Abomination, Atropal (CR 30)

Large Undead (Evil, Extraplanar, and Lawful)
Alignment: Always lawful evil
Initiative: +6 (+2 Dex, +4 Improved Initiative); Senses: Spot +19 and listen +8


AC: 51 (-1 size, +2 Dex, +40 natural), touch 11, flat-footed 49
Hit Dice: 66d12 (792 hp); DR: DT 15/good and epic and silver
Fort +22, Ref +26, Will +43
Speed: 5 ft., fly 240 ft. (perfect)
Space: 10 ft./10 ft.
Base Attack +; Grapple -
Attack: 2 touches +49 melee touch, eye ray +30 ranged touch
Damage: Touch 2d6 Con drain/19-20, eye ray negative level damage/19-20
Special Attacks/Actions: Constitution drain, energy drain (2d4 negative levels, Fort DC 59), spell-like abilities, summon nightcrawler
Abilities: Str 43, Dex 15, Con -, Int 28, Wis 22, Cha 42
Special Qualities: Abomination traits, undead traits, +6 bonus to rebuke undead checks, regeneration 20, SR 42, negative energy aura.
Feats: Alertness; Cleave; Dodge; Combat Expertise; Great Cleave; Improved Bull Rush; Improved Critical (touch); Improved Critical (eye ray); Improved Initiative; Iron Will; Lightning Reflexes; Mobility; Power Attack; Quicken Spell-Like Ability; Spring Attack; Weapon Focus (touch); Weapon Focus (eye ray); Whirlwind Attack;
Epic Feats: Devastating Critical (touch); Overwhelming Critical (touch); Undead Mastery; Zone of Animation
Skills: Concentration +82, Hide -2, Knowledge (arcana) +75, Spellcraft +80, Spot +19, and listen +8
Advancement: 67-80 HD (large); 81-100 HD (Huge)
Climate/Terrain: Any
Organization: Solitary
Treasure/Possessions: Standard

Source: Epic Level Handbook

Atropals send minion undead and nightcrawlers before them. They are quick to cast greater dispelling on foes, especially those using spells to protect them against negative energy and those who have the death ward spell cast.

Spell-Like Abilities: At will - animate dead, blasphemy, create greater undead, create undead, cone of cold, desecrate, greater dispelling, finger of death, improved invisibility, plane shift, slay living, speak with dead, spectral hand, teleport without error, unholy aura; 5/day - haste, project image, weird. Caster level 30th; save DC 26 + spell level.

Rebuke/Command Undead (Su): Atropals can rebuke or command undead as a cleric of the same level as the atropal's HD.

Negative Energy Aura (Su): A 30-foot-radius spread negative energy aura spreads from each atropal. All undead in the field (including the atropal) are treated as if having turn resistance +20 and a negative energy version of fast healing 20. living creatures in the aura are treated as having ten negative levels unless they have some sort of negative energy protection or protection from evil. Creatures with 10 or fewer HD or levels perish (and, at the atropal's option, rise as spectres under the atropal's command 1 minute later).

Constitution Drain (Su): When the atropal hits a living opponent with a touch attack, the opponent takes 5 points of permanent Constitution drain, or 10 points on a critical hit. The atropal heals 20 points of damage, or 40 points on a critical hit, whenever it drains Constitution, gaining any excess as temporary hit points. The attack allows a Fortitude save (DC 59).

Energy Drain (Su): When the atropal hits with a ranged touch attack (a ray of utter darkness that it shoots from one eye to a range of 400 feet), the resultant energy drain bestows four negative levels, or eight negative levels on a critical hit. For each negative level bestowed on an opponent, the atropal heals 10 points of damage, or 20 on a critical hit, gaining any excess as temporary hit points. After 24 hours have passed, the afflicted opponent must attempt a Fortitude save (DC 59) for each negative level. If successful, the negative level goes away with no harm to the creature; otherwise, the creature's level decreases by one.

Regeneration (Ex): Atropals take normal damage from good weapons or sentient weapons (or other non-living weapons).

Summon Nightcrawler (Sp): Five times per day an atropal can summon a nightcrawler.

Abomination Traits: Immune to polymorphing, petrification, and other form-altering attacks; not subject to energy drain, ability drain, ability damage or death from massive damage; immune to mind-affecting effects; fire resistance 20; cold resistance 20; nondetection; true seeing at will, blindsight 500 ft.; telepathy out to 1,000 ft.

Undead Traits: Immune to poison, sleep, paralysis stunning, disease, death, effects, necromantic effects, mind-affecting effects, and any effect requiring a Fortitude save unless it also works on objects. Not subject to critical hits, subdual damage, ability damage, ability drain, or energy drain. Negative energy heals. Not at risk of death from massive damage, but destroyed at 0 hit points or less. Darkvision 60 ft. Cannot be raised, and resurrection works only if creature is willing.

Atropals are stillborn godlings who spontaneously rise as undead.

A soul-numbing cold comes before and follows after an atropal - the life energy of heroic creatures is suppressed in its foul aura, and the life force of lesser creatures is extinguished. An atropal is black with afterbirth, malformed and unfinished, and obviously undead. Its wet, wrinkled, and bloated humanoid body is surmounted by a hairless, overlarge head. Its eyes are glassy and vacant. It constantly drools stinking ichor as it mouths obscenities. Its arms are too slender and its tiny hands end in cruelly sharpened nails, while its legs are atrophied, dead things that hang useless below it. An atropal never walks, but always floats.

When an atropal rises, the gods cringe, and seek to banish the horrid remnant by sealing it away in a separate cemetery plane or beneath the crypts of dead civilizations. Woe to the adventuring party or wizard-archeologist who untombs an atropal - once released, the atropal kills everything in a wider and wider swath until it is somehow neutralized. The undead nations led by necromancer kings of past ages may have actually been led by atropals.

Evil Subtype

A subtype usually applied only to outsiders native to the evil-aligned Outer Planes. Evil outsiders are also called fiends. Most creatures that have this subtype also have evil alignments; however, if their alignments change, they still retain the subtype. Any effect that depends on alignment affects a creature with this subtype as if the creature has an evil alignment, no matter what its alignment actually is. The creature also suffers effects according to its actual alignment. A creature with the evil subtype overcomes damage reduction as if its natural weapons and any weapons it wields were evil-aligned (see Damage Reduction).

Extraplanar Subtype

A subtype applied to any creature when it is on a plane other than its native plane. A creature that travels the planes can gain or lose this subtype as it goes from plane to plane. This book assumes that encounters with creatures take place on the Material Plane, and every creature whose native plane is not the Material Plane has the extraplanar subtype (but would not have when on its home plane). An extraplanar creatures usually has a home plane mentioned in its description. These home planes are taken from the Great Wheel cosmology of the D&D game (see Chapter 5 of the Dungeon Master's Guide). If your campaign uses a different cosmology, you will need to assign different home planes to extraplanar creatures.

Creatures not labeled as extraplanar are natives of the Material Plane, and they gain the extraplanar subtype if they leave the Material Plane. No creature has the extraplanar subtype when it is on a transitive plane; the transitive planes in the D&D cosmology are the Astral Plane, the Ethereal Plane, and the Plane of Shadow.

Lawful Subtype

A subtype usually applied only to outsiders native to the lawful-aligned Outer Planes. Most creatures that have this subtype also have lawful alignments; however, if their alignments change, they still retain the subtype. Any effect that depends on alignment affects a creature with this subtype as if the creature has a lawful alignment, no matter what its alignment actually is. The creature also suffers effects according to its actual alignment. A creature with the lawful subtype overcomes damage reduction as if its natural weapons and any weapons it wields were lawful-aligned (see Damage Reduction).