Maddened Dictat

Maddened Dictat (Threat; CR 32)

True Chaotic - Huge - Aberration

Lore:	K. (Dungeoneer)
64		79
Basic DC		Full DC

Initiative

56

Perception:
64	+54
Passive	Active

Ambush:

10+

on a d20

Senses:

• Blind to Vision
• Standard Hearing
• Standard Smell
• Blindsense 300 ft.
• Lifesense 300 ft.
• Mindsense 300 ft.

Movement Types:

• Walk 60 ft.
• Hover 60 ft.
• Greater Flight 60 ft.
• Greater Teleport 60 ft.

Defense

AC

59

Man Def

66

Monster Health
12,321	6,160	69
Hit Points	Bloodied	Hit Dice

Saving Throws
Fort:	+36
Refl:	+31
Will:	+36

Strong Against:

• DR 69/Uncommon (Abrasion,  Buffeting,  Corrosion,  Drilling,  Falling,  Gnashing,  Hacking,  Poison,  Ripping,  Rugosic,  Winded), DR 69/Rare (Disintegration,  Dissolving,  Flensing,  Fracturing,  Interstice,  Laceration,  Mutilation,  Obliteration,  Rot,  Spindling,  Squamous), ER 69/Uncommon (Desiccation,  Fictive,  Force,  Light,  Nascent,  Necrotic,  Negative,  Positive,  Psychic,  Radiant,  Scouring,  Stilling), ER 69/Rare (Darkfire,  Eldritch,  Freezacid,  Holy,  Quiescent,  Soul,  Stellar,  Sunlight,  Tenebrous,  Threnodic,  Thundercrash,  Void)
• (Threat Role) Immunity (partial 5): Threats are immune to the first five conditions applied to them during an encounter. If a sixth condition is applied to a threat, it is resolved normally. A 'condition' is defined as any non-instantaneous harmful effect applied to the monster, other than damage, but is most commonly one of the defined Status Conditions (but it doesn't have to be). Statuses related to damage (such as injured, bloodied, staggered, dying, or dead) are not 'conditions', and cannot be negated or avoided with this ability.
• Immune (no effect): Interstice (physical, rare) Damage

Weak Against:

Offense

Size:	Huge
15 ft.		20 ft.
Space		Reach

To-Hit

+44

Man Off

+54

Action

3

Points

Standard Attack (Melee):

• 2x Tendril of Nothingness +48 vs. AC (always hits on a 17+ on the die) (6d8+98/19-20 x2)
  as Interstice (physical, rare)
  plus 'Prison of Pain'

Full Attack (Melee):

• 4x Tendril of Nothingness +48 vs. AC (always hits on a 17+ on the die) (6d8+98/19-20 x2)
  as Interstice (physical, rare)
  plus 'Prison of Pain'

Standard Attack (Ranged):

• 2x Ray of Nothingness +48 vs. AC (always hits on a 17+ on the die) (6d8+110/19-20 x2)
  as Interstice (physical, rare)
  (Increment: 300 ft.; Max Range: 300 ft.)

Full Attack (Ranged):

• 4x Ray of Nothingness +48 vs. AC (always hits on a 17+ on the die) (6d8+110/19-20 x2)
  as Interstice (physical, rare)
  (Increment: 300 ft.; Max Range: 300 ft.)

Siege Damage:

• 1x Tendril of Nothingness +54 (3d6+3)
  

Statistics

52

STR

36

DEX

54

CON

44

INT

8

WIS

36

CHA

Skills:

• Escape Artist: 54
• Knowledge (Planes): 54
• Knowledge (Religion): 54
• Might: 54
• Perception: 54
• All other skills: 49 (no ranks)

Languages: Common, Abyssal, Djöfulleg, F'thaghu'fhalma, Gőbhach, Primal

Feats:

• Combat Reflexes (EFFECT: Monsters with this feat make up to 4 attacks of opportunity per round instead of one.)

Special Abilities

Fanatical Vengeance (Ex) Immediate action when Maddened ally killed

Whenever any Maddened creature is killed by enemy actions, any Maddened Dictat who has line of sight and line of effect to the attacker who made the killing blow may choose to make an immediate action attack against that creature using their Ray of Nothingness. They must take all normal modifiers for such attacks as normal. Note that Maddened Iota's activate this ability!

Prison of Pain (Su) Free Action, 1/Rnd/target, after successful attack

Up to once per round per enemy struck by a Tendril of Nothingness attack, the Dictat may choose to activate their Prison of Pain ability as a free action. Enemies affected by Prison of Pain must make a Will saving throw against a DC of 44. If they fail this save, they are paralyzed by the inconceivable wracking agony that floods through their bodies. If they make this save, they suffer the Burned condition, inflicting rugosic (physical, uncommon) damage as the agony tears at their mind and body, but they are able to fight through the suffering and take actions as normal.

Corona of Madness (Su, Aura) Always On

A Maddened Dictat warps the very fabric of reality around it. Merely by existing, it creates an aura of madness around itself that extends out 20 feet (four squares) from the edge of its space, as well as filling its own space, for a total area of effect of 11x11x11 squares, centered upon itself. This Corona has two principal effects. The first effect is, any enemy creature who ends their turn inside the Corona of Madness suffers 6d6+75 points of rugosic (physical, uncommon) damage, as their senses and being are assaulted by sensations that are simply not real. All affected creatures also gain the Immolated condition, inflicting psychic (energy, uncommon) damage, as their minds ignite under the assault. A successful Will saving throw against a DC of 44, made once each round by each affected creature, will reduce the damage by half and reduce the Immolated condition to merely Singed. This Immolated or Singed condition cannot be removed as long as the creature remains inside the Corona of Madness. The second effect is, if any creature outside the Corona of Madness attempts to target the Dictat with any harmful effect of any sort (using a weapon attack, a magic item, a class feature, a racial ability, anything at all) they must make a Will save (the first time each round they attempt to use a damaging or deleterious ability) or suffer the Confused condition. If they make the Will save, they are Afflicted with visions of the True Depths instead, their body shaking with nigh-convulsive tremors instead. If an Afflicted enemy enters the Corona of Madness, their affliction is removed immediately(to be soon replaced by Immolation or Singed). Note that in the second and later rounds, Afflicted enemies will find making the save against the Confusion is much more difficult.

Rampageous Goad (Ex) Swift Action

A Dictat may choose to impose their chaotic reality directly upon their foes, whipping the ground, air, space itself, into battering them around the battlefield. They may choose up to four enemies within 300 feet, to whom they have line of sight and line of effect, all of whom must be within 50 feet of each other. All of the chosen enemies take 6d6+75 of fracturing (physical, rare) damage, and the Dictat may Slide them up to 6 squares in any direction, including into empty space, making them take falling damage if they have no usable movement types. Affected creatures may make a Will save against a DC of 44 in order to take half damage and cut the Slide movement in half (drop fractions). As always, victims may fall prone at any time to stop this forced movement, and move resistance always applies.

Well of Emptiness (Su; Threat Role) Auto Upon Death

When a Maddened Dictat is made dead for the first time during an encounter, it is not actually killed. Its body falls lifeless, a flabby mass of eldritch tissue and weird energies, but that's merely a distraction. The Dictat is merely assessing how to destroy as much as possible before its demise. Dictats have no survival instinct, and will eagerly destroy themselves if doing so ruins and despoils even one more thing. If their Well of Emptiness ability has triggered, they are likely to lose their existence, and so they will position themselves to ruin and wreck as much as they can. Dictats never flee. The very concept is alien to them. In reality, their bodies have laid upon the field of battle, inert, immune to damage and effects. The next time the Dictat is scheduled to act in the initiative round, they may make a teleport move up to their normal maximum move, all of their status conditions are cleared, they are restored to their bloodied value of hit points (6161), and as a free action, their sudden re-appearance from the Deep Dark causes a vast pulse of Utter Night to explode from their space. This explosion fills all squares surrounding their space out to a distance of 40 feet from their space (typically a 19x19x19 square area) and inflicts 6d10+158 points of obliteration (physical, rare) damage to all creatures, friend or foe, in that space. At the same time, as a free action, the Dictat may roll a Maneuver Offense roll (a d20 +54) and apply that result against the Maneuver Defense of all affected creatures, in order to inflict an untargeted Sunder upon one item they possess. Affected creatures are allowed a Will save against a save DC of 44 to only take half damage, but the Sunder attempt, alas, must be endured. Far more destructively, all unattended objects and all manufactured structures (not including the ground, natural cave walls, etc) suffer 3d6+6 points of siege damage. This will likely utterly annihilate all unattended objects and severely damage structures less durable than a fortress. The Dictat will emerge from this black well of destruction, restored as noted above, and set about killing everything it can before the end.

Maddened Dictat

This creature possesses the Threat role, and therefore counts as 4 monsters for purposes of encounter size, XP award, and treasure.

This monster frequently has the Threat role, but may be set to other roles if desired.

It is widely accepted among most intelligent creatures, at a very general level, that the world we all live in is balanced upon the surface of a much larger, darker, and far more terrible reality called the Outer Madness. Most people have little understanding of Planes, and in the minds of most people, Demons, Devils, Aberrations, and most 'weird' monsters are part of this terrifying background reality.

However, there are always those who think that 'larger and more terrible' means, 'a convenient way to get power'. As a result, all over the world, in every race, creed, and culture, civilized or not, there are those with far too much greed and far too little wisdom who seek out this Deep Darkness and pledge themselves to it. The Creeping Madness is easy to access, easy to draw upon...and insanely dangerous. A fair number of those who attempt this foolish act are consumed utterly by their very first sup of that dark well, their lives, essence, souls, and flesh consumed entire.

Many of those luckless fools do not quietly disappear, however.

Maddened Dictats are huge swollen masses of flesh and shadow and ectoplasm, with no semblance of features, no eyes, mouth, or any other recognizable feature. Their eerie voices boom and squeak, irritating the ears and resonating directly into minds with no rhyme or reason. They are uniformly terrible.

Dictats will deign to work with Maddened Magnates, and such lesser fiends are often found near Dictats, mixed in with the ghastly remnants of former allies and enemies.

Maddened Dictats are the pinnacle of the Maddened 'cult' in the Prime Material plane. The origins of Dictats are uncertain, their motives are insane, their methods a convulsion of seemingly random acts. But their goals are simple: Kill everybody, and everything.

Dictats are vast swollen masses of filmy membrane, filled with swollen organs, the entire unwholesome mass floating about supported by ethereal tendrils and fronds. Eerie, eldritch power flows to and from the Dictat at all times, and they are often surrounded by animated fragments of other creatures, lesser Maddened that seek an audience with the font of power, and other clans and clades of monstrosity.

Dictats must be opposed, because even if they look like they are quiescent, bitter experience has taught the world to expunge these affronts to reality as fast as the force to do so can be mustered.

Maddened Dictats are frequently associated with Maddened Iotas. These creatures can often be found together.

Combat Tactics

Maddened Dictats are absolute juggernauts in combat, with possibly their worst effect being their Corona of Madness. Simply targeting a Dictat from outside their Corona can drive enemies insane on the spot, and even if you avoid this terrible fate, you still gain the Afflicted condition unless you are tough enough to ignore or quickly mend such potent afflictions. If you are within the Corona of Madness, the proximity to the utter Chaos of the Dictat begins to burn out your connections to reality and sanity, not to mention placing you within the massive reach of the fiends deadly Tendrils.

A Dictat makes all of their attacks as touch attacks, both their Tendril of Nothingness and Ray of Nothingness attacks. They are completely content to use ranged and melee attacks, even expending henchmen (usually Maddened Iotas) to gain more attacks on their foes.

In close combat, Dictats like to teleport directly 'above' or otherwise near as many foes as they can, to place enemies inside their Corona and in range of their Tendrils of Nothingness, then seek to attack as many foes as possible, activating Prison of Pain on as many of them as they can. As a swift action they will then use Rampageous Goad to knock more enemies into their Corona, or move paralyzed enemies away from sources of aid. These vast bloated things will then hover above their victims, erasing them from reality with their tendrils and corona. Once caught within the forest of a Dictats horrific attacks, only the mightiest or luckiest have any chance of escape, much less victory.

If a Dictat is pursuing a plan, or a foe, they can and will use their Tendrils of Nothingness to burn their way through obstacles with frightening ease. Similarly, if a powerful Dictat is killed, their mighty Well of Emptiness power will typically be used to target the weakest foes and most delicate and important objects near them, as they spitefully expend themselves in a glory of destruction.

Dictats frequently have Maddened Iotas as their escorting henchmen. These Iotas are usually the remains of their previous victims, and they will act in all ways to destroy the Dictats foes and preserve the Dictats fell existence.

Dictats can be found in many places, but they tend to be found in elaborate lairs, carved in maddening non-symmetry by their Nothingness powers, and in which there are many small caverns and off-tunnels they can teleport into to harry and destroy attackers. Bearding a Dictat in its lair is a terrifying prospect indeed, but meeting one 'on the prowl' might be even worse, as their favorite way of beginning a fight is to teleport fifteen feet above a party and start attacking with aura, tendrils, and their Rampageous Chaos, a one-fiend alpha strike that only the very mightiest can hope to survive.

Dictats will typically want to close the range in any battle, since they cannot really sense anything beyond 300 feet. Granted, inside of 300 feet, they have Mindsense, Lifesense, and Blindsense, so it is nigh impossible to hide from them. Dictats have genius intellects, despite their ghastly appearance, and so they are rarely found more than 100 feet away from something solid, that they can double-move teleport behind or into if they are attacked from beyond their ability to see. Many a Dictat has survived a massive surprise strike from a Mythic party and then vanished into a cavern nearby, to plot their counterstrike at their leisure. If you attack a Dictat, you had better be certain.

Out of Combat

Maddened Dictats may be actual avatars of the Outer Madness, or they may simply be extremely powerful followers of that possibly-aware, possibly-deific, possibly-place. As a result, Maddened Dictats are the standard bearers for the Deep Dark, and they each work, separately but toward the same goal, to end everything alive. Indeed, Dictats want to topple the Prime Material, and thus end...everything.

Dictats use Mavens and Iotas with heartless efficiency, often appointing a Magnate or two as their shepherd for those lessers. Dictats appreciate the efforts of the Magnates, and will often deign to lend assistance to those lessers. Dictats seems to like having Iotas around, even going to the trouble of destroying even very weak foes, in order to spawn more of them.

Dictats consider Vampire Thralls to be useful idiots, and will skillfully treat with them to gain more influence on the more 'normal' monsters of the Prime material. Dictats will ally with the Crool as long as they can play them against each other and hide how close they are to their true goals. Dictats will attempt to lure and steer the Helleskrieg in their endless hostility, typically aiming them at Archfiends and the like in the Prime Material's orbit.

Dictats absolutely hate the Atropal. Dictats consider Atropal to be vermin, maggots infesting the purity of the True Night, and the instant the Prime is cast down, the Maddened will begin a war of extermination against the Unbirthed. But not yet. All things in their time.

Rewards

XP: 78,720,000 (Threat role included.)

Treasure: Sellable Goods worth 8,062,133 gp.

Weight: 1280 lbs.     Volume: 51.2 cu. ft.

Optional Treasure Rules: Roll a d20 on Table 1 below once per encounter (NOT per creature). Any items discovered are in addition to the normal treasure for the encounter.

Table 1: Remnant(s) Found
1 - 5	Nothing Found
6 - 10	1 Languid Remnant (tier 1)
11 - 14	1 Pale Remnant (tier 2)
15 - 17	1 Bright Remnant (tier 3)
18 - 20	Roll on Table 2
###	Nothing to see here!
###	Or here. Move along.

Table 2: Remnant(s) Found
1	5 Languid Remnants (tier 1)
2 - 5	5 Pale Remnants (tier 2)
6 - 10	1 Intense Remnant (tier 4)
11 - 14	1 Blazing Remnant (tier 5)
15 - 17	1 Vital Remnant (tier 6)
18 - 20	Roll on Table 3
###	Or here. Move along.

Table 3: Remnant(s) Found
1	5 Bright Remnants (tier 3)
2	5 Intense Remnants (tier 4)
3 - 6	5 Blazing Remnants (tier 5)
7 - 10	5 Vital Remnants (tier 6)
11 - 14	1 Prime Remnant (tier 7)
15 - 17	1 Mythic Remnant (tier 8)
18 - 20	1 Empyrean Remnant (tier 9)