Demon, KatpaskirFour clawed arms sprout from this fiend’s chest like the limbs of a buried insect struggling to crawl free. Overlapping iridescent plates of chitin cascade down the monster’s back, shrouding four membranous dragonfly wings.Katpaskir CR 18Source Pathfinder #78: City of Locusts pg. 86
XP 153,600
CE Medium outsider (chaotic, demon, evil, extraplanar)
Init +9; Senses darkvision 60 ft., see invisibility; Perception +37
Aura distance distortion (30 ft., DC 26)DefenseAC 31, touch 15, flat-footed 26 (+5 Dex, +16 natural)
hp 304 (21d10+189)
Fort +16, Ref +17, Will +17
Defensive Abilities freedom of movement; DR 10/cold iron and lawful; Immune electricity, poison; Resist acid 10, cold 10, fire 10; SR 29OffenseSpeed 40 ft., burrow 20 ft., fly 60 ft. (average)
Melee 2 claws +31 (2d6+10/19–20), 4 talons +31 (1d8+10)
Special Attacks breaching, mirror of the tainted rift
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 20th; concentration +26)
Constant—freedom of movement, see invisibility
At will—blink, dimension door, dimensional anchor, greater teleport (self plus 50 lbs. of objects only), plane shift (DC 23)
3/day—banishment (DC 23), empowered disintegrate (DC 22), maze
1/day—gate, summon (level 7, 1d4 fiendish army ant swarms 50%), summon monster IXStatisticsStr 31, Dex 20, Con 28, Int 17, Wis 21, Cha 22
Base Atk +21; CMB +31 (+35 sunder); CMD 46 (48 vs. sunder)
Feats Dimensional Agility, Dimensional Assault, Dimensional Dervish, Dimensional Maneuvers, Dimensional Savant, Empower Spell-Like Ability (disintegrate), Greater Sunder, Improved Critical (claw), Improved Initiative, Improved Sunder, Power Attack
Skills Bluff +30, Disable Device +29, Fly +29, Knowledge (arcana) +27, Knowledge (planes) +31, Perception +37, Sense Motive +29, Spellcraft +27, Use Magic Device +30; Racial Modifiers +4 Knowledge (planes), +8 Perception
Languages Abyssal, Aklo, Celestial, Common; telepathy 100 ft.
SQ teleportation disruption, warp senseEcologyEnvironment any (Abyss)
Organization solitary
Treasure standardSpecial AbilitiesBreaching (Su) When a katpaskir calls or summons a demon or creature with the fiendish simple template into an area where the summoned creature’s entry would be blocked by a magical effect (such as magic circle against evil, forbiddance, or dimensional lock), it can force the caster or creator of the effect to attempt a caster level check against the katpaskir’s spell resistance. On a failed check, the blocking effect is immediately and permanently negated.
Distance Distortion (Su) Reality bends and warps within 30 feet of a katpaskir. The demon moves and attacks normally through this distorted area, but other creatures within this area treat all distances as if they were double the actual distance for all purposes, including movement, range for spells, and ranged attacks. In addition, a creature that begins its turn within this aura must succeed at a DC 26 Will save or be slowed for 1 round (as the slow spell). Freedom of movement prevents the slow effect but not any of the other effects of the distance distortion aura. The save DC is Charisma-based.
Mirror of the Tainted Rift (Su) When one or more creature with the celestial simple template is summoned as part of the spell or ability within 30 feet of a katpaskir, the katpaskir can, as an immediate action, summon an equal number of creatures of the same type with the fiendish simple template. If a good-aligned outsider is called or summoned within 30 feet of a katpaskir, it can duplicate the calling or summoning spell as an immediate action, calling or summoning one or more demons as if it had cast the same spell.
Teleportation Disruption (Su) When a creature uses a teleportation effect to enter or leave a space within 30 feet of a katpaskir, the caster must immediately attempt a caster level check (DC equal to the katpaskir’s spell resistance). On a failed check, the teleportation effect is negated. If it chooses, the katpaskir can instead redirect the arrival location of the teleportation effect to any unoccupied space within 120 feet.
Warp Sense (Ex) A katpaskir can automatically sense disruptions in the planar fabric within 1 mile. The demon is immediately aware of any conjuration effect used within this area, and it also knows the direction and approximate distance. When a teleportation effect is used within 1 mile of a katpaskir (including arriving within this area from somewhere else), the demon can use clairaudience/clairvoyance as an immediate action centered on the point the teleportation effect originated from or the point the teleportation effect is directed at as long as the point is within 1 mile; if both points are within 1 mile, the katpaskir can use clairaudience/clairvoyance centered on both.DescriptionKatpaskirs are a pox and pestilence upon not just the world, but reality itself. Just as bugs burrow into unwatched crevices, katpaskirs pry their way into other realms and dimensions. They gnaw and scratch and grind away at the edges of the universe, the planar junctures where the folds of creation bend in upon themselves. They have an uncanny sense for finding natural rifts, portals, and convergences, and they seek ever for ways to expand and untether these natural gates. By setting them loose to drift across the world, they unhinge the orderly substrate of the multiverse, casting all into primordial chaos as the planes unravel. Their voices are strange and echoing, like several voices sounding together, each distorted and cacophonous and rising and falling asynchronously in pitch and volume. When not actively engaged in a task, katpaskirs tend to stand perfectly still, with the exception of its insectlike limbs, which rhythmically stroke the air in front of them. When other creature come near—or if some teleporting creature triggers the demon’s warp sense special ability—it snaps out of this self-imposed stasis, ready to attack. Katpaskirs are a little over 7 feet tall and weigh just less than 600 pounds.EcologyKatpaskirs form in the Abyss from the souls of those apocalyptic preachers, doomsayers, and cult leaders who, not content to merely announce the end of days, took it upon themselves in life to bring a living hell to the realms where they resided. Some led suicide cults of dozens if not hundreds, while others organized ultraviolent gangs of nihilistic thugs, spouting cultured witticisms and philosophical sophistries while perpetrating the basest depravities. For them, the anarchic dissolution of society was only a harbinger of the very real disintegration of all that is.
These fiends are a natural fit for the armies of Deskari, and indeed, katpaskirs have been used by the Locust Lord for many eons as apocalyptic leaders and generals in his plane-spanning campaigns. Some of Deskari’s most fervent and influential worshipers are known to have become katpaskirs in the afterlife, earning the powers of cataclysm and madness they so desperately sought while still mortal.Habitat & SocietyExcept in unique circumstances that align with their goals, katpaskirs rarely interact with humanoid cultists of Deskari. In part, this is because their power makes them nigh uncontrollable even for the mightiest spellcaster, but also because these demons see little use in humanity and their ilk. To katpaskirs, mortals are part of the reality that must be destroyed, not the implements of its destruction. They may make brief use of humanoid minions, but at their earliest opportunity they devour and destroy those seeking to serve them, unleashing a horde of fiendish terrors to finish their mission of ultimate destruction. Crazed cultists of Deskari and powerful members of the Blackfire Adepts sometimes call upon katpaskirs to help the group create new portals to Deskari’s Rasping Rifts or tear rifts between worlds, but such humanoids know that such a summoning ensures their own final reckoning as well.
Katpaskirs are drawn to newly opened rifts and thin places between the planes. Upon reaching such areas, a katpaskir may either attempt to accelerate the opening of the rift or wait for whatever creatures come through once it opens.Creatures in "Demon" CategorySource Pathfinder RPG Bestiary pg. 57
Demons exist for one reason—to destroy. Where their more lawful counterparts, the devils of Hell, seek to twist mortal minds and values to remake and reshape them into reflections of their own evil, demons seek only to maim, ruin, and feed. They recruit mortal life only if such cohorts speed along the eventual destruction of hope and goodness. Death is, in some ways, their enemy—for a mortal who dies can often escape a demon's depredations and flee to his just reward in the afterlife. It is the prolonging of mortal pain and suffering that fuels a demon's lusts and desires, for it is partially from mortal sin and cruelty that these monstrous fiends were born.
Demons are the most prolific and among the most destructive of the fiendish races, yet despite what some lore might preach, they were not the first forms of life to rise in the stinking pits of ruin and cruelty known across the multiverse as the Abyss. Before the first fledgling deity gazed upon reality, before mortal life drew its breath, before even the Material Plane itself had fully formed, the Abyss was infested with life.
Known to many scholars as “proto-demons,” these wretched and deadly beings were the qlippoth. Today, because of the influence of sinful mortal souls upon the Abyss, mixed with unholy tamperings at the hands of the daemonic keepers of Abaddon and the cruel whims of fate and evolution, the rule of the qlippoth has receded. The proto-demons dwell now in the noxious and forgotten corners of the Abyss, and the far more fecund and prolific demons rule now in their stead. With each evil mortal soul that finds its way into the Abyss, the ranks of the demonic hordes grows—a single soul can fuel the manifestation of dozens or even hundreds of demons, with the exact nature of the sins carried by the soul guiding the shapes and roles of the newly formed fiends.
The Abyss is a vast (some say infinite) realm, far larger than any other plane save possibly the primal chaos of the Maelstrom itself. As befits such a vast and varied realm, the demonic host is likewise diverse. Some carry in their frames humanoid shapes, while others are twisted beasts. Some flop on land while others flap in air or sea. Some are schemers and manipulators of emotion and politics, others are destructive engines of ruin. Yet all demons work to the same goal—pain and suffering for mortal life in all its forms.
Yet despite this, mortals have sought demonic aid since the start. Be it an instinctual draw to self-destruction or a misguided lust for power, conjurers to this day continue to draw forth demons with forbidden magic. Some conjure demons for lore, while others call upon them to serve as assassins or guards. Demons view such summoners with a mix of hatred and thanks, for most demons lack the ability to come to the Material Plane to wreak havoc on their own. They depend on the mad to call them up from the Abyss, and while they gnash their fangs and rail against the commands and strictures enforced, most demons find ways to twist their summoners' demands so that even the most tightly controlled demonic slave leaves a trace of ruin and despair in its wake. More often than not, a foolish spellcaster makes a fatal mistake in the conjuring and pays for it with blood, unwittingly releasing a terrible blight upon the world as his conjuration breaks free of his control.
The truly mad call upon demons to offer themselves, both body and soul, in the misguided belief that alliance with the demonic can buy salvation and protection when the demonic apocalypse finally comes to call. Tales of desperate kings who sought to engage demons to serve as generals for their armies or of lunatics who seek demonic sires to gift them with horrific children are common enough, yet worst are those mortals who worship the most powerful demons as gods, and who pledge their lives in support of that which would bring destruction to all. Demon SubtypeDemons are chaotic evil outsiders that call the Abyss their home. Demons possess a particular suite of traits (unless otherwise noted in a creature's entry) as summarized here.- Immunity to electricity and poison.
- Resistance to acid 10, cold 10, and fire 10.
- Summon (Sp) Demons share the ability to summon others of their kind, typically another of their type or a small number of less powerful demons.
- Telepathy.
- Except where otherwise noted, demons speak Abyssal, Celestial, and Draconic.
- A demon's natural weapons, as well as any weapon it wields, is treated as chaotic and evil for the purpose of resolving damage reduction
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