Vartha

Its name means guardian spirit, and unlike most undead it need not be evil. It shows none of the usual rot, looking instead like a fresh corpse neatly prepared by a mortician.

A vartha fights as a fighter-cleric. Its abilities are impressive: Strength 18/75, Wisdom 17, Dexterity and Constitution 16 each, Charisma 15 and Intelligence 13, and it goes into battle wearing partial plate armor +2 for AC 2 and swinging a morning star +2. Its listed statistics already include these.

It also prays. Each of the following is available once a day, cast one per round: commune; tongues and detect lie; remove curse, locate object, animate dead and dispel magic; hold person, augury, silence in a 15-foot radius, know alignment and detect charm; and sanctuary, light, command, bless, remove fear and detect evil. An evil vartha may use reversed forms where they exist, such as curse in place of bless. Varthas can be of any alignment.

It is immune to poison, electricity, cold, death magic, and sleep, hold and charm effects. Clerics turn it as if it were a spectre. Raise dead brings it back as a living 9th-level fighter/9th-level cleric. Normally it can resist with a save vs. spell, but a vartha that serves unwillingly gets no save and the spell simply works.

Every vartha has a purpose: guarding a place or hoard, aiding a character in need, or hunting a wrongdoer. A guardian of its own wealth may have embraced undeath from greed; one guarding another's treasure is probably cursed or commanded by something stronger. A helper may be a character's ancestor, a hunter a lawman still on the job after death. All share a relentless drive to finish their task.