AC 12
HP 75 (10d8 + 30; bloodied 37)
Speed 30 ft.
Initiative Dex +2 (12), Insight +7 (17), Perception +3 (13)
Proficiency +4; Maneuver DC 14
Saving Throws Str +0, Dex +2, Con +3, Int +0, Wis +7, Cha +9
Skills Perception +5, Stealth +8
Senses passive Perception 13
Languages Common
Damage Denial. When the puppeteer takes damage while one or more of its puppets is active, the puppeteer takes half the damage (rounding down) and any active id puppet each takes the other half.
ACTIONS
Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 2 (1d4) bludgeoning damage plus 9 (2d8) psychic damage.
BONUS ACTIONS
Controlled Summoning (1/Hour). An id puppet appears in an unoccupied space between 60 and 90 feet from the puppetmaster. The id puppet acts on its own initiative and is under the control of the puppeteer.
Desperate Summoning (1/Day). If either the puppetmaster or its id puppet are bloodied, the puppetmaster recharges and uses Controlled Summoning. If the puppetmaster is currently controlling an id puppet, it gains a second id puppet.
Elite Recovery (Bloodied Only). The puppetmaster ends one negative effect currently affecting it or an id puppet. It can use this action as long as it has at least 1 hit point, even while unconscious or incapacitated.
Fear Eater. The puppetmaster regains 10 hit points for each creature within 60 feet that is afraid.
Id Redirection. The puppetmaster psionically teleports an id puppet within 180 feet to an unoccupied space within 180 feet. The id puppet can then make a single attack.
The id puppet is a projection of the id puppeteer’s deepest fears. Its appearance can vary wildly, and the same id puppeteer can summon puppets with different appearances.
While the id puppeteer is a Challenge 9 monster, an id puppet doesn’t have a challenge rating or XP. It’s part of the id puppeteer that summoned it.
Legends and Lore
With a Culture or History check, characters can learn the following:
DC 10 Some people are plagued by monsters that appear near them. This may be a psionic curse.
DC 15 “Id puppeteers” involuntarily create psionic monsters that endanger them and others. However, some learn to control these monsters, becoming evil “id puppetmasters.”
Some id puppeteers take a sinister journey into their own minds and become one with their darkest thoughts. Taming their fears, they become id puppetmasters. With minds twisted by this terrible amalgamation, they gain an appetite for the terror of others—an appetite they sate by releasing their own id puppets. Unlike other id puppeteers, id puppetmasters can summon and control their puppets, and they do so in order to spread panic and harm
1–2 In a stressful or dangerous situation, desperately trying to suppress id puppet
3–4 Fleeing in terror from its own id puppet
Id Puppet Appearance
1 Hairless head with a giant fanged maw, supported by two legs
2 Lion with a scorpion tail
3 Writhing conglomeration of hands and eyes
4 White-furred ape with four arms
5 Friendly-looking clown
6 Screaming, melting child
Id puppeteers usually conceal their powers on populous planets and starbases.
CR 5–10 id puppeteer fleeing id puppet
CR 17–22 id puppetmaster with id puppet
Treasure 8,000 cr
Humanoids include a number of different intelligent, language-using bipeds of Small or Medium size. Humans and elves are humanoids, and so are orcs and goblins. Humanoids may employ magic but are not fundamentally magical—a characteristic that distinguishes them from bipedal, language-using fey, fiends, and other monsters. Humanoids have no inherent alignment, meaning that no humanoid ancestry is naturally good or evil, lawful or chaotic.