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thecreaturecodex · 5 years ago

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Qlippoth Lord, Pale Night

Image by E. M. Gist, © Wizards of the Coast. Accessed at the Fiendish Codex I Art Gallery here

[Commissioned by @justicegundam82. Pale Night was originally referred to in Milton’s Paradise Lost (which popularized the name Demogorgon, incidentally), and was a bit of world building that crept in Planescape before being fleshed out by James Jacobs in the “Demonomicon of Iggwilv” articles for Dragon Magazine and the Fiendish Codex I. She’s an obyrith in those sources, and the obyrith are pretty much a one-for-one analogue to the qlippoth, except that Pale Night is referred to as “Mother of Demons” in FCI. I played with that ambiguity in my take on her flavor text.

I also wrote this before, but edited after, @arachcobra suggested the Parasol Initiative as the organization devoted to making hybrid monsters. Maybe Pale Night is their divine patron.]

Qlippoth Lord, Pale Night CR 23 CE Outsider This hazy figure appears as a diaphanous sheet draped around a lithe humanoid female. Hollows in the sheet suggest the contours of eyes and other facial features, which seem to shift unsettlingly.

Pale Night The Veiled One, Mother of Chaos Concerns forbidden knowledge, hybridity, mutation Domains Chaos, Evil, Knowledge, Madness Subdomains Corruption, Entropy, Insanity, Memory Worshippers iconoclasts, transmuters, motherless tieflings Minions chernobue and behimiron qlippoth, chimeras, mutants Unholy Symbol a white sheet before a star field Favored Weapon net Devotion tell someone a secret intended to hurt or disturb them, and threaten them harm if they tell anyone else. Gain a +4 profane bonus on saving throws against mind-influencing effects. Boons 1: touch of idiocy 2/day; 2: confusion 2/day; 3: legend lore 2/day

Pale Night is a creature that seemingly breaks the rules—something between a demon and a qlippoth, seemingly comfortable with both creatures in both worlds. As such, she represents the flow of information and bodies between discreet categories and into disturbing ambiguity. This ambiguity extends to her appearance. Creatures see her as the silhouette of an attractive female member of their own species, if their species has female members and a generally fertile and comely specimen of their species if they do not. Her true appearance is an abominable mystery—simply revealing it to the world is a difficult task for Pale Night, and those who survive the mental onslaught have literally no memory of what they saw.

Pale Night’s touch shatters minds and warps self-image—those who succumb to it find their exterior forms reflect their innermost fears and desires, becoming strange and terrible mutants. She “collects” creatures that interest her, be it for their rarity, bravery or physical markers, by transforming them into literal images of themselves. Her favorite tactic is to ride inside the body of a powerful demon or qlippoth, then abandon their form for one of her strongest foes after having had time to gauge their prowess.

Being intermediate between demons and qlippoths means that Pale Night is often feared by both. Despite her qlippothic origins, she is allies with both Lamashtu and Baphomet, ensuring that only the most suicidal Abyssal powers oppose her directly. The nature of her relationship to Lamashtu is obscure—the Mother of Monsters appears to respect Pale Night as a colleague, but the two maintain their distance most of the time. Pale Night is ancient even by the standards of qlippoth, and there are those that whisper that she was the entity that encouraged daemons to introduce sinning souls to the Abyss and create the first demons. As such, the most militant of qlippoth lords, such as Chavazvug and Yamasoth, would gladly see her destroyed.

Pale Night’s demesne is a tower of bone in the middle of Baphomet’s maze—its ever-shifting location and the protection of the King of Beasts is obstacle enough to keep all but the most dedicated enemies or petitioners from her door. Her cult is all but unheard of in mortal realms. Most of her devotees are lone figures seeking her blessings to uncover unspeakable secrets, or the creators of various hybrid abominations. Motherless tieflings, those pathetic and horrible planetouched born of qlippothic influence, make up the majority of her followers.

Pale Night CR 23 XP 820,000 CE Medium outsider (chaos, extraplanar, evil, incorporeal, qlippoth) Init +18; Senses darkvision 60 ft., detect good, detect law, Perception +38, thoughtsense 120 ft. Defense AC 39, touch 35, flat-footed 24 (+14 Dex, +1 dodge, +10 deflection, +4 armor) hp 429 (26d10+286); fast healing 20 Fort +19, Ref +29, Will +24 DR 20/epic and lawful; Immune cold, death effects, electricity, mind-influencing effects, poison; Resist acid 30, fire 30; SR 34 Defensive Abilities incorporeal traits Offense Speed fly 80 ft. (perfect) Melee incorporeal touch (20d8 plus 2d6 Cha drain) Special Attacks corrupting influence, embrace, horrific appearance (DC 34), part the veil Spell-like Abilities CL 23th, concentration +33 Constant—detect good, detect law, mage armor At will—greater dispel magic, greater teleport, telekinesis (DC 25), unhallow, unholy blight (DC 24) 3/day—blasphemy (DC 27), quickened confusion (DC 24), greater possession (DC 28), insanity (DC 27) 1/day—dominate monster (DC 29), freedom, greater restoration, imprisonment (DC 29), legend lore, polymorph any object (DC 28), summon demons and qlippoth Statistics Str -, Dex 38, Con 32, Int 25, Wis 28, Cha 31 Base Atk +26; CMB -; CMD 53 Feats Alertness, Blind-fight, Combat Expertise, Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Hover, Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Mobility, Quicken SLA (confusion), Spring Attack, Weapon Finesse, Whirlwind Attack Skills Bluff +39, Diplomacy +35, Fly +47, Intimidate +35, Knowledge (arcana, history, nobility) +29, Knowledge (planes, religion) +32, Perform (sing) +32, Perception +38, Sense Motive +38, Spellcraft +29, Stealth +39, Use Magic Device +32 Languages Abyssal, Aklo, Common, Draconic, Protean SQ qlippoth lord traits Ecology Environment any (Abyss) Organization unique Treasure double standard Special Abilities Corrupting Influence (Su) Any non-outsider living creature reduced to 0 Charisma by Pale Night must succeed a DC 33 Fortitude save. On a successful save, they are merely comatose. On a failed save, the creature is transformed—it gains the mutant template, its alignment becomes chaotic evil and its Charisma is immediately restored to normal. A creature so transformed cannot be returned to normal without a miracle or wish, followed by an atonement spell to change its alignment. The save DC is Charisma based. Embrace (Su) As a standard action up to three times per day, Pale Night can attempt to embrace a Large or smaller creature with a touch attack. A creature so touched must make a DC 33 Fortitude save. Success means the creature is stunned for 1 round; on a failure it is made incorporeal and placed under temporal stasis. A creature so affected can only be restored with a freedom, miracle or wish spell. The save DC is Charisma based. Horrific Appearance (Su) A creature that succumbs to Pale Night’s horrific appearance is stunned for 1 round and staggered for 12 rounds as its internal organs become animate and rebellious. A creature that succeeds its save is merely staggered for 1 round. A creature that successfully saves cannot be affected by Pale Night’s horrific appearance for the next 24 rounds. Incorporeal Touch (Su) The damage dealt by Pale Night’s touch is a mind-influencing effect, similar to a mind thrust spell. A creature touched must make a DC 33 Will save. If it succeeds, it takes half damage and no Charisma drain. If Pale Night so chooses, she can deal damage, Charisma drain, or both with her touch attack. The save DC is Charisma based. Part the Veil (Su) As a full round action once per day, Pale Night can reveal her true appearance. All creatures within 30 feet that can see her must succeed a DC 33 Fortitude save or be immediately slain. Creatures that succeed this save are instead affected by a mental block spell that lasts for 23 rounds, or until the creature succeeds a DC 33 Will save on its turn. The save DC is Charisma based. Summon Demons and Qlippoth (Sp) Once per day, Pale Night can summon a combined CR 20 of demons and qlippoth with a 100% success rate. This is the equivalent of a 9th level spell.

#pale night #qlippoth #demon #pathfinder 1e #D&D

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monstersdownthepath · 6 years ago

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Bonus Spotlight: Ahriman, the Shadow Across Creation

Neutral Evil Demigod of Destruction, Divs, and Nihilism

Domains: Darkness, Death, Destruction, Evil Subdomains: Catastrophe, Fear, Loss, Rage

The Complete Book of the Damned, pg. 12~13

Obedience: While praying to Ahriman, destroy something of monetary or sentimental value to another person, preferably in front of someone with a strong emotional connection to the item. Alternatively, willingly take 1 point of Constitution damage by flagellating yourself with a barbed lash as you pray to Ahriman. Benefit: Your true alignment becomes masked for 24 hours, or until you perform this Obedience again. Upon performing this Obedience, choose a particular alignment. You read as the chosen alignment to all forms of magical detection, and can fool both items and magic which respond to particular alignments.

just kidding about End of the World Month being over. It can’t be over, not until we talk about this world-ender.

Anyway THIS combo is very, very interesting! To my knowledge, Ahriman is one of the three deities in existence which allows you to mask your alignment, and unless I’m mistaken, is the only method in the game which does so for a full 24 hours without needing a spell slot. It’s not one that will give you an outright power boost like most benefits do, but it makes it much, MUCH harder for Good folk to sniff you out. Be careful, though, because your mask is so thorough and complete that you’re actually vulnerable to spells like Blasphemy and Dictum if you masquerade as alignments that those spells can hurt.

The mask can’t actually be dispelled, either, so anyone scrutinizing you can’t reveal your true alignment unless they keep you from performing your Obedience... But it also means you can’t just ‘pull off’ the mask to avoid being creamed by an alignment-reliant spell that gets hurled at you.

Speaking of the Obedience, though, this is a deceptively simple one to both perform and keep on the down-low. Flagellants are unusual--and often unwelcomed--but not unknown in many societies, and you don’t have to audibly pray to Ahriman as you beat yourself bloody. If you wanted to really push the illusion you could even do so publicly, chanting hymns to other gods as you scar yourself in “their name.” Whether you keep it secret or flaunt your status aloud, you may earn some sour looks, and perhaps you won’t be invited into polite company, but you won’t look evil. Just very, very odd.

The Constitution damage is annoying but not crippling as, say, Charon’s demand that you dull your mind every day, as 1 point of Con damage repairs itself the next time you rest.

The “primary” means of proving your devotion to Ahriman is also deceptively simple, depending on how hard you Murder Hobo your way through a given campaign. You may end up gathering a lot of possessions that mean a lot to other people, and the Obedience doesn’t indicate that they need to be sentimental to someone who’s still alive! So go ahead, shatter that bandit’s sword, which was gifted to him by his father! Destroy that sorcerer’s locket containing a memento of their one love! Desecrate and destroy that altar to Desna! Maybe even in front of the priests! Maybe not that last one if you’re among Good folk, though.

Unless you happen to be projecting a Chaotic Good aura and can convince them that the altar is somehow already desecrated and must be torn down...

It’s not a particularly hard Obedience to do, but it’s definitely finicky to keep doing. At least Ahriman gives you an out in the form of a blood sacrifice!

IMPORTANT NOTE: As Ahriman is neither a Horseman nor a Daemon Harbinger, you cannot take the Souldrinker prestige class to get Ahriman’s Boons early (without DM fiat). You must use the Evangelist, Exalted, or Sentinel prestige classes to get the Boons early, at levels 10, 13, and 16 instead of 12, 16, and 20.

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EVANGELIST

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Boon 1: Ahriman’s Word. Gain Command 3/day, Detect Thoughts 2/day, or Suggestion 1/day

Nice! Command is a decent Baby Save or Suck, and Suggestion is ALWAYS nice to see, but in my opinion the real utility star here is Detect Thoughts. Lock onto invisible foes, sniff out enemies through walls (some walls), read the minds of anyone who fails a Will save... It’s a pretty fun spell! Especially for finding out if anyone has sentimental attachment to any items in the area, so you can hoard them away for later Obediences.

Still, all three of these options are pretty good! Not particularly stellar, but useful.

Boon 2: Unassailable Conviction. 1/day, if you fail a Will save, you may immediately roll again and use the second result. If you succeed the second save, you receive a +2 morale bonus to attack and damage rolls for 1 hour.

This is actually a fairly weak Boon, all things considered... But it will absolutely, 100% save your life at some point. That morale bonus is actually you, the player, in real life breathing a sigh of relief as you wiggle out from under a Dominate, Feeblemind, or Imprisonment. Note that the ability only triggers if you already know you’ve failed the throw, so there’s no real chance of ‘wasting’ this ability preemptively.

The reroll itself is powerful enough that the morale bonus feels kind of unneeded.... But truth be told, despite its strength, when compared to other second Boons this is still pretty weak. You could have at least given it to your followers 2/day, Ahriman!

Boon 3: Force the Lie. 1/day, you may designate any point within 90ft of you to become shrouded by a 30ft mist of crackling black energy. You and other worshipers of Ahriman can see through this cloud with perfect clarity, but all others within the cloud treat it as Obscuring Mist. Creatures in the mist other than you must make a Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 your hit dice + your Charisma modifier) or have all luck, morale, or sacred bonuses they’re benefiting from twisted into a penalty so long as they remain inside the mist. This mist lingers for 1 round/hit dice you possess and cannot be dissipated by winds.

Evangelists of Ahriman just kind of get screwed, don’t they? Being able to drop cover for yourself or allies and screw up enemy ranged fighters is good, yes... But 1/day as a capstone ability? That’s really, really pathetic.

Morale bonuses are fairly common, sacred bonuses get thrown around like candy for Good-aligned folk, but both of them are less common than enhancement and alchemical bonuses, which are seen in more or less every fight with casters and martial characters using magic weapons. I won’t talk about luck bonuses, though; those are so rare I can only really think of two sources... Both of which apply to AC. Suddenly going from +2 AC to -2 AC is a pretty big deal, I’ll admit. Twisting huge benefits into penalties is more powerful than I’m giving credit for, I’ll admit, and the power to do that to everyone in a 30ft spread means that it’s likely more than one victim will suddenly be scrambled by it. I’m probably not valuing as high as I should be, despite the fact that high-level enemies often come pre-packaged with morale, luck, and sacred bonuses, or slap them on themselves if they know a battle is coming.

I probably am. It just seems pretty weak in a vacuum, and no ability operates in a vacuum. Perhaps one of the biggest benefits to this ability is the power to drop it directly onto yourself to grant yourself some impenetrable cover; you can see perfectly through it, but no one else can, and it can’t be blown away or otherwise removed. Amusingly, even against foes who aren’t running with any bonuses that Force the Lie twists around, you can still curse them by slapping your buffs onto them to have them turned to penalties. Just... pray that they fail the saving throw, or prepare to get yelled at by your team for buffing the enemy.

Alright, alright, sorry Ahriman. This ability isn’t that bad. I do like the touch that if you can convert the rest of the party to your nihilistic faith, they can see through the mist as well.

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EXALTED

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Boon 1: Hamper the Righteous. Gain Protection From Good 3/day, Touch of Idiocy 2/day, or Bestow Curse 1/day.

Oof, Bestow Curse? That’s a real nice ability to have tucked away. It IS negated by a save, but it’s a Save or Suck that keeps on sucking with penalties that last permanently until removed. Being able to eternally deny a target half of all turns they’d otherwise take is painful, and if you’re the creative type, you can even whip up curses of your own to plague someone with! Perhaps every time they tell a truth, they have to spend the next 6 seconds screaming. Or maybe they cough up a spider every time they lie. Or maybe their hands twist any weapon they wield back onto themselves.

There’s a lot you can do with the creative freedom Bestow Curse offers.

However, if you’re not a fan of 1/days being negated by successful saves, how about Touch of Idiocy? Sure, it’s a touch-range spell, which I--a lover and player of squishy classes--tend to shy away from, but it offers no saving throw and docks 1d6 Int, Wis, or Cha off the target for 10 minutes/level. It’s unlikely to make much of a difference past level 10 or so... Unless you use it against creatures who have extremely low mental stats anyway, such as most humanoids. It’s a Save or Suck but without the save! Unless you roll a 1. But that’s why you can use it twice!

In an Evil campaign though, the one that really shines here is Protection From Good, a lengthy spell that shields you entirely from the natural attacks of Good-aligned creatures and gives you bonuses to resist the weapons and spells of Good-aligned people. If you’re not in an Evil campaign, or are just Evil vs Evil, then the other two options are much better (I’d personally run with Touch of Idiocy for the potential shutting down of melee people breathing down my neck), but Protection From Good is always a fantastic choice for the times when you plan to launch attacks on the good folk’s towns.

Boon 2: Pierce Obfuscation. You can see perfectly through darkness of any intensity, including that created by Deeper Darkness. 1/day, you may cast True Seeing as a spell-like ability.

You get Darkvision Except Beefier, so beefy that you can see even through the otherwise impenetrable Deeper Darkness. Even if something ELSE gets in your way, you can immediately invoke True Seeing on either yourself or another. Everyone should know the utility of True Seeing by now, hopefully; the power to pierce just about any illusion or magical distortions in the game, utterly ruining the ability for Illusionist casters to do anything fancy.

Still, despite its power and usefulness, this is also an incredibly boring ability. The only real flair you can give it is dropping Deeper Darkness onto yourself and being the only one who can actually see in it, which pairs well with the power to Sneak Attack, either your own (somehow), or by slapping True Seeing onto an ally who can.

Boon 3: Call For Ruin. Once per day, you may call you may call either 1d4+1 Ghawwas, 1d3 Shira, or 1 Sepid Div to your side. You gain telepathy out to 100ft with any Div you summon. They follow your commands perfectly for 1 round per hit dice you possess, but will not perform any action that’s overtly Good, and will not follow any order to save any mortal life aside from your own, and may vanish immediately out of indignity if told to do so.

As we’ll eventually see, this is a powerful ability! No creature on this list is below CR 10, with Ghawwas being amphibious, resilient and poisonous fighters, Shira being powerful front-line brawlers capable of creating their own concealing dust clouds on a whim, and Sepid wielding extremely spooky spell-likes like Disintegrate, Enervation, Hold Monster and Baleful Polymorph. In most situations, calling a Sepid to your side is the best option, as it possesses powerful utility spells, powerful blaster spells, powerful melee abilities, and the ability to Call Debris 3/day to blast everyone in a 40ft circle with 15d6 damage... but both of the other options have their uses.

Ghawwas can all use Hallucinatory Terrain 3/day to scramble the environment (which you or an ally can see through with True Seeng), and the Shira can hurl out Waves of Fatigue 3/day in between their full-attack actions. Shira make excellent tanks as well, granting themselves concealment with their Dusty Pelts until they can close in and rip enemy souls from their body with their Consume Essence. Ghawwas can deliver Strength-damaging poison with every bite attack they make, and in an underwater battle they boil the seas around them to weed out life incapable of handling the heat.

Ahriman is pretty generous with this power, though summoning fiends tends to make your obfuscated alignment impossible to hide any further. I wish summoning the Shira was more reliable (like 1d3+1 or something), but as I said before, getting 1 Sepid is often more powerful than getting lucky rolls on any of the others.

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SENTINEL

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Boon 1: Break the Weak. Gain Inflict Light Wounds 3/day, Death Knell 2/day, or Dispel Magic 1/day.

‘Break the weak’ is right, because Inflict Light Wounds isn’t going to break anything above 3 or 4 hit dice. By the time you get it, it’s maybe useful to patch up any undead in the party or deliver a humiliating final blow to a particular enemy, but beyond that it’s likely not going to get brought out.

Death Knell I’ll forever harp on; it’s a spell with only one real, inflexible use, and it’s only a moderately good one. It deals a finishing blow and grants you a buff for doing so, but sacrificing your turn in the middle of pitched combat to use it can end with you getting walloped by the target’s allies. It is moderately more useful for the frontline Sentinel than a typical caster, though.

Dispel Magic, though, has a thousand and one uses. Getting rid of enemy buffs or glamours, shattering illusions, removing debuffs from an ally, breaking magic locks... It’s a good spell to just have available, even at 1/day.

Boon 2: Serpentine Lash. You gain Weapon Specialization (Whip) and Whip Mastery as bonus feats, even if you do not meet their prerequisites. Whips you wield take on the illusory appearance of a live serpent, and grant you a +2 on combat maneuver checks to trip opponents. If a whip you wield has a +1 enhancement bonus or higher, you may grant it the Dancing Weapon ability as a swift action. You may have your weapon animate for 6 rounds each day; they do not have to be consecutive.

This ability is deceptively useless. If you’re a whip-wielder by nature, you likely already have both Weapon Specialization and Whip Mastery by level 12, and if you don’t, what in god’s name is wrong with you? Did you just roll over and die whenever something with moderately thick skin came along?? Did you devote yourself only to disarming and tripping opponents for everyone else to deal with??? ... Alright that one sounds pretty cool, actually. But still, whips don’t deal lethal damage to their victims and don’t deal damage at all to enemies above certain armor bonuses if you don’t have Whip Mastery, and it can be taken as early as level 2. Waiting until level 12 (or 16 if you didn’t take the prestige class) to learn how to lethally wield a whip is agony.

However, if you’re NOT a whip specialist... That means that you’re unlikely to become one. Ahriman’s sacred weapon is the whip, so a Sentinel of Ahriman doesn’t have an excuse not to have one, but since you’re not specializing with a whip you’re unlikely to break it out in combat when the boring but practical swords, axes, and maces are available.

The Dancing quality is a pretty good enchantment to slap onto a weapon out of nowhere, essentially doubling the number of attacks you make each round, but whips aren’t exactly known for being devastating weapons, and the animated whip doesn’t have your Str/Dex bonus to go along with it and can’t use combat maneuvers, which is what whips are basically for. If you already have a +5 Super Duper Death Whip of Oblivion And Destruction, slapping Dancing onto it can be nice, but enchanted whips are difficult to justify creating and even harder to come by in the wild.

All in all this is a very, very disappointing Boon that more or less reads as “you get a +2 profane bonus to trip combat maneuvers when using a whip. Also, 6/day you can deal maybe 3d3+3 damage to an enemy as a swift action.”

Boon 3: Crush Opposition. 3/day, you may cause a corporeal enemy within 60ft of you to crackle with a black energy that attempts to crush them from every angle. They take 10 damage per hit die you possess, but may reduce this damage by half with a successful Fortitude save (DC 10 + 1/2 your hit die + your Charisma modifier). Creatures killed by this damage are completely obliterated, all of their belongings falling to the ground. All individual items the creature was carrying at the time become cursed for 1 hour per hit die you possess, the curse blighting any nonevil creature holding, carrying, or wearing the item with a stacking -1 penalty on saving throws versus fear and insanity effects.

My jaw dropped when I saw this. This is a significantly beefier version of Szuriel and Trelmarixian’s third Exalted Boon, which respectively allow you to cast a nerfed Implosion, and a regular Implosion.

Implosion itself is a pretty nice spell, letting you put the squeeze on any corporeal target you can see (Constructs and Undead have no get-out-of-jail free card here), but its biggest weakness is that it can only target a particular creature once per cast, and it’s completely negated with a successful save. Not only will Crush Opposition’s saving throw typically be higher than Implosion’s (10 + 1/2 HD + Cha mod vs 10 + 9 + Spellcasting mod), but it still deals half damage even if they DO make their save.

At the time you get it, that means Crush Opposition will do a flat 160 damage to any victim you designate, and 80 damage even if they succeed. 80 will shave off maybe a sixth of a CR 16~20 enemy’s health bar and will outright kill most mooks the instant you hit them with it, letting you focus on the main boss more. Though this ability can only hit, at max, three targets a day... Well, Implosion can only hit a given target once per cast, but Crush Opposition can hit the same person three times. It’s a good trade-off, if you ask me.

The whole ‘all their items get cursed if they die’ bit is more of an amusing add-on than anything that could be potentially useful. Evil folk like you don’t tend to leave survivors that can reclaim the gear of their fallen allies... But maybe you’re not among Evil folk (which is impressive, considering that Good folk tend not to wield live snakes as weapons). Maybe you can convince your party that all that gear is really and truly cursed, but you can uncurse it for them! You’ll just... Hold onto all that loot for a while.

Not very feasible, given that you’ll likely have casters that can uncurse the stuff, but it’s still a potential roleplaying opportunity.

You can read more about him here.

#End of the World Month #body horror #Spiritual Spotlight #Sinister Spotlight #Pathfinder #Dungeons and Dragons

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