When the Day goes to Sleep: Manalishi Template

The abishai—scaly, draconian devils—were created by E. Gary Gygax and first appeared in “From the Sorcerer's Scroll: New Denizens of Devildom” in Dragon 75 (July 1983) and were later included in the 1st edition Monster Manual II. The abishai were updated to 3.0e in the Monsters of Faerun supplement and to 3.5 in Fiendish Codex II: Tyrants of the Nine Hells.

Unfortunately, these monsters were never released as open content. However, OSRIC, the wonderful 1e retro-clone game, contains nice stand-ins for several closed monsters, including the manalishi, designed by Kellri. The name “manalishi” is a greatly inspired choice, coming from the eerie song “The Green Manalishi (With the Two-Pronged Crown),” written by Peter Green and recorded by Fleetwood Mac.

Although the OSRIC manalishi is also closed content, the name was inspiration for the following new 3.5e template, which is not quite a conversion of either the abishai or the manalishi—it’s more of tribute to both. This manalishi template acts like a specialized half-fiend template just for evil dragons.

The following text is Open Game Content.

Manalishi Devil Template

This dragon-like creature stands upright on its rear legs. Its form is covered with matte black scales, and it has a long, lashing tail ending in a barbed tip. Its wings are also black and leathery, and it bears a halberd in its front talons.

Infernal Dragons. A manalishi is a scaly devil created by infusing an unhatched or immature dragon with the evil power of the Hells.

The Devil Upright. A manalishi resembles a bipedal dragon with devilish features and a sting-tipped tail. Its neck is shorter and its smaller claws can be used to grasp and manipulate objects. Most manalishis wield weapons.

Warriors of the Hells. Manalishis usually act as soldiers, guards, or jailers in service to an infernal draconic power.

Creating a Manalishi

“Manalishi” is an acquired or inherited template that can be added to any evil true dragon of up to Juvenile age category (referred to hereafter as the base creature).

A manalishi uses all the base creature’s statistics and special abilities except as noted here.

Challenge Rating: HD 4 or less, as base creature +1; HD 5 to 10, as base creature +2; HD 11 or more, as base creature +3.

Alignment: Always lawful evil.

Size and Type: The creature’s type changes to outsider and it gains the augmented dragon, evil, extraplanar, and lawful subtypes. Do not recalculate Hit Dice, base attack bonus, or saves. Size is unchanged.

Senses: A manalishi can see perfectly in darkness of any kind, even that created by a deeper darkness spell.

Defensive Abilities: A manalishi has all the defensive abilities of the base creature, plus the following defensive abilities.

• Damage reduction: 5/good (if HD 11 or less) or 10/good (if HD 12 or more).
• Regeneration: 2 (if HD 11 or less) or 5 (if HD 12 or more). A manalishi takes normal damage from good-aligned silvered weapons, and from spells or effects with the good descriptor.
• Immunity to fire and poison.
• Resistance to acid 10 and cold 10.
• Spell resistance equal to creature’s HD + 10 (maximum 35).

Speed: A manalishi walks upright on its hind legs. The base creature’s land speed is reduced by 30 feet (to a minimum of 20 feet) and its fly speed is reduced by 60 feet (to a minimum of 40 feet).

Melee: The base creature loses any wing or tail slap attacks. A manalishi has a sting attack, two claw attacks, and a bite attack, and the sting is the primary natural weapon. Even if the base creature already has any of these attack forms, use the damage values in the table.

A manalishi is proficient with all simple and martial weapons. A manalishi fighting without weapons uses a sting when making an attack action. When it has a weapon, it usually uses the weapon instead. A manalishi fighting without weapons uses its sting, both claws, and its bite when making a full attack. If armed with a weapon, it usually uses the weapon as its primary attack and its sting and bite as natural secondary attacks. If it has a hand free, it uses a claw as an additional natural secondary attack.

Manalishi Damage

Size	Sting Damage	Bite Damage	Claw Damage
Tiny	1d4	1d3	1d2
Small	1d6	1d4	1d3
Medium	1d8	1d6	1d4
Large	2d6	1d8	1d6
Huge	3d6	2d6	1d8

Reach: The base creature loses any exceptional reach with its bite attack.

Special Attacks: A manalishi retains all the special attacks of the base creature and gains the following special attacks.

• Infernal Strike (Su): A manalishi’s natural weapons, as well as any weapons it wields, are treated as evil-aligned and lawful-aligned for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.
• Poison (Ex): A manalishi’s sting delivers poison (Fort DC 10 + 1/2 manalishi’s HD + manalishi’s Con modifier). The initial damage is 1d2 Str, and the secondary damage is 1d4 Str.

Spell-Like Abilities: A manalishi with an Intelligence or Wisdom score of 8 or higher has spell-like abilities depending on its Hit Dice, as indicated on the table below. The abilities are cumulative. Unless otherwise noted, an ability is usable once per day. Caster level equals the creature’s HD, and the save DC is Charisma-based.

Manalishi Spell-Like Abilities

HD	Abilities
1–2	Alter self 3/day
3–4	Invisibility (self only)
5–6	Dimensional anchor
7–8	Major image 3/day
9–10	Charm monster
11–12	Greater teleport (self plus 50 pounds of objects only)
13–14	Unholy aura 3/day, unhallow
15–16	Mass charm monster

Abilities: Increase from the base creature as follows: Str +2, Dex +4, Con +2, Int +2, Wis +2, Cha +4.

Skills: A manalishi gains skill points as an outsider and has skill points equal to (8 + Int modifier) x (HD + 3). Do not include Hit Dice from class levels in this calculation—the manalishi gains outsider skill points only for its racial Hit Dice, and gains the normal amount of skill points for its class levels. Bluff, Concentration, Diplomacy, Disguise, Escape Artist, Intimidate, Knowledge (any), Listen, Search, Sense Motive, Spot, Survival, and Use Magic Device are considered class skills for manalishi racial Hit Dice.

Languages: Manalishis speak Infernal as well as any language spoken by the base creature. Manalishis also have telepathy to a range of 100 feet.

Environment: The Hells.

Treasure: None.

Advancement: By character class.

Level Adjustment: +4.

Sample Manalishi

The black manalishi was created using a young black dragon as the base creature.

Black Manalishi CR 7

LE Medium outsider (augmented dragon, evil, extraplanar, lawful, water)

Init +6; Senses blindsense 60 ft., keen senses, see in darkness; Listen +14, Spot +14

Languages Draconic, Infernal; telepathy 100 ft.

Defenses

AC 21, touch 12, flat-footed 19
(+2 Dex, +9 natural)

hp 95 (10d12+30 HD); regeneration 2

Fort +9, Ref +9, Will +8

DR 5/good; Immune acid, fire, paralysis, poison, sleep; Resist cold 10; SR 20

Offense

Speed 30 ft., fly 90 ft. (poor), swim 60 ft.

Melee mwk halberd +15/+10 (1d10+4/19–20 x3), sting +11 (1d8+1 plus poison), bite +11 (1d6+1)

Special Attacks breath weapon (60 ft. line, DC 18, 6d4 acid), poison (DC 18, 1d2 Str/1d4 Str), infernal strike

Spell-Like Abilities (CL 10th)

3/day—alter self, major image (DC 15)

1/day—charm monster (DC 16), dimensional anchor, invisibility (self only)

Tactics

During Combat Black manalishis usually begin a combat with a blast of their acidic breath weapon before charging in with their halberds.

Morale Black manalishis are almost fearless and normally fight until reduced to 20 hp or less.

Statistics

Str 17, Dex 14, Con 17, Int 12, Wis 13, Cha 14

Base Atk +10; Grp +13

Feats Improved Critical (halberd), Improved Initiative, Multiattack, Weapon Focus (halberd)

Skills Bluff +15, Concentration +16, Diplomacy +17, Escape Artist +15, Intimidate +17, Listen +14, Search +14, Spot +14, Survival +1 (+3 following tracks), Use Magic Device +15

SQ water breathing

Gear masterwork halberd

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