These creatures exist somewhere between parasitism and symbiosis. A writhing mass of thick tentacles, capable of great, undulating speed when independent, but vastly preferring to attach itself to the back of another creature.

Writhing Partners. Once attached to another creature, the tentacular demands compliance through the simple expedience of strangling its host if attempts to remove or threaten the tentacular in any way. The tentacular draws it sustenance from the blood of its host (and is otherwise incapable of feeding), but will also aid its host by defending it and helping it to gather food (usually through butchery and murder on a grand scale). Elves speak in hushed whispers of deer with blood-stained maws and squirming black masses on their backs.

Corpse Riders. If the host of a tentacular dies, some of its tentacles will vanish into the corpse and puppeteer. This state of affairs can last for several days until the rotten meat can no longer by forced into a facsimile of life. Such horrific creatures are often mistaken for undead.

Spawning Tentaculum. A tentacular reproduces by abruptly sprouting a multitude of small tentacles in a process known to scholars as “budding.” After tripling or quadrupling its number of tentacles, the tentacular will abruptly fission, “shedding” individual tentacles until it has split apart entirely. The individual tentacles seek new hosts, at which point the tentacles will sprout additional tentacles as it grows into an adult tentacular.

TENTACULAR
Small aberration, neutral evil

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Armor Class 15

Hit Points 75 (20d6)

Speed 30 ft.

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STR 12 (+1), DEX 15 (+2), CON 11 (+0), INT 3 (-4), WIS 10 (+0), CHA 5 (-3)

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Skills Stealth +5

Senses passive Perception 10

Challenge 5 (1,800 XP)

Proficiency Bonus +3

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Parasite. If not attached to a host, the tentacular must succeed at a DC 10 Constitution saving throw once per day or suffer one level of exhaustion, which cannot be removed until it attaches to a host. When the tentacular is attached to a host, the host must succeed on a DC 13 Constitution saving throw once per day or suffer one level of exhaustion, which cannot be removed as long the tentacular remains attached.

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ACTIONS.

Multiattack. The tentacular makes four tentacle attacks.

Tentacles. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (2d6+1) bludgeoning damage. If the target is a creature, it is grappled (escape DC 15). Until this grapple ends, the target is restrained, and the tentacular can’t use its tentacles on another target.

Strangle. The tentacular forces a creature it is grappling to make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or begin choking. Once a creature is choking, it can survive a number of rounds equal to its Constitution modifier (minimum 1 round). At the start of its next turn, it drops to 0 hit points and is dying, and it can’t regain hit points or be stabilized until it can breathe again. The creature can attempt the save again each round on its turn, with a success indicating that it has managed to get some air (and is no longer choking).

Attach. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one grappled target. Hit: 8 (2d6+1) necrotic damage and the tentacular attaches to the target. While attached, the tentacular can’t make Attach attacks. The tentacular can detach itself by spending 5 feet of its movement. As an action, a creature within reach of the tentacular can try to detach it, doing so with a successful DC 17 Strength check. (The attached victim has disadvantage on this check.)

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Frostbanes are skeletal figures case in ice, but with a flame burning within their chest. Through its icy sheath, this flame burns fiercely — usually in shades of blues, but often purple or green or even crimson.

The Frozen Damned. Frostbane are powerful undead created from corpses which have been frozen for at least a century (usually within icy glaciers, although there are tales of reaping fields upon the Plane of Ice which are maintained and harvested by ancient liches patient enough to mortal lifetimes for their schemes to unfold).

Ice & Fire. Their existence is born from paradox and their mockery of life sustained through an antithetical balance of elemental forces, for the necromancer kindles within their frozen breast a magical flame. This flame slowly consumes their dead flesh, but does not affect the ice which was their death and tomb. Thus heat and frost are maintained in an eternal, impossible tension.

The frostbane thus thirsts eternally for the warmth it is denied — drawing in the heat of life and flame around it, but instantly converting it into the deathly grip of ice.

FROSTBANE

Medium undead, neutral evil

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Armor Class 17

Hit Points 98 (15d8+30)

Speed 30 ft.

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STR 15 (+2), DEX 16 (+3), CON 15 (+2), INT 11 (+0), WIS 12 (+1), CHA 8 (-1)

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Saving Throw Dex +6

Skills Perception +6, Survival +4

Senses passive Perception 16

Damage Immunities fire

Condition Immunities exhaustion, poisoned

Challenge 6 (2,300 XP)

Proficiency Bonus: +3

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Aura of Ice. Anyone within 40 feet of the frostbane suffers 4d6 cold damage per round (DC 14 Constitution saving throw for half damage) Anyone touching the frostbane suffers an additional 2d6 cold damage (no save). Anyone hitting the frostbane with a melee weapon suffers 1d6 cold damage (no save). Every 3 points of cold damage heals 1 point of damage to the frostbane.

Contingent Regeneration. If the frostbane is within 40 feet of a living creature or source of heat, it regains 5 hit points at the start of its turn. If the frostbane starts its turn at 0 hit points doesn’t regenerate, it enters a dormant state and appears “dead.” If someone approaches within 40 feet of the dormant frostbane, however, they can attempt a DC 14 Wisdom (Perception) check to notice an unnatural chill in the air. If the dormant frostbane remains within 40 feet of a living creature or heat source for 5 minutes, it will rouse from its dormancy (and begin healing from itsaura of ice).

The frostbane only truly dies if it suffers cold damage while in its dormant state (snuffing out the flame at its heart).

Heart of Flame. Frostbanes are immune to fire damage and heal 1 point of damage for every 3 points of fire damage they otherwise would have suffered.

Frostspawn. Any humanoid slain by a frostbane rises as a zombie (MM, p. 315) in 1d4 rounds. There’s a 10% chance that such a zombie will transform into a frostbane 1d4 hours later. (There may be rites a necromance could use to increase these odds by helping to kindle its nascent flame.)

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ACTIONS

Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (2d6+2) cold damage.

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Frostbanes appear in The Mrathrach Agenda.

Blood terrors are a pure extension of the Blood of the Beast. Their glistening bodies – with skin-less musculature defined by clotted coagulations – boil with a raw, powerful rage.

Legacy of Giants. Blood Terrors appear to be immortal, and are often found as tomb guardians in the cyclopean barrows of the Tyrannis Gígās (the Tyrant Giants). Long mistaken for some sort of transformation of the Tyrannis’ skyldur (their human serfs or chattel), the true nature of the Blood Terrors was rediscovered when the long-forgotten Idol of the Beast was recovered among the island kingdoms of the south.

Idol of the Beast. The idol once sealed the Beast’s connection to this world, but it was corrupted by the dream cults who still honored the old ways. The Idol became a conduit through which the Beast’s will could be made manifest and around which new cults could arise in dim memory of a primitive and bestial past.

Blood terrors can now be found in the wake of the Idol, serving the cultists who have performed the strange rites of creation/summoning which signify their loyalty to the Beast.

Creatures of Blood. Blood terrors “contain” a seemingly impossible amount of blood. It is perhaps more accurate to think of them as extrusions of the Blood of the Beast, pumping their way through the planar skein of reality. When their manifest forms are violated, their strange blood – which is paradoxically antithetical to natural life – is eager to spew out into our world.

BLOOD TERROR

Medium aberration, chaotic evil

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Armor Class 17

Hit Points 94 (11d8+44)

Speed 30 ft.

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STR 16 (+3), DEX 12 (+1), CON 18 (+4), INT 10 (+0), WIS 14 (+2), CHA 10 (+0)

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Skills Acrobatics +4, Athletics +6

Damage Resistances acid, cold, fire

Damage Immunities poison

Senses passive Perception 15

Languages Giant, Issyl, telepathy 100 ft.

Challenge 5 (1,800 XP)

Proficiency Bonus +3

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Blood Blight. Once per day, the blood terror can exude a 20 ft.-radius mist of blood that lasts for 1d4 rounds. Non-evil creatures who enter the mist or who start their turn within the mist must make a DC 13 Constitution save or suffer 4d8 damage and gain the poisoned condition. (On a successful save, the damage is halved and the character does not suffer from the poisoned condition.)

Blood Spray. When the blood terror is injured, it releases a spray of blood that covers the ground in a 10-foot square centered on the blood terror. This operates as per a grease spell (DC 13) and lasts for 1 minute. Other creatures of the Beast are not affected by the blood spray.

ACTIONS

Multiattack. Blood terrors make two claw attacks.

Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 10 (2d6+3) slashing damage.

Lesser bloodwights are either the pupa-like clone-spawn of true bloodwights or the first stage of recovery for a bloodwight who has been reduced to a desiccated state.

The Crimson Sheen. The signature of the bloodwights is the sheen of blood which they cause to erupt on the skin of the living. They are so inimical to life, that mortal flesh erupts in a hemorrhagic rejection of their presence. But the bloodwight itself thirsts for the warmth and energy of life, their limbs growing sleek and supple in its presence.

The sheen notably does not require line of sight, allowing bloodwights to lurk in sealed up attics or glide through city sewers. There are tyrants who have been known to wall up lesser bloodwights in oubliettes, into which can be thrown doomed prisoners.

Blood-Damned Nests. Bloodwights have a strong nesting influence, constructing mounds from whatever material may be at hand (furniture in mortal dwellings, detritus in ruins, leaves or fallen trees in forests, and so forth).

There may be a hunting component to this behavior, as the bloodwights can lay hidden within a nest while nevertheless feasting on any living creatures who pass by. In some cases, those excavating these nests have found them to be connected to other nests in the same area through shallow tunnels.

BLOODWIGHT, LESSER

Medium undead, neutral evil

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Armor Class 14

Hit Points 45 (6d8+18)

Speed 30 ft.

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STR 14 (+2), DEX 12 (+1), CON 16 (+3), INT 11 (+0), WIS 13 (+1), CHA 16 (+3)

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Skills Stealth +3, Perception +3

Damage Resistances cold, necrotic; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical weapons

Damage Immunities poison

Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 13

Languages Any

Challenge 3 (700 XP)

Proficiency Bonus +2

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Bloodsheen. A living creature within 30 feet of a lesser bloodwight must succeed at a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or begin sweating blood (covering their skin in a sheen of blood). Characters affected by bloodsheen suffer 1d4 points of damage, plus 1 point of damage for each bloodwight within 30 feet. A character is only affected by bloodsheen once per round, regardless of how many bloodwights are present.

Health Soak. A lesser bloodwight within 30 feet of a living creature gains 2 hit points per round. A lesser bloodwight benefiting from health soak will gain hit points even after their normal maximum number of hit points has been reached, up to a maximum of 66 (the maximum number of hit points possible per Hit Die).

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ACTIONS

Multiattack. Lesser bloodwights make two claw attacks.

Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (2d6+2) bludgeoning damage.

Blood Welt. When a creature is struck by a lesser bloodwight’s claw attack, they must succeed at a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or suffer a blood welt. A blood welt bleeds for 1 point of necrotic damage per round. The victim can repeat the saving throw at the beginning of each turn, ending the effect of all current blood welts on a successful save. Alternatively, the bleeding can be stopped with a DC 14 Wisdom (Medicine) check.

True bloodwights are among the deadliest of the undead banes, capable of achieving power to rival even the most potent liches. If they become trapped and unable to feed, however, their blood-drenched flesh dries to desiccated husks; their desperate and unquenched need for living energy driving them first to madness and then to near-brainlessness.

Shambling Gait. When adventurers first encounter a desiccated bloodwight, they’ll often drawn the wrong conclusion. The shambling gait and limited actions of a desiccated bloodwight are likely to leave them thinking that they’re facing common zombies.

Bloodsheen. The first indication that something is wrong will come when they start sweating blood and their skin becomes coated with a scarlet sheen. As the blood drips from them, it will pool on the floor and flow towards the desiccated corpses which grow in strength with every passing moment.

Transformation. When a desiccated bloodwight has drained enough energy from the living, it will transform into a lesser bloodwight. Its dry skin will crack open as the undead horror literally tears itself out of its own body. The thing which emerges is a glistening mass of raw muscle, pulsing with thick veins of crimson-black blood. Its fang-like teeth glitter as its mouth parts in a ghastly, hissing smile…

BLOODWIGHT, DESICCATED

Medium undead, neutral evil

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Armor Class 8

Hit Points 22 (3d8+9)

Speed 20 ft.

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STR 12 (+1), DEX 8 (-1), CON 16 (+3), INT 6 (-2), WIS 10 (+0), CHA 16 (+3)

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Skills Stealth +1

Damage Resistances cold, necrotic; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical weapons

Damage Immunities poison

Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 10

Languages Any

Challenge 1 (200 XP)

Proficiency Bonus +2

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Bloodsheen. A living creature within 30 feet of a desiccated bloodwight must succeed at a DC 11 Constitution saving throw or begin sweating blood (covering their skin in a sheen of blood). Characters affected by bloodsheen suffer 1d4 points of damage, plus 1 point of damage for each bloodwight within 30 feet. A character is only affected by bloodsheen once per round, regardless of how many bloodwights are present.

Health Soak. A desiccated bloodwight within 30 feet of a living creature gains 2 hit points per round. A desiccated bloodwight benefiting from health soak will gain hit points even after their normal maximum number of hit points has been reached, up to a maximum of 33 (the maximum number of hit points possible per Hit Die). If a desiccated bloodwight reaches the maximum number of hit points possible per Hit Die, they benefit from a restorative transformation (see below). If a desiccated bloodwight with more than their normal maximum number of hit points is no longer within 30 feet of a living creature, they will lose 1 hit point per minute until they return to their normal maximum number of hit points.

Restorative Transformation. A desiccated bloodwight who reaches the maximum number of hit points per Hit Die as a result of their health soak ability is transformed into a lesser bloodwight as a bonus action. From that point forward, the desiccated bloodwight is treated as a lesser bloodwight in all respects.

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ACTIONS

Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 4 (1d6+1) bludgeoning damage.

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Design Note: Bloodwights originally appeared in my 3E adventure The Complex of Zombies, which reinvented the typical cannon fodder zombie of fantasy roleplaying as a terrifying monster of horror commensurate with its cultural cachet. You can read some behind the scenes commentary here.