Standing Leap. The bulette's long jump is up to 30 feet and its high jump is up to 15 feet, with or without a running start.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 30 (4d12 + 4) piercing damage.
Deadly Leap. If the bulette jumps at least 15 feet as part of its movement, it can then use this action to land on its feet in a space that contains one or more other creatures. Each of those creatures must succeed on a DC 16 Strength or Dexterity saving throw (target's choice) or be knocked prone and take 14 (3d6 + 4) bludgeoning damage plus 14 (3d6 + 4) slashing damage. On a successful save, the creature takes only half the damage, isn't knocked prone, and is pushed 5 feet out of the bulette's space into an unoccupied space of the creature's choice. If no unoccupied space is within range, the creature instead falls prone in the bulette's space.
Cool
I’m using this to punish a player I know will attack a small adorable creature. I can’t wait to see his reaction when he realizes that attacking everything has it’s consequences.
I was wondering. It says in the Deadly leap that the Bulette goes on the space of others creature. Sooo... does it mean that if the target is prone it can't stand anymore until he is on the bulette space and need to crawl out of it ? Or he can't take any action at all ?
Does he go around attacking horse-sized armored earth frogs? Because if not, then I don't think he's going to bother a bulette in the same way he would a small adorable creature.
The target could still take an action. There's nothing about being prone underneath a creature that prevents you from taking actions like attacking, spell casting, etc.There can be mechanical consequences, like having disadvantage on melee attacks, but they're not stunned. As far as crawling away, yeah, I'm pretty sure they'd have to do that. They're likely not standing up while they're underneath this thing. While crawling you move at 1 ft. per 2 ft. of speed, unless you're already in difficult terrain, in which case its 1 ft. for every 3 ft. of speed.
so when I drop a magic bag of beans on the ground 20 of these things could spout up
that is... noteworthy
I mean, the thing is Large sized, and arguably not "adorable" even if the art makes it seem that way. Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic (YAFGC) had them as a Tremors sort of thing with a halfling Bert character as a gag. But it's accurate to what Bullettes are, especially if Halflings are Small, and these things are Large.
Only if you plant and water them (so theoretically if you dropped them into soft, muddy ground, maybe?)
My barbarian just planted a bean in a cave to prove a point and one of these sprang up. My character's not the brightest so she assumed she'd created it by magic and therefore that it was her familiar, and so she tried to make friends by scritching it under the chin and climbing onto its back to give it pats. Fortunately one of my party-mates had the presence of mind to cast Animal Friendship! (He wouldn't let me keep it though. *sad face*)
Can you ride this?
I feel like there is a story behind this, and I am interested.
Noob DM here:
I was going to put one of these against 4 lvl 5 players, but with 30 damage in one attack, wont it one-shot the casters and two shot the fighters?
I'm I doing something wrong? With 94 hitpoints I dont believe they would be able to kill it in one turn.
Thanks!
@KantTheOrc, I'm probably too late for this to be useful anymore, but nevertheless: It wouldn't be much of a problem for them. Two-shotting the fighters doesn't mean much because it doesn't have multiattack, so every round it could only attack once, with a chance of missing and dealing no damage at all. Most likely it wouldn't be able to attack more than twice before it's dead.
But again, this likely comes waaaaay too late. Would still be interested in hearing how it went though.
We took down a Bulette via stunning strike, sentinel and some excellent party rolls, and recently made the plate armor which has the leap and deadly leap properties.
Are these Leaps in addition to normal movement? Will the 25ft of movement dwarven fighter now be able to run 25ft and leap 30. That would be a massive help. It seems from the description that Bulettes can move and leap as part of their normal movement or as the deadly leap attack.
PHB pg190: You can't move further than your speed allows, no matter how you move.
Your dwarven fighter can jump 25 feet, or run 25 feet, or run 10 and leap 15, etc.. To use Deadly Leap they just need to jump at least 15 feet as part of their movement.
LITERALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO TAME
If this bad boy isn’t attacking from underneath, dealing 30dmg and then submerging back into 40ft long underground corridor, tempting party to follow - you’re being way too good for your players. It can also pop out from underneath, jump onto someone to make them prone and burry straight down back again. That poor squashed character occupying the same space as Bulette, who’s floor just evaporated is now ending down in the hole with Bulette nobody has line of sight to. RIP. Even prepared action attacks are bit problematic as with attack from underneath such Bulette will most likely benefit from 3/4 cover and thus have AC22.
While this creature isn’t planning (so will most likely attack at random, but preferring most dangerous threat), it certainly has a way to hunt and being a damn shark - thus attacking from below and dragging enemy down is exactly what it would do. Bulette might be one of the most dangerous things 5lvl party can encounter if it only isn’t played like the tank&spank HP bag.
The person who narrated the audiobooks in the 90s pronounces it as similar to "brow." I pronounce it like crow, because it sounds far more menacing with their dark motif, space-black appearance, and uncanny intelligence.
BTW - Bulette pronounced as buh'let does follow French conventions. The "te" would need to be removed for it to be pronounced buh'lay.
I have 1 Bulette as a random encounter possible for a group of 4 (lvl 7). I'm thinking it'd be fun to run this creature with a mixture of wilderness hazards that it generates. I'm thinking the characters come across uprooted trees - which in some way might provide a hint to what's upcoming - then, depending on their rolls, one or two of them may fall into a sinkhole - left behind from the Bulette's burrowing - or have to dodge a landslide as they pass some ledges/hills.
I'm curious if folks think that using Quicksand (natural hazard though described more as loose dirt or mud) makes sense for the sinkhole? From what I researched a sinkhole can just open into a vast drop, so if quicksand seems illogical, I can just have the characters make a save against falling 40ft (I'm going with 40 for the purpose of doing a little damage). I like the idea of this hazard causing one of the players to be indisposed and possibly distract the party so that the bulette can make a deadly leap while their backs are turned.
As for the landslide, I'm thinking of just modifying the descriptors of an Avalanche. Does that sound reasonable?
Dragon Magazine 93, pg 25 article by Frank Mentzer published Jan 1985 provides four variations of pronunciation if you really want to dig deep.
Amazing