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Archives of Nethys
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The Ashen Man

This creature's description may contain spoilers. Click to revealThe Ashen Man meditates on entropy. All life ends, a truth he knows well, but as he's watched demiplanes collapse, planets go cold, and Jandelay flourish, he's become increasingly impatient for Golarion to meet the same fate—a fate like all other worlds, a story with both beginning and end. Yet time and again, Golarion has somehow managed to avoid its final reckoning. The Ashen Man watched as Aroden died, along with prophecy itself, and Golarion's destiny was sundered. If destiny would no longer play out this world's conclusion, then the Ashen Man would fulfill this duty himself. The Ashen Man has grown frustrated with Golarion's heroes, who always seem to save their world from certain annihilation, but he has a habit of meddling in the affairs of heroes as well. Many powerful adventurers have encountered the Ashen Man over the ages, typically challenged to answer his signature questions on the nature of life and death rather than face him in combat.

Campaign Role

The Ashen Man plays a secondary antagonist in this campaign, behind Runelord Xanderghul. Like Xanderghul, he's been foreshadowed in several prior Adventure Paths and standalone adventures. When the PCs finally confront him, do your best to give the battle the gravitas such a long-anticipated confrontation deserves!

Elite | Normal | Weak
Proficiency without Level

Print Stat Block

Elite The Ashen ManCreature 24

Unique Large Aberration Mythic Time 
Source Pathfinder #221: Into the Apocalypse Archive pg. 86
Elite Changes are marked. The +2 damage bonus to non-strike offensive abilities (+4 if the ability is limited, such as spells) is NOT factored in.
Recall Knowledge DC 48 (58 if Unique applies) • Aberration (Occultism), Time (Occultism, Occultism)
Variant ancient one
Perception +42; entropy sense (precise) 120 feet
Languages Aklo, Chthonian, Protean; telepathy 300 feet, truespeech
Skills Acrobatics +41, Arcana +40, Athletics +44, Deception +42, Dimension of Time Lore +42, Intimidation +42, Nature +40, Occultism +42, Religion +42
Str +11, Dex +8, Con +9, Int +7, Wis +7, Cha +9
Doomsday Scepter When the Ashen Man turns his attention to a world, a projection of that planet manifests among the branches of the doomsday scepter he carries. He can wield this device in combat as a greatclub. If he releases his grip on the doomsday scepter or it’s disarmed, it vanishes, after which the Ashen Man can cause it to appear in his hand again as a free action with the concentrate trait during his turn.
Entropy Sense (occult, prediction) The ancient one can predict the presence of a creature through supernatural insight into chaotic probabilities and chance and builds a perception of reality from this information, allowing them to “see” as a precise sense in the listed range. Invisible creatures are visible to them, but veil of privacy prevents a creature from being detected via entropy sense automatically (without a counteract check).
Items doomsday scepter
AC 51; Fort +42, Ref +39, Will +42; mythic resilience (Fort and Will)
HP 605 (void healing); Immunities aging, auditory, cold, disease, emotion, inhaled, paralyzed, poison, Strikes, visual; Resistances mythic resistance 23
Cohesion Vulnerability The Ashen Man is repulsed by an orderly reality. Whenever the Ashen Man sees a creature that was injured restored to its full Hit Points, he becomes obsessed with correcting the defiance of entropy. He takes 8d6 mental damage and can't use actions with the concentrate trait until he's dealt damage to that creature that reduces their Hit Point total from its maximum value.Feast on Destruction (aura, death) 120 feet. Wait long enough and reality always proves that all things begin so they can end. The Ashen Man is empowered whenever this belief is vindicated. When a creature in the aura gains the dying condition or increases its dying value, the Ashen Man becomes quickened 1 for 1 round. He can use the extra action only to Stride or Strike.Multiple Reactions The Ashen Man's untethered relationship with time gives him an additional reaction each round, though he still can't use more than one reaction on the same triggering action.No Breath As ancient one.Otherworldly Mind (mental, occult) Whenever a creature targets the ancient one with a mental effect, that creature takes 8d8 mental damage (DC 45 basic Will save). On a critical failure, the creature also becomes confused for 1d4 rounds.The Connection Cuts Both Ways Creatures the ancient one affected with a mental effect or communicated with telepathically within the last round can hijack the ancient one's telepathic connection; they automatically ignore the ancient one's immunity to auditory, emotion, and visual effects until the end of their current turn. They can additionally spend 1 Mythic Point as a free action to reach through the connection to manipulate the ancient one's mind, ignoring the ancient one's mythic resilience on Will saving throws.Mutually Assured [reaction] Trigger A creature within 10 feet deals damage to the Ashen Man; Effect Reality hurtles toward destruction. The Ashen Man makes a wretched claw Strike against the triggering creature.Unified Timeline [reaction] (occult, teleportation) Trigger A creature ends its movement within 10 feet of the ancient one; Effect Ancient ones exist spread out across infinite times and places simultaneously and can shift themselves through their catalog of potentialities. The ancient one teleports themself and the triggering creature into empty squares within 10 feet of their respective positions, though the triggering creature can't be moved into hazardous terrain or to a place it can't stand. An unwilling creature can resist the teleportation with a successful DC 48 Will save.
Speed 60 feet, fly 60 feet
Melee [one-action] doomsday scepter +46 [+41/+36] (backswing, magical, reach 10 feet, shove), Damage 4d10+2+21 bludgeoning plus 2d6 void and curse of destinyMelee [one-action] wretched claw +46 [+42/+38] (agile, magical, reach 10 feet), Damage 4d6+2+21 slashing plus 2d6 voidRanged [one-action] annihilation ray +43 [+38/+33] (occult, range 30 feet, void), Damage 8d8+2 persistent voidOccult Innate Spells DC 48, attack +40 (+4 dmg); 10th detonate magic, disintegrate, fabricated truth; 9th harm (×3); 8th confusion; 7th interplanar teleport (at will); Constant (9th) truespeech
Curse of Destiny (curse, death) When the Ashen Man hits a creature with a doomsday scepter Strike, he inflicts the cursed destiny held in trust for all creatures who live: a promise of future death. The target must succeed at a DC 48 Fortitude save or become drained 2. On a critical failure, the target additionally becomes doomed 1 or increases its current doomed value by 1.Dismantle All Life (occult, time, vitality, void) As ancient one.Mythic Power 3 Mythic Points
  • Recharge [one-action] (concentrate) Cost 1 Mythic Point; Effect The Ashen Man regains an expended spell.
  • Remove a Condition [one-action] (concentrate) Cost 1 Mythic Point; Effect The Ashen Man ends one condition affecting him.
  • Reroll [free-action] Cost 1 Mythic Point; Trigger The Ashen Man fails a check; Effect The Ashen Man rerolls the check.
  • Undying Myth [free-action] Cost all of the Ancient One's Mythic Points; Trigger The Ashen Man would die and has at least 1 Mythic Point; Effect The Ashen Man remains standing and conscious, and recovers 50% of his maximum Hit Points.
Slither Between Realities [free-action] (concentrate, occult, teleportation) Frequency once per round; Trigger The Ashen Man begins or ends his turn; Effect The Great Beyond loses track of the Ashen Man, and he slips between reality's cracks, instantly transporting himself and any items he's wearing and holding from his current space to an unoccupied space within 100 feet that he can see.Unravel Reality [two-actions] (concentrate, occult) The Ashen Man holds aloft his doomsday scepter then swings it violently downward as he rips the quintessence of the planes apart in a 60-foot line, creating difficult terrain and dealing 24d6 spirit damage to each creature in the area (DC 48 basic Fortitude save). The Ashen Man can't Unravel Reality again for 1d4 rounds.Visions of the Forever [one-action] (concentrate, emotion, fear, mental, occult) Cost 1 Mythic Point; Frequency once per round; Effect The Ashen Man shrinks the distance separating all creatures in a 120-foot emanation, brushing up against their minds and granting them vivid, waking dreams. All who share the hallucination experience entire millennia in an instant, rushed into a bleak future where they alone are stranded as the last living person in a destroyed world of ash and ruin. There, as the sole survivor of an empty reality where even the gods have fallen, they hear the Ashen Man's voice ring through their minds a final time, demanding an explanation that justifies their fate. Each affected creature attempts a DC 48 Will save.
Critical Success The creature is unaffected and can break the telepathic contact, dismissing the vision.
Success The creature becomes frightened 1 and slowed 1 for 1 round by the unnerving vision.
Failure The creature is filled with dread and compelled to answer the Ashen Man’s question, becoming frightened 2 and slowed 1 for 1 minute. It can’t reduce its frightened value below 1 for as long as it remains slowed.
Critical Failure As failure, but frightened 4 and slowed 2. In addition, the creature is fleeing for 1 round.
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