Reinventing The Beholder - The Ontocritic (GLOG Bandwagoning)

 Another day, another GLOG blogosphere bandwagon. This time it's a classic monster; the Beholder.

Also Spellweavers, a criminally underused monster.

Ontocritics are powerful and by human standards quite insane. They are tall many-limbed humanoids that dwell in remote cavern grottoes deep in the roots of mountains, These lairs are often entirely inaccessible without access to powerful magic (which the creatures have innately), but may sometimes contain some ventilation shafts or claustraphobic crawlways to allow its servants to come and go without needing to call upon their master's power. The creatures are fortunately quite rare and universally solitary for a simple but defining reason; every Ontocritic develops unique personal beliefs during adolescence that once hardened as they enter adulthood they will defend with megalomaniacal fervour beyond that of any human zealot. 

An Ontocritic literally cannot stand to have their opinions criticised in any way, reacting to even the slightest disagreement with merciless violence as if disagreement caused it physical pain. Given that every Ontocritic has a unique idiosyncratic worldview they by their nature cannot form communities among themselves, instead they use their powers to brainwash members of other races into sycophantic obedience and set themselves up as petty kings of their own delusional fiefdoms. Only a once-a-decade estrus cycle brings them to meet in groups, where they conduct their courtship rituals in careful silence and part wordlessly once consumated. Young Ontocritcs flee their mothers' lair once they realise their own identity has asserted itself, the only time in their lives where their instinctive rage at disagreement is replaced with fear.

However, once fully grown and established an Ontocritic has little to fear from anything. Within the palms of each of their six hands is an eye-like organ capable of projecting a reality interdiction field that negates or replaces some aspect of the world within its field of view. With these fields it can render reality into forms more agreeable to it, like a painter layering pigment upon a canvas. The noted diabolist Zhu Fengming in his opus 'Fire Meditations' numbered being subjected to all six of an Ontocritic's fields at once as one of the eight Corporeal Hells that can be experienced while still alive which he recommended all practitioners of the Path of Screams to seek out so that they might steel themselves for the afterlife.

Ontocritic

12HD (72hp) AC 15 (leathery keratinous skin), Morale 8, 12 if criticised (see below)

Alignment: Any

No. Appearing: 1, plus 4d4+4 sycophants of Normal Stature (1-3HD).

Movement: 12", employs its Field of Intangibility to walk through walls.

% In Lair: 80%

Attacks: An Ontocritic will not typically fight conventionally, instead relying on its fields to disorient and disable its foes. Each round the Ontocritic can choose which direction its fields are pointed, each being 9" cones. Eight potential options are presented below, others may exist. At any one time the Ontocritic can only have six fields active, one for each hand. It may change what kind of field each hand projects on its initiative, and may have more than once instance of the same field active. Unless otherwise specified, exposure to any Ontocritic field requires a seperate Save vs. Wands each.

• Field of Blindness: Save or be rendered blind, as the spell Blindess.
• Field of Deafness: Save or be rendered deaf, as the spell Deafness, ho hum.
• Field of Anhedonia: Save or become unable to benefit from plusses outside of your base stats, including from class abilities, spells and magic items - whatever's on your character table is all you get Sonny-Jim.
• Field of Agnosia: Save or all your attacks are directed against random targets, as per the Confusion spell, nobody is more familiar to you than anyone else. Ontocritcs' sycophants are not immune to this, which doesn't stop their master sending them in to the fight anyway.
• Field of Achronia: Save or time's passage becomes incomprehensible, minutes seem to pass in centuries, hours in attoseconds. This is a gussied up stun effect, save or lose your action each round.
• Field of Agony: Save or take 8d6 illusory damage (all restored if you succeed a save). This cannot actually kill, but those reduced to 0hp are rendered unconscious and if not saved will likely be taken back to the Ontocritic's Lair and be hypnotised into sycophancy.
• Field of Intangibility: Renders matter within its area incapable of interaction with matter outside it. The Ontocritic uses this to walk through walls to its hidden cave Lair and disable foes with ranged weapons.
• Field of Entropy: Save or become unable to heal or otherwise restore expended resources until you are outside the field.

Ontocritics prefer to fight in narrow corridors where they can direct all their fields on attackers at once, ideally on a corner where they can keep ranged attackers suppressed with their Field of Intangibility. If attacked from multiple sides, engaged in melee or subjected to ranged weapons they will attempt to flee back to their lair. Defeated enemies are usually left disabled by their Field of Agony rather than dead, and if not recovered by their companions will be hauled off to the Ontocritic's lair for brainwashing into a Charmed sycophant by means of a combination of torture, sensory deprivation and application of the Ontocritic's hypnotic gaze (a little known feature of the species). This process takes 1 hour per HD of the victim, and can only be removed by application of a combination of Remove Curse, Modify Memory and Dispel Magic cast in sequence. They are capable of wielding weapons, but largely distain doing so as it requires them to use a hand which could otherwise be employed to project a field, but some Ontocritics do employ Magic User tools such as Wands of Frost.

One of the best tactics for fighting an Ontocritic is to capture and interrogate one of its sycophants for the details of their master's worldview. Faced with criticism of their cherished beliefs an Ontocritics' morale becomes unbreakable and it will fight to the death without fleeing, seeking to destroy or utterly humble its detractor.

What does this Ontocritic believe? D12:

1. Birds are homunculi created by wizards to spy on the surface world.
2. Elven swords are folded 10,000 times and can cut through plate armour like paper.
3. Elven swords are made of moldy pig iron and can be snapped over your knee.
4. Fireballs aren't real, are you kidding me? You really expect me to believe that a 3rd level spell could do that much damage?
5. Of COURSE the Derr0 control the world's banks.
6. The human kingdoms' success is just a front for the return of the serpent people.
7. STRICT TIME RECORDS MUST BE KEPT.
8. Peasantry is just a stalling tactic by low-skill kings who can't manage a kingdom where citizens are capable of rising to power.
9. Pick a religion, this Ontocritic is really into it.
10. All religions are false! I am the only true god!
11. The nobles don't want you to know this but the halflings in the Shire are free you can take them home I have 458 halflings.
12. I am not subject to maritime law!