Soul Thief

Medium undead, lawful evil

Armor Class 18 (Natural armor)
Hit Points 45 (10d8)
Speed 30 ft., fly 30 ft.

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
5 (-3)	19 (+4)	11 (+0)	12 (+1)	13 (+1)	10 (+0)

Skills Stealth +6
Damage Immunities necrotic, poison, bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from non-magical weapons
Condition Immunities charmed, exhaustion, grappled, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned, prone, restrained
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 11
Languages infernal
Challenge 3 (700 XP)

SPECIAL TRAITS

• Incorporeal. The Soul thief can move through objects and creatures as if they were difficult terrain. It takes 5 (1d10) force damage if it ends its turn inside an object.
• Shadow Camouflage. Any time the soul thief is in dim light or darkness, it has advantage on all stealth checks and it is always considered to have somewhere to hide, even if in plain sight.
• Energy Drain. After carefully attuning itself to a particular living victim, it can merge with him, becoming a two-dimensional shadow that takes the place of the victim’s shadow. It can move and behave exactly as a regular shadow making it almost impossible to detect (Perception check DC 22). However, even in the darkest light the shadow still exists, and in the brightest sun, it seems less substantial (Perception check DC 17 for each). Each day the victim must make a Wisdom save (DC 15), failure indicating that the soul thief has begun wearing away the target’s soul and causing a point of temporary wisdom loss in the process. When the victim reaches zero wisdom, the soul thief will attack the victim, and then personally escorts the departed soul to hell. While attached, the victim cannot regain or be cured of the loss in any way. While attached to a victim, the soul thief loses some of its natural AC, dropping it to 16. It usually only takes a single attack to force it to flee.

ACTIONS

• Multiattack. The soul thief attacks twice with its claws and once with its bite. If it hits a single target with both claw attacks, it uses its improved grab.
• Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit:6 (1d4+4) slashing damage.
• Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d6+4) piercing damage.
• Improved Grab. If the soul thief hits a target with both claws, it automatically grapples them (DC 16 to escape). While grappled, the soul thief can automatically hit with its bite attack.

ABOUT

A soul thief appears as a shadowy, vaguely transparent figure of smoky black. Its face is long, ghoulish in appearance, with hollow, empty eyes. Small horns knob his head and round out the creature’s upper quarters. His chest is thin, and his arms wisp-like. Long claws compliment the wings that adorn his back. But his lower torso is his most peculiar feature. More like an elongated shadow, it trails off into the nothingness that is the heart of the soul thief.

Shepherd of the Damned. A soul thief is a special servant of the lords of the nether worlds. He is a guide of sorts, escorting the dead into the Shadow Realm. This is called harvesting the soul; though the soul thief does not harvest just any soul, for he is only tasked with harvesting the souls of those lawful evil creatures who the lords of the Shadow Realm wish to reward. The reward, of course, is always an eternity of pain and suffering.

Hunter of souls. They are very evil and relish journeying to the other planes to harvest souls. When on such sojourns they frequently deviate from the task and hunt other prey and harvest other souls. The soul thief is very aggressive when cornered but more than that, he is very curious, often hunting and attacking targets that draw his interest.

Cowardly at Heart. A soul thief doesn’t prefer a stand-up fight, but rather hides in the shadows, or becomes incorporeal. It waits for the intended victim to approach and merges with their shadow attempting to weaken the creature to the point that it cannot defend itself. Once the creature dies, the soul thief begins harvesting the victim’s soul.