Monster Mash

July 3rd is right around the corner and that means so is the release of the D&D Starter Set for the fifth edition as well as the first iteration of the Basic D&D PDF. Holy crap, this Summer is going to be amazing. To honor all you DMs out there who will be hungry for lots of monsters to pack into your campaigns, here’s a few baddies I’ll be throwing into the Exploration Age Campaign Guide. Check them out and use them in your world if you want. Most of all, game and enjoy, my friends. Game and enjoy!

Blazing Wraiths

Blazing wraiths are undead who had their lives ended in terrible fiery ways. When a village is burned and pillaged, a massive fire spreads throughout a city, or a volcanic lair inevitably spews lava onto its inhabitants, those who die may return as hateful spirits, wishing to inflict the same fiery fate upon others.

Blazing wraiths abhor the living and wish to burn all live flesh which crosses their path. They are specters made of pure fire, existing in the Material Plane and Ethereal Plane at the same time.

Wraith, Blazing

Medium Undead

Armor Class 14

Hit Points 26 (4d8 + 8); see Traits below

Speed 60 ft., fly 60 ft.

Senses darkvision 60ft.

Str 6 (-2)

Dex 16 (+3)

Con 14 (+2)

Int 10 (+0)

Wis 11 (+0)

Cha 12 (+1)

Alignment chaotic evil

Languages Common, Infernal

Traits

Immunity: The blazing wraith is immune to disease, fire, necrotic, and poison. It cannot be charmed, frightened, paralyzed, turned to stone, or put to sleep. It does not need to sleep, eat, or breathe.

Incorporeal: The blazing dread wraith is incorporeal.

Actions

Melee Attack – Life Drain: +4 to hit (reach 5ft.; one creature). Hit: 12 (2d8 + 3) necrotic damage, 3 (1d6) fire damage, and the target must make a DC 11 Constitution saving throw. On a failed save the target’s hit point maximum is reduced by the damage dealt by this attack. This reduction lasts 24 hours.

A creature whose hit point maximum is reduced to 0 by this attack dies. The wraith can choose to raise the creature as a specter under its control, but a blazing wraith can have no more than seven specters under its control at one time.

A remove curse spell restores the target’s hit point maximum to its full amount.

Ranged Attack – Hurl Flame: +4 to hit (range 50ft.; one creature). Hit: 10 (3d6) fire damage.

Wraith, Blazing Dread

Medium Undead

Armor Class 14

Hit Points 91 (14d8 + 28)

Speed 60 ft., fly 60 ft.

Senses blindsight 60 ft., darkvision 60 ft.

Str 10 (+0)

Dex 16 (+3)

Con 15 (+2)

Int 12 (+1)

Wis 13 (+1)

Cha 16 (+3)

Alignment chaotic evil

Languages Common, Infernal

Traits

Detect Life: The blazing dread wraith gains a +5 bonus on Wisdom (Perception) checks to detect the presence of living creatures.

Immunity: The blazing dread wraith is immune to disease, fire, necrotic, and poison. It cannot be charmed, frightened, paralyzed, turned to stone, or put to sleep. It does not need to sleep, eat, or breathe.

Incorporeal: The blazing dread wraith is incorporeal.

Actions

Multiattack: The blazing dread wraith makes two life drain attacks, two hurl flame attacks, or one life drain attack and one hurl flame attack.

Melee Attack – Life Drain: +8 to hit (reach 5ft.; one creature). Hit: 36 (6d10 + 3) necrotic damage, 7 (2d6) fire damage, and the target must make a DC 13 Constitution saving throw. On a failed save the target’s hit point maximum is reduced by the damage dealt by this attack. This reduction lasts 24 hours.

A creature whose hit point maximum is reduced to 0 by this attack dies and immediately rises as a free-willed blazing wraith untidier the GM’s control.

A remove curse spell restores the target’s hit point maximum to its full amount.

Ranged Attack – Hurl Flame: +8 to hit (range 100ft.; one creature). Hit: 21 (6d6) fire damage.

Eldritch Fire (Recharge 5-6): The blazing dread wraith chooses a point within 50 feet of it. Each creature in a 20-foot radius cloud centered on that point must make a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save the creature takes 35 (10d6) fire damage, and half damage on a successful save.

The fire ignites any unattended flammable objects and damages objects in the area.

Sand Kraken

A sand kraken is exactly what is sounds like – a kraken who makes its home in the sand of desert wastes instead of the sea. Sand krakens are rare indeed and encounters with them are even more unique. These beasts are mostly reclusive, interacting with creatures above the sand only when hunting for food – or items of great power.

No one is exactly sure why sand krakens seem to want powerful items beyond the normal reasons, but two things are clear. The beasts have a sixth sense which draws them toward items of great power, and these items have a significance to the sand krakens greater than their use and function implies. Do the sand krakens have a greater purpose for these things? Are they working together or individually? No one is sure, since these creatures are not studied and avoided at all cost.

Sand krakens revel less in the chaos of killing and destruction than their sea-faring cousins, so they can sometimes be seen traveling just beneath the surface of the sand without harming anyone observing them. Don’t get in their way though. They do not hesitate to harm those they see as inferior creatures – which is everything else.

Sand Kraken

Huge monstrosity

Armor Class 15

Hit Points 198 (17d12 + 85)

Speed 5 ft., burrow 90 ft.

Senses tremor sense 500 ft., true seeing 120 ft.

Str 25 (+7)

Dex 11 (+0)

Con 20 (+5)

Int 15 (+2)

Wis 18 (+4)

Cha 18 (+4)

Saving Throws Str +12, Con +10, Int +7, Wis +9, Cha +9

Alignment lawful evil

Languages Common

Traits

Immunities: The sand kraken is immune to lightning, thunder, and damage from nonmagical weapons. It cannot be frightened, paralyzed, polymorphed, or put to sleep. It does not need to breathe.

Siege Monster: The sand kraken deals double damage to objects and structures.

Telepathy: The sand kraken can communicate telepathically with any creature within 100 feet of it that can understand a language.

Actions

Multiattack: The kraken makes three melee attacks, each of which it can replace with one use of fling.

Melee Attack – Bite: +11 to hit (reach 5 ft.; one target). Hit: 23 (3d8 + 10) piercing damage.

Melee Attack – Tentacle: +11 to hit (reach 30 ft.; one target). Hit: 20 (3d6 + 10) bludgeoning damage, and the target is grappled. Until the grapple ends, the target is restrained. The kraken has ten tentacles, each out which can grapple only one target.

Fling: One object held of creature grappled by the kraken’s tentacles is thrown up to 60 feet away from the kraken and knocked prone. If a thrown target strikes an object, such as a wall of floor, it takes 3 (1d6) bludgeoning damage for every 10 feet it was thrown. If the target is thrown at another creature, the target must succeed on a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw or take the same damage and be knocked prone.

Firestorm: The sand kraken creates three columns of fire, each which rise up from the ground and can strike a target within 150 feet of the sand kraken. A target must make a DC 20 Dexterity saving throw, taking 22 (4d10) fire damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

Lingering Havoc

A towering colossus made of a mass of corpses and terror, the Lingering Havoc stalks the South Pole looking for victims to add to its form. Any living creatures from animals to dragons the Lingering Havoc finds and kills become incorporated into its rotting mass.

No one is sure how the Lingering Havoc came to be. Is it an aberrant experiment gone awry? A necromancer’s ritual gone haywire? Some force that came out of The Damned Lands and swam through the ocean to the South Pole? Or is it a purposeful creation some secret individual or cabal has unleashed on the world? The South Pole could just be the testing grounds or a feeding place for the Lingering Havoc to grow until it is ready to take on the world.

Lingering Havoc

Colossal undead

Armor Class 17

Hit Points  277 (26d8 + 160)

Speed  80 ft.

Senses darkvision 200 ft., true seeing 120 ft.

Str 30 (+10)

Dex 20 (+5)

Con 26 (+8)

Int 18 (+4)

Wis 23 (+6)

Cha 20 (+5)

Alignment chaotic evil

Languages The Lingering Havoc does not speak, but understands all which is spoken to it.

Traits

Absorb the Dead: Whenever the Lingering Havoc kills a creature, its remains join the Havoc’s form and the Havoc regains 30 hit points.

Damage Resistance: The Lingering Havoc is resistant to damage from all weapons, except those made of adamantine.

Fear Aura: Unless the Lingering Havoc is incapacitated, any creature that isn’t the Havoc’s ally that starts its turn within 50 feet of the Havoc must succeed on a DC 21 Wisdom saving throw or be frightened for 1 minute. A creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, with disadvantage if the Havoc is within line of sight, ending the effect early on a success. If a creature’s saving throw is successful or the effect ends for it, the creature is immune to the Havoc’s Fear Aura for the next 24 hours.

Ice Walk: The Lingering Havoc takes no penalty to speed while traversing ice or snow.

Immunities: The Lingering Havoc is immune to cold, disease, and poison. It cannot be frightened, paralyzed, polymorphed, or put to sleep. It does not need to eat, sleep, or breathe.

Magic Immunity: The Lingering Havoc is immune to spells of 7th level or lower.

Magic Resistance: The Lingering Havoc has advantage on saving throws against magical effects.

Actions

Multiattack: The Lingering Havoc makes two slam attacks and can also use death eye ray, cold eye ray, corpse drop, or poison breath.

Melee Attack – Slam:  +12 to hit (reach 30 ft.; one target). Hit: 39 (4d12 + 13) bludgeoning damage.

Ranged Attack – Death Eye Ray: +7 to hit (range 150 feet.; one target). Hit: If the target has 150 hit points or fewer, it dies; otherwise it takes 20 (2d12 + 7) necrotic damage.

Ranged Attack – Cold Eye Ray: +7 to hit (range 150 feet.; one target). Hit: The target takes 26 (3d12 + 7) and must make a DC 21 Constitution saving throw or be paralyzed until the end of the Lingering Havoc’s next turn.

Corpse Drop (Recharge 5 – 6): The Lingering Havoc shakes its massive form and 3d4 medium humanoid corpses fall off the creature and rise as Death Knights on the Lingering Havoc’s next turn.

Poison Breath (Recharge 5 – 6): The Lingering Havoc breathes poisonous gas in a 60-foot cone. Each creature in the area must make a DC 21 Constitution saving throw, taking 34 (6d8 + 7) poison damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

So there’s a few monsters for your game, and there’s going to be more in the coming weeks along with magic items, backgrounds, and other fun stuff to bring into your campaign. On July 3rd be sure to stop by your local friendly game store and pick up a copy of the D&D Starter Set and/or download the first iteration of the Basic D&D rules. Happy gaming!

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