Agent of Taraksun
Level 14Attacks
Abilities
A monster with telepathy can communicate mentally with any creatures within the listed radius, as long as they share a language. This doesn't give any special access to their thoughts, and communicates no more information than normal speech would.
A constant spell affects the monster without the monster needing to cast it, and its duration is unlimited. If a constant spell gets counteracted, the monster can reactivate it by spending the normal spellcasting actions the spell requires.
Trigger A foe within 60 feet casts Bless or a beneficial spell that the nikaramsa could cast to remove an affliction or condition (such as Cleanse Affliction) Effect The nikaramsa attempts to counteract the enemy's spell (counteract modifier +24 and counteract rank 7). If the nikaramsa succeeds, the triggering creature is subjected to the effects of a Bane spell or the effect it was trying to remove.
A nikaramsa is in fact a Medium creature, but appears as a Large creature due to the force of their personality. A creature interacting with the nikaramsa can attempt a DC 36 will save to see the nikaramsa as they truly are. If the creature succeeds, the reach of nikaramsa's attacks against that foe decrease to 5 feet (10 feet for their tongue). If all creatures in the nikaramsa's vicinity successfully disbelieve this illusion, the nikaramsa becomes Medium and Enfeebled 2 for as long as everyone sees their true form. Effect: Towering Stance (Disbelieved)
The nikaramsa focuses their gaze on one creature within 60 feet. That target must attempt a DC 34 will save. Regardless of the outcome of the saving throw, the target then becomes temporarily immune for 1 day. Critical Success The nikaramsa is caught off guard by the strength of the target's resistance and becomes Stupefied 2 until the end of their next turn. Success The target resists the nikaramsa's influence. Failure The target's focus and willpower drain away; it becomes Stupefied 2 for 1 minute. Critical Failure As failure, but the target becomes Stupefied 3 for 1 hour.
Trigger The monster's last action was a successful Strike that lists Improved Knockdown in its damage entry Effect The monster attempts to Trip the creature as a free action. This attempt neither applies nor counts toward the monster's multiple attack penalty.
Description
Lies, knowledge, and deception are a nikaramsa's stock and trade. They are outstanding scholars, with deep and nuanced understanding of religion, philosophy, astrology, and similar subjects. They take particular delight in exploiting the greed and hubris of gullible worshippers, using them to desecrate and destroy their own faith. Even in their goal of undermining the holy, nikaramsas' twisted humor knows few bounds, and they prefer to take on the guise of divine messengers with boons to share. Once they find a likely victim or set of victims, they use their vast knowledge of religion to impart contradictory wisdom, leading to the eventual implosion of the faith from heresies of the clergy and congregation themselves.
Asuras are, above all, proof that the gods are not infallible. These fiends arose as physical manifestations of divine accidents, taking form when the gods themselves stumbled and blasphemed on a cosmic scale. As a result of their own divine genesis, an asura loves above all to undo the workings of the divine. They eagerly travel to the Material Plane, seeking out temples, congregations of faithful worshippers, and religious orders of all stripes to sow doubt and destroy what the gods seek to build.