Mane (3.5e Monster)

''This bloated and hideous creature reeks of acid, and you can see steam issuing from its pores. It looks as though it would pop with a needle, and you can see the horrible pain reflected in its eyes as it rushes at you, seeking to end its own existence.''

"Three. Two. One. Boom."

There are some souls that, while evil and vindictive, are not sufficiently vile to merit transformation into an intelligent being by the Abyss or one of its denizens. These creatures are doomed to become manes.

Manes are the lowest of the low, nothing but cannon fodder for other demons to step over in order to win the battle. They lack all but the most rudimentary intelligence, and are capable of doing nothing except be ordered into combat by their superiors. Although it is not unheard of for a particularly destructive and resourceful mane to be transformed into a higher order of demon, most end up dying a horrible death.

It takes a pretty high level of cruelty to intentionally design a creature as a suicide bomber, but that’s essentially what manes are: bloated sacks of flesh filled with caustic acid. This essentially means the mane's entire life is constant agony, only capable of ending through promotion or death. Due to the ineffectiveness of their natural weapons and this incessant misery, their first and last method of attack is to blow up and take the opponent down with them.

Combat
 (Ex): Manes project an aura of arousal. This manifests itself as a merry joviality, a disbelief that they are dangerous and desire to touch and pet them due to their pathetic cuteness, rather than sexual arousal. The save DC for this aura is 6.

 (Ex): As a standard action, a mane can blow up, dealing 2d6 points of acid damage per CR of the mane to everything around it within a radius equal to its melee reach plus five feet. A Constitution-based Reflex save (base DC 13) halves the damage dealt. Use of this ability kills the mane instantly and completely destroys its body (not that its body really matters, since it can‘t be raised anyway). Manes also automatically explode when they are slain by any means.

 (Ex): When it successfully makes an attack on a charge, a mane can explode (as the ability above) as a swift action and deny the target of the charge a save against the explosion damage. In return, it does not deal normal charge damage when it uses this ability.