Medium Fey (Spirit)
Hit Dice: 5d6 (17 hp)
Initiative: +1
Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares)
Armor Class: 15 (+1 Dex, +4 masterwork chain shirt), touch 11, flat-footed 14
Base Attack/Grapple: +2/+2
Attack: Masterwork lance +4 melee (1d8+1/x3), or masterwork rapier +4 melee (1d6+1/18-20), or masterwork composite shortbow (+1 Str) +4 ranged (1d6+1/x3)
Full Attack: Masterwork lance +4 melee (1d8+1/x3), or masterwork rapier +4 melee (1d6+1/18-20), or masterwork composite shortbow (+1 Str) +4 ranged (1d6+1/x3)
Space/Reach: 5 ft. / 5 ft.
Special Attacks: Spell-like abilities
Special Qualities: Damage reduction 5/cold iron, low-light vision, resistance to cold 5, scent
Saves: Fort +1, Reflex +5, Will +5
Abilities: Str 12, Dex 13, Con 10, Int 14, Wis 13, Cha 14
Skills: Bluff +6, Handle Animal +6, Hide +4, Intimidate +6, Listen +11, Move Silently +4, Ride +9, Search +7, Sense Motive +5, Perform (wind instruments) +6, Spot +11, Survival +9
Feats: DodgeB, Mounted Combat, Track
Environment: Any aboveground
Organization: Solitary, Pair (mounted on fiendish light warhorses), troop (2-3 mounted on fiendish light warhorses plus 1d2+1 unseelie cu sidhe), or hunt (4-11 mounted on fiendish light warhorses, plus 1d8+2 unseelie cu sidhe)
Challenge Rating: 3
Treasure: Standard coins, double goods, double items
Alignment: Any non-good, non-lawful
Advancement: By character class
Level Adjustment: +2
The sluagh are among the most common and dangerous of the fey; although they are not the most powerful as individuals, they travel in bands more often than most. Legend speaks of their fondness for the hunt, and of their preference for sentient prey. Mortals have come to think of sightings of a troop of sluagh as a harbinger of death, and for good reasonthese creatures ride in pursuit of men the way men ride after the hart or hare.
Sluagh are spirits of air and darkness, and have powers which can render them invisible, change their appearance, and even let them fly on the night winds. Their senses are preternaturally sharp, and they are skilled trackers, making it difficult to escape once a victim has drawn their attention.
Most sluagh are as tall as an elf, with an even more slender build. Their hair is typically in shades of black, gray, white, or even pale blue, and their eyes are typically a pale, luminous green or blue. Despite their wispy looks, they possess a tough, agile strength that serves them well in the hunt.
Sluagh speak Abyssal, Common, Sylvan, and the language of the most common mortal race in the Material Plane near their homes.
Combat
Sluagh prefer to fight while mounted, and use their lances or bows for that purpose. If dismounted and forced into close combat, they rely on their rapiers instead. They use their spell-like abilities on themselves and their mounts to gain a tactical advantage, or on their prey to bewilder and hinder them.
They usually choose victims who can provide a good chase, and often they employ tactics designed less to injure than to herd their prey gradually towards natural obstacles before dispatching them. Many sluagh are evil, and prefer to arrange matters so that their quarry believes itself to have reached a safe place before realizing that it is actually trapped.
If sluagh misjudge a victim or find their hunt interrupted by a more powerful attacker, they typically flee rather than risk their own deaths, and frequently employ their spell-like abilities to cover their retreat.
Spell-Like Abilities: at will—feather fall; 1/day—air walk, control winds, disguise self, entangle (DC 13), faerie fire, invisibility. Caster level 10th. The save DC is Charisma-based.
Skills: Sluagh have a +2 racial bonus on Listen, Search, and Spot checks.
Sluagh Huntsman, 6th-Level Ranger
Medium Fey (Spirit)
Hit Dice: 5d6+5 plus 6d8+6 (55 hp)
Initiative: +3
Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares)
Armor Class: 18 (+3 Dex, +5 +1 chain shirt), touch 13, flat-footed 15
Base Attack/Grapple: +7/+10
Attack: +1 lance +11 melee (1d8+4/x3), or masterwork longsword +11 melee (1d8+3/19-20), or +1 mighty (+3 Str) composite shortbow +11 ranged (1d6+4/x3)
Full Attack: +1 lance +11/+6 melee (1d8+4/x3), or masterwork longsword +11/+6 melee (1d8+3/19-20), or +1 mighty (+3 Str) composite shortbow +11/+6 ranged (1d6+4/x3)
Space/Reach: 5 ft. / 5 ft.
Special Attacks: Spell-like abilities, spells
Special Qualities: Damage reduction 5/cold iron, favored enemy dwarfs (+2), favored enemy humans (+4), low-light vision, resistance to cold 5, scent, wild empathy
Saves: Fort +7, Reflex +12, Will +7
Abilities: Str 17, Dex 16, Con 13, Int 16, Wis 12, Cha 14
Skills: Bluff +10, Climb +5, Diplomacy +6, Handle Animal +16, Hide +9, Intimidate +12, Jump +5, Knowledge (nature) +9, Listen +17, Move Silently +9, Perform (wind instruments) +6, Ride +17, Search +11, Sense Motive +9, Spot +17, Survival +15
Feats: Combat Reflexes, DodgeB, Endurance, MultishotB, Mounted Combat, Power Attack, Rapid ShotB, Ride-By Attack, TrackB.
Environment: Any aboveground
Organization: Solitary, pair (mounted on fiendish light warhorses), troop (2-3 mounted on fiendish light warhorses plus 1d2+1 cu sidhe), or hunt (4-11 mounted on fiendish light warhorses, plus 1d8+2 cu sidhe)
Challenge Rating: 9
Treasure: Standard, +1 chain shirt, +1 lance, +1 mighty composite shortbow (+3 Str)
Alignment: Any non-good, non-lawful
Advancement: By character class
Level Adjustment: +2
Combat
Sluagh huntsmen apply broadly the same tactics as their less powerful kin, often peppering their victims with arrows from a distance to weaken them before closing in to finish the hunt with a plunge of the lance.
The sluagh huntsman typically uses its limited repertoire of spells to improve the abilities of its mount in combat and pursuit.
Typical Ranger Spells Prepared (2; save DC 11+spell level): 1st—jump, magic fang.
Sluagh Characters
Most exceptional sluagh are rangers.
Sluagh characters possess the following racial traits:
- +2 Str, +2 Dex, +4 Int, +2 Wis, +4 Cha.
- Medium size.
- A sluagh’s base land speed is 30 feet.
- Damage reduction 5/cold iron
- Low-light vision.
- Resistance to cold 5.
- Scent.
- Racial Hit Dice: A sluagh begins with five levels of fey, which provide 5d6 Hit Dice, a base attack bonus of +2, and base saving throw bonuses equal to Fort +1, Reflex +4, Will +4.
- Racial Skills: A sluagh’s fey levels give it skill points equal to 8 x (6 + Int modifier). Its class skills are Bluff, Handle Animal, Hide, Intimidate, Listen, Move Silently, Ride, Search, Sense Motive, Perform, Spot, and Survival. They receive a +2 racial bonus on Listen, Search, and Spot checks.
- Racial Feats: A sluagh’s fey levels give it two feats. A sluagh receives Dodge as a bonus feat.
- Spell-like abilities (see above).
- Automatic Languages: Abyssal, Common and Sylvan. Bonus Languages: Any.
- Level Adjustment: +2.