically similar to that of the god they once followed. They can also inflict negative energy with a touch, which they use to both harm others and to heal themselves or any undead they may have allied with. When slain, a herexen explodes in a burst of negative energy.

“Tuttle Bottoms Monster” © John Meszaros, accessed @statecryptids​ here

[The Tuttle Bottoms Monster is a fairly obscure cryptid from Illinois, associated with sightings in a Lover’s Lane type environment during the mid 1960s. It’s one of those monsters where I would immediately think, “oh, that’s a bear seen in bad light”, except that Illinois hasn’t had any bears living there for decades. The long snout is usually interpreted as being anteater-like, but I love the Spec Evo notion of John Meszaros of making it an adaptation for fish eating. This stat block is based on his version as a derived chalicothere. The stat block, with the giant simple template, would also make for a decent mechanical interpretation of a Baryonyx, although you might want to also add grab as a special attack.]

Tuttle Beast CR 6 N Animal This large creature is something like a bear and something like an ape. It has a bulky furred body and walks on its knuckles. The thing’s head is decidedly strange, however, with a set of long narrow jaws and conical teeth like a crocodile.

Tuttle beasts are large mammalian piscivores native to temperate floodplains. Their preferred habitat is along riverbanks, and they wade into water in order to catch fish, frogs or aquatic rodents like muskrat or beaver. They will take similarly sized prey on land, but more opportunistically than actively seeking it out. Tuttle beasts are attracted to shiny objects, which they investigate on the off chance they could be a body of water with prey to eat. They rarely start combat with humanoids, but if attacked will defend themselves with violent vigor.

A tuttle beast, despite its carnivorous dentition and habitat, is more closely related to horses and rhinos than to cats or dogs. They usually forage alone, but multiple may converge to a river with a large fish run or other concentrated source of food. Tuttle beasts are monogamous and mate for life. Gestation is long—more than a year—and multiple births at a time are very rare. The young remain with their parents until sexually mature, which takes about two years. 

Tuttle Beasts as Animal Companions Starting Statistics: Size Medium; Speed 30 ft..; AC +3 natural armor; Attack bite (1d3), 2 claws (1d4); Ability Scores Str 17, Dex 14, Con 12, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 9; Special Qualities low-light vision, scent, riverbank strike, +4 to Swim 7th-Level Advancement: Size Large; AC +3 natural armor; Attack bite (1d4), 2 claws (1d6); Ability Scores Str +8, Dex -2, Con +4

"Snek" © Cindy Avelino, accessed at her ArtStation here

[The name "agathion" for Pathfinder's NG outsiders is derived from "agatho daemon", or the "fortunate spirits" of classical Greece. The agathodaemon, sometimes named Tycho, was popular in Ptolemaic Egypt, particularly in Alexandria. Which is why, for a venomous snake-based agathion, I feel comfortable slotting it into Africa for the World Tour project. For more information about snake veneration in the Greek world, Drakon by Daniel Ogden is an excellent book, and was the inspiration for this entry.]

Agathion, Ophidinal CR 4 NG Outsider This creature appears as a snake with a human torso and arms. Its scales are colorful, and its expression beatific.

An ophidinal is an agathion devoted to healing above all other arts. They serve heavenly forces and mortal temples alike as doctors, able to patch injuries, treat longer term ailments and expel most mundane and some magical afflictions with magic. Although their aspect resembles that of venomous snakes, they are actually anti-venomous; a creature bitten by an ophidinal has the toxins purged from its body, and any natural poisons it secretes temporarily suppressed.

Ophidinals dislike combat, and rarely choose to fight. They can defend themselves with teeth and claws if they must, but would prefer to heal than to harm. They are usually mobile on the battlefield, casting a sanctuary spell on themselves and then moving between allies to grant them support. In addition to healing, their touch can bring with it good fortune. An ophidinal will happily lay down its life to protect goodly allies. 

Unlike many agathions, which eschew civilization for wilder spaces, ophidinals are comfortable in buildings and cities. There are many hazards that urban populations have to deal with—hunger, disease, crime—and ophidinals work to minimize these impacts on common folk. An ophidinal is especially good at dealing with pests. Insects and rodents are often eaten as snacks, and venomous serpents are bitten to suppress their venom and then encouraged to take up residence elsewhere. Ophidinals are suitable for calling with lesser planar ally to act as a source of healing, and their prices for such services are typically taken in healing items magical and mundane, or simply blankets and digestible food to make the lives of the sick more comfortable.

An ophidinal is about eight feet long, but come up to about four foot high when posed upright. Some have hoods, eyelash scales, colored stripes, or other markers of particular species of venomous snake, sometimes mixed and matched in ways unseen in nature.

Image © @a-book-of-creatures, accessed at their site here

[The Creature Codex World Tour now arrives in Africa! Africa is perhaps the continent with the least representation in RPGs as far as the folklore and mythology of its people. Mythology about it from the outside is much more common, with colonialist impressions of vengeful mummies and living dinosaurs. I will be covering some of these tropes in the next two months, but I wanted to start with a properly African African monster.

The ebigane comes from the oral tradition of the Fang people, which is barely collected, and not at all in English (I am eternally grateful that ABOC can read French). So this is very much one version of the monster, and may not represent all of the different interpretations. But a giant, bloodthirsty chimera being represented as a good guy, serving the hero of the story like some sort of Pokémon, is a pretty cool image.]

Ebigane CR 10 NG Magical Beast This creature is a chimera of different animals, some ferocious, others less so. It has the head and tail of a rat, the horns of a buffalo and the wings of a bat. It is enormous, about the size of an elephant, and its jaws are packed with close-set fangs.

An ebigane is a carnivorous monster notable for its enthusiastic support of good causes. They follow heroes, celestials and goodly monsters such as couatls and ki-rin around like puppies, eagerly helping them in their adventures. Ebigane seek immortality in story and song, and are especially fond helping groups with a bard, in the hopes of being added to the tale.

Ebiganes understand that their natural forms are frightening, and so often make their pitch to join an adventuring party while disguised. They can assume the form of humans, albeit somewhat sloppily, and are good at taking the appearance of small, harmless animals like mice, bats and songbirds.  An ebigane may keep their true form under wraps for a while, assuming their natural appearance at the most dramatic moment to save the day. Their combat strategies are fairly straightforward: grab enemies in their jaws, tear them apart with horns, teeth and claws, make hit and run attacks against enemies too large or too slippery to grapple with.

Between adventures, an ebigane acts as a top predator in jungle and savannah ecosystems. They especially enjoy challenging themselves with big game, hunting elephants, pythons and other large and muscular prey items. Each ebigane maintains a large territory, which usually border those of a few other ebigane. Ebigane come together to gossip and trade stories, as well as to mate and raise offspring. An ebigane is considered an adult only once it has gone on a great adventure with another creature. Although ebigane do not strongly value treasure, they typically keep mementos of these exploits.  

“Oricuerno Patterns” © deviantArt user Cyclone62, accessed at her gallery here

[The alicorno or oricuerno is a Cantabrian variant of the unicorn, as reported in the book Bestiario del Norte by Pablo Gallo. That book contains the tidbit that an alicorno can turn a woman into a man, but only on St. John’s Day. I assume this bit of folklore was originally intended in a misogynistic context (the same way that virginal woman saints would be blessed by making them ugly or giving them facial hair), but I choose to interpret it as the alicorno being a trans ally. I used that as the launching point for my flavor text and the bestow self-image ability.]

Alicorno CR 6 CG Magical Beast This majestic equine creature has a single tricolor horn on its head and small wings on each of its hooves. It is white with purple highlights, especially around the head.

An alicorno is a greater form of unicorn, blessed by the gods of goodness and freedom. This blessing is shown in their wings, which grow on their hooves and make them even swifter than usual unicorns, and in their increased magical powers. Alicornos devote their lives to defending the less fortunate, and fight against slavery and oppression of all types, from the tyranny of a king to minor acts of bigotry. Alicornos are more interventionist than ordinary unicorns. As such, they are also rarer, as they are more likely to run afoul of the forces of evil.

An alicorno has a powerful, magical gore attack, and its hooves can crush bone. Still, they prefer to serve as support in combat rather than fight on the front lines. They use their maneuverability to dart in and out of a combat zone; they deliver touch spells to heal their allies and dispel enemy effects. They will often use shield other to absorb damage from a fragile ally, and protect other healers such as clerics and paladins.

The rarest, and perhaps most prized, ability of an alicorno is its ability to permanently alter willing creatures physically. They are sought out by trans people, those that have been scarred beyond ordinary treatment, or others whose self image does not match the way they present to the world. Alicornos are skilled judges of character, and turn away those driven by vanity and provide counseling to those with unhealthy body images. Some cruel nobles may attempt to coerce or trick an alicorno into granting them the ultimate in cosmetic surgery, and use goodly adventurers as bargaining chips or hostages in these schemes.

An alicorno’s horn is even more potent a magical item as that of an ordinary unicorn, and is just as evil to obtain. An alicorno’s horn can substitute for 5,000 gp worth of components for the creation of healing items.

Image © @tredlocity​

[Commissioned by @crazytrain48​, and the first unique fiend from Arduin. Probably not the last. In Arduin, Apharoe is one of the few neutral demon lords, as that setting’s demons are more along the lines of Goetic demons (incredibly powerful and dangerous, usually evil but not always, called by mortal summoners to assist them with particular tasks). So I needed a hook to make her suitably evil for the more typical D&D/PFRPG model. In Arduin, she’s said to be conjured for matters of “conceiving special children”, and it mentions that she takes her own children with mortals back to the Abyss. Which inspired the flavor text I went with, which makes her a patron of eugenics and planar scions, and using one to make the other. ]

Nascent Demon Lord, Apharoe CR 24 CE Outsider (extraplanar) This curvy and statuesque woman has skin the color of the night sky, freckled with stars. Her eyes seem to shift in color, and she has three navels, but is otherwise human in appearance.

Apharoe The Star Witch, the Night Lover Concerns cold, eugenics and space Domains Chaos, Charm, Evil, Void Subdomains Cold*, Demon, Lust, Stars Worshipers astrologers, enchanters, planar scions Minions cambions, star demons, void dragons Unholy Symbol a white dove or a black swan on a starburst Obedience Achieve sexual release under the night sky. This may be done alone or with a partner. Gain a +4 profane bonus to saving throws against cold effects Boons 1: unnatural lust 2/day; 2: wall of ice 2/day; 3: cold ice strike 2/day *clerics of Apharoe can use the Cold subdomain to modify the Void domain

Apharoe the Star Witch is something of an enigma among demonologists. Unlike many nascent demon lords, she isn’t fighting to gain control of a layer of the Abyss, and indeed enjoys good relations with multiple demon lords. She is remarkably easy to summon with gate spells, and is friendly with those who call her, providing services related to cold magic, love and lust, and fertility. Her costs for service are very low by the standards of demons, merely consisting of sexual favors provided by a man of her choosing, if the caster themselves does not meet her standards. The truth of the matter is, Apharoe is playing a long game. She views mortals as weak and in need of “improvement”, and is working on a colossal eugenics program to create enough half fiends, cambions and tieflings to conquer multiple planets. The most trusted of her generals are her own children and other descendants. The worlds they rule will eventually be the backbone of a new layer of the Abyss created by her and for her ascendance. But for now, these goals are held close to Apharoe’s ample chest, and only her most devoted cultists know her ultimate plan.

The Night Lover would much rather talk than fight. Her seductive words are backed up by mind influencing magic, and those that get too close succumb to her gaze. In those who are attracted to women, the gaze overcomes their minds with intense lust; those that are not are instead overwhelmed with loathing (which function mechanically identically). Those that resist her charms are typically frozen to death, or torn to pieces after she assumes animal form. Any weapon that strikes Apharoe is inflicted with a chill that renders it brittle, and she can turn mortal flesh into solid ice with a touch. Apharoe flees at the first sign that a fight will not be easy; she has better things to do than endanger her life. She usually sends powerful minions, such as star demons, to punish those that would dare hinder her.

Apharoe is often found in the Material Plane. When going amongst mortals, she typically appears as a beautiful woman, a black swan, a white dove, or a fierce leopard. She is almost never found in the guise of a man or other genders, and women are typically in higher ranking positions among her cults. Her teachings are an odd mix of hedonism and “traditional family values”, as she wishes to encourage some “appropriate” people to breed, and others to stop breeding, by force if necessary. What the criteria for suitable breeding stock are is arbitrary, and may vary based on the whims of Apharoe or her high priestesses. Planar blood is almost always seen as of high value, and evil tieflings, aasimars and other such people are often drawn into her service. Some of the unworthy are deemed competent enough to work for the cult and are forced into positions of servitude, frequently after sterilization. Those that are judged especially unworthy, or who resist their enslavement, are typically killed through freezing, whether through exposure or via cold magic.

Apharoe stands about six and a half feet tall in her natural form.

“Tyrant T-00″ 3D model © Capcom, accessed at the Resident Evil Wiki here

[Commissioned by @arachcobra​ as the last of their Resident Evil monsters. Like with the hunter, there are lots of variations of the tyrant that appear in the series. I went with not the first version, but the most iconic, Mr. X from Resident Evil 2. Like, I haven’t played a Resident Evil game, but I know what this character’s deal is. Chase the player character down like the Terminator, keeping them moving through the game and from getting too comfortable/complacent.]

Biotyrant CR 10 LE Monstrous Humanoid If not for its dead gray skin and great height—half again as tall as the average person—this creature could be mistaken for a human. It wears a heavy coat, partially to disguise its warped musculature and partly for protection.

The biotyrant is the culmination of mixing fleshwarping and necromancy; some infected undead and other such horrors are the failures and prototypes leading to the biotyrant. Biotyrants are powerful, unquestioning and durable super soldiers, and a single biotyrant on the battlefield is the equivalent of an entire troop of mercenaries. They lack creativity and mental initiative, but pursue their orders until destruction.

A biotyrant attacks in melee with its powerful body—its fists, knees and feet can punch holes in stone walls given enough time. If a biotyrant must clear an obstacle rather than batter through it, they can leap high into the air and land precisely where they choose, but must rest between such jumps and do not use them for rapid pursuit. They ignore small blows and can recover from large ones—fire or positive energy are needed to permanently damage a biotyrant. Although they look mostly human when uninjured, if they are injured, their bodies transform into an even more powerful form. This form has distorted claws growing from its hands, and its heart swells to pump more blood faster. This swelling makes them slightly more vulnerable to damage, and may be the key to their defeat if an enemy can remain at a safe range.

A biotyrant can speak and understand Common, but only speak when commanded to. They tend to wear heavy leather dusters and large hats to conceal their monstrous appearances from a distance. They do not carry other treasure unless they are on a mission to retrieve or deliver such an object.

“The Leshy” © Toly Kivshar, accessed at his ArtStation page here

[I quite like the leshys in Pathfinder; little humanoid plant spirits are a good way to add some whimsy and wonder to low level games. But they’re a terrible representation of the actual folkloric leshy. Even the Witcher games have a more accurate leshy, and that’s something I can basically never say about the Witcher franchise. Fortunately, since the leshy is found under many different names in different Slavic cultures, I could find an alternate name easily.]

Lesovik CR 16 CN Fey This creature is humanoid, but made as much from wood and fungus as it is flesh and blood. Its skin is like bark, and hair, moss and lichen all grow from it, granting it a shaggy pelage and facial hair. They have antlers made of forking branches, hooves for feet, and clawed hands.

A lesovik is a fey creature that considers itself the lord of the forest in which it dwells. They watch over the animals and plants in their domain, and may be helpful or harmful to humanoids, as the whim suits them. Lesoviks are skilled shapechangers, and often take humanoid form to interact with travelers and ferret out their intentions. Those who are polite and respectful of the forest may receive aid in the form of pointing out game trails or helpful advice, but those who are rude or destructive will be led on a wild goose chase and lost in the woods, sometimes to fatal effect.

A lesovik can change its size, so it can become as tall as a tree or small enough to hide behind a blade of grass. If challenged to combat, they usually take their largest form. Any branch or stick held by a lesovik becomes a magical club, which they supplement with their natural attacks. All lesoviks are powerful spellcasters, capable of drawing from druid spells—no two lesoviks are likely to have the exact same tactics.

Lesoviks get along with other fey creatures in their forests, as long as they show proper respect. They consider treants too deliberate and stodgy, but do not try to drive them out. Most lesoviks love gambling, and when the lesoviks from multiple forests come together peacefully, it is usually to gossip and play cards. They may wager the plants and animals in their domains in these games; rapid shifts in animal distributions may be due to a lesovik paying off a debt. Not all interactions between lesoviks are peaceful, and unseasonable storms, spontaneous forest fires and outbreaks of plant diseases may be signs of a battle between lesoviks.

Lesoviks do not grant boons and banes the way some other fey creatures do; they instead use druidic magic to benefit or harm mortals respectively. Some druids were taught by the lesoviks; they tend to have the Plant or Weather domain rather than an animal companion. Lesoviks treat leshys with grandfatherly affection. 

Image © @tredlocity​

[Melusine is a French mermaid/fairy/dragon, who’s a surprisingly big deal considering her relative obscurity in the modern era. Multiple royal families throughout Europe claimed to be her descendants, including some big hitters like the House of Luxembourg and the House of Anjou. She was a major figure in the Middle Ages and into the Early Modern Era, inspiring poetry, art and heraldry. Martin Luther and Paracelsus wrote about her. She’s even the Starbucks mascot!

Melusine is often depicted as an ordinary mermaid, but there are two major alternate takes out there. Sometimes she’s depicted with the lower half of a dragon, not a fish, with wings and claws. Sometimes she has two tails, like the Starbucks logo. I wanted my melusine to combine these two designs, but could find nothing to my liking that had both of them. So I commissioned some art, and I think that @tredlocity​ did an excellent job.]

Melusine CR 14 LN Dragon This humanoid woman has green, scaly skin and draconic wings. From the waist down, she has two finned tails instead of legs. She wears a crown on her head.

Melusines are powerful draconic sorcerers of mermaid-like character, and they are so rare that many people think of them as a unique creature. Melusines live their lives in long alternating arcs, sometimes hiding from the world in a distant glen or ocean, and sometimes disguising themselves as humanoids in order to live among them. They desire to raise families and experience love, but have to abandon these families before their monstrous nature is found out. Most melusines make their partners swear oaths to allow them some alone time in their natural form (a weekly bath is common), and a melusine will leave if this oath is violated. Even so, melusines often watch over their humanoid children and their descendents and will intervene in their behalf if they are sorely pressed.

Melusines prefer to fight with magic rather than with claws or weapons, and few of them hide their magical powers even in humanoid guise. No two melusines have the same array of spells, but all of them radiate protective auras to support their allies and can scream to create both a powerful wave of sonic energy and deep grief in whoever survives. Most melusines carry a weapon appropriate for a mage or noblewoman, such as a dagger or crossbow, but if they are forced into melee, they can transform into the full majesty of a dragon. Some melusines are talented enough liars that they can still maintain the secret of their monstrous nature even after that transformation, begging it off as another spell effect.

All melusines are female in their natural form, but occasionally take male or another gender’s guise while shapeshifting. They are cross-fertile with all humanoids and with dragons. A melusine’s child with a humanoid will be the species of the humanoid parent, although they may have some faintly draconic characteristic (such as oddly colored eyes or hair, or even scaly patches). Many of these children grow up to become draconic sorcerers. One hypothesis for the origin of spellscales is that they are the child of a draconic sorcerer and a melusine, and some spellscales boast that a melusine is one of their ancestors. The child of a melusine and a true dragon will be another melusine—this occasionally happens by accident, as a melusine and a shapeshifted dragon court each other while both keeping their identities secret.

If modeling a melusine-blooded sorcerer with the existing draconic bloodline, I’d say use bronze. Bronze dragons are lawful and associated with aquatic environments. The patina on bronze is melusine-colored, and electricity and sonic damage are at least thematically aligned. It might be better to model a melusine-blooded sorcerer using different Paizo bloodlines, though. Depending on what you wanted to focus on, the aquatic, fey and maestro bloodlines all could be good for it. And having a melusine in the family tree might be a good excuse to bust out the crossblooded or wildblooded archetypes.

“The Serpent” © Rasmus Poulsen, accessed at his ArtStation here

[The Lambton Worm is a monster I have been considering off and on for literally a decade or more, and I’ve finally figured out how to do it mechanically. The legend of the Lambton Worm is one of the better known regional dragons in England, and one that I think is conventionally misinterpreted. A number of authors see it as a representation of the struggle between Christianity and paganism. I blame Bram Stoker for this take, as it appears in his atrocious The Lair of the White Worm. Yes, snakes and dragons do often represent the Devil, but the overarching theme in the story of the Lambton Worm is how much John Lambton sucks. He discovers the Worm when skipping church, throws it into a well, leaves his land for seven years, allowing the monster to grow up and start killing people, and finally fails in the sacrificial obligation to prevent his family line from being cursed for nine generations. So I interpret the Lambton Worm as more of a Fisher King style representation of the link between a lord and his land, and run with that interpretation in my flavor text below.]

Lambton Worm CR 17 LE Dragon This serpent is longer than a castle wall, with a horned head and bleary red eyes. It drools a foul liquid.

The Lambton Worm is a draconic serpent that punishes dereliction of duty. It emerges in lands where the local lords are callow and slothful, and ravages the land to make it represent its lord’s moral character. They eat livestock and children, damage farms and pollute water supplies, never enough to completely destroy a fiefdom but enough to make those living there miserable and sick. It then establishes itself as a surrogate lord, holding the people hostage in exchange for milk, meat and treasure. There is only one Lambton Worm, but it has said to have been born and reborn a dozen times in a dozen realms.

The Lambton Worm is large enough to level forests and buildings but can and does squeeze itself to fit into wells and caves. It enjoys drawing battles out in order to showcase its power, tearing a tree from the ground and wielding it like an enormous club in its prehensile tail. The beast’s jaws drip acidic venom, and it can vomit this out in lethal torrents. The worst quality of the Lambton Worm is its supernatural resilience; not only do they heal rapidly from wounds, they can even return to life once slain. Only by destroying or scattering the Worm’s body quickly can this rejuvenation be prevented.

The Lambton Worm is intelligent, but it rarely speaks—just enough to set the terms of its extortion. They may also boast that only those of noble heart and pure blood can slay them. This is a trap, as they delight in nothing else than to shatter social structures and delight in the death of kings and princes. Some scholars believe that the Lambton Worm owes its fealty to an archdevil, but the monster does not discuss its own origins.

Image © Wizards of the Coast, by Ted Pendergraft

[Commissioned by @coldbloodassassin. The ekolid was one of the first obyrith published, the primordial demons introduced in 3.5 that were the qlippoth with a slightly different paint job. So converting this into a qlippoth was pretty easy. The biggest change was dialing back its number of attacks–seven attacks a round on a CR 4 creature is definitely not Pathfinder standard.]

Qlippoth, Ekolid CR 4 CE Outsider (extraplanar) This creature is vaguely insect-like, but the resemblance stops at the twitching limbs and membranous wings. Its head resembles several skulls with too many eyes; all of them stacked one atop the other. Its six wings grow from nipple-like cysts running along its back. It is wider in the back than in the front, with pulsing sacs seemingly connected to its six annulated, stinger tipped tails.

Ekolids are qlippoth of parasitism, and swarm through the Abyss like ravenous, dog-sized bot flies. If a mortal is exposed to the horrific appearance of one of these creatures, it hallucinates that its skin and orifices are swarming with minute bugs and worms, but ekolids can inflict such tortures in actuality as well. Their primary motivation is constant reproduction, and they sting any creature they come across in order to fill it with their ravenous maggots. Such maggots are injected as an egg, which rapidly hatches in the skin of its victim and gnaws its way back out. Ekolid maggots grow to adulthood in a matter of hours if left to their own devices, but often turn on and eat each other. In combat, an ekolid will sting as often as possible and as many enemies as it can, and then retreat to watch its young hatch. They rarely fight to the death, as they want to maximize their number of hosts.

Ekolids are of human-like intellect and great mental fortitude, but rarely care enough to develop permanent dwellings or other forms of material culture. They are typically on the move, as demons try to exterminate them whenever possible, and an ekolid’s natural weapons can deal little damage to other fiends. Only if protected by a stronger qlippoth or when escaped to the Material Plane will they settle down, making hive-like dwellings of resin and bone. They prefer warm and dry climates, and are found more frequently in desert and wasteland-like layers of the Abyss than anywhere humid.

An ekolid is about two feet tall, but six feet long including its whipping tails. They weigh around 50 pounds. 

ASURA_10 © yang qi, accessed at his ArtStation here

[Commissioned by @tar-baphon​. Although I’ve used the “asura rana” design space for a number of enemy of the gods type monsters, this is the first that is an actual mythological asura rana. Vritra is depicted as either a giant or a dragon, depending on the source, so I wanted a design that suggested both.]

Asura Rana, Vritra CR 26 LE Outsider (extraplanar) This giant humanoid is increasingly draconic from the shoulders down. His arms are scaled and end in clawed hands, his legs are bestial and he has a long tail ending in a fan. He is clad in armor and carries a hooked lance.

Vritra Doyen of Drought, The Enveloper, Slayer of Rivers Concerns drought, dragons, gluttony Domains Evil, Law, Scalykind, Sun Subdomains Dragon, Seasons*, Thirst, Tyranny Worshipers blue and yellow dragons, merchants, gourmands Minions asuras, sun giants, shining children Unholy Symbol a draconic eye inside a sunburst Favored Weapon hooked lance Devotion consume a mix of ashes and salt, and meditate on your thirst for 1 hour. Gain a +2 profane bonus on attack and damage rolls against aquatic creatures and creatures with the Water subtype. Boons 1:  cup of dust 1/day; sirocco 1/day; shapechange 1/day *clerics of Vritra may use use the Seasons subdomain to modify the Sun domain

Vritra is an ancient and wicked asura rana, being the patron of drought and gluttony. He covets fine food and drink, as much to deny them to others as to enjoy them for himself, and will gladly destroy banquets and poison water holes out of spite if he cannot have them for himself. Vritra’s greatest exploit was in drying up the rivers that provided life to an entire continent, and it took an embodied god to drive him away and return the flow of water.

Vritra’s natural form is a hybrid of giant and dragon, but he can take the form of a wide variety of different giants, dragons and mundane humanoids. In combat, he wields an enormous hooked lance. Vritra’s magical abilities are focused around dealing as many status effects as possible, and he delights in drawing combat out to sadistic lengths by blinding and exhausting foes before finishing them off. Once he has an enemy weakened, he eats them alive, roasting them in his searing gut, turning them into a mummified husk, and then vomiting them out to fight on his behalf. Vritra is rarely encountered alone, as he maintains an entourage of powerful asuras, mummified horrors and evil giants that serve him sycophantically.

Vritra is obsessed with being worshipped, and he is more active in encouraging his cult among mortals than many other asura ranas. Those that would control or regulate water supplies are among his favorite followers, as they can spread misery over a wide region by engineering famines and charging for a natural resource. Vritra can be quite charming when it suits his purpose, but his personality is domineering and cruel and comes to the surface when he doesn’t immediately get what he wants. The Horseman of Famine views Vritra as an ally, albeit a narcissistic one, and their forces may collaborate on campaigns of death in the Material Plane. He is envious of other powers of sunlight, even evil ones such as Nergal, and views them as his enemies.

Image © Capcom, accessed at the Resident Evil Wiki here

[Commissioned by @arachcobra​. I haven’t played a Resident Evil game, but learning about the series due to these commissions, I am gaining a respect for their design choices. Like the crimson head here. On paper, adding a stronger, tougher zombie to the remake of the game just seems like a way to ramp up the difficulty for people who’d already played the game the first time. But the crimson head increases the horror element for those players as well. Any zombie can rise as a crimson head, and with the “running around getting keys and solving puzzles” element of Resident Evil, that means that if you’re careless, you’re going to be backtracking through areas that you have intentionally made difficult for yourself. Preventing a zombie from becoming a crimson head involves destroying the body, which takes uncommon resources, increasing the item management tension as well. Do I use my oil here to burn these corpses so they don’t come back, or do I save it, suck up the super zombies if I have to come back, and use the oil in another part of the game? That’s good tension-building game design, and some that tabletop GMs can learn from too.]

Infected, Crimson Head CR 2 CE Undead This creature resembles a particularly foul zombie, its skin dyed red from blood and its hands tipped with claws. Its eyes are white and empty, and its jaw drops open in a hoarse roar.

A crimson head is a type of infected that is special not because of its abilities, but because of its genesis. Some ordinary plague zombies are slightly different from others—the zombie infection allows their bodies to rise from death a second time. A proto- crimson head infected zombie is treated as an ordinary plague zombie, except that it does not have death throes. Instead, it returns to life as a crimson head within 1d8+1 hours of death. This transformation grants it a glimmer of evil intelligence, an inhuman agility and warped, clawed hands. Only by decapitating or burning the zombie can this reanimation be prevented.

A crimson head can lie still for hours, waiting to detect living prey, but once it springs into action is rarely stealthy, howling and spitting while it slashes and bites. Crimson heads are so reckless in combat that they will even attack other undead in order to get to succulent living victims. Once a crimson head is slain, it does not return to unlife again, but they will lie down and rest quiescently if they kill all victims in their vicinity. There are rumors that the crimson head is merely an intermediate stage in some necrotic development process, and that crimson head infected can mutate further into stronger, less human-like, undead monsters.

A zombie other than a humanoid can become a crimson death as well, although this is less common. Such zombies lose the staggered quality, gain cold resistance 5 and DR 1/- per CR (max DR 10/-). It has two claw attacks that deal normal damage for a creature of that size, and a bite attack that deals the same amount of damage and spreads zombie rot. If the original creature had a better claw or bite attack, the crimson head can use those instead. They gain the play dead and quick stand abilities, a +4 bonus to Dexterity and Charisma, and have an Intelligence score of 3. An alternate crimson head does gain skills and feats, as normal for an undead creature with an Intelligence score. An alternate zombie converted into a crimson head has a CR 2 higher than a normal zombie of that type (minimum CR 1).

“The Country of the Iguanodon” by John Martin, in the public domain. Accessed at Wikimedia here

[Commissioned by @glarnboudin. This is about as retro as retrosaurs get. These ghastly creatures made me think “zombies”, which took me in the direction I went with them. I can imagine this painting as an exhibition match between necromancers off in the distance, taking bets and sipping wine.]

Primord CR 9 NE Undead This immense pallid horror resembles a swollen lizard or crocodile, with piggy black eyes over a massive maw lined with teeth.

A primord is something of a showpiece among necromancers—it is a creature designed more to be a display of talent and resources than a useful entity. Primords can find employ as guardians and terror weapons by skilled necromancers, but are frequently expended to fight each other in contests of wizardly might. Primords are mindless killers, and they live to fight. Without orders, a primord will instinctively kill and devour creatures, adding their mass to its own. They battle with claws and teeth, but their most effective weapons might be the combination of their grotesque appearance and merely plowing over enemies with their mass. Primords are as comfortable in the water as they are on land, and free willed primords can often be found at sea, attacking whales and sea monsters.

Creating a Primord A primord is created using a mounted skeleton as a base—this can be the intact skeleton of a Gargantuan creature, or a composite made from the skeletons of multiple recent or fossil creatures. This skeleton is then buried in a mass grave with 20 HD of zombies, and the spells animate dead, false life and bestow curse are cast over the morass. A primord counts as having twice as many Hit Dice as it actually has for the purposes of the material component needed, and for animation and control.