Cloaker

A long black cloak hangs from the cave wall. Suddenly, the cloak slips from the wall and catches a breeze moving through the cavern. Then it unfolds, the cloak becoming dark wings and a bony, whiplike tail unfurling to stretch out behind it. It flies forward, revealing a toothy maw and piercing red eyes deep in the shadows of its raylike body.

Cloakers are bizarre creatures that lurk in dark places far beneath the surface. They kill intruders without remorse or pause, except to plan cruel amusement.

When resting or lying in wait, these creatures are almost impossible to distinguish from common black cloaks (the cloaker’s ivory claws look very much like bone clasps). Only when it unfurls does the horrific nature of the creature become apparent.

Cloakers pursue their own mysterious goals. While they are certainly intelligent, their minds work in a way so alien that few humans have ever been able to make meaningful contact with one.

A cloaker has a wingspan of about 8 feet. It weighs about 100 pounds.

Cloakers speak Undercommon.

Combat

Cloakers usually lie still, watching and listening for prey. If facing a single opponent, a cloaker uses its engulf attack. Against multiple foes, it lashes with its tail in concert with its moan and shadow shift abilities to reduce the opposition’s numbers, then engulfs a survivor. Multiple cloakers usually split up, leaving one or two behind to use special abilities while the rest make melee attacks.

Moan (Ex): A cloaker can emit a dangerous subsonic moan as a standard action. By changing the frequency, the cloaker can cause one of four effects. Cloakers are immune to these sonic, mind-affecting attacks. Unless otherwise specified, a creature that successfully saves against one of these effects cannot be affected by the same moan effect from the same cloaker for 24 hours. All save DCs for moan effects are Charisma-based.

• Unnerve: Anyone within a 60-foot spread automatically takes a –⁠2 penalty on attack and damage rolls. Those forced to hear the moan for more than 6 consecutive rounds must succeed on a DC 15 Will save or enter a trance, unable to attack or defend themselves until the moaning stops.
• Fear: Anyone within a 30-foot spread must succeed on a DC 15 Will save or become panicked for 2 rounds.
• Nausea: Anyone in a 30-foot cone must succeed on a DC 15 Fortitude save or be overcome by nausea and weakness. Affected characters fall prone and become nauseated for 1d4+1 rounds.
• Stupor: A single creature within 30 feet of the cloaker must succeed on a DC 15 Fortitude save or be affected as though by a hold monster spell for 5 rounds. Even after a successful save, the creature must repeat the save if the cloaker uses this effect again.

Engulf (Ex): A cloaker can try to wrap a Medium or smaller creature in its body as a standard action. The cloaker attempts a grapple that does not provoke an attack of opportunity. If it wins the grapple check, it establishes a hold and bites the engulfed victim with a +4 bonus on its attack roll. It can still use its whiplike tail to strike at other targets.

Attacks that hit an engulfing cloaker deal half their damage to the monster and half to the trapped victim.

Shadow Shift (Su): A cloaker can manipulate shadows. This ability is effective only in shadowy areas and has three possible effects.

• Obscure Vision: The cloaker gains concealment (20% miss chance) for 1d4 rounds.
• Dancing Images: This effect duplicates a mirror image spell (caster level 6th).
• Silent Image: This effect duplicates a silent image spell (DC 15, caster level 6th). The save DC is Charisma-based.

Source: Monster Manual (version 3.5), page 36.