Bodak Species in The Full Guide to Faerûn | World Anvil

Bodak

A bodak is the undead remains of someone who revered Orcus. Devoid of life and soul, it exists only to cause death.

Marked by Orcus

A worshiper of Orcus can take ritual vows while carving the demon lord’s symbol on its chest over the heart. Orcus’s power flays body, mind, and soul, leaving behind a sentient husk that sucks in all life energy near it. Most bodaks come into being in this way, then unleashed to spread death in Orcus’s name.   Orcus created the first bodaks in the Abyss from seven devotees, called the Hierophants of Annihilation. These figures, as mighty as balors, have free will but serve the Prince of Undeath directly. Any one of these bodaks can turn a slain mortal into a bodak with its gaze. Like each Hierophant of Annihilation, every bodak bears the mark of Orcus as a chest wound, an opening where a mortal humanoid’s heart would be.   Orcus can recall anything a bodak sees or hears. If he so chooses, he can speak through a bodak to address his enemies and followers directly. Bodaks are extensions of Orcus’s will outside the Abyss, serving the demon prince’s aims and other minions.

Unhallowed Fragments

A bodak retains vague impressions of its past life. It seeks out both its former allies and its former enemies to destroy them, as its warped soul seeks to erase anything connected to its former life. Minions of Orcus are the one exception to this compulsion; a bodak recognizes them as kindred souls and spares them from its wrath. Anyone who knew the individual before its transformation into a bodak can recognize mannerisms or other subtle clues to its original identity.   Even nature despises bodaks. The sun burns away a bodak’s tainted flesh. The creature’s gaze lays waste to the living. Anyone a bodak slays with its gaze withers, its face frozen in a mask of terror. The monster’s mere presence is so unnatural that it chills the soul. Animals untrained for war instinctively flee just before a bodak arrives.

Ravaged Soul 

The soul of a creature that becomes a bodak is so damaged that it is unfit for most forms of magical resurrection. Only a wish or similar magic can return a bodak to its former life.

Undead Nature

Like almost all undead, bodaks don't require air, food, drink, or sleep to survive.   
Loot.
  • 2 Bodak Eyes (No immediate use. A single eye can be carefully crafted by a spellcaster (evocation) into an Amulet of Withering, which can cast Inflict Wounds once her day. When cast this way, the spell has a range of 60 feet. A pair of eyes can be mastercrafted by a spellcaster (necromancy) into a Vial of Bodak Poison. If a humanoid creature imbibes this concoction, they must make a DC 13 Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, the creature takes 21 (6d6) poison damage. If a creature is reduced to 0 hit points by this damage, they are killed and risen as a bodak. On a successful save, the creature takes half damage and is not transformed.)
  • 1 Bodak Hide (Requires attunement. Any creature within 30 feet of the Bodak Hide takes 5 necrotic damage at the start of its turn. Undead, fiends, and the attuned creature are immune to this effect. The attuned creature has this immunity during the 1 hour attunement process, but if the creature abandons the attunement before it is completed, they take necrotic damage equal to the amount they would have taken if they had not been immune to it. If the Bodak Hide is exposed to sunlight, it loses these properties and disintegrates into dust.)
  • 1 Zombified Hand (Acts as an arcane focus when casting spells of the necromancy school.)
  • 1 Desiccated Heart of Orcus (While holding the heart, it can be used to cast Plane Shift as a ritual. Only the creature holding the heart may shift. This consumes the heart. When the spell is cast, roll 1d20. On a 1, the bearer is shifted to Orcus's layer in the Abyss instead of the intended destination.)

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