Library / Bestiary

Nightmare Creature

CR 4.00 Aberration NE Medium HD 4

This strange humanoid looks like a gangly, distorted caricature of an ettercap, with spiderlike fingers and an enormous wicked grin.

Back to Bestiary

Description

Nightmare creatures have an unnatural link to the most terrifying parts of the Dimension of Dreams, allowing them to turn others' dreams into nightmares and sow fear even in the waking world. Corrupted by their power, they become evil and use their abilities to torment their enemies and abuse creatures weaker than themselves. Eventually this dream connection corrupts the creature's appearance into a bizarre caricature of its original form.

A nightmare creature uses its ability to control dreams to confuse and frighten its target with horrendous imagery—visions of failure or betrayal and horrific scenes of murder and death. A nightmare creature may even allow the target to think it is in control of the dream or has awakened from a nightmare, only to snatch away that hope and send its target into a downward spiral of misery and self-doubt. The most wicked nightmare creatures tend to become ghosts if slain, returning again and again to haunt their chosen victims.

"Nightmare creature" is an acquired or inherited template that can be added to any creature with Intelligence and Charisma scores of at least 6 (referred to hereafter as the base creature). Most nightmare creatures were once aberrations, fey, humanoids, or outsiders. A nightmare creature uses the base creature's statistics and abilities except as noted here. If the base creature has 10 or more Hit Dice, it instead becomes a nightmare lord (see below).

Nightmare lords are especially powerful nightmare creatures who live in the Dimension of Dreams. They rule over lesser nightmare creatures in bizarre puppet courts staffed by the maddened and soul-shriveled husks of kidnapped dreamers. They have all the abilities of nightmare creatures, plus the following.

Combat Stats

30 (4d8+12); regeneration 5 (good spells and weapons, silver)

17, touch 15, flat-footed 12 (+5 Dex, +2 natural)

Init

Speed

30 ft., climb 30 ft., fly 10 ft. (perfect)

Fort

Ref

Will

BAB

CMB

CMD

Melee: bite +5 (1d6+2 plus poison), 2 claws +5 (1d4+2)
DR: 5/good or silver
Defensive Abilities: illusion resistance, protection from good
Aura: fear (60 ft., DC 13), frightful presence (30 ft., DC 13)
Racial Modifiers: +8 Craft (trapmaking), +4 Intimidate, +4 Stealth

Ability Scores

str

dex

con

int

-1

wis

cha

Special Attacks

night terrors (DC 13)

Poison — Bite—injury; save Fort DC 15; frequency 1/round for 10 rounds; effect 1d2 Dex; cure 2 consecutive saves. The save DC is Constitution-based.

Traps — An ettercap is particularly skilled at crafting cunning traps with its webs. Deadfalls, nooses, and spear traps are the most common traps ettercaps build with their webs. An ettercap doesn't require gold to build its traps, merely time. Ettercap traps can be found here.

web (+8 ranged, DC 15, 4 hp)

Special Qualities

feign death (DC 13)

Spider Empathy — This ability functions as a druid's wild empathy, except that an ettercap can only use this ability on spiders. An ettercap gains a +4 racial bonus on this check. Spiders are mindless, but this empathic communication imparts to them a modicum of implanted intelligence, allowing ettercaps to train giant spiders and use them as guardians.

Feats

Great Fortitude, Improved Initiative

Special Abilities

Universal Monster Rules

Poison (bite) Ex from Universal Monster Rule

A creature with this ability can poison those it attacks. The effects of the poison, including its save, frequency, and cure, are included in the creature's description. The saving throw to resist a poison is usually a Fort save (DC 10 + 1/2 the poisoning creature's racial HD + the creature's Con modifier; the exact DC is given in the creature's descriptive text). Poisons can be removed through neutralize poison and similar effects.

Web (+8 ranged, DC 15, 4 hp) Ex from Universal Monster Rule

Creatures with the web ability can use webs to support themselves and up to one additional creature of the same size. In addition, such creatures can throw a web up to eight times per day. This is similar to an attack with a net but has a maximum range of 50 feet, with a range increment of 10 feet, and is effective against targets up to one size category larger than the web spinner. An entangled target can escape with a successful Escape Artist check or burst the web with a Strength check. Both are standard actions with a DC equal to 10 + 1/2 the creature's Hit Dice + the creature's Constitution modifier. Attempts to burst a web by those caught in it take a –4 penalty. Web spinners can create sheets of sticky webbing up to three times their size. They usually position these sheets to snare flying creatures but can also try to trap prey on the ground. Approaching creatures must succeed at a DC 20 Perception check to notice a web; otherwise they stumble into it and become trapped as though by a successful web attack. Attempts to escape or burst the webbing gain a +5 bonus if the trapped creature has something to walk on or grab while pulling free. Each 5-foot-square section of web has a number of hit points equal to the Hit Dice of the creature that created it and DR 5/—. A creature can move across its own web at its climb speed and can pinpoint the location of any creatures touching its web.

Special Abilities

Feign Death (DC 13) from text

Illusion Resistance from text

Night Terrors (DC 13) from text

Protection From Good from text

Spider Empathy from text

This ability functions as a druid's wild empathy, except that an ettercap can only use this ability on spiders. An ettercap gains a +4 racial bonus on this check. Spiders are mindless, but this empathic communication imparts to them a modicum of implanted intelligence, allowing ettercaps to train giant spiders and use them as guardians.

Traps from text

An ettercap is particularly skilled at crafting cunning traps with its webs. Deadfalls, nooses, and spear traps are the most common traps ettercaps build with their webs. An ettercap doesn't require gold to build its traps, merely time. Ettercap traps can be found here.

Feats, Traits & Items

Great Fortitude from Feat

You get a +2 bonus on all Fortitude saving throws.

Calculated: +2 Fort

Improved Initiative from Feat

You get a +4 bonus on initiative checks.

Calculated: +4 Initiative

Skills

Climb +14, Craft (trapmaking) +11, Fly +13, Intimidate +5, Perception +9, Stealth +15

Spells

spell-like abilities:

Constant—Protection From Good, 3/day—Detect Thoughts (DC 13), 3/day—Dream, 3/day—Nightmare (DC 16), 3/day—Suggestion (DC 14), 1/day—Shadow Walk (DC 17)

Details

Type: Aberration
Alignment: NE
Size: Medium
Environment: temperate forests
Organization: solitary, pair, or nests (3–6 plus 2–6 giant spiders)
Treasure: standard
Senses: darkvision 120 ft., low-light vision; Perception +9
Aura: fear (60 ft., DC 13), frightful presence (30 ft., DC 13)
Languages: Common
Source: Bestiary 4

Rules