Medium undead, chaotic evil
Armor Class: 15 (natural armour)
Hit Points: 65 10d8+20
Speed:
30 ft
Skills: Intimidate +5, History +4
Damage Resistances: Necrotic
Damage Immunities: Poison, Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing from nonmagical weapons not made of pure iron
Condition Immunities: Charmed, Exhaustion, Poisoned
Senses: Darkvision 60 ft, passive Perception 13
Languages: Common (what they knew in life), Telepathy (60 ft)
Challenge Rating: 4
Turning Defiance. The lord and any ghouls & ghasts within 30 ft of it have advantage against being turned by Turn Undead or similar effects.
Sleep / Charm Immunity. Ghoul lords are immune to any sleep or charm effects from any source.
Pure Evil Aura. Any creatures that have a Good alignment has a -4 to hit the lord when in 15 ft of it.
Actions
Multiattack. The lord has three attacks, either all with it's claws, or two with it's claws and one with it's bite.
Claws. Melee Weapon Attack +5 to hit, reach 5 ft, one target. Hit 10 2d6+3 slashing damage, plus the victim must make a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or become paralysed if failed. A saving throw can be made at the start of the victim's turn to overcome this. If successful, the victim is immune to this effect for 24 hours.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack +5 to hit, reach 5 ft, one target. Hit 15 3d6+3 piercing damage, plus the victim must make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or become poisoned if failed. The poison does 1 damage to Constitution per day afterwards, and if it drops to 0 or below, the victim dies and rises within 1d4 days as a ghoul. To prevent this happening the body needs to be cremated. If a Heal or Wish spell is cast before reaching 0 Constitution it will stop the poison. No further saves can be taken to stop it. If successful, the victim is immune to this for 24 hours.
Ghoul Lords are extremely rare Ghouls. More intelligent, stronger & tougher than normal ghouls & ghasts (the latter sometimes are used as bodyguards by a ghoul lord), they still stink of death & decay, they regularly feast on the living and dead. They are a sickly gray in colour like rotting meat, and appear as a normal ghoul. The tongue of a ghoul lord has grown long and rasped, with their teeth & nails growing long too, and resembles those of a predatory creature. Each one knows & can use the language they knew in life, but for ghouls & ghasts they prefer to use telepathy.
Each one rules over a region where their lessers roam, and they can command these creatures at will. There are two methods how one becomes a Ghoul Lord. The first is when a corpse is reanimated by a powerful evil Jinn, and the second is by the use of necromantic magic powerful enough to act similar to a powerful Jinn reanimating one. The latter is rumoured to have been perfected by a necromancer in a demiplane, and has spread from there. The rumour also mentions that the necromancer has made contact with others of his kind in the Middle East.
There is also a rumour there is one overall lord of the ghoul lords though no-one can prove this. Exactly where or when it rose is another matter. It is likely to be buried under the remains of one of the early Mesopotamian ruins in Persia. It is unlikely that anyone would willingly go looking for it.
Suggested Environments
Demiplanes of Dread, the Middle East.
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