Oni, Fire YaiThis fanged, three-eyed giant rages in its finely crafted armor, its skin as red as a smoldering ember.Fire Yai CR 15Source Bestiary 3 pg. 206
XP 51,200
NE Large outsider (fire, giant, native, oni, shapechanger)
Init +7; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +23DefenseAC 29, touch 10, flat-footed 28 (+8 armor, +1 Dex, +11 natural, –1 size)
hp 229 (17d10+136); regeneration 5 (acid or cold)
Fort +18, Ref +10, Will +15
Immune fire; SR 26
Weaknesses vulnerability to coldOffenseSpeed 40 ft., fly 60 ft. (good); 30 ft., fly 40 ft. (good) in armor
Melee +1 katana +27/+22/+17/+12 (2d6+16/18–20) or 2 slams +26 (1d10+10)
Ranged fiery missile +19 touch (4d6 fire plus burn)
Space 10 ft., Reach 10 ft.
Special Attacks burn (2d6, DC 26), smoke form
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 15th; concentration +17)
Constant—fly
At will—darkness, invisibility (self only), scorching ray
3/day—charm monster (DC 16), deep slumber (DC 15), fireball (DC 15), fire shield (warm shield only), wall of fire
1/day—incendiary cloud (DC 20)StatisticsStr 31, Dex 16, Con 26, Int 14, Wis 17, Cha 15
Base Atk +17; CMB +28; CMD 41
Feats Cleave, Combat Reflexes, Great Cleave, Improved Initiative, Improved Overrun, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, Power Attack, Vital Strike
Skills Bluff +22, Craft (weapons) +12, Craft (armor) +12, Diplomacy +11, Disguise +11, Fly +19, Intimidate +22, Knowledge (arcana) +14, Perception +23, Sense Motive +23, Spellcraft +11, Use Magic Device +14
Languages Common, Giant
SQ change shape (Medium or Large humanoid; alter self or giant form I)EcologyEnvironment temperate or warm hills or mountains
Organization solitary, band (1 plus 4–8 fire giants), tribe (1 plus 20–30 fire giants), or dynasty (1 plus 2–20 other oni)
Treasure standard (+1 banded mail, +1 katana, other treasure)Special AbilitiesFiery Missile (Su) As a swift action, a fire yai can launch a bolt of fire from its third eye. This attack has a range of 180 feet with no range increment.
Smoke Form (Sp) As a standard action, a fire yai can turn into a cloud of smoke. This functions like gaseous form, except the cloud has the properties of the smoke cloud from a pyrotechnics spell (Fort DC 26 negates the effects of the smoke cloud). The fire yai can end this ability as a standard action.DescriptionFire yai prefer to live in luxury—an orderly and well-built abode is essential. Even a lone fire yai prefers to build or inhabit a fortified stone dwelling in its territory, and surrounds itself with as many luxuries as it can acquire. Vain, greedy, and brutal, fire yai are the most impulsive of their kind—several tales tell of clever heroes taunting fire yai to act rashly. They rarely let challenges pass uncontested and react quickly to squelch any threat to their rule.
While many fire yai seek out tribes of fire giants to infiltrate and rule, not all follow this compulsion. Capable of assuming the form of many types of humanoid, some fire yai seek to subtly invade and eventually rule entire nations of humanoids from within.
A fire yai is 16 feet tall and weighs 7,000 pounds.Creatures in "Oni" CategorySource Bestiary 3 pg. 205
Oni are a race of evil spirits, native to the Material Plane, that manifest physical bodies based upon the shapes and desires of humanoid mortals. In pure spirit form, an oni is nothing but a disembodied evil longing for the sins of the flesh. In this form, oni are harmless and invisible. The majority of these bodiless oni were once kami who failed their wards, or more often, who deliberately abandoned them. As punishment, they were stripped of their ability to form a physical body and then cast into the void. Rarely, a mortal creature's soul can become a disembodied oni upon death, or in even rarer cases, after a truly evil individual has undergone a particularly vile ritual that ends in suicide. These oni are more often destined for positions of great power and strength than most.
Eventually, an oni's spirit manifests a physical body on the Material Plane. The methods by which this may occur vary, but the process generally takes place in areas already despoiled by sin, tragedy, or cruelty. The type of oni a spirit transforms into is influenced by a wide variety of variables, ranging from the nature of what the oni spirit was before to the location where it is reborn into the realm of flesh and blood. Once an oni manifests its physical body, that body becomes its true form for the rest of its life—all oni are shapechangers, but this original form is the form in which they are born and the form they revert to upon death.
An oni's true form is always similar to that of a specific type of humanoid, save that it is always deformed and monstrous to look upon. Tusks, additional eyes, or strangely colored skin are common physical attributes. Yet while they have hideous forms, all oni are capable of changing their shape to assume forms more pleasant to the civilized eye. The type of shapes an oni can assume depend upon its species, but all can transform into some form of humanoid. Oni use this ability to infiltrate humanoid societies, either to prey upon the weak or to rule them in disguise.
In order to understand oni, it is important to consider that most of these beings were once spirits tasked with protecting a material realm they now believe is undeserving of such care and concern—indeed, the physical world is to be dominated and consumed. They arrive in physical form starved for sensory experience, and never fully sate their desire to gorge on such experiences. Most oni seek to attain positions of leadership and power, often in the guise of a normal humanoid, in order to secure a never-ending supply of sensory experiences. It is also important to understand that oni's immoderation is also motivated by their corrupted and evil natures—that is, no pleasure is more enjoyable than one that deprives or wounds another.
Oni retain their hatred of the kami upon reentering the Material Plane as physical creatures, and often their depredations and violations of the world can be directly tied to their efforts to destroy kami or the kami's works. Oni tend not to congregate with others of their kind, being most comfortable in positions of leadership over enslaved or oppressed societies populated by humanoids they can masquerade as. Yet, at times, particularly powerful oni abandon this mindset and instead gather to their side entire legions of oni drawn from all types. The oni known collectively as the yai—oni with an affinity for true giants—are most often responsible for such actions, and when a yai builds such an army of oni, the humanoid lands shake with terror.
Theoretically, as many types of oni exist as there are types of humanoids, although in reality, certain types of oni are much more populous than others. The ogre mage, an oni associated with ogres, is the best-known and most commonly encountered type of oni, for reasons that still send scholars of oni lore into spiraling arguments with seemingly no end. Beyond the oni detailed on the following pages, the atamahuta (ettins), ja noi (hobgoblins), nogitsune (kitsune), and wind yai (cloud giants) are relatively well known. Oni with associations to bugbears, great cyclopes, stone giants, trolls, troglodytes, and other races exist as well. And above even the mighty void yai there exist the oni demigods—entities of nearly incomprehensible power known as the oni daimyo. Known Oni Daimyo Countless oni stalk the world, slaking their greed and bloodlust to the misery of humanoids. The great leaders among the oni, beings known as daimyo, are as numerous as the nations of the world, and all oni seek to climb the rungs of power to become such powerful entities. The following list includes oni daimyo that have power in ways that make them known and feared outside their own domains. Most of these nefarious oni command armies or control points through which other oni can enter the world. - Akuma, the Horned King (ogre mage)
- Chimon, Hunter of Blood (ogre mage)
- Guyuku, the Sea Devil (water oni)
- Inma, Empress of the World (void oni)
- Muronna, the Dark Mother (ogre mage)
- Nataka, the Red King (fire oni)
- Onmyuza, Dancer in Flesh (ogre mage)
- Ushitora, Keeper of the Oni Gate (void oni)
- Uzumae, Daimyo of the North (kuwa oni)
- Yabu, Lord of the Kazan Caldera (fire oni)
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