Specter

(From 5th Edition Monster Manual - 2014):

A specter is the angry, unfettered spirit of a humanoid that has been prevented from passing to the afterlife. Specters no longer possess connections to who or what they were, yet are condemned to walk the world forever. Some are spawned when dark magic or the touch of a wraith rips a soul from a living body.

Beyond Redemption. When a ghost’s unfinished business is completed, it can rest at last. No such rest or redemption awaits a specter. It is doomed to the Material Plane, its only end the oblivion that comes with the destruction of its soul. Until then, it bears out its lonely life in forlorn places, carrying on forgotten through the ages of the world.

Undying Hatred. Living creatures remind the specter that life is beyond its grasp. The mere sight of the living overwhelms a specter with sorrow and wrath, which can be abated only by destroying said life. A specter kills quickly and mercilessly, for only by depriving others of life can it gain the slightest satisfaction. However, no matter how many lives it extinguishes, a specter always succumbs to its hatred and sorrow.

Dwellers in Darkness. Sunlight represents a source of life that no specter can ever hope to douse, and it pains them. When night falls, they leave their final resting places in search of living creatures to slay, knowing that few weapons can harm them in return. At the first light of dawn, they retreat back into the darkness, where they remain until night falls again.

Undead Nature. A specter doesn’t require air, food, drink, or sleep.

(From 3.5e Monster Manual - 2003):

This entity looks like a human, but with a diaphanous and faintly luminous body. 

Spectres are incorporeal undead often mistaken for ghosts. They haunt the places where they died, retaining their sentience but now hating all living things. 

A spectre looks much as it did in life and can be easily recognized by those who knew the individual or have seen the individual’s face in a painting or a drawing. In many cases, the evidence of a violent death is visible on its body. The chill of death lingers in the air around spectres and in the places they haunt. A spectre is roughly human-sized and is weightless.

Combat: In close combat a spectre attacks with its numbing, life-draining touch. It makes full use of its incorporeal nature, moving through walls, ceilings, and floors as it attacks. 

Energy Drain (Su): Living creatures hit by a spectre’s incorporeal touch attack gain two negative levels. The DC is 15 for the Fortitude save to remove a negative level. The save DC is Charismabased. For each such negative level bestowed, the spectre gains 5 temporary hit points. 

Create Spawn (Su): Any humanoid slain by a spectre becomes a spectre in 1d4 rounds. Spawn are under the command of the spectre that created them and remain enslaved until its death. They do not possess any of the abilities they had in life. 

Unnatural Aura (Su): Animals, whether wild or domesticated, can sense the unnatural presence of a spectre at a distance of 30 feet. They do not willingly approach nearer than that and panic if forced to do so; they remain panicked as long as they are within that range. 

Sunlight Powerlessness (Ex): Spectres are powerless in natural sunlight (not merely a daylight spell) and flee from it. A spectre caught in sunlight cannot attack and can take only a single move or attack action in a round.

(From 2nd Edition Monstrous Manual - 1993):

Spectres are powerful undead that haunt the most desolate and deserted of places. They hate all life and light.

Spectres appear as semitransparent beings and are often mistaken for haunts or ghosts. Unlike most undead, spectres retain the semblance and manner of dress of their former life and can be recognized by old friends or through paintings of the persons they used to be.

Combat: Spectres exist primarily on the Negative Material Plane and can therefore be attacked by beings on the Prime Material Plane only with magical weapons. Daylight makes spectres powerless by weakening their ties to the Negative Material Plane.

The chilling touch of a spectre drains energy from living creatures. A successful attack inflicts 1-8 points of damage and drains two life energy levels from the victim. Any being totally drained of life energy by a spectre becomes a full-strength spectre under the control of the spectre which drained him. The victim loses all control of his personality and may become more or less powerful than before, depending on his level and class before becoming a spectre.

Spectres are immune to all sleep, charm, hold, and cold-based spells, as well as poisons and paralyzation attacks. Holy water inflicts 2-8 points of damage when it strikes a spectre. The water can be splashed on a spectre successfully. A raise dead spell apparently reverses the undead status, destroying the spectre immediately if a saving throw versus spell is failed.

Habitat/Society: Most spectres are solitary, but some enclaves exist where a particularly powerful or lucky spectre has managed to drain mortals of life. This lead spectre is known as the master spectre (always with maximum hit points per die), while the others are known collectively as the followers. In this arrangement, the master spectre almost never engages enemies personally, but instead sends his minions in for the kill. Mortals drained of life by follower spectres are subservient to the master spectre, not the followers. Note that if the master spectre is slain, all followers become independent and can travel anywhere they wish in hopes of becoming master spectres themselves. Once a character becomes a spectre, recovery is nearly impossible, requiring a special quest.

Spectres hate light and all life, as both remind them of their undead existence. They are therefore encountered only in places of extreme darkness and desolation, like long-abandoned ruins, dungeons, and subterranean sewers.

Contrary to popular mythology, spectres remain highly intelligent and generally rational after the transformation to undeath. Life makes them lament their unlife, and they bear a strong hatred for all those lucky enough to live and truly die.

Spectres have enough cunning to plan their attacks, and rival vampires in their skill at remaining hidden from the general populace.

Ecology: No one knows who the first spectre was or how it came to be; the few facts detailed above are all that is known with any degree of certainty.

(From 3.5e Fiendish Codex II: Tyrants of the Nine Hells - 2006):

A legion of spectres haunts Dis’s iron laneways. These damned souls have been excused from the usual cycle of torture, flaying, and diabolical rebirth to suffer a much worse fate, and thereby generate even greater quantities of divine energy for the archduke who owns them.  

To become a spectre of Dis [2nd Layer of the Nine Hells], a damned soul must be found in a spiritual condition called anagnorisis. Souls in this state have experienced a revelation about their identity and their situation that tragically, for them, came too late. Just as they arrive on the Shelves of Despond, they sincerely repent of their misdeeds, achieving true understanding of the harm they committed while alive. If they had repented just moments before, these souls might have been granted a second chance and been reborn as hellbred. But now they face eternal doom.  

Because these souls can now empathize with their victims and fully understand the consequences of their actions, they are converted to spectral form to lament them until the end of time. The weepings and wailings of these creatures give off huge quantities of evil divine energy, which is collected by a system of metallic rods erected on the towers and bridges of Dis.  

The other archdukes jealously covet the occult secret that allows Dispater to utilize spectres in this way. Any underling could gain swift promotion by stealing this closely guarded formula. In the meantime, agents of Dis trade with other archdukes, swapping garden-variety damned souls for a few precious anagnorisis sufferers.  

Dis’s spectres yearn for the comforting embrace of the virtuous—a fact that makes them quite dangerous to adventurers. The pathetic creatures advance on living visitors with open arms, pathetically sobbing and flailing out for human contact. However, their energy-draining touch is just as potent as that of their earth-bound counterparts. The spectres leave devils and their minions alone because they know that no comfort can be found in the arms of such creatures.