Frightful Fridays! Flabberghast

Hello, and welcome back to a new edition of Frightful Fridays! (slightly delayed) This week's monster goes against my normal appreciation for gnomes and fey by bringing out an undead monstrosity focused on fey (and gnomes thanks to their bloodline). It's still a potentially nasty monster against other characters, too.

I hope you enjoy the flabberghast, and I'll be back later with another monster. Thanks for reading!

This neat monster illustration can be found here

This skeletal creature’s bones fade into a set of withered brambles where its legs should be. It has alternatively bony and branch-like horns protruding form its skull.

Flabberghast    CR 6
XP 2,400
CE Medium undead
Init +4; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +15
Aura aura of despair (10 ft., DC 17)

DEFENSE

AC 18, touch 14, flat-footed 14 (+4 Dex, +4 natural)
hp 67 (9d8+27)
Fort +6, Ref +9, Will +9
Defensive Abilities evasion; DR 5/cold iron; Immune undead traits; Resist cold 20, electricity 10; SR 17
Weaknesses compulsion vulnerability

OFFENSE

Speed 30 ft., fly 40 ft. (good)
Melee 2 claws +11 (1d6+2 plus 1d6 Cha damage), gore +10 (1d8+2)
Special Attacks broken beauty, create spawn, feybane, rend (2 claws, 1d6+3)
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 9th; concentration +12)
   3/day—dancing lights, faerie fire
   1/day—confusion (DC 16), deep slumber (DC 16), entangle (DC 14), glitterdust (DC 15), major image (DC 16)

STATISTICS

Str 14, Dex 19, Con —, Int 17, Wis 16, Cha 17
Base Atk +6; CMB +8; CMD 22
Feats Combat Casting, Lightning Reflexes, Vital Strike, Weapon Finesse, Weapon Focus (claw)
Skills Bluff +12, Fly +12, Intimidate +15, Knowledge (arcana) +11, Knowledge (nature) +12, Perception +15, Sense Motive +15, Spellcraft +11, Stealth +14
Languages Aklo, Common, Sylvan

ECOLOGY

Environment any land

Organization solitary, pair, reprisal (3–6)

Treasure standard

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Aura of Despair (Su) Any creature within or entering a flabberghast’s aura must succeed on a DC 17 Will save or take a –2 penalty on attack rolls, saving throws, ability and skill checks, and weapon damage for as long as it remains within the aura. A creature that successfully saves is immune to the same flabberghast’s aura for 24 hours. The save DC is Charisma-based.

   Additionally, a flabberghast suppresses spells and effects granting morale bonuses within its aura, but it does not dispel them.

Broken Beauty (Su) If a flabberghast confirms a critical hit with its claws, in addition to inflicting 1d6 points of Charisma damage, it deals 1d2 points of Charisma drain (DC 17 Will save negates). If the flabberghast successfully drains Charisma, it gains a temporary +1 enhancement bonus to all Charisma-based skill checks, and save DCs for its spells and abilities. These bonuses stack with each other and last for 1 hour. The save DC is Charisma-based.
Compulsion Vulnerability (Su) A flabberghast generally enjoys an undead creature’s immunity to mind-affecting effects, but it still falls prey to the seemingly bizarre rules governing fey. It must attempt a Will save against a spell or effect with the compulsion descriptor, and it incurs a –4 penalty on such saves.
Create Spawn (Su) If the flabberghast kills a gnome or a fey creature, either through damage or by reducing the creature to 0 Charisma, the creature returns as a flabberghast one hour later. Other creatures killed by a flabberghast rise as ghasts.
Feybane (Su) Once per day as a swift action, a flabberghast can imbue its gore attack with the bane (fey creatures and gnomes) weapon ability for 1 minute.

Fey are no strangers to undeath and several of their number fall prey to vampires, spectres, and other foul creatures. However, flabberghasts are undead unique to fey. Typically resulting from fey creatures brought low by the backstabbing machinations omnipresent in faerie courts, flabberghasts return to a twisted form of unlife, embittered against all other fey. This hatred also applies to humanoids with fey origins such as gnomes. Flabberghasts prefer targeting the objects of their ire over other creatures but are not so overwhelmed by rage to ignore obvious threats. Ultimately, the creatures wish to diminish all beauty in the world and often stop just short of killing foes to force them to suffer (at least temporarily) with disfigurations.

Despite, or perhaps because of, their antipathy toward fey, flabberghasts ally with unseelie fey to destroy their opponents. Only powerful nobles deal with flabberghasts, because the creatures almost invariably seek to betray their allies, usually after bolstering their numbers.