Legendary Resistance (3/Day). If the Undying Trickster fails a saving throw, it can choose to succeed instead.
The Show Must Go On. If the Undying Trickster is reduced to 0 hit points, it teleports to a random location within 1000 feet and regains 1d4 hit points. After using this ability, it cannot use it again until the creature, object or location that reduced the Undying Trickster to 0 hit points is destroyed.
Spellcasting. The lich is an 18th-level spellcaster. Its spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 20, +12 to hit with spell attacks). The lich has the following bard spells prepared:
Cantrips (at will): friends, minor illusion, vicious mockery, mage hand
1st level (4 slots): charm person, disguise self, silent image
2nd level (3 slots): detect thoughts, skywrite, zone of truth
3rd level (3 slots): major image, glyph of warding, enemies abound
4th level (3 slots): charm monster, dimension door, hallucinatory terrain
5th level (3 slots): animate objects, modify memory
6th level (1 slot): mass suggestion, otto's irresistible dance
7th level (1 slot): etherealness, magnificent mansion
8th level (1 slot): glibness, feeblemind
9th level (1 slot): mass polymorph, true polymorph
Audiovisual Abuse! When the Undying trickster casts Vicious Mockery, it may also cast Minor Illusion as a free action.
Steal Luck. Melee Spell Attack: +12 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 7 (2d6) force damage. The target has disadvantage on their next roll.
Boo! Force a creature that the Undying Trickster can see that is concentrating on a spell to make a concentration check with a dc of 20.
Fool Me Once. Upon taking damage, gain resistance to the damage type taken. This resistance lasts 1 minute, or until the Undying Trickster uses this reaction to gain resistance to a different damage type.
Fate Is Not Your Ally. If a creature that the Undying Trickster can see rolls a critical success, the Undying Trickster can force them to reroll the dice.
The Undying Trickster can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from the options below. Only one legendary action option can be used at a time and only at the end of another creature's turn. The Undying Trickster regains spent legendary actions at the start of its turn.
Critique. The Undying Trickster casts a Vicious Mockery.
Steal Luck. The Undying Trickster uses its Steal Luck.
Frightening Gaze (Costs 2 Actions). The Undying Trickster fixes its gaze on one creature it can see within 10 feet of it. The target must succeed on a DC 18 Wisdom saving throw against this magic or become frightened for 1 minute. The frightened target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success. If a target's saving throw is successful or the effect ends for it, the target is immune to the Undying Trickster's gaze for the next 24 hours.
Sow Chaos (Costs 3 Actions). Each creature within 30 feet of the Undying Trickster must make a DC 18 Intelligence saving throw against this magic. On a failure, the creature forgets all languages it knows. On a success, the creature is unaffected. A creature that failed the saving throw may remake the saving throw as an action, remembering all languages on a success.
Description
"Welcome to my lair, brave adventurers! Now, could you please leave and come back in five minutes? I just need to set up a some glyphs to give you a suitably dramatic entrance! No? Just going to sneak past all my painstakingly prepared puzzles? Just going to barge in to my home, just going to start shooting? No regard at all for drama, for fun? Just want to get straight to the fight, huh? Fine then."
-message sent through magical speaker, wrapped in a wreath made of adventurer bones.
Somewhat fittingly, Undying Tricksters are much less well-documented than their scholarly counterparts- liches. On record, the Archivists have collected seven different explanations about their origins from five seperate Undying Tricksters. These explanations range from seducing death itself, to selling their soul to three dozen Greater Demons simultaneously, to buying infinite time using trained mocks. As far as can be confirmed, not a single one of them is lying.
Unlike most undead, the Undying Trickster harbours no particular animosity towards living creatures, and have even been known to keep the mortal pets that they had in life. Some even stay faithful to their religions, leading to some very rare but very amusing scenarios, such as an undead master illusionist officiating a wedding.
Lair and Lair Actions
An Undying Trickster's Lair
Undying Tricksters tend to frequent populated areas, playing tricks on the locals and sowing mayhem. Some Undying Tricksters are cruel, twisted trap masters that delight in tricking innocents into their own doom. Some Undying Tricksters are joyful, benevolent creatures that love the rush of tricking a greedy merchant out of their money, and using it to reward the innocents who complete their elaborate games. Most Undying Tricksters, however, simply enjoy the satisfaction of causing chaos.
An Undying Trickster encountered in its lair has a challenge rating of 22 (41,000 XP).
Lair Actions
On initiative count 20 (losing initiative ties), the Undying Trickster can take a lair action to cause one of the following magical effects; the Undying Trickster can’t use the same effect two rounds in a row:
- The Undying Trickster rolls a d8 and regains a spell slot of that level or lower. If it has no spent spell slots of that level or lower, nothing happens.
- The Undying Trickster targets a creature it can see within 30 feet of it. That creature must pass a dc 18 Wisdom saving throw or be afflicted with short, medium or long-term madness. The creature chooses what type of madness it receives.
- All creatures within the Undying Tricksters lair that it selects must make a dc 18 Strength saving throw or be launched at another random creature within the lair. Both the launched creature and the creature that it collides with it are knocked prone, taking fall damage equal to the distance traveled.
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