Crypt Chanter (CR 7)
Medium Undead (Incorporeal)
Alignment: Always chaotic evil
Initiative: +8 (+4 Dex, +4 Improved Initiative); Senses: darkvision 60 ft., Listen +14, and Spot +14
AC: 19 (+4 Dex, +5 deflection), touch 19, flat-footed 15
Hit Dice: 7d12 (45 hp)
Fort +2, Ref +6, Will +7
Speed: 30 ft., fly 30 ft. (perfect)
Space: 5 ft./5 ft.
Base Attack +3; Grapple -
Attack: Incorporeal touch +6 melee
Full Attack: Incorporeal touch +6 melee
Damage: Incorporeal touch 1d8
Special Attacks/Actions: Draining melody, create spawn
Abilities: Str -, Dex 18, Con -, Int 14, Wis 14, Cha 20
Special Qualities: daylight powerlessness, incorporeal traits, undead traits, +2 turn resistance
Feats: Alertness; Blind-fight; Improved Initiative
Skills: Hide +14, Intimidate +13, Listen +14, Perform (sing) +14, Search +12, and Spot +14
Advancement: 8-17 HD (Medium)
Climate/Terrain: Any land and underground
Organization: Solitary, chorale (2-4), or choir (6-11)
Treasure/Possessions: None
Source:
Libris Mortis
Create Spawn (Su): Any humanoid slain by a crypt chanter through its draining melody (see below) becomes a crypt chanter 1d4 rounds later. Spawn are under the command of the crypt chanter that created them and remain enslaved until its destruction. They do not possess any of the abilities they had in life.
Draining Melody (Su): A crypt chanter constantly sings, creating a magically charged allure. All creatures within 60 feet of a crypt chanter must make a DC 18 Will save or stand dazed as long as the music continues. This is a sonic, mind-affecting, compulsion effect. Beginning on the round after becoming dazed, creatures that failed the first saving throw must make a second saving throw (same DC) to avoid being affected as if by the enthrall spell. Enthralled victims also begin to gain 1d2 negative levels per round while song continues, as long as they remain within range. If a creature gains a number of negative levels at least equal to its Hit Dice, it dies and becomes a spawn.
When a crypt chanter bestows negative levels on a victim, it gains 5 temporary hit points for each negative level bestowed. These temporary hit points last for up to 1 hour.
Creatures that successfully save upon hearing a crypt chanter's music cannot be affected by that crypt chanter's music again unless the chanter ceases singing for 1 full round (releasing all those it previously held in thrall) and begins a new song. The save DC is Charisma-based.
Daylight Powerlessness (Ex): A crypt chanter is utterly powerless in natural sunlight (not merely a daylight spell) and flees from it.
A crypt chanter's strength and shield is its music. A crypt chanter seeks to snare its victims with its music, and then drain them of life with the same melody. If threatened, a crypt chanter retreats into a nearby wall or other handy physical barrier.
A crypt chanter's voice is the perfect horror, at once compelling and dreadful. These undead creatures sometimes appear to be playing spectral viols, flutes, drums, or any other instruments they choose, varying from chanter to chanter.
As incorporeal creatures, crypt chanters are weightless.
A crypt chanter never speaks directly, though it may give instructions or provide answers within the lyrics of its music (usually in Common, sometimes Abyssal).
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.