So, as a nabasu demon kills more victims with its gaze attack, it gains "growth points" and gets more powerful. Just for the heck of it, here's a 10 growth point nabasu constructed according to the rules.
Kinda nasty!:
Nabasu CR 13
CE Medium outsider (chaotic, demon, evil, native)
Init +7; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +23
DEFENSE
AC 27, touch 14, flat-footed 23 (+3 Dex, +1 dodge, +13 natural)
hp 203 (9d10+54+100 from growth points)
Fort +19, Ref +19, Will +19
DR 10/cold iron or good; Immune death effects, electricity, paralysis, poison; Resist acid 10, cold 10, fire 10; SR 24
At will—deeper darkness, greater teleport (self plus 50 lbs. of objects only), telekinesis (DC 19)
3/day—enervation, silence (DC 16), vampiric touch
1/day—mass hold person (DC 21), regenerate, summon (level 4, 1 nabasu 30% or 1d4 babaus 30%)
STATISTICS
Str 22, Dex 17, Con 22, Int 15, Wis 16, Cha 19
Base Atk +9; CMB +25; CMD 29
Feats Cleave, Combat Expertise, Dodge, Improved Initiative, Power Attack
Skills Acrobatics +25, Fly +25, Knowledge (arcana) +24, Knowledge (planes) +24, Perception +33, Sense Motive +25, Stealth +25 (+33 in shadowy areas), Survival +25; Racial Modifiers +8 Perception, +8 Stealth in shadowy areas; growth point modifier +10 on all skill checks
Languages Abyssal, Celestial, Draconic; telepathy 100 ft.
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Consume Life (Su)
When a nabasu creates a ghoul with its gaze attack, it gains a growth point. It gains a bonus equal to its growth point total on attack rolls, CMB rolls, saving throws, caster level checks, and skill checks. Its maximum hit points increase by 10 for each growth point, and its caster level for spell-like abilities increases by 1. For every 2 growth points, its natural armor bonus, SR, and CR increase by 1. Every time it gains a growth point it makes a DC 30 caster level check—success indicates it matures (gaining both the advanced and the giant simple templates) and plane shifts to the Abyss in a burst of smoke. A nabasu can have a maximum of 20 growth points—it automatically matures if it has not done so already when it reaches 20 growth points.
Death-Stealing Gaze (Su)
As a free action once per day per growth point (minimum of 1/day), a nabasu can activate its death-stealing gaze for a full round. All living creatures within 30 feet must succeed on a DC 18 Fortitude save or gain a negative level. A humanoid slain in this manner immediately transforms into a ghoul under the nabasu's control. A nabasu's gaze can only create one ghoul per round—if multiple humans perish from the gaze in a round, the nabasu picks which human becomes a ghoul. The save DC is Charisma-based.
This guy makes an interesting opponent. Note his respectable SR and sky-high saves; if facing seriously dangerous foes, his best tactic is to stand off at a little distance, send in waves of ghouls and other mooks, and use its gaze attack and SLAs.
10 point nabasus should be pretty rare, because statistically speaking they should pop off to the Abyss long before that. Every time they gain a growth point, they make a DC 30 caster level check; if they succeed, they plane shift to complete their growth cycle. Since they start as an 8th level caster with a +4 stat, they initially need an 18. So, the first time they kill someone, they have a 15% chance of poofing away; they second time, a 20% chance, and so forth. If you run the numbers, 93% of all nabasus will have bamfed out before they hit 10 growth points.
Demons Revisited gives this interesting feat option for nabasus:
Improved Death-Stealing:
Your death-stealing gaze creates more powerful undead. Prerequisites: Nabasu, Ability Focus (death-stealing gaze)
Benefit: When you would normally create a ghoul with your death-stealing gaze, you instead create a ghast. As a free action, you may also spend a number of growth points in order to even further augment your new undead minion as it is created. If you spend 1 growth point, you create a wight instead of a ghast. If you spend 3 growth points, you create a wraith instead of a ghast. And if you spend 5 growth points, you transform the target into a juju zombie instead of a ghast. Note that spending growth in this manner reduces your statistics as appropriate.
-- Note that since growth points don't give the demon more feats, you'd have to swap out two of its feats to get this. Personally, I'd consider house-ruling that it gets a feat for every 5 growth points, but if you want to play strictly by the RAW I'd throw out Dodge (AC is not its strength anyway) and Combat Expertise (ibid).
This raises a thought: say you have a nabasu that has a bad case of arrested development. It likes the Prime Material Plane and doesn't really *want* to become a vrolikai. So, it takes the above feat -- and whenever it creates an undead, it burns the growth point to create a wight. That way, it never has to make the level check.
Other demons might view this creature askance -- it's like the kid who never wants to go through puberty, but would rather be an eternal 10 year old, playing with Pokemons and Legos. But what does it care what other demons think? It's a CR 13 monster, and it's probably ruling over a whole village or dungeon full of ghouls, ghasts and wights. Throw in some cultists and maybe an allied/terrorized tribe of orcs or something, -- or a few surviving, utterly traumatized villagers -- and voila, instant Halloween encounter.
Just for the heck of it, I whipped up a baby half-nabasu. (Because why is the nabasu hanging around the Prime Material plane? Love, that's why.)
Awww, so cute:
Half-nabasu child CR 1
CE Small outsider (native)
Init +3; Senses Perception +3 (Darkvision 60’)
DEFENSE
AC 17, touch 16, flat-footed 12 (+1 size, +1 natural, +5 Dex)
hp 5 (1d8+1)
Fort +2, Ref +5, Will +1
Immunity to poison; acid, cold, electricity, and fire resistance 10; DR 5/magic
OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft. or Fly 60 ft. (good)
Melee claw +0 x2 (1d2–1/19–20), bite +0 (1d3–1/19–20)
STATISTICS
Str 8, Dex 21, Con 13, Int 14, Wis 9, Cha 14
Base Atk +0; CMB –1; CMD 11
Feats Skill Focus (Disguise)
Skills Acrobatics +9, Fly +9, Disguise +6, Perception +3
SQ: Darkness 3x/day
Smite Good (Su): Once per day, as a swift action, the half-fiend can smite good as the smite evil ability of a paladin of the same level as the half-fiend’s Hit Dice, except affecting a good target (in this case, +1 to attack and +2 to damage). The smite persists until target is dead or the half-fiend rests.
Consume Flesh (Su): Once per day, a half-nabasu can entirely consume the body of a creature of the same race as the half-nabasu’s non-demonic parent—doing so takes the half-nabasu 10 minutes of grisly work, but grants the half-nabasu a +2 profane bonus on all attack rolls and damage rolls, as well as to its AC. In addition, the act grants the half-nabasu 2 temporary hit points per Hit Dice. These effects last for 1 hour per Hit Dice.
Resist Death: A half-nabasu is immune to death effects.
Wait, how does that work?:
1) 1st level Expert.
2) Apply the young character template.
3) Make it small sized
4) Add the half-fiend template
5) Modify with the nabasu template, as per Demons Revisited
This thing will make a terrifying rogue or sorceror if it grows up. Right now, though, it's just a nasty CR 1 creature. It's liddle; its attacks don't do very much damage at all unless it's smiting or has just snacked on a human body. It can tear a commoner to shreds in a few rounds but it's not a threat to even low-level adventurers. But then, it's really just there to lead you to Mom...
10 point nabasus should be pretty rare, because statistically speaking they should pop off to the Abyss long before that. Every time they gain a growth point, they make a DC 30 caster level check; if they succeed, they plane shift to complete their growth cycle. Since they start as an 8th level caster with a +4 stat, they initially need an 18.
Primary stat has nothing to do with caster level checks... just their caster level.
21, since it's when they gain a growth point that they make the check. Still 93% gone by the time it gains it's 10th. Not sure why that works out the same.
Thanks Doug - I've been enjoying Nabasu in my run of Slumbering Tsar.
Here's a chart for random encounters, allowing for a 95% chance of Nabasu survival between each growth point (and accounting for maturing):
GP = Growth Point
Percent = Percentage chance to encounter
d100 = result on d100 indicating this number of growth points.
