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Archives of Nethys

Archives of Nethys

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Barnacle Ghoul

Far more powerful and dangerous than most ghouls, barnacle ghouls are the risen corpses of veteran sailors who fell overboard or of bloodthirsty pirates who died from keelhauling. Too rugged and hate-filled to stay dead, these seafarers return with bluish, water-bloated bodies.

Barnacle ghouls have a supernatural command over barnacles; a simple touch from a ghoul causes the crustaceans to adhere, grow, or release. The ghouls cultivate clusters of barnacles on their hands and feet, using the lumpy shells to more easily climb and grab at prey.

Barnacle ghouls keep their lungs filled with brackish seawater, which they exhale onto their victims. Breathing in even a few drops of this tainted seawater can be deadly, as it magically expands in a victim's lungs. A creature that can't expel the seawater eventually drowns and rises as a new barnacle ghoul. Barnacle ghouls have many abilities of standard ghouls.

Recall Knowledge - Undead (Religion): DC 28
Unspecific Lore: DC 26
Specific Lore: DC 23

Elite | Normal | Weak
Proficiency without Level

Changes from being Weak are marked in red below.
NOTE: The -2 damage penalty to non-strike offensive abilities (-4 if the ability is limited, such as spells) is NOT factored in.

Weak Barnacle GhoulCreature 8

Legacy Content

Uncommon NE Medium Ghoul Undead 
Source Pathfinder #159: All or Nothing pg. 83
Perception +17; darkvision
Languages Aquan, Common, Necril
Skills Acrobatics +17, Athletics +17 (+19 to Grapple), Stealth +17, Survival +15
Str +6, Dex +6, Con +3, Int +1, Wis +4, Cha +4
AC 26; Fort +14, Ref +19, Will +15
HP 135 (negative healing); Immunities death effects, disease, paralyzed, poison, unconscious
Tear Flesh [reaction] Trigger A creature grabbed by the barnacle ghoul critically fails a skill check to Escape; Effect The barnacle ghoul makes a claw Strike against the triggering creature.
Speed 25 feet, climb 10 feet, swim 40 feet
Melee [one-action] jaws +19 [+14/+9] (finesse), Damage 2d10-2+10 piercing plus fill lungs and paralysisMelee [one-action] claw +19 [+15/+11] (agile, finesse), Damage 2d6-2+10 plus Grab and paralysisRanged [two-actions] water jet +19 [+14/+9] (range increment 10 feet), Damage 2d6-2+10 plus fill lungsConsume Flesh [one-action] (manipulate) Requirements The ghoul is adjacent to the corpse of a creature that died within the last hour. Effect The ghoul devours a chunk of the corpse and regains 5d6 Hit Points. It can regain Hit Points from any given corpse only once.Fill Lungs (curse, necromancy) Saving Throw DC 24 Fortitude; Stage 1 sickened 1 (1 round); Stage 2 sickened 2 (1 round); Stage 3 sickened 3 (1 round); Stage 4 drowning and cannot reduce below stage 4 until the water is purged; purging the water requires a successful DC 24 Medicine check to Administer First Aid (which stops the creature from drowning and returns the creature to stage 3; stage 2 on a critical success) or a magical effect that removes curses or the sickened condition (which stops the creature from drowning and ends the curse). If the creature dies from drowning, it rises as a barnacle ghoul the next midnight.Nimble Swim [one-action] (move) The barnacle ghoul Swims up to 20 feet. This movement doesn't trigger reactions.Paralysis (incapacitation, occult, necromancy) Any living, non-elf creature hit by a ghoul's attack must succeed at a DC 24 Fortitude save or become paralyzed. It can attempt a new save at the end of each of its turns, and the DC cumulatively decreases by 1 on each such save.

All Monsters in "Ghoul"

NameLevel
Barnacle Ghoul9
Ghast2
Ghoul1
Ghoul Antipaladin9
Ghoul Gnawer11
Ghoul Razorclaw13
Ghoul Soldier2
Lacedon2
Leng Ghoul10
Priest of Kabriri5

Ghoul

Source Bestiary pg. 168
Few creatures are more ubiquitous to sinister locations such as lonely graveyards and ruined crypts than the flesh-eating undead known as ghouls.

Creating Ghouls

You can turn a living creature into a ghoul by completing the following steps. When creating a ghast, double these numerical adjustments. The monsters in this section are built from the ground up, so their numbers don't match these guidelines exactly. Custom-building ghouls is recommended if you have time, using the special abilities listed here but creating the other statistics to match what you want the ghoul to be. First, increase the creature's level by 1 and change its statistics as follows.
  • Increase its AC, attack bonuses, DCs, saving throws, and skill modifiers by 1.
  • Increase its damage with Strikes and other offensive abilities by 1. If the creature is limited in how often it can use an ability (such as a breath weapon), increase the damage by 2 instead.

Ghoul Abilities

A ghoul gains the undead and ghoul traits, and it usually becomes evil. If the base creature has any abilities that come from it being a living creature, it loses them. It also loses any traits that represented its life as a living creature, such as human and humanoid. You might also need to adjust abilities that conflict with the theme of a ghoul. All ghouls gain the following abilities. The save DC for all abilities uses the DC of the ghoul's level.
Darkvision
Negative Healing
Immunities death effects, disease, paralyzed, poison, unconscious
Claws If the creature had hands, it gains a claw Strike (an agile unarmed attack that deals slashing damage plus paralysis). If it had any agile attacks, the damage dealt by its claws should be roughly the same as the damage dealt by those attacks. If it had only non-agile attacks, its claws should deal three-quarters that damage.
Jaws If the creature had a mouth, it gains a jaws Strike (an unarmed attack that deals slashing damage plus ghoul fever and paralysis). The damage amount should be the same as the creature's non-agile attacks.
Consume Flesh [one-action] (manipulate) Requirements The ghoul is adjacent to the corpse of a creature that died within the last hour. Effect The ghoul devours a chunk of the corpse and regains 1d6 Hit Points plus 1d6 for every 2 levels it has. It can regain Hit Points from any given corpse only once.
Ghoul Fever (disease) Saving Throw Fortitude; Stage 1 carrier with no ill effect (1 day); Stage 2 2d6 negative damage and regains half as many Hit Points from all healing (1 day); Stage 3 as stage 2 (1 day); Stage 4 2d6 negative damage and gains no benefit from healing (1 day); Stage 5 as stage 4 (1 day); Stage 6 dead, and rises as a ghoul the next midnight.
Paralysis (incapacitation, occult, necromancy) Any living, non-elf creature hit by a ghoul's attack must succeed at a Fortitude save or become paralyzed. It can attempt a new save at the end of each of its turns, and the DC cumulatively decreases by 1 on each such save.
Swift Leap [one-action] (move) The ghoul jumps up to half its Speed. This movement doesn't trigger reactions.

Ghast Abilities

A ghast has all the abilities above, plus following additions.
Stench (aura, olfactory) 10 feet A creature entering the aura or starting its turn in the aura must succeed at a Fortitude save (use a DC based on the monster's level; Core Rulebook 503) or become sickened 1 (plus slowed 1 as long as its sickened on a critical failure). While within the aura, the creature takes a –2 circumstance penalty to saves against disease and to recover from the sickened condition. A creature that succeeds at its save is temporarily immune for 1 minute.
Claws and Jaws As ghoul, but apply ghast fever instead of ghoul fever.
Consume Flesh [one-action] As ghoul, but it regains 1d6 additional Hit Points.
Ghast Fever (disease) Saving Throw Fortitude; Stage 1 carrier with no ill effect (1 day); Stage 2 3d8 negative damage and regains half as many Hit Points from all healing (1 day); Stage 3 as stage 2 (1 day); Stage 4 3d8 negative damage and gains no benefit from healing (1 day); Stage 5 as stage 4 (1 day); Stage 6 dead, and rises as a ghast the next midnight
Paralysis (incapacitation, occult, necromancy) As ghoul, but elves are not immune.

Sidebar - Additional Lore Ghoulish Society

Ghouls are quite intelligent and, more so than almost any other undead, prone to forming societies and cultures (if vile and repugnant ones centered around flesh eating and acts of depravity) in tangled warrens below boneyards, or even entire cities hidden away in the depths of the Darklands.

Sidebar - Additional Lore Preternatural Patience

“On the second morning after the winds stopped, we woke to find that something'd crept into the hold and smashed up all the rations. Ninth night had just enough moonlight to make out them things out there, caperin' about. Started whisperin' on the night sixteen. And they said nothin' I wasn't already thinkin', about my empty belly and what I'd do for a bite to fill it. Gods forgive me, I was just so hungry. So hungry.”
—Bronze Bunyip, logbook, final entry

Sidebar - Additional Lore The First Ghouls

Legend holds that the first humanoid (an elf, as it so happened) to feed upon the flesh of his brother rose as a ghoul after death, in time embracing his new life and ascending to great power as a demon lord of ghouls, graves, and secrets kept by the dead. That ghouls of humanoids warp and twist to take vaguely elven features, and that elves themselves are immune to ghoul paralysis, are unusual side effects of this ancient source, yet today, ghouls are as likely to worship other vile gods—or simply eschew faith entirely—as they are to honor the first of their kind.

Sidebar - Additional Lore Whispers in the Warrens

Legend holds that Briganthor, a dwarf champion of Torag, quested to root out a pack of ghouls. After slaying the undead, he stumbled upon a tome of cannibalistic prayer-recipes. As Briganthor attempted to burn the book, the warren collapsed—trapping him and his brother. Desperate for sustenance, Briganthor searched the cave-in only to conclude there was no way out. As days melted into weeks, the paladin feared they would starve. That's when the whispers came. Pleading, gnawing, begging him to open the grimoire.