---
title: "Barghest"
obsidianUIMode: preview
noteType: pf2eMonster
cssClasses: pf2e
aliases: "Actor.yYwJJvOFiPXywx5O" 
tags:
  - pf2e/creature/type/chaotic
  - pf2e/creature/type/evil
  - pf2e/creature/type/fiend
  - pf2e/creature/type/unholy
  - pf2eMonster
  - pf2e/creature/level/4
statblock: inline
name: "Barghest"
level: 4
license: OGL
---

```statblock
columns: 2
forcecolumns: true
layout: Basic Pathfinder 2e Layout
source: "Pathfinder Bestiary"
name: "Barghest"
level: "Creature 4"

alignment: ""
size: "Medium"
trait_01: [[chaotic]]
trait_02: [[evil]]
trait_03: [[fiend]]
trait_04: [[unholy]]
modifier: 12
perception:
  - name: "Perception"
    desc: "+12; Darkvision, Scent (Imprecise) 30 Feet"
languages: "Chthonian, Common, Goblin"
skills:
  - name: "Skills"
    desc: "Acrobatics: +10, Deception: +12, Diplomacy: +9, Intimidation: +11, Stealth: +10, Survival: +8"
abilityMods: [5, 2, 3, 2, 2, 3]
speed: 25 feet
sourcebook: "_Pathfinder Bestiary_"
ac: 21
armorclass:
  - name: AC
    desc: "21; __Fort__ +11, __Ref__ +12, __Will__ +8"
hp: 50
health:
  - name: ""
  - name: HP
    desc: "50; __Resistances__ fire 5, physical 5 (except magical)"
abilities_top:
  - name: ""

abilities_mid:
  - name: ""
  - name: "[[Bestiary Ability Glossary/Attack of Opportunity|Attack of Opportunity]]"
    desc: "`pf2:r`  **Trigger** A creature within the monster's reach uses a manipulate action or a move action, makes a ranged attack, or leaves a square during a move action it's using.\n* * *\n\n**Effect** The monster attempts a melee Strike against the triggering creature. If the attack is a critical hit and the trigger was a manipulate action, the monster disrupts that action. This Strike doesn't count toward the monster's multiple attack penalty, and its multiple attack penalty doesn't apply to this Strike."

attacks:
  - name: ""

  - name: "**Melee** `pf2:1` Jaws"
    desc: "+13 (unholy)\n__Damage__  2d8 + 5 piercing"

  - name: "**Melee** `pf2:1` Claw"
    desc: "+13 (agile, unholy)\n__Damage__  2d6 + 5 slashing"

  - name: "Divine Innate Spells"
    desc: "DC 21, attack +13; __4th __  _[[Spells/Flicker|Blink (At Will)]]_, _[[Spells/Confusion|Confusion]]_, _[[Spells/Translocate|Dimension Door (Self Only)]]_; __3rd __  _[[Spells/Levitate|Levitate (At Will)]]_; __1st __  _[[Spells/Charm|Charm]]_"

  - name: "[[Bestiary Ability Glossary/Change Shape|Change Shape]]"
    desc: "`pf2:1` (concentrate,divine,polymorph) The barghest takes on the shape of a goblinoid (a goblin, hobgoblin, or bugbear) or a wolf, or it transforms back into its true form. When the barghest is a goblinoid, it loses its jaws and claw Strikes, it becomes Small if it is a goblin, and its Speed changes to 20 feet. When the barghest is a wolf, its Speed changes to 40 feet and its jaws gain [[Bestiary Ability Glossary/Knockdown|Knockdown]]. Each individual barghest has only one goblinoid form and one wolf form.\n\n[[Bestiary Effects/Effect_ Wolf Shape|Effect: Wolf Shape]]\n* * *\n\nThe 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 [[Actions/Impersonate|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."

  - name: "Feed"
    desc: "  Once per month, a barghest can spend 1 minute to devour a corpse, gaining a permanent +1 status bonus to its checks and DCs. Each subsequent time it feeds, this bonus increases by 1. The fourth time a barghest feeds, it sheds its skin and mutates into a [[Bestiary 1/Greater Barghest|Greater Barghest]], and the status bonus ends.\n\n[[Bestiary Effects/Effect_ Feed|Effect: Feed]]"
 
```

```encounter-table
name: Barghest
creatures:
  - 1: Barghest
```



Typical barghests are ravenous gluttons of life who feed and grow on the fat of mortals, their bodies changing in ways none can predict as they use the flesh and blood of their victims to achieve grisly transformations into greater barghests. Barghests often make use of their shapechanging abilities to rule tribes of goblinoids or to discreetly hunt in rural areas in the guise of unnaturally intelligent wolves. They do not work well together, as each barghest wants all the kills for itself; cannibalism is the typical result of too many barghests in one small area.

* * *

Barghests are lupine fiends with goblinoid faces and humanoid hands. They stalk the Material Plane in search of souls to sate their demonic hunger. Eons ago, barghests dwelled in the pits of Hell and served Asmodeus, but after Lamashtu abducted and adopted the four most powerful of their kind to serve as pets (and in time, as a pantheon of hero-gods worshipped by evil goblins), barghests' loyalties and philosophical nature changed significantly. Today, while barghests retain their connection to goblinoids, they serve none but their own appetites.
