Animate Dream
Description
From time to time, when a powerfully imaginative sleeper wakes from a particularly vivid or unusual dream, a fragment of that dream lingers on the Ethereal Plane. To survive, this animate dream needs the power of living will, imagination, and emotion to sustain it. An animate dream seeks out mortal minds, appearing as a shadowy and often frightful dream figure. Its true appearance is vague and nebulous, but it reacts to the fears and emotions of those around it, taking on a nightmarish appearance that differs for each viewer.
An animate dream can find satisfaction and sustenance by passing one of its ghostly limbs through a mortal's body—the act infusing the mortal with negative energy that sates the animate dream's unnatural hunger. But by forcing a creature into a state of sleep, terror, or both, the animate dream can gain a much more satisfying meal, feeding on the emotions released in such states. It uses its spell-like abilities to this end, for each creature it harms with its nightmares, drives temporarily insane with confusion or fear, or outright slays with phantasmal killer provides the monster with more nourishment. An animate dream forced to go for a long period of time without feeding does not starve to death, but does grow increasingly feral and violent in nature.
Animate dreams sometimes associate with other creatures from the Ethereal Plane or that have associations with dreams and nightmares, such as night hags, phase spiders, and xills. Sometimes these alliances are mutually beneficial, but in many cases the animate dreams are treated as slaves. Night hags in particular like enslaving animate dreams, and sometimes use their essence as a component in creating heartstones.
Combat Stats
- Melee
- incorporeal touch +16 (6d8 negative energy plus nightmare curse)
- SR
- 19
- Immune
- grappled, trip, falling damage, nonmagical attacks (from incorporeal)
- Defensive Abilities
- incorporeal
Ability Scores
Proficiencies
Weapons: Martial, Simple
Feats
Special Abilities
Universal Monster Rules
Special Abilities
Feats, Traits & Items
In melee, every time you miss because of concealment (see Combat), you can reroll your miss chance percentile roll one time to see if you actually hit.
An invisible attacker gets no advantages related to hitting you in melee. That is, you don't lose your Dexterity bonus to Armor Class, and the attacker doesn't get the usual +2 bonus for being invisible. The invisible attacker's bonuses do still apply for ranged attacks, however.
You do not need to make Acrobatics skill checks to move at full speed while blinded.
You get a +4 bonus on concentration checks made to cast a spell or use a spell-like ability when casting on the defensive or while grappled.
You gain a +1 dodge bonus to your AC. A condition that makes you lose your Dex bonus to AC also makes you lose the benefits of this feat.
When flying, the creature can take a move action and another standard action at any point during the move. The creature cannot take a second move action during a round when it makes a flyby attack.
You get a +4 dodge bonus to Armor Class against attacks of opportunity caused when you move out of or within a threatened area. A condition that makes you lose your Dexterity bonus to Armor Class (if any) also makes you lose dodge bonuses.
Dodge bonuses stack with each other, unlike most types of bonuses.
Skills
Bluff +20, Fly +12, Intimidate +20, Knowledge (planes) +15, Perception +17, Sense Motive +17, Stealth +19
Spells
- Type
- Outsider
- Alignment
- NE
- Size
- Medium
- Environment
- any (Ethereal Plane)
- Organization
- solitary
- Treasure
- none
- Senses
- darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +17
- Languages
- telepathy 100 ft.
- Source
- Bestiary 2