Negative LA-Assignment : Resurrection, but no diamond here

[Beni-Kujaku]

Abyssal Ghoul

And here we go with Fiend Folio! And to set the stage, we start with one of the two "Ghoul, but from the Abyss" monsters in this book, the other one being the Maurezhi, with the only notable inspiration difference between the two being that each got one half of the ghoul's identity. The Maurezhi got the same diet and iconic paralysis, but is a full Outsider, while the Abyssal Ghoul got the name and type, but not much else.
The Abyss!Ghoul's design is chilling, with its single claw on each feet and two on each hand making it look almost avian, and its long tongue finishing in smoke making you wonder what it can be used for. I can imagine it charging towards someone, stopping before them, making two claw attacks with its arms, then, in the same movement, putting its claws on the ground to support itself while it claws with both feet at the same time. Of course, in actuality it doesn't have Pounce, and its tongue only deals minor Wis damage when it pins an opponent, which will happen exactly zero times per campaign in combat situations.

As a PC, the fact that it doesn't have thumbs will hurt it, but it's otherwise a pretty good rogue. High Int, Dex and Str, innate Sneak Attack +5d6, Uncanny Dodge and some nice natural armor (+14) make for a great combination. It's clearly better if you can cast Deeper Darkness on a piercing on your eye. Yes, it may seem horribly painful, but hear me out: the Abyssal Ghoul is blind and sees with Blindsight, but it still has eyes, and presumably eyelids. With an eye-piercing, it could just close its eyes and not be a bother in cities or social situation (or at least not anymore than any human-eating undead could be), then open them in combat to have a 60ft shadowy illumination in which to hide. Also, it's undead, I don't think its nerves are still functioning. It doesn't have many abilities and Undead RHD are not very fit for Melee, but its raw stats (total +36) and Sneak Attack more than balance the lack of BAB. I actually think it's comparable or better than a PHB race straight rogue with 9 RHD (at which point it is tied with the rogue for sneak attack). It also has way better defenses, like SR 4+HD, and resistance to all energies except sonic (this ghoul really has very good defenses, with energy resistances, SR and Undead immunity making it very hard to effectively beat using spells, except of course the universal mute button: Disintegrate). Now, a rogue would be able to take prestige classes, or to continue and gain special abilities, and the Abyssal Ghoul can't wield weapons, which limits its progression, so I don't think I'll go above 9 RHD. And as always, no scaling ability except SR and low BAB RHD are not good, so DLA-5.


Oh, yeah, and like most Undead, it doesn't have much lore. At least we know it's created by Kiaransalee instead of naturally occurring. Weirdly enough, WotC thought this monster was iconic enough to appear in the actual Monster Manual in 4th edition, though to be fair, it was very different, being simply a stronger ghoul with a weaker paralysis and that sprays cursed blood around when destroyed. Actually, 4e has a lot of ghoul variations. The regular ghoul, Horde ghoul and Abyssal ghoul, but also sub-variations of the Abyssal Ghoul, with the Abyssal Ghoul Hungerer and the Abyssal Ghoul Myrmidon, a warrior-type variation which is CR 23 but still hilariously only has 1 HP because of 4e Monster Role distribution.
Next time, after the guy whose hands are not hands, we'll have the otter whose tail is actually a hand. See you next time for the Ahuizotl!