Keen Smell. The rat has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on smell.
Pack Tactics. The rat has advantage on an attack roll against a creature if at least one of the rat's allies is within 5 feet of the creature and the ally isn't incapacitated.
Stench. Any creature other than a plague rat that starts its turn within 5 feet of the rat must succeed on a DC 13 Constitution saving throw or be poisoned until the start of the creature's next turn. On a successful saving throw, the creature is immune to the stench of all plague rats for 1 hour.
Bestial Subtype. This creature is bestial, meaning the spells animal messenger, beast bond, beast sense, locate animals or plants, and speak with animals affect the creature as if it were a beast.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 3 (1d4 + 1) piercing damage plus 9 (2d8) poison damage. A target that is immune to disease is immune to this poison damage. A giant rat slain by this attack rises 24 hours later as a plague rat.
Description
Giant rats are infamous for carrying diseases, but some diseases are worse than others. Many giant rats have an endemic plague lurking among them that can transform a giant rat into a poisonous undead. These rats are often called plague rats, and their disease is called rat-plague. Plague rats are hardier than living rats, and while they continue to scavenge as living rats do, they also prey on other giant rats, spreading their rat-plague to more rat corpses and creating more plague rats in the process.
Variant: Diseased Plague Rats
In addition to the disease that transforms the giant rats into undead, plague rats often carry many other diseases in their undead bodies as well. A DM that wants to represent this can use plague rats with the following alternate Bite attack.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 3 (1d4 + 1) piercing damage plus 9 (2d8) poison damage Targets that are immune to disease are immune to this poison damage. If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a DC 12 Constitution saving throw or contract a disease. The DM chooses the disease, such as the Sewer Plague disease from the Dungeon Master's Guide, one from this compendium, or another source. A giant rat slain by this attack rises 24 hours later as a diseased plague rat carrying the same disease.
Comments