Vishap

This slender dragon is covered in vivid cerulean scales with four powerful wings to match.

Vishap CR 19

XP 204,800
N Colossal dragon (extraplanar)
Init +6; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +30; Aura frightful presence (300 ft., DC 29)

DEFENSE

AC 35, touch 4, flat-footed 33 (+2 Dex, +31 natural, –8 size)
hp 362 (25d12+200)
Fort +22, Ref +16, Will +16
Defensive Abilities poisoned blood; DR 15/magic;
Immune poison, paralysis, sleep; Resist acid 15, cold 15, electricity 15, fire 15; SR 30

OFFENSE

Speed 50 ft., fly 200 ft. (average), swim 100 ft.; ley swim
Melee bite +30 (2d8+13/19–20 plus grab and poison), tail slap +28 (4d6+19), 2 wings +28 (2d8+6), 2 claws +30 (2d8+13 plus grab)
Space 30 ft.; Reach 30 ft. (40 ft. with bite)
Special Attacks breath weapon (60-ft. cone, 25d6 acid, Reflex DC 30 half, usable every 1d4 rounds), constrict (2d8+13), poison, swallow whole (10d6 bludgeoning damage, AC 25, 36 hp)
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 25th; concentration +32)

Constant—tongues
At will—etherealness
5/day—greater create mindscape, greater possession (DC 25)

Psychic Spells Known (CL 15th; concentration +22)

• 7th (1/day)—ethereal envelopment (DC 24), psychic crush III (DC 24)
• 6th (2/day)—ego whip IV (DC 23), psychic surgery
• 5th (3/day)—etheric shards (DC 22), explode head (DC 22), id insinuation IV (DC 22), wall of ectoplasm
• 4th (5/day)—condensed ether, mind probe (DC 21), mindwipe (DC 21), synaptic scramble (DC 21), thought shield III, thoughtsense
• 3rd (6/day)—analyze aura, ectoplasmic snare, node of blasting (DC 20), purge spirit, mindscape door, synaptic pulse (DC 20)
• 2nd (7/day)—anticipate thoughts, aversion (DC 19), demand offering (DC 19), detect mindscape, hypercognition, instigate psychic duel (DC 19), mental block (DC 19)
• 1st (7/day)—burst of adrenaline, charge object, decrepit disguise (DC 18), deja vu, mindlink, psychic reading, telempathic projection

STATISTICS

Str 37, Dex 15, Con 26, Int 18, Wis 14, Cha 25
Base Atk +25; CMB +46 (+50 grapple); CMD 58 (62 vs. trip)
Feats Critical Focus, Exhausting Critical, Flyby Attack, Greater Vital Strike, Hover, Improved Critical (bite), Improved Initiative, Improved Vital Strike, Multiattack, Power Attack, Tiring Critical, Vital Strike, Wingover
Skills Climb +21, Fly +22, Intimidate +20, Knowledge (arcana) +32, Knowledge (dungeoneering, engineering, geography, history, nature, religion) +17, Knowledge (local, nobility) +8, Knowledge (planes) +22, Linguistics +10, Perception +30, Sense Motive +20, Spellcraft +32, Swim +49, Use Magic Device +30
Languages Abyssal, Aklo, Aquan, Celestial, Common, Draconic, Sylvan; telepathy 100 ft., tongues
SQ vishapakar affinity

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Ley Swim (Su)

Vishaps are fundamentally attuned to ley lines. As a full-round action while within reach of a vishapakar standing stone that is placed on a ley line, one can swim the currents of any ley line attached to that vishakapar at a rate of 10 miles per round (crossing to a different plane takes 10 rounds).

This is a teleportation effect. The creature can sense the exact shape and length of the ley line, and knows exactly where each vishapakar along the ley line is. In addition, the vishap automatically knows the status (as per the spell) of each living creature along the ley line’s path or attuned to the ley line. One can end its ley swim only at a vishapakar, though it can travel along other ley lines that connect with its current ley line.

Poison (Ex)

Bite or poisoned blood—contact or injury; save Fort DC 30; frequency 1/round for 6 rounds; effect 1d6 Con; cure 2 consecutive saves.

Poisoned Blood (Ex)

Any creature that comes into contact with a the creatures blood is subjected to the dragon’s poison.

A creature that deals melee damage to a vishap must succeed at a DC 25 Reflex save to avoid being exposed to the poison, and an attacker using a natural weapon is exposed automatically.

Spells (Sp)

The creature casts spells as a 15th-level psychic.

Vishapakar Affinity (Sp, Su)

A vishap automatically succeeds at any attempt to attune itself to a ley line if it makes that attempt while adjacent to a vishapakar. It treats the effects of any such ley line as if the ley line were 5 caster levels higher. By concentrating as a standard action, a vishap can view the surroundings of a vishapakar on one of its attuned ley lines as per greater scrying.

ECOLOGY

Environment any
Organization solitary or pair
Treasure triple

They think of themselves as guardians of the ley lines that connect the life forces of the Material Plane to one another. Like all dragons, they claim expansive territories, but these territories often make little geographical sense to others—a single one might claim unconnected areas on different hemispheres of a planet, for example, and yet multiple cretures sometimes coexist within mere miles of each other with no apparent animosity. To those attuned to the occult mysteries of ley lines, however, the vishaps’ territorial borders are clear.

Each one claims one or more networks of ley lines, which may stretch for thousands of miles (or even across galaxies), and sometimes overlap with each other without ever touching. There first priority is the integrity of its ley line network, so any corruption of a ley line draws the attention of the one that cares for it.

They claim only small physical territories in places where their ley lines coincide with interesting geography.

In these places, vishaps make psychic contact with intelligent creatures nearby, encouraging them to create standing stones called vishapakars. A vishap can’t place a vishapakar on its own, but the presence of a vishapakar on a ley line allows the vishap a great deal of control over that ley line. Evil or less diplomatic individals often travel to these desirable locations to intimidate the local people into appeasing the dragons with standing stones.

Vishapakars can stand for thousands of years, even as the ley lines that they once marked drift and change course, so a vishap must return to each vishapakar periodically, entreating (or forcing) locals to create new vishapakars on the ley lines’ new locations. At particularly ancient locations, it is possible to map the gradual drift of ley lines by the age of the nearby vishapakars.

They become deeply attached to their ley line networks over their millennia-long life spans, and can live peacefully alongside other vishaps with nearby networks. When ley lines drift and converge, however, it often results in a mortal duel. Sometimes this happens as a corporeal battle in the skies of a planet, or between the dragons while in their ethereal forms. Most commonly, vishaps engaged in mortal combat for control of converging ley lines meet each other in elaborate psychic duels. These duels can last for years, and often spill over into the Material Plane, with each vishap subtly manipulating the creatures and locations along the converging ley lines in a proxy war to defeat its opponent.

Vishaps keep their treasure hoards, like their territories, in strange places, hidden in eddies of psychic energy along their favorite ley lines. There hoard might be physically scattered across dozens of planes, though to the vishap each cache is only minutes away from the others. They favor items of psychic significance, so one is as likely to find a mundane wooden spoon that belonged to a powerful occultist or the skull of a famous psychic in a vishap’s hoard as a magical sword or mountains of gold.

They procreate only once during their lives, as tending to their ley lines takes priority over almost any biological imperative. When a creature is finally ready to mate, it commits its form wholly to the ley line network, drifting listlessly along the psychic currents. Inevitably, it meets with some other drifting vishap, and the two consciousnesses merge, exploding in a spray of psychic force. The resulting motes of ethereal energy scatter across the universe, slowly drifting back toward each other and forming eggs, which sometimes drift along ley lines for millennia before hatching a young, ethereal vishap that awakens to full consciousness upon hatching.

A fully grown vishap is 70 feet from head to tail and weighs 60,000 pounds.

Section 15: Copyright Notice

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Bestiary 5 © 2015, Paizo Inc.; Authors: Dennis Baker, Jesse Benner, John Bennett, Logan Bonner, Creighton Broadhurst, Robert Brookes, Benjamin Bruck, Jason Bulmahn, Adam Daigle, Thurston Hillman, Eric Hindley, Joe Homes, James Jacobs, Amanda Hamon Kunz, Ben McFarland, Jason Nelson, Thom Phillips, Stephen Radney-MacFarland, Alistair Rigg, Alex Riggs, David N. Ross, Wes Schneider, David Schwartz, Mark Seifter, Mike Shel, James L. Sutter, and Linda Zayas-Palmer.