Phaerimm, Adult (CR 12)
Large Aberration
Alignment: Usually neutral evil
Initiative: +0; Senses: full vision (arcane sight)
Languages: telepathy 100 ft.
AC: 23 (-1 size, +14 natural), touch 9, flat-footed 23
Hit Dice: 10d8+10 (55 hp)
Fort +4, Ref +3, Will +11
Speed: Fly 30 ft. (perfect)
Space: 10 ft./10 ft. (5 ft. with bite)
Base Attack +7; Grapple +14
Attack: 4 claws +9 melee, bite +4 melee, stinger +4 melee
Full Attack: 4 claws +9 melee, bite +4 melee, stinger +4 melee
Damage: Claws 1d6 each, bite 2d6, stinger 1d8 plus poison and implant
Special Attacks: Spells
Abilities: Str 16, Dex 11, Con 12, Int 17, Wis 18, Cha 19
Special Qualities: Detect magic, immunity to polymorph and petrification, Poison (DC 16), Implant; CL 10th, SR 20
Feats:
Skills:
Advancement: 11-12 HD
Climate/Terrain: Underground
Organization: solitary, pair, or hive (3-6 plus 2-8 offspring)
Treasure/Possessions: Double standard
Source:
Lost Empires of Faerûn
An immense, conical creature floats in the air ahead. The ovoid disk at its top is actually an immense, toothed maw, and its four arms are clawed. The other end of its body is tipped with a single, razor-sharp stinger.
Phaerimms are evil magicians who would gladly erase all other beings from existence. The fact that they have not yet done so is probably attributable to the fact that they would lack serviceable slaves to torture for sport if they did.
Millennia ago, the phaerimms plotted to destroy all life in Faerûn. They succeeded in toppling the mighty Empire of Magic and devastating the area now known as the Anauroch Desert, but they were foiled by the intervention of the elder sharns, which imprisoned most of them in a magic field beneath Anauroch.
Some of the phaerimms that escaped imprisonment now live in the ruins of Myth Drannor, squandering their power on internal political squabbles. Others have conquered the beholder city of Ooltul and are attempting to break through the sharn's barrier to free their fellows.
A phaerimm has a conical body shaped something like a windsock. Its ovoid head disk contains an immense, toothed maw and is surrounded by four clawed arms. The rest of the phaerimm's long, sinuous body tapers down to a lethal stinger. At hatching, a phaerimm is only a foot or two long, but it can grow as large as 30 feet in old age.
A phaerimm's innate magical ability develops with age. A hatchling casts spells as a 1st-level sorcerer, while a centuries-old revered elder is a 19th-level caster.
Phaerimms communicate with one another by varying the wind speed around their bodies and with other creatures by means of telepathy. They understand Common and several other languages.
Combat
If phaerimms were less evil, they would be more alien and difficult to understand, but their overwhelming drive toward inflicting pain makes them somewhat predictable. They can be dangerous combatants, but they view purely physical combat as a sign of weakness. Because a phaerimm that uses its stinger or weapons to defend itself is assumed to have insufficient magical abilities, phaerimms make physical attacks only as a last resort-even at younger ages when they lack powerful magic. Young phaerimms sometimes stoop to using masterwork swords, and they suffer no disgrace for doing so as long as they use Tenser's floating disk to carry the weapons whenever they are out of combat.
As spellcasters, phaerimms favor charm, command, and illusion effects over damage-producing spells, but they are not shy about using a fireball if. necessary. Powerful elder phaerimms often have charmed or dominated beings fighting for them. In fact, phaerimms sometimes pick fights simply so that they can force their enemies to hack apart their own friends. Phaerimms also enjoy summoning outsiders, but they are generally too proud to use low-level summoning spells to call up common animals and other minor creatures.
Claws: A phaerimm has the number of primary claw attacks shown on Table 11-2. Each deals the indicated damage plus the phaerimm's Strength bonus.
Bite: A phaerimm has one secondary bite attack that deals the indicated damage plus 1/2 the phaerimm's' Strength bonus (round down). Because the bite is a secondary attack, a -5 penalty applies to the attack roll. (Many phaerimms choose the Multiattack feat to lessen this penalty to -2.)
Stinger: A phaerimm has one secondary stinger attack that deals the indicated damage plus 1/2 the phaerimm's Strength bonus (round down). A young adult or older phaerimm delivers poison with its stinger attack, and an adult or older phaerimm can use it to implant eggs (see Implant, below). Because the stinger is a secondary attack, a -5 penalty applies to the attack roll. (Many phaerimms choose the Multiattack feat to lessen this penalty to -2.)
Implant (Ex): As a standard action, an adult or older phaerimm can use its stinger to lay eggs inside a paralyzed creature. The young emerge about 90 days later, literally devouring the host from inside. A remove disease spell rids a victim of the eggs, as does a successful DC 20 Heal check made by a character with ranks that skill. If the check fails, the healer can try again, but each attempt (successful or not) deals 1d4 points of damage to the patient.
Poison (Su): Stinger, DC 15 Fortitude save; initial damage paralysis for 2d4 rounds, secondary damage paralysis for 1d3 hours. Paralyzed creatures levitate, helpless, a few feet off the ground.
Spells: A phaerimm casts arcane spells as a sorcerer (caster level equals phaerimm's character level). Phaerimms use their sorcerer spells as if they were spell-like abilities, so they require no verbal, somatic, or material components.
Damage Reduction (Ex): A phaerimm gains increasing damage reduction as it grows older, as given on Table 11-4.
Detect Magic (Sp): Beginning as a hatchling, a phaerimm can use detect magic at will (caster level equals phaerimm's character level).
Flight (Ex): Because a phaerimm's body is naturally buoyant, it can fly at a speed of 30 feet. This buoyancy also grants the creature a permanent feather fall effect (as the spell) with personal range.
Full Vision (Ex): As it ages, a phaerimm's natural ability to detect magic expands. A juvenile phaerimm can see invisible or ethereal creatures to a range of 120 feet, as though under the effect of a see invisibility spell. An adult phaerimm constantly can see magical auras to a range of 120 feet, as though constantly under the effect of an arcane sight spell. An elder phaerimm sees as though constantly under the effect of a true seeing spell.
Immunities (Ex): A phaerimm is immune to polymorph and petrification effects.
Spell Resistance (Ex): A phaerimm is resistant to spells from hatching onward (see Table 11-4 for details).
Telepathy (Ex): A juvenile or older phaerimm can communicate telepathically with any creature within 100 feet that has a language.
Phaerimm Characters
A phaerimm's favored class is sorcerer. Its sorcerer levels stack with its base spellcasting ability for the purpose of determining spells known, spells per day, and other effects dependent on caster level. A phaerimm character cannot gain a familiar unless it takes at least one level in a class that grants the ability to summon one, but thereafter its levels in that class stack with its effective racial caster levels to determine the familiar's abilities.