Fiend Folio Friday: Firenewts

Firenewts

Firenewts are distant relatives of lizard men who live in sun-baked rocky hills, volcanic regions or any other locale which tends to be hot, dry and sometimes sulphurous, whether above or below ground.

A typical firenewt is a mottled sepia colour, darkest along the spine and fading to near-white on the belly. The smooth flesh and features are eel-like, though the flesh is dry. The eyes are deep crimson. Females are slightly shorter than males (about 5%' tall) and are a duller brown. The young are light in colour, darkening progressively as they approach maturity.

Masters of the Giant Striders

One in three firenewts encountered above ground will be mounted on giant striders, as will ninety percent of elite warriors and all priests. These beasts are trained by the priests and are highly skilled in melee even if the firenewt 'master' dismounts.

Marauding Hordes

Firenewts are cruel marauders — if firenewts are encountered they will usually be the members of a hunting party. They delight in torturing and roasting victims alive before feasting on them.

Firenewt Lairs

In a firenewt lair there will be an additional 70% females and 150% young as well as a secret, closely-guarded hatching ground containing 200% eggs. The hatching ground will be under the priests' control and will be guarded by 1-3 young fire lizards.

The lair will be ruled by an overlord firenewt who will have a close retinue of four elite warriors.

Firenewt Warrior
Medium Humanoid, Neutral Evil
Armor Class: 16
Hit Points: 22 (4d8 + 4)
Speed: 30 feet
STR 12 (+1), DEX 10 (+0), CON 13 (+1), INT 8 (-1), WIS 10 (+0), CHA 10 (+0)
Damage Reduction: Fire
Skills: Athletics +3, Handle Animal +2
Senses: Passive Perception 10
Languages: Common, Lizardfolk, Ignan
Challenge: 1/2

Actions

• Breath Weapon: The firenewt breathes fire on a single adjacent target as a bonus action. The target takes 3(1d6) fire damage, unless the target succeeds on a DC 11 Dexterity save.
• Long spear: Melee weapon attack, 10 ft reach, single target, +3 attack, 5 (1d8+1) piercing damage
• Long Sword: Melee weapon attack, 5 ft reach, single target, +3 attack 4 (1d8+1) piercing damage.
• Shortbow: Ranged weapon attack, range 80ft/320ft, single target, +2 attack 3 (1d6) piercing damage.

Elite Firenewt
Medium Humanoid, Neutral Evil
Armor Class: 16
Hit Points: 39 (6d8 + 12)
Speed: 30 feet
STR 14 (+2), DEX 10 (+0), CON 15 (+2), INT 8 (-1), WIS 12 (+1), CHA 10 (+0)
Damage Reduction: Fire
Skills: Athletics +5, Handle Animal +3
Senses: Passive Perception 11
Languages: Common, Lizardfolk, Ignan
Challenge: 1

Actions 

• Breath Weapon: The firenewt breathes fire on a single adjacent target as a bonus action. The target takes 3(1d6) fire damage unless the target succeeds on a DC 13 Dexterity save.
• Battle Axe: Melee weapon attack, 5 ft reach, single target, +4 attack 5 (1d8+2) slashing damage.
• Shortbow: Ranged weapon attack, range 80ft/320ft, single target, +2 attack 3 (1d6) piercing damage.

Firenewt Priest
Medium Humanoid, Neutral Evil
Armor Class: 16
Hit Points: 33 (6d8 + 6)
Speed: 30 feet
STR 12 (+1), DEX 10 (+0), CON 13 (+1), INT 10 (+0), WIS 16 (+3), CHA 10 (+0)
Damage Reduction: Fire
Skills: Athletics +3, Handle Animal +2
Senses: Passive Perception 10
Languages: Common, Lizardfolk, Ignan
Challenge:

Spellcasting: The Firenewt Priest is a 4th level spellcaster. His spellcasting ability is Wisdom (spell save DC 13, +5 hit with spell attacks.) The Firenewt Priest has the following spells prepared:

Cantrips (at will) druidcfraft, produce flame, thorn whip
1st level (4) animal friendship, faerie fire, fog cloud
2nd level (3) heat metal, gust of wind

Actions

• Breath Weapon: The firenewt breathes fire on a single adjacent target as a bonus action. The target takes 3 (1d6) damage unless it succeeds on a DC 11 Dexterity save.
• Mace: Melee weapon attack, 5 ft reach, single target, +4 attack 5 (1d8+1) bludgeoning damage.

Firenewt Overlord
Medium Humanoid, Neutral Evil
Armor Class: 16
Hit Points: 39 (8d8 + 12)
Speed: 30 feet
STR 16 (+3), DEX 10 (+0), CON 15 (+2), INT 10 (0), WIS 12 (+1), CHA 10 (+0)
Damage Immunity: Fire
Skills: Athletics +5, Handle Animal +3
Senses: Passive Perception 11
Languages: Common, Lizardfolk, Ignan
Challenge: 1

Actions 

• Breath Weapon: The firenewt can breath fire on a single adjacent target as a bonus action. The target takes 3(1d6) fire damage unless the target succeeds on a DC 13 Dexterity save.
• Battleaxe: Melee weapon attack, 5 ft reach, single target, +3 attack 5 (1d8+3) slashing damage.

Giant Strider

These large flightless, featherless birds are similar to huge ostriches. Beside each of their two dully-glowing red eyes is a small duct from which the beast can project a small fireball. They are immune to fire, magical or otherwise, and in fact their  bodies have adapted to derive sustenance from warmth; consequently they are most at home in desert and volcanic regions. As a result, giant striders are often found wading in lava-beds or standing in the flames of a forest fire (it is possible that the phoenix legend derived from such a sight).

Large Beast, Neutral
Armor Class: 14
Hit Points: 4d10+8
Speed: 6o ft.
STR 16 (+3), DEX 14 (+2), CON 14 (+2), INT 2 (-4), WIS 12 (+1), CHA 7 (-2)
Damage Reduction: Fire
Senses:  Passive Perception 11
Challenge:

Actions

• Fire balls: Giant striders can shoot a 10ft radius sphere of fire from ducts under its eyes to a range of 50 feet, doing 1d6 fire damage to all in its area. It may do this twice per short rest.
• Bite: melee weapon attack +6, target one creature, 6 (1d8+2) piercing damage
• Kick: melee weapon attack +6, target one creature, 7 (1d10+2) bludgeoning damage

Fire Lizard
These reptiles may be the ancestors of dragons or an offshoot of a common ancestor. In any case, these creatures resemble red dragons, but are a neutral grey in color, with mottlings of red and brown on the back and reddish undersides. Unlike true dragons, they lack wings. They are sometimes called false dragons.

Huge beast
Armor Class:16
Hit Points: 85 (10d12 + 20)
Speed: 30 ft.
STR 18 (+4), DEX 10 (+0), CON 15 (+2), INT 2 (-4), WIS 12 (+1) CHA 7 (-3)
Damage Immunities: fire
Senses:Darkvision 60 ft, Passive Perception 11
Challenge:

Actions

• Multiattack: The fire lizard may either breath fire and claw or bite and claw.
• Fire breath: The fire lizard may breath a 20ft cone of fire. Each creature in that cone must make a DC 13 Dexterity save or take 10 (3d6) fire damage.
• Bite: melee weapon attack, +7 hit, reach 10 ft., 13 (2d8+4) piercing damage.
• Claws: melee weapon attack, +7 hit, reach 10ft, 11 (2d6+4) slashing damage.

Fiend Folio Friday: Dark Creeper and Dark Stalker

Dark Creeper

The dark creeper (a folk name for the race since the race name is unknown and the race language incomprehensible to linguists) is a humanoid, slightly-built creature about the same height as a dwarf. Members of the race always dress in sombre, dark-coloured clothing, concealing as much of their pallid skin as possible. They detest light and dwell deep underground — usually leading a solitary existence though there have been rumours of underground villages inhabited by as many as 80 individuals, including 20%—25% females. These villages are always ruled by a dark stalker.

Petty Thieves

The dark creeper is particularly fond of small magical items such as rings and magic daggers — solitary individuals will carry 25% of their treasure in the copious pockets of their cloaks in the form of trinkets, small jewelry, gems and coins.

Dark Creeper
Small humanoid
Armor Class: 17 (13 in normal or better light)
Hit Points:  7 (2d6)
Speed:       20 ft
STR 8 (-1), DEX 16 (+3), CON 10 (+0), INT 10 (+0), WIS 10 (+0), CHA 10 (+0)
Skills:      Acrobatics +5, Perception +2, Sleight of Hand +5, Stealth +5
Senses:      Darkvision 120 ft, detect magic 15 ft, passive Perception 10
Languages:   Dark creeper, undercommon

Creature of Darkness
The creeper  has the innate power to create darkness once per short or long rest — this power acts as the darkness spell, but does not affect dark creepers. During this time the creeper has two main objectives. First, to destroy lanterns and tinderboxes, break flasks of oil and so on — any act which will inhibit the creation of illumination. Secondly, to steal any small magical items detected. Self-preservation ranks marginally above such objectives.

Armored in Shadow
The dark creeper adds +4 to its armor class when in dim illumination or darkness. They are experts in using the shadows as cover for their activity.

Heatless Fire
When the Dark Creeper dies, its body undergoes a rapid transformation, releasing the dark energies inside it. All within 10 feet tahe 3 (1d6) necrotic damage and are blinded one round, or half damage and no blindness if they make a CON save (DC 20)

Actions
Poisoned Dagger, melee weapon attack, +5 hit, 5 foot reach, 1 target, 5 damage (1d4+3 plus poison — save DC 10 or extra 2d6 poison damage).

Dark Stalker

Dark stalkers are the rarely-seen leaders of the dark creepers. They are nearly a race apart, for they breed almost exclusively amongst themselves. They are instantly noticeable amongst a group of dark creepers as they are man-sized and stand head and shoulders above their underlings.

There is an average of one dark stalker to every 25 dark creepers, and each dark creeper village will contain at least one stalker ruler. Stalkers will rarely be encountered on their own, but this has been known to happen as the stalker goes about some mysterious personal mission.

They fight with short swords if they must, and some of these are magical (25% chance). All of their treasure is carried — there is a 7% chance of a magical ring and a 12% chance of 2—5 gems or 1 —2 items of jewellery on any given individual encountered. If attacked in normal illumination, the dark stalker has AC8.

If killed, a dark stalker explodes in a blinding flash equal to a 3-dice fireball.

Dark Stalker
Armor Class: 16 (12 in normal or better light)
Hit Points:  23 (4d8+5)
Speed:       20 ft
STR 10 (+0), DEX 15 (+2), CON 13 (+1), INT 10 (+0), WIS 10 (+0), CHA 10 (+0)
Skills:      Acrobatics +4, Perception +2, Sleight of Hand +4, Stealth +4
Senses:      Darkvision 120 ft, detect magic 15 ft, passive Perception 10
Languages:   Dark creeper, undercommon

Creature of Darkness
The dark stalker  has the innate power to create darkness once per short or long rest — this power acts as the darkness spell, but does not affect dark creepers. During this time the creeper has two main objectives. First, to destroy lanterns and tinderboxes, break flasks of oil and so on — any act which will inhibit the creation of illumination. Secondly, to steal any small magical items detected. Self-preservation ranks marginally above such objectives.

Create Fog
The dark stalker can use the Wall of Fog spell once per short rest.

Armored in Shadow
The dark stalker adds +4 to its armor class when in dim illumination or darkness. They are experts in using the shadows as cover for their activity.

Heatless Fire
When the Dark Creeper dies, its body undergoes a rapid transformation, releasing the dark energies inside it. All within 10 feet take 10 (3d6) necrotic damage and are blinded one round, or half damage and no blindness if they make a CON save (DC 20)

Actions
Poisoned Shortsword, melee weapon attack, +5 hit, 5 foot reach, 1 target, 5 damage (1d6+2 plus poison — save DC 10 or extra 2d6 poison damage).

Fiend Folio Friday: Crabmen and Dire Corbies

This week, my Fiend Folio entries focus on basic grunt monsters from the original Folio. My rewrites give little twists to both of these monsters, but keep them as low-level thugs with a little different flavor.

Crabmen

Amphibious creatures usually found in sea-shore caves, crabmen are nine foot tall humanoids but with a hard, reddish-brown exoskeleton. Instead of hands they have two pincers.

Crabmen greatly value silver and will go to any lengths to obtain it, even attacking a character suspected of carrying any item made of this metal. In normal circumstances, however, they are quite pacific creatures, though from time to time an instinct makes them leave their coastal dwelling to mount a savage raid inland, roaming in bands of 30 or 40 creatures and pillaging all property in their path, not hesitating to attack those who would defend.

Crabmen are often subjected to raids by sahuagin who consider them a tasty delicacy. However the sahuagin's usual net-throwing tactics are ineffective against crabmen since the latter's natural weaponry allows them to cut through nets very quickly.

Crabman

Large humanoid, neutral

Armor Class:         15

Hit Points:             38 (6d10 +5)

Speed:                    20 feet, 15 feet swimming

STR 14 (+2), DEX 14 (+2), CON 13 (+1), INT 8 (-1), WIS 10 (+0), CHA 6 (-2)

Skills:               Athletics +4, Perception +2

Senses:             Tremorsense 30 feet, Passive Perception 12

Languages:       Aquan, Common

Actions

Pincers: melee weapon attack, reach 5 feet, one target, hit 7 (2d4+2) slashing damage. A creature struck by the crabman must roll a Strength save (DC 12) or become grappled.

Dire Corby

This subterranean race of huge black bipedal birds contains ferocious fighters which need never check morale. Long ago the dire corbies lost the power of flight; however they make up for this with their great strength and ferocity, always attacking and fighting to the death. What were once wings have now developed as two powerful arms which end in sharp, rock-hard claws.

They hunt in flocks, running down their hapless victims, at the same time emitting horrifying shrieks. They have rudimentary language (their attack cry can be recognised as 'Doom! Doom I' by those familiar with it).

Dire corbies live in large underground caverns; at one time there was open warfare between them and giant bats, but this has now become an uneasy truce.

Dire Corby

Medium humanoid, neutral evil

Armor Class:   15

Hit Points:       26 (4d8+8)

Speed:              40 feet

STR 14 (+2), DEX 15 (+2), CON 15 (+2), INT 8 (-1), WIS 12 (+1), CHA 8 (-1)

Skills:               Perception +3, Stealth +4

Senses:             Darkvision 120 feet, Passive Perception 13

Languages:       Dire Corby

Disorienting Shrieks: Creatures within 20 feet of a dire corby must succeed on a DC 10 Wisdom saving throw, or it can’t take reactions until the end of its next turn. On its turn, the target can’t move, and it uses its action to make a melee or ranged attack against a randomly determined creature within range. If the target can’t attack, it does nothing on its turn.

Actions

Claws: melee weapon attack, reach 5 feet, one target, hit 9 (2d6+2) slashing damage.

Fiend Folio Friday: Berbalang

I yet again revisit my love of the Fiend Folio in order to provide a new adaptation of a Fiend Folio creature for 5th edition. I'm going to try to do this once per week for a while, skipping to the creatures I actually like or wished I could like and loosely going in alphabetical order.

I will certainly alter details to suit my own idea of what would be improvements to the creature, so while these will largely be true to the source, don't count on slavish devotion to reproducing creatures.

Berbalang

The berbalang is a solitary biped with leathery skin and bat-like wings. Its eyes are white and watery. DM note: the Berbalang is a low-level mystery monster, a terror that strikes and returns no matter what the PCs do. It's a menace that strikes at and devours people in a village, and even when the PCs are able to kill it off, it comes back looking for revenge, perhaps multiple times, until its lair can be found and the creature killed.

A Dual Life on the Astral Plane

The creature spends the greater part of each month in an apparently dormant state, hibernating preferably in a well-hidden cave. Though seemingly comatose, the berbalang is actually roaming the Astral Plane where it spends its time hunting and killing creatures weaker than itself and engaging in bizarre and complex courtship and mating rituals with other berbalangs. If its body is discovered and interfered with during the creature's astral roaming, the berbalang will attempt to return to the body and animate it; however this can take a long time (1-100 rounds) depending on the berbalang's actual distance away across the planes. If the body is destroyed, the astral berbalang dies as well. For this reason the creature takes a great deal of care in hiding itself and is very ingenious in this regard.

Duplicate Projection 

For three days each month at the time of the full moon, the berbalang returns to its material body, only to alter its form of trance and send forth a physical projection of itself upon the Prime Material Plane. The projection flies in search of food — a freshly-killed human corpse. The projection is physical in the sense that it can receive and inflict damage — in this respect it is a duplicate of the original. The berbalang can use all of the senses of the projection and will command (and essentially 'is') the projection in its quest for food. The projection can range up to 3 miles from the material berbalang body. The projection fights, if it needs to do so.

If the projection is hit and suffers damage it immediately takes flight, returning  to the body which will be unable to project again for a number of days equal to the number of hit points lost. If the projection is 'killed' it disappears, and the berbalang must make a DC10 CON save. If it fails the save, it falls to 0 hit points..

If the berbalang survives an attack, it will eventually seek revenge upon its attacker, though this may be delayed while the body recovers. If a wounded projection is followed back to the berbalang lair, the followers may be taken aback when they confront the unwounded physical creature.

If the protection is forced back to the body before the berbalang was able to feed, or if the projection was destroyed before feeding, a new projection will go forth again as soon as possible (after the compulsory period of recovery) regardless of the phase of the moon.

Sneaky Bugger  

To keep from depleting its food supply or arousing too great a local alarm, a berbalang will move its physical body to a new area every three or four months. They always travel by night and avoid confrontations when they are actually physically present. Since berbalangs live on the edge of civilisation, where lack of organisation allows them free rein, a berbalang is very rarely encountered in its physical form unless adventurers happen upon its lair or follow its projection back to its body.

Eat on the Run

If a projection kills a human it will immediately pick up the body and fly, at full rate, back to the host which will immediately emerge from its trance. While in flight, the projection will be feeding on the body — a fully-grown human can thus be devoured in one turn, leaving only the bones, garments and equipment.

WTF? 

How the berbalang derives sustenance when only its projection feeds, and how it reproduces when all mating activity takes place on the Astral Plane, are mysteries so far unexplained.

Berbalang

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Medium humanoid, chaotic evil

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Armor Class: 13
Hit Points: 19 (3d8+6)
Speed: 30 feet, 60 feet flying

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STR 10 (+0), DEX 16 (+3), 14 CON (+2), INT 15 (+2), WIS 13 (+1), CHA 10 (+0)

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Skills: Perception +3, Stealth +5
Senses: Darkvision 120 ft., passive Perception 13
Languages: Common, Deep Speech
Challenge: 1

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Actions

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• Multiattack: the berbalang attacks with its claws and a bite.
• Claws: melee weapon attack, +5 hit, reach 5 feet, one target 8 (2d4+3) slashing damage.
• Bite: melee weapon attack, +5 hit, reach 5 feet, one target 6 (1d6+3) piercing damage.

Converting Fiend Folio Favorites: Caryatid Column

Caryatid columns are created much like stone golems. The column appears to be a column incorporating the form of a slim woman bearing a narrow, old-fashioned sword, about 7' tall.

Defensive functions. A caryatid column will always have a specific defensive function such as guarding a treasure-chest or preventing intrusion into a particular area. This task will have been set by the creator.

The caryatid column will 'activate' as soon as any act is committed which its task specifically prohibits — the approach of a potential thief towards the treasure the column has been set to guard, an intrusion into a 'forbidden' area and so on. When it does animate, the caryatid column takes on a fleshy appearance, the sword, becomes steel and it is this weapon that the caryatid column will use in melee if necessary.

However the caryatid column will not necessarily enter into combat; its main task is to guard the treasure, prevent intrusion into a particular area or another similar task and if it can carry out this task without combat it will attempt to do so. Its behaviour will depend a great deal on the circumstances and the instructions given by its creator but it might, for example, attempt to divert the attention of intruding adventurers from the forbidden area and lead them to a place where they will be trapped or attacked by a monster.

If combat is inevitable, however, the caryatid column will initiate it. When the caryatid column's task is complete — intruders killed, treasure no longer vulnerable, for example — it will return to its original position and revert to its original stone shape, the sword becoming stone as well. If the column is killed, it returns to stone (as does the sword) on the spot.

Medium Construct, Unaligned

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Armor Class:    15
Hit Points:         37 (5d8+15)
Speed:             30 ft, climb 30 ft

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STR 16 (+3); DEX 14 (+2); CON 16 (+3); INT 3 (-4); WIS 10 (+0); CHA 10 (+0)

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Damage Immunities: Psychic, poison.
Condition Immunities: Charmed, exhaustion, frightened, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned.
Damage Reduction: Bludgeoning, Piercing or Slashing damage from non-magical weapons that are not adamantine. Senses: Darkvision 120 ft., passive Perception 10
Languages: Understands the languages of its creator, but does not speak.

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Immutable form: The caryatid column is immune to any spell that or effect that would alter its form.

Magic resistance: The caryatid column has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.

Weapon breakage: Any nonmagical weapon that strikes the caryatid column has a 25% chance (not cumulative) per strike of breaking.

ACTIONS

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Sword: +5 melee weapon, reach 5 feet, 8 (2d4+3) slashing damage.

5th edition monster conversion: Penanggalan

Though I know this creature from the original Fiend Folio version, the penanggal is a disgusting monster from actual mythology and legend, in this case, from the monsters of malaysian folklore. Similar to the Pilipino manananggal, the penanggal is an evil female vampire that detaches from a normal woman. It creates a particularly horrific visual, which makes it especially great for a roleplaying game as a “what is that thing?” encounter.

A penanggal (plural penanggalan) is an undead monster that appears by day to be a young and beautiful woman. At night, however, her head detaches from her body, trailing its entrails, to become a vampiric monster flying through the night.

Penanggalan prefer to feed on the blood of pregnant women or young children, but will feed on any victims they can capture. Those whose blood they drink are infected with a wasting disease, even if the penanggal is not able to feed again.

When the penanggal returns to her body, she must soak her entrails in vinegar to shrink them before returning them to her body. This means the lair of a penanggal is notable due to the smell of vinegar.

Penanggal

Medium Undead, Lawful Evil

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Armor Class: 12 or 13 in monstrous form (no armor)

Hit Points: 60 (8d8 +24)

Speed: 30 ft or 40 ft fly in monstrous form

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STR 10 (+0); DEX 14 (+2); CON 16 (+3); INT 13 (+1); WIS 12 (+1); CHA 16 (+3)

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Skills: Deception +7, Perception +5, Stealth +6

Damage Resistances: Necrotic

Damage Immunities: Poison

Condition Immunities: Exhaustion, poisoned

Senses: Darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 14

Languages: Languages knowns in life

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Secret Undead: A penanggal may appear in human form. While in human form, magic will reveal only her alignment in life, not her lawful evil alignment. In human form, the penanggalan in human form is not affected by daylight and cannot be affected by a cleric’s turn undead or destroy undead abilities.

Vulnerable to Sunlight: A penanggal struck by daylight while her head and organs are detached is paralyzed until it is out of the sunlight.

Acidic Flesh: Any creature that begins or ends its turn or who is in close combat with a penanggal takes 1d4 acid damage and the targe cannot regain hit points until the start of the penanggal’s next turn.

Actions

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Multiattack: the penanggal is able to make two attacks, only one of which may be a bite.

Dagger (human form only): Melee weapon attack, +6 to hit, reach 5 ft, one creature. Hit: 4 (d4+2) piercing damage.

Bite (either form): Melee weapon attack, +6 to hit, reach 5 ft, one creature. Hit: 4 (d4+2) piercing damage plus 7 (2d6) necrotic damage. The target must also make a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or be poisoned for 1d6 rounds. The target must also make a CON save vs. DC 14 at the end of the day or be cursed with a wasting disease. Every day  the target must save  or gain a level of exhaustion. This happens at the end of each consecutive day until the curse is removed or until the target makes three consecutive successful saves. These levels of exhaustion cannot be removed while the character still suffers the curse. The curse can only be removed with a Remove Curse spell.

Grasping Entrails (monstrous form only): Melee weapon attack, +6 to hit, reach 10 ft, one creature. Hit: 5 (d6+2) bludgeoning damage plus 3 (1d6) acid damage plus 3 (1d6) necrotic damage, the target is grappled, and the target cannot regain hit points until the start of the penanggal’s next turn.

Charm: The penanggal targets one creature it can see within 30 feet of it if the target can see the penanggal. If the target can see the penanggal, the target must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw against the creature’s magic or be charmed by the penanggal. The charmed target regards the creature as a trusted friend to be heeded and protected. The charmed target isn’t under the creature’s control, but it takes the penanggal’s requests or actions in the most favorable way it can, and is willing to allow the penanggal’s bite attack. Typically, the monster uses this to make prey docile for feeding.

Each time the penanggal does anything harmful to the target, the target can repeat the saving throw, ending the effect on itself on a success. Otherwise, the effect lasts 24 hours or until the creature is destroyed, is on a different plane of existence than the target, or takes a bonus action to end the effect.

Horrific Transformation (human form only): the penanggal separates her head from her body. All creatures within 30 feet that see the change must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or drop to 0 hit points from fear. Those who do save are frightened for 1d6 rounds.

5th edition monster conversion: Son of Kyuss

Son of Kyuss

Medium Undead, Chaotic Evil

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Armor Class:    14 (no armor)

Hit Points:    39 (6d8 +12)

Speed:    20 ft

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STR 14 (+2); DEX 10 (+0); CON 14 (+2); INT 6 (-2); WIS 10 (+0); CHA 4 (-3)

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Damage Resistances: Necrotic

Damage Immunities: Poison

Condition Immunities: Exhaustion, poisoned

Senses: Darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 10

Languages: Common

Aura of Fear: All creatures within 30 feet of a son of kyuss must make a Wisdom saving throw vs. a DC of 11 or become frightened for 1 minute. Each time the frightened creature ends its turn without line of sight to the Son of Kyuss, it may attempt another Wisdom saving throw.

Regeneration: Sons of Kyuss regain 5 hit points at the start of its turn. If the creature takes fire or radiant damage or if holy water or holy objects are held to its wounds, it does not regenerate that round.

Actions

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Fists: +5 melee weapon, reach 5 feet, 5 (1d6+2) bludgeoning damage plus 3 (1d6) necrotic damage. The target must also make a CON save vs. DC 11 or be cursed with a leprous disease. The target cannot regain hit points and suffers disadvantage to all Charisma ability checks. The curse can only be removed with a Remove Curse spell.

Worm Infection: +5 melee weapon, reach 5 feet. As a bonus action, worms leap from the son onto an opponent. If an attack succeeds, the target must attempt a Constitution saving throw with a DC of 11 to avoid infection by the worms. A failed save means the target takes 3d6 necrotic damage. If the target dies, worms will spread through the body and bring the corpse back as a son of Kyuss.

5th edition monster conversion: Huecuva

I'm grooving on some of the creepier nasties in the Fiend Folio, particularly the undead.

The huecuva seems to be an attempt to adapt an evil spirit from the mepuche people of Chile and Argentina. In the Fiend Folio, they are shape-changing robed skeletal undead that make you sick and damage you when they touch you.

Not the sexiest of the undead in the Fiend Folio (the coffer corpse, sons of Kyuss, death knight, and penanggalan are all more interesting), but a useful sneaky undead, and worth keeping in my tool kit.

Huecuva

Medium Undead, Neutral Evil

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Armor Class:    14 (no armor)

Hit Points:    26 (4d8 +8)

Speed:    30 ft

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STR 10 (+0); DEX 10 (+0); CON 14 (+2); INT 10 (+0); WIS 16 (+3); CHA 10 (+0)

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Skills: Perception +5, Deception +2

Damage Resistances: Necrotic; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical weapons

Damage Immunities: Poison

Condition Immunities: Exhaustion, poisoned

Senses: Darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 15

Languages: Languages knowns in life

Mask of death:    Huecuva can cast disguise self at will.

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Actions

Chill touch: +5 melee weapon, 1d6+5 necrotic damage plus make a CON save vs. DC 13 or become poisoned for 1 hour.

Fiend Folio Friday: Monsters as Dungeon Features

The Crypt Thing looking cryptic

Among my least favorite monsters in all of D&D are the creatures I think of as dungeon features disguised as monsters. Examples in the AD&D include Gelatinous Cubes, trappers, mimics, piercers, and shriekers. They aren't really monsters, they're traps or puzzles disguised as monsters. Which isn't really the heart of the problem -- the problem is that they are one-shot critters who are just part of the arbitrary weirdness of the dungeon. Sure you can make them work, but why not just use a trap or a puzzle? Expecially given the really weird nature of the critters you end up putting in the dungeon.

The Disenchanter.

The Fiend Folio has its own share of these kinds of monsters. Some are moderately clever to use once, like the Crypt Thing. Of course, the undead fake-out in appearance and the teleportation trick seem more clever to implement, and more disappointing on discovery. The real point of this is to put a monster in the dungeon that seems one thing, but is really an atmospheric teleportation trap. This might be cool in a megadungeon, and screws up mapping, but really is an annoying f-you from the DM.

The Jaculi

The Disenchanter follows up in the fine annoying tradition of the Rust Monster as a way of taking away your character's stuff. Again, this is the kind of thing to put in your megadungeon as a scary obstacle, a motivation to find more magical stuff or, more likely, to undo the mistake of having a vorpal sword in that treasury on level 2. Mostly, the purpose of such monsters is to remind the players that you can take away their stuff at any point.

Bilbo hates Stunjellies.

The Goldbug, like ear seekers or rot grubs, mostly exists to remind players that the dungeon-delving that is supposed to be the goal of the megadungeon you designed, is a stupid thing to do. Like the ear seekers existing to make players hesitate to listen at doors or the rot grub existing to make your characters hesitate to loot bodies, the gold bug is there to make players wonder about picking up gold, because it's a bug that looks like a gold piece, except that it can kill you with a poison bite. Sure, it's loosely based on the title of a Poe story. But mosty, it's a trap your thief can't disarm. The Jaculi, on the other hand, is a spear trap that slithers up to reset itself. And that your thief also cannot disarm. It's a snake that launches itself from trees or pillars like a javelin, then slithers back to height to do it again.

The Tentamort gets busy

Stunjellies are definitely in the Gelatinous Cube-Trapper-Lurker Above-Mimic family of killer creatures disguised as part of the dungeon. Again, while this does a great deal to build up paranoia about the megadungeon setting, these things really have no place outside of the megadungeon. And used more than once or twice become tedious at best, annoying at worst. Even the slimes and jellies can be that way. They also promote the kind of paranoid delving that lead to a desire to create ways to speed up play like rot grubs and ear seekers. Add things like the tentamort, which can crush one character while turning another character's bones to jelly, and you end up with a family of monsters that are just death traps that can be killed, and which add to the nonsensical nature of the dungeon. Now, you can get all Philotomy Jurament on my ass and tell me about the dungeon as mythical underground, but monsters like this don't feel mythical at all. They feel cynical. I get more inspiration from watching Labyrinth than I do from stunjellies and tentamorts, despite the gratuitous David Bowie musical numbers.

The Vortex

The Vortex is, on the other hand, a way to justify a trap. The idea of some sort of whirlwind that traps characters who get into the room is interesting, but maybe you don't want to have elementals, or some site of high-tech fans, or a magical trap. So instead, it's a living ball that makes a whirlwind. Personally, I'd rather go with the fans.

Of course, much of this reflects my dislike of the dungeon as a setting. This may revoke my old-school card, but dungeons are generally pretty dull. The ones I have thrown in over the years tended to be small, focused settings. A ruined building. Some mines. A place to explore with a purpose and get out of. I tired of megadungeons a year into running D&D in the 1980s, and while I have tried to like them now as an adult as gonzo fun, I just can't do it.