A huge eye opens in this conical creature's front, just above a toothy mouth. Long strands of fibrous material whip from its sides.

The roper is an ambush hunter. Capable of altering the coloration and shape of its body, a roper in hiding looks remarkably like a stalagmite of stone or ice (or in low-ceilinged chambers, a stony or icy pillar). In areas without such features to hide among, a roper can compress its body into a much more squat, boulder-like shape. The strands it extrudes are not flesh but a thick, semiliquid material similar to partially melted wax but with the strength of an iron chain and the ability to numb flesh and sap strength. The roper can manipulate these strands with great finesse, and can fling them as far as 50 feet to snatch objects that attract its attention.

Although alien and monstrous in shape, the roper is in fact one of the most intelligent denizens of the deep caverns of the world. They do not form large societies (although ropers can be found living among some deep-dwelling denizens like the intellect devourers or neothelids, with whom they have been known to sometimes ally), but often congregate in small clusters. Particularly interested in the philosophy of life and death and the finer points of the more cruel and sinister religions of the world, a roper can talk or argue for hours with those it initially sought merely to eat. Stories speak of particularly skilled debaters and philosophers who have been kept for days or even years as pets or conversational companions by roper clusters, but in the end, if such pets don't eventually escape, a roper's appetite always wins out over its intellectual curiosity—especially in cases where pets are constantly outmaneuvering their keeper's wits and patience.

A roper is 9 feet tall and weighs 2,200 pounds.

Special Abilities

Strands (Ex) A roper can extend up to six thin, sticky strands from its body at a time, launching them to a maximum range of 50 feet. A roper's attacks with its strands resolve as ranged touch attacks. These strands are quite strong, but can be severed by any amount of slashing damage (a strand is AC 20). A creature struck by a strand is numbed and weakened by the strange material, and must make a DC 25 Fortitude save or take 1d6 points of Strength Damage . The save DC is Constitution-based.