Bastion Archon

This massive, four-armed figure is protected by thick layers of rocky armor. Its face is a shimmering, pulsating globe of holy light.

Bastion Archon CR 20

XP 307,200
LG Huge outsider (archon, extraplanar, good, lawful)
Init +6; Senses darkvision 60 ft., detect magic, low-light vision, true seeing; Perception +30
Aura aura of menace (DC 25), aura of mending (40 ft.)

DEFENSE

AC 36, touch 14, flat-footed 30 (+6 Dex, +22 natural, –2 size)
hp 350 (20d10+240); fast healing 5
Fort +24, Ref +14, Will +19; +4 vs. poison
Defensive Abilities all-around vision, entrench; DR 15/bludgeoning and evil; Immune electricity, blindness, petrification; SR 31

OFFENSE

Speed 40 ft.; air walk
Melee 4 slams +30 (4d6+12/19–20)
Space 15 ft.; Reach 15 ft.
Special Attacks holy beam, rending beam, smite evil
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 20th; concentration +25)

Constant—air walk, detect evil, true seeing
At will—aid, daylight, greater teleport (self plus 50 lbs. of objects only), sending
3/day—prismatic spray (DC 22), sunbeam (DC 22)
1/day—meteor swarm (DC 24), polar ray (DC 23), sunburst (DC 23)

Cleric Spells Prepared (CL 17th; concentration +24)

9th—mass heal
8th—holy aura (DC 25), mass cure critical wounds
7th—greater restoration, holy word (DC 24), mass cure serious wounds, regenerate
6th—blade barrier (DC 23), greater dispel magic, heal, mass cure moderate wounds (2)
5th—break enchantment, breath of life (2), flame strike (DC 22), wall of stone
4th—cure critical wounds (3), death ward, divine power
3rd—cure serious wounds (3), dispel magic, invisibility purge, searing light
2nd—cure moderate wounds (4), shield other, status
1st—cure light wounds (4), divine favor, sanctuary (DC 18)
0—guidance, mending, resistance, stabilize

STATISTICS

Str 34, Dex 23, Con 35, Int 22, Wis 25, Cha 20
Base Atk +20; CMB +34; CMD 50
Feats Cleave, Combat Casting, Combat Expertise, Combat Reflexes, Critical Focus, Improved Critical (slam), Lightning Reflexes, Power Attack, Staggering Critical, Stand Still
Skills Diplomacy +25, Heal +27, Intimidate +28, Knowledge (arcana) +26, Knowledge (engineering) +26, Knowledge (geography) +29, Knowledge (planes) +29, Knowledge (religion) +26, Perception +30, Sense Motive +30, Spellcraft +29, Survival +30
Languages Celestial, Draconic, Infernal; truespeech
SQ ultimate sacrifice

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Aura of Mending (Su)

Good-aligned creatures within 60 feet of a bastion archon are bathed in a rejuvenating holy light that grants them fast healing 5 while they remain in range. This includes the bastion archon itself.

Entrench (Ex)

If a bastion archon does not move from its location, it becomes entrenched until the start of its next turn.

While entrenched, it can’t be moved from its space by combat maneuvers or the push or pull universal monster rules, nor can it be tripped.

Holy Beam (Su)

Once every 1d4 rounds as a standard action, a bastion archon can unleash a concentrated beam of holy energy from the shining beacon that is its face. This beam of light creates a 120-foot line of holy radiance. Each creature within this area must succeed at a DC 25 Reflex save to avoid being blinded for 1d4 rounds. Evil creatures in the area of effect also take 20d6 points of damage from the holy beam—this damage comes from sacred energies and cannot be reduced by energy resistance, but a creature that succeeds at its Reflex save negates the blindness and takes only half damage. The save DC is Charisma-based.

Rending Beam (Su)

A bastion archon that hits a single creature with two of its slam attacks can blast the target with a swift pulse of holy light that blinds the target for 1 round and deals 5d6 points of damage if the target is an evil creature. A target can attempt a DC 25 Reflex save to negate the blindness and take half damage. The save DC is Charisma-based.

Spells A bastion archon casts divine spells as a 17th-level cleric.

It does not gain access to domains or other cleric abilities. Its beacon-like face serves as its divine focus.

Ultimate Sacrifice (Su)

When a bastion archon is slain by an evil creature, it erupts in a 40-foot-radius burst of positive energy that restores 100 hit points to good-aligned creatures and consecrates the ground in the area. The area is treated as the subject of a hallow spell (CL 20th) with an associated bless spell effect for 1 year thereafter.

ECOLOGY

Environment any (Heaven)
Organization solitary
Treasure standard

Though bastion archons are among Heaven’s most powerful defenders, their formation results from the intertwining of lesser archons, starting with the least of them all, lantern archons. Rarely, when a group of at least nine lantern archons is turned back by an overwhelming invading force of fiends, the group can use their gestalt ability to form a whirling globe that stands its ground.

This brave act of defiance usually lasts only half a minute, buying the lantern archons’ allies time to escape before the gestalt is overcome. In such dire situations, a nearby shield archon—a combatant of Heaven more suited to serving as a bulwark against tides of evil—can transpose itself with the squad of lantern archons, using teleportation to take their place.

But this interaction of abilities has unpredictable outcomes, and rarely, rather than swapping places, the two entities meld in a brilliant flash of light that sends nearby evil outsiders reeling, leaving a crater with a nascent bastion archon lodged in its center. The bastion archon is initially stuck in the ground where it formed, but it retains many of its component creatures’ defensive and offensive abilities. If it survives, it eventually pulls together a huge, four-armed body from the surrounding terrain until it is fully clad in stone, in the process becoming infused with power greater than that of any other archon. A fully formed bastion archon stands 30 feet tall and weighs 15 tons.

Even after a bastion archon has freed itself from its creation crater, it rarely moves far, preferring to defend the place that was once so nearly overcome by invading forces. Indeed, convincing a bastion archon to abandon its self-selected post is so futile that “trying to budge a bastion” is a common phrase in Heaven for attempting the impossible. However, there have been a few rare instances when a particularly large crusade into Abaddon, the Abyss, or Hell has prompted a bastion archon to serve as a forward base for the forces of Heaven, helping establish a formidable foothold that requires a truly terrible counteroffensive to uproot.

In battle, a bastion archon is akin to the eye of the storm, standing firm and unmoved by the chaotic melee around it as its allies clash with invading fiends. It provides shelter to Heaven’s servants, slamming enemies into dust or holding them aloft just long enough to rend them to shreds with its magnificent beam of holy light. Given the choice between pursuing a retreating evil army or tending to the wounded, a bastion archon almost always prefers the latter, following its indelible instincts to protect and heal.

The one threat most likely to stir a bastion archon from its typically rigid methodology is a balor, the fiery winged demons that sometimes serve as generals during demonic invasions. Given the opportunity, a bastion archon wades through a vast army of demons in a single-minded effort to get to the strategic head and cut it off, leading to a confrontation that often ends explosively—either when the archon falls or the balor erupts into massive fireball during its death throes.

Bastion archons hold in reserve an explosive last resort in the event they are felled in battle: an explosion of light that destroys the archon, heals its allies, and consecrates the ground around it. This final sacrifice gives its (likely overwhelmed) allies a last-ditch chance at victory, and the site of a bastion archon’s death is often thereafter considered a sacred place of remembrance.Section 15: Copyright Notice

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Planar Adventures © 2018, Paizo Inc.; Authors: Robert Brookes, John Compton, Paris Crenshaw, Eleanor Ferron, Thurston Hillman, James Jacobs, Isabelle Lee, Lyz Liddell, Ron Lundeen, Joe Pasini, Lacy Pellazar, Jessica Price, Mark Seifter, F. Wesley Schneider, Todd Stewart, James L. Sutter, and Linda Zayas-Palmer.