LA Assignment Thread X: New Year, New Management, Same Old Unplayable Monsters

[Debatra]

Atropal Scion

So what happens when a "stillborn godling" gets raised as an undead? Well this is what happens to the remnants of those abominations if any pieces survive.

Size & Type: Medium Undead
HD: 9
Speed: 30' fly (not specified... average I guess?)
Ability Scores: Str +2, Dex +4, Con -, Int +6, Wis +12, Cha +10 - Net +34, no penalties
Natural Armor: 8
Natural Weapons: One Primary slam (1d8)
Skill List: K: Arcana, K: Religion, Listen, Move Silently, Spot
Body Shape: ...The flavor text says "wet, wrinkled and bloated humanoid body", but look at that image. At the very least, it appears to have hand-like appendages that could be used for spellcasting.
Speech (Languages): Yes (Common, Abyssal, Infernal, Celestial)
CR: 11
WotC LA: -
Our LA: +1* (uncapped Spawn ability)

DR 10/adamantine, Fast Healing 8, and Unholy Grace give it some decent durability. 60' Darkvision is always handy. It can also Rebuke/Command Undead as a Cleric of its HD. (Though the table says it can only do so five times per day instead of eight, which would be the normal for 3+ChaMod. The Errata is silent on this.) It also has a Cha-based save-or-die for a gaze attack with a 60' range. (And not one of those "target only" gazes that we've been seeing lately; the normal "if you look at it" kind.) Humanoids that die from it become wights 24 hours later. Wights that are not specifically under the Atropal Scion's control.

This thing is meant for necromancy, and its SLAs mostly focus on that. All are 3/day at CL9: Animate Dead, Create Undead, Cone of Cold, Desecrate, Dispel Magic, Invisibility, Plane Shift, Speak With Dead, Teleport. Save DCs are Int-based.

And now for the mixed bag. Don't you love party-unfriendly passives that you can't turn off? It has a Negative Energy Aura out to a frankly nuts 60' radius. Undead (including itself) in the aura get Turn Resistance +4 and Fast Healing 5. Nice for friendly/controlled undead, but there isn't a listed exception for its own Rebuke ability. Living creatures in the aura get two negative levels, so I hope the rest of the party is protected from those. Fortunately, the aura is also blocked by Protection From Evil, so that's a little easier. At the Scion's option, any creature (not just humanoids this time) that dies from these negative levels rise as a Wight that is under its control a minute later.

Great for an undead party, much less so if anyone is alive. Though permanent Protection From Evil is already handy when available because of the protection from compulsions; custom magic items like that are technically RAW, but we also all know they can be a sticking point at some tables. Needing to be constantly protected from Death on the other hand... At least gaze attacks can be turned off when not otherwise specified.