Grim Reaper

This tall, cloaked figure stares out from the black hood that covers its head. It wields an enormous scythe in its skeletal, bone-white hands, looking as though it is freezing the very air around it.

Grim Reaper CR 22

XP 614,400
NE Medium undead (extraplanar)
Init +14; Senses darkvision 60 ft., see invisibility, status sight, true seeing; Perception +6; Aura misfortune (20 ft.), unnatural aura

DEFENSE

AC 39, touch 29, flat-footed 28 (+10 Dex, +1 dodge, +10 natural, +8 profane)
hp 400 (32d8+256)
Fort +26, Ref +29, Will +32
Defensive Abilities channel resistance +4, death’s grace;
DR 10/—; Immune undead traits; SR 33

OFFENSE

Speed 60 ft., fly 90 ft. (perfect)
Melee +5 keen adamantine scythe +40/+40/+35/+30/+25 (2d4+18/19–20/×4 plus death strike and energy drain)
Special Attacks death strike (DC 34), energy drain (2 levels, DC 34), final death
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 20th; concentration +27)

Constanthaste, see invisibility, true seeing
At willcall spirit (DC 23)
3/dayfinger of death (DC 26), power word kill
1/dayplane shift (DC 23)

STATISTICS

Str 29, Dex 30, Con —, Int 15, Wis 23, Cha 26
Base Atk +24; CMB +34; CMD 62
Feats Cleave, Cleaving Finish, Combat Casting, Combat Reflexes, Critical Focus, Dazing Assault, Furious Focus, Great Cleave, Improved Cleaving Finish, Improved Initiative, Power Attack, Staggering Critical, Step Up, Stunning Critical, Tiring Critical, Weapon Focus (scythe)
Skills Acrobatics +42, Disguise +43, Fly +18, Intimidate +43, Knowledge (planes) +18, Knowledge (religion) +21, Ride +42, Stealth +45
Languages Celestial, Common, Infernal

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Death Strike (Su)

A grim reaper automatically confirms any critical hit. A creature damaged by a critical hit from a grim reaper must succeed at a DC 34 Fortitude saving throw or be instantly killed. The save DC is Charisma-based.

Death’s Grace (Su)

The dark power stolen from countless souls protects a grim reaper, granting it a profane bonus on all saving throws and to AC equal to its Charisma modifier.

Final Death (Su)

A creature killed by a grim reaper can’t be brought back to life by any means short of divine intervention.

Misfortune Aura (Su)

When a living creature attempts an ability check, attack roll, caster level check, skill check, or saving throw within 20 feet of a grim reaper, it must roll two d20s and take the lowest roll before applying any modifiers.

Status Sight (Su)

When a grim reaper gazes on a creature, it can see that creature’s emotion aura and that creature’s current health and overall well-being. This acts as the status spell, as well as the emotion aura aspect of the analyze aura spell.

ECOLOGY

Environment any
Organization solitary
Treasure standard (+5 keen adamantine scythe, other treasure)

Known by many names throughout nearly all cultures, grim reapers are the personifications of death and all the pain and fear associated with that state. They are universally feared by the living as harbingers of destruction and masters of all that has already passed from life. These hooded beings travel through the planes with the sole intent of bringing about the end of life, slaying with a deliberateness inscrutable to all but themselves.

While grim reapers are the most feared of their kind, they are not alone. The towering, ghost-like grim reapers are served by minor reapers, corporeal servitors that enact their master’s dreadful will and meet out death’s unrelenting touch. A grim reaper has no physical weight except for its equipment.

Ecology

Grim reapers have no creator and are not born by any definition of the word—they simply exist, much as the multiverse itself does. Some philosophers argue that grim reapers were created along with the Negative Energy Plane, manifesting from this plane when mortalkind first realized death’s terminal permanency. Others claim that multiple minor reapers meeting on the Negative Energy Plane or another area infused with overwhelming negative energy might join together to form a new grim reaper.

While similar in shape to the psychopomps, reapers care little for mortal souls, reveling in the moment of death and dissolution of the impermanent, regardless of the elaborate bureaucracy that oversees the doomed.

Habitat & Society

While grim reapers stalk the planes, spreading death and despair for their own sakes, they are not alone in their endeavors. Among their many powers, grim reapers can summon lesser versions of themselves to seek out and kill specific individuals. These minor reapers are encountered far more often than their masters, either in the service of their masters or summoned by evil magic-users to do their foul bidding. While stripped of their more powerful brethren’s necromantic powers, these minor reapers are nonetheless brutal hunters and stop at nothing to achieve their objective. Minor reapers usually wait until their target is alone before appearing for battle, though if a pack of these undead assassins are sent after a group of victims, they will engage multiple targets if necessary.

If summoned by a grim reaper, minor reapers act as its additional eyes and ears, and if they are destroyed, their master is immediately aware of their obliteration. Other times, a grim reaper may summon minor reapers to aid in its escape from a battle it expects to lose, and flees to another plane of existence where it may recover and better prepare for the annihilation of its targets.

Grim reapers possess the ability to speak to any intelligent being, and the few who have survived encounters with a reaper or its minions claim that the bringer of death spoke to them in a deep, unearthly voice like nothing in the material realm.

Minor reapers can be created by casters of 20th level or higher using the spell create greater undead.

Section 15: Copyright Notice

Pathfinder Adventure Path #48: Shadows of Gallowspire. © 2011, Paizo Publishing, LLC; Author: Brandon Hodge.

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Bestiary 5 © 2015, Paizo Inc.; Authors: Dennis Baker, Jesse Benner, John Bennett, Logan Bonner, Creighton Broadhurst, Robert Brookes, Benjamin Bruck, Jason Bulmahn, Adam Daigle, Thurston Hillman, Eric Hindley, Joe Homes, James Jacobs, Amanda Hamon Kunz, Ben McFarland, Jason Nelson, Thom Phillips, Stephen Radney-MacFarland, Alistair Rigg, Alex Riggs, David N. Ross, Wes Schneider, David Schwartz, Mark Seifter, Mike Shel, James L. Sutter, and Linda Zayas-Palmer.

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