Angel of Death ★
Passive
Active
- Mastery (Undead) +10
- Summon (Minions) +10
- Astral Scythe +8 : 5 (First Strike, Doomed)
- Breathe Shadow +10 : 1d6 (Doomed, Shadow)
- Cloak Tendrils +11 : 4 (Ensnare, Necrotic)
- Finger of Death +10 : 1d6 (Doomed, Necrotic)
- Life Drain +10 : 1
Phases
- Implodes (Dying):
When the monster dies, it implodes into a vortex of destructive energy. All those within a melee space of the monster must make a contested Mighty check or be pulled into the vortex and suffer 1d6 force damage for each round they remain in the vortex. Damage from the vortex effects the doom condition. To escape the vortex, victims must succeed on a contested Mighty check. There is a 10% chance that victims who perish in the vortex are instead transported to a random location in the Astral Veil.
- Resurrects (Vulnerable):
On the round after the monster is at 0 HP, it recovers half its total HP, rounded up, and becomes conscious again. Only if the monster is dealt damage that it is vulnerable to while dying will the monster die permanently.
Lore
You feel a pressure upon your soul, a transcendent chill, the creeping doom of inevitability as death itself emerges from a shadow that blots out the sun: a grim tatter of black vestments and silence, bearing a featureless face framed by a twisted halo of bone.
The Angel of Death is a towering, incorporeal being whose presence causes torches to gutter and hearts to seize. Beneath its cloak trail tendrils that writhe like living smoke, and in its hand gleams a scythe wrought of mirrored void. The Angel speaks all tongues, but rarely deigns to use them, for it already knows its victims’ final words. With each sweep of its blade, it sunders soul from flesh, and those it claims are barred from respite until the Angel itself is undone. Where it passes, rot spreads—flesh blackens, spirits flee, and even magic falters.
The Angel of Death is a battlefield controller and executioner, ideally used as the apex of a high-stakes encounter. Its motivation is not malicious; it acts on divine instruction or cosmic necessity, harvesting life according to fate. The Angel is resistant to magic, incorporeal, sees through illusions, and fully immune to fear and charm. Its most fearsome qualities are its ability to ignore its victims immunities and resistances and instantly place victims on death’s door with each strike of its astral scythe (via the doom condition). This scythe is an extension of its being, and cannot be disarmed. Terrible auras–of darkness, fear, and undeath—blind, frighten, and decay its victims while empowering the dead hordes it controls. The Angel can summon any monster of the types Astral and Undead as minions, from the Astral Veil. When running this monster, don’t hesitate to rely on the weaknesses or fears of the PCs that the Angel knows by virtue of its ability to peer into their souls. Use its area of effect abilities to progressively hobble them by inflicting fear or disease, or by summoning shadows or roving dead. And if they manage to overcome the creature, implode the angel with its devastating vortex of death as retribution. All such tactics are an eerie reminder that death knows them better than they know themselves.