In the Dungeons & Dragons

Dungeons & Dragons

Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. . The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997...

fantasy

Fantasy

Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...

 role-playing game

Role-playing game

A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...

, the ethereal filcher is a bizarre aberration

Aberration (Dungeons & Dragons)

In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, aberration is a type of creature, or "creature type". Aberrations generally all have bizarre anatomies, strange abilities, alien mindsets, or any combination thereof....

.

Publication history

The ethereal filcher appeared in the third edition Monster Manual

Monster Manual

The Monster Manual is the primary bestiary sourcebook for monsters in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. It includes monsters derived from mythology, and folklore, as well as creatures created for D&D specifically...

(2000), and in the 3.5 revised Monster Manual (2003).

Description

The ethereal filcher's appearance is of a creature with a central body, a face with four eyes and a big mouth in the front of it, a bauble-like limb coming from the top of the central body sporting another face with two eyes and a round mouth, a single leg ending in 4 toes, and four arms with scraggy hands. Its color is white, with a dark green back and hands. Like many aberrations, it supposedly lives underground. Sometimes it can be found in other environments.

Characteristics and habits

The ethereal filcher is a kleptomania

Kleptomania

Kleptomania is an irresistible urge to steal items of trivial value. People with this disorder are compelled to steal things, generally, but not limited to, objects of little or no significant value, such as pens, paper clips, paper and tape...

cal creature. It has an unrelenting urge to snatch trinkets from passersby with its long arms. It has the ability to teleport quickly between the Ethereal Plane and Material Plane

Prime Material Plane

The Prime Material Plane is the central plane of existence in the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game...

, giving it an excellent means of escape. It makes a lair in the Ethereal Plane, then searches (by using its ethereal jaunt ability, it can travel unseen through solid objects) for a place where it suspects there will be a victim. It then goes to the Material Plane, right in front of the unsuspecting traveler, and then snatches an item, sometimes using trickery or biting the victim first as a distraction. It then goes back to its lair in the Ethereal Plane to admire its prize. Ethereal filchers do not like fighting, preferring instead to merely run and hide.

Ethereal filchers do not speak.

They are neutral in alignment.