Death CoachCreature 14
Source Pathfinder Book of the Dead
Perception +26 (darkvision, lifesense 60 feet)
Languages Common, Daemonic, Infernal, Necril, (can't Speak Any Language)
Skills Acrobatics +28, Lore +25, Intimidation +25, Society +21, Survival +22
Str -5, Dex +8, Con +2, Int +3, Wis +4, Cha +5
AC 35; Fort +22; Reflex +28; Will +24;
HP 228 (negative healing)
Speed 60 feet (fly 60 feet)
Immunities death effects, disease, paralyzed, poison, precision, unconscious
Resistances All 10
Incorporeal Wheel
+30 (+26, +22) to hit (agile, magical) 3d12+8 NegativeDarkvision
A monster with darkvision can see perfectly well in areas of darkness and dim light, though such vision is in black and white only. Some forms of magical darkness, such as a 4th-level Darkness spell, block normal darkvision. A monster with Greater Darkvision, however, can see through even these forms of magical darkness.
Lifesense 60 feetLifesense allows a monster to sense the vital essence of living and undead creatures within the listed range. The sense can distinguish between the positive energy animating living creatures and the negative energy animating undead creatures, much as sight distinguishes colors.
Negative HealingA creature with negative healing draws health from negative energy rather than positive energy. It is damaged by positive damage and is not healed by positive healing effects. It does not take negative damage, and it is healed by negative effects that heal undead.
Aura of Doom (aura, emotion, fear, mental, necromancy)30 feet Aura
A living creature that enters the area must succeed at a DC 31 will save or gain the Doomed 1 condition. A critical failure increases this condition to Doomed 2. Regardless of the result of the saving throw, the creature is temporarily immune to this death coach's aura of doom for 1 minute.
Collect Soul
(death, necromancy)Trigger A dying creature within the death coach's Aura of Doom dies or its dying value increases
Effect The death coach attempts to collect the triggering creature's soul. The triggering creature must succeed at a DC 34 will save or its soul becomes trapped within the death coach's interior. A creature whose soul has been collected can't be restored to life while the soul remains in the death coach by any means short of a 10th-level spell, such as Miracle. Eventually, the death coach grinds the soul down into raw spiritual essence, typically several hours later. At this point, restoring the soul to life is slightly easier, requiring a spell or ritual of 8th level or higher. If a death coach with a collected soul is slain before the soul is completely dissolved, the creature's soul returns to its body, allowing it to be returned to life normally. A death coach can choose not to dissolve a collected soul, though it usually has no reason to keep the soul intact.
Soulbound GallopWhen a death coach has Collected a Soul, its Speeds double.
Trample
Large or smaller, incorporeal wheel, DC 34 basic reflex
The monster Strides up to double its Speed and can move through the spaces of creatures of the listed size, Trampling each creature whose space it enters. The monster can attempt to Trample the same creature only once in a single use of Trample. The monster deals the damage of the listed Strike, but trampled creatures can attempt a basic Reflex save at the listed DC (no damage on a critical success, half damage on a success, double damage on a critical failure).
Divine Innate Spells (DC 34, +26 to hit)
1st Level: Fear
2nd Level: Death Knell
3rd Level: Agonizing Despair
7th Level: Finger of Death
Roads are liminal spaces, existing to connect people and places but rarely destinations in and of themselves. Some see them as avenues to profit. Roadside inns can be lucrative businesses between metropolitan areas, and even villains such as bandits can earn a living plying their larcenous trade on various highways. Occasionally, a road will gain a dire reputation from banditry, treacherous terrain, or a history of deadly accidents. Despite this notoriety, such roads often remain in use simply because they are an important artery of travel or alternative routes prove impractical. On such roads, those stained with the blood of travelers or flooded with fear and anger, do death coaches ride.
A death coach is the spiritual manifestation of the dangers of travel. It appears as a faintly translucent wheeled carriage pulled by one or two ghostly mounts, usually in the dead of night on a lonely bit of road. The coach and the mounts are a single spirit and can never be separated. A death coach has no driver, and anyone able to peek past the thick curtains covering the carriage windows will find the vehicle empty... unless the death coach has recently collected a soul.
A palpable aura of dread surrounds a death coach, its very presence a harbinger of what is to come. A creature that dies near a death coach might have their soul trapped within. Such unfortunates manifest as incorporeal likenesses of their former selves seated within the carriage, their faces showing no emotion. They seem unaware of their fate and fail to notice anyone outside the carriage. After a death coach collects a soul or two, it rides off into the darkness with its prizes. Over the next few hours, any souls trapped within simply fade into nothingness, consigned to oblivion. Some scholars believe the death coach feeds off the souls it collects to maintain its unlife, while others think the energy of those souls eventually coalesces into another death coach, though it never appears on the same road.
No one knows for certain what causes a death coach to haunt a particular road, but once one begins killing travelers for their souls, the rumors soon reach nearby communities. Sometimes, the road is abandoned entirely, leaving the death coach without sustenance. If left alone for long enough, the negative energy infusing the area slowly dissipates until the road is safe to travel once more, but if even one group of misguided travelers looking for a shortcut heads down the weed-choked lane, the death coach rises from its torpor to forcefully transport these unwilling souls. If it succeeds, the cycle begins anew.
Other times, the communities in the area can't afford to establish a new route (or are physically incapable of doing so, in the case of mountainous regions), and so must continue to use the haunted road. The locals often mark such roads with signs to warn outsiders of the dangers, but the surprisingly clever death coaches do their best to destroy such notices. Canny travelers passing through unknown areas at night should remain on the lookout for damaged or disturbed signs to ensure they don't heedlessly head into a death coach's domain.
Destroying the death coach is the only way to render the road safe until such time as a new tragedy accumulates enough negative energy to create another death coach. Some might believe this incarnation to be the first death coach returning for vengeance, but in reality, it is an entirely different undead creature. A careful inspection (which is difficult to achieve) reveals minor differences between the two death coaches, perhaps reflecting more recent carriage designs, though the newer spirit is as hungry for souls as the old.
Traits
Something of uncommon rarity requires special training or comes from a particular culture or part of the world. Some character choices give access to uncommon options, and the GM can choose to allow access for anyone. Less is known about uncommon creatures than common creatures. They typically can't be summoned. The DC of Recall Knowledge checks related to these creature is increased by 2.
IncorporealAn incorporeal creature or object has no physical form. It can pass through solid objects, including walls. When inside an object, an incorporeal creature can't perceive, attack, or interact with anything outside the object, and if it starts its turn in an object, it is slowed 1. Corporeal creatures can pass through an incorporeal creature, but they can't end their movement in its space. An incorporeal creature can't attempt Strength-based checks against physical creatures or objects-only against incorporeal ones-unless those objects have the ghost touch property rune. Likewise, a corporeal creature can't attempt Strength-based checks against incorporeal creatures or objects. Incorporeal creatures usually have immunity to effects or conditions that require a physical body, like disease, poison, and precision damage. They usually have resistance against all damage (except force damage and damage from Strikes with the ghost touch property rune), with double the resistance against non-magical damage.