Cathedral Level 3 · area boss

Death, the Pale Rider

the Pale Rider

A named threat of Cathedral Level 3, encountered rarely and never in numbers - real Dungeons & Dragons statistics, no auto-computed shortcuts.

CR 32 Undead · Wizard 12 / DreadNecromancer 20 resref cl3_paleridr

Stat block

STR
10
+0
DEX
14
+2
CON
18
+4
INT
26
+8
WIS
14
+2
CHA
24
+7
Hit points
244
Natural AC
10
Skills
Concentration 32 · Discipline 10 · Lore 20 · Spellcraft 30
Feats
Toughness, IronWill, LightngRef, ImpInit, SpellFocusNec, GrSpllFcsNec, Empower, MaxSpell, CmbtCast, Alertness

Prepared spells

LevelKnown / Prepared
1Magic Missile, Ray of Enfeeblement
2Death Armor, Ghoul Touch
3Negative Energy Burst, Vampiric Touch
4Bestow Curse, Contagion, Enervation
5Animate Dead, Cloudkill
6Circle of Death, Undeath to Death
7Finger of Death
8Horrid Wilting
9Wail of the Banshee

Combat sequence

Layered on top of the module's own combat AI, which still picks targets and positioning. The fight below moves through real hit-point-gated phases; every save DC and attack bonus computes from the stat block above at runtime.

I

Soul Harvest

Every round

He watches who else has died since his last glance - his, an ally's, doesn't matter - and banks a permanent stack for every one, feeding both his damage and his own armor.

II

Reaper's Toll

66%-33% hp

A mark keyed to everything he's harvested so far, ticking away on the weakest soul in the room.

III

The Final Toll

Once, below 25% hp

If the mark's own toll has already brought them low enough, he simply ends it.

Why these numbers

CR 32 is set against Cathedral Level 3's own real ambient ceiling, not auto-computed from level alone - a genuine Wizard 12 / DreadNecromancer 20 build at 32 total levels.

Hit points (244) follow this project's own average-hit-dice convention, and every save/attack bonus derives from the ability scores above at runtime - nothing here is hardcoded past the phase gates themselves.

How it's wired

Boss-flagged (bypasses the drop-rate roll, two loot-generation passes) and gated to a single spawn - only one Death is ever up in Cathedral Level 3 at a time.