Shator

(from Fiend Folio - 2003)

The shators reside at the top of demodand society. If the farastus are the prison guards of Carceri, the shators are the wardens. Unusually cruel, shators secretly hope those that are bound to the plane will attempt to escape, just so they can hunt the escapees down.

Shators make all the decisions about whether to pursue Carcerian fugitives, using their innate planeshifting ability to send demodands out as bounty hunters to bring escapees back. They constantly plot against other Carcerian factions, hoping to extend the demodands’ influence. Shators rarely trust one another, preferring to work through their lackey contingents of farastus and kelubars, but several will band together if a common obstacle presents itself.

Shators speak the language of demodands, as well as Abyssal, Infernal, and Common.

Combat: Shators are usually accompanied by groups of farastu and kelubar toadies. This retinue often enables a shator to stay out of combat if it desires. Shators prefer to use their spells and spell-like abilities from a distance, and can spit their paralyzing slime as a ranged attack. If forced into melee, a shator uses its Huge +2 guisarme to trip an opponent from 10 feet away, before following up with a free attack thanks to its Improved Trip feat. A shator may use this tactic on several opponents in the same round due to its Combat Reflexes feat.

Paralyzing Slime (Ex): A shator’s slime acts as a nerve toxin. Creatures struck in melee by a shator’s claw or bite attack must make a Fortitude save (DC 21) or be paralyzed for 3d6 rounds. The shator can choose to spit a globule of slime as a ranged touch attack with a range of 30 feet, with the same effect.

Spell-Like Abilities: At will—detect magic, clairaudience/ clairvoyance, fear, invisibility, spider climb, tongues; 3/day— cloudkill, fog cloud, ray of enfeeblement, stinking cloud; 2/day— dispel magic; 1/day—mass charm. Caster level 15th; save DC 15 + spell level.

Spells: A shator can cast arcane spells as an 8th-level sorcerer (spells/day 6/8/7/6/4; spells known 8/5/3/2/1; save DC 15 + spell level). A typical spells known list: 0—dancing lights, daze, flare, ghost sound, read magic, mage hand, open/close, ray of frost; 1st—enlarge, mage armor, magic missile, obscuring mist, true strike; 2nd—bull’s strength, detect thoughts, Tasha’s hideous laughter; 3rd—blink, fireball; 4th—confusion.

Summon Demodand (Sp): Once per day, a shator can attempt to summon 1d2 shators with a 30% chance of success (result of 71–100 on d%) or either 1d4 kelubars or 1d6 farastus (shator’s choice) with a 70% chance of success (result of 31–100 on d%).

Immunity to Mind-Affecting Effects (Ex): A shator is immune to all spells and effects with the mind-affecting descriptor.

Scent (Ex): A shator can detect approaching enemies, sniff out hidden foes, and track by sense of smell.

See Invisibility (Su): This ability functions like a see invisibility spell, except that it is always active and its range extends to the limit of the shator’s vision.

(from Planescape Monstrous Compendium Appendix. I - 1994)

The Shator often travel to other planes for their favorite occupation — writing. Shator works are of two categories: magical texts on how to summon creatures from the Lower Planes other than Gehreleth (usually named creatures that the Gehreleth have some particular hatred for), and philosophical texts that promote ideas of futility and cosmic angst. When dwelling in the Prime Material Plane, the Shator hide behind a human whom they set up a philosopher or poet. These men and women come to bad ends when the Shator has decided that its mission is done.

When dwelling on other planes, the Shators’ favorite pets are chimerae. Oddly, they sometimes show concern for these beings, treating them like a human treats a kitten.