| Mod | Save | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| STR | 18 | +4 | +11 |
| DEX | 14 | +2 | +7 |
| CON | 16 | +3 | +9 |
| Mod | Save | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| INT | 11 | +0 | +3 |
| WIS | 13 | +1 | +5 |
| CHA | 15 | +2 | +7 |
Cavern Sure-Footing
The Caprid has Advantage on ability checks and saving throws made to avoid falling, being knocked Prone, or losing its footing on stone, roots, rubble, slopes, narrow ledges, or uneven cavern terrain.
Dread-Horned
The Caprid’s horns are natural weapons. When the Caprid hits with a Horn Gore attack after moving at least 20 feet straight toward the target, the attack deals an extra 9 damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 15 Strength saving throw or be pushed up to 10 feet away and knocked Prone.
False Fiend
The Caprid registers as a Fiend to simple folk, frightened animals, and many lesser divinations, though its creature type remains Monstrosity. A creature that uses magic to determine its creature type must succeed on a DC 15 Intelligence (Arcana) check or falsely identify it as a fiendish creature.
Hatred of the Unmade
The Caprid has Advantage on attack rolls against Aberrations it has seen within the last minute. In addition, Aberrations have Disadvantage on Charisma checks made to frighten, charm, or bargain with the Caprid.
Wicked Eyes
A creature that starts its turn within 30 feet of the Caprid and can see its eyes must succeed on a DC 13 Wisdom saving throw or have Disadvantage on the next attack roll it makes before the start of its next turn. A creature that succeeds on this saving throw is immune to this Caprid’s Wicked Eyes for 24 hours.
Bell-Terror Tactics
If the Caprid is within 60 feet of another Caprid or allied fiend, fey, hag, witch, or cultist, it has Advantage on initiative rolls and Wisdom (Perception) checks.
Multiattack
The Caprid makes two attacks, using either Hooked Glaive or Horn Gore in any combination.
Hooked Glaive
Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target.
Hit: 13 (2d8 + 4) Slashing damage. If the target is Large or smaller, the Caprid can pull it up to 5 feet toward itself.
Horn Gore
Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target.
Hit: 10 (1d12 + 4) Piercing damage. If the Caprid moved at least 20 feet straight toward the target before the hit, apply Dread-Horned.
Hoof Crush
Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one Prone creature.
Hit: 15 (2d10 + 4) Bludgeoning damage.
Evil Eye Hex
Recharge 5–6
The Caprid fixes its baleful gaze on one creature it can see within 60 feet. The target must make a DC 13 Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, the target is cursed for 1 minute. While cursed, the target subtracts 1d4 from attack rolls and saving throws. The cursed creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.
Bell-Clamor
1/Day
The Caprid rings an iron bell, beats a bone charm, or releases a throat-splitting cry. Each enemy within 30 feet that can hear it must succeed on a DC 13 Wisdom saving throw or become Frightened until the end of the Caprid’s next turn. A creature that fails by 5 or more is also unable to take Reactions until the end of its next turn.
Scramble Step
The Caprid moves up to half its Speed without provoking Opportunity Attacks, but this movement must end on stone, earth, roots, rubble, stairs, a ledge, or another natural or broken surface.
Mark the Weak
The Caprid chooses one Bloodied creature it can see within 30 feet. Until the end of the Caprid’s turn, the next attack the Caprid makes against that creature deals an extra 4 (1d8) Necrotic damage on a hit.
Hook and Drag
When a creature within 10 feet of the Caprid misses it with a melee attack, the Caprid can make one Hooked Glaive attack against that creature. On a hit, the target is also pulled up to 5 feet toward the Caprid.
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Description
A Caprid is a hulking, goat-like humanoid with a long animalistic face, heavy curled horns, cloven hooves, cruel horizontal pupils, and a mane of coarse black, gray, or dun hair. Its body is powerful and angular, with long limbs suited for leaping, climbing, and sudden charges. Most Caprids carry iron bells, bone trophies, hide wrappings, hooked weapons, and ritual fetishes made from teeth, roots, broken icons, and bits of stolen armor.
Their most unnerving feature is not their horns, but their intelligence. Caprids do not attack like animals unless driven into frenzy. They stalk, test, frighten, bargain, retreat, regroup, and strike again from unexpected angles. In caverns, they move across slopes and ledges with unsettling grace, using bells and calls to coordinate ambushes. In corrupted fey realms, they serve as brutal wardens and revel-guards, driving captives through thorn mazes and moonlit hunting grounds.
Caprids are often mistaken for demons because of their appearance and their long history of serving fiendish powers. They encourage this misunderstanding. Fear is useful. A village that believes a demon has come to claim tribute may open its gates faster than one that realizes it faces a mortal raiding herd.
Combat Tactics
Caprids prefer terrain that favors verticality, poor visibility, and psychological pressure. They rarely fight in clean open spaces unless they have superior numbers or a ritual advantage.
A Caprid usually opens combat with Bell-Clamor, scattering weaker foes and preventing coordinated defense. It then uses Scramble Step to move across difficult terrain, broken stone, stairs, or cavern ledges, setting up a charge with Horn Gore. Once enemies are knocked Prone, it follows with Hoof Crush or lets lesser allies swarm the fallen.
Against armored enemies, the Caprid uses Hooked Glaive to pull targets out of formation. Against spellcasters, it uses Evil Eye Hex to spoil saving throws and concentration-dependent plans. Against Blood Hunters or paladins, it tries to isolate one target, mark them as weak, and drag them into terrain where allies can surround them.
Against aberrations, Caprids fight with unusual discipline. Their hatred of aberrant creatures can override their usual cowardice and cruelty. They may even cooperate temporarily with adventurers against a mind flayer nest, beholder cult, or flesh-warping horror, but such alliances are knife-thin things.
Lore and History
Caprids are said to have originated from ancient subterranean herds that accepted aid from wicked fey and fiendish patrons during an age of famine, war, or exile. Over generations, their bodies became more monstrous, their rites more savage, and their societies more deeply bound to oath-magic, predation, and ritual cruelty.
Different traditions offer different origins. Some claim Caprids were once fey shepherds who betrayed their court. Others insist they were an underground mortal people transformed by fiendish bargains. Caprid witches whisper a third version: that the first of their kind crawled from the roots of the world, already horned, already hungry, already laughing.
In Aetheris, their history overlaps naturally with the work of monster-hunting orders. The Claret Orders were founded to battle dark entities and use forbidden blood magic at great personal cost, while trying not to become the very monsters they hunt. That makes Caprids fitting adversaries for Blood Hunter stories, especially when Caprid herds serve witches, fiends, hags, or corrupted fey courts.
Society
Caprid society is organized into violent herds, dens, hornholds, and crooked courts. Their leaders rule through fear, ritual authority, and successful predation.
Common Caprid Leaders
Horn-King or Horn-Queen: A brutal warlord who rules through conquest.
Bell-Witch: A curse-worker who interprets omens through bells, bones, smoke, and blood.
Gorewarden: A battlefield commander responsible for raids and defense.
Black Shepherd: A handler of beasts, prisoners, slaves, or lesser fiendish creatures.
Root-Speaker: A fey-corrupted oracle who communes with buried spirits, wicked groves, or ancient underworld powers.
Customs
Caprids take oaths seriously, but only when sworn through formal rites. A casual promise means little. A horn-oath sworn over iron, stone, blood, or fire becomes sacred law. Breaking such an oath is believed to invite spiritual mutilation, bad births, cracked horns, or predation by one’s own herd.
They mark status through horn carvings, scars, bells, trophies, and the right to speak during war feasts. A Caprid with unmarked horns is assumed to be young, weak, or disgraced. A Caprid with broken horns may be pitied, mocked, or feared, depending on the story behind the break.
Environment
Caprids are most often encountered in:
Deep caverns and Underdark passages
Desecrated temples
Ruined pilgrimage sites
Corrupted Feywild crossings
Thorn-choked groves
Collapsed mines
Old dwarven roads
Cavern shrines to evil gods or Old Gods
Fiendish cult strongholds
Witch coven territories
Forgotten root-tunnels beneath ancient forests
They prefer places where sound carries strangely. Bells, hoofbeats, screams, and pipe-music become weapons in their territory.
Signs of a Caprid Presence
Adventurers may notice a Caprid herd before they see one.
Iron bells hung from roots or stalactites
Hoofprints on vertical stone or steep inclines
Broken holy symbols tied with hair and sinew
Carved horn-marks on doorways or mine supports
Livestock bones arranged in circles
Children’s toys left at cave mouths as warnings
A strong musk mixed with smoke, wet stone, and old blood
Faint pipe music coming from below
Clawed handprints beside cloven hoofprints
A gate or door removed from its hinges and displayed like a trophy
Adventure Hooks
The Bells Beneath Blackroot
A village near an old forest hears bells from beneath the wells every night. Livestock vanish first, then travelers, then children. The Caprids have found an ancient root-road into the settlement.
The Saint-Spoiler’s Feast
A Caprid warband has captured a ruined temple and begun holding mock ceremonies using stolen relics. A celestial messenger begs the party to recover one relic before it is defiled beyond restoration.
Enemy of My Enemy
A Caprid herd offers to guide the party through the Underdark in exchange for help destroying a mind flayer outpost. The offer is genuine. Their planned betrayal afterward is also genuine.
Horn-Queen of the Crooked Pasture
A Large Caprid matriarch has united several herds beneath a corrupted Feywild crossing. She now demands tribute from nearby settlements and sends horned emissaries to bargain with witches.
The Broken Horn Exile
A wounded Caprid begs the party for sanctuary, claiming its herd now serves an aberrant entity. The creature is cruel, dishonest, and dangerous, but it knows the way to the enemy lair.
Treasure
Caprids do not usually hoard coins in tidy chests. Their treasure is symbolic, stolen, or ritualized.
Common Caprid treasure includes:
Iron bells worth 5–25 gp each
Carved horn bands
Bone charms and curse fetishes
Stolen holy symbols
Blood-marked maps of underground roads
Fiendish pact tokens
Fey court masks
Captive trade ledgers
Hooked weapons of unusual craftsmanship
Potion gourds made from blackened horn
Gemstones taken from mine shrines
Cursed trinkets
Keys to sealed underways
A Caprid leader may carry a magic bell, cursed horn crown, pact blade, or ritual staff.
Summary
The Caprid is a horned, goat-like monstrosity of caverns, corrupted fey realms, and fiend-tainted places. Though often mistaken for a demon, it is a mortal horror shaped by pact-culture, ritual violence, and cruel survival. Its curled horns, cloven hooves, wicked eyes, iron bells, and brutal ambush tactics make it an ideal enemy for dark fantasy adventures in Aetheris.
Caprids work especially well as enemies of Blood Hunters, paladins, dwarven delvers, fey guardians, witch hunters, and frontier settlements. They are cruel, cunning, and predatory, yet their hatred of aberrations gives them a useful contradiction: sometimes the monster at the gate knows where the deeper nightmare sleeps.
“A demon kills because it hungers for ruin. A Caprid kills because it remembers your doorway, your name, and the sound your courage made when it broke.”
Lair and Lair Actions
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Lair Actions
On initiative count # (losing initiative ties), the [monster name] takes a lair action to cause one of the following effects; the [monster name] can’t use the same effect two rounds in a row:
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Regional Effects
The region containing a legendary [monster name]’s lair is [enter the effect description], which creates one or more of the following effects:
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If the [monster name] dies, these effects fade over the course of #d# days.
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