b'Ceroptor \n'b'  Family:   Ceroptor  \n'b'  Medium   aberration ,  chaotic evil  \n'b'  Armor Class  17 (natural armor)  Hit Points  150 (20d8 + 60)  Speed  10 ft., fly 60 ft. (hover)\n'b' STATS STR: 10 (+0) DEX:  16 (+3)  CON:  16 (+3)  INT:  19 (+4)  WIS:  15 (+2)  CHA:  13 (+1)  \n'b'\n'b'\n'b'\n'b'\n'b'\n'b'\n'b'  Saving Throws   Int  + 7 (see Powerful Mind) \n'b'  Skills   Deception  +7,  Intimidation  +7,  Perception  +8,  Persuasion  +7,  Stealth  +6  Damage Resistances  acid, lightning, thunder; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks  Damage Immunities  cold, necrotic, poison  Condition Immunities   charmed ,  exhaustion ,  frightened ,  grappled ,  paralyzed ,  petrified ,  poisoned ,  prone   Senses   darkvision  60 ft., passive  Perception  18  Languages  Ashtuul, Belligren, Common  Challenge  8 (3,900 XP) \n'b' SPECIAL TRAITS \n'b'\n'b'  Innate Spellcasting (Psionic) . The ceroptor\xe2\x80\x99s innate spellcasting ability is  Intelligence  (spell save DC 15). It can innately cast the following spells, requiring no components.\n'b'\n'b'\n'b'  At will \xe2\x80\x93 detect thoughts ,  suggestion  \n'b'  3/Day \xe2\x80\x93 confusion ,  fear  \n'b'  1/Day \xe2\x80\x93 feeblemind  \n'b'\n'b'  Powerful Mind . If the ceroptor needs to make a  Wisdom  or  Charisma  saving throw, it can instead make an  Intelligence  saving throw. \n'b'  Steal Body . Over the course of a minute, a ceroptor can take control of a headless corpse that died within the past 12 hours by affixing itself to the creature\xe2\x80\x99s nervous system and absorbing the residual memories of the creature. A ceroptor cannot affix itself to creatures lacking nervous systems, nor to creatures of the following types: elementals, oozes, plants, undead. A ceroptor is considered  incapacitated  while it is attempting to steal a body. Once mounted, the ceroptor can control the body and gains its Hit Dice, skills proficiencies, feats, racial traits and abilities. If the host body possessed spellcasting ability, the ceroptor can use those spells through its innate spellcasting, though it retains a maximum of 10 spell levels. It uses the physical ability scores the dead creature had in life, but retains its own mental ability scores, skills, feats, spell-like abilities, and any other effects or abilities related to its own mental ability scores. AA ceroptor with a powerful host body may have its own separate Challenge. A ceroptor cannot inhabit the body of a creature with more than 10 Hit Dice. The ceroptor physically bonds with its host body and may inhabit the body until forced out. A ceroptor is forced from its host body if the body\xe2\x80\x99s  hit points  drop below zero. If the host body is successfully polymorphed,  petrified , or otherwise  incapacitated , the ceroptor may abandon that host body as a bonus action. It also can be forced out of a body by targeting the body with  reincarnate ,  raise dead ,  resurrection , or similarly powerful magic, dealing 30 (10d6) points of force damage to the ceroptor and shunting it out of the host body. The ceroptor can make a  Wisdom  save against the spells DC, taking half damage on a success, but still being shunted. \n'b'\n'b' ACTIONS \n'b'\n'b'  Multiattack . The ceroptor makes three stinger attacks. \n'b'  Stinger .  Melee Weapon Attack : +6 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target.  Hit : 7 (2d6+2) piercing damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 15  Constitution  saving throw or become  paralyzed  for 1 minute. The creature can make a new saving throw at the beginning of their turn, ending the effect on a success. \n'b'  Ganglion Probe . The ceroptor can forcefully insert one of its ganglions into an  incapacitated  creature\xe2\x80\x99s nervous system. Inserting the ganglion deals 22 (4d10) psychic damage. A creature that is reduced to  0 hit points  by this  attack  does not die but is considered  incapacitated  and remains at  0 hit points  for 1 hour or until it receives any medical attention or  healing . A ganglion probe can be torn out by hand with a successful DC 15  Strength  ( Athletics ) check, which deals 10 (3d6) piercing damage to the creature being probed. \n'b'\n'b' ABOUT \n'b' The dominant species that holds control over all habitable moons orbiting Anshar are known as Ceroptors. Cerptors hail from the near lifeless moon the humanoids call Morthos. Created by the dark and alien manipulations of the jagladine, they were designed to manipulate weaker species of the neighboring moons in order to break them into revealing the secrets of the Ancient gates. Of genius and entirely alien intellect, a typical ceroptor appears almost as an oversized, hideous head trailing long ganglion-like structures of thick cartilage. Parasitic Predators. Ceroptors capture, enslave and breed the various humanoid races as if they were cattle. They eat humans when they so desire, but also use their bodies by removing a host\xe2\x80\x99s head, inserting their ganglion into their necks and taking over their central nervous systems so they gain full control over the body. This mounting process kills the humanoid host, although the body can remain \xe2\x80\x9calive\xe2\x80\x9d and in the possession and control of its host for as long as the host desires or until it is killed. They also reproduce by laying eggs inside a host body. When the eggs hatch, a brood of tiny ceroptor larvae eats its way out of the corpse. Upon escaping the host, the larvae go into deep caves where they sleep for several months as they mature into fully developed ceroptors. Body Traders. Ceroptors believe themselves to be a paragon species, far superior to all others. Currently ceroptors travel from moon to moon by mentally projecting themselves from their existing head-like bodies, through inner space and into recently hatched ceroptor larvae on other moons. The original form dies, but the same personality lives on in the new form. In this way, they are somewhat immortal. How ceroptors originally traveled between the moons is unknown, though it is speculated that an earlier humanoid race possessed the ability to moon jump and became infested with ceroptor eggs after an encounter with the hostile creatures. Ceroptors who find stable host bodies to inhabit over a long period of time become infiltrators within humanoid societies, spying out choice targets for their fellows and manipulating events behind the scenes. They use their mental powers to create disorder and suspicion so the communities where they hunt will be easy prey. \n'b'  Insidious Takeover . When a ceroptor controls a creature, you can consider it a template that can be applied to a creature much as any other template. Use the following rules when applying the ceroptor template. \n'b'\n'b' The creature gains the shapechanger and ceroptor subtype. \n'b' The creature\xe2\x80\x99s AC becomes 17 if it is not already 17. \n'b' The creature\xe2\x80\x99s mental attribute scores are altered as follows:  Int  19,  Wis  15,  Cha  13. \n'b' The creature gains the skill proficiencies of the ceroptor, including those skills that count proficiency bonus twice ( Deception ,  Intimidation ,  Perception , and  Persuasion ). \n'b' The creature gains the Powerful Mind ability, which grants it proficiency in  Intelligence  saving throws, and allows it to use that saving throw in place of  Wisdom  or  Charisma . All physical saving throws are unchanged from the base creature. \n'b' The creature gains  darkvision  of 60 feet if it did not have it previously. \n'b' The creature gains the use of the Ceroptor\xe2\x80\x99s Innate Spellcasting as follows: \n'b'  Innate Spellcasting (Psionic) . The ceroptor\xe2\x80\x99s innate spellcasting ability is  Intelligence  (spell save DC 15). It can innately cast the following spells, requiring no components.\n'b'\n'b'\n'b'  At will \xe2\x80\x93 detect thoughts ,  suggestion  \n'b'  3/Day \xe2\x80\x93 confusion ,  fear  \n'b'  1/Day \xe2\x80\x93 feeblemind  \n'b'\n'b' This creature irrevocably dies when it reaches  0 hit points , as it was already mostly dead to begin with, and partially animated by the creoptor. If the host is targeted by magic that would return the corpse to life, the creoptor is expelled (see the creoptor\xe2\x80\x99s \xe2\x80\x9csteal body\xe2\x80\x9d special ability above). When the body is  incapacitated , the ceroptor is forced out of the body, and the host body.'