Deep Dive - The Atropal
An Atropal is a creature of horror, death, and vile imagery. It is the form of an undead baby godling, an abomination that hovers across the planes, killing all creatures with its touch and aura of negative energy. These creatures are so nasty that even the gods abhor their presence, casting them into prison and trapping them in long-lost ruins from long ago. Of course, adventurers can never help themselves when they see a door that says “Don’t Dead Open Inside”.
The Atropal is a disgusting and horrifying monster, and it touches on the subject of undead babies, stillborn, and abortion. If you want something lighter, we highly recommend reading about faerie dragons!
3e - Atropal
Large Undead, Outsider (Evil)
Hit Dice: 66d12 (792 hp)
Initiative: +6 (+2 Dex, +4 Improved Initiative)
Speed: 5 ft., fly 240 ft. (perfect)
Armor Class: 251 (–1 size, +2 Dex, +40 natural)
Attack: 2 touches +49 melee touch, eye ray +30 ranged touch
Damage: Touch 2d6 Con. drain/19–20, eye ray negative level damage/19–20
Face/Reach: 5 ft. by 5 ft./10 ft.
Special Attacks: Constitution drain, energy drain (2d4 negative levels, Fort DC 59), spell-like abilities, summon nightcrawler
Special Qualities: Abomination traits, undead traits, rebuke/command undead, regeneration 20, SR 42, DR 40/+8, negative energy aura
Saves: Fort +22, Ref +26, Will +43
Abilities: Str 43, Dex 15, Con —, Int 28, Wis 24, Cha 42
Skills: Concentration +82, Hide –2, Knowledge (arcana) +75, Listen +8, Spellcraft +80, Spot +19
Feats: Alertness, Cleave, Combat Casting, Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Expertise, Great Cleave, Improved Bull Rush, Improved Critical (touch), Improved Critical (eye ray), Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, Mobility, Power Attack, Quicken Spell-Like Ability, Run, Spring Attack, Skill Focus (Spellcraft), Weapon Focus (touch), Weapon Focus (eye ray), Whirlwind Attack
Epic Feats: Devastating Critical (touch), Overwhelming Critical (touch), Undead Mastery, Zone of Animation
Environment: Any
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 30
Treasure: Standard
Alignment: Lawful evil
Advancement: 67–80 HD (Large); 81–100 HD (Huge)
Epic Level Handbook, 2002 Wizards of the Coast / Brom
The Atropal appears first in the Epic Level Handbook (2002), and they are created when a stillborn godling rises to become an undead creature of immense power. You'll know something is terribly wrong when this rebirth occurs as the creature is deformed, incomplete, and covered in black afterbirth. The Atropal has a giant, oversized head with distorted features, including large, vacant eyes. Its head sits upon a wrinkled, swollen torso with emaciated arms and atrophied legs. We often say the creature we discuss is the ugliest we've ever seen, and this time is no different. Even the gods agree, as they will attempt to banish any Atropal to a remote location as far away as possible.
Traveling with various undead minions, you can expect to fight them first before the Atropal enters the fray. When it does, we hope you're prepared. The Atropal has all the traits of both undead and abominations. It has a plethora of spells at its disposal, including ones you may not have heard of, such as blasphemy, desecrate, greater dispelling, and slay living. The Atropal can also rebuke or command undead as a cleric of the same level as its Hit Dice, and it has 66 Hit Dice so we are pretty sure it controls everything undead.
The Atropal's negative energy aura is very bad for your health. If you are undead, it heals you. You probably aren’t undead, yet. Living creatures, on the other hand, are immediately treated as having ten negative levels with no saving throw. If you have 10 or fewer Hit Dice, you're instantly dead. Don't worry, you immediately get to rise back up. The problem is, you're now a specter controlled by the Atropal that killed you. Specters aren’t the only undead that the Atropal can summon, as five times per day it can summon forth a nightcrawler, a horrifically powerful undead creature made of negative energy.
Let’s say you are finally going to take our word of advice and avoid this creature, how do you go about that? Well, the good news is that these horrific beings are pretty rare, and the gods hate these creatures. The gods work together to banish these foul abominations, locking them away in a plane of cemeteries, sounds pretty metal, or beneath the crypts of dead civilizations. This basically means, don’t go poking around in history or you may stumble across one of them.
If you do poke around history and ancient civilizations, watch out as this thing could be sealed away down there. If you find yourself, or the warlock most likely, trying to break an ancient seal that was created by the gods, we highly recommend that you run. An Atropal’s very touch drains your Constitution by 2d6 points every time it touches, and we’ll let you guess what happens if your Constitution reaches zero.
If you are running, it has plenty of spells, as we mentioned earlier, but also can shoot eye rays from its… eyes… that cause you to lose four levels every time they hit you. While you do get those levels back if you can get a cleric to remove them, that’s not the bad part. The bad part is that the Atropal heals from inflicting negative levels on creatures and from draining your Constitution with its touch. So the thing it already wants to do, kill you and your adventuring party, also heals the undead godling.
Libris Mortis: Book of the Undead, 2004 Wizards of the Coast / Jeremy Jarvis
Found in Libris Mortis: Book of the Undead (2004) the Atropal Scion is disturbing, to say the least. To create an Atropal Scion, you need the following to occur. First, a godling is sadly born dead. This dead baby god rises as an undead abomination, you know an Atropal. Like all evil creatures that spend their lives fighting, the Atropal will most likely be killed at some point in its unfortunate life. If the decaying matter from an Atropal isn’t completely destroyed, the remaining parts may then come alive again as an Atropal Scion. It no longer has the immense god-like powers it once possessed, it’s only CR 11 instead of CR 30, but we don't recommend you make them angry, for their primary purpose in life is to gain control over both the living and the dead.
If you do decide to do battle with an Atropal Scion, you and your friends best come prepared because there are several ways it can kill you. It has three special attacks, like its Death Gaze that stare into your soul and kill you instantly with only a DC 19 Fortitude save keeping you on this side of your grave. Worse, you are transformed into a wight if your friends don't bring you back from the dead within 24 hours. Nothing is saying that the wight is under the control of the Atropal, but you're still a wight, which sucks but is better than a ghoul.
If you're wondering why your teeth are chattering from the cold when in the presence of an Atropal Scion, we have the answer for you, and you won't like it. The creature radiates a 60-foot aura of negative energy. If you're undead, the aura is a great place to be, granting you resistance to being turned and fast healing. If you're among the living, it's not so great. You'll have two negative energy levels. If you or your companions have 2 Hit Dice or less, you won't have to worry about the negative energy level because you'll drop dead instantly. After a minute passes, you'll come back as a wight. It now clearly states you'll be under the control of the Atropal Scion and probably fighting the very friends you were just with.
There's more to the Atropal Scion than just the evil that pours forth from it, as it also has spells to use. Not surprisingly, the Atropal Scion can animate dead, but you'll probably already be a wight, so don't worry about your corpse being the Atropal's puppet. The Atropal can also cast create undead, cone of cold, invisibility, speak with dead, planeshift, and many more. These spells help it travel the planes, causing devastation, and building a great undead army to destroy the world.
Elder Evils (2007) talks at length about Atropus, the World Born Dead. It is theorized that Atropals are spawned from the cast-off pieces of the god. This makes sense since the description of it resembles an Atropal. We are also given the Evolved Atropal Scion, a stronger version of the Atropal Scion. It has more hit points and is a vicious creature found in the adventure within the book.
4e - Atropal
Level 28 Elite Brute
Large immortal magical beast (undead) / XP 26,000
Initiative +18
Senses Perception +20; darkvision
Shroud of Death (Necrotic) aura 5; at the beginning of the atropal’s turn, undead allies within the aura regain 20 hit points, and living creatures in the aura take 10 necrotic damage. Radiant damage to the atropal ends its shroud of death. The atropal can restore the aura as a minor action.
HP 634; Bloodied 317
AC 42; Fortitude 42, Reflex 37, Will 40
Immune disease, necrotic, poison; Vulnerable 10 radiant
Saving Throws +2
Speed fly 9 (hover)
Action Points 1; also see atropos burst
Necrotizing Touch (standard; at-will)✦ Necrotic Reach 2; +29 vs. Reflex; 2d10 + 10 damage, and the target takes ongoing 15 necrotic damage and a -2 penalty to attack rolls, and the target loses any resistance or immunity to necrotic damage (save ends all).
Atropos Burst (standard; recharges when a living creature drops to 0 hit points within the atropal’s aura) ✦ Necrotic Close burst 5; +27 vs. Reflex; 4d8 + 5 necrotic damage, and the target loses 1 healing surge. The atropal gains 1 action point if it hits any creatures with atropos burst
Alignment Evil / Languages Supernal
Skills Insight +25, Religion +19
Str 30 (+24) Dex 18 (+18) Wis 22 (+20) Con 27 (+22) Int 10 (+14) Cha 20 (+19)
Monster Manual, 2008 Wizards of the Coast / Dave Allsop
Found in the Monster Manual (2008), one might think that the Atropal has hit the big time. A fair number of monsters we talk about don’t make the 4th edition cut, let alone make their debut in the first Monster Manual. Unfortunately, you’ll be disappointed as there is very little information and only one incarnation of the creature, while so many others get three of four different creatures of the same name that vary in power and strength. Though, that isn’t completely true.
Atropal are now part of a monster group known as Abomination. As the name suggests, these are abominations who were created during the ancient cosmic war between the gods and primordials. While no one is stepping forward to take ownership of creating the Atropal, our money is on Orcus. Other abominations include the astral seeker, a horrifically strong assassin, the tarrasque, and others.
The Atropal lives to hate and destroy all life it encounters. Their background story is shortened to simply being incomplete godlings with just enough divine spark to become undead. You know, because the universe needs more mini-gods roaming around, hating everything and everyone. Thankfully, many are trapped or imprisoned far from the contact of other living beings. But many isn’t all, and we are sure that foolish adventurers aren’t out there, right now, unleashing a few more from their prisons.
The Atropal is the alpha among undead creatures. They usually have a small army of undead, such as sorrowsworn reapers and abyssal ghouls, under their command. Even more powerful undead creatures will try to curry an Atropal’s favor, including such powerful creatures as liches and vampire lords. We hope you get the picture by now. The Atropal is an undead monster of incredible power and one not to be trifled with.
We know you never heed our warning, so let’s see what you’re up against when you decide to attack an Atrpoal seems like a good idea. The first thing you’ll realize is that the Atropal is floating towards you, seemingly wanting to give you a hug. It’s intent is much more sinister, as it is trying to place you and as many of your friends as possible in it’s Death Aura. This aura heals its undead allies while harming you, which is a similar aura it had in the previous edition.
If you get too close to this creature, it can reach out and touch you. This touch, known as a necrotizing touch, causes you to take damage, and then the damage keeps going every turn until you can end the effect. While you are taking this ongoing necrotic damage, you take a penalty to your attack rolls and you are no longer resistant or immune to necrotic damage. In addition, if you decide the best tactic is to swarm the creature, the Atropal can unleash a burst of negative energy, dealing damage and also causing everyone to lose a healing surge, meaning that healing is going to get difficult near it.
If you were hoping for an end to these undead abominations, Dungeon #203 (2012) gives us the Atropal Deathscreamer, which is a fantastic name, by the way. This Atropal is one that escaped from its imprisonment and travels the universe looking for ancient artifacts. They hope these objects possess the divinity they were robbed of through their creation. It has some new attacks, and they are nothing you want to be exposed to. The Deathscreamer's Death Scream, a fitting ability name, will weaken those in its radius, allowing it to use its Life Draining Touch which, as the name suggests, drains your life away.
5e - Atropal
Huge Undead (Titan), Neutral Evil
Armor Class 7
Hit Points 225 (18d12+108)
Speed 0 ft., fly 50 ft. hover
STR 19 (+4) DEX 5 (-3) CON 22 (+6) INT 25 (+7) WIS 19 (+4) CHA 24 (+7)
Saving Throws Con +11, Wis +9
Damage Vilnerabilities Radiant
Damage Immunities Cold, Necrotic; Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing from Nonmagical Attacks
Condition Immunities Exhaustion, Firghtened, Paralyzed, Poisoned, Prone
Senses Darkvision 120 ft., Truesight 120 ft ., Passive Perception 14
Languages understands Celestial but utters only obscene nonsense
Challenge 13 (10,000 XP); Proficiency Bonus +5
Magic Resistance. The atropal has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
Negative Energy Aura. Creatures within 30 feet of the atropal can’t regain hit points, and any creature that starts its turn within 30 feet of the atropal takes 10 (3d6) necrotic damage. If the atropal is struck by a vorpal sword, the wielder can cut the atropal’s umbilical cord instead of dealing damage. If its umbilical cord is cut, the atropal loses this feature.
Turn Resistance Aura. The atropal and any other undead creature within 30 feet of it has advantage on savings throws agaainst any effect that turns undead.
Touch. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 10 (3d6) necrotic damage.
Ray of Cold. Ranged Spell Attack: +12 to hit, range 120 ft., one target. Hit: 21 (6d6) cold damage.
Life Drain. The atropal targets one creature it can see within 120 feet of it. The target must succeed on a DC 19 Constitution saving throw, taking 36 (8d8) necrotic damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. The atropal regains a number of hit points equal to half the amount of damage dealt.
Summon Wraith (Recharge 6). The atropal summons a wraith, which materializes within 30 feet of it in an unoccupied space it can see. The wraith obeys its summoner’s commands and can’t be controlled by any other creature. The wraith vanishes when it drops to 0 hit points or when its summoner dies.
Legendary Actions. The atropal can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from the options below. Only one legendary action option can be used at a time and only at the end of another creature’s turn. The atropal regains spent legendary actions at the start of its turn.
Touch. The atropal makes a touch attack.
Ray of Cold (Costs 2 Actions). The atropal uses its Ray of Cold.
Wail (Costs 3 Actions). The atropal lets out a withering wail. Any creature within 120 feet of the atropal that can hear the wail must succeed on a DC 19 Constitution saving throw or gain 1 level of exhaustion.
Tomb of Annihilation, 2017 Wizards of the Coast / Mark Behm
The Atropal doesn’t appear in any Monster Manuals but is featured in the adventure Tomb of Annihilation (2017). Before we begin, just a big warning that to talk about this creature, we are going to have to share spoilers for the adventure. We recommend you don’t read past this part if you are playing in this adventure, instead why don’t you read about something equally horrifying like the neogi? Or if you want something more light-hearted, kobolds. Kobolds are always good.
The Atropal in the adventure was found by the archlich Acererak on the edges of the Negative Plane. Scooping him up, Acererak built the soulmonger, a device that would feed the Atropal with souls. If you died anywhere in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting, your soul is delivered to the soulmonger, where it waits to be devoured by the Atropal. Why would Acererak do such a thing? To have it reach godhood status, of course! What evil creature, longing for domination of its world, wouldn't want an Atropal on its side? Plus, the undead godling would totally owe Acererak a favor.
This version of the Atropal looks just as hideous as it was in the past. It drools and swears like a drunken sailor, constantly babbling obscene nonsense in Celestial. It also has a defined umbilical cord that trails underneath it. This cord connects the Atropal to the Negative Plane, granting the creature power over life and death.
That should frighten you greatly, as the Atropal can summon the echoes of creatures who died there. These fragments of dead souls return as wraiths, serving their Atropal master. This includes trying to kill you at every available opportunity. You can weaken the Atropal's connection to the Negative plane by cutting the cord with a vorpal weapon. We hope you have such a weapon in your possession.
The Atropal's attacks and abilities have been slimmed down a tad. It still has its nasty Negative Energy aura and its draining ability is now called Life Drain. Spells have been reduced to just a ray of cold spell-like ability, and as mentioned above, the Atropal can summon wraiths. It also has three legendary actions now, including using its Touch, Ray of Cold, or Disrupt Life. When using the Disrupt Life ability, our friendly Atropal wails loud enough to make your ears bleed. Everyone within 120 feet that can hear it has an excellent chance of gaining one level of exhaustion from this piercing scream, which explains are relationship with screaming babies.
If you hope to fight this pathetic creature, the good news is that it is easier now then ever. It only comes in at CR 13, compared to CR 30 and 28 it had before. In addition, you can sever its connection to the Negative Plane by using a vorpal weapon to cut the strange umbilical cord that trails off into nothingness. What happens? Who knows, we are just told that it weakens the Atropal’s tie to the Negative Plane. In addition, the Atropal has a vulnerability to radiant damage, so your cleric better be busy calling on their divine deity for aid.
Tomb of Annihilation, 2017 Wizards of the Coast / Daarken
Whether or not you think the Atropal is the ugliest, most disturbing, or most dangerous creature we've delved into, one thing is for sure. The Atropal is not one you want to take lightly. They may not be gods, but anything with even the tiniest glimmer of divine spark should not be taken lightly.
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