Ib Shade

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The curious ears and flabby lips of this sickly green humanshaped ghostly creature frame its froglike face, yet only empty sockets stare from where its eyes should be.

Ib Shade CR 4

XP 1,200
CE Medium undead (incorporeal)
Init +7; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +9

DEFENSE

AC 17, touch 17, flat-footed 14 (+4 deflection, +3 Dex)
hp 42 (5d8+20)
Fort +5, Ref +4, Will +7
Defensive Abilities incorporeal; Immune cold, undead traits

OFFENSE

Speed fly 30 ft. (good)
Melee 2 wracking touches +6 touch (2d6 plus doom)
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 4th; concentration +8)

At willdoom (DC 15)

STATISTICS

Str —, Dex 16, Con —, Int 11, Wis 13, Cha 19
Base Atk +3; CMB +6; CMD 20
Feats Combat Reflexes, Improved Initiative, Iron Will
Skills Fly +15, Perception +9, Sense Motive +9, Stealth +15; Racial Modifiers +4 Stealth
Languages Ib
SQ ghost touch, voiceless

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Doom (Su)

A creature that takes any damage from an Ib shade’s wracking touch becomes doomed unless it succeeds at a DC 16 Will save. A doomed creature gains the shaken condition. An already shaken creature that takes damage from an Ib shade must succeed at a DC 16 Will save to avoid becoming damned instead. A damned creature becomes so haunted by the certainty of its own imminent destruction that it is dazed for 1 round and then staggered for 1d6 rounds thereafter. This is a mind-affecting curse effect. The save DC is Charisma-based.

Ghost Touch (Ex)

An Ib shade’s webbed hands can manipulate solid objects (but not creatures) as if the objects had the ghost touch special ability. This allows Ib shades to wield weapons if they desire (although most eschew weaponry in favor of their more dangerous wracking touches) and to work together to carry large objects. An Ib shade uses its Charisma score instead of its Strength score for determining how much weight it can carry, lift, or drag.

Voiceless (Ex)

An Ib shade has no voice and cannot speak or take any verbal action as a result. An Ib shade that gains a level in a spellcasting class automatically replaces any verbal components required by its spells with thought components.

Wracking Touch (Su)

An Ib shade’s incorporeal touch causes painful wounds that manifest as wracking burns, deep bruises, or, in the case of attacks made against objects or constructs, crumbling fissures. This damage is treated as bludgeoning, slashing, and piercing, but it also counts as magical for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction. Against foes who are dazed or shaken by an Ib shade’s doom ability (see above), successful melee attacks are treated as confirmed critical hits. An Ib shade’s wracking touch is a primary touch attack.

ECOLOGY

Environment temperate swamp
Organization solitary, pair, or haunting (3–12)
Treasure incidental

Untold eons ago, a strange race of amphibian humanoids (rumored to have descended from the depths of space) built a city of gray stone—naming it Ib—on the shores of a deep lake to and from which no river or stream flowed. These beings dwelt in Ib for ages, worshiping their deity and performing their own curious rites and rituals until they were slaughtered by humans who were disturbed by the creatures’ strange appearances and frightening deity. One thousand years later, the ghosts of this slaughtered race rose from the waters of that lake and descended upon a human city, bringing with them a terrible doom that brought death to all and wiped the mighty metropolis from existence, leaving only a swampy shoreline in its wake with the rising of the next sun.

An Ib shade is a nauseating green color. Its hands and feet are webbed and its body limber and lithe, with a sunken belly. The shade’s face is froglike, with wide, flabby lips, but it has no eyes in its overly large eye sockets. Its ears are long and taper to two distinct points that protrude backward from the skull at an angle, with a third point descending downward to the shoulder in place of an earlobe.

Ib shades are much more violent and dangerous than their living counterparts; while alive, they were mild, aquatic fisherfolk, but as undead they threaten all with vengeful wrath. These creatures have been known to rise up from nearby bodies of water to assault settlements and cities whose denizens have brought harm to the worshipers of the Water Lizard, and in the worst cases, have caught their god’s attention, leading to that site’s ultimate destruction. Beyond this, Ib shades are content to remain hidden in the shallow waters of the bogs and lakes in which they once dwelt, coexisting in relative peace with animals but taking great and violent offense against intelligent intruders into their domains.

Habitat and Society

If the Ib shades had a name for their race back in the days they lived, such a word has long been lost to the gulfs of time. Today, when scholars speak of these creatures, they refer to them as the “beings of Ib.” In life, they were amphibious creatures with weak frames and slimy, fragile skin. They were not warlike, but rather were content to spend their lives in worship of their god, hunting and fishing for small game, and pursuing idle entertainments. Curiously, they never built their cities underwater, preferring to raise their squat, functional buildings on swampy lakeshores where the ground was firm enough to support stone edifices.

The beings of Ib were relatively peaceful in life and never presented much in the way of ambition or drive to be anything more than simple lake dwellers. The singular exception concerned their worship of the Water Lizard. The beings of Ib were fanatical devotees of the Great Old One, and the construction of intimidating but masterfully carved statues of the deity from strange, sea-green stone was always the first task these amphibious creatures undertook after settling on a lakeshore.

Beings of Ib

Living examples of this time-forgotten race may yet exist on distant worlds, or they could be resurrected by curious spellcasters. A living being of Ib is not a very dangerous creature, but those who gain levels in spellcasting classes can become quite formidable; they overwhelmingly prefer divine spellcasting classes and typically venerate their god.

Living beings of Ib are defined by their class levels—they do not have racial Hit Dice. All living beings of Ib have the following racial traits. They are Medium-sized aberrations. A being of Ib is a 14-point race.

  • Ability Scores: Beings of Ib are frail and weak, yet profoundly faithful and devoted. They suffer –4 to Strength and –2 to Constitution but gain +4 to Wisdom
  • Type: A being of Ib is aquatic. It can move in water without attempting Swim checks and can breathe underwater. It always treats Swim as a class skill.
  • Senses A being of Ib has darkvision to 60 feet and low-light vision.
  • Special Qualities A being of Ib is amphibious and so is able to survive indefinitely on land.
  • Speed: A being of Ib has a land speed of 20 feet and a swim speed of 30 feet.
  • Amorphous: Although a being of Ib’s body is solid and it cannot adjust its shape, its slimy skin and internal structures (skeleton and organs alike) are strangely composed of the same alien matter. This lack of any real single weak point means that the being of Ib is immune to precision damage (such as sneak attacks) and critical hits.
  • Voiceless: An Ib shade has no voice and cannot speak or take any verbal action as a result. An Ib shade that gains a level in a spellcasting class automatically replaces any verbal components required by its spells with thought components.
  • Languages: A being of Ib cannot speak, but is entirely capable of learning and understanding languages. The creatures’ language, Ib, is a combination of hand gestures and facial expressions.
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