Pnixho (3.5e Creature)
| Pnixho | |
|---|---|
| Size/Type: | Large Outsider (Evil, Extraplanar, Lawful) |
| Hit Dice: | 10d8+30 (75 hp) |
| Initiative: | +6 |
| Speed: | 40 ft. (8 squares) |
| Armor Class: | 21 (−1 size, +2 Dex, +10 natural), touch 11, flat-footed 19 |
| Base Attack/Grapple: | +10/+20 |
| Attack: | Gore +15 melee (1d8+9) |
| Full Attack: | Gore +15 melee (1d8+9) |
| Space/Reach: | 10 ft./5 ft. |
| Special Attacks: | Horrendous clicking, spell-like abilities |
| Special Qualities: | DR 10/bludgeoning or good, darkvision 60 ft., immunity to poison, resistance to fire, cold, and electricity 10, SR 22 |
| Saves: | Fort +12, Ref +9, Will +13 |
| Abilities: | Str 22, Dex 15, Con 16, Int 17, Wis 19, Cha 16 |
| Skills: | Bluff +16, Craft (any one) +12, Concentration +16, Diplomacy +16, Intimidate +16, Knowledge (any two) +16, Listen +17, Move Silently -6*, Search +16, Sense Motive +17, Spot +17, Survival +8 (+10 following tracks) |
| Feats: | Great Fortitude, Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Quicken Spell-Like Ability (dispel magic) |
| Environment: | A lawful evil-aligned plane |
| Organization: | Inspection team (1 plus 1 amnizuFC2 and 1-2 advanced imps), or battlefield mop-up crew (1 plus 1 erinyes and 3-5 bearded devils) |
| Challenge Rating: | 9 |
| Treasure: | Standard |
| Alignment: | Always lawful evil |
| Advancement: | 11–20 HD (Large); 21–30 HD (Huge) |
| Level Adjustment: | — |
The creature standing in the library looks like the skeleton of a moose, head held high and confidently bearing wicked-looking antlers as wide as you can stretch your arms. Its bleached, right-angle-cut bones are caked in incense and lined with marks in black ink. Here and there parts seem to have cracked, been filled in with some gritty plaster, and then "braced" with string and wooden rods to other parts of the skeleton. While dainty hooves cap its rear legs, its double-jointed forelimbs end in something a bit more like prehensile, spiny feet; it raises one to flick a bookmark into place. The glowing red eyes following your movements fail to light up the black sockets around them.
It greets you in measured and gently accented Common — "Good day, I was told someone needed records access? Shall we discuss?" — but it's hard to feel comforted when its every word is flanked by a rapid series of clattering clicks from its bones and its jaw, some high, some low, but all in tight sequence like a coded message. And even after it stops speaking, that message is getting louder. Clicks in different pitches and timbres hoard the space in your ears, building some impenetrable tower of infernal logic all around you; each sound is a disapproving mark, a pen scratched across your face. "No," it seems to be saying, in between the rolling notes, "you won't be needing that here. Or that. Or that."
Much like the "chain devils" in that they originated totally outside the baatezu hierarchy, pnixhoi are a grim reminder that while the true devils might rule Baator, they are only part of its nature, and that Asmodeus' plans, no matter how many millennia they span, are just another wave passing through the plane, another monstrous sense of Law and Evil it dreamed up on top of an immortal legacy of countless others. No one knows the real origin of pnixhoi, but despite their wishes otherwise, the baatezu have to live with them too, as with all the rest of Baator's creations.
A pnixho is born from a reversal of decay: some ruined structure or pile of corpses magically, spontaneously spits out a fully-formed and intricate creature, an assertion of Law over Chaos. It is then inevitably brought into a life of subservience to the baatezu, as it is no more "promotable" than Baator's many half-fiends or roaming monsters, and seen mostly as a useful tool for whoever contracts it into cooperation. Pnixhoi rarely complain about this fate; being part of a structure and helping build something up is simply right to them. They can be found most often as secretaries, interrogators, and negotiators, and only occasionally get roped into battle. They are always under careful supervision — pnixhoi have a notorious tendency to chat people up. Faced with a free mortal, they are usually quite patient and conversational, as they don't have the pressure to keep up images that baatezu might. When instructed, however, they are still perfectly willing to inflict as much needless harm as they feel is proper for the situation. Their nature, they feel, is to express the truth of the universe — whether it makes the mortals scream in pain and beg to forget the noise isn't their problem.
A typical pnixho is 10 feet long, stands 6 feet high at the shoulder, and weighs about 600 pounds.
Pnixhoi speak Infernal, Common, and usually a few other mortal languages.
Combat[edit]
A pnixho usually stays behind melee troops if at all possible, shutting down the most pertinent enemy spells (and spellcasters) while bolstering its ranged-attacking allies with targeting rays. It keeps one of its three castings of quickened dispel magic in reserve to aid its escape; if pressed into melee, it uses it on an enemy immediately before charging them, just in case they had any wards up.
A pnixho's natural weapons, as well as any weapons it wields, are treated as evil-aligned and lawful-aligned for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.
*Horrendous Clicking (Su): A pnixho's body perpetually makes an infernal "tune" of staccato bone-clicking noise that imposes a -8 penalty on its Move Silently checks.
As a free action, it can add a vile overtone. Creatures within 60 feet of the pnixho must then succeed on a DC 18 Will save or be overcome with pain-inducing shame for 1 minute, taking a -2 penalty on all attack rolls, saving throws, ability checks, and skill checks. For the next round, whether they succeeded or failed on that save, spellcasters in the area must also succeed on Concentration checks (DC 18 + spell level) to cast spells as the noise rattles through their minds.
These are sonic mind-affecting compulsion effects. A creature that successfully saves cannot be affected again by the shame effect from the same pnixho's noise for 24 hours. The save DC is Charisma-based. Lawful evil outsiders are completely immune to this effect.
Spell-Like Abilities: At will—detect magic, dispel magic, protection from good, targeting raySpC. Caster level 14th.
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