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Dreamer Source Alien Archive 2 pg. 44 Dreamer CR 8 XP 4,800 N Large aberration Init +1; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +16 Defense HP 105; RP 4 EAC 19; KAC 20 Fort +7; Ref +7; Will +13 Defensive Abilities amorphous, lulling thoughts Offense Speed fly 30 ft. (Ex, average) Melee tentacle +15 (1d12+12 A & B plus synesthesia) Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft. Spell-Like Abilities (CL 8th) 1/day—slow (DC 20), synaptic pulse (DC 20) 3/day—augury, daze monster (DC 19), mind thrust (2nd level, DC 19) At will—detect thoughts (DC 18), mindlink Statistics STR +4; DEX +1; CON +0; INT -2; WIS +6; CHA +2 Skills Acrobatics +16, Mysticism +21 Languages Brethedan; telepathy 100 ft. Other Abilities atavistic fury Ecology Environment any sky (Liavara) Organization solitary, pair, or flotilla (3–5) Special Abilities Atavistic Fury (Ex) When a Dreamer is reduced to fewer than half its total Hit Points, it angrily awakens from its normal somnambulant state with a roar of psychic fury, at which point each non-Dreamer creature within 30 feet must succeed at a DC 18 Will save or become shaken for 2d4 rounds. This is a mind-affecting effect. While it remains in its atavistic fury, the Dreamer gains a +2 bonus to melee attack and damage rolls and saving throws, and the save DC for its synesthesia ability increases by 2. While in this state of atavistic fury, a Dreamer cannot use its spell-like abilities. This state lasts for 1 minute, after which the Dreamer is fatigued for 1 hour. Lulling Thoughts (Su) A Dreamer’s mind echoes with songs drawn from a planet’s fundamental vibrations, causing any creature that attempts to read its thoughts or use a mind-control or telepathic effect against it to become fascinated for 1d4+1 rounds (Will DC 18 negates). This is a mind-affecting effect. Synesthesia (Su) When a Dreamer hits with its tentacle attack, it exposes its target to a focused blast of sensory overstimulation. The target can attempt a DC 18 Will save to negate the effect; if successful, it is off-target for 1 round. On a failed save, the target’s overloaded senses interfere with one another, such that sound is perceived as a swath of color, smells register as various sounds, and so on. The affected creature’s speeds are halved, and it takes a –4 penalty to AC, attack rolls, Reflex saves, and skill checks. These effects last for 1d4 rounds, and further applications of this ability increase the duration. This is a mind-affecting effect. Description Long before the Gap, the barathus of the gas giant Bretheda were sailing the stars within the enormous spacefaring creatures known as oma. One of their first destinations within the star system was their nearest neighbor, the peach-colored gas giant known as Liavara, and these pioneering barathus found the placid skies much to their liking. But something within Liavara’s composition affected the visiting barathus deeply, and the wheeling and trilling so common to the species took on a new and unique psychic significance. Over an astonishingly short span of time, at least on an evolutionary scale, these barathus underwent profound mental and physical changes. Their abilities to adapt and merge dwindled and ultimately vanished, and their intellect diminished even as their psychic prowess burgeoned. The Dreamers became psychically sensitive in ways their barathu progenitors could have never predicted. By the time the second oma-ship of barathus arrived in Liavara’s skies, the first arrivals had become markedly different from the entities they once were: nearly feral, silent save for their crooning songs, seemingly oblivious to their surroundings, and yet commanding unparalleled powers of divination. Rather than renouncing their wayward kin, the barathus embraced them, calling them “Dreamers” due to their somnambulant behavior. Ever since, barathus have regarded their Dreamer cousins with a mix of reverence and protectiveness, an attitude that ultimately led to the barathus’ insistence upon administering Liavara as a protectorate within the Pact Worlds. This political status persists to this day, as the barathus continue to do everything in their power to protect the Dreamers. Whether the Dreamers recognize or understand their progenitors’ attitudes toward them is unknown. Left to their own among Liavara’s gentle clouds, the Dreamers wheel and dance through the skies, mewling incomprehensible songs that nevertheless carry profound psychic power. While ancient pre-Gap records indicate that the Dreamers’ songs once predicted future events with unerring accuracy, their predictions are now less precise— though no less portentous. Even those who make only a passing study of Dreamers’ songs realize that the creatures continue to prophecy some monumental event to come; the lack of detail, however, leaves open questions of the nature of the event, its timing, and whether it will be for good or ill. Some more pessimistic denizens of the Pact Worlds grumble that the Dreamers simply babble nonsense with no real clairvoyance to support their claims. These naysayers are in the minority, though—most Pact Worlders believe and wildly speculate what significant future event the Dreamers might have sensed. Dreamers pay little heed to their surroundings and other creatures. Even Dreamers within a single flotilla seem to ignore one another, though their flights through Liavara’s clouds weave complex but seemingly instinctive patterns. Those creatures that come to Liavara as supplicants to the Dreamers gain no special treatment; the fact that some such petitioners eventually manifest psychic abilities may simply be a result of exposure to the same phenomenon that converted the Dreamers into what they now are. Nonetheless, this occasional happening has earned the Dreamers a reputation among some in the Pact Worlds as the bestowers of psychic sensitivity, and increasing numbers of pilgrims have visited Liavara in recent years to search for these peaceful, floating sages. A Dreamer’s defenses are almost entirely autonomic, but when seriously injured, a Dreamer erupts into a furious rage with a debilitating psychic blast. Shortly after such an outburst, however, the Dreamer slips back into its dreamlike trance as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Even so, the creatures’ barathu protectors are likely to arrest anyone they find harassing a Dreamer and sentence them to one of Bretheda’s prison moons. Barathus are eminently protective over the Dreamers, as their existence is both an artifact of both their home world and their culture. Synesthetic Items As Dreamers are generally protected by their barathu kin and Liavara’s administrators, only a few researchers have managed to study the creatures’ peculiar synesthetic abilities, for the most part surreptitiously and with the intent to monetize their discoveries, despite Liavarans’ best attempts to discourage these practices. These less-than-lofty aims have resulted in a few widespread applications: a drug known as dreamsnuff and the synesthetic weapon fusion.

Dreamer

Dreamer CR 8

XP 4,800
N Large aberration
Init +1; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +16

Defense

HP 105; RP 4
EAC 19; KAC 20
Fort +7; Ref +7; Will +13
Defensive Abilities amorphous, lulling thoughts

Offense

Speed fly 30 ft. (Ex, average)
Melee tentacle +15 (1d12+12 A & B plus synesthesia)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 8th)
1/day—slow (DC 20), synaptic pulse (DC 20)
3/day—augury, daze monster (DC 19), mind thrust (2nd level, DC 19)
At will—detect thoughts (DC 18), mindlink

Statistics

STR +4; DEX +1; CON +0; INT -2; WIS +6; CHA +2
Skills Acrobatics +16, Mysticism +21
Languages Brethedan; telepathy 100 ft.
Other Abilities atavistic fury

Ecology

Environment any sky (Liavara)
Organization solitary, pair, or flotilla (3–5)

Special Abilities

Atavistic Fury (Ex) When a Dreamer is reduced to fewer than half its total Hit Points, it angrily awakens from its normal somnambulant state with a roar of psychic fury, at which point each non-Dreamer creature within 30 feet must succeed at a DC 18 Will save or become shaken for 2d4 rounds. This is a mind-affecting effect.

While it remains in its atavistic fury, the Dreamer gains a +2 bonus to melee attack and damage rolls and saving throws, and the save DC for its synesthesia ability increases by 2. While in this state of atavistic fury, a Dreamer cannot use its spell-like abilities. This state lasts for 1 minute, after which the Dreamer is fatigued for 1 hour.

Lulling Thoughts (Su) A Dreamer’s mind echoes with songs drawn from a planet’s fundamental vibrations, causing any creature that attempts to read its thoughts or use a mind-control or telepathic effect against it to become fascinated for 1d4+1 rounds (Will DC 18 negates). This is a mind-affecting effect.

Synesthesia (Su) When a Dreamer hits with its tentacle attack, it exposes its target to a focused blast of sensory overstimulation. The target can attempt a DC 18 Will save to negate the effect; if successful, it is off-target for 1 round. On a failed save, the target’s overloaded senses interfere with one another, such that sound is perceived as a swath of color, smells register as various sounds, and so on. The affected creature’s speeds are halved, and it takes a –4 penalty to AC, attack rolls, Reflex saves, and skill checks. These effects last for 1d4 rounds, and further applications of this ability increase the duration. This is a mind-affecting effect.

Description

Long before the Gap, the barathus of the gas giant Bretheda were sailing the stars within the enormous spacefaring creatures known as oma. One of their first destinations within the star system was their nearest neighbor, the peach-colored gas giant known as Liavara, and these pioneering barathus found the placid skies much to their liking. But something within Liavara’s composition affected the visiting barathus deeply, and the wheeling and trilling so common to the species took on a new and unique psychic significance. Over an astonishingly short span of time, at least on an evolutionary scale, these barathus underwent profound mental and physical changes. Their abilities to adapt and merge dwindled and ultimately vanished, and their intellect diminished even as their psychic prowess burgeoned. The Dreamers became psychically sensitive in ways their barathu progenitors could have never predicted.

By the time the second oma-ship of barathus arrived in Liavara’s skies, the first arrivals had become markedly different from the entities they once were: nearly feral, silent save for their crooning songs, seemingly oblivious to their surroundings, and yet commanding unparalleled powers of divination. Rather than renouncing their wayward kin, the barathus embraced them, calling them “Dreamers” due to their somnambulant behavior. Ever since, barathus have regarded their Dreamer cousins with a mix of reverence and protectiveness, an attitude that ultimately led to the barathus’ insistence upon administering Liavara as a protectorate within the Pact Worlds. This political status persists to this day, as the barathus continue to do everything in their power to protect the Dreamers.

Whether the Dreamers recognize or understand their progenitors’ attitudes toward them is unknown. Left to their own among Liavara’s gentle clouds, the Dreamers wheel and dance through the skies, mewling incomprehensible songs that nevertheless carry profound psychic power. While ancient pre-Gap records indicate that the Dreamers’ songs once predicted future events with unerring accuracy, their predictions are now less precise— though no less portentous. Even those who make only a passing study of Dreamers’ songs realize that the creatures continue to prophecy some monumental event to come; the lack of detail, however, leaves open questions of the nature of the event, its timing, and whether it will be for good or ill. Some more pessimistic denizens of the Pact Worlds grumble that the Dreamers simply babble nonsense with no real clairvoyance to support their claims. These naysayers are in the minority, though—most Pact Worlders believe and wildly speculate what significant future event the Dreamers might have sensed.

Dreamers pay little heed to their surroundings and other creatures. Even Dreamers within a single flotilla seem to ignore one another, though their flights through Liavara’s clouds weave complex but seemingly instinctive patterns. Those creatures that come to Liavara as supplicants to the Dreamers gain no special treatment; the fact that some such petitioners eventually manifest psychic abilities may simply be a result of exposure to the same phenomenon that converted the Dreamers into what they now are. Nonetheless, this occasional happening has earned the Dreamers a reputation among some in the Pact Worlds as the bestowers of psychic sensitivity, and increasing numbers of pilgrims have visited Liavara in recent years to search for these peaceful, floating sages.

A Dreamer’s defenses are almost entirely autonomic, but when seriously injured, a Dreamer erupts into a furious rage with a debilitating psychic blast. Shortly after such an outburst, however, the Dreamer slips back into its dreamlike trance as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Even so, the creatures’ barathu protectors are likely to arrest anyone they find harassing a Dreamer and sentence them to one of Bretheda’s prison moons. Barathus are eminently protective over the Dreamers, as their existence is both an artifact of both their home world and their culture.

Synesthetic Items

As Dreamers are generally protected by their barathu kin and Liavara’s administrators, only a few researchers have managed to study the creatures’ peculiar synesthetic abilities, for the most part surreptitiously and with the intent to monetize their discoveries, despite Liavarans’ best attempts to discourage these practices. These less-than-lofty aims have resulted in a few widespread applications: a drug known as dreamsnuff and the synesthetic weapon fusion.

Archives of Nethys