Rakdos Cackler

Daemon, Coulrodaemon, Rakdos Cackler

CR 9    XP: 6,400
NE Medium outsider (daemon, evil, extraplanar)
Init +7; Senses all around vision, darkvision 60 ft., deathwatch detect good; Perception +24
Aura pratfall aura (20 ft.)
AC 25, touch 18, flat-footed 18 (+1 dodge, +7 natural, +7 Dex)
HP 114 (12d10+48)
Fort +12, Ref +15, Will +13
Defensive Abilities freedom of movement; DR 10/good or silver; Immune acid, death effects, disease, poison; SR 20; Resist cold 10, electricity 10, fire 10
Speed 40 ft.
Melee 2 slams +15 (1d4+3 plus corrupt luck)
Ranged 3 mocking skulls +19 touch (1d6+7 and corrupt luck)
Special Attacks corrupt luck, mocking skulls
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 12th, concentration +23) Constant—deathwatch, detect good, freedom of movement At will—grease (DC 18), greater teleport (self plus 50 lbs. of objects only), stumble gap APG (DC 18) 3/day—bestow curse (DC 21), command (DC 18), confusion (DC 21), disguise self, invisibility 1/day — summon (level 3, 1 coulrodaemon only, 35%)
During Combat
d8 roll Combat Maneuver
1         bull rush (away from the coulrodaemon)
2         dirty trick
3         disarm (if no item is being wielded, treat as trip)
4         drag (towards the coulrodaemon)
5         grapple
6         reposition (into a random adjacent square)
7         sunder (determine random wielded or worn item; if the target has no items, treat as trip)
8         trip
Str 16, Dex 24, Con 19, Int 16, Wis 21, Cha 25
Base Atk +12; CMB +15; CMD 33
Skills Acrobatics +22, Bluff +22, Disguise +22, Intimidate +22, Knowledge (planes) +18, Perception +24, Sense Motive +20, Sleight of Hand +22, Stealth +22, Use Magic Device +22
  Racial Modifiers Perception +4
Languages Abyssal, Draconic, Infernal; telepathy 100 ft.
Environment any (Abaddon)
Organization solitary or wake (2–10)
Treasure standard
Corrupt Luck (Su) A creature hit by a coulrodaemon’s slam or mocking skull takes a -1 penalty to its attack rolls, saving throws, ability checks, and skill checks for 10 minutes (DC 23 Will negates). This penalty stacks with multiple failed saves, up to a maximum penalty of equal to the coulrodaemon’s Charisma bonus. The save DC is Charisma-based. In addition, when a coulrodaemon hits a target with a mocking skull, if the target is using any effect that provides it with a luck bonus or that specifically grants it good luck or fortune, such as the touch of luck domain power or a witch’s fortune hex, the coulrodaemon can attempt a caster level check (DC 11 + the caster level of the effect or the Hit Dice of the creature providing the effect, if it is a supernatural effect) to suppress that luck bonus or ability for as long as the penalty remains. If the target is using multiple luck effects, roll randomly to determine which effect is affected,
Mocking Skulls (Su) A coulrodaemon constantly juggles a set of translucent, intangible skulls that cackle and jeer. It uses these skulls to make ranged touch attacks against targets within 100 feet (no range increment), dealing 1d6 points of damage on a successful hit. A coulrodaemon adds its Charisma modifier as a bonus to the damage it deals with the skulls, and they are treated as magical weapons with the ghost touch, returning, and seeking abilities. These skulls are empathically connected to the coulrodaemon, granting it all-around vision and a +4 racial bonus on Perception checks. In addition, it may send out one or more of these skulls as spies, as if they were prying eyes. Any skulls that are not present at the coulrodaemon’s location cannot be used to make attacks, and each missing skull reduces its bonus on Perception checks by 2 (minimum 0), though it retains its all-around vision as long as at least one skull is present.
Pratfall Aura (Su) The area surrounding a coulrodaemon is infused with a miasma of awful luck and self-inflicted damage. Any creature not benefiting from a luck bonus (or other effect that specifically grants good luck, such as the touch of luck domain power or a witch’s fortune hex) must roll twice and take the worse result on all attack rolls, saving throws, ability checks, and skill checks. Creatures cannot take 10 while within its aura, and a natural 1 automatically fails even on ability checks and skill checks. A creature failing a check to perform a physical action, such as an attack, Reflex saves Acrobatics or Stealth check, takes 1d6 points of damage and as a free action the coulrodaemon can attempt a combat maneuver check against the creature, determining the type of combat maneuver on the following table. While using this ability is a free action, a coulrodaemon can attempt only one combat maneuver against a creature each round. A coulrodaemon is immune to its own pratfall aura but not the aura of other coulrodaemons, so they are careful to keep their distance from one another when multiple coulrodaemons are present.
 This wiry black-and-white clad humanoid figure has very pale skin and mournful skeletal features. Its head floats slightly above its severed neck rather than being connected to its body, and it juggles a set of balls that resemble spectral skulls. A typical coulrodaemon stands about 6 feet tall and weighs 130 pounds.
Coulrodaemons are the embodiments of death by black comedy. Not the most physically powerful of daemons, coulrodaemons prefer to defeat their foes through sabotage and humiliation. The coulrodaemons’ abilities can turn a straight up fight into a slapstick tableau of painful and dangerous blunders. They make extensive use of their corrupt luck ability to wear down dangerous foes. Coulrodaemons resemble pale, gaunt humanoids whose skull-like heads are not attached to their necks and are deceptively strong and hardy despite their wiry frames.
Ecology
Coulrodaemons form from evil souls who died in ironic, embarrassing, or darkly humorous ways. When an evil mortal dies in such an exquisitely humiliating way that the burn survives death itself, the soul is primed to be reborn as one of Abaddon’s bleak comedians. Coulrodaemons share in the misanthropy of all daemonkind, in their case leavened with vicious black humor. While the creatures have an aptitude for stealth and dislike straightforward melee combat, a clean kill from the shadows bores them. If they can take their time when hunting, coulrodaemons enjoy using their stealth and subterfuge abilities to soften their victims up with a little psychological sabotage in the form of dangerous “pranks.” They may stalk a particular victim but keep that victim just out of range of their pratfall aura, so the victim becomes an apparent harbinger of bad luck that is really caused by the hidden coulrodaemon. Against victims who are aware of them, coulrodaemons try to stay out of melee until their strongest opponents have been rendered humorously ineffectual by corrupt luck and their spell-like abilities. They take more pride in setting up an enemy for self-destruction via self-inflicted damage than in dealing the killing blows themselves.
The sites of a coulrodaemon’s depredations are marked by confusion and chaos: shattered weapons, broken tools, self-inflicted injuries, and burning embarrassment combined with confusion over how everything managed to go so wrong so fast. Coulrodaemons leave bizarre and deadly accidents in their wake, to a degree that leaves investigators after the fact wondering how such a chain reaction of improbable calamities could possibly have taken place. Skilled workers bungle routine tasks in hazardous ways, graceful fighters trip over their own feet, fail safes fail, machinery jams, and any efforts at correcting the problems lead to further mishaps.
Habitat and Society
Despite the indiscriminate effects of their pratfall aura (when they don’t bother to turn it off), coulrodaemons are social creatures. Because of their specialized interests, they don’t have much to do with the agendas of the Four Horsemen, but they appreciate the exquisitely vicious manipulations of erodaemons and the sabotage skills of temerdaemons. They can also be found serving daemonic nobility as entertainers, spies, or saboteurs; or working as ringmasters in Abaddon’s arenas. Coulrodaemons don’t often frequent Abaddon’s soul-processing centers because they make the workers nervous. Particularly nihilistic conjurers and cultists sometimes try to summon coulrodaemons, which generally ends badly for the casters involved unless they have some protection against the daemon’s pratfall aura. Like all daemonkind, coulrodaemons dislike mortals on principle, but they will consent to bargain with them if called. Their favored offerings are magic items that grant luck bonuses or the skull of a hero who died in an act of unsuccessful self-sacrifice.  Unbound coulrodaemons on the Material Plane gravitate to cosmopolitan urban areas of predominantly neutral or evil alignment. While they enjoy bringing low champions of good when the opportunity presents itself, they prefer to set up their lairs far away from interfering paladins. Because of the effects of their aura, the lairs of coulrodaemons are the sites of frequent improbable accidents and quickly gain a reputation for being cursed.