Elder Eidolon

Illus. by M. Phillippi

Regeneration (Ex): An elder brain takes normal damage from sonic- and acid-based attacks.

Telepathic Awareness (Su): Within a radius of 350 feet, the elder brain detects all creatures whose minds are not shielded with an effect such as mind blank, even through solid rock. Within this same range, it can communicate with any creature that has a language.

ELDER BR AIN SOCIET Y

An elder brain is the physical and spiritual center of its illithid community. It serves as a living repository of the community’s technology, history, and psionic expertise, as well as its advisor (or more often, as its de facto leader). It is the right and obligation of every illithid to merge with the elder brain when its natural life span nears its end. Though most illithids hope otherwise, their sacrifi ce is complete—their egos are subsumed, and their gray matter serves only to revitalize the elder brain. An elder brain preys upon the thousands of illithid tadpoles that share its briny pool. The tadpoles that survive are deemed strong enough to be used to create true illithids.

ELDER EIDOLON

The art of crafting magical constructs to serve as guardians has existed for eons. It was an old practice when the humanoid races took their fi rst tentative steps toward the mastery of magic, and today, most constructs that exist are based on the humanoid form. Yet constructs from previous epochs still exist in the darkest, most secluded regions of the world. Known collectively as elder eidolons, these ageless creatures guard sites that have long since been abandoned, the races that built them having faded into obscurity. Eidolons are all that remain of these ancient races, and from their form one can surmise that the world is better off without them. An elder eidolon is built of ancient rock, basalt, porphyry, obsidian, or other igneous stone. Its surface is covered with ancient runes or glyphs from forgotten, dead languages. While the features of an eidolon might appear somewhat eroded or timeworn, the creatures remain quite sturdy and dangerous. Eidolons are mindless, and do only what they are ordered to do by their creators. The process for creating eidolons has long since passed into antiquity, so eidolons that still exist are without masters. They continue to perform their prior tasks, relentless and eternal in their obedience. These i nst r uctions must be simple, such as “Remain here and attack any humanoids that enter this room” or “Patrol the perimeter of this building.” Often, the focus of an eidolon’s task has long since crumbled away, yet the construct continues to guard or patrol for eons after the location itself has gone to dust. Damaged eidolons repair themselves quickly, or can be repaired in an appropriate workshop or laboratory. The person performing the repairs must have the Craft Construct feat or 10 ranks in Knowledge (architecture and engineering), and must spend 50 gp and 1 hour per hit point restored.

SAMPLE ELDER EIDOLON

Elder Eidolon Kraken Gargantuan Construct Hit Dice: 20d10+60 (170 hp) Initiative: +0 Speed: Swim 20 ft. Armor Class: 28 (–4 size, +18 natural, +4 defl ection), touch 10, fl at-footed 28 Base Attack/Grapple: +15/+43 Attack: Tentacle +27 melee (2d8+16/19–20) Full Attack: 2 tentacles +27 melee (2d8+16/19–20) and 6 arms + 22 melee (1d6+8) and bite +22 melee (4d6+8) Space/Reach: 20 ft. (9 squares)/15 ft. (60 ft. with tentacle, 30 ft. with arm) Special Attacks: Constrict 2d8+24 or 1d6+24, improved grab, insanity aura Special Qualities: Construct traits, damage reduction 10/adamantine, darkvision 60 ft., fast repair 5, immunity to magic, low-light vision, otherworldly geometry Saves: Fort +6, Ref +6, Will +6 Abilities: Str 42, Dex 11, Con —, Int —, Wis 11, Cha 1 Skills: — Feats: Improved Critical (tentacle) Environment: Any Organization: None Challenge Rating: 15 Treasure: None Alignment: Always neutral Advancement: —

Level Adjustment: —

This huge statue of black, glossy stone resembles an immense squid with two staring eyes and a mass of tentacles. Its body shimmers and wavers, almost as if it’s not quite all there.

Combat

An eidolon kraken strikes opponents with its barbed tentacles, then grabs and crushes them with its arms or drags victims into its huge jaws. An opponent can make sunder attempts against an eidolon kraken’s tentacles or arms as if they were weapons.

An eidolon kraken’s tentacles have 20 hit points, and its arms have 10 hit points. If it’s grappling a target with one tentacle or arm, it uses another limb to make its attack of opportunity against the sunder attempt. Severing a tentacle or arm deals damage to the eidolon equal to half the limb’s full normal hit points; this damage bypasses the creature’s damage reduction.

Since an eidolon kraken has fast repair, any damage done to a tentacle or arm repairs at the rate of 5 hit points per round.

Severed tentacles or arms regrow in 1d10+10 days.

Constrict (Ex): An eidolon kraken deals 1d6+24 (arm) or 2d8+24 (tentacle) points of damage with a successful grapple check.

Improved Grab (Ex): To use this ability, an eidolon kraken must hit a creature with a tentacle or arm attack. It can then attempt to start a grapple as a free action without provoking attacks of opportunity. If it wins the grapple, it establishes a hold and immediately deals constrict damage.

Insanity Aura (Su): Any living creature within 10 feet of an eidolon kraken must make a DC 20 Will saving throw each round or become confused for 1 round. The save DC is

Wisdom-based.

Fast Repair (Ex): An eidolon kraken repairs damage to itself at a rate of 5 hit points per round as long as it is above 0 hit points.

Immunity to Magic (Ex): An eidolon kraken is immune to any spell or spell-like ability that allows spell resistance. In addition, certain spells and effects function differently against the creature, as noted below.

Etherealness immediately repairs damage to an eidolon equal to the spell’s caster level. Dimensional anchor causes an eidolon to cease functioning for 1 round (treat as if dazed). Dimensional lock does not interfere with an eidolon’s operation, but an eidolon that enters the area of a dimensional lock spell or similar effect loses the benefi ts of its otherworldly geometry and its insanity aura. A transmute rock to mud spell slows an eidolon (as the slow spell) for 2d6 rounds, with no saving throw, while transmute mud to rock heals all of its lost hit points. A stone to fl esh spell does not actually change an eidolon’s structure, but negates its damage reduction and immunity to magic for 1 round.

Otherworldly Geometry (Su): An eidolon kraken’s form incorporates what should be impossible geometrics. This grants it a +4 defl ection bonus to its Armor Class. “Elder eidolon” is an inherited template that can be added to any aberration, animal, dragon, giant, humanoid, magical beast, monstrous humanoid, plant, or vermin. An eidolon uses all the base creature’s statistics and special abilities except as noted here.

Size and Type: The creature’s type changes to construct. It loses all subtypes and does not gain the augmented subtype. It uses all the base creature’s statistics and special abilities except as noted here. Recalculate base attack bonus, saving throws, feats, and skills as described below.

Hit Dice: Drop any Hit Dice gained from class levels (to a minimum of 1 Hit Die) and change remaining Hit Dice to d10s. As a construct, the creature loses any bonus hit points for a high Constitution, but gains bonus hit points based on its size, as shown below:

Size Bonus Hit Points Small 10 Medium 20 Large 30 Huge 40 Gargantuan 60 Colossal 80

Armor Class: The creature’s natural armor improves by 4 points. The creature also gains a +4 defl ection bonus to its Armor Class, since its form does not wholly exist in the Material Plane. See Otherworldly Geometry, below.

Base Attack: The creature’s base attack bonus changes to its Hit Dice × 3/4, as a cleric.

Attack: An elder eidolon retains all the natural attacks, manufactured weapon attacks, and weapon profi ciencies of the base creature. An eidolon based on a creature that has no natural attacks gains a slam attack as shown below, which it can use in place of a manufactured weapon attack. (An eidolon with two slams can wield a weapon in one hand and make a slam attack with its off-hand at a –5 penalty, adding half its Str bonus to the damage roll).

Size Attack Tiny 1 slam (1d2 plus 1-1/2 Str bonus) Small 1 slam (1d3 plus 1-1/2 Str bonus) Medium 1 slam (1d4 plus 1-1/2 Str bonus) Large 2 slams (1d6 plus Str bonus) Huge 2 slams (2d6 plus Str bonus) Gargantuan 2 slams (3d6 plus Str bonus) Colossal 2 slams (4d6 plus Str bonus)

Special Attacks: An elder eidolon loses all of the supernatural special attacks, spell-like abilities, and extraordinary special attacks allowing a saving throw based on Constitution. It retains extraordinary special attacks that do not permit a saving throw (such as rake, rend, or constrict) or that allow a saving throw based on Strength (such as trample). In addition, an eidolon gains the following special attack:

Insanity Aura (Su): The elemental forces that power an elder eidolon warp time and space and cause horrible hallucinations