Beheaded

This humanoid head floats silently and ominously, bits of flesh still hanging from its face and graying teeth clattering slightly as it bobs in the air.

Creating A Beheaded

Beheaded are floating skulls or severed heads whose bodies have long since abandoned them, either in the moment of death or long after. Reanimated via dark magic, these horrors are usually created as mindless sentinels for dungeons or lairs. Beheaded silently hover at about eye-level, often making them the last thing a casual wanderer or careless villager in an infested area ever sees.

Spellcasters might create and employ beheaded in multiple ways.

Animating Beheaded: A spellcaster can create a beheaded with animate dead. Each beheaded created requires two onyx gems worth 100 gp and the casting of one air walk or fly spell. Beheaded can be created with additional abilities from the list above. Creating a variant beheaded counts as 1 additional Hit Die toward the caster’s maximum Hit Dice of controlled undead. For every two abilities added, increase the beheaded’s CR by 1.

Beheaded Familiars: A neutral evil spellcaster can gain a beheaded as a familiar at 3rd level by taking the Improved Familiar feat. A beheaded familiar loses the mindless trait and has an Intelligence score appropriate for its master’s level.

Variants

Beheaded can be created with any of the following special abilities. For every two abilities the beheaded possesses, increase the beheaded’s CR by +1 (except swarming which counts as 2 abilities by itself.)

Belching (Su)

The beheaded can make a ranged touch attack with a maximum range of 30 feet that deals 1d6 points of energy damage (acid, cold, electricity, or fire, chosen at the time of creation).

Flaming (Su)

The beheaded gains fire immunity and a +2 bonus to Charisma. Its slam attack also deals 1d6 points of fire damage and might catch the target on fire.

Grabbing (Ex)

The beheaded has long tendrils of ragged hair or other limblike growths (such as a medusa’s snake hair). Its slam attack gains the grab (Medium) special ability.

Screaming (Su)

The beheaded can scream out once every 1d4 rounds. Every creature within 30 feet must succeed at a Will save or be shaken for 1d4 rounds. The save DC is equal to 10 + 1/2 the screaming skull’s racial Hit Dice + the screaming skull’s Charisma modifier. This is a sonic mind-affecting fear effect. Whether or not the save is successful, any creature in the area can’t be affected by that beheaded’s scream for the next 24 hours.

Swarming (Ex)

The beheaded gains 1 additional Hit Die, the swarm subtype, swarm immunities, and the distraction special ability. It loses its slam attack but gains a swarm attack that deals 1d6 points of damage. This counts as two abilities for the purpose of determining the beheaded’s CR.

Section 15: Copyright Notice

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Bestiary 4 © 2013, Paizo Publishing, LLC; Authors: Dennis Baker, Jesse Benner, Savannah Broadway, Ross Byers, Adam Daigle, Tim Hitchcock, Tracy Hurley, James Jacobs, Matt James, Rob McCreary, Jason Nelson, Tom Phillips, Stephen Radney-MacFarland, Sean K Reynolds, F. Wesley Schneider, Tork Shaw, and Russ Taylor.

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