My Dad’s Monster Manual – Roper
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Let’s see what my father thinks of the roper.
Potentling (Roper)
It swaps knowledge for knowledge.
Lucian J. Introcaso
A potentling is a 15-foot-tall, stone-skinned creature that looks like a massive stalagmite. It has one great eye near the top of its body, a massive mouth, and six long tentacles. These aberrations have lived on the Material Plane for eons. They are rare, dangerous, and have a vast knowledge of history.
Protected in Mountain Fortress. Each potentling lives in a citadel atop tall mountains. From these high seats, they watch the world around them, taking in the rise and fall of surrounding civilizations and memorizing every detail. While the potentlings observe their surroundings, their creations, the ever-faithful scorpdillos, maintain and guard their fortresses.
Knowledge for Knowledge. For those brave enough to journey to their lairs, potentlings are willing to trade in information. Though they’re nearly immobile, they are intimately familiar with all that happens within hundreds of miles of their fortresses, and happy to share all they know with a creature that offers new stories or experiences to the aberration. However, if the creature offers things the potentling already knows or has experienced, the aberration tries to eat the offender. After all, tasting this being’s flesh is a new experience.
Potentling
Huge aberration, chaotic neutral
Armor Class 20 (natural armor)
Hit Points 230 (20d12 + 100)
Speed 5 ft.
| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
| 24 (+7) | 8 (-1) | 20 (+5) | 22 (+6) | 23 (+6) | 18 (+4) |
Saving Throws Dex +4, Int +11, Wis +11, Cha 11
Skills History +11, Perception +11
Senses truesight 120 ft., passive Perception 21
Languages all
Challenge 16 (15,000 XP)
Far Senses. The potentling can see and hear over a distance of 500 miles.
Lair Teleportation. While inside its lair, the potentling can teleport to an unoccupied space it can see within 50 feet of it as a bonus action.
Magic Resistance. The potentling has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
Magic Weapons. The potentling’s weapon attacks are magical.
Actions
Multiattack. The potentling makes three attacks: one with its bite and two with its tentacles.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +12 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 20 (2d12 + 7) piercing damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 17). Until this grapple ends, the target is restrained, and the potentling can’t bite another target.
Tentacle. Melee Weapon Attack: +12 to hit, reach 90 ft., one target. Hit: 20 (3d8 + 7) bludgeoning damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 17). Until the grapple ends, the target is restrained, and the potentling can’t use the same tentacle on another target. The potentling has six tentacles.
Swallow. The potentling makes one bite attack against a Large or smaller target it is grappling. If the attack hits, the target is also swallowed, and the grapple ends. A swallowed creature is blinded and restrained, it has total cover against attacks and other effects outside the potentling, and it takes 21 (6d6) acid damage at the start of each of the potentling’s turns.
If the potentling takes 30 damage or more on a single turn from a creature inside it, the potentling must succeed on a DC 20 Constitution saving throw at the end of that turn or regurgitate all swallowed creatures, which fall prone in a space within 10 feet of the potentling. If the potentling dies, a swallowed creature is no longer restrained by it and can escape from the corpse by using 15 feet of movement, exiting prone.
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