Minion of the Serpent God

These agents of the serpent god of evil, a deity of ancient desert myth, look like warriors in black, scaly plate carrying broad swords, and are often mistaken for adventurers. They are not human. Each can become an animal, usually a giant snake but sometimes a giant hyena, giant scorpion, giant crocodile or cave bear, and the change is total, gear included.

Minions begin fights in human form, since exposed powers make them less useful to their god; one in four bears a magic weapon forged in the hells, at most +2. When things go badly they transform in under a round, at the cost of just an initiative modifier of 5, so a hero may face a knight one round and a giant serpent the next. Their armor is part of their body, so AC never changes, while attacks and damage follow the new form.

A giant hyena rolling a 20 has locked its jaws; its victim moves at half speed with -2 to initiative and attacks. The snake's bite and the scorpion's sting kill on a failed save vs. poison, and even a success means 2d4 extra damage.

Snakes, the commonest, fight independently, and cave bears are lone but relentless. Hyenas mob one victim, one holding while the rest tear. Scorpions and crocodiles attack in groups with less teamwork.

So complete is their devotion that morale checks are never needed, and fear or doubt magic (scare, doubt, cause fear, phantasmal killer and the like) fails. In any form they save as 10th-level fighters, and against magic they get a save only if their 10% magic resistance fails.

The minions were petitioners in the hells whom the serpent god empowered to serve him. Having been petitioners, they are beyond raise dead, reincarnation or speak with dead once slain; their essence is simply gone.

Their god is evil but lawful and does not destroy servants on a whim as the faceless slime lord and other chaotic powers might. He demands total loyalty, and they gladly put his slightest wish above all their lives. Yet they are fully intelligent strategists who act as his go-betweens, command his troops when he is drawn into the endless war between demons and devils, tend his petitioners and carry out his plans among the prime worlds.

Anyone who defies the god's will, as his priests interpret it, is marked for death until every minion aware of the offense has been slain. Offend one and a whole sect hunts you for life.

In the hells the minions are predators, stealing larvae from the baatezu to swell their own hordes.

About one minion in 20 is raised to shadow priest, a sinister commissar who punishes rebels, leads armies against the god's enemies and is often sent across the planes after adventurers who angered him. Shadow priests keep the shapechanging and add the full powers of the serpent god's priests: major access to All, Astral, Combat, Guardian, Necromantic and Summoning, minor access to Healing and Protection, casting at 6th to 9th level (1d4+5). They backstab as thieves of the same level, shrug off every poison and gas, and command undead on a successful turning, at +2 while in the hells.