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Archives of Nethys

Archives of Nethys

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PFS StandardEremite

Eremites roam the planes to seek out ideal portions of other creatures, such as a hero's sword-arm or an angel's pinions. Eremites capture these specimens to clinically test their true limits, then harvest specimens and add them to their own bodies. An eremite might attach tongues to their hand as extra fingers or a fist to the back of their neck in a horrid “improvement.” Eremites average 7 feet tall and weigh approximately 200 pounds.

Recall Knowledge - Fiend (Religion): DC 40
Unspecific Lore: DC 38
Specific Lore: DC 35

Elite | Normal | Weak
Proficiency without Level

EremiteCreature 20

Legacy Content

LE Medium Fiend Velstrac 
Source Bestiary 2 pg. 285 2.0
Perception +34; greater darkvision, painsight, true seeing
Languages Common, Infernal, Shadowtongue; telepathy 100 feet
Skills Athletics +35, Deception +38, Diplomacy +36, Intimidation +40, Medicine +36, Religion +34, Stealth +36, Torture Lore +36
Str +9, Dex +6, Con +7, Int +6, Wis +6, Cha +10
Painsight (divination, divine) A velstrac automatically knows whether a creature it sees has any of the doomed, dying, and wounded conditions, as well as the value of those conditions.
AC 45; Fort +37, Ref +32, Will +34; +1 status to all saves vs. magic
HP 375, regeneration 25 (deactivated by good or silver); Immunities cold, fear, nonlethal; Weaknesses good 20, silver 20
Ignore Pain An eremite's actions can't be disrupted due to damage or Strikes (such as Attack of Opportunity).Paralytic Perfection (aura, divine, enchantment, fear, incapacitation, mental, visual) 30 feet. When a creature ends its turn in the aura, it feels compelled to offer pieces of its own flesh to the eremite. The creature must succeed at a DC 40 Will save or become paralyzed for 1 round.
Speed 30 feet, fly 50 feet
Melee [one-action] jaws +39 [+34/+29] (evil, magical), Damage 4d8+19 piercing plus 2d6 persistent bleed and exquisite painMelee [one-action] claw +39 [+35/+31] (agile, evil, magical), Damage 3d6+19 slashing plus 2d6 persistent bleed, exquisite pain, and Improved GrabDivine Innate Spells DC 42; 9th bind soul, blade barrier, harm (×2), heal (×2), shadow blast, shadow walk (at will); 7th dimension door (at will), dimensional lock, plane shift (to Material Plane or Shadow Plane only), shadow siphon (at will), warp mind; Cantrips (9th) stabilize; Constant (9th) true seeing
Rituals DC 42; 8th imprisonment
Evisceration [one-action] (attack) Requirements The eremite has a creature grabbed; Effect The eremite excises flesh or bone from a creature it has grabbed. The target takes 6d10 persistent bleed damage.Exquisite Pain An eremite's knowledge of pressure points and pain centers is unsurpassed. A creature hit by an eremite's melee Strikes must succeed at a DC 40 Fortitude save or be stunned 2 (stunned 4 on a critical failure). A creature that critically succeeds is temporarily immune for 24 hours.Focus Gaze [one-action] (concentrate, divine, enchantment, fear, mental, visual) The eremite stares at a creature they can see within 30 feet. The creature must immediately attempt a Will save against Paralytic Perfection. In addition, if the creature was already paralyzed, on a failed save, its unnatural longing causes it to become doomed 1. After attempting this save, the creature is then temporarily immune until the start of the eremite's next turn.Graft Flesh [one-action] Requirement The eremite holds a piece of flesh they collected via Evisceration; Effect The eremite attaches the stolen flesh to themself. They either regain 100 Hit Points; reduce the value of their clumsy, drained, enfeebled, or stupefied condition by 3; or reduce the stage of any affliction affecting them by 3.Shadow Traveler (divine, divination) When an eremite uses plane shift or shadow walk, they arrive at exactly their intended destination.

All Monsters in "Velstrac"

NameLevel
Augur1
Ephialtes16
Eremite20
Evangelist6
Interlocutor12
Ostiarius5
Precentor16
Sacristan10
Vincuvicar18

Velstrac

Source Pathfinder #147: Tomorrow Must Burn pg. 82
Velstracs are horrific, shadow-dwelling fiends who seek ultimate sensation through self-mutilation. They transcend their stoic detachment only when inflicting pain and terror upon their victims, practicing new forms of debasement and torture before then turning their knives on themselves. Although velstracs consider themselves beyond such limitations as morality or mortal taboos, their victims know them as emotionless tormentors who inflict debased, sadistic suffering. They claim to seek perfection in thought, form, and action, although they don’t recognize any refinement that doesn’t require the painful excision of the flesh or spirit.

Velstracs manifest from the souls of masochistic or sadistic mortals that are diverted into the Shadow Plane and then forged into forms that suit their vile predilections, ranging from the low-ranking augurs to the aesthetics-obsessed interlocutors.

Some mortals refer to velstracs as “kytons,” a misattribution that the velstracs tolerate with cold amusement. The term “kyton” denotes a master or virtuoso among their kind, and these fiends enjoy being labeled masters of their horrid paths to perfection through agony.

Sidebar - Additional Lore A Mortal Name

Some mortals refer to velstracs as “kytons,” a misattribution that the velstracs tolerate with cold amusement. The term “kyton” denotes a master or virtuoso among their kind, and these fiends enjoy being labeled as masters of their horrid paths of perfection through agony.

Sidebar - Additional Lore Despicable Origins

Velstracs originated with the first debased thoughts of mortals, which divine beings found so deplorable that they locked all velstracs away in Hell. It wasn't long, however, before the newly formed beings escaped their infernal prison to the Shadow Plane.

Sidebar - Related Creatures Other Velstracs

Scholars grimly joke that there are as many different kinds of velstracs as there are ways to skin a cat. The relatively diminutive cantor velstrac poisons the minds of its victims so that they believe they are being clawed from the inside out. The mighty eremites, on the other hand, seek out the most powerful beings to subsume into their own form and lord over all other velstracs save the demagogues.

Sidebar - Related Creatures The Shadow Forge

Many velstracs forge their own chains, but others outsource the task to unique velstracs known as almoners. These blind, deaf, and mute velstracs resemble six-armed halflings severed at the waist that toil away endlessly at a great burning foundry called the Shadow Forge. Almoners operate under mysterious strictures, and are just as likely to turn a velstrac away empty-handed as they are to hand one a finely crafted chain before the request has even been uttered.

Sidebar - Additional Lore Velstrac Divinities

The most powerful velstracs are unique divinities known collectively as demagogues—powerful creatures often worshipped by mortals who seek to experience agonizing new revelations and gain power by enhancing the body through pain.

Sidebar - Additional Lore Velstracs on Golarion

Velstracs are most often encountered in the shadowy realm of Nidal, where the state worship of Zon-Kuthon is rigidly enforced. Indeed, many velstracs are created from the souls of Joyful Things, devotees of Zon-Kuthon who have had their limbs amputated to focus their minds on the veneration of pain, sacrifice, and torment.