Lich Shade

This creature appears as a rotting and skeletal humanoid dressed in tattered and worn robes with ancient runes etched on their surface. Its eyes blaze with a crimson fire.

Lich Shade CR 9

XP 6,400
NE Medium undead
Init +8; Senses darkvision 60 ft., spell sense 100 ft.; Perception +17

hp 104 (11d8+55)
Fort +10, Ref +9, Will +12
Defensive Abilities channel resistance +2; DR 10/ bludgeoning and magic; Immune undead traits; Resist cold 10, electricity 10; SR 20

Melee 2 claws +15 (1d6+7 plus 1d6 cold)
Special Attacks chill, death throes, spell leech

Base Atk +8; CMB +15; CMD 30
Feats Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Great Fortitude, Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes
Skills Intimidate +19, Knowledge (arcana) +18, Knowledge (religion) +18, Perception +17, Sense Motive +19, Spellcraft +18, Stealth +20, Use Magic Device +16; Racial Modifiers +2 Sense Motive, +2 Stealth
Languages Common, Infernal, plus any four

• Cast: A lich shade can cast the spell on his turn at caster level 11th. When casting spells in this manner, he ignores the spell’s material component requirements, but not its focus requirements.
• Eldritch Bolt: A lich shade can release the spell as an eldritch bolt of pure magic energy as a standard action (range 50 ft., ranged touch +12, 1d6 damage per 2 levels of the spell used to create it).
• Healing: A lich shade can absorb the spell’s energy to heal hit points equal to the spell’s level × 4. Hit points in excess of his maximum are instead gained as temporary hit points. These temporary hit points last for 1 hour before fading.

Environment any
Organization solitary
Treasure double standard

The road a spellcaster travels in his or her quest for lichdom is not without danger. During the dark rituals invoked to achieve lichdom, the caster sometimes errs in his or her calculations or unleashes mystic forces best left untapped. When such an event occurs, the spellcaster is usually destroyed outright. Other times, something is born as a result of this failed ritual – a lich shade.

Lich shades are evil creatures who attempted to achieve lichdom but failed for whatever reason. The creature is not destroyed, nor does it become a lich, it becomes something in between – something in between mortal life and eternal unlife.

A lich shade stands about 6 to 6-1/2 feet tall and weighs about 160 pounds. The robes and gowns it wears often denote its previous life’s profession (wizardly robes or priestly vestments for example).

A lich shade attacks with its powerful claws, rending and tearing at its foes. If facing a spellcaster and it leeches one of its spells, it usually releases the first spell leeched as an eldritch bolt against its closest foe. Further leeched spells are used to heal the lich shade or cast back against its foes. If faced with certain defeat, a lich shade wills its own destruction, invoking its death throes ability, hoping to take several of its opponents with it.

A lich shade’s natural weapons are treated as magic weapons for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.

Lich Shade from the Tome of Horrors Complete, Copyright 2011, Necromancer Games, Inc., published and distributed by Frog God Games; Author Scott Greene.