Wretched Rector Monster - Pathfinder Roleplaying Game

A thin clergyman hobbles along muttering prayers and waving his hands in gestures of faith.

Init +4; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, scent; Perception +3

Skills Bluff +6, Climb +7, Disguise +13, Knowledge (religion) +3, Perception +3, Stealth +11

Combat Reflexes Make a number of additional attacks of opportunity per round equal to your Dexterity bonus. May make attacks of opportunity while flat-footed.

Regeneration (Ex) Heal damage at fixed rate each round and cannot die as long as ability is still functioning (but fall unconscious when hp are below 0). Specified attack forms cause regeneration to stop functioning on round following the attack. During this round, do not heal any damage and can die normally. Attack forms that don't deal hp damage are not healed. Does not restore hp lost from starvation, thirst, or suffocation. Can regrow or reattach severed limbs or body parts if brought together within 1 hour of severing. Severed parts not reattached wither and die normally.

Rend (Ex) 1/round—If you hit with two or more of the listed natural attacks in 1 round, deal additional listed damage.

Scent (Ex) Can detect opponents within 30 ft. by smell (60 ft. if opponent upwind, 15 ft. downwind). Strong scents (smoke or garbage) at twice range and overpowering scents (skunk or troglodyte) at triple range. Exact location not revealed, only presence within range. As move action, note direction of scent (pinpoints when within 5 ft.). Track by smell with Wisdom (or Survival) check (DC 10 for fresh trail on any surface). Increase DC by 2 per hour of trail's age. Otherwise as Survival skill ignoring surface conditions and poor visibility.

Step Up When an adjacent foe attempts to take a 5-foot step away from you, you may also make a 5-foot step as an immediate action so long as you end up adjacent to the foe that triggered this ability. If you take this step, you cannot take a 5-foot step during your next turn. If you take an action to move during your next turn, subtract 5 feet from your total movement.

A wretched rector was, in life, a priest, deacon, or lay minister whose devotion curdled rather than broke. Some died mid-schism, cursing a god who let plague or war take a congregation. Others were slain performing a rite they had corrupted for personal gain, and something in the ritual's residue bound their hunger to their body instead of releasing it. However it happens, what rises is no longer a servant of any faith, only a thing wearing one's shape.

The transformation leaves the body with a scavenger's regenerative vitality, wounds knitting shut in the middle of a sermon, flesh sloughing back into place after a mace blow that should have ended it. Holy water and weapons and positive energy are the only things it truly fears, since they unravel the very healing that keeps it standing. It retains enough memory of ritual and cadence to fool the desperate: a wandering holy man arriving just after some tragedy, offering rites and comfort, is one of the oldest warning signs a village can learn to recognize, usually too late.

It does not preach out of faith. It preaches because a kneeling supplicant is a still supplicant, and a still throat is an open one. Where several rise from the same disgraced chapter house or massacred pilgrimage, they gather in ragged mockeries of vigil, muttering over the dying and waiting for a body warm enough to feed on. They often pretend to be elderly or weak and lash out with terrible speed when foes are within reach and unable to flee.

Author's Notes

I found myself flipping through the Book of Beasts: Monster Variations and reading the various altered monster stat blocks within. That sparked the thought experiment of quickly reskinning some stat blocks not out of an immediate need but for the challenge and interest of it. It is always good to keep your skills sharp.

This creature was born out of that idea and put together in a very short amount of time. Seeing that it wasn't utter rubbish, I decided to put it out here for anyone to use.

Originally, I planned on a more zombie-like "carnivorous cadaver" that regenerates, but when I got to the skills and feats assignment, Disguise being a class skill for undead type caught my eye. That quickly pivoted into the undead preacher and pack of religious men cursed for their sins and feasting on the living.

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