Mythic Shoggoth

Mythic Shoggoth CR 23/MR 9

XP 819,200
CN Huge ooze (aquatic, mythic, mythos)
Init +20/+0, dual initiative; Senses all-around vision, darkvision 120 ft., low-light vision, scent, tremorsense 60 ft., undeniable perception; Perception +32

DEFENSE

AC 42, touch 15, flat-footed 35 (+7 Dex, +27 natural, –2 size)
hp 451 (23d8+348); insidious regeneration
Fort +21, Ref +14, Will +16
Defensive Abilities chilling paralysis (DC 33), reactive strike, DR 15/-; Immune blindness, charm effects, cold, deafness, sonic, ooze traits; Resist acid 20, electricity 20, fire 20; SR 34

OFFENSE

Speed 50 ft., climb 30 ft., swim 50 ft.; gravitic agnosticism
Melee 4 slams +32 (3d6+17/19–20 plus grab)
Space 15 ft.; Reach 30 ft.
Special Attacks constrict (3d6+17), engulf (4d6+25 bludgeoning damage plus 8d6 acid damage, AC 25, hp 45), maddening cacophony (DC 22), mythic power (9/day, surge +1d10), tekeli-li!, trample (4d8+17, DC 38)

STATISTICS

Str 44, Dex 24, Con 35, Int 5, Wis 22, Cha 13
Base Atk +17; CMB +36 (+40 grapple, +38 sunder); CMD 53 (55 vs. sunder, can’t be tripped)
Feats Blind-Fight, Cleave, Combat Reflexes, Critical Focus, Great Cleave, Great Fortitude, Improved Critical (slams), Improved Initiative, Improved Sunder, Iron Will, Power Attack, Staggering Critical
Skills Climb +29, Perception +32, Swim +37; Racial Modifiers +4 Perception
Languages Aklo
SQ amphibious, unspeakable propagation, utter absorption (DC 34)

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Chilling Paralysis (Su)

A non-mythic creature striking a mythic shoggoth with a natural weapon, touch attack, or unarmed strike is paralyzed for 1d3 rounds (DC 34 Fort negates).

If the shoggoth expends one use of its mythic power, this ability also affects mythic creatures, as well as non-mythic creatures attacking with non-reach melee weapons. Creatures engulfed or trampled by a mythic shoggoth also must save to avoid being paralyzed. This is a cold effect and the save DC is Constitution-based. Creatures immune to cold are unaffected by chilling paralysis; those with resistance to cold gain a +2 circumstance bonus on their save.

Engulf (Ex)

To use this ability, the mythic shoggoth must begin its turn grappling a creature or must trample. A shoggoth may attempt to engulf as many creatures as it grapples or tramples in a round. This ability otherwise functions as swallow whole, save that a creature that cuts its way out of a shoggoth leaves no hole in the protoplasmic creature’s body.

Enhanced Damage Reduction (Ex)

A mythic shoggoth gains DR 15/- rather than gaining DR/epic, and its damage reduction cannot be bypassed by abilities that normally ignore damage reduction, such as a paladin’s smite evil or a mythic champion’s fleet charge.

Gravitic Agnosticism (Su)

A mythic shoggoth can use its climb speed to move in any direction, including straight up or sideways through empty air, mounting its heaving bulk upon the unseen angles between existence. It is unaffected by effects that reverse, increase, or otherwise alter the normal effects of gravity.

Insidious Regeneration (Su)

A mythic shoggoth has regeneration 10. No form of attack can suppress a mythic shoggoth’s regeneration—it regenerates even if disintegrated or slain by a death effect. If a mythic shoggoth is affected by an effect that would kill it instantly or cause it to suffer a permanent harmful effect, it returns to life with 1 hit point or ends the effect 1 hour later. The only way to permanently destroy a mythic shoggoth is to reduce it below -30 hit points and then use wish or miracle to cause its death.

Maddening Cacophony (Su)

As a free action, a mythic shoggoth can give voice to sounds and words sane life was not meant to hear. All creatures in a 60-foot radius must make a DC 22 Will save or be confused for 1d6 rounds. Each round a creature is affected it takes 1d6 points of Wisdom damage. A creature that saves cannot be affected by this shoggoth’s maddening cacophony for 24 hours. This is a sonic mind-affecting effect.

The save DC is Charisma-based.

Reactive Strike (Ex)

Whenever a mythic shoggoth takes damage from a creature within its reach, it can take an attack of opportunity against that creature after the attack is resolved.

Tekeli-li! (Su)

When a creature takes Wisdom damage from a mythic shoggoth’s maddening cacophony ability, the shoggoth can expend one use of mythic power as a swift action to triple the amount of Wisdom damage dealt.

Undeniable Perception (Ex)

A mythic shoggoth sees with constant true seeing, though this effect is not magical and cannot be dispelled. It cannot be blinded, dazzled, or deafened, and its senses are not hindered by wind or weather effects, including natural or magical fog, gas, or mist.

Unspeakable Propagation (Ex)

Once per day, as a full-round action that provokes an attack of opportunity, a mythic shoggoth can expend two uses of mythic power to give birth to a ravenous embryonic shoggoth, and it can implant that creature within a helpless target as if using the embryonic implantation spell described in those products).

Immediately after birthing a baby shoggoth, the mythic shoggoth is staggered for 1d4 rounds. The baby shoggoth follows its mother’s commands and defends her to the best of its ability. Fortunately, a mythic shoggoth cannot abide its own offspring for very long, and most shoggoth-spawn are quickly consumed by their mother once the mother is no longer threatened. However, a few lucky ones are able to escape their mother’s insatiable hunger and within a year grow to terrible maturity (treat as a non-mythic shoggoth).

Utter Absorption (Ex)

Creatures reduced to 0 hit points while engulfed or grappled by a mythic shoggoth and must succeed on a DC 34 Fortitude save each round their bodies remain inside the shoggoth or become completely absorbed by the creature, leaving no remains whatsoever. Creatures killed in this fashion can only be returned to life through the use of a resurrection, true resurrection, miracle, or wish spell. The save DC is Constitution-based.

ABOUT

Environment cold aquatic or underground
Organization solitary
Treasure double standard

This immense mound of black slime thunders forward, eyes and mouths and even stranger things forming in its heaving bulk.

Although even lunatics and doom-saying prophets desperately claim the monstrous shoggoth is nothing more than a drug-induced vision or thankfully unreal nightmare, the truth is altogether more dire. The shoggoths exist, although they keep to the deepest of ocean trenches or the most remote of forgotten caverns and ruins, emerging only rarely to spread madness and destruction in their slimecaked wakes.

The first shoggoths were created in eons past, long before the first gods turned their attentions to the Material Plane. Some hold that the aboleths engineered them, while certain strange texts hint of a race even older that engineered the first shoggoths as slaves. Eventually, these dread beasts developed enough intelligence to rebel against their creators, and now they lurk, patient but potent, in the lightless deep, and those first shoggoths to awaken retreated into the darkest pits below the world and the most awful corners of the universe to brood in sinister shadow.

Some attract cults to worship them, though they rarely pay much attention to the pleas of their supplicants, focusing instead on birthing new abominations and aberrations into the world. Most simply devour any who dare come near, absorbing their physical substance and psychic essence to slake their eternal hunger.

While a shoggoth’s cacophony is a bewildering and eldritch mix of sound and dangerous secrets, the phrase “tekeli-li” is the most oft repeated cry, and these mysterious words are always discernible among their wild vocalizations. Sometimes, wild birds that dwell in places haunted by shoggoths seem to cry out this strange phrase, while at others it can be heard on blasts of frozen winds. Attempts to translate the phrase, even via magic, have only ever met with failure, as if the words themselves actively resist revealing their secrets to the world.

Variant: Shoggoth, Cogent (CR 19)

[Source]

This vast creature resembles a massive floating brain with dozens of green tentacles extending from its central mass. Each of its tentacles ends in a hideous, gulping maw. Electrical impulses course over its surface, perhaps ushering commands to the probing and writhing tendrils, which seem to cavort and flail by some mad design. The whole mass seems to glide effortlessly and must surely be buoyed by supernatural means. The cogent, or world flayers, are insanely powerful beings that occasionally leave the darkness between the stars. While their exact origins are unknown, sages speculate that they are the disembodied brains of elder beings. While normally only found in the darkness between the stars and other non-Euclidian planes of existence, cogent sometimes find their way to other mortal realms via dimensional bleeding and tears.

Most often, they will be encountered in the depths of space, throughout which they travel seeking places to consume. Wherever they appear, they seek to inflict maximum madness and chaos upon all sentient targets.

Type/Subtype Extraplanar; this replaces the shoggoth’s aquatic subtype.

Speed 10 ft., fly 60 ft.; this replaces the shoggoth’s normal speed and amphibious special quality.

Melee 4 bites +30 (3d6+15/19–20 plus mind rot); this replaces a shoggoth’s normal melee attacks.

Mind Drain (Su)

Every bite attack drains 1 point of Wisdom and 1 point of Intelligence from the victim, or 2 points each on a critical hit. The subject must then make a successful Will save DC 31 or suffer from a severe form of madness chosen by the GM. The onset time of this madness is immediate. The cogent heals 5 hit points for every Wisdom point drained. Below is one suggested form of madness. The save DC is Constitution-based.

This replaces the shoggoth’s grab and constrict special attacks.

Severe Teratophobia

Type insanity; save: Will DC varies onset 1 day effect irrational fear of monsters. Target is shaken as long as a monster (non-humanoid creature) is obvious; additionally, if the subject is directly confronted by a monster (he attempts to attack it for example, or the creature attacks one of the subject’s allies), he must make a Will save against the insanity, or become panicked by the monster for 1d6 rounds. If the subject is directly attacked by a monster, he must make a Will save against the insanity, or be cowered by the monster for 1d6+1 rounds.

Mental Degradation (Su)

Prolonged exposure to a cogent and its unnatural existence can have a detrimental effect on the psyche. Every round a creature ends its turn within 300 ft. of a cogent, that creature must make a successful Will save or suffer from a severe form of madness chosen by GM. The onset time of this madness is immediate. The DC for this begins at 11 and increases by 1 each round to an eventual maximum of 31. This is a mind-affecting effect. The maximum save DC is Constitution-based.

Divine Electricity (Ex)

The cogent’s vast synaptic responses carry with it a heavy electrical charge. A cogent’s attacks deal 2d6 electrical damage in addition to damage dealt on a successful hit in melee; +4d6 on a successful critical hit. Half of this damage is divine energy and is not subject to energy resistance or immunity. Creatures that hit a cogent with natural weapons, unarmed attacks, or primarily metal melee weapons take divine electrical damage as though hit by the cogent.

This replaces the shoggoth’s engulf and trample special attacks.

Environment any; this replaces the shoggoth’s cold aquatic or underground