monstersdownthepath

[monstersdownthepath]

Do the Outer Planes all border one another, or is there a planar geography that they're ascribed to? Like, let's say Demons from the Abyss wished to attack Heaven or Elysium. Could they go *directly* to the edges of those Planes to attack, or would they have to pass through a Neutral Plane like the Boneyard or the Maelstrom first?

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BOY OH BOY YOU'VE GIVEN ME A CHANCE TO BRING THIS BACK UP

(this isn't sarcasm, I genuinely enjoy this bit of lore)

I've mentioned before that all the planes of existence have only a rough idea of what "distance" and "direction" mean in regards to where they all are in relation to one another; my favorite canon Pathfinder fact regarding this is that every Elemental Plane borders every other Elemental Plane from multiple directions at once. The map from Rage of Elements was deeply enlightening, so I'll present it to you here:

(Rage of Elements, page 8)

All the planes are settled into the Malestrom like islands poking above the ocean's surface, anchored in place by their own self-sustaining stability, something that drives Proteans up the wall with anger. In a sense, they are exactly where they need to be, but the Maelstrom is constantly changing around them so no one set path will ever lead you from one plane to another.

The easiest way to answer your question exactly is that any plane wishing to invade another plane must pass through the Maelstrom, much like how an army wishing to invade somewhere that's across a body of water must cross that body of water, one way or another.

Such a thing is effectively unfeasible without some major resources being put into A) Protecting your invading forces from the ravages of the Maelstrom, B) Hiding such an enormous movement from your foes (or neutral onlookers who may warn them), and perhaps most importantly C) Navigating the Maelstrom. If you thought the Fey got weird and wild with petty ideas like "travel time" and "going towards your destination will eventually let you reach it," you have no idea how little the Proteans care for it.

Launching an invasion by crossing the Maelstrom is almost impossible. This is why most extraplanar invaders utilize either small strike teams (who can avoid drawing the Maelstrom's attention) or stable portals directly from one plane to another, letting them skip the need to travel the chaos entirely. If you want to invade territory that's across some impassable terrain, it's going to be more expensive and time-consuming but significantly easier to just build a bridge and drop it into place.

However, that in your example you mention the Abyss by name, and you may notice that the art for the Outer Rifts/Abyss contains an ominous little easter egg: It's got tentacles branching out and sticking into other planes. The Abyss can bypass traveling through the Maelstrom because it has tentacles that go around, outside the Outer Sphere, and snake back in, letting the demons and qlippoth slither their way into places like Elysium and Axis without anyone knowing how they got in, because how do you detect a secret tunnel that goes through a dimension you can't see or imagine?

The only plane the Rifts haven't crept into is the one that opposes it completely on the alignment axis, Heaven.

[monstersdownthepath]

Any Fiends of Propaganda?

Because nothing can make people lose their minds and do/think the most heinous of stuff like targeted propaganda.

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Yes! The Infernal Duke Titivilus and Asura Rana Maeha directly have propaganda as one of their areas of concern, while the Daemon Harbinger Braismois and his servants, the Bibliodaemons, are noted to control information, rewrite history, and falsify records and information.

Also, the Heresy and Apostacy Devils live to sow doubt and discord among the faithful or those teetering on the brink of atheism.

[monstersdownthepath]

I'm reading through Divine Mysteries right now, and apparently Erastil's herald, the Grim White Stag, used to be its own deity, worshiped as part of the Green Faith?

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Yep! This development isn't as new as you may think, though, as it was actually mentioned all the way back in Adventure Path: Kingmaker: Rivers Run Red, on page 83! The Grim White Stag has always been a deific force, but bowed to and began to work with Erastil once his faith became more and more prominent among the common men.

[monstersdownthepath]

So uh

I got an idea I wanna know if it's possible to actually happen. Two souls,both sent to Abbadon, but performed a mutual kill on each other. The sheer HATRED both had for each other caused them to slowly fuse into one, becoming a combination of them both.

Is that possible? Or maybe they were fused by Szuriel. If soul fusion is even possible outside of undead like Binumir.

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Is it possible? Probably! Souls ARE quite flexible once they've become Petitioners.

Being fused by a Harbinger or Horseman feels closer to what may happen, but I won't rule out the possibility of two souls being so entwined by their loathing for one another that they become inextricably bound. Perhaps they both, as daemons-to-be, end up attacking one another and consuming portions of each other's souls so often that they Ship of Theseus themselves together into a brand new Harbinger.

[monstersdownthepath]

Monster Spotlight: Vrykolakas

CR 10

Neutral Evil Medium Undead

Bestiary 6, pg. 276 (Art from 2e Bestiary 2, pg. 277)

These wretched, vampiric Undead are born from the bodies of those who were especially wicked and vengeful in life but were denied the benefit of even being buried (though the Vrykokalas of Earth have much wilder creation conditions, such as eating the meat of a sheep wounded by a werewolf; use them as you will!). If an evil enough person is slain and their body is left to rot, they may return as one of these extremely powerful and fierce monsters, which is as good an excuse as any for a lower-level party to carry around a shovel and a few disposable holy symbols... and even some mid- and high-level ones, because slaying the Bad Evil Guy where he stands but letting him come back as one of these could be just as bad, if not even worse, for the surrounding civilizations than whatever they were doing while they were alive.

One of these horrors so much as walking through the streets of a crowded down can spell doom for dozens of lives, as their Pestilent Aura infects any creature that comes within 5ft of them with the lethal, fast-spreading Bubonic Plague unless that creature succeeds a DC 22 Fortitude save. This aura is indiscriminate and affects ALL creatures, from rats skittering over the thing as it rests to any man or elf who gets too close to it for any reason, so a patient Vryko could simply park itself in some dank alleyway or sewer pipe to slowly doom a whole city... but [thankfully/unfortunately], Vryko are incapable of this level of patience. Their plague is incidental, unlikely to come up unless the thing finds itself walking by a group of unfortunate travelers, as the Vryko is a lethal ambush predator stated in the book to indiscriminately vent their wrath and hatred upon any unfortunates who may cross them. They're not likely to leave survivors if they can help it, but anyone who DOES get away may simply succumb to the plague days later.

Vryko can magically shapeshift themselves into the form they had in life, which could potentially let them spread their plague into any crowds they walk through, but this ability is mostly used to put on a human silhouette and get close to a lone traveler or small group, or get an invitation into someone's home or place of business. Once within melee range, Vryko reveal their true forms and begin to rip into their prey with a good old Claw-Claw-Bite. Each claw deals 1d8+8 damage, and the fanged bite 1d6+8, which is already decent base damage, but both attacks have some extra spice to make them even more dangerous: if both claws hit in a single round, the victim is rent asunder for 1d6+12 additional damage, and the bite? One level of Energy Drain.

Despite being described as "vampiric," Vryko only drink the blood of their kills, not from their living victims. Instead, victims bitten by the Vryko's pickaxe-like fangs have their life torn from them in two different ways. Because Energy Drain happens automatically without offering a save, this means Vryko can reliably kill level 1 and 2 Commoners and guards with a single bite, and anything below level 5 in a single Full-Attack. "So what?" You scoff, "so can my level 9 Fighter. Hell, the Wizard could do that five levels ago." It's important here, because any humanoid the Vryko slays that's left unburied will become another one in 1d4 days, and while they're solitary hunters, that just means the new Undead is prompted to wander off and become a plague in another settlement. While a single DC 15 Religion check (to say a prayer of rest over a corpse) is all that's needed to keep a single Vryko from becoming a plague on the countryside, this means nothing if a Vryko is slaughtering innocents traveling down lonely roads or abandoning bodies in old alleyways.

Even a single Vryko is already tough enough to get rid of! Not that you'd know it by looking at their statblock, mind; their saves are decent for their level at +10/+10/+12 and they have an AC of 23 (slightly below average for level 10), but aside from +4 Channel Resistance and the immunities granted to them by undeath, they possess no defensive abilities. No DR or elemental resistances, and no Spell Resistance, which is especially dangerous for a creature with Vulnerability to Fire. They rely wholly on their Undead nature and decent stats to carry them through battles, where their high burst damage during the round after they break out of their +15 Stealth or their +25 to Disguise checks puts their foes on the back foot immediately and forces them to divert resources towards making sure the initial target doesn't die next round.

Because they can climb at 20ft a round and have high Stealth, they can also ambush their prey from above, which becomes more viable if they're in an urban environment. They're not all about physical power, though, they actually have a handful of spell-like abilities at 3/day; namely Fear at 3/day with a save DC 20 to scatter an entire group of creatures with a single blast and prevent them from fighting back against the animalistic vampire. A single well-placed Fear alleviates almost all the creature's weaknesses, but where terror fails, it can also use Vampiric Touch 3/day to slurp 5d6 HP out of a creature in its melee range.

It does have a third, important spell-like though, even if it doesn't look important at first glance: Charm Animal. While not especially intelligent, Vryko are wise enough to know the value of calming animals which would otherwise give away their presence, or drawing an animal close to infect them with their pestilence before sending them off to pass the plague to their owners. While it has no ranks in Handle Animal, a Vryko in disguise can still charm a small animal such as a bird, cat, rat, or dog and give orders with simple commands and gestures, letting it do the most important thing it can: keep an animal nearby.

This is because a Vryko has some vampiric qualities, including being hard to kill. If the horror is slain, its vile spirit flees to the closest animal within 100ft and forces that animal to make a DC 22 Will save or become possessed. Once possessed, the animal is compelled to return to the Vryko's lair (where its original body was left to rot) and bury itself in the soil there, emerging as the fully restored Vryko 1d4 days later. If the controlled animal cannot return to the site of the creature's original death within 10 days or receives a magical exorcism (anything that would end the Possession spell), it is freed from the possession and the foul Undead dies. Similarly, if the animal is killed, the Vryko dies with it, but this can be complicated if it happens to be an Animal Companion or a mount, forcing the party to spend even more resources to put the creature to rest.

So here lays two obstacles in permanently putting one of these creatures to rest: Firstly, you have to spot an animal acting unusually. Not easy, especially in an urban environment as strays and even rats are all the Animal creature type, and the further into the wild you get the harder it becomes as every nearby bird, deer, or boar becomes a potential vessel. Secondly, if you don't see the animal in time, you have to find out where the original creature died and track it down to put an end to it. Since all Vryko are created from a person who died and explicitly wasn't buried, there's essentially no way to tell where its lair is without using Divination (the spell school and also the spell itself).

The Vrykokolas is a deceptively powerful beast despite its lack of defenses and its vulnerability to the most common magical damage type, especially since its esoteric rebirth method allows it to keep coming back again and again as long as the DM rules there was an animal nearby for it to possess until the players finally track down its resting site and put an end to it permanently. All the while, they'll have to contend with mounting negative levels, outbreaks of the Bubonic Plague, and potentially even more Vrokokolas' as its unnoticed killings get back up and continue spreading death in every direction, through every vector.

You can read more about them here.

[monstersdownthepath]

So are you just not answering asks anymore?

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please refer to this post as to why i've gone radio silent for a bit. a whole world will open up to you if you use your eyes to read things that i write.

[monstersdownthepath]

aauauaaggh the brain is fogging.

I hate taking this many breaks in a row, but I may have to limit myself to one article a week until this passes. I'm not sure if this is Long Covid or an infection that came from Covid tanking my immune system, but in either case it's severely impacted my ability to concentrate on anything.

I'm going in to see a doctor as soon as possible, so hopefully I'll get something that'll help me get back on track!

[monstersdownthepath]

Monster Spotlight: Egregore

CR 10

Neutral Large Aberration

Bestiary 5, pg. 104-105

These bizarre aggregates of psychic energy are the result of a powerful psychic caster finding a group of like-minded individuals who are also willing to dispose of truly enormous amounts of income. They take, at minimum, 13 days and 13,000 GP to create, which seems like a downright steal for most cults trying to create an ultimate minion, but an Egregore is not an ultimate minion! Rather, it exists to help a community coordinate, remain healthy, and stay close to one another. Very close.

An Egregore is neither an independent creature nor a mindless servitor construct, but acts more like a living focal point for a community (not necessarily a cult) to build itself around, with their ideals permanently emblazoned on the Egregore's surface in abstract; the Egregore above possesses an eye not because it needs one, but because an eye represents concepts such as vigilance, knowledge, or seeking. An Egregore made for a different purpose would bear different symbols, though all of them are identifiable as an Egregore by the fact they look like clusters of brains united by bands of light. Precisely one brain per member of its Cult Mind, in fact. While a charismatic psychic may lead groups of several dozen or even several hundred, an Egregore has a maximum limit of 13 creatures it can personally connect to unless its creator invests further resources into making it a more powerful Egregore Master, but we won't be covering that today!

While the Egregore itself does not lean towards Evil or Good, it is guided by the collective will of the beings it's connected to via its Cult Mind, and thus there's always the possibility that one bad apple may spoil the whole barrel for everyone else if the cult can't throw the apple out. The book states that many a doomsday cult has met their end creating an Egregore and hoping for a protector until they could enact their destructive plans, only for their creation to enthusiastically and homicidally embrace their ideals, wiping out its creators and, shortly after, itself, because once there's no one left in the Cult Mind, the psychic construct dissipates into nothingness in just 1d4 rounds.

But what do you GET by being part of the Cult Mind? A lot, actually. Everyone in the-- I'm going to call it "connection" or "web" from now on. Everyone in the web can send simple messages and emotional flares to one another, allowing for quick and easy communication over long distances. In addition, any creature making a Will save can roll twice, once with their own roll and once with the Egregore's towering +15 to Will saves, and even if they somehow fail, another member of the web can volunteer to take the effect instead, keeping more important members safe from mind-influencing effects. This implies that everyone in the connection has some level of awareness of incoming hostile effects, even subtle ones, which is interesting but not expanded upon.

The most important part of the Cult Mind, however, is that an Egregore can use its spell-likes on any creature in the connection regardless of range or line of effect. What does it have to offer? At the top of its spells, it has 24 PE worth of psychic energy that it can expend to use Mass Bull's Strength (6 PE), Mass Bear's Endurance (6 PE)... Or Heal (6 PE), restoring 130 HP and clearing a dozen different conditions and ailments off its target. Without its psychic magic, its sole contribution to the cult is the ability to cast Cure Moderate Wounds at-will, but that's nothing to simply brush off! That's 2d8+10 HP a round, every round, without giving the aggressor the ability to interact with the healing, allowing the connected members a limited form of Regeneration. It's infinite out-of-combat healing, for god's sake! No one in the Cult Mind has to worry about running low on HP if they can retreat and take a breather, and that's even IF the aggression keeps up when the cult leader--who is always some powerful psychic caster!--suddenly regains their entire health bar three separate times through the fight.

This isn't all it can do, though. Egregore aren't bound to the sites of their creation (which is extremely valuable, but we'll get to why later!) and can freely roll across the ground at 30ft/round or fly with perfect maneuverability 40ft/round, allowing them to join in a fight directly. In addition to its buffs and healing, it can freely manipulate its bands of psychotropic light as a standard action to mimic the effects of Hypnotic Pattern, potentially costing everyone within 10ft of it their turn. No creature connected to the hive mind is affected by this hypnosis, allowing them to freely shelter in the Egregore's light or walk among hypnotized foes to relieve them of their belongings without risk.

They're also able to contribute physically, solidifying their psychic energy into a quartet of lashing limbs that allows them to manipulate physical objects OR make up to four tentacle attacks for 1d8+4 damage each. The damage is somewhat low, but the Egregore makes up for it with consistency, as its Light Tentacles are treated as though they had the Brilliant Energy ability, letting them ignore almost every form of armor and shield in the game, and even attack through thin obstacles. With a 10ft space and 10ft reach, they can reliably cover a good portion of whatever cramped community quarters they're sheltered in, and they have a trio of simple but potent defensive abilities atop their 27 AC: Amorphous, preventing critical hits and precision damage from harming it, insurmountable DR 5, and 21 points of Spell Resistance. Any creature attempting to cast psychic spells while near it and NOT in its web will also have to contend with its 30ft Mental Static Aura, imposing a DC 22 Will save onto any attempt to cast a psychic spell or concentrate on an ongoing spell.

Quite a powerful entity that just about any cult or commune can summon to aid in coordinating their members, but they come with a painful weakness: Any creature within the Cult Mind must remain within 1 mile of the Egregore at all times, or its connection to the entity snaps and sickens everyone else in the web for a round. This severely limits how far a connected cult can spread its influence, and makes them rely on unconnected agents to work past the 1-mile limit. The Egregore CAN move, but most cults wishing to create one will likely want to keep it in one place! The web also becomes weaker as strands are severed; regardless of the reason, if a member of the web dies, all creatures in the web have to make a DC 20 Will save or become sickened for a round as well. If the Cult Mind ever drops below 6 members through death or distance, the Egregore must succeed a DC 20 Will save or become confused every round, potentially lashing out at itself or its allies until succeeds a second save. This Confusion effect triggers every time another member of the web leaves, so anyone with a desire to destroy the construct without having to fight it can simply kill off everyone in its web, after which--as already mentioned--the Egregore fades away 1d4 rounds later regardless of its HP.

Repairing a damaged web isn't cheap, taking 1 day and 1,000gp to invite someone new into the Cult Mind, but it IS possible so long as one still survives... even if they're not the original leader, and have no psychic power at all! An Egregore that's existed for many generations may only have the psychic echoes of its former creators within it as the community changes members around it. Who knows what an especially ambitious psychic aggregate may do with a slew of new, pliable minds...

You can read more about them here.

[monstersdownthepath]

I know you havea harbinger one of food contamination, but would one working for Apollyon who poisons wells,lives or works in sewers and spreads water borne diseases work as a good counterpart? Cholera was a major killer in the western world before water purification and still is in areas without sufficient access to it. Dysentery was lethal before modern medicine too.

Perhaps make them a sewer rat, cholera and diseases like it were spread through sewage in the drinking water.

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Waterborne disease is an untouched niche, strangely enough. There are two Harbingers which deal in poisoned water, Roqorolos and Tresmalvos, the latter of which is even associated with rats! But neither of them deal exclusively in waterborne illness or befouled water; one of Rogo's areas of concern is "fouled water" and his Obedience involves drinking tainted water, but he seems more concerned with shipwrecks and castaways forced to drink seawater to survive.

Tresmalvos is the closest to what you're aiming for, but her updated lore in Divine Mysteries paints the picture of someone who hates living in the sewers and wants to drag people down into them so she can stand atop their drowning bodies and pretend, for a moment, that she's anywhere else. Not exactly a demigoddess of tainted waters.

[monstersdownthepath]

What's your opinion on Dicied. Cuz a harbinger of invasive species would work. Though perhaps more about focusing on stuff like rabbits or pigs,ones that can quickly grow out of control.

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Dicied focuses too much on natural disasters for my taste. He's supposed to be about "invasive species" and "mass extinction," but his Obedience and divine Domains are lasered in on natural disasters. His benefit even gives +4 to saves "related to natural disasters," which is basically a blank benefit! I find it a little insulting and, not to be rude, uncreative that his sacred animal is apparently the cockroach and not, say, a beetle or moth, which are far more likely to be dangerously invasive.

I like the thought of him focusing more on rabbits, rats, and boars, but lets not also forget the humble zebra mussel! Or even a bunch of invasive plants!

[monstersdownthepath]

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From this post here

Yes.

Pharasma, out of cosmic fairness, has to allow the Devouring Court to operate within the Boneyard, but out of personal conviction, she makes only the barest allowances. The Devouring Court consists of an empty room devoid of the splendor and life which fills the other seven Courts, and unlike every other grandly decorated portal to the afterlife, the portal to Abaddon is simple, undecorated, pitch black, and constantly wails with the screaming of devoured souls. If the soul belongs to a Neutral Evil deity like Urgathoa, Zyphus, the Four Horsemen, or Ahriman, an agent of that deity will be there to receive them and guide them through the portal, if only so no other daemons get to them first.

No daemons of any sort or servants of the Harbingers are allowed to set foot in the Boneyard without permission, even to receive souls meant for them. Any soul sworn to their service will have to pass through the portal alone... or take the deal to get out.

There is one devil and one demon stationed in the Devouring Court, given special permission by Pharasma to offer souls condemned to Abaddon one final chance to choose Hell or the Abyss instead, as polite a middle finger to the daemons as a whole the goddess is permitted by cosmic law to give. It does help mitigate the flow of souls to Abaddon, though such a concession could never stops it completely; most beings condemned to Abaddon tend to believe that they have the strength and will survive in the swamps. Most do not.

[monstersdownthepath]

If an android became a daemon, what kind of purviews would you recommend if they rose up the ranks as a harbinger

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It depends on how they died! A creature's species usually doesn't factor into what kind of Outsider they become.

[monstersdownthepath]

Monster Spotlight: Mezlan

CR 14

Neutral Medium Ooze

Bestiary 6, pg. 186-187

This one has been a long time coming. The Mezlan are one of my favorite monsters across all Bestiaries, past and future, for more than a few reasons; namely body goals, but we'll get to that. However, the Mezlan are the proud owners of one of the most obnoxious images to peel out of the PDFs in both of their appearances (Bestiary 6 and Adventure Path: Shattered Star: The Dead Heart of Xin), coming with so much artifacting that I was instantly put off by the effort needed to get them into a clean state. I COULD use their art from Second Edition, but I like this version more; it's got more elegance.

But anyway, enough about my difficulties, and onto the difficulties the party will be facing if they encounter a Mezlan! The Mezlan as a whole were created in ancient Azlant by powerful mages to serve as spies, assassins, saboteurs, or retrievers, and if you want to know what it looks like when a Mezlan is on a mission, I heavily suggest watching Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Far from some mindless Constructs or Ooze monsters guided by programming, Mezlan possess the sharpened minds and powerful souls of ancient Azlanti soldiers, spies, or mages (sometimes to the point of having class levels from their old bodies) and bodies which require no food, water, or sleep. Thankfully, just a few hundred of them still exist, and for each one that sells its skills as a mercenary or an assassin or maintains memory its pre-Earthfall orders and purpose, there are Mezlan content to live out mundane lives, serving no master but themselves.

This post is not about the latter. Prepare yourselves, this one's a little longer than average.

For those on the Mezlan's hit list, it is exactly as terrifyingly inevitable as the T-1000, the creature able to bypass any barrier in its way so long as there's space for even a single finger to slip through, its entire body liquefying to slip through or past any barrier. They are faster than you'd ever think they could be, moving at 40ft a round and having the capacity to generate additional specialized limbs to climb or swim at 20ft/round, giving them incredible all-terrain capabilities. They also have the power to freely shape their Morphic Body into ANY Medium or Small creature in the game with little restriction, including into specific individuals if they so desire. No matter what form they're in, they maintain enough superhuman strength (30) to throw entire grown human beings around with a single hand... but they have the intelligence and wisdom to know when subtlety will get them what they want.

Having thousands of lifetime's worth of patience and experience, Mezlan are almost never going to make a bold move when a careful one will suffice. They're more likely to bide their time, waiting somewhere nearby and listening to local conversation, building their plan slowly. Their Versatile Speech allows them to understand and speak any language they hear being spoken for at least 2 minutes (1 minute to understand, 1 to speak) without needing to be part of the conversation, letting them easily fit into any city in any country either as a tourist or a local. When solving problems without (and sometimes with) violence, their Skill Pool also lets them make any skill check untrained without suffering a penalty for it, and upwards to 5/day they can add a +4 to any skill check, giving them a reasonable chance at succeeding most rolls they make, especially if they've already got sizable ranks; a basic Mezlan has Escape Artist +9, Linguistics +11, Perception +20, Sense Motive +20 on the "defense," and Bluff +14, Disguise +25, Stealth +25 on the "offense" side of their skills, for reference, though many have additional class levels to augment specific skills further.

But let's say that their skills finally get them to their target! Their victim likely won't know what hit them, as Mezlan all come equipped with +3d6 Sneak Attack to augment whatever weapon they wield, more than likely dispatching most low-level creatures they may want out of the way... especially if they're attacking with their high-damage Morphic Weapons, capable of shifting their limbs into any number of implements of death which all deal 2d8+10 damage. They're not helpless from a range, either, and can shape their limbs into ranged weapons when needed, firing projectiles made of their own matter for 2d8+10 damage with range increments of 60ft, though their Point-Blank Shot and Sneak Attack incentivizes them to be much closer.

Even without switching to ranged attacks, Mezlan can still startle people who think they're safe from its Sneak Attack. Once per round without restriction of whose turn it is, the Mezlan can stretch its limbs out and make a Morphic Weapon attack on any target within 15ft. Anyone unaware of their extended reach will learn of it quickly when performing any AoO-drawing action, which can be devastating for any close-range caster who just lost their best spell... not that it had a high chance of working, given that Mezlan have 25 Spell Resistance. And speaking of spells, a Mezlan that secures a spellcasting ally can use Spell Storing to keep upwards to 10 levels-worth of spells inside itself as long as it needs, ready to spring out whenever needed. There is a little bit of ambiguity on whether or not the ooze can absorb hostile spells, seeing as how it has an entire sentence devoted to how it can lower its SR and ready an action to absorb an incoming spell, so I choose to believe it CAN overtake and absorb hostile effects IF it wastes its entire action to do so, but a less lenient DM can simply decide that Mezlan can only absorb spells from allied casters.

The sample Mezlan has Chain Lightning, Dispel Magic, and Mage Armor prepared, the last of which is almost overkill since Mezlan start with 30 AC, but more AC for hours a day is hard to say no to. If they have a caster ally, or are a caster themselves, Mezlan could have more or less anything tucked away for later use, as their Spell Storing allows them to absorb spells from ANY class or casting method, be it arcane, divine, or psychic, and they can also absorb spells from scrolls they may find. Given their ability to disguise themselves, a Mezlan could easily feign injury and absorb incoming healing magic provided by soft-hearted apothecaries and priests, storing it for any true injuries they suffer later! The ball is truly in the DMs court, and Mezlan can store spells for years if they must, pulling them out only in the most dire of circumstances.

And we haven't even touched on what's important: Resilience. Like the T-1000, a Mezlan can pull itself together from basically any level of damage, shrugging off wounds that would kill a lesser creature in just a few rounds as holes close, wounds knit, and limbs reattach or regrow entirely so long as its Regeneration 5 keeps ticking. A Mezlan also benefits from its Ooze traits, making it impervious to poison, sleep effects, paralysis, polymorph, stunning, and all forms of precision damage and critical hits. It can't even be flanked! But besides these written defenses, one of their most potent defenses is actually entirely un-written, as it relies on their appearance: In their true form, Mezlan appear to be glowing blobs of magma with visible heat trails rising from their body, and this is extremely valuable for them and should be emphasized by the DM, because an uninformed party would think that Cold damage would be their key to stopping the creature permanently, like cooling lava! Unfortunately, Mezlan cannot be killed by anything but Acid damage, a weakness they try and carefully hide (or protect themselves from via Spell Storage) lest the humble Acid Splash be used against their helpless remains.

But even this isn't the end. Unlike the T-1000, no method to permanently kill a Mezlan yet exists, with only plot contrivance and DM permission allowing one to be put down forever. Slaying one merely renders it dormant, its remains seeping swiftly into the environment, where it regenerates over the course of ten years. Thankfully, this imperfect replication has a very high chance of wiping out the Mezlan's memories, including its orders, and may simply see the creature laying low for several years to recuperate. In either case, though, players can rest easy knowing that a splash of acid will both thwart its plans AND keep it out of their hair for a long, long time.

Just pray the DM doesn't do a sequel campaign.

You can read more about them here.

[monstersdownthepath]

Small edit to that ask post about Infernal Dukes, because I forgot I've already covered Lorthact!

[monstersdownthepath]

How do the Infernal Dukes compare to the Demon Lords? Hell has nine layers, for which it has Asmodeus the full divinity as well as eight Demigods in the other Archdevils. Meanwhile, their ostensible equals in the ring, the Demon Lords, probably easily number in the dozens or hundreds, although I imagine that number fluctuates far more as some are killed and others rise. Still, they have vast numbers at their disposal and even greater numbers of nascent demon lords besides bulking out their hordes even more.

Granted they don't cooperate that well (or at all, I imagine the Worldwound was a unicorn of demonic cooperation) so Hell, along with the other Outer Planes holds its own, but that's still a big numbers gap that Asmodeus would probably want to close somewhat. I was considering what other powerful and unique fiends Hell can call upon when I recalled the Infernal Dukes, and was wondering how well these guys can hold their own vs. the Demon Lords. Not sure how much in the way of stats we have for the various ID's, but we do have some I know that, like that dude from Korvosa whose name I forget.

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We have stats for both Lorthact and Furcas, and BOTH of them are equivalent in power to a Demon Lord, which sets a pretty big bar for the other Infernal Dukes. Lorthact is actually weaker than Dukes are stated to be, at CR 25 (and even lower by the time we see him again in 2nd Edition) when the Book of the Damned says they hover between 26 and 27, but he's still powerful enough to hold his own against the greatest heroes of the realm.

The gap of power between Hell and the Abyss is great, but it's actually in Hell's favor. Each individual Demon Lord is incredibly powerful, but the devils' organization and willingness to work with one another (barring one exception) means that demonic forces need impossibly overwhelming numbers or underhanded plots to actually come out on top if a battle breaks out between the two... but this show of diabolic strength also reveals one of Hell's greatest weaknesses: Any devil that asks for help from a superior is likely to be seen as weak and unworthy of aid, to be replaced by someone more competent when the current crisis is over. No one wants to be the guy to deliver bad news to Asmodeus' desk, which sometimes means no news is provided.

They can command legions of perfectly obedient soldiers, but if a Malebranche finds itself facing a foe with superior numbers and power, its honor is on the line to do everything in its own power without aid before it requests reinforcements from its superiors, which will likely cost it even more in the long run. Just because they CAN organize together to become unstoppable doesn't mean they WILL, unless directly commanded to by the Archdevils or Asmodeus. Most of them are far too busy with their own problems and objectives, after all.

[monstersdownthepath]

Odd idea I'd like feedback on

Would a daemon harbinger with a penchant for explosives work? More focused on destroying buildings, especially important ones and even more so when important people are inside. A mad bomber who wants to eventually find a way to blow up a planet. Too chaotic or no?

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It would work well, and Paizo agrees with you in this regard, because Hastrikhal already exists, and her Divine Obedience requires you to set an occupied building on fire. She's one of the more infamous Harbingers because of this!

[monstersdownthepath]

In just a few sentences I've fallen into instant love with the Shades of Blood Adventure Path being released this year. True to its name, it seems to be an exploration of three different vampiric deities and the player's encounters with them, the first being the newly-expanded upon Camazotz, while the second book explores the Demon Lord of Vampires herself, Zura. The second I'm MOST excited for, because if the book blurb is anything to go by, it takes place mostly inside Zura's Abyssal realm, where hapless townsfolk live fearful lives beneath the yoke of the Vampire Queen's faithful. Nightly invasions from demonic vampires are common, and religious horror is played up as much as possible as the false leaders command their flocks to make sacrifices to keep the horrors at bay.

I'm excited!