This article was originally written in 2000-01. It has never been published. It is a companion piece to Monstrous Tactics: Ethereal Marauders.

The fearsome marauders possess every advantage of a natural predator, including a maw of unearthly, trilateral fangs. But to their fierce physical prowess, the marauders also adds the uncannily dangerous ability to shift at will between the material and ethereal planes – striking out at their prey from a universal hiding place of which few are aware, and fewer still can hope to detect. Their dangerous, ephemeral attacks can prove the bane of any who are not prepared for their assault.

HELPFUL TIPS

• Use see invisibility or invisibility purge to strip a marauder of its ability to surprise
• Use hold monster or dimensional anchor to trap the marauder on your own turf
• Stay together – don’t split your forces between the material and ethereal plains
• Pay attention to the marauder’s keening wail

PREPARATION

SKILLS AND FEATS: The ethereal marauder’s primary advantage is their ability to emerge spontaneously from the ethereal plane onto the material plane at will. As a result, you’re going to want to be prepared to detect and respond to the marauder as quickly as possible. The Spot skill (along with the bonuses conferred by the Alertness feat) will help you detect the marauder as he shifts into your area (preventing your from being surprised). Once the marauder has appeared, you’re going to want to be able to strike before he disappears again – so consider Improved Initiative to give you an advantage on that all-important second round. If your Dexterity score is high enough to make it worth your while, you may also want to consider Combat Reflexes.

SIGHT SPELLS: Prepare spells which will allow you to see onto the ethereal plane, stripping the marauder completely of its ability to surprise you. See invisibility, true seeing, and invisibility purge are your best options here (particularly the last, as it will grant everyone in your party the ability to see the marauder if it draws near the spellcaster).

ATTACK & DEFENSE SPELLS: Its important to remember that force effects, gaze effects, and the entire abjuration school of magic extends onto the Ethereal Plane – and can affect a marauder there. Spells like magic missile have an obvious usefulness, therefore – as does wall of force. It can be easy to overlook the usefulness of dimensional anchor (trapping the marauder either on the ethereal plane — where he can’t harm you — or the material plane – where you can kill him), so don’t.

ETHEREAL MOVEMENT: It should go without saying that spells like ethereal jaunt and etherealness may be useful. Similarly, magic items which allow travel between planes (or simply the assumption of an ethereal form) should be invaluable to the party when confronting or hunting a marauder.

TACTICS

SEE YOUR ENEMY: As long as the marauder can see you – and you can’t see it – it’s going to have the advantage. So, once you become aware of the marauder’s presence (and presumable interest in making you a quick snack), the first thing you’re going to want to do is have your spellcaster bring out his anti-invisibility spells. Even if its only the spellcaster who can see the marauder, that can still be useful – he should be able to communicate enough information to the rest of the party so that the marauder’s sudden appearances are no longer taking you by surprise.

AFFECT YOUR ENEMY: Next, you’re going to want to find ways to hurt the marauder. This is where your spellcaster’s force effects are going to come in handy – since it can take the attack to the marauder no matter where it’s lurking. On the other hand, you don’t want to neglect the ability for the other members of the party to take their shots when the marauder visits the material plane.

If you spread out, the marauder is going to able to pick you off one at a time. The best formation, therefore, is a tight circle – probably with your spellcaster at the center. When the marauder appears to make his attack, he should be within reach of at least two or three attackers: A few solid blows and your troubles will be over before they began.

TRAP YOUR ENEMY: If you can use force effects or dimensional anchor to trap the marauder (either where you can hurt it, or where it can’t hurt you) you will have essentially stripped the marauder of its primary advantage – making things far easier for you. At that point, you will either have completely eliminated the threat (by trapping it where it can’t hurt you) or reduced it to little more than a common wolf.

PURSUE YOUR ENEMY: If the marauder escapes death, he may come back later to trouble you again. Pursuing a marauder onto the ethereal plane may be the only way to finally rid yourself of its threat. However, an important cautionary note should be made here: It can be very tempting for someone who can move in the ethereal plane to do so the minute the marauder shows up. In doing so, however, you need to be aware that you are – in fact – dividing your forces. If you’re a spellcaster, in particular, isolating yourself on the ethereal plane may not accomplish anything more than making yourself the marauder’s next meal.

PAY ATTENTION TO THE WHINE: Ethereal marauders have an unearthly, high-pitched wail or whine which they emit almost constantly. Its quality and pitch varies depending on its physical health – so keep at least one ear trained on it.

This article was originally written in 2000-01. It has never been published.

As a DM, using ethereal creatures like the marauder can be something of a challenge: Keeping track of one plane is difficult enough, after all. However, the rewards of doing so can be quite large – particularly against neophyte players or characters who lack the experience to figure out where the lumbering blue behemoth which attacked them appeared from, and where it disappeared to again. In fact, you can use an encounter such as this to introduce your players to the concept of planar travel – perhaps paving the way for future adventures.

ORGANIZATION

According to the Monster Manual, Ethereal Marauders are solitary creatures. However, there are certain times when this may not be true. For example, marauders form mating triplets on a semi-annual basis – and this occasionally leads to the formation of temporary pride structures (particularly in situations where triplet compositions are unstable). So don’t be afraid to have higher level PCs run into a pride of marauders – particularly if they are already familiar with ethereal combatants: It can provide an interesting twist on an already complicated situation.

PREPARATION

STALKING: Although strong, the tightly compact forms of the marauder result in a low constitution. As a result, although they are able to hold their own in physical combat, they typically prefer to rely on their wits – particularly when hunting more dangerous prey (such as sentient humanoids, like the PCs).

Marauders will stalk their chosen target for as much as three days – presumably unseen upon the ethereal plane – waiting for the right moment to attack. Let the encounter simmer (you can think of it like a horror flick), and don’t be afraid of letting the marauder wait until a PC is in the worst possible conditions (fleeing a dungeon while badly hurt, separated, trapped in an isolated location away from the other PCs, etc.) to attack.

If the PCs are hunting the marauder for some reason (perhaps it has been preying on the local village), they may be entirely unaware that the marauder has already begun hunting them.

UNSEEN KILLER: One common trick of the marauder is to attack while its prey is sleeping. It will shift onto the Material plane, bite its victim once, and then shift back to the Ethereal before the victim has time to awake and see what’s attacked it. If the marauder is quick enough and clever enough, it may be a long time before the PCs figure out what’s whittling them down every night.

TACTICS

HIT AND RUN: Once combat is engaged, ethereal marauders rarely stand their ground for long. Shifting to the Material Plane is a free action for them, and shifting back to the Ethereal is a movement-equivalent action (or part of a movement-equivalent action). This allows them to, essentially, appear, attack, and disappear again before anyone can do anything about it.

Note that if the marauder always does this, it will essentially be invincible against a party which doesn’t possess the right magical effects. Fortunately, marauders will occasionally become overzealous – prolonging their presence on the physical plane to finish a kill (particularly if they have successfully separated one target from the rest of the group). On the other hand, don’t be afraid of forcing the PCs to think their way through this one if they do have the proper magic at their disposal.

If the PCs successfully figure out a way to track the marauder on the Ethereal Plane (or follow it there), the marauder will adjust its tactics accordingly. If the PCs have split their numbers between the Material and Ethereal Planes, it will typically choose the easier target – and attempt to isolate the ability for one group to help the other (typically by drawing its Ethereal opponents below the surface of the earth). If things look particularly bad, it will abandon the hunt.

RECOVERY: If the PCs successfully hurt the marauder upon the Material Plane, it will withdraw to the Ethereal Plane. This doesn’t mean, however, that it will simply give up the hunt. To the contrary, one of the marauder’s primary advantages is its ability to continue tracking – and harassing – its prey, even when badly injured itself. So long as the PCs cannot pursue or affect the marauder upon the Ethereal Plane, the marauder will stay in the area – recovering as it continues to pursue.

WHINE: Ethereal marauders emit an eerie, high whine that varies in pitch depending on the creature’s speed and health. Here’s a good rule to follow: The faster it goes, the higher the pitch. The more injured it is, the lower the pitch.

TAKING THE BODY: Although the marauder cannot take living creatures with it using its ethereal jaunt ability, once its prey is dead it can take the body with it. Once the marauder has successfully killed someone, it will attempt to grab the body and then return to the Ethereal Plane to finish its meal in peace. Realize that this is, essentially, permanent death if the other PCs don’t have some means of pursuing the marauder and recovering the body.

DISGUISE TRUE NUMBERS: As noted above, marauders seldom form prides. However, when they do they will typically take advantage of their ability to shift at will between the planes to disguise their true numbers. Their first step when approaching large groups (such as a party of PCs), is to draw the individual members apart from one another – typically by making large noises just out of sight in multiple directions. Once their targets have separated, the pride will then begin its attack – rarely revealing more than one of its number at a time, but striking at each of its chosen targets as often as possible (attempting to drive them even farther apart if possible).

If done successfully, it can appear to the PCs that they are facing some horrible creature which is capable of popping into and out of existence (and attacking!) three or four or half a dozen times a round. It might even appear that the creature is capable of magically regenerating damage (since wounded pride members will withdraw from combat, while the uninjured ones remain).

NEXT: vs. the Ethereal Marauder