Oni, Ice YaiThis blue-skinned giant has three eyes, fangs, and claws. Its hair seems to be formed of delicate strands of ice.Ice Yai CR 14Source Bestiary 3 pg. 207
XP 38,400
CE Large outsider (cold, oni, giant, native, shapechanger)
Init +2; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +22DefenseAC 27, touch 12, flat-footed 24 (+4 armor, +2 Dex, +1 dodge, +11 natural, –1 size)
hp 200 (16d10+112); regeneration 5 (fire or acid)
Fort +17, Ref +7, Will +12
Immune cold; SR 25
Weaknesses vulnerability to fireOffenseSpeed 50 ft., fly 60 ft. (good)
Melee 4 slams +24 (2d8+9)
Ranged icy missile +17 touch (4d6 cold)
Space 10 ft., Reach 10 ft.
Special Attacks staggering strikes
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 18th; concentration +22)
Constant—fly, mage armor
At will—darkness, invisibility (self only)
3/day— charm monster (DC 18), cone of cold (DC 19), deep slumber (DC 17), gaseous form (self only)
1/day—polar ray, solid fogStatisticsStr 29, Dex 14, Con 25, Int 12, Wis 15, Cha 18
Base Atk +16; CMB +26; CMD 39
Feats Cleave, Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Great Cleave, Mobility, Power Attack, Spring Attack, Vital Strike
Skills Bluff +23, Disguise +14, Fly +25, Intimidate +23, Knowledge (arcana) +11, Perception +22, Sense Motive +13, Spellcraft +8, Stealth +17 (+21 in snow), Use Magic Device +14; Racial Modifiers +4 Stealth in snow
Languages Common, Giant
SQ change shape (Medium or Large humanoid; alter self or giant form I)EcologyEnvironment cold mountains
Organization solitary or gang (1 plus 4–16 frost giants)
Treasure standardSpecial AbilitiesIcy Missile (Su) As a swift action, the ice yai can fire a dart of ice from its third eye. This dart is a ranged touch attack (+20 attack bonus), dealing 4d6 points of cold damage on a hit. This attack has a range of 180 feet with no range increment.
Staggering Strikes (Ex) An ice yai can strike twice per round with its two slam attacks. A creature struck by more than two of these slam attacks in a round must make a DC 27 Fortitude save or be staggered for 1 round. The save DC is Strength-based.DescriptionThe ice yai is a sinister creature that combines the brutality of a frost giant with the grace and style of a skilled martial artist. Although its magical powers are formidable, it prefers to fight in melee using its slam attacks, leading its minions in merciless combat. It uses its mobility to cast combat spells or launch shards of ice from its third eye.
An ice yai is a natural leader among frost giants, tempering their savagery with its own wisdom. A tribe led by an ice yai may still raid settlements of neighboring humanoids, but the tribe soon learns the value of establishing regular tributes and willing sacrifices—the ice yai teach that methods that rely upon the threat of violence are often even more effective than actual violence. Despite this strangely enlightened philosophy, an ice yai never passes up an opportunity to reinforce its capacity for slaughter, and will often demand that its subjects take part in show battles, both for the entertainment of the tribe and to nurture the ice yai’s insatiable ego and sense of dominion over its subjects.Creatures in "Oni" CategorySource Bestiary 3 pg. 205
Oni are a race of evil spirits, native to the Material Plane, that manifest physical bodies based upon the shapes and desires of humanoid mortals. In pure spirit form, an oni is nothing but a disembodied evil longing for the sins of the flesh. In this form, oni are harmless and invisible. The majority of these bodiless oni were once kami who failed their wards, or more often, who deliberately abandoned them. As punishment, they were stripped of their ability to form a physical body and then cast into the void. Rarely, a mortal creature's soul can become a disembodied oni upon death, or in even rarer cases, after a truly evil individual has undergone a particularly vile ritual that ends in suicide. These oni are more often destined for positions of great power and strength than most.
Eventually, an oni's spirit manifests a physical body on the Material Plane. The methods by which this may occur vary, but the process generally takes place in areas already despoiled by sin, tragedy, or cruelty. The type of oni a spirit transforms into is influenced by a wide variety of variables, ranging from the nature of what the oni spirit was before to the location where it is reborn into the realm of flesh and blood. Once an oni manifests its physical body, that body becomes its true form for the rest of its life—all oni are shapechangers, but this original form is the form in which they are born and the form they revert to upon death.
An oni's true form is always similar to that of a specific type of humanoid, save that it is always deformed and monstrous to look upon. Tusks, additional eyes, or strangely colored skin are common physical attributes. Yet while they have hideous forms, all oni are capable of changing their shape to assume forms more pleasant to the civilized eye. The type of shapes an oni can assume depend upon its species, but all can transform into some form of humanoid. Oni use this ability to infiltrate humanoid societies, either to prey upon the weak or to rule them in disguise.
In order to understand oni, it is important to consider that most of these beings were once spirits tasked with protecting a material realm they now believe is undeserving of such care and concern—indeed, the physical world is to be dominated and consumed. They arrive in physical form starved for sensory experience, and never fully sate their desire to gorge on such experiences. Most oni seek to attain positions of leadership and power, often in the guise of a normal humanoid, in order to secure a never-ending supply of sensory experiences. It is also important to understand that oni's immoderation is also motivated by their corrupted and evil natures—that is, no pleasure is more enjoyable than one that deprives or wounds another.
Oni retain their hatred of the kami upon reentering the Material Plane as physical creatures, and often their depredations and violations of the world can be directly tied to their efforts to destroy kami or the kami's works. Oni tend not to congregate with others of their kind, being most comfortable in positions of leadership over enslaved or oppressed societies populated by humanoids they can masquerade as. Yet, at times, particularly powerful oni abandon this mindset and instead gather to their side entire legions of oni drawn from all types. The oni known collectively as the yai—oni with an affinity for true giants—are most often responsible for such actions, and when a yai builds such an army of oni, the humanoid lands shake with terror.
Theoretically, as many types of oni exist as there are types of humanoids, although in reality, certain types of oni are much more populous than others. The ogre mage, an oni associated with ogres, is the best-known and most commonly encountered type of oni, for reasons that still send scholars of oni lore into spiraling arguments with seemingly no end. Beyond the oni detailed on the following pages, the atamahuta (ettins), ja noi (hobgoblins), nogitsune (kitsune), and wind yai (cloud giants) are relatively well known. Oni with associations to bugbears, great cyclopes, stone giants, trolls, troglodytes, and other races exist as well. And above even the mighty void yai there exist the oni demigods—entities of nearly incomprehensible power known as the oni daimyo. Known Oni Daimyo Countless oni stalk the world, slaking their greed and bloodlust to the misery of humanoids. The great leaders among the oni, beings known as daimyo, are as numerous as the nations of the world, and all oni seek to climb the rungs of power to become such powerful entities. The following list includes oni daimyo that have power in ways that make them known and feared outside their own domains. Most of these nefarious oni command armies or control points through which other oni can enter the world. - Akuma, the Horned King (ogre mage)
- Chimon, Hunter of Blood (ogre mage)
- Guyuku, the Sea Devil (water oni)
- Inma, Empress of the World (void oni)
- Muronna, the Dark Mother (ogre mage)
- Nataka, the Red King (fire oni)
- Onmyuza, Dancer in Flesh (ogre mage)
- Ushitora, Keeper of the Oni Gate (void oni)
- Uzumae, Daimyo of the North (kuwa oni)
- Yabu, Lord of the Kazan Caldera (fire oni)
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