Cynoduat (3.5e Monster)

''The creature looks like some hunched over jackal-headed man dressed in layered plates of gold and fabrics, and carrying a heavy flail like a staff. Its body looks diseased and rotten somehow, with aberrant patches of fur, bits of dried flaky skin, and glowing blank eyes making its appearance all the more unsettling.''

Cynoduats are the cruel psychopomps of some long forgotten deity of judgement from exotic deserts afar. As the memory of the god, and perhaps the god itself, faded away his servants continued to shepard the souls of the dead to their rest, or punishment. Eventually with fewer and fewer followers and no sense of purpose they took to bringing in the souls of those outside their religion, stealing the soul from their rightful gods and passing judgement themselves. The good was weeded out, and now only the heartless cynoduats remain.

Cynoduats see themselves as judge, jury, and executioner in all matters of life and death now that their creator has vanished and left them without a guide. However, they all long for instruction and often end up being willing hires by other deities to act as psychopomps for lawful evil souls, or jailers and enforcers of fiendish contracts, especially in and around their original desert homes. Cynoduats leap at such positions, however subservient, as it simply gives them purpose. Due to the race's increasing desperation as a whole, and too much time spent on planes of punishment, they have become warped and twisted from their original more neutral behavior.

Cynoduats speak Infernal, Celestial, and Abyssal. They usually speak at least one common language of the local area in which they hunt, with a heavy accent of some ancient tongue. Cynoduats are 7 feet tall (though they seem shorter due to their hunched position) and weigh 300 lbs.

Combat
Cynoduats, when in groups, act as organized military ranks. Even when their paths seem chaotic and random, it is always for the purpose of getting into tactically sound positions, including flanking, overwhelming with sheer numbers, or other such tactics. If there is a commander, they follow his lead. Otherwise each attempts to communicate or predict the actions of others and follow suit, or take lead. When solo, they tend to be more subtle, setting up traps, ambushes, and weakening the opponent for a clean kill where they can spirit away with the victim's eternal soul.

Cynoduats typically wield a heavy flail in two-hands, but some are equipped with orc double axes which they two-weapon fight with (they replace their Blind-Fight feat with Two-Weapon Fighting), which the above statblock assumes. Because they can use either weapon one-handed, some equip heavy wooden shields as well for an additional +4 AC (+2 shield, with +2 from tools of death).

Deathwatch :  A cynoduat is always under the effects of the deathwatch spell.

Disease :  Mummy Rot, a supernatural disease passed on by its bite. Fortitude DC 20, with no incubation period, 1d6 damage. However a creature infected with mummy rot does not get infected multiple times. The DC is set, as the disease naturally resides in their mouths and is not produced by them inherently.

Half-Dead Traits : The cynoduat is a creature which straddles the definition of life and death. It is healed by both positive and negative energy, and is ignored by unintelligent undead. Intelligent undead and the detect undead spell falsely register the cynoduat as undead. However, it is not. It does have a few undead like immunities however, being immune to poison, sleep, paralysis, disease, death effects, ability damage, and energy drain. If successfully affected by a turn or rebuke undead attempt it is sickened for 1d4 rounds. On a destroy or command result, they are instead nauseated for 1 round, then sickened for 1d4 rounds.

Maneuver-Like Abilities: burning bladeToB(boost), disarming strikeToB (strike), flashing sunToB (strike), oasis shade stance (stance), punishing stanceToB (stance), sand spray (counter), wall of bladesToB (counter).

Spell-Like Abilities :  At will-acid arrow, dimension door, inflict light wounds, parching touchSand; 3/day-control sandSand, desiccateSand; 1/day- choking sandsSand, haboobSand. The saving throws are Wisdom based.

Soul Imprisonment :  If a creature dies, the cynoduat can attempt to steal away the creature's soul and drag it to one of the lawful evil outer planes. They may make a touch attack against a corpse no older than 1 minute, and the corpse gets a Will save (as if they were alive). If they fail, their soul does not go to their appropriate afterlife, but rather is taken by the cynoduat. The cynoduat begins to fade away over the course of 1 round (enjoying a 50% miss chance as they become incorporeal), and plane shifts to the appropriate plane, soul in tow. The victim will be imprisoned and unable to be raised or revived until they are released from the prison their soul is being held in, or they are subject to a wish or miracle to free the soul first before any attempts at revival. A cynoduat may also be bribed to return the soul, but they do so at a high and completely unfair price. A successful saving throw renders the soul immune to further attempts for 24 hours, by which they would have been long gone.

Adventurers capable of plane shift can attempt to follow the cynoduat to the exact location they traveled to if they identify the effect with a successful Spellcraft check DC 30, and then cast plane shift. In general, parties have 1d10 minutes to try and intercept the cynoduat before the soul is imprisoned. A cynoduat which has successfully imprisoned gains the ability to plane shift back to where they were originally with no chance of error once.

Strong Grip : The cynoduat can wield two-handed weapons with one hand with no penalty.

Tools of Death : The cynoduat gains the effects of greater magic weapon and magic vestment on all weapons, armor, and shields it uses as an extraordinary ability.

Skills: Cynoduats have a +8 racial bonus on Climb checks. They can always choose to take 10 on Climb checks, even if rushed or threatened. They use their Strength or Dexterity modifier for their Climb checks.