Skin Thief
Skin Thief
CR 1 CE Monstrous Humanoid
This hairy humanoid has a vaguely ursine face and large hands with six clawed fingers each. They are decorated with rings and other jewelry, and the tattered shreds of a humanoid skin hang from their waist.
A skin thief is an ambush predator that specializes in hunting humanoids. They wear the skin of their victims to lull new victims into a false sense of security. These disguises are remedial—skin thieves are not very intelligent, and speak only a broken pidgin of Common—so the creatures do not engage in plans with much subtlety. Skin thieves make little if anything on their own, instead stealing it. Skin thieves are often found in abandoned buildings, ruined farms, or other places that civilized folk have left behind. There, when not hunting, they engage in pantomimes of what they assume human behavior is like—typically the same grotesqueries of hedonism and violence as they would normally engage in, but while wearing a false face.
The first skin thief was likely a result of some sort of curse, although the transgression that resulted in their creation is unknown. They are social creatures by nature, and live in roving bands dominated by the strongest or toughest member. Skin thieves are obsessed with jewelry, especially rings, and most wear rings on all twelve of their fingers if they can. They rarely carry weapons, even in humanoid guise, instead tearing the tips of their skin’s fingers off and attacking with their claws. Skin thieves advance by character class, with most taking levels in fighter or barbarian—skin thieves with class levels are the ones most likely to use armor and weapons.
Skin Thief CR 1
XP 400
CE Medium monstrous humanoid
Init +4; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, Perception +5
Defense
AC 13, touch 10, flat-footed 13 (+3 natural)
hp 13 (2d10+2)
Fort +1, Ref +3, Will +4
Offense
Speed 30 ft.
Melee 2 claws +3 (1d4+1), bite +3 (1d4+1)
Special Attacks gruesome reveal
Statistics
Str 13, Dex 11, Con 12, Int 5, Wis12, Cha 10
Base Atk +2; CMB +3; CMD 13
Feats Improved Initiative
Skills Disguise +0 (+8 when wearing a skin), Intimidate +4, Perception +5
Languages Common
SQ wear skin
Ecology
Environment any hills
Organization solitary, pair, gang (3-6) or pack (7-18)
Treasure standard
Special Abilities
Gruesome Reveal (Ex) Any creature within 30 feet that sees a skin thief’s worn skin destroyed must succeed a DC 11 Will save or be shaken for 1d3 rounds. Skin thieves are immune to the gruesome reveal of other skin thieves. The save DC is Charisma based.
Wear Skin (Su) By taking 1 minute, a skin thief can peel the skin off of the fresh corpse of a Medium humanoid and don it, wearing it as a disguise. When doing so, the skin thief gains a +8 competence bonus to Disguise checks to appear as the original humanoid. The skin has 5 hit points and hardness 0, and any lethal damage dealt to the skin thief is first applied to the skin. The skin lasts for one week or until it is destroyed by damage. A skin thief may only have one skin at a time.