Hoar Spirit (Dread Codex Monster)

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Template:Creature Table This being is a gaunt humanoid dressed in tattered rags. Its skin and pale gray and ice crystals have formed on various parts of its body. Its hands end in claws, each with translucent icy blue nails. Its eyes are frozen open and show no signs of life.

Believed to be the spirits of humanoids that freeze to death either because of their own mistakes or because of some ritualistic exile into the icy wastes by their culture, hoar spirits haunt the icy wastelands of the world seeking warm-blooded living creatures to share their icy hell.

Hoar spirits are rarely encountered alone. Though they act independently and never communicate to each other, something draws these creatures to each other. Perhaps some semblances of their former lives or maybe like-minded creatures that share the same fate are drawn together. Sages have speculated on this for ages.

Hoar spirits do not speak, and it is not known if they even understand language at all. They have a distinctive low-pitched moan that sounds like a whistling wind blowing though ice and snow covered trees.

Combat

When confronted, a hoar spirit attacks with its claws attempting to freeze its foe. If facing multiple opponents, a hoar spirit blasts them with its cone of cold before engaging them with its claws. Creatures killed by a hoar spirit are dragged to its icy lair, kept on ice, and devoured at the monster's leisure.

Cold (Ex): Hoar spirits generate intense cold. Any melee hit deals cold damage. creatures attacking the hoar spirit unarmed or with natural weapons suffer cold damage each time their attack hits.

Cone of Cold (Sp): Once per day, a hoar spirit can produce an effect similar to a cone of cold spell. The cone is 30 feet long and deals 3d6 points of cold damage to creatures caught in the area. A successful DC 14 Reflex save halves the damage. The save DC is Charisma-based.

Glaciation (Su): A creature hit by a hoar spirit's claw must succeed on a DC 14 Fortitude save or be overcome with bone-numbing cold that paralyzes the opponent for 1d4+1 rounds and deals 1 point of Dexterity damage. The save DC is Charisma-based.

Sense Heat (Su): Hoar spirits can detect heat (such as that generated by living creatures) in a 60-foot radius. This includes the heat given off by invisible creatures. This ability can be stopped or started as a detect evil spell (caster level 7th) except there is no chance the hoar spirit is stunned and it is not blocked by stone, wood, or other material.

Treasure

None — After their rebirth as hoar spirits, these humanoids leave all equipment buried where they died. Equipment and other accoutrements only get in the way between a hoar spirit and heated flesh. Using a weapon would deprive a hoar spirit from the pleasure of tearing at living creatures with its own icy claws.

In Your Campaign

The fact that no hoar spirits are encountered on their own can point to a more unusual cause than is stated above. Instead of attributing it to like minds, perhaps hoar spirits are the result of a magical device hidden in the icy wastes of the spirits' home. While calling to these undead to unearth itself, the gem might also have a "hive mind" effect on the spirits. Not only are they drawn to each other, but they can, as a variant ability, share each others' thoughts. Adding this ability increases the hoar spirit's CR by +1 and reads like that for a formian:

Hive Mind (Ex): All formians within 50 miles of their queen are in constant communication. If one is aware of a particular danger, they all are. If one in a group is not flatfooted, none of them are. No formian in a group is considered flanked unless all of them are.

The unifying factor might not be a magic item, but could be the lost fragments of a forgotten ice deity. The godling was thought destroyed in a long-ago struggle and the pieces of its body were flung to the ends of the campaign world. However, the pieces which landed in the godling's native environment (arctic cold) are still powerful enough to animate and call upon the hoar spirits to find them.

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