Kaiju, VarklopsThis immense, fiery-orange serpent has three horned heads, a pair
of draconic wings, and a long tail tipped with four bony spikes.Varklops CR 30Source Bestiary 6 pg. 170
XP 9,830,400
CE Colossal magical beast (fire, kaiju)
Init +17; Senses darkvision 600 ft., low-light vision, mistsight,
tremorsense 300 ft.; Perception +34DefenseAC 48, touch 16, flat-footed 34 (+13 Dex, +1 dodge, +32 natural,
–8 size)
hp 752 (35d10+560); fast healing 30
Fort +35, Ref +32, Will +23
Defensive Abilities deflect cold, ferocity, recovery; DR 20/epic; Immune ability damage, ability drain, death effects, disease,
energy drain, fear, fire; Resist acid 30, cold 30, electricity 30,
negative energy 30, sonic 30
Weaknesses distracted when outnumbered, vulnerable to coldOffenseSpeed 80 ft., burrow 60 ft., fly 150 ft. (poor)
Melee 3 bites +46 (6d6+26/19–20 plus burn), 2 wings +44
(3d8+16/19–20 plus burn), tail slap +46 (4d8+35/19–20/×3
plus burn)
Space 60 ft., Reach 60 ft.
Special Attacks breath weapon, burn (2d6 fire, DC 43), eruption,
fire monsoon, improved hurl foe, kaijuslayer, rend (2 bites,
6d6+28; or 3 bites, 12d6+28)StatisticsStr 48, Dex 37, Con 42, Int 3, Wis 30, Cha 29
Base Atk +35; CMB +62 (+66 bull rush); CMD 86 (88 vs. bull rush,
can’t be tripped)
Feats Combat Reflexes, Critical Focus, Dodge, Greater Bull Rush, Greater Vital Strike, Improved Bull Rush, Improved Critical
(bite, tail slap, wing), Improved Initiative, Improved Iron Will, Improved Vital Strike, Iron Will, Lunge, Multiattack, Power
Attack, Staggering Critical, Vital Strike
Skills Fly +34, Perception +34; Racial Modifiers +16 Perception
Languages Ignan (can’t speak)
SQ devastating, massive, powerful blows (tail slap)EcologyEnvironment warm mountains
Organization solitary (unique)
Treasure incidentalSpecial AbilitiesBreath Weapon (Su) Each of Varklops’s three heads can exhale a blast of searing fire and billowing ash in a 1,200-foot line once every 4 rounds. Each head’s breath weapon is a separate attack with its own 4-round recharge period. The kaiju can exhale one line of fire as a move action, two lines as a standard action, or three lines as a full-round action. Each breath weapon deals 20d6 points of fire damage and 20d6 points of bludgeoning damage to all creatures in the area of effect as they are barraged with semi-solid chunks of superheated rock and magma expelled in the torrent of fire; targets are also stunned for 1 round by the overwhelming force. With a successful DC 43 Reflex save, a creature takes half damage and negates the stun effect. If Varklops exhales more than one breath weapon, he can use them in different directions. If a creature is subjected to more than one breath weapon in a round in this manner, it takes damage from and must attempt separate saves against each breath weapon. The save DCs are Constitution-based.
Deflect Cold (Ex) Although Varklops is vulnerable to cold damage, he can shield himself from a cold attack by reflexively curling his wings around himself as an immediate action when he would otherwise take cold damage. He must choose to use this ability before any cold damage from the attack is applied and before he attempts any applicable saving throws to resist the cold damage, but he can wait until after the attack hits to choose to deflect cold. When he uses this ability, all cold damage from that particular attack is ignored. At Varklops’s discretion, he can deflect the cold damage to any single adjacent creature, which is then instead treated as the target of the cold attack. If the cold attack was an area effect that also affected the adjacent creature, that creature does not take the cold damage twice, but does need to attempt two saving throws (if applicable) against the effect, taking the worse of the two results as the actual result.
Devastating (Ex) Varklops is particularly devastating, and any attack or special ability he uses to deal damage to an object ignores hardness less than 20. Objects take full damage from his fire-based attacks.
Distracted When Outnumbered (Ex) While Varklops is furiously focused on slaying kaiju, his rudimentary intellect supports a surprisingly powerful and inflated sense of selfworth that crumbles when he faces overwhelming odds. In any combat round that involves two allied kaiju focusing their efforts against him, Varklops loses his kaijuslayer ability and becomes so distracted by which target to focus on that he must succeed at a DC 30 Will save or become staggered for that round. Non-kaiju cannot distract Varklops in this manner, even if the non-kaiju is similar in size to a kaiju.
Eruption (Su) Up to three times per day (but no more than once every 4 rounds) as Varklops emerges onto the surface of terrain after burrowing, he does so with an explosion of ash and magma. All creatures within 150 feet of Varklops when he bursts out of the ground in this manner take 20d6 points of fire damage. Huge or smaller creatures in this area are knocked prone. With a successful DC 43 Reflex save, creatures take half the damage and negate being knocked prone, but a creature that takes any damage from this eruption is subjected to Varklops’s burn ability. In addition, the eruption creates a cloud of ash in the area of effect; this cloud of ash lingers in the area for 1 minute, obscuring vision as per obscuring mist. The save DC is Constitution-based.
Fire Monsoon (Su) Once per day as Varklops moves at full speed while flying, he can rain down a torrential storm of fire, burning any target up to 300 feet below him. All targets Varklops passes over in flight take 20d6 points of fire damage (Reflex DC 43 half); any creature that takes any damage from this attack is subjected to Varklops’s burn ability. The area affected by the fire monsoon continues to burn for 1 minute—any creature that begins its turn in this area takes 4d6 points of fire damage. The save DC is Constitution-based.
Improved Hurl Foe (Ex) When Varklops hits a creature with his tail slap and uses his hurl foe kaiju ability (see page 305), the distance the foe is knocked back doubles.
Kaijuslayer (Su) Varklops takes particular delight in the slaying of other kaiju, and his aggression causes all kaiju to take a –4 penalty on saving throws against Varklops’s special attacks. Another kaiju cannot use recovery to prevent itself from being killed by one of Varklops’s attacks. This ability does not function against the kaiju known as King Mogaru.DescriptionLord Varklops is indisputably the most powerful of the known kaiju, a tremendously destructive force of devastation that dwells in the heart of an active volcano in a tropical mountain range when not hunting his favorite prey—other kaiju. Although the fact that Lord Varklops so eagerly hunts and slays kaiju might seem to make him an ally of all civilizations threatened by such creatures, in truth Varklops is also one of the few kaiju to be actively evil in his predations upon the world. When no other kaiju present themselves as victims and the urge to destroy seizes Varklops, the socalled Thrice-Headed Fiend thinks nothing of razing entire cities for his pleasure.
This eagerness to destroy appeals to apocalypse-minded cultists and to deranged exiles who seek revenge against the cities they were forced to flee. Varklops is known to look favorably upon those who approach him with requests for targeted devastation—particularly if the offer includes the opportunity to attack another kaiju. Varklops has little interest in assaulting civilizations in polar regions, but his greatest weakness is his inflated, if rudimentary, ego.
When facing multiple kaiju, Varklops often gets distracted and frustrated—a condition that several societies have risked using to their advantage by luring other kaiju to their defense. Of course, the devastation a city might suffer when three or more kaiju fight may well exceed that wrought by Varklops alone, so such desperate actions are not taken lightly.
Varklops has a particularly strong hatred of King Mogaru, as this kaiju alone can resist Varklops’s rage. The reasons for this immunity are unknown, but certainly Mogaru matches Varklops’s hatred, and battles between the two kaiju are the stuff of legend. Varklops is 200 feet long and weighs 16,000 tons.Creatures in "Kaiju" CategorySource Bestiary 4 pg. 165
In the furthest reaches of the globe, where civilization itself is a legend and mapmakers can only make guesses about lands and denizens, immense creatures that are worshiped as gods walk the world. Capable of devastating entire cities in a single day of ruin and unleashing powerful supernatural attacks, these fabled, so-called “gods” are anything but. These massive monsters are known as kaiju, and the tales told of their genesis are as varied as the strange forms and capabilities of the monsters themselves.
A kaiju is a monster of tremendous size—far larger than almost any other creature. Each kaiju is unique, but they all share a few traits in common (see the kaiju subtype on page 307). Kaiju can be of different types, but most are magical beasts. Although kaiju are semiintelligent and can generally understand a single language, they cannot speak. Some legends tell of certain gifted or unique people being able to call kaiju from vast distances to aid them in times of distress. This type of bond with a kaiju isn’t well understood, but rarely comes to those who already possess great power. Rather, it is the helpless, the compassionate, and the meek who can bring forth kaiju.
Kaiju generally dwell in distant, remote wildernesses, often in unusually close proximity to one another. There they battle, but never quite seem to finish their constant conflicts before one of the beasts staggers away to recover from the clash, defeated only for the moment. Visitors to one of the remote lands where kaiju frequently clash can often explore without too much fear, as long as they take care not to be too visible or destructive as they explore. Unless a kaiju is being attacked or is particularly aggressive (such as when it’s defending a territory), it’s likely to ignore Medium or smaller creatures that wander in its vicinity, just as a human might ignore an ant crawling nearby.
A kaiju’s supernatural metabolism allows it to draw energy and nutrition from sources other than food— each kaiju “feeds” in a different way on a different form of energy, but when denied its energy source it does not starve. Instead, the immense monster simply falls into torpor, hibernating until a new source of energy awakens it once again. In some cases, a kaiju can lie dormant for ages—so long that civilizations have time to unknowingly encroach upon lands the monster claimed long ago as its territory. As long as the new civilizations take care to not accidentally waken the monster, they can coexist with the slumbering kaiju in relative peace for many, many years. Yet eventually, some event will inevitably waken the slumbering giant and call it forth into a rampage.
Certain events can drive a kaiju into a destructive frenzy. Powerful storms or natural disasters, rare and dangerous rituals designed to call out to them, the use of incredibly powerful magical weapons, wars, and the approach of other kaiju can all send one of these creatures on a rampage of wrath. When a kaiju begins such a rampage, it leaves its remote wilderness home and travels far afield, often for hundreds or even thousands of miles through unexplored wilds or across entire oceans until it reaches the source of the irritation.
Upon arriving in such a location, the kaiju seeks out the source of whatever enraged it, or if no obvious source is apparent, it simply tramples a path of destruction through whatever city or fortress or locale happens to be in its way. Once a kaiju’s rampage begins, it can last for weeks, with the monster periodically retreating between attacks into wildernesses or oceans near the source of the disturbance to rest or recuperate.
Societies that are frequently plagued by kaiju attacks often build special magical siege engines designed to drive off the monster, or even seek to recruit the aid of other kaiju to battle the intruder. Unfortunately, the collateral damage caused by multiple kaiju is significant, and fighting fire with fire in this way may leave behind nothing but rubble.
All kaiju are Colossal, and have a space and reach of no less than 50 feet each. A bipedal kaiju typically stands between 100 and 200 feet in height; quadrupedal kaiju are half as tall. A kaiju’s size makes a battle against one challenging to run. At the scale needed to track tactical movement for Medium creatures, a kaiju takes up a massive amount of space. When designing an encounter with a kaiju, plan ahead and prepare a larger area so that you can track the kaiju’s movement effectively.Known Kaiju The kaiju presented on the following pages are but three of the legendary creatures said to dwell in remote places in the world. Here is a list of others, including the places they’re rumored to dwell.
Agmazar, the Star Titan of the vast jungle
Cimurlian, the Great Bear of the frozen north
Ebeshra, the Winged Razor of the furthest clouds
Igroon, the Dragon Eater of the lost island
Mantraska, the World Talons of the rain forest
Shbloon, the Vortex Maw of the ocean deep
Lord Varklops, the Thrice-Headed Fiend of the dormant volcano
Queen Vorgozen, the Shapeless Feeder of the vast swamp
Yarthoon, the Moon Grub of the darkest nights
Yorak, the Horned Thunder of the great mountains
Zimivra, the Endless Coils of the trackless desert
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