Negative LA-Assignment : Resurrection, but no diamond here

[Beni-Kujaku]

Chraal

I'm sure nobody here ever wondered how the 'ch' in that creature's name is pronounced. I mean, is there a single word in english where 'ch' in 'chr' isn't pronounced [k], like in "chronicle"? Well, WotC seemingly thought that it still wasn't good enough, and translated this creature's name as "Kraal" in french, despite 'ch' following basically the same rules as in english, and the name not meaning anything by itself.

The chraal is a somewhat humanoid in-between an undead and an elemental, formed when a creature dies on the elemental planes of air and water, but it doesn't have any undead trait, or any elemental subtype of its birth planes (instead, it has the [Cold] subtype), or any swimming or flying speed. Seeing how it's completely inadapted to its home planes, it's no wonder it particularly likes to answer wizards Planar Binding them. However, it's a wonder any wizard has ever considered binding it, considering it has 9 RHD (just above what you can call with a lesser binding, even with Infernal Bargainer), isn't an outsider, and has basically no useful ability. Well, let's reduce that number at least to the point it can be bound by lesser binding, and hopefully even to the point of playability!

- Large Elemental with 9 RHD. That type does not give full BAB, so it's not great. At least it's not undead.
- +10 Str, +10 Con, -2 Int, +4 Cha. No surprise here. Basic beatstick stats.
- +8 natural armor, +4 deflection to AC, DR 5/-. Nice defense, but nothing stellar.
- claw/claw/bite, with +1d6 cold damage. Once again nothing unexpected, just some damage. Its body shape allows it to wield weapons, which conduct the cold.
- A 3/day cold breath weapon (seriously? Why not at-will?) and a 20 damage death throes (would basically only make you harder to resurrect, if the fact that you're an elemental didn't mean you already need a true resurrection).

This is painfully standard. The numbers are better than a Large Earth elemental and it can wield weapons, but I would probably choose a Huge one over it. A pretty strong 6 RHD, and DLA-2, since none of its abilities scale and it only gains +2 BAB out of these three additional HD.

Yeah, you're probably still not binding this one, even with lower RHD. Next time, we'll have the only elemental swarm of the game that isn't just a swarm of elementite, the Cinder Swarm! See ya!