Daemon, ObcisidaemonThis massive fiend has eagle wings, a tusked canine face, and
a muscular frame. It wields an immense, cruel-looking halberd.Obcisidaemon CR 19Source Bestiary 6 pg. 72, Book of the Damned - Volume 3: Horsemen of the Apocalypse pg. 50
XP 204,800
NE Gargantuan outsider (daemon, evil, extraplanar)
Init +4; Senses darkvision 60 ft., deathwatch, true seeing;
Perception +30
Aura scorched earth (60 ft., DC 28), unholy aura (DC 25)DefenseAC 34, touch 14, flat-footed 30 (+4 deflection, +4 Dex, +20 natural,
–4 size)
hp 319 (22d10+198)
Fort +26, Ref +15, Will +22
DR 15/good and silver; Immune acid, death effects, disease,
poison; Resist cold 30, electricity 30, fire 30; SR 30OffenseSpeed 30 ft., fly 60 ft. (average)
Melee +1 unholy halberd +28/+23/+18/+13 (4d8+13/19–20/×3
plus inherit soul), bite +21 (2d8+4)
Space 20 ft., Reach 20 ft.
Special Attacks cloak of souls
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 20th; concentration +27)
Constant—deathwatch, true seeing, unholy aura (DC 25)
At will—cloudkill (DC 22), greater teleport (self plus 50 lbs. of objects only)
3/day—quickened cloudkill (DC 22), destruction (DC 24), fire storm (DC 25), incendiary cloud (DC 25), spell turning
1/day—mass hold person (DC 24), meteor swarm (DC 26), summon (level 9, 1 purrodaemon 50%)StatisticsStr 26, Dex 19, Con 28, Int 13, Wis 21, Cha 24
Base Atk +22; CMB +34 (+38 sunder); CMD 52 (54 vs. sunder)
Feats Bleeding Critical, Critical Focus, Greater Sunder, Greater
Vital Strike, Improved Critical (halberd), Improved Sunder, Improved Vital Strike, Power Attack, Quicken Spell-Like Ability
(cloudkill), Vital Strike, Weapon Focus (halberd)
Skills Bluff +32, Fly +23, Intimidate +32, Knowledge (history,
planes) +15, Perception +30, Sense Motive +30, Spellcraft +26
Languages Abyssal, Draconic, Infernal; telepathy 100 ft.
SQ warfare masteryEcologyEnvironment any (Abaddon)
Organization solitary, pair, or holocaust (3–6)
Treasure standard (+1 unholy halberd, other treasure)Special AbilitiesCloak of Souls (Su) An obcisidaemon is attended by the souls it has captured—a mass often resembling a tattered, ethereal cloak or a roiling cloud of dust at its feet. When an obcisidaemon successfully captures a soul with its inherit soul ability, the soul becomes a part of its cloak of souls, taking up one soul slot. An obcisidaemon has a number of soul slots equal to its Charisma modifier (7 for the typical obcisidaemon). Destroying the daemon frees any souls in its cloak, though this does not return the deceased creatures to life. Any attempt to resurrect a creature whose soul is trapped in a cloak of souls requires a DC 28 caster level check. Failure results in the spell having no effect, while success tears the victim’s soul free from the cloak and returns the creature to life as normal. If the daemon is in an unholy location, such as that created by an unhallow spell or on Abaddon, the DC of this caster level check increases by 2. Once a soul is consumed, only miracle or wish can restore the creature to life. As a swift action, an obcisidaemon can consume a soul from its cloak to achieve one of the following effects. - • Increase the save DC of the next spell-like ability the obcisidaemon uses that round by 2.
- • Gain the benefit of a heal spell.
- • Grant a single weapon wielded by the obcisidaemon one of the following weapon abilities for 1 round: flaming burst, icy burst, shocking burst, or wounding.
Inherit Soul (Su) Whenever an obcisidaemon kills a creature with a weapon it wields, that creature must immediately succeed at a DC 30 Fortitude save or be consumed by the daemon’s cloak of souls. This is a death effect. If the cloak cannot consume this soul without exceeding its number of soul slots, the daemon can release a soul as a free action in order to make room for the new soul; otherwise, the killed creature automatically succeeds at its save and its soul is not absorbed. The save DC is Constitution-based.
Scorched Earth (Su) A creature that dies within 60 feet of an obcisidaemon and is not drawn into the daemon’s cloak of souls via its inherit soul ability must immediately succeed at a DC 28 Fortitude save or its body is utterly consumed in unholy fire equivalent to the effect of a destruction spell. The save DC is Charisma-based.
Warfare Mastery (Ex) Although the typical obcisidaemon fights with a halberd, these daemons are proficient with all weapons. An obcisidaemon will sometimes eschew the typical +1 unholy halberd its kind favors for the favored weapon of the specific Horseman it serves.DescriptionThe towering and devastating obcisidaemon personifies the darkest elements of war. Obcisidaemons strip away the veneer of honor and battlefield glory and the complexity of wartime tactics, leaving behind only the brutal and violent truth of conflict at its core, and then divest it of any humanity to reveal naught but scorched earth and genocide. Reflecting the disgraceful values of ethnic cleansing, depopulation, and all other forms of the clinical, systematic obliteration of civilian populations, obcisidaemons are among the most powerful members of daemonkind. These paragons of inhumanity arrive in the heart of great cities and leave wastelands of rubble and ashes in their wakes. Where an obcisidaemon walks, not even the ghosts of the dead remain to lament the destruction, for the daemon wipes out not only innocent individuals, but also their entire histories and bloodlines, ensuring that no future exists for its victims in any sense of the word.
When a mortal commits an act of genocide in life and goes to Abaddon in death, it has a chance of forming into an obcisidaemon if it survives long enough as a member of the hunted. Such individuals rarely have trouble managing the unforgiving wastes, as they have already proven willing to destroy any and all possible allies in order to ensure their own survival, making betrayal an impossibility and solitude an inevitability. A vicious soul that eventually develops into an obcisidaemon becomes a lone, wandering mass of slaughter that acts as a harbinger of undiscriminating and unforgiving death to all who dare stand in its path. In life, the soul perhaps desired to kill only a particular chosen population; as an obcisidaemon, however, the being seeks the obliteration of all mortals.
Peculiar to an obcisidaemon is the cloak of souls that seems to seep from its enormous body, a symbol of its destructive abilities providing onlookers a hint of the sheer scope of its murderous capabilities. When an obcisidaemon lays slaughter to entire populations, it does not feast on all of the souls at once, but captures victims for later use. When the fiend needs to unleash a particularly potent rampage upon a resistant population, it consumes these reserved souls in order to strengthen its powers and ensure its success in total annihilation. Some obcisidaemons have developed eldritch methods to craft and shape these soul fragments, and use them to drape themselves in the material.
Devoted to the wanton, systematic slaughter of all mortal life, most obcisidaemons serve Szuriel, the Horseman of War, who shares similar ideals. In her service, obcisidaemons act as high-ranking officers at the head of armies of purrodaemons, to take advantage of their skill at the pragmatic art of organized massacres. Occasionally, an obcisidaemon instead serves Apollyon, occupying a similar role at the head of a titanic flight of leukodaemons sowing clouds of poison across miles of terrain in its passing. Sometimes, an amassed group of obcisidaemons might trail behind an invading daemonic army, guaranteeing that no trace of the butchered mortals remains among the ashes and salted earth. These obcisidaemons not only ensure that all life perishes, but that the land is thereafter uninhabitable by any living creatures.
Some obcisidaemons serve no particular member of the Four Horsemen, instead choosing to function as independent agents of genocide and endless eons of wartime slaughter. These nomadic, self-serving beings wander from plane to plane, laying waste to one civilization after another. Some obcisidaemons intentionally spread their true names to the Material Plane, hoping for a foolish evil summoner to call upon them, knowing that no mere mortal could control their awesome power. Such summoners often end up among the first souls to be devoured and woven into the cloud of tormented spirits that cloaks the rampaging obcisidaemon.
Obcisidaemons stand 25 feet tall, have wingspans of 30 feet, and weigh over 15,000 pounds, but rumors whisper of specimens that are nearly three times this size.Creatures in "Daemon" CategorySource Bestiary 2 pg. 62
Harbingers of ruin and embodiments of the worst ways to die, daemons epitomize painful death, the all-consuming hunger of evil, and the utter annihilation of life. While demons seek to pervert and destroy in endless unholy rampages, and devils vex and enslave in hopes of corrupting mortals, daemons seek only to consume mortal life itself. While some use brute force to despoil life or prey upon vulnerable souls, others wage campaigns of deceit to draw whole realms into ruin. With each life claimed and each atrocity meted out, daemons spread fear, mistrust, and despair, tarnishing the luster of existence and drawing the planes ever closer to their final, ultimate ruin.
Notorious for their hatred of the living, daemons are the things of dark dreams and fearful tales, as their ultimate ambitions include extinguishing every individual mortal life—and the more violent or terrible the end, the better. Their methods vary wildly, typically differentiated by daemonic breed. Many seek to infiltrate the mortal plane and sow death by their own taloned hands, while others manipulate agents (both mortal and immortal) as malevolent puppet masters, instigating calamities on massive scales from their grim realms. Such diversity of methods causes many planar scholars to misattribute the machinations of daemons to other types of fiends. These often deadly mistakes are further propagated by daemons' frequent dealings with and manipulation of other outsiders. Yet in all cases, despair, ruin, and death, spreading like contagion, typify the touch of daemonkind, though such symptoms often prove recognizable only after the hour is far too late.
Daemons flourish upon the plane of Abaddon, a bleak expanse of cold mists, fearful shapes, and hunted souls. Upon these wastes, the souls of evil mortals flee predation by the native fiends, and terror and the powers of the evil plane eventually transform the most ruthless into daemons themselves. Amid these scarred wastelands, poison swamps, and realms of endless night rise the foul domains of the tyrants of daemonkind, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Lords of devastation, these powerful and unique daemons desire slaughter, ruin, and death on a cosmic scale, and drive hordes of their lesser kin to spread terror and sorrow across the planes. Although the Horsemen share a singular goal, their tactics and ambitions vary widely.
Along with mastery over vast realms, the Horsemen are served by unimaginably enormous armies of their lesser brethren, but are obeyed most closely by retinues of daemons enslaved to their titles. These specific strains of daemonic servitors, known among daemonkind as deacons, serve whoever holds the title of Horseman. Although these instruments of the archdaemons differ in strength and ability, their numbers provide their lords with legions capable of near-equal terrorization.
More so than among any other fiendish race, several breeds of daemons lust after souls. While other foul inhabitants of the planes seek the corruption and destruction of living essences, many daemons value possession and control over mortal animas, entrapping and hoarding souls—and in so doing disrupting the natural progression of life and perverting the quintessence of creation to serve their own terrible whims. While not all daemons possess the ability to steal a mortal being's soul and turn it to their use, the lowliest of daemonkind, the maniacal cacodaemons, endlessly seek life essences to consume and imprison. These base daemons enthusiastically serve their more powerful kin, eager for increased opportunities to doom mortal spirits. While cacodaemons place little value upon the souls they imprison, greater daemons eagerly gather them as trophies, fuel for terrible rites, or offerings to curry the favor of their lords. Several breeds of daemons also posses their own notorious abilities to capture mortal spirits or draw upon the power of souls, turning the forces of utter annihilation to their own sinister ends.
The Four Horsemen
Four dread lords, infamous across all the planes, rule the disparate hordes of daemonkind. Risen from among the ranks of their terrible brethren to displace those fiendish tyrants before them, they are the archdaemons, the End Bringers, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. In the blasphemous annals of fiendish lore, they are the prophesied architects of multiversal ruin, destined to stand triumphant over cadaverous cosmoses and infinities of silence before also giving way to absolute oblivion. Undisputed in his power among their kind, each Horseman rules a vast realm upon the bleak plains of Abaddon and a distinctive method of mortal ruin: pestilence, famine, war, or death from old age. Yet while each archdaemon commands measureless influence, daemons know nothing of loyalty and serve only those they cannot overcome. Thus, though the Horsemen stand peerless in their power and manipulations among daemonkind, they must ever defend their thrones from the machinations of ambitious underlings and the plots of other archdaemons.
Upon the poisonous expanses of Abaddon, lesser daemonic peers carve petty fiefdoms and posture as lords, but despite their world-spanning intrigues, all bow before the Horsemen—though most do so only grudgingly. Ancient myths also tell of a mysterious fifth Horseman, the Oinodaemon, though nearly all mention of such a creature has been scoured from the multiverse.
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