Deathshrieker (CR 15)

Medium Undead (Incorporeal)
Alignment: Always chaotic evil
Initiative: +11 (+7 Dex, +4 Improved Initiative); Senses: darkvision 60 ft., Listen +17, and Spot +17
Languages: Common

AC: 28 (+7 Dex, +5 deflection +6 profane), touch 28, flat-footed 21
Hit Dice: 18d12 plus 18 (135 hp)
Fort +8, Ref +13, Will +15
Speed: Fly 40 ft. (good)
Space: 5 ft./5 ft.
Base Attack +9; Grapple -
Attack: Incorporeal touch +16 melee
Full Attack: Incorporeal touch +16/+11 melee
Damage: Incorporeal touch 1d8 Cha drain
Special Attacks/Actions: Death rattle, despair, scream of the dying
Abilities: Str -, Dex 25, Con -, Int 8, Wis 14, Cha 20
Special Qualities: +4 turn resistance, deaths grace, incorporeal traits, silence vulnerability, undead traits
Feats: Ability Focus (scream of the dying); Alertness; Combat Reflexes; Great Fortitude; Improved Initiative; Improved Toughness; Iron Will
Skills: Hide +17, Intimidate +19, Listen +17, Search +12, and Spot +17
Advancement: 19-30 HD (Medium)
Climate/Terrain: Any
Organization: Solitary
Treasure/Possessions: Standard

Source: Monster Manual III

Charisma Drain (Su): An individual struck by a deathshrieker must make a DC 24 Fortitude save or permanently lose 1d4 points of Charisma (2d4 points on a critical hit). The deathshrieker heals 5 points of damage (10 on a critical hit) whenever it drains Charisma, gaining any excess as temporary hit points. The save DC is Charisma-based.

Death Rattle (Su): When a deathshrieker is reduced to 0 hit points, it releases a final, devastating shriek. All living creatures within a 300-foot spread must succeed on a DC 24 Will save or gain 1d4 negative levels. Creatures that cannot hear or are under the effect of a silence spell gain a +4 bonus on the save to resist this effect. The save DC is Charisma-based.

Despair (Su): At the mere sight of a deathshrieker, the viewer must succeed on a DC 24 Will save or be paralyzed with fear for 1d4 rounds. Whether or not the save is successful, that creature cannot be affected again by the same deathshrieker's despair ability for 24 hours. The save DC is Charisma-based.

Scream of the Dying (Su): Once per day, as a full-round action, a deathshrieker can release a soul-numbing scream that lasts for up to 3 rounds. After this first round, a deathshrieker use a standard action to sustain the scream. This attack affects all living creatures within a 30-foot centered on the shrieker, or within a 60-foot cone extending from the deathshrieker, at the creature's option. Once the deathshrieker chooses the shape of this effect, it must maintain that effect for all three rounds. In the case of a cone, it can aim in a single direction during its turn. Creatures caught in this area must make a DC 26 Will save or suffer the effects described below. The save DC is Charisma-based. Creatures that cannot hear or are under the effect of a silence spell gain a +4 bonus on their Will saves. The effects are cumulative and concurrent:

This effect is so loud that normal conversation is impossible. Spellcasters who attempt to cast spells with a verbal component must make a DC 26 Concentration check or the spell is negated.

Death's Grace (Ex): A deahtshrieker gains a +1 profane bonus to AC for every 3 Hit Dice it possesses.

Silence Vulnerability (Ex): Deathshriekers cannot abide silence and are harmed by it. To even enter into the radius of a silence spell, a deathshrieker must make a Will save (DC 12 + caster level). Each round that a deathshrieker remains within the area of a silence spell, it takes 1d10 points of damage (Will save for half).

A deathshrieker charges headlong into combat, using its despair ability to root creatures in place before striking with their incorporeal touch. A deathshrieker will wait until it can catch as many creatures as possible in the area of its scream of the dying ability. If it is close to being destroyed, a deathshrieker will stay in the thick of combat, using its death rattle ability to cause a retributive strike against the living.

The deathshrieker is an undead spirit that embodies the horrible cries and shrieks of the dying as they utter their last gasps of life. It roams lonely and forgotten battlefields, charnel houses, or sites of terrible plagues, filling the air with its mournful and soul-sapping screams. It relives the final moments of those who have died from slow, agonizing deaths due to violence, disease, or some other tragedy. Typically, the larger the death and despair of an area, the larger the deathshrieker, although relatively small areas that hosted truly despicable acts of violence can bring one into being as well.

Most deathshriekers haunt a single location, although some wander aimlessly on lonely and desolate roads or other forbidding terrain. They are angry, vengeful spirits that endlessly babble the final words of those who have died. They seek to kill living beings just to hear their final scream. The haunt of a deathshrieker is noted for odd, disturbing noises and the occasional whisper of the dead crying out in pain. These noises can persist for years even if the deathshrieker is destroyed.

A deathshrieker is 5 to 6 feet tall and weightless.

Deathshriekers speak Common and one other language, often the racial language of those who died in the most numbers within the area. They rarely speak with intent but instead replay the last words of a hundred souls that have perished, which blur together in a terrifying din.

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.