# Ethergaunt, Red >[!rimg]+ > ![[Placeholder2.png]] > >[!debug]+ <div class="grid-container"><div class="MON">Red Ethergaunt</div> <div class="CR">CR 9 (6,400 XP)</div> <div class="SOU">Fiend Folio pg. 66</div> <div class="SYS">Dungeons & Dragons 3.5</div></div> NE Medium Aberration **Init** +2 **Senses** blindsight 40 ft., darkvision 60 ft.; **Perception** +10 #### defense **AC** 17, 13 touch, 14 flat-footed (+2 Dex, +1 dodge, +4 natural) **hp** 28 (5d8+5) **Fort** +2, **Refl** +3, **Will** +6 **Feint** 17, **Demoralize** 17 **Immune** magic #### offense **Speed** 30 ft. **Melee** etherblade +6 (1d10+3) **Ranged** etherblade +5 touch (1d6 force) **Space** 5 ft., **Reach** 5 ft. **Special Attacks** dominate, stupefying gaze **Wizard Spells Prepared** (CL 9th, Concentration +15) > **0 (at-will)—** _daze_, _disrupt undead_, _mage hand_, _resistance_ > **1st —** _expeditious retreat_, _hypnotism_, _mage armor_, _magic missile_, _shield_, _true strike_ > **2nd —** _detect thoughts_, _glitterdust_, _acid arrow_, _mirror image_, _protection from arrows_, _see invisibility_ > **3rd —** _dispel magic_, _displacement_, _tongues_, _vampiric touch_ > **4th —** _charm monster_, _greater invisibility_, _resilient sphere_, _phantasmal killer_ > **5th —** _cone of cold_, _mind fog_ #### statistics **Str** 14, **Dex** 14, **Con** 12, **Int** 23, **Wis** 15, **Cha** 13 **BAB** +3, **CMB** +5, **CMD** 17, **TA** +5, **RTA** +5 **Feats** [[Dodge]], [[Power Attack]], [[Weapon Focus]] (etherblade) **Skills** Climb +10, Escape Artist +10, Heal +7, Intimidate +9, Knowledge (arcana) +11, Perception +10, Sense Motive +7, Spellcraft +14, Stealth +10, Survival +10 **Languages** Aklo, Common, Draconic, Dwarven, Elven, Undercommon (cannot speak) **SQ** ethereal jaunt #### special abilities ### Dominate (Su) Three times per day, an ethergaunt can attempt to enslave a living creature within 30 feet. Anyone targeted by the ethergaunt must make succeed on a DC 13 Will save or have their mind enslaved, as though by a _dominate monster_ spell. The ethergaunt's control is broken only by the death of the ethergaunt, death of the enslaved creature, by a casting of _remove curse_, _break enchantment_ or _greater dispel magic_, or if the ethergaunt travels more than 1 mile away, or travels to a different plane from the affected creature. At any given time, an ethergaunt may have one slave per point of Charisma modifier. ### Ethereal Jaunt (Su) An ethergaunt can shift from the Ethereal Plane to the Material Plane as a standard action, and shift back again as a move action (or as part of a move action). It can remain on the Material Plane for up to 1 round per Hit Die. At the end of this time, or when the ethergaunt chooses, it becomes ethereal again. An ethergaunt must remain on the Ethereal Plane for at least 1 hour after a material jaunt before it can use the ability again. The ability is otherwise identical to _ethereal jaunt_ (CL 5th). ### Immunity to Magic (Su) An ethergaunt is immune to spells or spell-like abilities that allow spell resistance. This immunity only applies to arcane spells of 2nd level or lower. An ethergaunt can elect to allow a spell it is immune to affect it, making this decision is a free action. ### Stupefying Gaze (Su) 1d4 Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma damage, 30 feet, Will DC 13 negates. The save DC is Charisma-based. An ethergaunt can open and close its vertically bisected mask as a free action, activating or suppressing this ability. #### ecology **Terrain** Any land and underground (Ethereal Plane) **Organization** Solitary or team (1–6) **Treasure** Standard **Advancement** By character class Travelers to the Ethereal Plane report vast fields of nothingness, roiling fog cloaking a barren landscape. Sometimes, however, they come upon fantastic stone pyramids or cyclopean menhirs topped with flashing magical flames, relics of an ancient race. Knowledgeable scholars refer to the fearsome creators of these structures as ethergaunts, after their emaciated, delicate frames. An advanced culture that abandoned the Material Plane more than 10,000 years ago, the ethergaunts are finally coming back. Adult ethergaunts stand 8 feet tall and resemble extraordinarily thin humanoids. An ethergaunt’s long, thin arms reach to mid-calf; each hand has three agile fingers and a thumb. An inhuman face caps a short neck that protrudes from the center of the creature’s chest, giving the ethergaunt a somewhat stooped appearance. Because few creatures can gaze upon an ethergaunt’s face without taking severe damage to their psyches, the creatures have developed bisected masks that serve to give them a somewhat humanlike appearance. Dozens of colorful, prehensile tendrils emerge from behind the mask like a mane of thick, fleshy hair. The faceplate resembles a featureless porcelain visage, and the mask’s color reveals the ethergaunt’s role in the creatures’ pragmatic society. Red ethergaunts serve the race as scientists and explorers. White ethergaunts manage the reds’ affairs and form the primary government of the race. The dreaded black ethergaunts control the entire society of ethergaunts; fewer than one hundred blacks are thought to exist. Other colors and roles may exist. Ethergaunts have a great disdain for the creatures that have inhabited “their world” since their ancient departure. They have progressed technologically and philosophically to a point where they consider most inhabitants of the Material Plane no more relevant than insects. While they see themselves as beyond good and evil in the classic sense, they are not pleased at the current infestation of their old home, and have set upon the most devastating extermination in history. Ethergaunts communicate with each other by wriggling their head tendrils, which transmits a psychic “soundprint” identifiable as language to other ethergaunts within normal hearing range (and effective for vocalizing verbal components). They occasionally communicate with members of Material Plane races by revealing their true faces to one of the creature’s cohorts and using that dominated ally as a psychic puppet-envoy. In such communications, the ethergaunts refer to themselves as the khen-zai. Ethergaunts can hear normally, despite the fact that they cannot speak. Ethergaunts communicate with each other using their own language, Khen-Zai, which cannot be learned by those who lack their unique anatomy. Most know a smattering of other languages—usually tongues plucked from the minds of enslaved envoys. By far the most frequently encountered caste of ethergaunts, reds serve the race as scouts, trackers, and low-level diplomats (particularly when diplomacy in fact means exterminating natives to send a political message). Though they hold an arrogant opinion of their own importance in relation to the current residents of the Material Plane, reds fully understand their role as the rank-and-file of the ether legions. The fact that ethergaunt grunts generally are more brilliant than the brightest human mages reveals much regarding khen-zai perspective. Slightly shorter and bulkier than their superiors, red ethergaunts sport a crimson faceplate that marks them as creatures who have yet to purge the fires of passion from their rational minds. Accordingly, many of the more powerful reds view the struggle against the Material Plane races as a battle of the cultured against ravenous barbarians. ### Ethergaunt Society Ethergaunt society serves the dual goals of philosophical progress and self-preservation. The khen-zai define progress as the culling of emotion in order to approach perfect rationality. They define self-preservation as the removal of any threat to their carefully developed objective philosophy. The inhabitants of the Material Plane threaten both philosophy and preservation, and hence must be destroyed. Rigidly stratified through an immutable caste system, an ethergaunt’s role in society is largely defined by the actions (or lack thereof ) of its predecessors. The khen-zai long ago eliminated irrational ambition by ensuring that no ethergaunt can ever achieve a greater status. Once during its lifetime, however, an ethergaunt can produce a young khen-zai through asexual reproduction. The child’s caste, and hence the color it will bear upon its faceplate for its entire life, is decided before it is born by a cadre of black ethergaunts who weigh the achievements of the child’s ancestors before assigning the child’s caste. Ethergaunts gather in small communities known as enclaves, usually situated around a large central pyramid that serves as a center of learning for the entire community. The largest such settlements boast as many as ten black ethergaunts, fifty white ethergaunts, and as many as five hundred reds. ### Equipment Ethergaunts have developed a number of technological marvels. Because the race shuns art or pleasure, most such devices facilitate one of two activities: genocide or the eradication of religious devotion. Though the features of these objects resemble those of magic items, the objects are in fact technological and are not affected by spells such as antimagic field. Only ethergaunts have the knowledge and skill to build or maintain these devices. **Etherblade:** Resembling a short glaive topped with a hollow barrel, this favored weapon of the ethergaunts can fire a ray of force as a ranged touch attack for 1d6 points of damage. The etherblade ray has a range increment of 40 feet. The weapon can fire 50 times before it is exhausted. It cannot be recharged. An etherblade can be used as a two-handed weapon in melee combat to deal 1d10 points of slashing damage. A fully charged etherblade has a market price of 800 gp. **Doubt Bomb:** This small ceramic sphere contains a chemical mixture intended to overstimulate the “doubt centers” in the brain. The bomb can be thrown as a grenadelike weapon. A thrown bomb shatters on impact, creating a cloud of poisonous gas in a 10-foot spread (initial and secondary damage 1d6 Wisdom, Fort DC 15 negates). Ethergaunts are immune to the effects of doubt bombs. A doubt bomb has a market price of 500 gp.