Legendary Resistance (3/Day). If the Blight Lord fails a saving throw, it can choose to succeed instead.
Blighted Regeneration. The Blight Lord regains 10 hit points at the start of its turn if it is in a region blighted by the Gulthias Tree. If the Blight Lord takes radiant damage, this trait doesn’t function at the start of the Blight Lord's next turn. The Blight Lord dies only if it starts its turn with 0 hit points and doesn’t regenerate.
Rejuvenation. If it has a phylactery, a destroyed Blight gains a new body in 1d10 days, regaining all its hit points and becoming active again. The new body appears within a mile of the phylactery.
Spellcasting. The Blight Lord is an 18th-level spellcaster. Its spellcasting ability is Intelligence (spell save DC 20, +12 to hit with spell attacks). The Blight Lord has the following druid spells prepared:
Cantrips (at will): frostbite, infestation], thorn whip
1st level (4 slots): entangle, fog cloud, ice knife, cure wounds
2nd level (3 slots): heat metal, spike growth, flaming sphere
3rd level (3 slots): erupting earth, meld into stone, dispel magic, wall of water
4th level (3 slots): blight, polymorph
5th level (3 slots): cloudkill, wall of stone
6th level (1 slot): bones of the earth, wall of thorns
7th level (1 slot): fire storm, plane shift
8th level (1 slot): feeblemind, tsunami
9th level (1 slot): ShapeChange
Blight Touch. Melee Spell Attack: +12 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 10 (3d6) Necrotic damage. The target must succeed on a DC 18 Constitution saving throw or be poisoned for 1 minute. The target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success. Well poisoned in this manner the target takes 12 (3d6) poison damage at the start of its turn.
The Blight Lord 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 Blight Lord regains spent legendary actions at the start of its turn.
Cantrip. The Blight Lord casts a cantrip.
Blight Touch (Costs 2 Actions). The Blight Lord uses its Blight Touch.
Corrupt Life (Costs 3 Actions). Each non-undead creature within 20 feet of the Blight Lord must make a DC 18 Constitution saving throw against this magic, taking 21 (6d6) poison damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.
Description
A Blight Lord is an Arch Druid who has been corrupt and twisted by the influence of a Gulthias tree. No longer a defender of nature, the Blight Lord now serves the corrupt designs of the Gulthias Tree and seeks to corrupt and desecrate everything it can. They are frequently found leading a shadow cabal of dark druids in horrible rituals designed to spread the blight.
A Blight Lord can perform a ritual that turns any natural creature into a form of proto phylactery. Loosely based on the rituals that form a lich's phylactery, the druid focuses their dark energies into a creature and binds their dark magic into it as well as a portion of a Gulthias tree. Many Blight Lords choose powerful beasts such as a dinosaur or bear or even some creature altered by their dark magic as the receptacle for their tainted magic. The infusion of dark magic further mutates and strengthens the creature or object imbued, giving it abnormal abilities and endurance.
Contrary to a Lich a Blight Lord keeps their Phylactery close by. They can serve as a distraction holding the front line well the Blight Lord cast spells from behind or above the fray.
Lair and Lair Actions
A Blight Lord’s Lair
A Blight Lord lair is usually the cavern or glade where the Gulthias tree it serves is located. It is a dank and dim cavern that smells faintly of rot and blood. The carcasses of creatures sacrificed to the tree to feed it litter the roots as well as the bones and belongings of those beings brought here to die. The Blight Lord will make its home nearby where it experiments with the power of the tree and finds new ways to spread its corruption.
Lair Actions
On initiative count 20 (losing initiative ties), the Blight Lord can take a lair action to cause one of the following magical effects; the Blight Lord can’t use the same effect two rounds in a row:
- The Blight Lord invokes the power of the Gulthias Tree and a patch of toxic brambles forms in a 20-foot-radius circle within 120 feet. The ground is considered difficult terrain and a creature suffers 10 (3d6) Poison damage for every 5 feet they move through it.
- A cloud of swarming insects fills a 20-foot-radius sphere centered on a point the Blight Lords chooses within 120 feet of it. The cloud spreads around corners and remains until the Blight Lords dismisses it as an action, uses this lair action again, or dies. The cloud is lightly obscured. Any creature in the cloud when it appears must make on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw, taking 10 (3d6) piercing damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. A creature that ends its turn in the cloud takes 10 (3d6) piercing damage.
- The Blight Lord draws on the power of the Gulthias tree to heal himself. The Blight Lord heals for 35 (8d8) hitpoints.
Regional Effects
The region containing a Blight Lord's lair is warped by the presence of the Gulthias tree and the dark druids nurturing it, which creates one or more of the following effects:
- The land within 3 miles of the lair takes twice as long as normal to traverse, since the plants grow thick and twisted, and the swamps are thick with reeking mud and blighted creatures roam the land.
- Water sources within 1 mile of the lair are supernaturally fouled. Any creature drinking it will become poisoned until magically cleansed.
- Animals within 5 miles of the Blight Lords lair are more skittish and prone to violence as the influence of the tree seeps into their bodies.
If the Blight Lord dies and the Gulthias Tree is burned these effects fade over 1d8 Days.
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