Cairn Shadowraith (Undead Stone Giant)
Huge undead, neutral evil
Armor Class 17 (
umbral armor), 13 in sunlight
Hit Points 161 (14d12 + 70)
Speed 60 ft.
STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
|---|
16 (+3) | 17 (+3) | 20 (+5) | 10 (+0) | 15 (+2) | 15 (+2) |
Saving Throws DEX +8, WIS +7, CHA +7
Skills Athletics +13, Perception +7, Stealth +8 (+13 in dim light or darkness)
Damage Vulnerabilities radiant
Damage Resistances acid, cold, fire, lightning, thunder; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks that aren't silvered
Damage Immunities necrotic, poison
Condition Immunities charmed, exhaustion, grappled, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned, prone, restrained, unconscious
Senses darkvision 120 ft., passive Perception 17
Languages Giant
Challenge 13 (10,000 XP)
Proficiency Bonus +5
Shadow Stealth. While in dim light or darkness, the cairn shadowraith can take the Hide action as a bonus action.
Stone Camouflage. The cairn has advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks made to hide in rocky terrain.
Sunlight Vulnerability. While in sunlight, the cairn shadowraith has disadvantage on attack rolls, as well as on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight.
Umbral Armor. If the cairn shadowraith is in dim light or darkness, its AC can't be less than 14 plus its Dexterity modifier, regardless of what kind of armor it is wearing.
Unearthly Movement. The cairn shadowraith ignores difficult terrain formed from nonmagical earth, sand or rock. It moves across mud or quicksand as if it were solid ground and can move through a space as narrow as 1 inch wide without squeezing.
Actions
Multiattack. The cairn shadowwight makes two death fist attacks or two phantom boulder attacks. It can use its
Doom Strike in place of one attack.
Death Fist. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 15 ft., one creature.
Hit: 12 (2d8 + 3) bludgeoning damage plus 18 (4d8) necrotic damage. The target must succeed on a DC 18 Constitution saving throw or its hit point maximum is reduced by an amount equal to the necrotic damage taken. This reduction lasts until the target finishes a long rest. The target dies if this effect reduces its hit point maximum to 0.
Doom Strike. Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 15 ft. or range 60/240, one creature.
Hit: 25 (4d8 + 7) necrotic damage. If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a DC 18 Constitution saving throw or suffer 1 level of exhaustion. If the target fails the saving throw by 5 points or more, it suffers an additional level of exhaustion. This exhaustion remains until it is healed magically: a
lesser restoration can remove one level of exhaustion from a victim with two or fewer levels, a
greater restoration will remove three levels of exhaustion. The target dies if it suffers 6 levels or exhaustion.
Phantom Boulder. Ranged Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, range 60/240 ft., one creature.
Hit: 14 (2d10 + 3) psychic damage plus 14 (4d6) necrotic damage. The target must succeed on a DC 18 Constitution saving throw or its hit point maximum is reduced by an amount equal to the necrotic damage taken. This reduction lasts until the target finishes a long rest. The target dies if this effect reduces its hit point maximum to 0.
Soul Grip. Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +8 to hit (automatically hits a restrained opponent), reach 15 ft. or range 15/60, one target.
Hit: 25 (4d8 + 7) psychic damage plus 27 (6d8) necrotic damage and the target is grappled (escape DC 18) and the target is grappled (escape DC 18). Until this grapple ends, the target is restrained, and the cairn shadowraith can't use
Soul Grip or
Doom Strike on another target. The target must succeed on a DC 18 Constitution saving throw or its hit point maximum is reduced by an amount equal to the necrotic damage taken. This reduction lasts until the target finishes a long rest. The target dies if this effect reduces its hit point maximum to 0.
In addition, if the target is a creature, it suffers 1 level of exhaustion if it fails the saving throw. If the target fails the saving throw by 5 points or more, it suffers an additional level of exhaustion. This exhaustion remains until it is healed magically: a
lesser restoration can remove one level of exhaustion from a victim with two or fewer levels, a
greater restoration will remove three levels of exhaustion. The target dies if it suffers 6 levels or exhaustion.
VARIANT: SPECTRAL GRASP
Many cairn shadowraiths have the following trait.
Spiritual Grapple. The cairn shadowraith's
Soul Grip seizes hold of a target's spirit and lifeforce rather than its corporeal body. A creature that is spiritually grappled can use its action to try to escape. To do so, it must succeed on a Charisma or Wisdom saving throw against the escape DC of the grapple.
Create Specter. The cairn shadowraith targets a humanoid or giant within 30 feet of it that has been dead for no longer than 1 minute and died violently. The target's spirit rises as a specter in the space of its corpse or in the nearest unoccupied space. The specter is under the shadowraith's control. The shadowraith can have no more than thirteen specters under its control at one time.
Reactions
Sacrifice Specter. If the cairn shadowraith is hit by an attack or fails a saving throw, it can sacrifice a spectre under its control within 30 feet of the cairn shadowraith. The spectre is destroyed, but the attack misses the shadowraith or its saving throw succeeds.
Rock Catching. If a rock or similar object is hurled at the cairn shadowraith, it can, with a successful DC 10 Dexterity saving throw, catch the missile and take no bludgeoning damage from it.
Description
A spectral figure several times taller than a man and completely without color, ranging from the gloomy grey of a shadow to the utter blackness of a sealed tomb, a cairn shadowraith is a wraith-like undead stone giant. It always looks like it's been dead for decades, if not centuries, no matter its age.
Phantom Flesh & Shadowy Bones. The appearance and substance of a cairn shadowraith is uncannily mutable. One moment it could be an insubstantial ghostly skeleton, the next a full-fleshed mummy with skin as hard as rock. In darkness it becomes a nigh invisible shadow. This unnatural state of being, neither corporeal not incorporeal, allows a cairn shadowraith to reach an insubstantial hand inside a victim and tear apart their life force, even if the target is outside the shadowraith's physical reach. Shadowraiths can also condense shadow-stuff into rocks to hurl at their enemies or play catch with their peers.
Tomb Dwellers. The cairn shadowraith is closely related to the cairn wight, a fully corporeal undead stone giant. Some necrologists believe that a cairn wight so ancient its flesh and bones have rotted away replaces them with ectoplasmic substitutes and becomes a shadowraith.
However, it is certain that cairn shadowraiths can be newly created from fresh stone giant corpses. The undead monarch known as the Dodkong has several such shadowraiths in its retinue, created from the wisest stone giant elders who have died and been entombed.
Both the wight and shadowraith types of cairn inhabit underground tombs. A normal cairn will only ever leave its tomb to punish an enemy or retrieve something stolen from it, but cairns in service to some powerful entity often venture forth on missions for their master. The Dodkong's cairn shadowraith elders act as advisors and spymasters to their lord. They send specter minions to spy on Cairnheim's rivals and watch its living citizens for signs of disloyalty.
(Original monster designed by Casimir Liber and Cleon on the Creature Catalog Monster Homebrews forum.)
