Skin Kite

Skin kites are undead creatures made up of the stolen skin of past victims. They feed on the skin of living beings, replenishing their own constantly rotting skin, as well as using new skin as spawning material for new skin kites.

No two skin kites appear the same. They display a range of different colors, depending on the creatures from which they were harvested. Many skin kites have rotting clumps of hair or fur, unintended additional trophies from past victims.

A skin kite has no body, only a wingspan, which is about 5 feet. It weighs about 5 pounds.

A skin kite attacks by landing on a victim and melding a portion of its undead membrane with its victim’s skin.

Diet Dependent: A skin kite is diet dependent (see Undead Metabolism) upon skin, which it acquires by using its steal skin ability.

Launch Kite (Ex): When a skin kite has absorbed 4 points of Charisma (through its steal skin ability; see below), it attempts to retreat to a safe place where it can take a full-round action to spawn a new skin kite with the stolen skin. A freshly launched skin kite has a number of hit points equal to the original’s current total (its full normal hit points are equal to the original’s full normal total, even if its current hit points are lower than that).

Meld (Ex): If a skin kite hits a Small or larger creature with a melee touch attack, it melds with the opponent’s body. An attached skin kite is effectively grappling its prey. The skin kite loses its Dexterity bonus to AC, but while melded, it is hard to remove. Skin kites have a +12 racial bonus on grapple checks (figured into the statistics above).

A melded skin kite can be struck with a weapon or grappled itself. To remove a melded skin kite by grappling, the opponent must achieve a pin against the skin kite, which forcefully peels the creature off and also deals 1d6 points of damage.

Steal Skin (Ex): A skin kite steals portions of its foe’s skin, absorbing them directly into itself, dealing 1d4 points of Charisma damage in each round when it remains melded. Once it has dealt 4 points of Charisma damage, it detaches and flies off to launch a kite. If its victim reaches Charisma 0 before a skin kite has dealt 4 points of Charisma damage, the skin kite unmelds and seeks a new target.