Formian, Taskmaster
Medium Outsider (Lawful, Extraplanar) — CR 5
- Hit Dice
- 6d8+12 (39 hp)
- Initiative
- +7
- Speed
- Land 40 ft
- Armor Class
- 19, touch 13, flat-footed 16
- Base Attack / Grapple
- +6/+10
- Attack
- Sting +10 melee (2d4+4 plus poison)
- Full Attack
- Sting +10 melee (2d4+4 plus poison) and 2 claws +8 melee (1d6+2)
- STR
- 18
- DEX
- 16
- CON
- 14
- INT
- 11
- WIS
- 16
- CHA
- 19
- Fort / Ref / Will
- +7 / +8 / +8
- Challenge Rating
- 5
- Alignment
- Always Lawful-Neutral
- Organization
- Solitary (1 plus 1 dominated creature) or conscription team (2–4 plus 1 dominated creature per team member)
- Treasure
- Standard
- Environment
- Clockwork Nirvana of Mechanus
- Level Adjustment
- —
- Spell Resistance
- 21
Special Abilities
Feats
This creature is about the size of a pony. It looks like an ant, but holds its head and thorax upright. It does not appear to have a mouth. The creature has humanlike shoulders and arms ending in powerful hands with sharp claws. Its abdomen bears a stinger.
Description
Formians hail from the plane of Mechanus. They seek to colonize all that they see and incorporate all living things into their hive as workers.
Expansionist in the extreme, formians are dedicated to spreading their colonies until they have taken over everything and their order is unquestioned. To further this end, they attack all other creatures, usually to put them to work building and expanding cities. Formians maintain these “conscripted” workers as well as those mentally dominated by the power of their taskmasters.
A formian resembles a cross between an ant and a centaur. All formians are covered in a brownish-red carapace; size and appearance differs for each variety.
Taskmasters resemble warriors with no mandibles—no apparent mouth at all, in fact. These formulas communicate only telepathically and derive sustenance from the mental energies of those they dominate.
A taskmaster’s duty is to gather and control nonformians for integration into the hive. Put simply, taskmasters enslave other creatures. They do not enjoy controlling others but believe it is the only efficient way to spread the hive to all places, a desirable end for all rational creatures. If a taskmaster can manage to “conscript” a laborer without using its dominate monster ability, it will do so.
Those few souls who have escaped refer to formian hivercites as “work pits.” While formians are not cruel, they are still emotionless—and pitiless.
A taskmaster is about the same size as a warrior.
Combat
Formians are generally aggressive, seeking to subdue all they encounter. If they perceive even the slightest threat to their hive-city or to their queen, they attack immediately and fight to the death. Any formian also attacks immediately if ordered to do so by a superior.
Taskmasters rely on their dominated slaves to fight for them if at all possible. If necessary, though, they can defend themselves with claws and a poison sting.
A formian taskmaster’s natural weapons, as well as any weapons it wields, are treated as lawful-aligned for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.
Hive Mind (Ex): All formians within 50 miles of their queen are in constant communication. If one is aware of a particular danger, they all are. If one in a group is not flat-footed, none of them are. No formian in a group is considered flanked unless all of them are.
Dominate Monster (Su): A taskmaster can use a dominate monster ability as the spell from a 10th-level caster (Will DC 17 negates), although the subject may be of any kind and may be up to Large size. Creatures that successfully save cannot be affected by the same taskmaster’s dominate monster ability for 24 hours. A single taskmaster can dominate up to four subjects at a time. The save DC is Charisma-based.
Dominated Creature (Ex): A taskmaster is never encountered alone. One dominated nonformian creature always accompanies it (choose or determine randomly any creature of CR 4).
Poison (Ex): Injury, Fortitude DC 15, initial and secondary damage 1d6 Str. The save DC is Constitution-based.