This terrible creature resembles an imposing knight wearing baroque full plate formed from some sort of calcified resin. Its helm is a blank gray oval without eye slots or mouthpiece, and it carries a glistening greatsword composed of dozens of slathering fanged mouths in its gauntleted hands.
Eaters of dust—or yakat-shi as they are sometimes called in ancient planar texts—are hideous mercenaries that roam the lower planes selling their services to arch-devils, demon lords, and other fiendish rulers for the chance to sample new flavors and devour interesting morsels. They can consume just about any substance with their horrible animate mawblades, including most gems and metals, but they prefer the flesh and souls of mortals to other forms of payment…
Eater of Dust (Yakat-Shi) (CR 12)
XP 19,200
NE Medium aberration (extraplanar)
Init +2; Senses blindsight 60 ft.; Perception +19
DEFENSE
AC 26, touch 12, flat-footed 24 (+2 Dex, +14 natural)
hp 147 (14d8+84)
Fort +10, Ref +8, Will +11
DR 10/adamantine; Immune blinding effects, gaze attacks, ingested poisons; Resist acid 10, cold 10
OFFENSE
Speed 20 ft.
Melee mawblade +16/+11 (2d6+7/19–20 plus devour)
Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
Special Attacks devour, mawblade
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 14th)
3/day—align weapon, true strike
1/day—cure serious wounds, greater magic weapon
STATISTICS
Str 20, Dex 14, Con 22, Int 10, Wis 15, Cha 17
Base Atk +10; CMB +15 (+19 for sunder attempts); CMD 27 (31 vs. disarm attempts, 33 vs. sunder attempts)
Feats Cleave, Great Cleave, Greater Sunder, Improved Sunder, Lightning Reflexes, Power Attack, Weapon Focus (mawblade)
Skills Climb +22, Intimidate +20, Knowledge (the planes) +17, Perception +19
Languages Abyssal, Infernal (cannot speak); telepathy 100 ft.
SQ unending appetite
ECOLOGY
Environment any (lower planes)
Organization solitary, gang (2 – 4), or unit (5 – 8 plus one leader of 4th – 6th level)Â
Treasure mawblade
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Devour (Su) Any creature struck by an eater of dust’s mawblade suffers 1d4 Constitution and Strength damage as part of its essence is devoured (Fortitude DC 20; Charisma-based). On each successful attack, the eater of dust gains 10 temporary hp.
Mawblade (Su) A mawblade is a physical extension of the eater of dust’s body and is treated as an adamantine, cold iron, silver, and magic greatsword for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction and hardness. When wielding its mawblade, an eater of dust gains a +4 bonus to its CMD against disarm and sunder attempts (the bonus against sunder attempts stacks with the +2 bonus gained from the Improved Sunder feat).
An eater of dust always knows the location of its mawblade as if using the discern location spell.
Unending hunger (Su) An eater of dust can devour any substance with its mawblade, regardless of composition, and never get full. It can even gain nourishment from eating dust or soil (hence the name given to the race by various fiends). If an eater of dust’s mawblade is ever stolen, lost, or destroyed, it slowly starves to death.
Typical Characteristics
Eaters of dust often converge in small but deadly military units led by a powerful leader with levels as barbarian or fighter. While many sages confuse them for some type of fiend, eaters of dust are actually aberrations originating from a far-flung dimension of madness and nightmares.
They take particular delight in shattering and feasting upon powerful magical weapons and armor, particularly intelligent or holy weapons, and charge recklessly into battle against opponents wielding such delicious viands. They are utterly without mercy and have nothing but contempt for most other life forms, attacking and eating their allies at the first sign of weakness.
An eater of dust resembles a powerful humanoid wearing a suit of full plate with a blank, full-face helm. A typical eater of dust is 7 ft. tall and weighs in excess of 350 lb. While an eater of dust cannot speak, it can telepathically communicate with almost any creature.
Awesome! Love it a lot.
Larwood, you wicked bastard! You’ve done it again.
CR12? Hmm. My money is either on Fire Giant (reach, better CMB) or Charm Monster. Rakshasa (another CR10) would probably have it for breakfast (higher base speed, Suggestion).
IMHO, needs at least Spell Resistance and Fast Healing 2 to make up for lack of defense against most common control spells.
Regards,
Ruemere
True, it does have a big weak spot. I’m not sure that’s a flaw in its design, though, as it has reasonable DR and immunities.
Maybe Phil will chime in here.
Obviously an Eater will seek out and destroy someone who has stolen it’s Mawblade…
But!
What happens if someone gets their hands on a Mawblade and uses it as a weapon, does it possess retain many of it’s powers? Does the Eater still die, or does it consume through it’s disembodied sword? If it dies, what becomes of the Mawblade if it’s in someone else’s possession? Does it become inert, or retain several of it’s powerful properties?
First run monsters always have small technical issues (look at the old ogre mage and rakshasa from 3.5 for major ones). I think the monster’s CR could probably be tweaked down by 1 or 2 places. Of course, an eater of dust possesses several immunities a fire giant doesn’t possess, the ability to drain a creature’s Strength and Constitution, a powerful weapon, serious DR and spell-like abilities. In other words, it’s not completely helpless.
An eater needs to be holding its sword to gain nourishment from it and a mawblade loses its properties once the eater dies (it melts away or shatters). Of course, a GM can decide how they use the monster and what happens under the circumstances you describe. That’s the beauty of pen and paper RPGs as opposed to video games. You can alter what you like with the stroke of a pen.
After a bit of thought, Ruemere is probably right about the eater of dust needing a little extra help to match its CR. Immunity to mind-affecting effects (meaning that they can’t be controlled by the fiends they work for) and an extra spell-like ability like blade barrier 1/day would probably do the trick.
Since it has telepathy, why not give it an ability tied to that? Maybe a “babble” effect it uses as it closes with opponents that drives those within X feet insane (WILL SAVE). That would kind of go with the insane hunger aspect, and the image of the mawblade with all the mouths. I like the blade barrier, but the mind immunities might make it a little too hard. Frankly, most parties encountering this will assume that it is some kind of golem, and therefore immune anyway.