Ebon Tiger

An ebon tiger looks like a normal tiger sculpted from black flame, stripeless and solid black. Paler patches of darkness mark its eyes, teeth and whiskers, and these sometimes glitter faintly with magic, especially when it is angry or excited.

Ebon tigers are consummate stalkers. Their shadowy bodies let them hide in shadows with 100% success. They are insubstantial and nearly weightless, so they move in total silence, cannot be harmed by normal weapons and slip easily through small openings, even mere cracks and holes. With senses that reach across into the Ethereal, they can fight out-of-phase and ethereal beings at all times, and those beings can fight them.

Guarded sites are often lit by flickering torches or lamps to multiply shadows, and intruders take -4 on surprise when the silent cat springs.

It fights with claws and teeth, and its bite can blind. A bitten creature must save vs. poison or feel its sight dim and its senses swim. On the next round it suffers -1 on attack rolls, ability checks and saving throws, and the penalty worsens by 1 per round to a maximum of -4. Magical healing of any type, such as cure disease, neutralize poison or a cure wounds spell, stops the effect if used before that point. At -4 the victim is totally and permanently blind, and only cure blindness or heal can restore sight.

Ebon tigers hunt alone, roaming the Prime Material, the Ethereal and other inner planes. They prefer dense growth where trees and brush keep things shadowy even by day. They are reputed to be territorial, foul-tempered and vicious. Wild ones are in truth retiring creatures that fight only from hunger or fear, but because they are shy they treat almost any intrusion as a threat.

Their origin is unclear. They may have come from a gloomy demiplane in the Deep Ethereal, or they may be the product of ancient magical experiments by some forgotten priest or wizard. Cat-folk priests often keep them to guard important sites and treasures, a role that earned them their name as heartless killers.

Ebon tigers seem to need neither water nor sleep and spend their lives prowling. They need fresh meat only occasionally and can go months without eating, preferring to kill their own food and devour all of it, bones included. In captivity they accept fresh meat from keepers and need feeding about every six weeks.

Whatever their origin, they breed true. During a mating season of about six weeks each year, they abandon their usual ranges as males and females seek one another. After a brief pairing they part, and after 10 to 12 weeks she bears a litter of 1d3. She guards the cubs two years as they reach half size and master hunting; when she leaves, the cubs scatter to their own lives. What little fat an ebon tiger has is sometimes used in making oil of etherealness, and some mages think its breath could serve the same purpose.