Aspect of Undeath

[Land Outcast]

Hail people of the boards.

Here I'm presenting a rough concept of creature, akin to a BBEG, I'm concious it needs balancing and polishing(after some serious changes maybe).
So, I'm not only searching for critiques here, but for suggestions.

Aspect of Undeath
Medium Undead
HD: 21d12+21 (158hp)
Initiative: +10
Speed: 40ft, Fly 60ft (Perfect)
AC: 30 (+6 Dex, +6 Natural, +8 Deflection), 24 touch, 24 flat footed
Bab/Grapple: +10/+22
Attack: Claw +22 melee (1d8+18/17-20 plus energy drain)
Full attack: 2 Claws +22 melee (1d8+18/17-20 plus energy drain)
Space/Reach: 5ft/10ft
SA: Create spawn, energy drain, Circle of death (2/day)(DC24), Spell-like abilities
SQ: Augumented critical, Darkvision 120ft, Undead traits, Fast Healing 6, SR 35, Positive energy recistance 10
Saves:Fort +9, Ref +12, Will +15
Abilities: Str 34, Dex 22, Con -, Int 14, Wis 13, Cha 26
Skills: Climb +30, Concentration +24, Hide +30, Move Silently +30, Spot +25, Listen +25
Feats: Improved Toughness, Improved Critical (Claw), Improved Energy drain, Life drain, Positive energy resistance, Improved initiative, Great Fortitude.
CR:18


Spell-like abilities(Cha-based, CL 21):
At Will: Entropic shield, Shield of faith
3/day: Silence, Eagle’s splendor, Bull’s strength, Protection from energy Deeper darkness
2/day: Divine power, Freedom of movement, Flame strike, True seeing, Wall of stone, Harm, Word of recall, Wind Walk
1/day: Greater Scrying, Blasphemy

Energy drain (including feat benefits):
Upon receiving succesful hit with a natural weapon or melee weapon from Aspect of Undeath, a living creature gains one negative level and receives an additional 8 points of negative energy damage. The DC for removing the negative level is 28. The DC is Charisma-Based. When the Aspect of Undeath bestows a negative level on a victim, it gains 13 temporary hitpoints (26 on a critical hit) and +1 on bonus on skill checks, ability checks, attack rolls, and saving throws, these benefits last for 1 hour.

Create spawn:
A humanoid slain by the Aspect of Undeath becomes a normal wight (50% chance) or a vampire spawn (50% chance) in 1d4 rounds. Spawn created in this way remain enslaved under the Aspect of Undeath’s control until their masters destruction. They have normal statistics for monsters of their type as per the monster manual, but conserve their memories.

 

[Arkhandus]

This belongs in the Creature Catalog - Homebrew forum. You'll likely get more responses there. It's tough to judge a high-level critter though.

 

[Land Outcast]

thx

 

[Land Outcast]

Anyway, feel free to contribute here

 

[Murazor]

Well, as they say, CR is only an estimate. Only you yourself can decide if this creature is a decent challenge for your own group. But I'll give some comments from my own experience. Also, since you mentioned you wanted this to be a BBEG, I'll discuss the creature (and any suggestions for modifying it) as if it were meant to be a CR18 creature.

It's an Undead, with 21HD (158hp) and no turn resistance.
For CR18 this is a serious problem, if you have a cleric who is even remotely interested in turning undead. If you have a Radiant Servant of Pelor or something similar in your group who is dedicated to destroying undead, destroying this undead won't even take a single round (Quicken Turning, using a Greater Turning attempt).
Even if you don't have a cleric specialised in turning, chances are quite good that they will succeed in turning (instead of destroying) the creature, ending the combat right there. What I would do is both increase the hitdice (to prevent automatic turning) and add in some extra low-level turn-fodder (if you weren't already planning to do so).

With that out of the way, let's take a look at it defensive and offensive capabilities:

Defensive:
HitPoints: 158
Armor Class: 30
Spell Resistance: 35
Saves:Fort +9, Ref +12, Will +15
Spell-Like Abilities

The creature has low hitpoints and a low armor class. On the other hand, it does have a very high SR (CR+17), but only mediocre saves. If your spellcasters haven't memorised any Conjuration spells (which bypass SR) they're out of luck, but if they have, they'll be able to serious put the hurt on this creature.
Melee-based characters will have great time with this creature, since most if not all of they attacks will hit. If you have a Fighter or Barbarian in your party which uses a 2handed weapon, expect this creature to not survive a single full-attack action.
As for its spell-like abilities: Freedom of Movement and True Seeing are both strong defences, but Shield of Faith is a bit odd since it won't do anything (it already has a +8 Deflection bonus)

Offensive:
Full attack: 2 Claws +22 melee (1d8+18/17-20 plus energy drain)
Spell-Like Abilities

The basic melee offensive capabilities of this monster are pathetic: only two attacks at a low to-hit. If you have someone with decent AC (Monk or Sword&Board Fighter could both easily reach AC40 at level 18) in your party, it's possible the creature won't hit at all before it is brought down.
It does have the option to use some spell-like abilities instead: Flame Strike, Harm and Blasphemy are all able to do some damage (Harm could also be used defensively after a Blasphemy to heal some damage to itself), but nothing for the PCs to be worried about.


The monster has one option available to it, that might make it a credible melee fighter: Divine Power.
With it, it gains a boost to its to-hit of +13 or +14 (depending on your ruling on Divine Power being able to provide an epic bonus or not), for a total of +35 or +36. Without this spell I would have immediately rated this monster at CR15 (maybe 16).
[Circle of Death does not affect creatures with more than 9HD and thus will not be effective against the PCs.]

Suggestions:
Add some HD (26 or so sounds reasonable) and perhaps some turn resistance. Furthermore, depending on your groupsize, you might want to think about giving it Unholy Toughness (ability from MM3 and Libris Mortis; basically all it does is give undead the ability to use their Charisma modifier for bonus hitpoints instead of their Constitution modifier, thus granting it extra hps)