Gastly (3.5e Monster)



Summary::A thin, purple vapor emanates around you, with a pair of glowing eyes and fanged mouth coalescing from the gloom.

Gastly are strange, gaseous creatures. Gastly are cruel tricksters who delight in sowing fear and madness. Appearing as rough, swirling globes of purple and black gas, Gastly have frightening visages which glower at all living creatures.

Hateful and deadly, Gastly stick to the night, where they are powerful, and avoid the light where they are weak.

Combat
Tactics Round-by-Round:

Gastly never attempt to fight fair, and instead use their ability to spread terror to limit enemy options.
 * Round 0: Remain 20 feet above the ground with flying.
 * Round 1: Split up enemies with its Fear ability.
 * Round 2: Use Fear again, or Sleep, as needed.
 * Round 3: If an enemy appears immune to fear, or if no more than one enemy is still unshaken, run in and envelop them with a miasma.

If the Gastly’s life is in question, it will attempt to escape through cracks in surrounding structures.

 (Su): A Gastly can invoke scare at will, as a Sorcerer of a level equal to its hit dice.

SRD:Sleep (Sp): As the spell cast by a Sorcerer with a caster level equal to its hit dice, exept that the maximum hit die affected is 8.


 * The sample Gastly has a save DC of 14 for its Sleep ability, and a caster level of 4.

 (Ex): A Gastly’s gaseous nature makes it terribly effective at cutting off the breath of opponents. A Gastly grapples as if it were Colossal in size, and use its Charisma instead of its Strength while grappling. Creatures grappling with a Gastly cannot breathe air for that duration. See the Dungeon Master’s Guide for rules on suffocation.

 (Su): Gastly are semi-ghostly, and can touch incorporeal things as if they were themselves a ghost touch weapon.

 (Ex): A Gastly which successfully hits in melee with its Lick attack can initiate a Grapple as a free action. This Grapple does not provoke an attack of opportunity, and does not require a touch attack.

 (Su): A Gastly’s damage reduction is negated by any ghost touch weaponry.

 (Ex): A Gastly is made out of gas, and it can pass through any crack large enough to accomodate air. A Gastly gains a +40 racial bonus on Escape Artist checks.

 (Su): A Gastly is extremely weak in daylight. In the light of the sun (or similar brightness, such as from a daylight spell), a Gastly cannot use its natural Miasma or Damage Reduction abilities.