Nightwing

No, not the Robin—the nightshade.  At CR 14, nightwings are the least powerful of the common nightshades (though Undead Revisited’s nightskitters are “only” CR 12).  But that leaves them plenty of ammunition to make characters’ lives miserable and short, including a magic draining bite.  Given that they constantly detect magic, you GMs have every excuse in the world to target PCs’ beloved magical items and carefully prepared buffing enchantments.  You’re not being mean; you’re simply doing what would come naturally to an Int 18 undead travesty of existence.

Also, who says nightwings have to be bats?  Hey classic D&D fans: remember the nightwing in the city of Oenkmar (GAZ10 The Orcs of Thar by Bruce Heard) that guarded the entrance to the demon-god Atzanteotl’s home plane?  It was shaped like a giant ray so big it showed up on the map!  That’s what nightwings look like in my head.

The nightwalker general Vercintorix is never without two nightwing bodyguards.  It is their job to soften up magically warded assailants—holy-armored paladins in particular.  One of these bodyguards carries a white scar (and a still-festering grudge) courtesy of a half-elf desert magus.

In Shadow Einhoven, two winged ancient assailants play a vicious game of dog-fighting.  The umbral dragon Nixus resents that a weaker but sleepless, relentless interloper has put her on the defensive in her own city.  The nightwing Saberflight fears what the dragon could do to her in a stand-up fight and hates Nixus for casually gobbling up every undead minion the nightshade has sent her way.

The most powerful necromancers of Isle Jaamberei are known to sacrifice whole villages in order to summon a nightwing.  Survivors have reported nightwings in the forms of bats, flying snakes, giant sugar gliders, and winged apes.

—Pathfinder Bestiary 2 202

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