Shoggoth

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

Shoggoth CR 19

XP 204,800
CN Huge ooze (aquatic)
Init +11; Senses all-around vision, darkvision 120 ft., low-light vision, scent, tremorsense 60 ft.; Perception +33

DEFENSE

AC 33, touch 15, flat-footed 26 (+7 Dex, +18 natural, –2 size)
hp 333 (23d8+230); fast healing 10
Fort +19, Ref +14, Will +15
DR 10/—; Immune blindness, charm effects, cold, deafness, ooze traits, sonic; Resist acid 20, electricity 20, fire 20; SR 30

OFFENSE

Speed 50 ft., climb 30 ft., swim 50 ft.
Melee 4 slams +30 (3d6+15/19–20 plus grab)
Space 15 ft.; Reach 30 ft.
Special Attacks constrict (3d6+15), maddening cacophony, engulf (4d6+22 bludgeoning damage plus 8d6 acid damage, AC 19, hp 33), trample (4d8+15, DC 36)

STATISTICS

Str 40, Dex 24, Con 31, Int 5, Wis 22, Cha 13
Base Atk +17; CMB +34 (+39 grapple); CMD 51 (cannot be tripped)
Feats Blind-Fight, Cleave, Combat Reflexes, Critical Focus, Great Cleave, Great Fortitude, Improved Critical (slam), Improved Initiative, Improved Sunder, Iron Will, Power Attack, Staggering Critical
Skills Climb +23, Perception +33, Swim +23; Racial Modifiers +4 Perception
Languages Aklo
SQ amphibious

SPECIAL ABILITIES

All-Around Vision (Ex)

A shoggoth’s many sense organs grant a +4 racial bonus on Perception and immunity to flanking.

Maddening Cacophony (Su)

As a free action, a 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.

Engulf (Ex)

To use this ability, the 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 is way out of a shoggoth leaves no hole in the protoplasmic creature’s body.

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

ECOLOGY

Environment cold aquatic or underground
Organization solitary or tide (2–6)
Treasure standard

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 slime-caked 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.

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