Bythos
CR: 16 XP: 76,800
N Large outsider (aeon, extraplanar)
Init: +8 Senses: blindsense 60 ft., darkvision 90 ft., low-light vision Perception: +30
Defense
AC: 31, touch 18, flat-footed 26 (+4 deflection, +4 Dex, +1 dodge,, +13 natural, –1 size)
hp: 207 (18d10+108), fast healing 10
Fort: +18 Ref: +12 Will: +20
Resist: electricity 10, fire 10
Immune: cold, critical hits, poison
SR: 27
Offense
Speed: fly 40 ft. (good)
Melee: 4 slams +23 (1d6+6 plus 1d6 cold and aging strike)
Space: 10 ft. Reach: 10 ft.
Special Attacks: confusion gaze, temporal strike
Spell-Like Abilities: (CL 18th; concentration +23) At will— augury, greater teleport, slow (DC 18) 3/day— dimensional anchor, haste, plane shift (DC 20) 1/day—dimensional lock, moment of prescience, temporal stasis (DC 23)
Statistics
Str: 22 Dex: 19 Con: 21 Int: 24 Wis: 28 Cha: 21
Base Atk: +18 CMB: +25 CMD: 44 (can’t be tripped)
Feats: Combat Casting, Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Great Fortitude, Hover, Improved Initiative, Lightning Reflexes, Mobility, Toughness
Skills: Bluff +26, Fly +8, Heal +30, Intimidate +26, Knowledge (arcana, nature, religion) +33, Knowledge (history, planes) +36, Perception +30, Sense Motive +30, Spellcraft +28, Stealth +21, Use Magic Device +23
SQ: extension of all, void form
Languages: envisaging
Ecology
Environment: any (Outer Planes)
Organization: solitary, pair, or tribunal (3 bythos)
Treasure: none
Description
Aging Strike (Su) If a bythos strikes a living target with two slam attacks in a single round, the bythos ages the creature, causing it to advance to the next age category (Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook 169) if it fails a DC 24 Fortitude save. The victim gains all of the penalties from this aging and none of the bonuses. A venerable victim targeted by this ability dies if it fails a DC 24 Fortitude save. This process is reversible with greater restoration, limited wish, miracle, or wish. The save DC is Constitution-based.
Confusion Gaze (Su) Confusion for 1d4 rounds, 30 feet, Fortitude DC 24 negates. The save DC is Charisma-based.
Temporal Strike (Su) As a standard action, a bythos can touch a creature or object to displace it from time. If the target fails a DC 24 Fortitude save, it disappears from the present moment and reappears in the same location 1d4 rounds later as if no time had passed. If an object occupies that space, the creature appears in the closest available space to its original location—this displacement does not cause the creature any additional harm. The save DC is Charisma-based.
The bythos are guardians of time and planar travel—indeed, to bythos, the act of aging is nothing more than a highly specialized method of travel.
Although bythos themselves have no additional method of traveling through time, they scour the multiverse, hunting for creatures that do have the ability to time-travel and may have abused this ability.
Far more often, though, bythos seek out abuses of planar travel, such as tears in reality, regions where planes overlap, or creatures that abuse the use of planar travel. In some cases, such distortions are ignored, but in others, a bythos or even a full tribunal comes to assess and repair the damage. In most cases, “repair” is analogous to the death of the creature responsible for the distortions, but placing such creatures in temporal stasis can also solve the problem.
While a bythos’s body may seem to be made of smoke and vapor, it is strangely solid to the touch, feeling not dissimilar to dry stone. A bythos is 13 feet tall and weighs 600 pounds.
paracletus can only use one of these three dualistic options and cannot change to a different one.
Courage/Fear: The aura acts as bless or bane.
Empathy/Apathy: The aura gives creatures a +2 bonus or a –2 penalty on Bluff, Diplomacy, and Intimidate checks. Hope/Despair: The aura gives creatures a +2 morale bonus on Will saving throws or a –2 penalty on Will saving throws. While mortals possess the gift of free will, both logic and emotion influence their decisions. The paracletus serve the aeons as agents who connect with mortals and study the influence of emotions (particularly the dualistic nature of raw emotion) upon mortal behavior. They wander the planes seeking mortals with particularly strong emotional or logical capabilities (characters with high Charisma or Intelligence scores). Once a paracletus locates such a creature, the paracletus remains nearby, studying the target’s relationship with emotional and logical input and choices.
Often, the paracletus will use its emotion aura on the target in order to study how outside influences affect the subject. Unfortunately for the target creature, whether or not the paracletus uses a helpful or harmful effect is, for all intents and purposes, a matter of random chance—even though to the paracletus’s complex reasoning, nothing is left to actual random chance.
If presented the option, a paracletus avoids direct combat, and uses its emotion aura to influence situations. If pressed to defend itself, it flies at opponents, slamming into them and discharging an electrical jolt of energy in addition to buffeting with its crystalline components. The crystals that orbit a paracletus are solidified aspects of logic, while the swirling vapors and lights that make up its central mass are manifestations of raw emotion— when a paracletus is slain, both the crystals and vapors fade away into nothingness.
A paracletus can be chosen as a familiar by a spellcaster who meets the prerequisites and has the Improved Familiar feat. A paracletus familiar does not abandon its mission to observe emotions and logic at play, but it does follow its master’s orders—this is one situation where the application of a paracletus’s emotion aura need not be random.
Although the central mass of a paracletus’s body appears to be made of light and energy, it is in fact solid, and feels strangely like electrified flesh to the touch. Aeon, Bythos–Aeon, Paracletus Aeon, Bythos–Aeon, Paracletus Aeon, Paracletus A small cluster of shimmering lights floats in the air, orbited by multiple vibrant crystals and gemstones.