Dimensional Shambler

Dimensional Shambler CR 8

XP 4,800
CE Medium outsider (chaotic, evil)
Init +7; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +14

DEFENSE

AC 21, touch 13, flat-footed 18 (+3 Dex, +8 natural)
hp 94 (9d10+45)
Fort +11, Ref +8, Will +10
Defensive Abilities resist conjuration; DR 5/lawful; Immune summoning

OFFENSE

Speed 30 ft.
Melee 2 claws +14 (2d6+5 plus grab)
Special Attacks dimension mastery, shift planes
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 8th; concentration +9)

STATISTICS

Str 21, Dex 16, Con 20, Int 7, Wis 14, Cha 13
Base Atk +9; CMB +14 (+18 grapple); CMD 27
Feats Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, Lunge, Vital Strike
Skills Knowledge (planes) +18, Perception +14, Sense Motive +14, Stealth +15; Racial Modifiers +8 Knowledge (planes)
Languages Aklo

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Dimension Mastery (Ex)

A dimensional shambler can take actions normally after using dimension door effects. A dimensional shambler under the effects of a dimensional anchor or dimensional lock spell can ignore the effects of the spell for 1 round by making a DC 25 Knowledge (planes) check as a move action.

Resist Conjuration (Ex)

Dimensional shamblers detest being conjured by other creatures. They are immune to all spell effects of the summoning school and are treated as if they had double their actual Hit Dice (18 HD for most dimensional shamblers) for the purposes of determining if they can be conjured by spells like planar ally or planar binding.

Shift Planes (Su)

A dimensional shambler can shift between planes once per hour, using an effect that is similar to that created by the plane shift spell, save that a dimensional shambler is a master of such travel and can manifest at an exact location on its destination plane if it makes a DC 20 Knowledge (planes) check. If it exceeds this DC by 10 or more, it can place itself in such a position upon arrival that if combat immediately results from its appearance, it gains a +10 bonus on its resulting initiative check. Using shift planes is a full-round action that provokes attacks of opportunity, during which the dimensional shambler shimmers and grows increasingly transparent.

A dimensional shambler can use this ability while grappling a creature—doing so does not provoke attacks of opportunity from the creature it is grappling. If the creature is of the dimensional shambler’s size or smaller (Medium for most dimensional shamblers), that creature shifts planes with the dimensional shambler unless it makes a DC 15 Will save. The save DC is Charisma-based.

ABOUT

Environment any
Organization solitary, pair, or gang (3–9)
Treasure standard

This rugose figure rears up to a man’s height, its large hands bearing far too many twitching fingers.

The dimensional shambler is a vagabond of the realms between realms. With its ability to shift planes, it is no stranger to the weirdest the planes have to offer, and despite its brutish and unrefined intellect, its knowledge of the planes and the relationships between dimensions is significant indeed.

A dimensional shambler is humanoid in outline, yet it moves with a weird and alien gait that gives it the appearance of a creature not in full possession of its faculties, almost as if it were drunk or horribly wounded. Yet those who mistake this shambling posture as a sign of weakness swiftly learn of their error, for the dimensional shambler is in fact quite agile—the weird lumbering cadence of its movements is simply another outward manifestation of its inhuman countenance. A dimensional shambler typically stands just over 7 feet in height and weighs 350 pounds.

The need a dimensional shambler has for exploring the planes is not fully understood by mortal scholars.

Certainly, curiosity seems to be a large part of their drive—a dimensional shambler can spend weeks or even years simply observing a particularly unusual planar feature, such as the expulsion of raw protolife from the Positive Energy Plane into the surrounding realities, the strange semianimate heavings of an Abyssal swamp giving birth to a legion of demons, or the mind-numbing violence of a reality storm deep in the Maelstrom. As chaotic evil outsiders, they are most comfortable on planes that either have no strong alignment traits or are close to chaotic evil, yet this does not prevent them from exploring realms beyond.

Dimensional shamblers seem to have very little interest in others of their kind. While they do not display any instinctual need for violence against others of their ilk when chance brings them together, neither do they seek out their own kind for companionship. Dimensional shamblers are solitary beings, and the majority of their interactions with other forms of life are violent—they are fond of snatching creatures who are capable of comprehending their own peril and whisking them away to remote corners of the multiverse.

Those few who have endured these abductions and survived to tell the tale did so either by escaping their captors and hiding, or by slaying the shamblers. In all cases, their return home has involved harrowing journeys through the Great Beyond, for the dimensional shambler is frustratingly skilled at selecting particularly remote and dangerous realms as destinations for its abductions. The fate of the majority of these victims is unknown, although circumstantial evidence indicates that the shambler itself plays a key and grisly role in the victims’ doom.

Spellcasters have long sought to harness the dimensional shambler’s ability to accurately travel between planes.

Mortal magic has traditionally found this feat a difficult one to master—plane shift is notorious for its inaccuracy, often leaving powerful effects like gate, miracle, or wish as the favored methods of safe interplanar travel. Yet the dimensional shambler seems able to navigate the unnavigable with ease, traveling between incredibly diverse and distant locations with no more difficulty than a human might have stepping out of a house into his own front yard.

Unfortunately, the same mastery over dimensional travel that affords shamblers such accurate navigation allows them to resist the call of conjurers with surprising skill.

In fact, by the time most spellcasters master the magic required to lure or conjure a dimensional shambler, it is often a simpler matter to use a gate spell instead. Some conjurers claim to have developed methods of attracting dimensional shamblers more easily. Through the use of blood sacrifice via a blade of purest metal and the application of exacting mathematical symbols or other complex combinations of runes, these spellcasters can call upon dimensional shamblers with relative ease. Unfortunately, the exact combination of runes, metals, and bloodshed seems different for every dimensional shambler, so once a spellcaster discovers the correct combination to lure one of these monsters, the secret that caster has uncovered is as closely guarded as her greatest treasures. The nature and availability of these secret rituals are left to the GM to determine, but such a ritual’s recipe could well be worth 8,000 gp or more to an interested party.

Section 15: Copyright Notice

Mythos Monsters (PF1) © 2022, Legendary Games; Authors Jason Nelson, Jim Groves, Jonathan Keith, Tom Phillips, Alistair J. Rigg, and Greg A. Vaughan

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