This eel-like creature has a thick, greasy body and a large, circular mouth full of tiny teeth.
Wizard's Shackle CR 1/2
XP 200
N Tiny aberration (aquatic)
Init +0; Senses arcane sight, blindsight 60 ft.; Perception +6
Defense
AC 12, touch 12, flat-footed 12 (+2 size)
hp 9 (2d8)
Fort +0, Ref +0, Will +4
Defensive Abilities host buffer; Immune disease, mind-affecting effects, poison; SR 11
Offense
Speed 5 ft., swim 30 ft.
Melee bite +3 (1d4-3 plus attach and 1d3 Wisdom damage)
Space 2-1/2 ft.; Reach 0 ft.
Special Attacks puppet master
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 5th; concentration +1)
Constant—arcane sight
Statistics
Str 4, Dex 11, Con 11, Int 12, Wis 13, Cha 2
Base Atk +1; CMB -1 (+7 grapple); CMD 6 (14 vs. grapple, can't be tripped)
Feats Weapon Finesse
Skills Climb +2, Knowledge (arcana) +6, Perception +6, Stealth +13, Swim +10
Languages Aklo (can't speak); telepathy 10 ft.
SQ amphibious, compression
Ecology
Environment any water
Organization solitary, pair, or infestation (3-12)
Treasure none
Special Abilities
Host Buffer (Ex) A wizard's shackle that has dominated a host uses the host's saving throws if they are better than the wizard's shackle's saving throws.
Puppet Master (Su) If a wizard's shackle attaches to a creature that can cast spells or use spell-like abilities, the target creature must succeed at a DC 14 Will save or become dominated (as per dominate monster). The domination lasts as long as the wizard's shackle remains in contact with the victim. If the target would receive a new save against the effect (as described in the spell), a successful save allows it to avoid taking the action, but doesn't end the domination. The save DC is Intelligence-based and includes a +2 racial bonus.
Tenacious Grip (Ex) A wizard's shackle gains a +8 bonus on combat maneuver checks to grapple and to CMD against grapple combat maneuvers.
Wizard's shackles are intelligent, eel-like parasites with tough bodies covered in pulsating veins. A wizard's shackle not attached to a host is quite cowardly and typically flees if it can. However, if the wizard's shackle becomes aware of a creature capable of casting spells or using spell-like abilities, it becomes extraordinarily aggressive. Once it establishes physical contact with such a creature, a wizard's shackle attempts to dominate its host. Wizard's shackles can't control non-spellcasters, and never attempt to.
Though wizard's shackles are intelligent, they don't have a society of their own and, without a host, they perform simple acts like eating, mating, and sleeping in the fashion of mindless vermin. However, once it dominates a spellcasting host, a wizard's shackle reveals its full potential. Driven by strange yearnings and enigmatic impulses, a wizard's shackle leads its host to perform various tasks that don't make sense from an outside perspective. Most of these tasks are weird but benign, such as using magic to steal a merchant's silverware or fix the roof of a peasant's house. Rarely, a wizard's shackle will force its host to commit murder or other brutal acts intended to fulfill some unknown purpose, though most victims of such actions tend to be wicked or corrupt in their own rights. Regardless, wizard's shackles attached to hosts have an alien but almost childlike curiosity when it comes to humanoid society, and only the prospect of discovering more can distract them from their enigmatic tasks.
Wizard's shackles latched onto hosts will sometimes form a social group, like a mage's guild composed solely of dominated spellcasters. These collectives tend to work toward goals just as incomprehensible, if not more so, than an individual wizard's shackle. Such goals might include spending a week dedicated to cleaning all the city's fountains until they shine or building an obelisk made of hollow copper.
A typical wizard's shackle measures a mere foot in length and weighs about 2 pounds.
Archwizard's Shackle
Rarely, a wizard's shackle that learns enough about the world manages to establish a personality that it maintains even without a host. Archwizard's shackles are often less disruptive and dangerous than their lesser kindred, as they understand that they are enslaving another being's mind. Many learn to work together with a host instead of taking full control, but evil archwizard's shackles are a much more significant threat. Archwizard's shackles advance by class levels.
