From publisher blurb:
I present you with an option for the aratare, a ghost-like creature from the movie Spectral. While the movie is an action-filled romp through sci-fi pseudo-science, I knew immediately that I wanted to attempt a conversion for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition.
Now, I will be the first to admit, the aratare as presented in the movie are TERRIBLE roleplaying game monsters, especially for the more player-friendly 5th Edition rules. They are virtually indestructible (unless you know their secret), and kill with a touch. Yikes! So I took some liberties with the conversion, leaving them highly deadly and still very difficult to defeat, yet they won’t kill most characters that are of sufficient level for their Challenge Rating. At least not instantly. Low level characters and commoners? Oh yah, they’re (frozen) toast. But that isn’t really the spirit behind 5E, so I had to do some concept bending.
Now, in a game like Call of Cthulhu, I could see the aratare being more true to their original concept. Yes, you might end up with a dead party, but for the most part, the idea in CoC is that if something is too deadly for you, you RUN! Otherwise, it’s your own fault you died. I may do up a CoC version of the aratare, and update this blog in the near future if I do so.
Another design choice reflects the scene in the movie where an aratare WRECKS a tank. I mean, HULK SMASH wrecks it. To attempt to quantify this, I included a Slam attack for the aratare that can only be used against objects. Furthermore, the aratare uses the Siege Monster rules, which increases the damage it does against objects and buildings. In the movie, it does not appear as though the aratare are even able to touch a living creature without straight out killing it, so the slam does not make sense to use as an attack against a living opponent. However, it can definitely use that slam attack against non-living opponents!