Dwarf Banshee

A dwarf who dies before finishing a great focus may linger as a banshee, haunting the unfinished work or quest and unable to stand the idea that someone else might complete it. The flesh begins rotting off the moment undeath takes hold, baring muscle that darkens to brown in sun and sand, or turns gray and moldy underground. Its pupils always flicker red, as if lit by a fire inside. It still speaks every language it knew in life.

A dwarf banshee keeps its class and levels, its skills, its spellcasting and any psionics it had alive, plus its old arms and armor, though it may gain or lose gear over time. Caught between life and death, it is only semi-material, and only steel or +1 or better weapons can strike it.

By day it pairs a physical attack with a cursed gaze. A victim who meets its eyes must save vs. spells or go berserk for 2d6 rounds, gaining +2 to attack and damage but unable to leave the fight. The enraged victim attacks only fellow party members, never the banshee, even if it strikes him; with no one else around, he runs for a turn looking for someone to fight before the rage fades. Once each night it can also howl a cursed war cry that forces the same save on everyone who hears it. Every wail and every gaze from every dwarf banshee present demands its own saving throw. One remove curse ends the rage for one person.

Fire, water and air attacks deal it half damage; earth spells deal double. Its single-mindedness makes contact-based psionics useless against it. At 0 hit points the corpse crumbles to dust, but unless its unfinished focus is destroyed or completed, it returns at full strength the next sunset.

It rises whenever a living being comes within a mile, day or night, and stays alert while the intruder remains. Often it watches first, judging what the visitors intend before it strikes.

A dwarf banshee wants only to protect what was its own. Folk tales say it can be laid to rest when a seventh son born of a seventh son completes its focus. Elders claim the fire in its eyes comes from the elemental plane of fire or from a forge of the ancient dwarves.

In addition to any psionic powers it had in life, it gains psychometabolic sciences death field and shadow form, and devotions cause decay, body weaponry, double pain and chemical simulation.