Demon Lord, XoveronThis hulking, four-armed, four-headed, sting-tailed gargoyle stands as tall as a house.Xoveron CR 27Source Pathfinder #73: The Worldwound Incursion pg. 84
XP 3,276,800
CE Huge outsider
Init +6; Senses darkvision 60 ft., detect good, detect law, true seeing; Perception +55
Aura frightful presence (120 ft., DC 35), unholy aura (DC 27)DefenseAC 45, touch 30, flat-footed 39 (+4 deflection, +6 Dex, +15 natural, +12 profane, –2 size)
hp 643 (33d10+462); regeneration 30 (mythic or deific)
Fort +36, Ref +23, Will +33
Defensive Abilities Abyssal resurrection, freedom of movement; DR 20/cold iron, good, and epic; Immune ability damage and drain, acid, charm and compulsion effects, death effects, electricity, level drain, petrification, poison; Resist cold 30, fire 30; SR 38OffenseSpeed 50 ft., fly 80 ft. (good)
Melee 4 claws +48 (1d8+17/19–20), 4 bites +48 (2d6+17/19–20), sting +48 (1d8+17/19–20 plus poison)
Space 15 ft., Reach 15 ft.
Special Attacks devastating blow, feed, poison, rend (2 claws, 2d8+25), roar, shatter petrification, shockwave
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 27th; concentration +36)
Constant—detect good, detect law, freedom of movement, true seeing, unholy aura (DC 27)
At will—astral projection, blasphemy (DC 26), desecrate, flesh to stone (DC 25), greater dispel magic, greater teleport, shapechange, stone shape, telekinesis (DC 24), unhallow, unholy blight (DC 23)
3/day—earthquake, quickened flesh to stone (DC 25), reverse gravity, symbol of weakness (DC 26)
1/day—implosion (DC 28), imprisonment (DC 28), time stopStatisticsStr 44, Dex 23, Con 38, Int 24, Wis 32, Cha 28
Base Atk +33; CMB +52 (+56 bull rush, +56 sunder); CMD 86 (88 vs. bull rush, 88 vs. sunder)
Feats Awesome Blow, Bleeding Critical, Craft Construct, Craft Magic Arms and Armor, Craft Wondrous Item, Critical Focus, Greater Bull Rush, Greater Sunder, Improved Bull Rush, Improved Critical (claw, bite, sting), Improved Lightning Reflexes, Improved Sunder, Lightning Reflexes, Power Attack, Quicken Spell-Like Ability (flesh to stone)
Skills Acrobatics +39 (+47 when jumping), Disable Device +42, Fly +42, Intimidate +45, Knowledge (arcana) +40, Knowledge (religion) +40, Knowledge (engineering) +43, Knowledge (planes) +43, Perception +55, Sense Motive +47, Spellcraft +43, Stealth +34, Use Magic Device +42; Racial Modifiers +8 Perception
Languages Abyssal, Celestial, Common, Draconic, Terran; telepathy 300 ft.EcologyEnvironment any (Ghahazi, Abyss)
Organization solitary (unique)
Treasure tripleSpecial AbilitiesDevastating Blow (Su) As a standard action, Xoveron can bring all four of his claws to bear upon a single target. It this attack hits, he deals 8d8+68 points of bludgeoning damage. If the target is a creature, it must make a successful DC 43 Fortitude save or be knocked prone and staggered for 1d4 rounds. If the target is an object, the attack ignores all hardness possessed by the object. The save DC is Strength-based.
Feed (Su) Xoveron can consume the corpse of a Large or smaller creature that has been dead no longer than a day as a full-round action. Doing so destroys the creature’s body and leaves its gear scattered on the ground. All armor and gear worn in the body slot must make a successful DC 43 Fortitude save to avoid becoming broken by this swift and violent consumption. When Xoveron feeds on a creature, he immediately learns all of that creature’s memories and knowledge. In addition, he gains the effects of a heal spell and a haste spell (both at CL 27th). The save DC is Strength-based.
Poison (Ex) Sting—injury; save Fort DC 40; frequency 1/round for 6 rounds; effect 1d6 Dexterity drain; cure 3 consecutive saves. If a creature’s Dexterity is drained to 0, the creature is immediately petrified. The save DC is Constitution-based.
Roar (Su) Xoveron can unleash a devastating roar as a standard action once per hour. When he roars, all creatures and unattended objects within 60 feet take 30d10 points of sonic damage and become stunned for 1d6 rounds. Xoveron does not take this damage, and he can exclude any number of creatures or objects from this effect as he wills. A successful DC 40 Reflex save halves the damage and negates the stun effect. The save DC is Constitution-based.
Shatter Petrification (Su) Xoveron can strike a petrified creature with any one of his natural weapon attacks to cause it to shatter. The petrified creature can resist this with a successful DC 43 Fortitude save. If the creature fails to resist, the blow smashes it apart into an explosion of razor sharp stone fragments. Any creature within 10 feet of a shattering petrified creature takes 10d6 points of piercing and slashing damage from these flying fragments of once-living flesh (Reflex DC 43 half). Xoveron is never damaged by these flying shards of stone. The save DC is Strength-based.
Shockwave (Su) When Xoveron makes a charge attack while flying and lands at the end of the charge, the force of his landing creates a powerful shockwave. All creatures standing on the ground within 30 feet of Xoveron when he lands at the end of a charge attack must make a successful DC 40 Reflex save to avoid being knocked prone by the force of the impact. The save DC is Constitution-based.DescriptionXoveron, the Horned Prince, is the demon lord of gargoyles, gluttony, and ruins. It is said that he can look out through the eyes of all stone gargoyles perched on roofs throughout the world, watching and waiting for cities to fall, that he might visit and feed on those left behind. Xoveron himself towers at a height of 25 feet, with a wingspan of just over 50 feet. When the Horned Prince moves, the sound of stone grinding on stone can be heard, as if the demon lord himself were composed not of flesh but of some unholy stone come to demonic life.
Xoveron is often accompanied by numerous vrolikai and ulkreth demons (see page 82). Gargoyles of tremendous size often serve at the Horned Prince’s whim, as do monsters with a reputation for hunger and gluttony, such as purple worms or man-eating animals. His realm on the Abyss is an immense, ruined city called Ghahazi, said to have been constructed over the eons by the Horned Prince, who plucked decaying districts and crumbling structures from dead cities across countless worlds.Xoveron’s CultXoveron is traditionally worshiped by gargoyles, although as the Age of Lost Omens has drawn on, his worship among humanoids has been increasing steadily, particularly among bandits, brigands, gluttons, and those who dwell in blasted, apocalyptic regions such as the Worldwound and the Sodden Lands. In such regions, the landscapes of ruined cities and devastated skylines appeal to those who worship the Horned Prince; his cultists raise temples to their demonic patron there in caverns, on ruined rooftops, or within the skeletal frames of partially collapsed cathedrals to gods whose faith and worship alike have moved on. Defenestration is far and away the favored method of sacrifice for his cult.
In addition to gargoyles, the cult is particularly fond of and even subservient to the nabasu demons. Often, a cult of Xoveron seeks out a newly “born” nabasu and offers itself to the demon. Usually this means the demon takes a few of the cultists to feed on and demands the survivors seek out more victims on a regular basis, but in some cases the ravenous newborn nabasu simply consumes the entire cult. To the fanatic of Xoveron, though, such a fate is worth dying for.
Xoveron’s unholy symbol is a five-horned gray gargoyle skull that’s missing its lower jaw. His favored weapon is the ranseur. He grants access to the domains of Chaos, Earth, Evil, and Strength, and to the subdomains of Caves, Demon, Entropy, and Ferocity. Entropy is a subdomain of Chaos, and is detailed on page 15 of Pathfinder Player Companion: Blood of Fiends.Creatures in "Demon Lord" CategorySource Bestiary 4 pg. 45
The mightiest of all demons are the demon lords of the Abyss, influential entities of chaos and evil and powerful demigods who each rule vast realms of horror and vice. Each demon lord is a unique creature, a paragon of sin that exists only to further its own desires. The genesis of demon lords varies. The majority of them rise from lesser demons who have transformed into powerful entities (this was how Pazuzu became a demon lord). In rare cases, a demon lord transitions directly from being a powerful, sinful mortal into the role of demon lord (as is the case with Kostchtchie), or from a qlippoth into a demon lord as a result of unknowable influences in the Abyss (as is the case with Dagon).
When a demon gathers enough power, whether by gaining class levels, advancing in Hit Dice, gaining many mythic tiers or ranks, undertaking a vile ritual, or simply amassing a sufficiently large and devoted following, it becomes what is known as a nascent demon lord. It may remain a nascent lord indefinitely, but usually seeks to complete its transformation into a full-fledged demon lord. In order to do so, the nascent lord must build a cult among mortals, but more importantly it must claim and control a large enough Abyssal realm that the plane itself takes notice and elevates the nascent lord to the power level of a demon lord. In a few cases, demon lords have been known to ascend to the status of full deities. While there are likely thousands of nascent demon lords in existence at any one time in the Abyss, the number of full-fledged demon lords is more limited—known examples of demon lords number in the dozens.
The phrase “demon lord” is gender neutral—there are male, female, and genderless demon lords, as well as demon lords with multiple genders.
A demon lord may be contacted via commune, and can be conjured via a gate spell, but when so called, a demon lord is under no compulsion to come through the gate. Typically, a demon lord requires an enormous and significant offering or sacrifice before it deigns to answer a gate spell. Abyssal Realms Demon lords' realms range in size, but even the smallest are as large as a continent, and the greatest are larger than some planets. The realms' environments, themes, and traits are as unique as the demon lords themselves, presenting unusual challenges and dangers to creatures trying to explore them. Yet despite the close connection a demon lord has to its realm, it does not exert total control over the realm, and powerful adventurers can infiltrate such realms and accomplish goals without arousing the lord's anger—if they're careful.
A demon lord gains the following additional powers while in its realm (the statistics presented on the following pages do not include these abilities): - Mythic: A demon lord functions as a 10th mythic rank creature, including the mythic power ability (10/day, surge +1d12). It may expend uses of mythic power to use the mythic versions of any spell-like ability denoted with an asterisk (*) just as if the ability were a mythic spell.
- Use of the following spell-like abilities at will—demand, discern location, fabricate, major creation, and polymorph any object (when used on objects or creatures that are native to the realm, the polymorph duration factor increases by 6).
- Use of the following spell-like abilities once per day—binding, miracle (limited to physical effects that manipulate the realm or to effects that are relevant to the demon lord's areas of concern)
- Heightened Awareness (Ex): A demon lord gains a +10 insight bonus on Perception checks and Initiative checks.
Demon Lords in a Campaign Each demon lord is a unique creature ranging in power from CR 26 to CR 30. Demon lords are generally beyond the reach of most mortal heroes, and should not be placed in an adventure without careful consideration. In most cases, they are best used as the final enemies of long campaigns—especially campaigns in which the PCs themselves are mythic characters—and even getting an audience with one should be a memorable event.
Yet even if demon lords are far outside the abilities of most heroes to combat directly, they can still be used as foes in campaigns of all levels, inspiring or directing monsters, mortals, and entire cults. Opposing and defeating a cult is a time-honored plotline for a campaign, and a climactic encounter where the PCs must close a portal before the cult's demon lord manifests in the flesh can make an exciting capstone to a longrunning campaign, especially if the demon lord in question appears for a round or 2 to fight the PCs before the closing of the portal forces it back to the Abyss. Alternatively, rather than having the PCs face the demon lord at full power, you can build a campaign where the PCs systematically undermine and destroy a demon lord's resources, imposing increasing penalties on it and gathering potent weapons so that when the time comes for the final confrontation, the PCs are powerful and the demon lord is weakened to a state below its normal CR. An easy way to model weakening a demon in this manner is to assign negative levels to the demon—normally, a demon lord is immune to level drain, but in this case, the reduction of its resources and sources of power can bypass that immunity for a time... at least, until the demon lord can rebuild and recover.
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