Father Ghede (3.5e Monster)

Your flesh is merely an exosuit keeping your skeleton protected.

A powerful undead known as Father Ghede is said to be the creator and protector of the Ghede race. Atypical for his terrifying appearance, Father Ghede is usually a benevolent figure merely interested in the survival of his undead kin and keeping to himself. He appears as a giant skeleton cloaked in shadow, and dozens of other skeletons wrapped up and hanging off his massive hunchbacked frame. His skull has bone spurs which resemble that of a crown, and his empty eye sockets burn with small flames of divine intellect. He is usually seen wearing a tall hat, and often some gaudy golden jewelry such as a ring or staff. It is also said he has a love of cigars and apples (in spite of no earthly way of consuming them).

Father Ghede is usually hidden away in the depths of the world, deep cavernous graves of old where he sits in the safe darkness of his Blight Pits. He is sometimes sought out for his powerful divination abilities, and his significant long memory of historical events. In fact, it is unsure how long Father Ghede has been, for every time he dies (for real) he is reborn a generation later with a new personality but old memories. They stretch far back, sometimes into pasts which cannot be.

Combat
Father Ghede is typically not one for combat. When brought into combat, he calls up his skeletal allies and swarms over the opponent, keeping them healthy with the occasional channel energy burst but otherwise not concerned with the welfare of mindless skeletons. His weapon, Gravedigger, is brutal and he usually focuses on inflicting status conditions and then actively preventing these conditions from being healed.

Blightshade :  A black cloying darkness surrounds Father Ghede like a cloak. Over the course of 1 hour Father Ghede can bleed his blightshade into the ground and curse it, creating a Blight Pit. This Blight Pit radiates the effect of deeper darkness out to a range of 1000 foot radius. Bones and corpses in the area are actively dug up and pushed to the surface, and any corpses brought in the area of a Blight Pit will animate as skeletons within 24 hours. Father Ghede may have one Blight Pit per point of Charisma modifier active at one time (4), making a new one removes the oldest one. To remove a Blight Pit, treat it as an unhallow spell cast upon the area.

Channel Energy :  3 + Charisma modifier times per day (7/day) Father Ghede can release a burst of negative energy which deals 16d6 points of negative energy to all creatures in 30 feet. Father Ghede may include himself in this burst, healing undead and injuring the living with a DC 30 Will save for half. The save is Charisma based.

Energy Drain :  Father Ghede can drain away life with a touch. As a touch attack as a standard action Father Ghede can apply 1 negative level to any living creature, no save. The negative level lasts for 24 hours until it vanishes. It also applies to any natural attacks or unarmed strikes. Creatures which die from Father Ghede's energy drain rise as skeletons in 1d4 rounds under his control, with no HD limit on the skeleton nor does it add to Father Ghede's control pool.

Extraordinary Health : Father Ghede always receives maximum hit points per hit die.

Immunities : Father Ghede is immune to cold, electricity, petrification, polymorph, and the usual undead immunities (ability damage, ability drain, critical hits, death, disease, energy drain, exhaustion, fatigue, mind-affecting, non-lethal damage, paralysis, poison, sleep, and stunning).

Necrotic Aura :  Father Ghede constantly emits a desecrate effect, with Father Ghede acting as an alter for the purposes of the spell. In addition, all positive energy effects are negated while in 30 feet, such as cure spells. Spells cast from outside this area into it work normally.

Powerful Build : The physical stature of Father Ghede lets him function in many ways as if they were one size category larger. Whenever subject to a size modifier or special size modifier for an opposed check (such as during grapple checks, bull rush attempts, and trip attempts), is treated as one size larger if doing so is advantageous to him. He is also considered to be one size larger when determining whether a creature’s special attacks based on size (such as improved grab or swallow whole) can affect him. He can use weapons designed for a creature one size larger without penalty. However, his space and reach remain those of a creature of his actual size.

Rebuke Undead :  Father Ghede can rebuke undead as a cleric of his character level.

Reformation :  Even if you kill Father Ghede, he cannot die. If killed within a Blight Pit (see Blightshade) he will respawn within the Blight Pit within 1d10 days out of the various bones which spawn in the area. If killed outside of the Blight Pit, he is dead. However, a new Father Ghede will be formed within 100 years in one of the many hidden skeletal grottos in forgotten areas of the world. The new Father Ghede possesses the memories of the old, however foggy, but is a new being with a new personality. Others often keep Father Ghede alive when he is of non-evil personality, and when a neutral evil Father Ghede is born the world trembles...

Seer :  Father Ghede constantly is under the effect of detect thoughts with no need to concentrate and working as if concentrating for 3 rounds worth.

Shed Skeletons : The skeletons which make up Father Ghede's skeleton armor can be shaken off forming their own entities. As a swift action Father Ghede can summon one or more skeleton elite warriors adjucant to him, decreasing the armor bonus from his skeleton armor by 1 for every skeleton created. The decrease in armor lasts until 1 round after the skeleton is destroyed or it returns to Father Ghede. Typically Father Ghede creates as many skeletons as he can get away with without loosing too much AC.

Skeleton Armor : Father Ghede wears a cloak of skeletal minions wrapped up in his blightshade. This grants him an +8 armor bonus and he may enhance his body as if it were armor. He has no maximum dexterity, armor check penalty, or arcane spell failure. This example of Father Ghede has +4 skeleton armor.

Spell-Like Abilities :  At will- animate dead, augury, blight, desecrate, detect magic, inflict light wounds, poison, sanctuary, speak with dead, shadow walk; 3/day- blade barrier, create undead, divination, enervation, fear, vampiric touch; 1/day- circle of death, command undead, commune, control undead, create greater undead, deeper darkness, degenerate, evil within, greater dispel magic, harm, horrid wilting, skull cough, trap the soul (still requires gem); 1/week- a life for a life. Caster level equals 1/2 character level (16th). Saving throws are Charisma based.

Gravedigger: Father Ghede's main weapon is a heavily modified huge combat shovel +5, which is more sword than shovel and as such can deal either bludgeoning or slashing damage depending on how it is held. Gravedigger is always coated in a powerful toxin, DC 30 Fortitude negates. Those poisoned by this toxin lose 1 hp per HD the creature possesses each round, for 1 minute. It is a death sentence for most things not immune to poison. Gravedigger falls apart if Father Ghede is killed, but it can be taken and used by others as long as Father Ghede is alive.