Limited Flight. The chokepod is incapable of flying higher than 25 ft above a solid surface. If an effect would move the chokepod higher than this limit, it falls at the start of its turn, stopping when it is 25 ft above a solid surface. If the chokepod takes acid damage or is knocked prone, this limit decreases to 10 ft until the end of its next turn.
Resin Binding. The chokepod can spend 10 minutes binding an incapacitated creature in a thick, viscous resin that quickly hardens. A creature bound in resin is restrained and unable to move, though it is still able to talk, breathe, and cast spells with verbal components. A bound creature can attempt to free itself by making a DC 15 Strength check. On a success, the creature breaks free from the resin, and all effects of being bound by it end for the creature. On a failure, the creature must finish a long rest before it can attempt to free itself again. Magic that enables teleportation, like the misty step spell, can also free a creature from being bound in resin.
A creature outside the resin can attempt to free a creature bound in it by making a DC 15 Strength check, breaking it free on a success. A creature can also attempt to break the resin by attacking it. The resin counts as an object with 10 hit points, immunity to poison and psychic damage, and vulnerability to acid damage. If the resin is reduced to 0 hit points, it is destroyed and the creature bound by it is freed.
Finally, if the chokepod is interrupted in the process of binding a creature in resin, the creature suffers no effects of being bound in it, and any resin on its body can be removed with minimal effort.
Plant Camouflage. The chokepod has advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks it makes in any terrain with ample obscuring plant life.
Multiattack. The chokepod makes two strangling tendril attacks.
Strangling Tendril. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (2d6 + 2) bludgeoning damage, and the target is grappled (Escape DC 14). Until this grapple ends, the target is restrained and unable to breathe, and the chokepod can hit it automatically with its tendril attack. The chokepod has two tendrils, each of which can grapple one target.
Leech Life. The chokepod leeches the life out of those held in its tendrils. Each creature that isn't a construct or undead and grappled by the chokepod's Strangling Tendril attack takes 4 (2d4) necrotic damage, and the chokepod regains hit points equal to half the damage dealt. A creature reduced to 0 hit points by this damage is stable but gains one level of exhaustion, which remains even if it is later revived.
Description
Bizarre and unnatural creatures, chokepods resemble large, fuzzy, elongated plant bulbs that float in the air, see through buglike eyestalks and possess long tendrils. Spawned by malign magics, chokepods appear in places where the natural order has been warped by otherworldly influences.
Takers of Vitality. Chokepods survive solely on the blood and energy of other living creatures, which they obtain by sapping it from a helpless victim with their long tendrils. True to their name, chokepods attack by strangling other creatures while floating safely out of reach, ensuring that their quarry is unable to resist or fight back. When they have subdued a creature, these plantlike monsters coat their victim in a viscous, fast-setting resin that renders them helpless and allows the chokepod to return later to leech even more of their energy away. Unlike most creatures, chokepods prefer to leave their prey alive, as they can only leech energy from living creatures. However, this doesn't make them any less dangerous, and they are willing to kill in order to protect themselves.
Vulnerable to Corrosion. Although chokepods are feared for their ability to cause a slow and torturous death, their bodies are also sensitive and vulnerable to corrosive liquids and acids. This weakness can be exploited by informed adventurers in order dispatch a chokepod.
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