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Lupin Skinthief
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Medium Magical Beast HD: 4d10+8 (30 hp) Initiative: +3 Speed: 50 ft. Armor Class: 15 (+3 Dex, +2 natural), touch 13, flat-footed 12 Base Attack/Grapple: +4/+6 Attack: bite +7 melee (1d6+2) Full Attack: bite +7 melee (1d6+2), 2 claws +1 melee (1d6+1) Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft. Special Attacks: -- Special Qualities: damage reduction 5/magic, low-light vision, scent, scent emulation, skinthievery Saves: Fort +6, Ref +7, Will +2 Abilities: Str 14, Dex 17, Con 15, Int 6, Wis 12, Cha 7 Skills: Bluff +2, Hide +10, Jump +10, Move Silently +10 Feats: Stealthy, TrackB, Weapon Focus (bite) Environment: Cold, temperate, and warm forests, mountains, and plains Organization: Solitary, pack (1 skinthief plus 7-16 wolves), pair (1 skinthief and 1 leopard or wolf), or pride (1 skinthief and 6-10 lions) Challenge Rating: 3 Treasure: None Alignment: Often neutral evil Advancement: 5-6 HD (Medium, 7-8 HD (Large) |
 Illustration by Scott Purdy, used with permission. A larger version is available at Scott's website. |
This wolf has an unusually large head and an odd gait, like its legs are deformed or stretched in some way.
Lupin skinthieves are strange predators which disguise themselves
as prey or other predators, then use that disguise to catch prey or
steal kills from its adopted family group.
When not disguised as another creature, a skinthief
looks like a strange mix of feline and canine, about the size of a wolf
with hairless meat-red flesh and a goblin-like face. Its teeth are
sharp, as are its front claws, and its eyes are small red dots in
otherwise black eyeballs. Many creatures who see it in this "naked" form
mistake it for some kind of fiend, but a skinthief is a creature
native to the Material Plane. However, most often is wears the skin of
another creature and pretends to be that creature in all ways.
Skinthieves are slothful and try not to work too
hard to meet their sustenance needs. If a naked skinthief finds a dead
prey animal, it's likely to take on that creature's skin, join its
herd, and attack another member of the herd when it grows hungry. If it
finds a dead predator it normally takes that creature's skin, joins
with similar predators, then either challenges the group leader (as it
is probably stronger and tougher than a typical animal of its size) or runs
off with the next kill the group makes. Because of the skinthief's
voracious appetite, a pack containing such a creature has to kill more
prey to feed everyone, so an increase in predator attacks may be due to
the presence of a skinthief. Its most common predator targets are
wolves (as they are the right size, have a social structure the
skinthief understands, and share their food with the enitre group) and
most adventurers encounter them as part of a wolf pack.
Skinthieves can not speak and do not have a natural
language, communicating mostly on an instinctive level with each other
and the animals they pretend to be. They are intelligent enough to be
taught a language for the purpose of giving them commands.
Combat
A lupin skinthief is a lazy combatant, preferring to hang back at
the start of a fight to see which of its potential opponents looks the
weakest or most hurt, then attacking that creature. It relies on its
animal allies to do most of the work, rarely putting itself in danger
and using its limited intelligence to keep it out of too much trouble
(for example, unlike a normal animal, a skinthief actively avoids being
flanked).
Damage Reduction (Ex):
A lupin skinthief has DR 5/magic. However, the damage reduction does
not apply to the skin it wears, so attacks against a skinthief tend to
leave its worn skin torn up, exposing its normal flesh underneath. A
skinthief normally tries to find a replacement skin as soon as possible
after such a battle to avoid undea attention.
Scent Emulation (Ex):
When disguised with its skinthievery ability, a skinthief's scent
perfectly matches that of its disguise. For example, a skinthief
wearing a wolf's skin not only smells exactly like a wolf, it smells
exactly like the living wolf whose skin it wears. This allows it to
take it's prey's place in a pack; to animals and other creatures that
recognize each other primarily by scent, this is a perfect disguise.
Skin Thievery (Ex):
A lupin skinthief has the ability to swallow a corpse whole,
regurgitate only the skin, and wear that skin like a disguise. This
allows it to look like any quadrupedal creature of its own size. It can
silghtly alter the shape of its body to fit the corpse's skin, but the
result always looks a little strange (the legs are too long, the skull
is a little too blunt, and so on) and not exactly like the corpse in
its living state. Intelligent observers of the disguised
skinthief may make Knowledge (nature) checks opposed by its Bluff
check to realize there is something odd about the creature (witnessing
the creature do something unusual for its current skin, such as a wolf
making claw attacks, gives a +4 bonus to this check). The skinthief
normally uses this ability to join an animal pack rather than a group
of more intelligent creatures, as its low intelligence keeps it from
successfully pretending to be a smarter quadruped (such as a barghest
or blink dog). Note that a skinthief can take on the skin of a winged
quadruped such as a griffon, but as it lacks the skeleton and
musculature of such a creature the wings can only hang limp (which
looks like a deformity or severe injury).
Skills: Lupin skinthieves have a +4 racial bonus to Bluff, Hide, Jump, and Move Silently checks.