A 3-foot-long strand of striated muscle connects two floating eyeballs. The strand flexes and twists.
Lurking stranglers are 3 feet long from eyeball to eyeball. They weigh 5 pounds.
Lurking stranglers are capable of learning to understand a language, but do not normally know any known language. They have neither a mouth nor any means of speaking. They communicate by twisting their bodies. A wide-open posture usually signifies assent, and a tight spiral indicates fear, tension, or disagreement.
Combat
A lurking strangler primarily uses its eye rays to attack. It can use its entire body to lash at an adjacent foe. However, it prefers to keep its distance and let its eye rays defeat its enemies. Once its victims are asleep, it will coil itself around a foe and choke it to death.
Lurking strangler
Tiny aberration
Init +4; Senses all-around vision, darkvision; Perception +7 (visual +11)
Defense
AC 16, touch 16, flat-footed 12 (+2 size, +4 Dex)
hp 11 (2d8+2)
Fort +1, Ref +7, Will +3
Offense
Speed 5 ft., fly 20 ft. (good)
Melee lash +8 (1d4−3)
Ranged 2 eye rays +8 touch (see text)
Space 21⁄2 ft.; Reach 0 ft.
Special Attacks suffocate
Statistics
Str 5, Dex 19, Con 13, Int 4, Wis 10, Cha 10
Base Atk +2; CMB −3; CMD 11
Feats Skill Focus (Perception)B, Weapon Finesse
Skills Fly +12, Perception +7 (visual +11), Stealth +16
Languages none
Morale mercenary (+0)
Ecology
Environment underground
Organization solitary or cluster (1d4+3)
Special Abilities
Eye Rays (Su)
Each of a lurking strangler’s two eye rays resembles a spell cast by a 3rd-level caster. One eye acts as the cause fear spell, and the other produces a sleep effect. Each effect is negated with a DC 11 Will save. The save DCs are Charisma-based.
Cause Fear: This ray works like the spell. It has a range of 30 feet.
Sleep: This ray works like the spell, except that it affects one creature with up to 4 Hit Dice. It has a range of 130 feet.
Multiple lurking stranglers can cooperate to produce a more powerful effect with their eye rays. For each additional lurking strangler that targets the same creature in the same round with the same eye ray effect, the HD limit of the effect is increased by 1, and the save DC is also increased by 1 (to a maximum of DC 20). (The target need only make one saving throw against the coordinated assault, not one per participating lurking strangler.)
Suffocate (Ex)
If a lurking strangler hits a helpless foe with its lash attack, it wraps itself around the victim’s throat and begins to choke it. In the first round, the victim drops to 0 hit points (and potentially falls unconscious). In the following round, she drops to −1 hit points, automatically falls unconscious, and is dying. In the third round, she suffocates and dies.
Flight (Su)
A lurking strangler’s body is naturally buoyant. This buoyancy allows it to fly at a speed of 20 feet. This buoyancy also grants it a permanent feather fall effect (as the spell) with personal range.
All-Around Vision (Ex)
Lurking stranglers are exceptionally alert and circumspect. Their eyes and physiology give them a +4 racial bonus on visual Perception checks, and they can’t be flanked.