Minor Reaper

Minor Reaper CR 10

XP 9,600
NE Medium undead (evil, extraplanar)
Init +8; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +18

DEFENSE

AC 22, touch 14, flat-footed 18 (+4 Dex, +8 natural)
hp 127 (15d8+60)
Fort +8, Ref +11, Will +9
DR 5/cold iron or good; Immune cold, undead traits; SR 21

OFFENSE

Speed 30 ft.
Melee scythe +14/+9/+4 (2d4+3/×4 plus death touch)
Special Attacks fear cone (30 ft., DC 20)

STATISTICS

Str 14, Dex 19, Con —, Int 8, Wis 11, Cha 17
Base Atk +11; CMB +15; CMD 27
Feats Agile Maneuvers, Cleave, Combat Reflexes, Improved Initiative, Lightning Reflexes, Power Attack, Toughness, Weapon Focus (scythe)
Skills Climb +10, Intimidate +16, Perception +18, Stealth +22
SQ sole target

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Death Touch (Su)

Creatures hit by either a lesser reaper’s touch attack or by a weapon wielded by a lesser reaper must succeed at a DC 20 Fortitude save or gain 1d4 negative levels. The save DC is Charisma-based. A humanoid slain by a reaper’s death touch is consumed in unholy fire and has its remains destroyed as the destruction spell. This is a death effect.

Sole Target (Su)

Each minor reaper is assigned a specific target by the reaper that summoned it. If a creature attacks a minor reaper targeting another creature, that minor reaper may immediately summon another minor reaper as a free action to battle the interceding creature unless the interloper is already in battle with a minor reaper of its own, in which case the ability is wasted. If a minor reaper does not or cannot use this ability immediately after being attacked, it must wait until it is attacked once again in order to do so.

ECOLOGY

Environment any
Organization solitary or omen (2–4)
Treasure none

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, ghostlike 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 is 15 feet tall and, as an incorporeal creature, has no physical weight except for its equipment. Minor reapers stand 7 feet tall and weigh approximately 70 pounds.

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 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 f lees 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.

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