Skotos

Skotos are souls that clawed their way out of the afterlife to walk among the living as undead. Each is a pale, shadowy echo of the being it once was, and it can come from any intelligent race. All are evil, since no one else would willingly abandon the afterlife to hunt the living.

Fresh blood draws them, and they feed on it, even soaking it up from the wounds they inflict. Every point of damage a skotos deals restores an equal number of its own hit points, up to its 40-point maximum; a hit for 8 heals it 8. The victim loses nothing permanent and recovers normally.

Hunting in packs, they usually hide in shadows with a 75% group chance of success to ambush prey. Near a fresh battle the sight of blood whips them into a frenzy, and they abandon stealth to attack any living thing in view, though they still prefer intelligent prey.

Sleep, charm, hold and cold-based spells do nothing to them, nor do poison or paralyzation. Ordinary weapons work. Each vial of holy water deals 2-8, and casting resurrection or raise dead on one destroys it outright. Priests turn them as ghasts. At zero hit points or less, a skotos is dragged back into the land of the dead.

Bands tend to share race and alignment, but different kinds will team up for the shared purpose of feeding. They favor places that recall the afterlife they fled, chiefly caves and tunnels underground, though some packs stalk barren wilderness by night. Sunlight does not harm them, but they hate it and run from it whenever possible.