Soul Skelm
CREATURE 10Soul skelms arise not from mortal men but from other skelms, as their long-held wrath slowly twists them and replaces lingering fragments of their mortality with even more fiendish aspects. These skelms bully and exploit the souls of the dead, binding souls and undead to keep themselves indefinitely young. They bully living victims as well, stoking regret and shame even from inconsequential minutiae or outright fabrications until these feelings become unbreakable ties that the skelm can leverage from beyond the grave. A soul skelm's attentions can leave a victim isolated from friends and allies, making them all the more susceptible to the skelm's manipulations.
Ambitious soul skelms-often those who arise from palace skelms-search out powerful, high-strung mortals and trick them into bringing ridicule or shame on themselves. After their victim's death, the skelms gleefully remind them of their mortal failings, feeding on their despair.
Rage-filled skelms are drawn to any settlement with more than a few hundred souls. Using magical disguises and leveraging societal norms to their benefit, these antlered monsters crave fearful respect and brutally punish any who dare disagree with their lofty opinions, even in the slightest degree. Although quite dangerous on their own, skelms are at their deadliest when leading an angry mob. Their cruel and exploitative nature has made their name synonymous with villainy.
An existing skelm can transform any evil humanoid who's overwhelmed with rage into one of their kind. Skelms heap enraging humiliation on potential new brothers as a form of indoctrination, convincing these recruits that some other person or group is responsible for their misery. This practice ensures skelms begin their new existence with sufficient vitriol to plot their revenge.
Many newly forged skelms carry on their lives in the roles they held as mortals; and in fact, these roles often shape the type of skelm they become. Skelms can arise among members of nearly any ancestry, though they're more common among cultures with deeply entrenched gender roles, unjust hierarchies, and those that don't offer healthy ways to experience and process anger.
The skelm draws upon the spirit of one of his deceased victims, tormenting their soul beyond the grave. Until the end of his next turn, the soul skelm gains regeneration 15 (deactivated by force or holy), and he deals an extra 1d8 spirit damage on his Strikes.
The soul skelm can take on the appearance of any Medium male humanoid. This doesn't change his Speed or his attack and damage bonuses with his Strikes but might change the damage type his Strikes deal.
The monster changes its shape indefinitely. It can use this action again to return to its natural shape or adopt a new shape. Unless otherwise noted, a monster cannot use Change Shape to appear as a specific individual. Using Change Shape counts as creating a disguise for the Impersonate use of Deception. The monster's transformation automatically defeats Perception DCs to determine whether the creature is a member of the ancestry or creature type into which it transformed, and it gains a +4 status bonus to its Deception DC to prevent others from seeing through its disguise. Change Shape abilities specify what shapes the monster can adopt. The monster doesn't gain any special abilities of the new shape, only its physical form. For example, in each shape, it replaces its normal Speeds and Strikes, and might potentially change its senses or size. Any changes are listed in its stat block.
The soul skelm makes a melee Strike trailing a wave of shadowy illusions. The skelm is Off-Guard until the start of his next turn. If the Strike is successful, the skelm increases the number of damage dice by one, and the target must attempt a DC 29 Will save.
On a failure, the target becomes Invisible, inaudible, and otherwise imperceptible to its allies for 4 rounds, and it likewise can't see, hear, or otherwise perceive those allies.
Regardless of the outcome, the creature is temporarily immune to Isolating Lash for 24 hours.
The monster can instead use Grab and choose one creature it's grabbing or restraining with an appendage that has Grab to automatically extend that condition to the end of the monster's next turn.