Buy me a coffeeRawhead, Lord of Bloody Bones
“With skinless flesh, a boneless finger, and the power to rip your skeleton out while you’re still screaming, the Rawhead is every childhood nightmare made real.”
Towering at nearly seven feet, the Rawhead is a gaunt, nightmarishly humanoid figure with grotesquely elongated limbs and a hunched, predatory posture. Its skinless head is a glistening mass of raw muscle and exposed sinew, its face frozen in a wide, predatory leer that stretches across where lips should be. Its eyes glow faintly — twin embers buried deep in crimson meat.
Its arms are unnaturally long, ending in blackened claws — all except the index finger, which is pale, oversized, and disturbingly boneless, hanging limply until it stiffens into a probing, piercing tool. The creature exudes a coppery reek of fresh blood and rotted marrow.
Behavior
Rawheads are silent stalkers, unnervingly intelligent and methodical in their actions. They rarely speak, but when they do, their voices sound like whispers echoed through wet bone. Rawheads revel in psychological torment, preferring to haunt their victims for days — appearing in reflections, vanishing from the edge of vision, or whispering in dreams — before making contact. They are predators of fear, growing stronger when surrounded by despair and terror.
They are not chaotic berserkers but cold and calculating, using stealth, misdirection, and charm (supernatural or otherwise) to isolate their prey. Despite their monstrous appearance, they move with eerie grace, walking just above the ground without disturbing it, thanks to their supernatural levitation.
Habitat
Rawheads are not bound to a specific environment but are drawn to places of sorrow, superstition, or child death:
- Abandoned orphanages
- Forgotten rural cellars
- Cursed woodlands
- Fog-choked moors
- Areas near stagnant water or dry wells
In each case, the Rawhead manifests where the veil is thin, or where fear has soaked into the stones and soil. Their presence often marks a growing regional malaise — animals flee, nightmares increase, and the local children whisper of “something red in the dark.”
Modus Operandi
A Rawhead operates like a haunting — first instilling paranoia, then helplessness, and finally slaughter. It chooses a victim (often the most fearful or vulnerable), then stalks them invisibly for several nights. Once the victim is sufficiently weakened — mentally or emotionally — the Rawhead strikes:
- Frightful Presence disorients and isolates victims.
- Claw attacks leech Charisma, weakening the soul.
- Once a target is helpless, the Rawhead uses its signature ability: “Create Bloody Bones” — a grotesque ritual in which it tears the skeleton from a living body using its boneless finger, animating it as a servant.
Rawheads build nests of bones and fear, surrounding themselves with the bloody bones of previous victims — twitching undead that still remember fragments of their life.
Motivation
The true origin of Rawheads is uncertain. Some scholars believe them to be the manifested fears of children, given form by forgotten rituals or collective dread. Others whisper that Rawheads are soul-harvesters, feeding on identity, self-worth, and the will to live.
What is certain is this:
Rawheads hunt not to feed, but to erase.
They do not merely kill; they unmake — stripping flesh, sanity, and memory, until nothing remains but a husk and a puppet of bone. The Rawhead’s ultimate goal seems to be the creation of silence — a world without hope, without laughter, without light.
Rawhead 5e
Rawhead, Pathfinder
Rawhead
Medium monstrosity, neutral evil
Armor Class 29 (natural armor)
Hit Points 200 (16d8 + 128)
Speed 40 ft., fly 40 ft. (air walk)
| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 (+7) | 23 (+6) | 24 (+7) | 18 (+4) | 21 (+5) | 21 (+5) |
Saving Throws Dex +12, Wis +11, Cha +11
Skills Acrobatics +12, Bluff +11, Intimidation +11, Perception +11, Stealth +14, Survival +11
Damage Resistances bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks that aren’t silvered or good-aligned
Damage Immunities bleed, fear
Condition Immunities frightened
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 21
Languages Abyssal, Aklo, Common, Infernal
Challenge 14 (11,500 XP)
Traits
Frightful Presence. Each creature of the rawhead’s choice within 120 feet and aware of it must succeed on a DC 23 Wisdom saving throw or be frightened for 1 minute. A frightened target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success. A creature that succeeds is immune to the rawhead’s Frightful Presence for the next 24 hours.
Hidden Terror. It can use its Frightful Presence as a bonus action, and can affect creatures that are unaware of its presence or not within line of sight.
Blurred Form. The rawhead has advantage on attack rolls against it, and attackers have disadvantage on attack rolls against it.
Freedom of Movement. The rawhead ignores difficult terrain and cannot be restrained or paralyzed.
Actions
Multiattack. The rawhead makes three attacks: one with its bite and two with its claws.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +13 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (1d6 + 7) piercing damage.
Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +13 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (1d4 + 7) slashing damage plus 7 (1d4 + 5) Charisma damage. The target must succeed on a DC 23 Wisdom saving throw or take the Charisma damage; otherwise, the damage is halved.
Create Bloody Bones (Recharge 5-6). The rawhead targets a helpless Small or Medium humanoid within 5 feet. The rawhead inserts its boneless finger and rips out the victim’s skeleton, dealing 35 (10d6) damage (or 45 (10d8) if the target is helpless due to Charisma damage). If this damage reduces the target to 0 hit points or fewer, the target dies, and its skeleton animates as a bloody bones under the rawhead’s control for 1 hour.
Spellcasting
The rawhead is a 14th-level spellcaster. Its spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 19, +11 to hit with spell attacks). The rawhead can cast the following spells without material components:
- At will: command undead, suggestion
- 3/day each: clairaudience/clairvoyance, deeper darkness, hold person, phantasmal killer
- 1/day each: gaseous form, greater scrying, shadow walk
Legendary Actions
The rawhead can take 2 legendary actions, choosing from the options below. Only one legendary action can be used at a time and only at the end of another creature’s turn.
- Shadow Step. The rawhead teleports up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space it can see.
- Frightful Glance (Costs 2 Actions). The rawhead targets one creature it can see within 30 feet. The target must succeed on a DC 23 Wisdom saving throw or be frightened for 1 minute. The creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns.
Rawhead
This slim figure’s proportions are wrong, and its disturbingly long arms end in claws, save for an oversized, boneless index finger.
Some believe rawheads to be nothing more than figments from scary stories, typically associated with the childhood terror known as bloody bones. But others know rawheads to be all too real and live in fear of attracting their attention.
A rawhead stands almost 7 feet tall and weighs 200 pounds.
Rawhead CR 14
XP 38,400
NE Medium monstrous humanoid
Init +10; Senses darkvision 60 ft., see in darkness; Perception +24
Aura frightful presence (120 ft., DC 23)
DEFENSE
AC 29, touch 17, flat-footed 22 (+4 armor, +6 Dex, +1 dodge, +8 natural)
hp 200 (16d10+112)
Fort +12, Ref +16, Will +15
Defensive Abilities blur, freedom of movement, negative energy affinity; DR 15/good and silver; Immune bleed, fear; SR 25
OFFENSE
Speed 40 ft., air walk
Melee bite +23 (1d6+7), 2 claws +23 (1d4+7 plus 1d4 Cha damage)
Special Attacks create bloody bones, sneak attack +3d6
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 14th; concentration +19)
Constant—air walk, blur, freedom of movement
At will—command undead (DC 17), suggestion (DC 18)
3/day—clairaudience/clairvoyance, deeper darkness, hold person (DC 19), phantasmal killer (DC 19)
1/day—gaseous form, greater scrying (DC 22), shadow walk
STATISTICS
Str 24, Dex 23, Con 24, Int 18, Wis 21, Cha 21
Base Atk +16; CMB +23; CMD 40
Feats Combat Expertise, Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Greater Feint, Improved Feint, Improved Initiative, Mobility, Skill Focus (Stealth)
Skills Acrobatics +22, Bluff +21, Intimidate +24, Knowledge (local, religion) +12, Perception +24, Sense Motive +21, Stealth +31, Survival +24
Languages Abyssal, Aklo, Common, Infernal
SQ bloody bones mastery, hidden terror
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Bloody Bones Mastery (Su)
It can sense the direction and condition of all bloody bones within a 1-mile radius.
This functions as if via a status spell (even though undead normally cannot be affected by this spell).
Charisma Damage (Su)
A rawhead’s tentacle fingers strip away flesh and emotion alike, dealing 1d4 points of Charisma damage on every hit with its claw attack (Will DC 23 negates). The save DC is Charisma-based.
Create Bloody Bones (Su)
It can create a bloody bones from a Small or Medium helpless, living humanoid. As a full round action, the rawhead extends its finger tentacle to pierce the creature’s flesh, ensnares its bones, and attempts to rip the creature’s skeleton free. This deals 10d6 points of damage to the victim. If the victim is helpless as a result of Charisma damage, it takes 10d8 points of damage from this attack instead. If this damage is enough to reduce the creature’s hit points below 0, it is instantly slain as its skeleton is extracted from its body. The skeleton immediately animates as a bloody bones under the rawhead’s control. This is a death effect.
Hidden Terror (Ex)
A rawhead can activate its frightful presence ability as a swift action, and can affect creatures that are unaware of its presence or aren’t within line of sight.
ECOLOGY
Environment any land
Organization solitary or terror (1 rawhead plus 3–6 bloody bones)
Treasure double (+2 leather armor, other treasure)
Section 15: Copyright Notice
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Bestiary 6 © 2017, Paizo Inc.; Authors: Robert Brookes, Benjamin Bruck, John Compton, Paris Crenshaw, Adam Daigle, Crystal Frasier, James Jacobs, Thurston Hillman, Tim Hitchcock, Brandon Hodge, Jason Keeley, Isabelle Lee, Jason Nelson, Tim Nightengale, F. Wesley Schneider, David Schwartz, Mark Seifter, Todd Stewart, Josh Vogt, and Linda Zayas-Palmer.