Umbral creatures

Senses darkvision, superior low-light vision

Defense

hp regeneration

Immune cold, fear

Defenses evasion, quasi-reality, shadow blend

Vulnerable light powerlessness

Offense

Special Attacks flesh-ripping strike, nightmare form

Spell-like Abilities

• At will—darkness.
• 1/day—plane shift.

Ecology

Environment Plane of Shadow

Special Abilities

Flesh-Ripping Strike (Su)

When an umbral creature’s attacks touch flesh, they become fully real, allowing the creature to bite, claw, rake, etc., and even to grapple with opponents, but still ignore their armor (including force effects such as mage armor). An umbral creature’s natural attacks are thus made as touch attacks. Unliving creatures (such as constructs) are immune to an umbral creature’s attacks. Fully real foes attempting to grapple an umbral creature can only attempt to escape; they can’t deal damage or pin in a grapple.

Nightmare Form (Su)

An umbral creature’s very presence is deeply unsettling to most creatures, who often perceive the umbral creature as a monster from their own nightmares. The ability takes effect automatically whenever the umbral creature attacks, charges, or takes another sort of threatening action. Creatures within a radius of 10 feet × the umbral creature’s Hit Dice are subject to the effect. A potentially affected creature that succeeds on a Will save (DC 10 + 1⁄2 umbral creature’s HD + umbral creature’s Cha modifier) remains immune to that umbral creature’s nightmare form for 24 hours. On a failure, creatures with less than half of the umbral creature’s HD become panicked for 4d6 rounds and those with at least half of the umbral creature’s HD become shaken for 4d6 rounds. This is a fear effect.

(See the umbral creature’s quasi-reality ability for additional information.)

Light Powerlessness (Ex)

An umbral creature is drained in bright light and flees from it. Within such light, it takes a −4 penalty to AC, attack rolls, damage rolls, saves, special ability save DCs, and skill and ability checks.

Darkness (Sp)

An umbral creature can create darkness at will. Unlike the spell, this ability cannot extinguish magical light sources, and only causes nonmagical light sources in its area of effect to be halved in brightness (reducing their radius of illumination by 50%). The darkness does reduce the ambient illumination by one step, however, as normal.

Evasion (Ex)

As the rogue class ability.

Plane Shift (Sp)

Once per day, an umbral creature can plane shift to the Plane of Shadow. It cannot take other creatures with it.

Quasi-Reality (Su)

An umbral creature is quasi-real (similarly to matter created by a shadow conjuration spell). Treat this as incorporeality, except that ghost touch weapons and armor do not avail against it, and force effects and channeled energy only do one-half damage to the creature. Magical light and fire attacks have their full effect against an umbral creature, and even mundane fire deals one-half damage.

Against opponents who succeed on their saving throws against an umbral creature’s nightmare form ability by 10 points or more (or are immune to it), the creature is considered to have only one-half of its normal hit point total.

An umbral creature melts into nothing when it is reduced to 0 hit points, leaving behind no corpse, nor any trace of its existence.

Regeneration (Su)

An umbral creature has regeneration equal to 1 + 1 per 4 Hit Dice. Fire or light attacks that deal damage stop this regeneration from functioning for one round, as does exposure to direct sunlight (not merely a daylight spell).

Shadow Blend (Ex)

In any condition of illumination other than full daylight, an umbral creature can disappear into the shadows, giving it total concealment. Artificial illumination, even a light or continual flame spell, does not negate this ability. A daylight spell, however, will.

Skills

Umbral creatures get a +8 racial bonus to Stealth checks in normal or dim light. They also get a +8 bonus to Intimidate checks against living creatures.