Everyone loves a good monster. GMs love an evil one. Dragons, Ghasts, there are all sorts of monsters out there dangerous enough to give a group of PCs pause. Share a monster that's far more dangerous than its challenge rating would suggest, or link to your favorite published ones.
To start off, I'll share two of my favorite creations: assassin ghasts and an unkillable super-rat.
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The Ghastly Sentinel was created to spook my players with monsters that were watching, always watching wherever they went and didn't care if a few of them died. Despite figuring out they were ghouls posing as scarecrows, their refusal to move while being watched if they were attacked or set on fire in addition to their constant appearances and disappearances set my players on edge. When it finally came time in the story to set up the possible (and very likely) TPK and subsequent resurrections, their sudden visible action and out-of-sight PC kills led to a monster they still reference a year later. As an additional note, don't apply an Advanced template to an Advanced creature. It's an exponential power increase, not a linear one. Here's the rebuilt version
GHASTLY SENTINEL CR 4
XP 1,200
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CE Medium undead
Init +4; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +10
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DEFENSE
AC 1, touch 14, flat-footed 14 (+4 Dex, +4 natural)
hp 28 (3d8+15)
Fort +6, Ref +5, Will +7
Defensive Abilities: channel resistance +4, Undead traits
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OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft.
Melee bite +6 (1d6+3 plus disease and paralysis) and 2 claws +6 (1d6+3 plus paralysis), or Scythe +6 (2d4+3 20/x4 P or S)
Special Attacks: paralysis (1d4+1 rounds, DC 15, affects elves normally)
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TACTICS
Before Combat: Ghastly sentinels will stalk a group of targets waiting for an opportune moment. Foggy weather, a lone PC,
and they stealth as close as possible before silently attacking.
During Combat: Ghastly sentinels prioritize lone targets whenever possible, preferring to make as many quiet kills as possible
before they are discovered. They then move across the battlefield in pairs or triplets and choose their targets intelligently.
They flank whenever possible and make natural attacks until a target is immobilized, at which point one of the ghastly sentinels
provides cover while the others perform coup de graces.
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STATISTICS
Str 17, Dex 18, Con —, Int 19, Wis 18, Cha 21
BAB +2; CMB +6; CMD 20
Feats: Combat Reflexes, Weapon Finesse
Skills Acrobatics +7, Bluff + 8 Climb +9, Escape Artist +7, Perception +10, Profession (Spy) +10,
Stealth +10 (12 while motionless), Swim +6 Racial Modifiers Stealth +2 while motionless.
Languages Common, Dwarven, Elven, Goblin, Orc
SQ Freeze, Spy
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SPECIAL ABILITIES
Disease (Su)
Ghoul Fever: Bite—injury; save Fort DC 15; onset 1 day; frequency 1 day; effect 1d3 Con and 1d3 Dex damage;
cure 2 consecutive saves. The save DC is Charisma-based.
A humanoid who dies of ghoul fever rises as a ghoul at the next midnight. A humanoid who becomes a ghoul in this way retains
none of the abilities it possessed in life. It is not under the control of any other ghouls, but it hungers for the flesh of the
living and behaves like a normal ghoul in all respects. A humanoid of 4 Hit Dice or more rises as a ghast.
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Freeze (Ex)
A ghastly sentinel can hold itself so still it appears to be a scarecrow. A ghastly sentinel that uses freeze can take 20
on its Stealth check to hide in plain sight as a scarecrow.
A ghastly sentinel can remain motionless even when it is attacked or takes damage
by making a DC 20 Stealth check, but it cannot take 20 on this check.
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Paralysis (Su)
Creatures damaged by a ghast's natural attacks must make a successful DC 15 Fortitude save or be paralyzed for 1d4+1 rounds.
Paralyzed creatures cannot move, speak, or take any physical actions. The creature is rooted to the spot, frozen and helpless.
Unlike ghouls, A ghast's paralysis even affects elves.
Unlike hold person and similar effects, a paralysis effect does not allow a new save each round. A winged creature flying in the air
at the time that it is paralyzed cannot flap its wings and falls. A swimmer can't swim and may drown.
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Scout (Ex)
A ghastly sentinel is well-versed in military organization and strategy, and treats profession (Spy) as a class skill. Additionally,
ghastly sentinels leave no tracks while in non-urban or underground environments as if it had the ranger’s Pass Without Trace ability.
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Ecology
Environment: Any non-urban exterior
Organization: Pair, Trio, or Reaping (6-8)
Treasure: minor
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Ghastly sentinels were first created by a necromancer hundreds of years ago as a means to control the villages he ruled. They would
report to him on anything that went on near a village, and when someone did something that displeased him the necromancer took
great pleasure in ordering his nightmarish creatures to paralyze the villager and his family in their sleep before eating them
alive. When the necromancer was slain for his evil ways, his creations escaped and found their way into other armies of undead
where they put their talents at espionage to good use by spying on armies and assassinating lone officers.
Ghastly sentinels never hunt alone. They prefer to hunt in pairs or trios so that when one ghastly sentinel paralyzes a creature
the other can perform a coup de grâce to instantly kill it. If unable to hunt with another of its kind, a ghastly sentinel will
ally itself with another creature whenever it hunts, usually something that can distract an enemy or protect the ghastly sentinel
until it can get in close and paralyze its prey. Like all ghasts, a ghastly sentinel prefers still-living food.
The last target of their hunts is thus the unluckiest.
Ghastly sentinels utilize flanking whenever possible and are unafraid of death in combat. While under orders to gather information
and pretending to be scarecrows, a ghastly sentinel is willing to die rather than reveal itself if necessary.
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Variants (+1 CR)
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Some ghastly sentinels were designed for brutal assassinations over espionage.
They gain the stench ability as a way to reduce an enemy's resistance and accuracy.
Stench (Ex)
Ghast's exude an overwhelming stink of death and corruption in a 10-foot radius. Those within the stench must succeed at a DC 15
Fortitude save, or be sickened for 1d6+4 minutes. If a creature is within range of multiple ghastly sentinel Stench auras, the DC
for this save is increased by 2 for each additional Stench affect it is subject to.
A ghastly sentinel can suppress this ability for 1 round as a standard action, but the lingering
foulness clings to its disguise and gives it a -5 penalty on its Stealth checks to appear as a scarecrow.
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Trollbodied
Some ghastly sentinels were created from long-limbed trolls and are
often used with heavily-armored allies to guard narrow passageways.
These ghastly sentinels gain a reach of 10’ with their claw
and weapon attacks and gain fast healing 3/fire or acid.
Coup de grace takes a full-round action, provokes an attack of opportunity, and deals an automatic critical hit to a helpless target.
If the target survives the attack, they must make a Fortitude save equal to 10+damage dealt or else die instantly.
The DC for a scythe-wielding Ghastly Sentinel's coup de grace is 10+44.
Like it says on the Ghast page, these creatures are more powerful than their CR would suggest. 4 of these things (a CR 6 encounter) might threaten a party wipe against a group of five level 7 PCs.
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Another monster I haven't used yet but am planning on throwing against a group of 7th-level PCs is the humble CR 5 Thessalrat. I'm expecting it to be a dangerous nuisance for the entire dungeon run. At it's heart, the Thessalrat is a hybrid of a Doppelrat (able to create a swarm of copies from a single creature) and the Thessalmonster template (an acid-mouthed hydra addition that, by RAW, can only be applied to CR 5 monsters.) I tweaked the result and the base ability of the setup, nerfing numbers and damage while boosting quality and subterfuge, and the result is an Abberant creature that spawns 7-8 copies of itself to attack the party while a copy of itself runs away to attack again later... with 7-8 new copies.
I dubbed it an army killer. Each rat clone is only CR2.
THESSALRAT CR 5
XP 1,600
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CE Tiny Abberant
Init +2; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, scent; Perception +4
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DEFENSE
AC 14, touch 14, flat-footed 12 (+2 Dex, +2 size)
hp 16 (3d8+3)
Fort +4, Ref +5, Will +3 (+1 per two living clones)
Defensive Abilities Phase Jump, Divided Self
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OFFENSE
Speed 40 ft., climb 15 ft., swim 15 ft.
Melee 8 serpentine bites +3 (1 damage), bite +5 (1d6-3 plus 1d6 acid)
Special Attacks Disease (DC 11)
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TACTICS
During Combat: A thessalrat attempts to appear as a regular rat until it desires to feed, at which point it begins to spawn clones of
itself until it reaches 8 clones. Once these clones are created, a random clone will attempt to flee while the others stay and
fight. If the fleeing thessalrat is pursued, it uses Phase Jump to attempt to lose its pursuer and will use its last remaining
clone as a decoy if it ever becomes hidden. If the fleeing thessalrat is killed, 2 other thessalrats break from the action and attempt
to flee. If those are slain, all remaining rats scatter and flee in all directions.
If the escaping thessalrat is not pursued and escapes safely, it will either spawn a ninth thessalrat in combat or use Phase Jump
to attack an opportune target. A thessalrat never uses its tenth clone except as a means to escape.
In combat, 2-6 thessalrats swarm a nearby target, prioritizing the prone and injured. They dislike attacking unless
there is or will be at least one other thessalrat within 10’ of the target.
Morale: A Thessalrat flees only if the fleeing copy was killed or captured,
and in such a case flees when there are 4 or fewer copies remaining.
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STATISTICS
Str 2, Dex 15, Con 12, Int 7, Wis 14, Cha 4
Base Atk +2; CMB +2; CMD 8
Feats Combat Reflexes*, Weapon Finesse, Weapon Focus (Maw)
Skills Acrobatics +2 (+6 jump), Climb +10, Disguise +12 (normal rat only), Stealth +19,
Swim +10, Racial Modifiers +2 Perception, +4 Stealth, uses Dex for Climb and Swim.
Languages None
SQ Arcane Mitosis, Hydra Traits, Maw
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SPECIAL ABILITIES
Arcane Mitosis (Su)
A thessalrat can create clones of itself at the beginning of its turn as a free action, but no more than 4 total per round.
Each duplicate appears in the same square as any other rat and can take a move or standard action the round it appears. A clone is
created with 1/4 of the cloning rat's current hp (minimum 1). A thessalrat may not create more than 10 clones of itself
within an 8-hour period.
Each thessalrat clone is a full share of the whole, and so there is no “original” thessalrat – if a single thessalrat survives
an encounter, the creature is not destroyed. 10 minutes after the thessalrat first started to clone itself, all but one of
the clones dies and turns to ash. It is the thessalrat’s choice which clone survives.
Any effect that would block a supernatural ability prevents new clones from appearing, but does not destroy any current copies.
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Disease
Degenerate cloning—injury; save Fort DC 11; onset 1 day; frequency 1/day; effect 1d3 Str damage, 1d3 Con damage and the victim
becomes shaken for 1 hour (Will DC 11); cure 2 consecutive saves.
A creature suffering from degenerate cloning sloughs off an identical-but-decaying body of itself each morning along with a little
of their own vitality. A clone created this way dissolves into a soupy mess within 2d6 hours and cannot be preserved by any means
short of stopping time.
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Divided Self (Ex)
All Thessalrat clones share a divided hive mind. They are thus aware of each other at all times and can share senses equally. Thus,
a deafened thessalrat would takes only half the listed penalty as long as there is a non-deafened clone nearby, and can pinpoint an
enemy’s square even if blinded. A thessalrat also gains a +1 to its will saving throw for every 2 clones currently alive.
There is no distance limit to this effect.
If a thessalrat has clones located on more than one dimension at the start of its turn,
all clones in the dimension with the lesser amount of clones die instantly.
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Hydra Traits (Ex)
Though a thessalmonster cannot be killed by severing all of its serpentine heads, doing so prevents them from attacking and
can assist in slaying its body. Any attack that is not an attempt to sever a head affects the body, including area attacks or
attacks that cause piercing or bludgeoning damage. To sever a head, an opponent must make a sunder attempt with a
slashing weapon targeting a head.
A head is considered a separate weapon with hardness 0 and hit points equal to the thessalmonster’s HD. To sever a head, an
opponent must inflict enough damage to reduce the head’s hit points to 0 or less. Severing a head deals damage to the
thessalmonster’s body equal to the thessalmonsters’s current HD. A thessalmonster can’t attack with a severed head,
but takes no other penalties.
A thessalmonster’s severed head regrows in 1d4 weeks.
A thessalmonster’s Combat Reflexes allow it to opportunity attack with each of its serpentine heads.
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Maw (Ex)
A Thessalrat’s main mouth opens far wider and further back than it should,
allowing it to deal bite damage as if it were a Large creature.
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Phase Jump (Sp)
Instead of creating a clone, a Thessalrat can teleport 100’ as a standard action in a fashion similar to Dimension Door.
Doing so counts as the Thessalrat creating a single clone. A single clone can do this no more than once per day.
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Ecology
Environment Any temperate
Organization Solitary, Pair, or Plague (6-12)
Treasure none
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The Thessalrat is a creature born out of arcane military experimentation, successfully crossing a Doppelrat with a
Thessalhydra despite expectations. The resulting monster was so deadly once unleashed in the now-forgotten war that both sides
called a temporary truce in order to exterminate the pest before it had a chance to reproduce and decimate the entire continent.
While the creation of more Thessalrats is now considered a war crime against humanity, some of the less-scrupulous mages
occasionally create a sterile version as a deceptive trap to guard valuable items.
A regular Thessalrat in its passive form appears almost identical to a regular rat, save being a bit heavier around the shoulders
and being bit on the larger size. Once roused to action, however, a Thessalrat abandons this disguise and the fur on its
shoulders parts to reveal a swarm of smaller rat heads on darting necks. The central head splits open all the way back to
the chest while acid drips off its fangs.
Thessalrats are unusually cunning and cruel when it comes to stalking their prey, but relatively unintelligent otherwise.
Not content only killing enough prey to feed it for a single meal, a Thessalrat enjoys causing mass panic among a population
of intelligent creatures by slaughtering as many of them as it can in a single attack and feeds off the remains the next day.
Its ability to select which clone lives at the end of the division means that it can attack with reckless abandon without
fear of its own death, and is able to harry an adventuring group or army for days on end until eventually the entire group
succumbs to attrition. The Thessalrat uses its disguise as a regular rat to hide amongst the regular vermin found everywhere,
and its small size allows it to crawl through the narrowest cracks and rat warrens. It is alert and cautious for traps while
unduplicated, and will remain just outside a town or army camp during any attempted rat eradication.
A Thessalrat never jeopardizes its existence by having all of its clones in danger at the same time, and will always attempt
to split at least one off from a fight and hide it somewhere without exception.
The Thessalrat has two weaknesses, minor though they are – Normal rats refuse to go within 15 feet of a Thessalrat providing a
hint for the perceptive, and the 10-minute time limit on the duration of its clones can be exploited to kill the creature while
it is weak if someone is able to track every single copy during an attack.
- Weak by themselves, but lethal via attrition and numbers. Player groups APL 3 and above should have very little trouble resisting and killing individual thessalrats, but to actually kill the entire creature is likely to be difficult until beyond 5th or 7th level.
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First time posting these monsters online, so tell me what you think and share your own!
INteresting monsters.
I like Ashiel's very mundane commentary on the CR rules, where NPC levels only count 1/2 towards CR.
The Gnoll Warrior/4 is a 6hd beastie with only CR3 by itself, and a respectable combatant.
==Aelryinth
If you're trying to fit the most threat you "legally" can into a given CR that might not be a great idea. I was thinking just the other day how many mid to high level PCs could probably be assassinated by lower level mages focused on the seemingly humble Magic Missile spell.
I guess I don't have much right to criticize though since I recently almost caused a TPK by adding Unchained Rogue levels to a ghast until CR = APL. I got too excited about the cool abilities such a monster could have and not worried enough about how easy it would be for PCs to fail some saving throws and end up dead. In my defense we do play with a house rule that coup de grace just counts as a regular critical hit without and Fort save vs death. It is still pretty brutal though, especially if you add in sneak attack - ouch...
First things first: If your homebrew monster is too powerful for its CR, then you've given it the wrong CR.
My intent was not to make "super-powered monsters," but monsters that are very effective at the time they are supposed to be faced. Dragons and Ghasts are both brutally efficient at their levels when played correctly, like having a Black Dragon use it's at-will Darkness ability on pebbles and dominate the battlefield with them. I followed the monster creation chart at [url=http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/rules-for-monsters/monster-creation] fairly closely.
A GM has enough power to kill their players at any moment, they don't need to bring in cheatery monsters to do it.The ghastly sentinel is more swingy than anything else. ... Actually, a standard ghast is actually better at this than the sentinel, since it has the stench ability to lower saves and an extra hand free to claw (thus another chance to paralyze).
Ghasts are always swingy, but having these things hunt in pairs makes it much more likely that they'll hit and be able to pull off that coup de grace. Add in the extreme crit damage from a scythe, and you don't have a likely-dead PC - you have an all-dead one.
The only real advantage the sentinel has is the ability to stay still, which it... apparently keeps doing if discovered? I don't see the point of that...
Also, keep in mind that CR goes up by 2 every time the monster count doubles. Four CR 4 monsters is a CR 8 encounter, which is supposed to be a challenge for a 7th-level party.
Its Freeze ability was taken from the gargoyle as far as the mechanics go (with the ability to stay frozen under duress added by me.) It's intended to be more of a fluff piece than something usable in combat. I also wouldn't give full experience for killing one of these that didn't fight back, just as I would not give experience to a level 10 PC for killing a helpless, cowering goblin or an unarmed townsfolk.
And as humorous as it was, my group never thought to ask about the scarecrows near town after first seeing them in the wilderness, and the BBEG would've had them over a barrel had they not made the check to realize the town's ex-Royal Guard marshal had killed the doppleganger sent to take his place. (He sent the fake's head back instead.)
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I took away the Stench ability in an attempt to make them less lethal, since the addition of group tactics meant a paralyzed PC would be dead in a round or less. The save DC for their touch is already at what it should be for a monster of this level, so I didn't feel I was taking too much away. You might have a point that it makes them weaker than ghasts alone would be, once you count in that 1 less paralyzing attack each round.
As for the CR, we both have it wrong. For 2-4 monsters, the CR goes up by 1 with each addition. For 5-8, it goes up by 1 per 2, and for 9-16 it goes up by 1 per 4. I had thought it went up by doubles each time, or 1-2-4-8-16 at each CR. Four CR 4 Sentinels would likely be unable to kill more than 1 or 2 level 7 PCs unless they got really lucky.
Thessalmonsters are supposed to have at least 5 HD and be Large-sized, so you're already going outside the expected parameters and shouldn't be surprised that it's not performing as expected.
I know. I said that I cheated the template and modified the whole thing in my original post, AND tried to reference that the cross was not supposed to be possible in the monster description.
increased bite damage (for one head)
Mostly for physical appearance, and to make it so that the central head was at least something more imposing than the tiny cloud of rat heads surrounding it. The hydra-heads don't have the acidic bite they were supposed to by-template either, because that would have broken DPR.
teleportation (why?)
Why do elves have better vision and hearing than humans? Teleporting was added to make it a unique monster. Given how much picking and choosing I did, there's no way I could say this is just a monster and a template.
and more than doubled land speed.
I took the 40' landspeed from the Thessalmonster template. I'd be okay with dropping the rat to 30', and would actually prefer it because then you could have some chase scenes.
As far as being a threat, the clones only have 4 hp max - they're going to get maybe one attack before they die from someone looking at them funny, to say nothing of the many, many spells that will obliterate them en masse. After one standard encounter, the thessalrat is going to have two daily clones left, or one if it used its teleportation. (Again, why?)
The clones only have 4hp max, and after the second duplication most will only have 1 hp. But there's now 8 of them, and they're either in the middle of the party or preparing out of sight where they can't be one-shot. Without having less HP, these things would likely have gone outside of their CR window (as their damage already is, slightly, iirc.) They also have fast healing 2 to get their HP up again after splitting.
Also, read it a bit closer - the Thessalrat recovers its copies every 8 hours, not each day. If it tracks the PCs through rat tunnels or whatever, it can ambush them 2-3 times per day. This thing is not dangerous by itself to any decently-leveled PC, but it's dangerous in that it drains away their daily resources. Numbers alone are also more dangerous than a whole, and any spellcaster surrounded by these things is likely to be hit enough that they lose their spells. Given the amount of bites per round they give out, it's almost a guaranteed that they'll contract the Doppelrat's Degenerative Cloning disease. The DC is weak, but if half the party is afflicted someone will fail their save. And since you don't start healing damage done by disease until the day after you cure it, a stalking Thessalrat can re-infect and keep them permanently STR and CON damaged.
Also, no kill = no XP by RAW, so the PCs will likely hate this thing for that and can't farm the clones for XP.
The primary targets of a Thessalrat are also not the PCs - this thing is an army killer, a town killer, able to wipe out those the PCs serve or love in days (as most NPCs are only level 1 without any PC classes.) If they get hit, they heal. Any soldiers are dead, while sergeants and above can defend themselves but can't kill them. If you actually want to threaten the PCs with it, throw it at them below 5th level before they get fireball. I'd have made them CR 3 instead of CR 5, but there's too many duplicates for that to work.
The only thing this critter has going for it is the ability to run away....
Correct. It's supposed to take cleverness to get of them.
.I'd really prefer not to add a "Note to GMs" on these critters, so I guess I'll need to re-write the descriptions to give a clearer view of what they do.
- obligatory defense of monsters
- Should I give the Sentinels their Stench ability again?
- Thessalrats are new monsters designed for PCs below level 5, not a monster + a template.
Here's a rather brutal one I created a while back by adding class levels to a ghast. I knew halfway through creating it that it was so over the top that I'd never run it, so I just went full throttle and made it as absurdly powerful as possible. It's a little fast and loose with the rules (using the parasitic twin to give the monster a second head so feral mutagen can provide an additional bite attack) but the end result is a pretty terrifying visage, a ghast comprised of two undead bodies fused together.
People know better than to wander the old graveyard on the outskirts of town. No burial has taken place there in over seventy years, but that hasn't stopped new graves from being dug, and filled, on a regular basis. Many have pledged to hunt down the evil that stalks the place. Most of those would-be heroes lose interest when they investigate and find nothing. For others the last thing ever heard of them is a shrill scream in the dark of night, then silence.
Beneath the ground in a string of half-collapsed tombs and crypts walks a creature of blackest heart. The product of a tortured mind, a long-deceased necromancer fused the bodies of two of his dead minions before reanimating them as a single servant. The combined creature calls itself Braghaern the Gravedigger, and it has long since out-lived its once master. Beneath the earth it now rules over a fledgling kingdom of the dead. Braghaern is a brutal tyrant, and like his deceased master before him he delights in experimenting with his undead minions. The time will come when his kingdom shall devour the world of the surface, but Braghaern is patient and bides his time as his power grows. After all, the world above has no idea of what he has in store for them.
Braghaern the Gravedigger - CR 7
XP 3,200
Ghast Alchemist (Mindchemist, Vivisectionist) 4 / Antipaladin 2
CE Medium Undead
Init +5; Senses Darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +16
Aura Aura of Evil, Stench 30 ft.
DEFENSE
AC 27, touch 15, flat-footed 23 (+4 armor, +5 dex, +4 natural, +4 shield)
HP 109 (2d8+4d8+2d10+68)
Fort +24, Ref +18, Will +21, +2 vs poison
Defensive Abilities Channel Resistance +2
Immune Undead Traits
OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft, burrow 10 ft
Melee 2 Bites +14 (1d6+8 plus disease and paralysis), 4 Claws +14 (1d6+8 plus paralysis)
Special Attacks Disease (DC 19), Paralysis (1d4+1 rounds, DC 21), Sneak Attack +2d6, Smite Good 1/day (+8 attack and AC, +2 damage), Touch of Corruption 7/day (1d6)
Alchemist Spells Prepared (CL 4th)
2nd - Bull's Strength, Invisibility
1st - Deathwatch, Expeditious Retreat, Shield (2)
Antipaladin Spell-like Abilities (CL 2nd, concentration +10)
At Will - Detect Good
STATISTICS
Str 26, Dex 20, Con -, Int 14, Wis 21, Cha 26
Base Atk +6; CMB +14; CMD 29
Feats Ability Focus (paralysis), Brew Potion, Extra Discovery (x2), Throw Anything, Warren Digger
Skills Craft (Alchemy) +11, Intimidate +21, Perception +16, Spellcraft +11, Stealth +16, Survival +16
Languages Common, Aklo, Abyssal
SQ Alchemy, Aura of Evil, Cruel Anatomist, Parasitic Twin, Perfect Recall, Poison Resistace, Smite Good, Sneak Attack, Stench 30 ft, Swift Alchemy, Torturer's Eye, Touch of Corruption 7/day (1d6), Unholy Resilience, Vestigial Arm (x2)
Possessions Cloak of Resistance +1, Studded Leather +1, Formula Book
TACTICS
Before Combat Braghaern drinks its Cognatogen to increase its Charisma before combat, then its potion of Bull's Strength, then its potion of Shield. It then attempts to sneak up on enemies and paralyze as many as possible before they can react to the ghast's presence.
Base Statistics Without his Cognatogen, Bull's Strength, and Shield, Bagaern's statistics are AC 23, touch 15, flat-footed 19; HP 93; Fort +20, Ref +16, Will +19; Melee bite +12 (1d6+6 plus disease and paralysis), 2 claws (1d6+6 plus paralysis), Special Attacks Disease (DC 17), Paralysis (DC 19), Smite Good (+6 attack and AC, +2 damage); Skills Intimidate +19
You don't even need to check the CR guidelines to tell that this monster is absolutely nuts. Both its defenses and offenses are completely unreasonable for a CR 7 monster, and it has a multitude of abilities to make an ambush scenario more likely. Having 6 attacks per round with a DC 21 save against paralysis attached to each of them goes beyond nasty, it's outright obnoxious. And worse, it gets sneak attack damage once it's paralyzed you! If you want to retreat, get ready to be ambushed by this master tracker with maxed out ranks in stealth and survival. The only real weak spot here is that it has no real ranged attack options and merely average attack, but these are simply not enough to counterbalance the obscene TPK potential this monster presents at its CR.
If you want an unreasonable CR 7 monster there's no need to customize. You can just use the Sceaduinar!
Going to mention the vanilla Cacodaemon here. That thing is not CR 2. Early level fire wiz couldn't damage it, rogue-type couldn't take the hits. After the fourth total party wipe the fighter got lucky.
What CR is the chocolate Cacodaemon?