Shadow Elemental, Elder (CR 13)

Huge Elemental (Extraplanar and Incorporeal)
Alignment: Usually neutral evil
Initiative: +10 (+6 Dex, +4 Improved Initiative); Senses: blindsight 60 ft., Listen +29, and Spot +29
Languages: unknown


AC: 15 (-2 size, +6 Dex, +1 deflection, touch 14, flat-footed 9
Hit Dice: 24d8+96 (204 hp)
Fort +12, Ref +22, Will +10
Speed: Fly 40 ft. (perfect)
Space: 15 ft./15 ft.
Base Attack +18; Grapple +26
Attack: Incorporeal touch +23 melee
Full Attack: 2 incorporeal touches +23 melee
Damage: Incorporeal touch 2d6 plus 6d6 cold
Special Attacks/Actions: Shadow mastery, dusk and dawn
Abilities: Str -, Dex 22, Con 18, Int 10, Wis 11, Cha 11
Special Qualities: elemental traits, incorporeal traits
Feats: Alertness; Combat Reflexes; Dodge; Flyby Attack; Improved Initiative; Iron Will; Lightning Reflexes; Mobility; Weapon Focus (incorporeal touch)
Skills: Listen +29 and Spot +29
Advancement: 25-48 HD (Huge)
Climate/Terrain: Plane of Shadow
Organization: Solitary
Treasure/Possessions: None

Source: Tome of Magic

Shadow Mastery (Ex): A shadow elemental gains a +1 bonus on attack rolls and damage rolls if both it and its foe are in an area of darkness or shadowy illumination. Within an area of bright light (such as sunlight or that caused daylight spell), shadow elementals take a -4 penalty on attack rolls and damage rolls.

Dusk and Dawn (Su): Three times per day, a shadow elemental can use dusk and dawn, as the mystery. It has a caster level equal to one-half its HD.

When confronting a threat or light-bearing creatures, shadow elementals slash at foes with freezing tendrils of absolute darkness. If possible, they retreat from combat in lighted areas, or blot out light sources with dusk and dawn, to gain the advantages of their shadow mastery power.

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.

Incorporeal Subtype

Some creatures are incorporeal by nature, while others (such as those that become ghosts) can acquire the incorporeal subtype. An incorporeal creature has no physical body. It can be harmed only by other incorporeal creatures, magic weapons or creatures that strike as magic weapons, and spells, spell-like abilities, or supernatural abilities. It has immunity to all nonmagical attack forms. Even when hit by spells, including touch spells or magic weapons, it has a 50% chance to ignore any damage from a corporeal source (except for positive energy, negative energy, force effects such as magic missile, or attacks made with ghost touch weapons). Non-damaging spell attacks affect incorporeal creatures normally unless they require corporeal targets to function (such as the spell implosion) or they create a corporeal effect that incorporeal creatures would normally ignore (such as a web or wall of stone spell). Although it is not a magical attack, a hit with holy water has a 50% chance of affecting an incorporeal undead creature.

An incorporeal creature's natural weapons affect both in incorporeal and corporeal targets, and pass through (ignore) corporeal natural armor, armor, and shields, although deflection bonuses and force effects (such as mage armor) work normally against it. Attacks made by an incorporeal creature with a nonmagical melee weapon have no effect on corporeal targets, and any melee attack an incorporeal creature makes with a magic weapon against a corporeal target has a 50% miss chance except for attacks it makes with a ghost touch weapon, which are made normally (no miss chance).

Any equipment worn or carried by an incorporeal creature is also incorporeal as long as it remains in the creature's possession. An object that the creature relinquishes loses its incorporeal quality (and the creature loses the ability to manipulate the object). If an incorporeal creature uses a thrown weapon or a ranged weapon, the projectile becomes corporeal as soon as it is fired and can affect a corporeal target normally (no miss chance). Magic items possessed by an incorporeal creature work normally with respect to their effects on the creature or another target. Similarly, spells cast by an incorporeal creature affect corporeal creatures normally.

An incorporeal creature has no natural armor bonus but has a deflection bonus equal to its Charisma bonus (always at least +1, even if the creature's Charisma score does not normally provide a bonus).

An incorporeal creature can enter or pass through solid object but must remain adjacent to the object's exterior, and so cannot pass entirely through an object whose space is larger than its own. It can sense the presence of creatures or objects a square adjacent to its current location, but enemies have total concealment from an incorporeal creature that is inside an object. In order to see clearly and attack normally, a incorporeal creature must emerge. An incorporeal creature inside an object has total cover, but when it attacks a creature outside the object it only has cover, so a creature outside with a readied action could strike at it as it attacks. An incorporeal creature cannot pass through a force effect.

Incorporeal creatures pass through and operate in water as easily as they do in air. Incorporeal creatures cannot fall or take falling damage. Incorporeal creature cannot make trip or grapple attacks against corporeal creatures, nor can they be tripped or grappled by such creatures. In fact, they cannot take any physical action that would move or manipulate a corporeal being or its equipment, nor are they subject to such actions. Incorporeal creatures have no weight and do not set off traps that are triggered by weight.

An incorporeal creature moves silently and cannot be heard with Listen checks if it doesn't wish to be. It has no Strength score, so its Dexterity modifier applies to both its melee attacks and its ranged attacks. Non-visual senses, such as scent and blindsight, are either ineffective or only partly effective with regard to incorporeal creatures. Incorporeal creatures have an innate sense of direction and can move at full speed even when they cannot see.