Grim Reaper

Also called the death spirit, the grim reaper comes from the negative material plane and appears only in the misty dread realm. It looks like a bleached skeleton over six feet tall wrapped in a dark robe, always gripping a scythe. Though it seems undead, it is not. It never speaks to the living on their terms, but rumor holds that speak with dead can reach it, language posing no barrier.

Anyone dropped to 0 hit points or lower can draw it, and it appears to feed on that ebbing life. It fights only when someone tries to keep it from its meal, and then it is terrible. It arrives invisible, so only those who can see invisible things can fight it properly. Only +3 or better weapons hit it, and it ignores mind- and life-affecting magic (charm, fear, sleep, suggestion, cause light wounds, finger of death and the like), cold, fire and electricity spells, turning, and control or detect undead. A negative plane protection spell on the dying person blocks the feeding and lets the reaper be harmed normally.

Against defenders it follows a fixed three-round cycle. First, it swings the ethereal scythe as a polearm for 1d4 damage; anyone struck must save vs. death magic or die on the spot. Second, it fixes its stare on one attacker, who must make a horror check or be overcome by its aura of death. Third, it clubs with the haft as a quarterstaff for 1d4, and the target falls as if under feign death until the reaper is driven away. Then the cycle repeats.

Whenever it gets a chance at its intended victim, it touches him with the scythe, needing no attack roll and dealing no physical damage, and drains his life force, then fades into the mists. Resurrection or reincarnation of that person fails unless the power is divine. Reducing the reaper to 0 hit points drives it off and restores 10% of the dying person's original hit points; any healing magic on the dying character also rescues him and banishes it.

Some say death spirits serve the dark powers of the realm and that foiling them invites those powers' anger. Nothing proves it, but a link seems likely. A character lying at 0 hit points or below has a 5% chance per experience level of drawing one, so a 15th-level hero on his deathbed faces a 75% chance.

Native to the negative plane, reapers fit nowhere in the material world, though some argue they are a vital hinge in the balance of life and death central to neutral philosophies.