Monster: Revivifier

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Revivifier

This small, grey skinned figure of indeterminate gender has bald head with barely visible stump for a nose and black, beady eyes. Its narrow mouth lack lips and its teeth resemble tiny needles. The creature wields a staff of bone and wears a tattered robe.

CR 13; XP 25,600
NE Small Outsider (evil, extraplanar)
Init +8; Senses darkvision 60 ft., deathwatch; Perception +25
Aura desecrate (40 ft.)

Defense
AC 28, touch 18, flat-footed 16 (+4 armor, +4 deflection, +4 Dex, +1 dodge, +4 natural, +1 size)
hp 81 (18d10–20); life field (90 temporary hit points)
Fort +14, Ref +14, Will +15
Defensive Abilities life field, unholy grace; DR 10/good; Immune death, disease, energy drain, exhaustion, fatigue, fear, nauseated, poison, sickened; Resist acid 10, cold 10, electricity 10, fire 10; SR 24
Weakness empty shells

Offense
Speed 20 ft., fly 20 ft. (perfect)
Melee vampiric touch +23 touch (10d6+10)
Ranged vampiric touch +23 touch (10d6+10)
Special Attacks bone staff, channel negative energy 10d6+10 (6/day, DC 24), vampiric link
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 20th; concentration +21)
Constant—deathwatch, widened desecrate (centered on revivifier), mage armor
At Will—animate dead, call spirit (only to contact the soul trapped in a touched container, DC 18), command undead (DC 17), decompose corpse (DC 14), gentle repose, greater teleport (restricted to self, 50 lbs of equipment, and undead under its control), speak with dead (DC 16)
3/day—create undead, quickened command undead (DC 17)
1/day—contact other plane (Lower Planes only), create greater undead

Statistics
Str 8, Dex 18, Con 8, Int 17, Wis 11, Cha 13
Base Atk +18; CMB +16; CMD 34
Feats Ability Focus (command undead), Alertness, Dodge, Extra Channel, Improved Initiative, Quickened Spell-Like Ability (command undead), Skill Focus (Heal), Skill Focus (Knowledge [religion]), Weapon Finesse
Skills Fly +14, Diplomacy +22, Heal +22, Intimidate +22, Knowledge (arcana) +24, Knowledge (planes) +24, Knowledge (religion) +30, Perception +25, Sense Motive +25, Stealth +29
Language Abyssal, Celestial, Draconic, Infernal, Protean; telepathy 100 ft.
SQ change shape (undead anatomy I–IV), necromantic expertise

Ecology
Environment any
Organization solitary
Treasure standard

Special Abilities

Bone Staff (Su) A revivifier wields a staff of bone that is extension of its essence. If the staff is destroyed, it can reform it from bones of Small or larger humanoid creature in a hour long ritual. The bone staff increase damage and healing of the revivifier's channel negative energy and vampric touch abilities by 1 per die, and increases saving throw DC of necromantic spell-like abilities by 2 (already included in the statistics).

Channel Negative Energy (Su) A revivifier can channel negative energy like a 20th level 
cleric, except it affects whole area affected by the revivifier's desecrate aura instead of 30-ft. burst.

Empty Shells (Ex) A revivifier can only use its undead-creating abilities on corpses whose souls were taken via bargain, destroyed, stolen, or otherwise seriously damaged, or when the subject was killed by a death effect, or on bodies of creatures that explicitly agreed to be reanimated as undead by revivifier while still alive.

Enlivening Channel (Su) When a revivifier uses it channel energy ability to heal undead, or harm living beings, all the undead within range gain benefits of haste for 1 round.

Life Field (Su) A revivifier is protected by a force field composed of stolen life-force. A life field can hold up to 5 temporary hit points per revivifier's HD for indefinite period of time.

Necromantic Expertise (Ex) A revivifier can create beheaded and necrocraft while using its animate dead spell-like ability alone, without the need for other spells or components.

Unholy Grace (Su) A revivifier gains +4 resistance bonus to saving throws and +4 deflection bonus to AC, and it can be healed by negative energy effects as if it was undead, though it is also healed by positive energy like a regular living being. A revivifier is also immune to ability damage and ability drain special attacks of undead creatures.

Vampiric Link (Su) A revivifier can create a bond between itself an a living being within its line of sight as a swift action. When this ability is used and at the start of each revivifier's turns thereafter, the subject of the link loses 5 hit points and the revivifier gains 5 temporary hit points, up to the maximum capacity of its life field. This ability is suppressed but not ended when the target is out of the revivifier's line of sight or when the revivifier's life field is at maximum capacity. The vampiric link ends when the subject dies or the link is broken with break enchantment, dispel evil, remove curse or similar effect (DC 10 + the revivifier's HD). This is a curse and evil effect.

Vampiric Touch (Su) A revivifier can use vampiric touch as a supernatural ability. It can use it with a ranged touch attack against creatures within area of its desecrate aura.


Revivifiers are evil outsiders who found themselves a peculiar niche (or maybe were formed from the essence of the lower planes to fill it). As the souls are precious commodity among the fiends, the rampages and machinations of various evil fiends tends to leave a number of soulless bodies. This is where revivifiers step in, taking care of unattended corpses.

Revivifiers live as fiendish scavengers, animating bodies of the damned and using them for their own benefit, often leasing them in service to other fiends, or releasing them from their control and letting them roam the material world, haunting the mortals and undermining the confidence in gods and celestial forces. They occasionally act as mercenary necromancers, creating undead tailored to another fiend's or spellcaster's order. Many of revivifiers activly seek and destroy knowledge of necromancy, desiring to restrict ability of mortals to create undead beings, though a few do share snippets of necromantic lore here and there.

Interestingly, revivifiers are often seen as a sort of mercenaries by devils, demons, daemons, kytons, and sahkils, and as long as they do not interfere in fiendish operation, or currently employed by their enemies, allowed a limited right of passage, and often allowed to take care of mortal corpses without much fuss. They sometimes partner with night hags, who steal souls leaving empty corpses for revivifiers to animate.