Blade Spirit (CR 9)

Medium Undead (Incorporeal)
Alignment: Always lawful evil
Initiative: +8 (Dex); Senses: Listen +14 and Spot +14


AC: 16 (+4 Dex, +2 deflection), touch 16, flat-footed 12
Hit Dice: 9d12 (58 hp)
Fort +3, Ref +7, Will +8
Speed: 40 ft., fly 80 ft. (good)
Space: 5 ft./5 ft.
Base Attack +4; Grapple -
Attack: Incorporeal touch +8 melee
Full Attack: Incorporeal touch +8 melee
Damage: Incorporeal touch 1d4
Special Attacks/Actions: Animate weapons
Abilities: Str -, Dex 18, Con -, Int 14, Wis 14, Cha 15
Special Qualities: Undead, incorporeal, +2 turn resistance
Feats: Alertness; Blind-fight; Combat Reflexes; Dodge; Improved Initiative
Skills: Hide *16, Intimidate +12, Listen +14, Search +10, Spot +14, and Survival +10
Advancement: 10-18 HD (Medium-size)
Climate/Terrain: Any land or underground
Organization: Solitary
Treasure/Possessions: 1d6+1 masterwork bladed weapons (see below)

Source: Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil

Animate Weapons (Sp): A blade spirit can animate up to six slashing weapons, and it is always encountered with 1d6+1 such weapons of masterwork quality. These fully corporeal weapons can move up to 15 feet away from the spirit, attacking with a +11 bonus.

Weapon Domination (Sp): As a standard action, a blade spirit can dominate nearby slashing weapons. Any character holding a slashing weapon within 20 feet of the blade spirit must make a Will save (DC 16) or make an attack upon himself or herself with that weapon (this doesn't count against the character's normal number of attacks).

Weapon Immunity: A blade spirit is immune to all damage inflicted by slashing weapons, no matter how magical, although associated damage is inflicted normally (for example, the 1d6 points of fire damage from a flaming sword).

Although a blade spirit has an incorporeal touch that disrupts the bodies of the living, it prefers to use animated weapons to attack while it remains farther away in its incorporeal form.

Blade spirits are the undead remnants of a powerful smith, almost always tied to a forge. Blade spirits are often, but not always, the spirits of dwarves that linger in the world, striking out with malice and contempt for any who come to the place they haunt.

A blade spirit resembles a number of metal weapons hovering around a semi-transparent face with glowing red eyes, like coals in a forge. It is associated with ghostly sounds of striking metal and gusts of unexplained heat.

Incorporeal Subtype

Some creatures are incorporeal by nature, while others (such as those that become ghosts) can acquire the incorporeal subtype. An incorporeal creature has no physical body. It can be harmed only by other incorporeal creatures, magic weapons or creatures that strike as magic weapons, and spells, spell-like abilities, or supernatural abilities. It has immunity to all nonmagical attack forms. Even when hit by spells, including touch spells or magic weapons, it has a 50% chance to ignore any damage from a corporeal source (except for positive energy, negative energy, force effects such as magic missile, or attacks made with ghost touch weapons). Non-damaging spell attacks affect incorporeal creatures normally unless they require corporeal targets to function (such as the spell implosion) or they create a corporeal effect that incorporeal creatures would normally ignore (such as a web or wall of stone spell). Although it is not a magical attack, a hit with holy water has a 50% chance of affecting an incorporeal undead creature.

An incorporeal creature's natural weapons affect both in incorporeal and corporeal targets, and pass through (ignore) corporeal natural armor, armor, and shields, although deflection bonuses and force effects (such as mage armor) work normally against it. Attacks made by an incorporeal creature with a nonmagical melee weapon have no effect on corporeal targets, and any melee attack an incorporeal creature makes with a magic weapon against a corporeal target has a 50% miss chance except for attacks it makes with a ghost touch weapon, which are made normally (no miss chance).

Any equipment worn or carried by an incorporeal creature is also incorporeal as long as it remains in the creature's possession. An object that the creature relinquishes loses its incorporeal quality (and the creature loses the ability to manipulate the object). If an incorporeal creature uses a thrown weapon or a ranged weapon, the projectile becomes corporeal as soon as it is fired and can affect a corporeal target normally (no miss chance). Magic items possessed by an incorporeal creature work normally with respect to their effects on the creature or another target. Similarly, spells cast by an incorporeal creature affect corporeal creatures normally.

An incorporeal creature has no natural armor bonus but has a deflection bonus equal to its Charisma bonus (always at least +1, even if the creature's Charisma score does not normally provide a bonus).

An incorporeal creature can enter or pass through solid object but must remain adjacent to the object's exterior, and so cannot pass entirely through an object whose space is larger than its own. It can sense the presence of creatures or objects a square adjacent to its current location, but enemies have total concealment from an incorporeal creature that is inside an object. In order to see clearly and attack normally, a incorporeal creature must emerge. An incorporeal creature inside an object has total cover, but when it attacks a creature outside the object it only has cover, so a creature outside with a readied action could strike at it as it attacks. An incorporeal creature cannot pass through a force effect.

Incorporeal creatures pass through and operate in water as easily as they do in air. Incorporeal creatures cannot fall or take falling damage. Incorporeal creature cannot make trip or grapple attacks against corporeal creatures, nor can they be tripped or grappled by such creatures. In fact, they cannot take any physical action that would move or manipulate a corporeal being or its equipment, nor are they subject to such actions. Incorporeal creatures have no weight and do not set off traps that are triggered by weight.

An incorporeal creature moves silently and cannot be heard with Listen checks if it doesn't wish to be. It has no Strength score, so its Dexterity modifier applies to both its melee attacks and its ranged attacks. Non-visual senses, such as scent and blindsight, are either ineffective or only partly effective with regard to incorporeal creatures. Incorporeal creatures have an innate sense of direction and can move at full speed even when they cannot see.