Design Day: The Hand

Hey! It’s Thursday, and you know what that means? Design Day! Today, we’ll be looking at another major member of the White Hand, my undead apocalypse-cult presented last Friday. In fact, we’ll be looking at the master of masters—the Hand himself.

The Hand                                                                                                                       CR 18

Male human lich cleric of the white hand (undead lord*) 17

Lawful Evil medium undead (augmented humanoid)

Init +5; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +

Aura Fear Aura (DC 25), Madness Aura (DC 26)

DEFENSE

AC 27, touch 11, flat-footed 26

(+11 armor, +5 natural, +1 dex)
HP 191 (17d8+119)
Fort +12, Ref +6, Will +18
Defensive Abilities channel resistance +4, rejuvination; DR 15/bludgeoning and magic; Immune cold, electricity, undead traits

OFFENSE

Spd 20 feet

Melee touch +14 (1d8+8 plus paralyzing touch)

Special Attacks paralyzing touch (DC 25), channel negative energy 9d6 (DC 27) (12/day), bleeding touch

Spells (CL 17, concentration +25, death domains)

9^th – summon monster 9 + wail of the banshee

8^th – discern location, spell immunity, greater, summon monster 8 + create greater undead

7^th – ethereal jaunt, scrying, greater, summon monster 7, symbol of weakness + destruction

6^th – antilife shield, dispel magic, greater, forbiddance, harm, symbol of fear + create undead

5^th – command, greater, insect plague, plane shift, spell resistance, unhallow + slay living

4^th – air walk, divination, sending, spell immunity, wind walk, unholy blight + death ward

3^rd – bestow curse (2), deeper darkness, dispel magic, speak with dead, wind wall + animate dead

2^nd – bull’s strength, darkness, death knell, desecrate, enthrall, hold person + death knell

1^st – bane, command, doom, entroptic shield, obscuring mist, shield of faith + cause fear

0 – bleed, detect magic, read magic, resistance

STATISTICS

Str 14, Dex 12, Con —, Int 14, Wis 26, Cha 24

Base Atk +12; CMB +14; CMD 25

Feats improved initiative, command undead, extra channel, craft wondrous item, great fortitude, improved great fortitude, improved channel, undead master*, craft staff, extend spell, spell focus (necromancy), skeleton summoner*

Skills fly +21, knowledge (arcana) +22, knowledge (religion) +22, perception +36, sense motive +36, stealth +14

Languages common, aklo, abyssal

SQ corpse companion, unlife healer

Gear phylactery, staff of necromancy, +5 breastplate, ring of spell storing, headband of mental prowess +6, cloak of the bat, ioun stone, pale lavender ellipsoid, spell component pouch

*from Ultimate Magic

The Hand is lord and master of the White Hand. He created it centuries ago when he received the oracular premonition of the Risen World, and has since turned it into a world-spanning organization. Any name he once had, along with any humanity, has long since departed.

He makes his home in the plane of shadow, where he rules over a kingdom of the undead and commands his material-plane forces, such as his Archlords. He has a full court, composed of intelligent undead all sworn to him, and he constantly surrounds himself with another pair of liches known as Dextrum and Sinistrum, a powerful (10^th level) sorcerer and oracle respectively, along with the hordes of zombies, ghouls, skeletons, shadows, and other undead that haunt his dark palace. Sitting at all times behind his throne is his personal companion: a skeletal Crag Linnorm he calls Custos.

He has no custom equipment, but it should be noted that the Corpse Companion he gains from his Undead Lord archetype is a gargantuan, skeletal Crag Linnorm (15 HD). I’m not designing it here because skeletons are actually one of the easiest creatures to design, and porting the crag linnorm over shouldn’t take more than 10 to 20 minutes (and let’s face it, if your PCs are strong enough to be fighting this guy, then you as a GM have enough experience to do that yourself).

I think he’d make a fine end-boss for an undead-uprising campaign, especially with the allies in his court backing him up.

Hope you enjoyed him! Tomorrow, we’ll be taking a deeper look at one of the most basic parts of the game. What is it? You’ll just have to wait and see!

-Chris