| Mod | Save | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| STR | 24 | +7 | +11 |
| DEX | 12 | +1 | +1 |
| CON | 22 | +6 | +10 |
| Mod | Save | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| INT | 8 | −1 | −1 |
| WIS | 14 | +2 | +6 |
| CHA | 12 | +1 | +1 |
Legendary Resistance (2/Day). If the dragon fails a saving throw, it can choose to succeed instead.
Colossus of Gloom. The gloomrancor deals double damage to objects and structures.
Shadowfell Saturation. While in dim light or darkness, the gloomrancor gains advantage on all saving throws, and creatures have disadvantage on saving throws against its fear effects.
Aura of Absolute Dread. Creatures of the gloomrancor’s choice that start their turn within 20 feet of it must succeed on a DC 16 Wisdom saving throw or be frightened until the start of their next turn. If a creature fails by 5 or more, it is also paralyzed by terror until the end of its next turn.
Multiattack. The gloomrancor makes three attacks: one with its bite and two with its claws.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +12 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 29 (3d12 + 7) piercing damage plus 13 (3d8) necrotic damage.
Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +12 to hit, reach 15 ft., one target. Hit: 22 (3d8 + 7) slashing damage.
Crushing Grasp. If the gloomrancor hits a creature with two claw attacks on the same turn, the target must succeed on a DC 18 Strength saving throw or be grappled (escape DC 18). Until the grapple ends, the creature is restrained, takes 14 (4d6) bludgeoning damage at the start of each of its turns, and the gloomrancor can use its bite against it as a bonus action.
Cataclysmic Roar (Recharge 5–6). The gloomrancor unleashes a roar infused with raw Shadowfell power. Each enemy of its choice within 60 feet that can hear it must make a DC 16 Wisdom saving throw. On a failure: The creature is frightened for 1 minute and knocked prone. On a success: The creature is frightened until the end of its next turn. A frightened creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.
The adult gloomrancor can take 2 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.
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Move. The gloomrancor moves up to half its speed.
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Claw Attack. The gloomrancor makes one claw attack.
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Shadow Pulse (Costs 2 Actions). Creatures within 15 feet must succeed on a DC 16 Constitution saving throw or take 10 (3d6) necrotic damage and have their speed reduced to 0 until the end of their next turn.
Description
Lore: Tyrants of the Gloom
An adult gloomrancor is the end result of decades—sometimes centuries—of unchecked survival in the Shadowfell. By this stage, the creature is fully saturated with planar darkness, its body and soul bound inseparably to the plane’s despair.
Entire regions become silent zones around an adult gloomrancor’s territory. Wildlife disappears. Undead migrate away or fall under its dominance. Even intelligent Shadowfell entities give these beasts wide berth, treating them less like animals and more like natural disasters.
Some scholars theorize that gloomrancors serve as a kind of pressure valve for the Shadowfell, absorbing excess fear and sorrow so the plane itself does not tear apart. Others believe they are embryonic avatars of something far worse—living seeds of an apocalypse that never quite arrives.
Description
An adult gloomrancor towers 30 feet tall, its massive frame wrapped in layered plates of obsidian-black hide veined with pulsing violet necrotic light. Each footstep cracks stone and draws shadow toward it like gravity.
Its eyes burn with a cold, intelligent malice, and its breath spills out as rolling black fog. The creature’s roar carries miles through ruins and caverns alike, shaking courage loose from even veteran warriors. Darkness bends around its silhouette, refusing to fully outline its true shape.
Lair and Lair Actions
If an adult gloomrancor establishes a lair:
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Light sources dim unnaturally within miles.
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Fear-based magic becomes stronger…and harder to control.
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The land itself begins to remember pain.
(We can flesh these out fully if you want.)
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