General Rules: Monsters - Ratman, White Wraith

Ratman, White Wraith (adapted from the Creature Collection II)
Medium Monstrous Humanoid (Slytheen)

Hit Dice: 2d8+6 (15 hit points)
Initiative: +2
Speed: 30 feet, climb 15 feet
Armor Class: 17 (+2 Dexterity, +1 dodge, +4 natural); touch AC 13, flat-footed AC 14
BAB/Grapple: +2/+4

Attack: Bite +4 melee (1d3+2, bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing, 20 x2) or falchion +4 melee (2d4+3, slashing, 18-20 x2) or javelin +4 ranged (1d6+2, piercing, 20 x2, 30 feet x5)

Full Attack: Bite +4 melee (1d3+2, bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing, 20 x2) and 2 claws -1 melee (1d4+1, slashing, 20 x2) or falchion +4 melee (2d4+3, slashing, 18-20 x2) or javelin +4 ranged (1d6+2, piercing, 20 x2, 30 feet x5)

Space/Reach: 5 feet by 5 feet/5 feet
Special Attacks: Paralysis
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 feet, speak with rats, skeleton cunning
Saves: Fortitude +3, Reflex +2, Will +3
Abilities: Str 14, Int 9, Wis 10, Dex 15, Con 16, Cha 8

Skills: Climb +5, Hide +3 (+10 among the dead), Intimidate +1, Move Silently +3, Jump +3, Spot +2, Survival +2

Feats: Dodge, Run
Environment: Any except arctic

Organization: Solitary, pair, band (3 - 30 ratmen plus 1 4^th level fighter leader), war band (10 - 100 ratmen, plus one leader of 4^th - 7^th level per 30 warriors plus one 8^th - 10^th level adept or blood witch per 100 warriors and 4 - 24 skeletons)

Challenge Rating: ½
Treasure: Standard
Alignment: Usually lawful evil
Advancement: By character class

The most bizarre of the ratmen, white wraiths appear to be animated slytheen skeletons. All their fleshy parts are transparent to the point of invisibility. They often wear tatters of cloth as protection from the elements and totemic points of bone and unworked gems as jewelry, but avoid armor, preferring to rely upon the defenses created by their mutated forms.

No book of lore records from whence these twisted creatures came, but white wraith legends speak of the day when their greatest war band will be judged worthy to return to Bål and fight in a battle to free him from his imprisonment by the Lords of Heaven. Their barbaric packs range across the Three Worlds, ambushing caravans in the wilderness and howling out of the hills to ravage settlements, hoping to be found worthy to join the Iron Lord.

The white wraith priesthood consists of many shamans who grimly drive their bands to greater and greater heights of pillaging, each priest trying to prove his band and himself to the Lord of the Baleful Eye. White wraith shamans also officiate over rituals in which living prisoners are boiled or burned alive and their naked skeletons are raised to become servants of the warband, while their ghosts are bound as scouts.

Ratmen speak Slytheen, a language of chittering and sibilant hisses similar to that of rodents, and they can also communicate with rats and dire rats.

Combat
In cobat, white wraiths form a skittering, howling horde that typically strikes from ambush, using the rats' amazing running speed to outmaneuver targets. The ratmen prepare ambushes near battle sites or graveyards, where they hide themselves and their skeleton slaves among the bones of the fallen. They try to strike along with their skeletons in a confusing whirl of bones and weapons.

Paralysis (Ex): White wraith shamans know the secret of a foul paste that these ratmen apply to their weapons before battle. Those hit by a weapon coated with the substance must succeed at a DC 12 Fortitude save or be paralyzed for 1d4+2 minutes. Once a successful save is made, no further saves are required against the paste in the same encounter. it is rumored that the paste was provided to certain shamans who forged alliances with the necromancers of the White Hand, but its use has since spread throughout the war bands.

Speak with Rats (Su): Ratmen have the ability to speak with rats and dire rats as if they were using the spell speak with animals.

Skeleton Cunning (Ex): When the white wraiths fight alongside skeletons, their gain an additional +2 dodge to their Armor Class due to the confusing whirl of bones and weapons.

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