Dybbuk (CR 8)

Medium Outsider (Chaotic, Evil, Extraplanar, Incorporeal, and Loumara)
Alignment: Always chaotic evil
Initiative: +5 (Dex); Senses: darkvision 60 ft., Listen +15, and Spot +15
Languages: Abyssal, Common, telepathy 100 ft.

AC: 21 (+5 Dex, +6 deflection), touch 21, flat-footed 16
Hit Dice: 10d8 (45 hp); DR: 10/good
Fort +12, Ref +12, Will +9
Speed: Fly 40 ft. (perfect)
Space: 5 ft./5 ft.
Base Attack +10; Grapple -
Attack: 2 tendrils +15 melee (touch)
Full Attack: 2 tendrils +15 melee (touch)
Damage: 1d6 Con
Special Attacks/Actions: Corpse possession, death touch, dybbuks gift, withering touch
Abilities: Str -, Dex 20, Con 20, Int 16, Wis 15, Cha 23
Special Qualities: immune to acid, electricity, fire, incorporeal traits, resist cold 10, SR 19
Feats: Ability Focus (death touch); Combat Reflexes; Dodge; Mobility
Skills: Bluff +19, Concentration +18, Diplomacy +23, Disguise +19 (+21 acting), Forgery +16, Hide +13, Intimidate +8, Knowledge (local) +16, Listen +15, Search +16, Sense Motive +15, Spot +15, and Tumble +18
Advancement: 11-20 HD (Medium)
Climate/Terrain: Any land and underground
Organization: Solitary
Treasure/Possessions: See text

Source: Fiendish Codex I

Corpse Possession (Su): A dybbuk that enters a square occupied by a corpse can, as a standard action, possess the body. It can only possess bodies of creatures of the following types: animal, humanoid, magical beast, monstrous humanoid, and vermin. The body cannot be headless or destroyed beyond recognition, and a dybbuk cannot possess a corpse in the area of a magic circle against chaos, magic circle against evil, or a similar effect.

A dybbuk-possessed body rises to its feet on the dybbuk's next action. The fiendish essence of the dybbuk restores the host body to its full hit points; old wounds simply vanish, and any conditions that might have once affected the host are removed. A dybbuk can inhabit such a body indefinitely, and the body doesn't age while possessed. If the possessed body is reduced to -10 hit points, the dybbuk is forced out of the body and into an adjacent square (or the nearest available space). Unless the body is beheaded or completely destroyed, the dybbuk can attempt to possess it again on its next turn.

A dybbuk-possessed body gains the benefits of its natural armor and any armor it wears, but not the dybbuk's deflection bonus to AC. The dybbuk adopts the statistics of the creature it is possessing but gains none of its extraordinary, supernatural, or spell-like abilities, nor can it use any of the possessed creature's Intelligence-, Wisdom-, or Charisma-based skills.

A dismissal, dispel chaos, or dispel evil spell cast on the possessed body immediately drives the dybbuk from the body into an adjacent square (or the nearest available space) and dazes the dybbuk for 1 round (no save). Without the dybbuk to inhabit it, the dead body collapses to the ground, lifeless.

Death Touch (Su): Once per day, a dybbuk can use a standard action to focus its unworldly energies and make a death touch attack against a creature. The dybbuk makes a melee touch attack; if the attack hits, roll 10d6. If the resulting number equals or exceeds the current hit points of the creature touched, that creature must succeed on a DC 23 Fortitude save or die. If the creature survives, it still takes 1d6 points of Constitution damage, and the dybbuk heals 5 points of damage (as if it had used its withering touch). A dybbuk can use its death touch even while possessing a body. This is a death effect. The save DC is Charisma-based and includes the +2 bonus from the dybbuk's Ability Focus feat.

Dybbuk's Gift (Su): Once per day as a standard action, a dybbuk in its natural form can impart a gift to a mortal creature by touch. A form of rage grips the creature as it gains a +2 profane bonus on attack rolls and weapon damage rolls. The effect lasts for 24 hours or until the target creature is affected by a dispel chaos spell. Until this point, the affected creature radiates chaos as if his alignment were chaotic. Furthermore, the affected creatures natural attacks and weapon attacks are treated as chaotic-aligned for the purpose of bypassing damage reduction. As long as the gift persists, the gifted character's eyes glow white.

The gift also creates an unwholesome bond between the character and the dybbuk. As long as the gift persists, the dybbuk can monitor the character's condition and location as if it had placed a status spell on that character. If the character dies, the dybbuk can attempt to possess his body as a standard action, despite any physical distance between the two (as long as the body and the dybbuk are on the same plane).

Accepting a dybbuk's gift is a chaotic act and could have repercussions on the recipient's alignment. A creature can attempt to resist gaining a dybbuk's gift with a DC 21 Will save. The save DC is Charisma-based.

Withering Touch (Su): A dybbuk's touch attack deals 1d6 points of Constitution damage as flesh and bone wither and die. Each time a dybbuk successfully damages a creature, it heals 5 points of damage to itself. A dybbuk cannot use this ability while possessing a body.

Skills: A dybbuk gains a +8 racial bonus on Hide checks.

Spell-Like Abilities (CL 10th): At will - dimension door, obscuring mist 3/day - fear (DC 20), phantasmal killer (DC 20), mind fog (DC 21)

Chaotic Subtype

A subtype usually applied only to outsiders native to the chaotic-aligned Outer Planes. Most creatures that have this subtype also have chaotic 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 chaotic alignment, no matter what its alignment actually is. The creature also suffers effects according to its actual alignment. A creature with the chaotic subtype overcomes damage reduction as if its natural weapons and any weapons it wields were chaotic-aligned (see Damage Reduction).

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.

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.

Loumara Subtype

The loumaras represent an emergent demonic subtype and are fairly recent additions to the Abyss. Even so, they have plagued the Material Plane for ages. These demons rise from the fragmenting dreams of dead gods found in the Dreaming Gulf (layer 230), spreading out into the surrounding Abyss like a stain or slipping into the Material Plane through tiny tears in reality. Their indistinct nature and lack of physical forms has resulted in obscurity on the Material Plane, yet their taint in the mortal realm is far greater than most would imagine. Only two kinds of loumaras have, thus far, manifested with any regularity: the corpse-haunting dybbuks and the murderous guecubus.

Traits: A loumara has the following traits (unless otherwise noted in a creature's entry).