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The Red Rider

The Red Rider
The Red Rider – AI Generated Artwork – NightCafe Creator

A man with fiery red hair and antlers rides a red-gold stallion. His robes expose the hairy legs of a goat, ending in cloven hooves.

The Red Rider is the most fiery and aggressive of the Three Riders. When citizens share old tales of previous Riders around the hearth, stories of the Red Rider’s judgments always go into gruesome detail about his wholesale slaughter and shocking violence. Some argue that the Red Rider is no more vicious than the Black Rider, and that the larger number of heinous tales about the Red Rider are simply the result of the time of day in which he engages in his tasks. More citizens are awake and out of their homes during the day to witness the Red Rider’s judgments before he cedes his time to the night.


Baba Yaga’s Horsemen, Base

Medium fey, lawful neutral

Armor Class 20 (plate and shield)
Hit Points 171 (18d8 + 90)
Speed 30 ft.

STRDEXCONINTWISCHA
22 (+6)11 (+0)21 (+5)16 (+3)18 (+4)18 (+4)

Saving Throws Dex +4, Wis +8
Skills Arcana +7, Athletics +10, History +7, Perception +8
Damage Resistances bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from nonmagical weapons
Damage Immunities lightning, poison
Condition Immunities exhaustion, paralyzed, poisoned
Senses passive Perception 18
Languages Celestial, Common, Infernal; telepathy 100 ft.
Challenge 11 (7,200 XP)

Special Traits

  • Innate Spellcasting. The horseman is a 12th-level spellcaster. Its spellcasting ability is Charisma (save DC 16, +8 to hit with spell attacks). It can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components:
    • 1/day each: dimension door, fire shield, haste, slow
    • 3/day each: ethereal jaunt, phantom steed (appears as a horse colored appropriately to the horseman), plane shift (self and steed only)
  • Magic Resistance. The horseman has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
  • Peerless Rider. Any attacks directed at the horseman’s mount targets the horseman instead. Its mount gains the benefit of the rider’s damage and condition immunities, and if the horseman passes a saving throw against an area effect, the mount takes no damage.
  • Quick Draw. The horseman can switch between wielding its lance and longsword as a bonus action.

Actions

  • Multiattack. The horseman makes three attacks with its lance or longsword. It can use Temporal Strike with one of these attacks when it is available.
  • LanceMelee Weapon Attack: +10 to hit, reach 10 ft. (disadvantage within 5 ft.), one target. Hit: 12 (1d12 + 6) piercing damage.
  • LongswordMelee Weapon Attack: +10 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 10 (1d8 + 6) slashing damage.
  • Temporal Strike (recharge 5-6). When the horseman strikes a target with a melee attack, in addition to taking normal damage, the target must succeed on a DC 17 Constitution saving throw or instantly age 3d10 years. A creature that ages this way has disadvantage on attack rolls, ability checks, and saving throws based on Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution until the aging is reversed. A creature that ages beyond its lifespan dies immediately. The aging reverses automatically after 24 hours, or it can be reversed magically by greater restoration or comparable magic. A creature that succeeds on the save is immune to the temporal strike effect for 24 hours.

About

These mounted knight wields great swords as swift as dawn, as bright as the blazing sun, and as cold as the grave. The white horseman is a young rider full of promise, the red rider a man in his prime, and the black rider a scarred and bearded fellow, his eyes dark and his mouth set in a grim frown. They ride with purpose on powerful steeds.

Baba Yaga’s three horsemen are legends in their own right. Bright Day, Red Sun, and Black Night (also known as the White, Red, and Black horsemen) are her faithful emissaries, scouts, and warriors abroad. The three horsemen change over time, but they are typically male, human warriors. Their appearance is distinctive: each dresses in colors and lacquered armor and trappings to suit their name, with their magical horses colored to match.

Their roles appear to coincide with their appointed offices, although their precise relationship to Baba Yaga is the source of much speculation.

Varied Origin. They may be serving Grandmother Winter for a time in exchange for a favor or bargain, or they may be cursed to replace a previous horseman they slew. In either case, Baba Yaga is the source of their power. The horsemen are innately connected to the domain of time; each represents part of the day, as measured by the sun. Bright Day is bound to and governs dawn to mid-day, Red Sun from mid-day to sundown, and Black Night rules until daybreak. While Baba Yaga herself is wily and capricious, her three horsemen are bound to cosmological forces that are uniform and constant, which is reflected in their alignment and demeanor.

One Rises, Two Set. The horsemen never co-exist with one another except within the confines of their mistresses’ Dancing Hut and the fenced yard around it. Each one must yield his presence on the Material Plane to his successor in rotation (this varies on other planes, depending on intervals of day and Each horseman has unique senses, defenses, and special abilities. Add the appropriate traits to the base horseman traits for each of the horsemen as follows. Forcing two horsemen to co-exist on the Material Plane places a perilous strain on reality. Bringing all three together could trigger a primal magical event or chronal catastrophe.

Timeless Nature. The horsemen don’t age and don’t require food, drink, or sleep.

Bright Day

The horseman gains darkvision 60 ft., resistance to cold and fire, and the following innate spells:

  • At will: sacred flame
  • 2/day: daylight

Red Sun

The horseman gains the following condition immunities: blinded, charmed, frightened

The horseman gains the following damage immunities: fire.

The horseman gains the following innate spells:

  • 2/day each: continual flame, scorching ray

Black Night

The horseman can see perfectly in normal and magical darkness, gains immunity to cold, and the following innate spells:

  • At will: ray of frost
  • 2/day: darkness).

Section 15: Copyright Notice

Tome of Beasts. Copyright 2016, Open Design; Authors Chris Harris, Dan Dillon, Rodrigo Garcia Carmona, and Wolfgang Baur.

The Red Rider CR 12

XP 19,200
LN Medium fey
Init +9; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +23

DEFENSE

AC 29, touch 15, flat-footed 24 (+8 armor, +5 Dex, +4 natural, +2 shield)
hp 152 (16d6+96)
Fort +11, Ref +15, Will +14
DR 10/cold iron; Immune cold, poison; SR 23

OFFENSE

Speed 30 ft.
Melee +2 flaming scimitar +18/+13 (1d6+9/15–20) Special Attacks bright blast, Rider’s weapon, weal or woe (DC 23)
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 12th; concentration +17)

Constant—see invisibility
At Will—chill touch (DC 16), detect thoughts (DC 17), zone of truth (DC 17)
5/day—ice storm
3/day—cone of cold (DC 20), flame strike (DC 20)
1/day—fire storm (DC 23)

STATISTICS

Str 24, Dex 21, Con 22, Int 17, Wis 18, Cha 21
Base Atk +8; CMB +15; CMD 25 (can’t be disarmed)
Feats Critical Focus, Improved Critical (scimitar), Improved Initiative, Mounted Combat, Power Attack, Ride-by Attack, Trample, Weapon Focus (scimitar)
Skills Acrobatics +12, Diplomacy +24, Intimidate +21, Knowledge (arcana) +15, Knowledge (history) +15, Knowledge (nature) +18, Knowledge (planes) +15, Perception +23, Ride +24, Sense Motive +23, Stealth +20
Languages Common, Skald, Sylvan, one other; telepathy 60 ft.
SQ conjure mount, Rider’s robes

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Bright Blast (Su)

Three times per day, the Red Rider can erupt in flames, damaging all creatures within a 20-foot radius. Those caught in the blast must succeed at a DC 23 Reflex save or take 3d6 points of fire damage and be dazed for 1 round and dazzled for an additional 1d4 rounds. The save DC is Charisma-based.

Rider’s Robes (Su)

The Red Rider wears robes that provide the same protection as half-plate armor.

Rider’s Weapon (Su)

Whenever the Red Rider successfully confirms a critical hit with his +2 flaming scimitar, the target is dazed for 1 round unless it succeeds at a DC 23 Fortitude save. The save DC is Charisma-based.

ECOLOGY

Environment any
Organization solitary
Treasure none

Section 15: Copyright Notice

Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Irrisen, Land of Eternal Winter © 2013 Paizo Publishing, LLC; Author: Mike Shel.

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