A long, spiny fin runs down the length of the dolphinlike body of this eel-headed predator.

Lukwatas slip through dark tropical waters, preying upon all who dare enter their deep jungle rivers and pools, including beasts typically considered apex predators. While scholars say the beasts favor the dark, light doesn't deter them in their relentless pursuit of prey. Their long, flat bodies are reminiscent of those of dolphins or large fish, but lukwatas' heads are distinctively eel-like. A lukwata's unusual ability to disrupt magical effects rises from the strange crystalline growths that line its throat and stomach—crystals that allow the lukwata to gain nutrients from magical items as efficiently as from flesh and blood. These same growths give the lukwata an unusually strong resistance to all manner of magic attacks.

Lukwatas hate crocodiles, their chief predatory rivals, and attack them on sight, even if the lukwata has recently fed. Most crocodilians are not large enough to pose a significant threat; however, some accounts exist of lukwatas and dire crocodiles crossing paths. These fights are renowned for inflicting great destruction, with the embattled creatures smashing to bits piers, flotillas, and even dams in their fury.

A lukwata is 20 feet long and weighs 4,000 pounds.

Special Abilities

Damage Reduction (Ex) A lukwata's Damage reduction Is penetrated only by nonmagical weapons (temporary magical weapons, such as those created by the spell Magic weapon And similar effects, count as magical weapons).

Digest Magic (Su) A magic item swallowed by a lukwata must make a DC 22 Fortitude save after an hour or become permanently nonmagical. Artifacts are immune to this effect. The save DC is Constitution-based.

Dispelling Bite (Su) When a lukwata scores a critical hit with its bite, the victim is affected as if targeted by a Greater dispel magic Spell. The caster level for this effect is equal to the lukwata's Hit Dice (CL 14th for most lukwatas).

Eldritch Encrustation (Su) Crystalline growths along the lukwata's digestive tract contain large deposits of magical energy. These nodes are responsible for the magical feedback that surrounds each lukwata, granting it its spell Resistance , Damage reduction , dispelling bite, and digest magic abilities. Dispel magic Cast on a lukwata can negate these powers for 1 minute—the CL of the effect is treated as the lukwata's Hit Dice (CL 14th for most lukwatas).