Giant, Tomb GiantThis towering, lean figure is hairless and has smooth, milky white skin. A scythe gleams in her hands.Tomb Giant CR 12Source Pathfinder #94: Ice Tomb of the Giant Queen pg. 84, Bestiary 6 pg. 136
XP 19,200
NE Large humanoid (giant)
Init +3; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +15DefenseAC 28, touch 12, flat-footed 25 (+6 armor, +3 Dex, +10 natural, –1 size)
hp 162 (13d8+104)
Fort +16, Ref +7, Will +10
Defensive Abilities negative energy affinity, rock catching; Immune death effects, paralysisOffenseSpeed 40 ft. (30 ft. in armor)
Melee mwk scythe +20/+15 (2d6+16/19–20/×4 plus energy drain) or 2 slams +19 (1d6+11 plus energy drain)
Ranged rock +12 (1d8+11)
Space 10 ft., Reach 10 ft.
Special Attacks energy drain (1 level, DC 18), rock throwing (120 ft.)
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 12th; concentration +14)
Constant—deathwatch
At will—detect undead
3/day—make whole, sculpt corpseAPG
1/day—animate dead, control undead (DC 19)StatisticsStr 32, Dex 17, Con 26, Int 13, Wis 19, Cha 14
Base Atk +9; CMB +21 (+23 trip); CMD 34 (36 vs. trip)
Feats Combat Expertise, Improved Critical (scythe), Improved Iron Will, Improved Trip, Iron Will, Martial Weapon Proficiency (scythe), Power Attack
Skills Climb +12, Heal +12, Knowledge (religion) +14, Perception +15, Stealth +5, Survival +10
Languages Common, Giant
SQ corpse stitcher, sinister synergyEcologyEnvironment any land or underground
Organization solitary, pair, or cabal (3–13)
Treasure standard (mwk breastplate, mwk scythe)Special AbilitiesCorpse Stitcher (Sp) Tomb giants can cast make whole as a spell-like ability, but only for the purposes of creating undead creatures. For example, a tomb giant can use this ability to aid in the creation of a necrocraft (Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 4 200), to restore armor to be used for the creation of a phantom armor (Bestiary 4 213), or even to repair the armor of a graveknight (Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 3 138).
Energy Drain (Su) A tomb giant can channel its energy drain attack through any melee weapon it wields.
Sinister Synergy (Su) Multiple tomb giants can combine their efforts to gain the ability to create undead. When two or more tomb giants are within 30 feet of each other, they can work together to use create undead as a spell-like ability (caster level 13th). Three or more tomb giants working in unison in this way can use greater create undead as a spell-like ability (caster level 15th). Every additional tomb giant beyond the third who participates in this synergy increases the caster level of this effect by 1.DescriptionSince the time Urgathoa first fled the Boneyard, there have been living creatures that have given their allegiance to powers that offer the promise of existence eternal. Tomb giants are an entire race of humanoids who have given themselves over to necromancy, and in so doing have gained sinister powers. These giants are born as the living agents of undeath, and they show great skill in creating all manner of undead creatures—even from their own kind. Tomb giants fully expect to be transformed after they die, though most don’t have to worry about the cost of sacrificing their experiences and memories, for they know their brothers and sisters can raise intelligent undead much greater than shambling zombies or clattering skeletons.
Tomb giants possess an alabaster complexion. They are devoid of all body hair and have smooth, rounded features and marbleized skin. Tomb giants often tattoo their pale skin with arcane symbols in stark black ink. The sclerae of their eyes are jet black, and ghostly white pupils glow in the centers. They move with an eerie, silent grace for humanoids of their size, and rarely talk unless it is necessary. Tomb giants favor simple clothing, typically wearing togas at home and hooded cloaks when they emerge from their shadowy lairs. The average tomb giant stands 11 to 13 feet tall and weighs approximately 1,300 pounds. Tomb giants can live for up to 400 years.EcologyTomb giants were created as an offshoot of taiga giants, forged by a Runelord of Gluttony during Thassilon’s rule. When this ancient necromancer discovered the taiga giants’ ability to sense and direct the life energy that pulses through every living creature, he hid a number of them away a secret complex deep beneath Golarion’s surface. Using a now-lost ritual, the runelord altered the essence of these specimens to create the first tomb giants. He wanted to use the new species of giants as a deadly army of necromancers against the other runelords, but the conniving Runelord of Gluttony died before he could enact his plan, and his project was lost to the mists of time. The tomb giants lingered in their isolation for generations before they began to spread throughout the Darklands.
These days, tomb giants are born rather than created, though it would be a misnomer to call their procreation natural. The giants’ adaptation to their unwholesome powers has come at a cost, for tomb giants have trouble conceiving except during a small window of time (not much longer than an hour) after they have drained a portion of the life energy from another living creature. It is therefore common for tomb giants to take prisoners and keep them on hand for when they wish to conceive children.
Although tomb giants possess inherent powers of necromancy, they are not undead. They aren’t particularly troubled by sunlight (aside from their tendency to sunburn), but they have an instinctual dislike of bright light and open spaces. They are omnivorous and have no qualms about consuming sentient humanoids. By the time tomb giants are 10 years old, they are as large as an adult human and are capable of hunting and fighting. They reach maturity by age 50 or 60, when they gain full use of their magical abilities. When tomb giants die, their families or friends often transform them into sentient undead creatures or use the deceased giants’ parts in the creation of other undead abominations. Tomb giants view their mortal life spans much as humans view puberty: as merely one stage in the development of the individual. An undead tomb giant is likely to be valued as a family elder.
For tomb giants, sentient undeath represents the perpetual continuation of self-identity, and is the highest hope for those still alive. Thus, some of the most feared tomb giant punishments consist of execution followed by the offender’s transformation into a mindless undead. Such unfortunates are often turned into an eternal servant, and are sometimes passed down from generation to generation within families.Habitat & SocietyTomb giants prefer enclosed spaces and underground lairs. While tombs and crypts can serve as lairs, tomb giants are more commonly found in renovated cave systems near the surface and in scattered pockets in the Darklands.
Tomb giants have no compunction about living among undead, but are circumspect about their own safety and well aware that some undead have no loyalty to the living. It’s common to create undead horrors from the corpses of lesser creatures to use as servants or guards—smaller undead are often used as components for necrocrafts.
Tomb giants are a secretive race, and go to extraordinary lengths to pursue and capture anyone they catch spying on them. Surrounding themselves with undead creatures (most of which are under their control) has provided the giants the secrecy they crave, as the dead don’t utter secrets. Some folktales speak of silent, pale folk of impossible height who come out of the night in pursuit of a victim who has “seen something no one should see.” These stories have a grain of truth to them, and invariably end with the foolhardy individual vanished from his home, never to be seen again. Those few fortunate enough to have escaped with their lives bear scars of their interactions with the sinister giants, and survivors tell tales of pale giants who made light conversation with their victims while preparing to cook them. Darker tales hint at the tomb giants’ perverse mating rituals, wherein chained victims are drained of their life force and left hanging on the walls, bearing witness to the giants’ frenzied couplings before the pale creatures eat their weakened captives alive. Wherever these alabaster fiends tread, horror and madness is sure to follow.Creatures in "Giant" Category
|