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Spirit, Revenant

by Simone Neri

Medium Undead (Incorporeal)
Hit Dice: 18d12 (117 hp)
Initiative: +8
Speed: Flying 20 ft. (perfect) (4 squares)
Armour Class: 20 (+4 Dex, +6 deflection), touch 20, flat-footed 16
Base Attack/Grapple: +9/-
Attack: None
Full Attack: None
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Possess
Special Qualities: Blindsight 60 ft., damage reduction 15/magic, darkvision 60 ft., daylight powerlessness, immunity to cold, incorporeal traits, resistance to electricity 20 and fire 20, spell resistance 27, undead traits, unnatural aura
Saves: Fort +6, Ref +10, Will +13
Abilities: Str - , Dex 19, Con -, Int 13, Wis 10, Cha 22
Skills: Hide +31, Intimidate +11, Jump +26, Listen +10, Move Silently +21, Spot +15, Tumble +23
Feats: Acrobatic, Greater Spell Focus (necromancy), Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Quicken Spell-Like Ability (animate dead), Spell Focus (necromancy), Stealthy
Environment: Any
Organisation: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 14
Treasure: None
Alignment: Usually chaotic evil
Advancement: 19-36 HD (Medium)
Level Adjustment: -

Detecting its invisible form, you see that this creature is a wickedly dark and misty shroud of malevolence. It has no visible features, but its mere presence is enough to make you shrivel.

Spirit revenants - not to be confused with the other, vengeful type of corporeal undead monster - are the most powerful and fierce of undead spirits. In incorporeal form, revenants are invisible like all other spirits. They don't show any feature to those that can see invisible things, even if sometimes their shadowy silhouette may recall the appearance they had in life. Revenants can possess any dead body of size ranging from Small to Large; the possessed body therefore seems like a zombie, but moves at a much faster rate.
In incorporeal form, a druj is about as tall as an human and, being incorporeal, has no weight.
Revenants speak Common and Abyssal.

COMBAT
As all spirits, revenants in incorporeal form, if detected, are hardly a match for well-equipped opponent, being almost powerless. Its true power manifests only when dusk falls and it has taken possession of a body.

Possess (Su): As other spirits, a revenant regains the use of this ability when the sun begin to set and loses it when possessing a body or when the first lights of dawn show. A revenant can only take possession of dead bodies or creatures that were alive, ranging in size from Small to Large; of course, the revenant tries to find whole bodies, or its combat abilities will be hindered. Being inanimate objects, the possession attempt is automatically successful. A revenant most often choses to possess the corpse of a humanoid or monstrous humanoid; animals and magical beasts are lesser choices, but the revenant will chose them if they're the only corpses available. The body must belong to a creature that had a skeletal system while alive.
A corpse possessed by a revenant acquires the spirit possessed (revenant) template, below.

Spirit Possessed (Revenant)

This template can be added to any dead body belonging to a creature which was alive a had a skeletal system. The resulting creature retains all the following voices from the revenant's entry: environment, organisation, treasure, alignment, advancement and level adjustment.
Size and type: The possessed corpse changes its type to undead. It retains any subtype except alignment subtypes (such as good) and subtypes that indicate kind (such as goblinoid or reptilian). The possessed body's size depends on which type of creature the revenant chose to possess. Note that the revenant can possess a body of any type, as far as it's no smaller than Small or larger than Large size.
Hit Dice: Drop any Hit Dice of the original creature and substitute them with the revenant's Hit Dice.
Speed: The possessed body keeps the speed it had while alive.
Armour Class: Natural armour bonus increases by +9.
Base Attack: Use the revenant's base attack bonus.
Attacks: If the possessed body has prehensile arms, it gains a double primary melee claw attack. If the body has a mouth, it gains also a secondary melee bite attack. Note that the revenant can make use of all the possessed body's attack modes; if the body had a primary attack other than claws or manufactured weapon, the claw attacks granted by the spirit possessed (revenant) template become secondary attacks. A spirit possessed (revenant) never uses manufactured weapons and isn't proficient with them. Note also that each of the possessed body's multiple attacks causes the revenant's poison touch to the target.
Damage: The damage also depends on the size of body possessed. Claw attack damage is 1d6 for Small corpses, 2d4 for Medium corpses and 2d6 for Large one. Bite damage is 1d3 for Small corpses, 1d4 for Medium and 1d6 for Large ones. If the possessed body had claw or bite attack modes with better damage ratings, the latter take precedence over the revenant's ones. Other attack forms inherited by the revenant from the original creature retains their original damage ratings. Note that each living creature hit by one of a spirit possessed (revenant)'s multiple attacks, is subject to the spirit's poison touch.
Special Attacks: A spirit possessed (revenant) retains none of the original creature's supernatural or spell-like abilities, but gets the use of any extraordinary ability the possessed body may have had. Moreover, it gains the spirit's poison touch, poisonous aura and spell-like abilities special attacks. The body possessed by a revenant acquires the leaping ambush and summon spectres special attacks.

Special Qualities: A spirit possessed (revenant) body loses any of the original creature's special qualities that were spell-like or supernatural abilities, but retains the use of all its special qualities that were extraordinary abilities. Besides, it acquires all the revenant's special qualities, the unnatural leap special quality and a +6 turn resistance.

Saves: Use the revenant's saving throws.
Abilities: Use the revenant's Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma scores. A spirit possessed (revenant) body uses the original creature's Strength and Dexterity scores, and gets a +4 bonus to Strength and a +8 bonus to Dexterity.
Skills: Use the revenant's skills and drop any skill of the original body.
Feats: Use the revenant's feats and drop any feat of the original body.
Challenge Rating: Use the revenant's CR; add a modifier of +1/3 CR of the possessed creature's original body.

Below is an example of spirit possessed (revenant) created from a human body.

Spirit Possessed (Revenant) Human

Medium Undead
Hit Dice: 18d12 (117 hp)
Initiative: +8
Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares)
Armour Class: 23 (+4 Dex, +9 natural), touch 14, flat-footed 19
Base Attack/Grapple: +9/+11
Attack: Claw +11 melee (2d4+2 plus poison)
Full Attack: 2 claws +11 melee (2d4+2 plus poison) and 1 bite +6 melee (1d4+1 plus poison)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Leaping Ambush, Poison Touch, Poisonous Aura, Spell-like Abilities, Summon Spectres
Special Qualities: Blindsight 60 ft., damage reduction 15/magic, darkvision 60 ft., daylight powerlessness, immunity to cold, resistance to electricity 20 and fire 20, spell resistance 27, turn resistance +6, undead traits, unnatural aura, unnatural leap
Saves: Fort +6, Ref +10, Will +13
Abilities: Str 14, Dex 19, Con -, Int 13, Wis 10, Cha 22
Skills: Hide +31, Intimidate +11, Jump +26, Listen +10, Move Silently +21, Spot +15, Tumble +23
Feats: Acrobatic, Greater Spell Focus (necromancy), Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Quicken Spell-Like Ability (animate dead), Spell Focus (necromancy), Stealthy
Environment: Any
Organisation: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 14
Treasure: None
Alignment: Usually chaotic evil
Advancement: 19-36 HD (Medium)
Level Adjustment: -

Perhaps in Trollhattan (Broken Lands) some unlucky goblinoid could stumble upon this:

Spirit Possessed (Revenant) Troll

Large Undead
Hit Dice: 18d12 (117 hp)
Initiative: +9
Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares)
Armour Class: 29 (-1 size, +6 Dex, +14 natural), touch 15, flat-footed 23
Base Attack/Grapple: +9/+21
Attack: Claw +17 melee (2d4+8 plus poison)
Full Attack: 2 claws +17 melee (2d6+8 plus poison) and 1 bite +12 melee (1d6+4 plus poison)
Space/Reach: 10 ft./10 ft.
Special Attacks: Leaping Ambush, Poison Touch, Poisonous Aura, Rend 4d6+12, Spell-like Abilities, Summon Spectres
Special Qualities: Blindsight 60 ft., damage reduction 15/magic, darkvision 90 ft., daylight powerlessness, immunity to cold, low-light vision, regeneration 5, resistance to electricity 20 and fire 20, scent, spell resistance 27, turn resistance +6, undead traits, unnatural aura, unnatural leap
Saves: Fort +6, Ref +12, Will +13
Abilities: Str 27, Dex 22, Con -, Int 13, Wis 10, Cha 22
Skills: Hide +33, Intimidate +11, Jump +30, Listen +10, Move Silently +23, Spot +15, Tumble +25
Feats: Acrobatic, Greater Spell Focus (necromancy), Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Quicken Spell-Like Ability (animate dead), Spell Focus (necromancy), Stealthy
Environment: Any
Organisation: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 16
Treasure: None
Alignment: Usually chaotic evil
Advancement: 19-36 HD (Medium)
Level Adjustment: -