The Childlings Spiciness: 4/5 Feeds about 4+ players, level 5+ Scales for: Number of Players, Player Level Ingredients: The Childlings Scaling the encounter: Designed to work well in groups of 2+, use a tool like Kobold Plus to scale the encounter as necessary. Preparation Often mistaken for changeling children, the Childlings are a sinister fey the relies on its unassuming appearance to lower the guard of their prey, luring them into dark alleyways and devouring them rapidly. To see which party members are surprised, have them roll an insight check (DC 14) or be surprised by the fact that these children are not what they seem! Things you should know Disarming (in case a player loses their weapon via Fey Trickery): A creature can use a weapon attack to knock a weapon or another item from a target's grasp. The attacker makes an attack roll contested by the target's Strength (Athletics) check or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check. If the attacker wins the contest, the attack causes no damage or other ill effect, but the defender drops the item. The attacker has disadvantage on its attack roll if the target is holding the item with two or more hands. The target has advantage on its ability check if it is larger than the attacking creature, or disadvantage if it is smaller. Poisoned: A poisoned creature has disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks. If you're surprised, you can't move or take an action on your first turn of the combat, and you can't take a reaction until that turn ends. A member of a group can be surprised even if the other members aren't. Cooking the Childlings Round 0: Let the party be lured by one, maybe two of the childlings into an alleyway, or other area with tight, confined areas; with lots of little hiding spots. This is will let the Childlings hide their numbers, but also give them a chance to use their Fey Trickery abilities. If you manage to work the command word into a sentence, you can even hide the casting of the Command spell, and try to force one of the players to give up their sword, or a magical item. Remember to position the childlings in such a way that they can get their sneak attack damage off-- always have an ally adjacent! Round 1: Target first any creatures that are surprised, and that haven't had their turn yet-- this will trigger both their Fey Trickery abilities, as well as their Sneak Attack. Since it'll automatically crit, you're looking at a total of 4d4+4+10d6 poison damage (if they fail the save) + 8d6 slashing damage (68 average). Try to spread this out a bit if you have multiple Childlings, that way you can down more than one player (possibly). Round 2+: Now, no one is surprised, which means no autocrits but your damage output should still be pretty solid, assuming the party doesn't have a yuan-ti. Focus on healers, and downed players. If a player is downed at the start of your Childling's turn, you can use both attacks to finish them off. Retreat Clause: If the childling is low on hp, go ahead and use Wild Retreat to make a single bite attack, and then flee. This will let you save them for later-- perhaps the childling seeks revenge the party is camping! If you like this monster, get more! ko-fi.com/pipfizzlebang 1
Artwork | Klutsen This monster was designed via Twitter polls! Childling small humanoid (any race), any non-good alignment Armor Class 15 (Appearance of Innocence) Hit Points 55 (10d6 + 20) Speed 30 ft. STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 11 (+0) 14 (+2) 14 (+2) 13 (+1) 11 (+0) 16 (+3) Saving Throws Dex +5, Int +4 Skills Acrobatics +5, Deception +3, Perception +3, Stealth +8 Damage Resistances poison Senses passive Perception 13 Languages common, undercommon, sylvan Challenge 5 (1,800 XP) Proficiency Bonus +3 Fey Trickery. During its first turn, the Childling has advantage on attack rolls against any creature that hasn't taken a turn. Any hit the Childling scores against a surprised creature is a critical hit. Sneak Attack (1/Turn). The Childling deals an extra 14 (4d6) damage when it hits a target with a weapon attack and has advantage on the attack roll, or when the target is within 5 feet of an ally of the Childling that isn't incapacitated and the Childling doesn't have disadvantage on the attack roll. Appearance of Innocence. The Childling adds its Charisma Modifier to its Armor Class. Actions Multiattack. The Childling makes two Noxious Nibble attacks. Noxious Nibble. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d4 + 2) piercing damage, and the target must make a DC 14 Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, the creature takes 17 (5d6) poison damage, and is poisoned. On a successful save, the creature takes half as much damage and is not poisoned. Fey Request (Recharge 5-6) Childling may cast Command on a humanoid it can see. It may say "Gift", or the name of an object (like "sword", "potion"), in which the target creature must pass the save or hand that object to them on their turn. Creatures that fail their save are unaware of being under a spells effect. Wild Retreat The Childling may make a Noxious Nibble attack against a creature in 5ft; that creature may not make attacks of opportunity against this childling until the end of it's turn.