Intellect Devourer Confounder

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Intellect Devourer Confounder (CR 8)

Pure Evil - Small - Aberration
Lore: K. (Dungeoneer)
16 31
Basic DC Full DC
Initiative
Initiative Icon 2.png
13
Perception:
23 +13
Passive Active
Ambush:
12+
on a d20
  • Ambush Notes: Due to their clumsy movements, not good at ambushes

Senses:

Movement Types:

Defense

AC
Shield Icon 3.png
25
Man Def
Shield Icon 3.png
25
Monster Health
146 73 13
Hit Points Bloodied Hit Dice
Saving Throws
Fort: +10
Refl: +5
Will: +10

Strong Against:

  • Hardened (½ damage): Psychic damage
Weak Against:

Offense

Size: Small
5 ft. 5 ft.
Space Reach
To-Hit
+13
Sword Icon 3.png
Man Off
+13
Sword Icon 3.png
Action
0
Points

Standard Attack (Melee):

  • 1x Claw Swipe +13 (2d8+6/19-20 x2)
    as slashing (physical, common)

Full Attack (Melee):

  • 3x Claw Swipe +13 (2d8+6/19-20 x2)
    as slashing (physical, common)

Standard Attack (Ranged):

  • 1x Mind Ray +17 vs. AC (always hits on a 17+ on the die) (2d8+6/19-20 x2)
    as psychic (energy, uncommon)
    (Increment: 50 ft.; Max Range: 50 ft.)
    plus Confounded Flesh

Full Attack (Ranged):

  • 3x Mind Ray +17 vs. AC (always hits on a 17+ on the die) (2d8+6/19-20 x2)
    as psychic (energy, uncommon)
    (Increment: 50 ft.; Max Range: 50 ft.)
    plus Confounded Flesh

Siege Damage: Not siege capable

Statistics

14
STR
10
DEX
18
CON
20
INT
10
WIS
8
CHA

Skills:

Languages: Gurahn'lloig, Krieg, Telepathy

Feats:

Special Abilities

Confounded Flesh (Su) Automatic after successful attack

Up to twice per round, after a successful Mind Ray attack, the Intellect Confounder may choose to insult the fabric of their target's very existence. The Intellect Devourer uses their Telepathy to drive home a simple command to the victim, usually along the lines of 'move away', 'walk to me', "drop your items', or 'attack your ally'. This is embodied as the Influenced condition placed by the Devourer. There is no saving throw against this ability. If a creature gets the Influenced condition twice, it does not stack, only the last command holds sway.

Body Thief (Ex) Full Round Action, see below.

At the GM's discretion, an Intellect Devourer can choose to begin an encounter while wearing the body of another creature. This can be any sort of monster, including Constituents, up to CR 10. Note that Intellect Devourers only take bodies for...personal reasons, and are not good at all at pretending to be other creatures. While driving a stolen body, an Intellect Devourer gains access to that body's abilities, senses, movement, defenses, AC, and saves. No one will ever mistake a stolen body for a 'normal' member of that species, except perhaps cursorily, or at a distance.

If an Intellect Devourer using Body Thief is engaged in combat, it will typically attack aggressively using their stolen flesh's most damaging ranged attack. If the Intellect Devourer takes any damage to its hit points while using Body Thief, it loses control of its meat puppet and returns to full size, bursting messily from the head of the unfortunate victim in a shower of gore. Once driven out, it loses access to all the abilities of the thefted body and reverts to using their own abilities...which are formidable.

If there are dead bodies of non-Intellect Devourers available (most corporeal monsters are eligible), then the Intellect Devourer may attempt to use Body Thief in combat to take over a new ride. This is a full round action, during which it shrinks itself down to size Fine, teleports up to 80 feet to the body it wants, and then clambers into its nose, ear, or mouth, pushing the existing brain matter out of the head in a messy display. At the beginning of its next action, it is now inside the new body and can act normally, using that body's abilities.

Note that, despite the loss of a full round in combat, the long-distance teleport in this action means that sometimes Devourers will 'stage' battles with some convenient corpses in fairly distant locations, to allow themselves an escape route or some heavy-hitting abilities.

Intellect Devourer Confounder

Intellect Devourer Confounder

Intellect Devourers look like a rounded fleshy mass, usually a glistening grey-pink, with four powerfully clawed legs holding it up. Savants who know such things claim that they look exactly like large human brains, torn from their skulls, with legs. They have no evident heads or eyes, no muscles or ribs or evidence of breath. It is obvious that they are very alien indeed.

Intellect Devourers are suspected of being from another Plane, although which it might be is speculative at best. What is known, is that Intellect Devourers possess weird, eldritch abilities, able to shrink and grow in size, project shimmering attacks like heat-waves in the air, and they are known for crawling into the dead and 'wearing' their bodies in a manner most horrid.

Intellect Devourers are inimical to all life, but they particularly target sentient beings. They greatly relish those with the Spark, but they will attack and inhabit anything intelligent. In a pinch, they have even been known to attack and wear animals, but such things are apparently rare.

If an Intellect Devourer attacks, kill it with sword and fire, because if you are defeated, your flesh will become the property of the...thing.

Intellect Devourer Confounders are much larger and more dangerous than lesser Deadeners, although they are still uncommon. They haunt ruins and wildernesses, dungeons and caves and swamps, all manner of semi-deserted places, where intelligent creatures go, but not often, and often alone. The size of a man, Confounders attack in a massive wave of eldritch rays, and if they are victorious, they wear the bodies of their victims like horrific trophies, and revel in them in ways most unwholesome.

Confounders delight in all manner of debauchery, and will frequently use their meat, when it is ending its useful fun, to attack settlements or outposts in search of more flesh to wear.

Combat Tactics

Intellect Devourer Confounders are fairly clumsy, but capable of astonishing leaps, due to their powerfully clawed legs. They will bound about in combat, staying out of melee if at all possible, if they are caught outside of a thefted body. They are far better at ranged attacks than melee, and will do their best to begin combat at range, and will strive to keep enemies at bay by using their Confounded Flesh control power to make the closest attackers run away, drop their weapons, or attack their friends. They can use Confounded Flesh multiple times in a single round, so they will often 'spread around' their Mind Rays, making close attackers move away, and distant attackers drop their weapons or attack their friends. That's about the limits of their combat prowess.

However, if they begin a fight inside the body of another creature, all bets are off as regards tactics, except, they always work to stay at range. They will recklessly use up their most potent abilities and often will seek to flee immediately, as they have no wish to take damage and thus, lose their ride. The variety of encounters that can be made with Intellect Devourer Confounders is almost without limit, and GM's are encouraged to be creative, always with an eye to fun and challenge. Note that Intellect Devourers gain no defensive advantage from Body Thief: All damage they take is suffered upon their normal base hit points, and any damage whatsoever ends that ability immediately.

Out of Combat

Intellect Devourers are extremely alien, but their most common motivation appears to boil down to sheer hedonism. Intellect Devourers are utterly blind, and deaf, and apparently have no sense of smell or touch or...anything else. They seem driven to take other creatures bodies to attain a full sensorium.

Intellect Devourers are, frankly, bad at pretending they are something else. In a meat ride, they act in an utterly alien fashion, and their behavior, honestly, is revolting, as they indulge their every urge with little in the way of limits or boundaries. The horrors they inflict upon themselves and all around them do not bear mention in polite company.

Intellect Devourers, as a result of their bad habits with the flesh of others, are hard-pressed to find much in the way of allies. They have been known to work with Aboleths, as far as outsiders can determine what those fiends are up to. Doppelgangers and Intellect Devourers have some commonality, but they seem to be both hostile to each other and allies of convenience, and Devourers have been known to hijack the bodies of victims of Doppelgangers, which Doppelgangers seem to find very irritating. Hobgoblins and Aranea, unsurprisingly, may find Intellect Devourers among their customers for slaves, and those fiends take their coin just as they take everyone elses.

Rewards

XP: 4,800

Treasure: Sellable Goods worth 3,875 gp.

Weight: 80 lbs.     Volume: 3.2 cu. ft.

Optional Treasure Rules: Roll a d20 on Table 1 below once per encounter (NOT per creature). Any items discovered are in addition to the normal treasure for the encounter.

Table 1: Remnant(s) Found
1 - 10 Nothing Found
11 - 14 1 Languid Remnant (tier 1)
15 - 17 1 Pale Remnant (tier 2)
18 - 19 1 Bright Remnant (tier 3)
20 Roll on Table 2
### Nothing to see here!
### Or here. Move along.
Table 2: Remnant(s) Found
1 - 5 3 Languid Remnants (tier 1)
6 - 10 3 Pale Remnants (tier 2)
11 - 14 1 Intense Remnant (tier 4)
15 - 17 1 Blazing Remnant (tier 5)
18 - 19 1 Vital Remnant (tier 6)
20 Roll on Table 3
### Or here. Move along.
Table 3: Remnant(s) Found
1 - 5 3 Bright Remnants (tier 3)
6 - 8 3 Intense Remnants (tier 4)
9 - 11 3 Blazing Remnants (tier 5)
12 - 14 3 Vital Remnants (tier 6)
15 - 17 1 Prime Remnant (tier 7)
18 - 19 1 Mythic Remnant (tier 8)
20 1 Empyrean Remnant (tier 9)