Eremite

Large Fiend (Kyton), Lawful Evil

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Armor Class: 18 (Natural Armor)
Hit Points: 210 (20d10 + 100)
Speed: 30 ft., fly 40 ft. (skeletal wings)

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STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA
19 (+4) | 16 (+3) | 20 (+5) | 18 (+4) | 14 (+2) | 16 (+3)

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Saving Throws: Dex +9, Con +11, Wis +8, Cha +9
Skills: Perception +8, Insight +8, Intimidation +9
Damage Resistances: Cold; Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing from Nonmagical Attacks
Damage Immunities: Necrotic, Psychic
Condition Immunities: Charmed, Frightened, Paralyzed
Senses: Darkvision 120 ft., Passive Perception 18
Languages: Infernal, Common, Telepathy 120 ft.
Challenge: 16 (15,000 XP)

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Horrifying Presence. Any creature that starts its turn within 30 feet of the eremite and can see it must succeed on a DC 17 Wisdom saving throw or be frightened for 1 minute. A creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, with disadvantage if the eremite is within line of sight, ending the effect on itself on a success. If a creature’s saving throw is successful or the effect ends for it, the creature is immune to the eremite’s Horrifying Presence for the next 24 hours.

Regeneration. The eremite regains 20 hit points at the start of its turn. If the eremite takes radiant damage or damage from a blessed weapon, this trait doesn’t function at the start of the eremite’s next turn. The eremite dies only if it starts its turn with 0 hit points and doesn’t regenerate.

Innate Spellcasting (Psionics). The eremite’s innate spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 17). It can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components:

• At will: Detect Thoughts, Invisibility, Minor Illusion
• 3/day each: Fear, Phantasmal Killer
• 1/day each: Plane Shift (self only), Symbol (pain only)

Magic Resistance. The eremite has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.

Serrated Wings. The eremite’s skeletal wings are lined with razor-sharp metal shards. It can use its wings to make unarmed strikes that deal slashing damage instead of bludgeoning.

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Actions

Multiattack. The eremite makes three attacks: one with its Serrated Wings and two with its Razor Claws.

• Razor Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +10 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 15 (2d8 + 6) slashing damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 18 Constitution saving throw or take an additional 14 (4d6) necrotic damage as the eremite’s claws drain the life from its victim.
• Serrated Wings. Melee Weapon Attack: +10 to hit, reach 15 ft., one target. Hit: 18 (3d8 + 5) slashing damage. If the target is a creature, it must make a DC 17 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone as the eremite’s wings slash down with terrifying force.
• Gory Harvest (Recharge 5–6). The eremite targets one creature within 5 feet that it can see. The target must make a DC 17 Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, the eremite surgically removes a piece of the target’s body, dealing 28 (8d6) necrotic damage and reducing the target’s hit point maximum by an amount equal to the necrotic damage taken. The eremite then grafts the stolen body part onto itself, gaining temporary hit points equal to the damage dealt. The reduction to the target’s hit point maximum lasts until the target finishes a long rest or is healed by a Greater Restoration spell.
• Plane Shift (1/Day). The eremite uses its innate magic to plane shift, dragging one grappled creature with it to the Plane of Shadow. The target must make a DC 17 Charisma saving throw to resist this effect. If the save fails, the creature is transported with the eremite and is restrained until it can escape or is released.

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Tactics

• Opening Move: The eremite starts combat with Horrifying Presence and Fear, attempting to scatter and disorient its enemies.
• Engage at Range: It uses Phantasmal Killer to isolate and terrorize a single target, weakening them before closing in.
• Close-Quarters Combat: Once it engages in melee, it uses its Razor Claws and Serrated Wings to deal heavy damage, focusing on softer targets first.
• Gory Harvest: The eremite will use Gory Harvest on a downed or weakened foe, both to heal itself and to further demoralize its enemies.
• Escape: If heavily injured, the eremite will attempt to Plane Shift to escape, possibly dragging a valuable target back to the Plane of Shadow for further torment.

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Motivation: The eremite seeks to harvest the most “perfect” body parts from its victims to add to its own mutilated form, driven by an insatiable desire to transcend physical limitations through suffering and self-modification.

This blood-soaked humanoid is festooned with razored shards of metal. Skeletal wings protrude from its bleeding shoulders.

Source Bestiary 3 pg. 1
Orginally posted in Archives of Nethys

Eremites are among the eldest and most mutilated of kytons, having inflicted such massive damage to themselves that they feel little pain and no fear. The typical eremite is completely covered in blood-caked bandages, tattered cords of black leather, and thousands of jagged shards of razor-sharp metal. These fragments are all that holds the creature’s mutilated flesh together, yet they do so with a strength far greater than that granted by mortal flesh and bone.

Rather than concentrating solely on physical or even spiritual alterations, eremites seek to blur the very lines around being, physicality, and individuality. They desire only the most powerful beings to augment themselves with, traveling across vast swaths of the Material Plane in search of the most promising additions to their bodily collection and harvesting only the finest parts’ the ripest spleen, the most alluring veins, the most succulent eyes.

When an eremite encounters a creature that possess a so-called ‘perfect part,’ the powerful kyton seeks to capture that creature alive so that it can study how that perfect part functions as part of the creature’s physiology before it finally decides to surgically remove it and attach it to its own body often in a way not quite in keeping with the part’s original use. A gifted bard’s tongue might, for example, be nailed to a kyton’s palm or sewn into its heart, while the eyes of a beautiful queen might be stitched into the kyton’s torso. To the eremite, these hideous changes and choices somehow enhance the perfection of the harvested part, while to others they merely enhance the horror that the creature represents.

While eremites do hold an appreciation for inspection of their targets as well as introspection regarding their own powers and identity, their primary occupation is the understanding of pain and suffering, which they pursue by inflicting the most heinous cruelties upon their victims. An eremite seeks to deliver as much agony as possible to its victims after capturing them, allowing them to undergo extreme amounts of trauma before letting them perish. An eremite often rends its own flesh in the same manner as it does its victim’s, so as to experience the pain alongside it.

While pursuing a chosen victim, an eremite utilizes its supernatural abilities to distract and distress a given target before it captures and drags it back to the Plane of Shadow via plane shift. Bargaining with an eremite is not usually an option, though if a particularly powerful victim can offer an eremite advice or aid, or otherwise assist in harvesting an even more interesting catch, an eremite can sometimes be convinced to let the helpful victim escape. It’s worth remembering, though, that kytons as a whole have little patience for the petty pursuits of honor and pride, seeing such feelings as traits that ultimately spell the end for baser creatures. The only thing that matters to an eremite is the testing of its boundaries as well as the boundaries of existence itself. Just because an eremite might be convinced to let someone go in trade for an opportunity for a greater catch doesn’t mean that once that other target is secured the eremite will cease its attempts to capture and harvest its original target. One who manages to distract and subsequently escape an eremite is well-advised to spend the rest of his life on the run.

A typical eremite stands approximately 7 feet tall and weighs about 200 pounds. While their general form is something of a humanoid shape, exact appearances can vary wildly between eremites as they harvest and graft particularly unusual pieces of flesh to their bodies from increasingly exotic victims.

Eremite CR 20

XP 307,200 LE Medium outsider (evil, extraplanar, kyton, lawful) Init +12; Senses Darkvision 60 ft., true seeing; Perception +34

DEFENSE

AC 38, touch 19, flat-footed 29 (+8 Dexterity, +1 Dodge, +19 natural) hp 310 (20d10+200); regeneration 15 (good weapons and spells, silver weapons) Fort +22, Ref +16, Will +19 DR 15/good and silver; Immune cold, fear effects, nonlethal damage, pain; SR 31

OFFENSE

Speed 40 ft., Fly 60 ft. (good) Melee bite +30 (2d6+10 plus pain), 2 claws +30 (2d6+10/19–20 plus grab and pain), 2 wings +25 (1d8+5 plus pain) Special Attacks evisceration, unnerving gaze (30 ft., DC 31) Spell-Like Abilities (CL 20th; concentration +31) Constant – true seeing At will – greater teleport (self plus 50 lbs. of objects only), inflict critical wounds (DC 25), shadow walk, telekinesis (DC 26 3/day – blade barrier (DC 27), dimensional lock, forcecage (DC 28), greater shadow evocation (DC 29), heal (self only), insanity (DC 28), mass inflict critical wounds (DC 29), plane shift (DC 28), shades (DC 29), symbol of pain (DC 26), wall of force 1/day – binding (DC 29), trap the soul (DC 29)

STATISTICS

Strength 30, Dexterity 27, Constitution 30, Intelligence 22, Wisdom 21, Charisma 33 Base Atk +20; CMB +30 (+34 grapple); CMD 49 Feats Combat Casting, Combat Expertise, Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Improved Critical (claws), Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, Skill Focus (Perception), Spell Penetration Skills Bluff +34, Diplomacy +34, Fly +12, Heal +28, Intimidate +34, Knowledge (arcana) +16, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +16, Knowledge (nature) +16, Knowledge (planes) +29, Knowledge (religion) +16, Perception +34, Sense Motive +28, Spellcraft +29, Stealth +31, Use Magic Device +31 Languages Common, Infernal; telepathy 100 ft. SQ graft flesh, shadow traveler

Special Abilities

Immune to Pain (Su) An eremite is immune to nonlethal damage, as well as to all magical effects associated with extreme pain, such as a symbol of pain, another eremite’s pain attack, or similar effects at the GM’s discretion. Evisceration (Ex) When an eremite grapples a foe, it can quickly eviscerate or otherwise surgically alter its victim by excising a bit of flesh or a part of an internal organ as a swift action, causing the victim to take 1d8 points of ability drain – the exact ability score drained is chosen by the eremite. The victim can resist this effect with a DC 28 Fortitude save. The save DC is Dexterity-based.  Graft Flesh (Su) Once per day, an eremite may graft any bit of flesh or bone harvested via its evisceration ability within the previous hour to its own body as a full-round action that provokes an attack of opportunity. Doing so grants the eremite the effects of a heal and a greater restoration spell (caster level 20th). Pain (Su) Any creature struck by an eremite’s natural attacks must make a DC 30 Fortitude save or become staggered for 1 round from the pain. As long as a creature is staggered by this effect, it takes a -4 penalty on all saving throws made to resist the eremite’s spell-like and extraordinary abilities. The save DC is Constitution-based. Shadow Traveler (Ex) When an eremite uses plane shift to travel to the Plane of Shadow, it arrives at its intended destination with complete accuracy. When an eremite uses shadow walk, it moves at a rate of 100 miles per hour. Unnerving Gaze (Ex) A creature that succumbs to an eremite’s unnerving gaze becomes paralyzed with fear for 1d4 rounds as it finds itself almost longing to submit its flesh to the kyton. At the end of any round it remains paralyzed in this way, the victim must make a DC 31 Will save or take 1d4 points of Wisdom drain from encroaching madness. This is a mind-affecting fear effect.

Ecology

Environment any (Plane of Shadow) Organization solitary, pair, or cell (3-5) Treasure double