Large Outsider (Tanar'ri, chaotic, evil)
Hit Dice: 15d8+60 (128 hp)
Initative: +0
Speed: 30 ft.
AC: 25 (dex, +16 natural, -1 size)
Attacks: +22/+22/+17/+12 claws, +22/+22/+17/+12 tentacles
Damage: 2 claws 3d8+7, 2 tentacles 2d8+7
Face / Reach: 5 ft. by 5 ft / 10 ft.
Special Attacks: Cause pain, psionics, spell-like abilities
Special Qualities: DR 40/+4, frightful pressence, immunities, resistances
Saves: Fort +9 Ref +9 Will +9
Abilities: Str 25 Dex 11 Con 19 Int 17 Wis 18 Cha 16
Skills: Bluff +20, Concentration +20, Hide +18, Intimidate +20,
Knowledge (the Abyss) +16, Mysticcraft +16, Listen +20, Search +16, Sense Motive +20
Spot +20.
Feats: Cleave, Multiattack, Multidexterity, Power Attack, Sunder.
Climate / Terrain: Any land and underground (Abyss)
Organisation: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 15
Treasure: none
Alignment: Always cahotic evil
Advancement: 16-25 HD (large) 26-50 HD (huge)
A flayed one is a bloated and ugly humanoid towering higher than an ogre. Its hands end in long sharp claws, capable of ripping easily through most creatures easily. Tentacles grow from its back and keep on moving all the time, as though the creature did not know the meaning of the word non-action. As its name suggests, a Flayed One's nerves lie blank and it is not covered by skin. Still the creature is a coherent monster of sickly dark flesh and black nerve strands all over it like the twisted patterns of dark marble given live by a sick mind.
Eternal agony and torment, never ending pain. All of a flayed one's mind is clouded in eternal pain, though when they manage to think they are highly intelligent and more dangerous than they seem at first. These creatures usually do not bother to think, because they huddle somewhere in their torment, but when someone is foolish enough to arouse their attention, there is a price to pay. There is a price to pay for everything in the lower planes.
Usually flayed ones huddle in remote regions of the Abyss, ignoring everything but the pain clouding their mind. Only their tentacles move to remind anyone, that they are still alive, but once a flayed one takes notice of something in its area, you would wish it had not. Flayed Ones often eat other fiends or about anything organic they can find and might even be encountered when doing so. Which is usually extremely horrifying and disgusting.
Combat
Anyone rousing a flayed one would wish that they had not,
because in combat they are terrifying opponents using their abilities with
frightening efficiency. They are tanar'ri after all and top of the food
chain too. They physical attacks are claws, that rend most lesser creatures
with ease. In addition this creature strikes with its tentacles like whips of
steel as a bludgeoning attack or uses its tip to pierce right through someone.
Flayed ones can be shrewd tacticians and use their abilities to great advantage,
though they rarely have to do so, because most creatures are pathetic wimps compared
to the power of a flayed one.
Cause Agony (Sp): Flayed ones can make anyone feel the
pain of being flayed alive or any other debilitating types of torture. This ability
deals 5d6 points of pain damage. A successful will save DC 22 negates the effect.
Any active psionic defence mode denied the ability.
Frightful Prsence (Ex): People coming within 60 feet of
a flayed one must make a will save DC 22 or be affected.
Immunities (Ex): Flayed ones are immune to poison and
electricity.
Psionics (Sp): Flayed ones have all psionc attack abd
defence modes and 200 power points to use them with. [Flayed ones have psionic
powers that dampen their own pain and infict pain in others.]
Resistances (Ex): Flayed ones have acid, cold and fire
resistance 20.
Spell-Like Abilities: At Will - darkness, detect
thoughts, finger of death, fireball, fly, inflict pain, infravision, teleport
without error, space warp, symbol of pain, true seeing.
Summon Tanar'ri (Sp) Flayed ones may summon and tanar'ri
with fewr hit dice than they have, except a molydeus and those of abyssal lord or
higher status with a 80% chance of success. Sometimes flayed ones use this ability
to call other tanar'ri and slay them.
Telepathy (Su): Flayed Ones can communicate telpathically
witch any creature within 100 feet that as a langauge.
Background
Flayed ones are solitary and not even part of the constant struggle for power, that is the Abyss' excuse for a society. If they become involved, it becomes obvious that they easily outrank balors in power and cunning. It is better to leave them alone.
Are flayed ones incarnations of the pain caused by other tanar'ri? Are they formed by the Abyss itself for some reason? No-one knows for sure where flayed ones come from, or why they exist. Even planar sages find it hard to believe that a tanar'ri would choose this form voluntarily. Most agree that the flayed ones are the shattered fragments of an Abyssal power of pain destroyed long before mortals frequented the plains, but even this theory creates more questions than answers and it just does ignore a few facts. No-one able to sense it and being able to survive an encounter found a divine spark in those creatures.) The best thing to assume is that flayed ones just are and they are bad.
There are several theories, what parts of flayed ones might be used for, but it has never been proven true, because no-one ever seems to have killed one and brought the carcass with them to prove it for obvious reasons. In the Abyss they are usually ignored and do not take part in the blood war. Even a molydeus will leave them alone. There only purpose seems to be spreading misery and agony.