Spellcasters, beware! Tiny monstrosities are on the loose, and they love snacking on spellcasting components and familiars! But whatever you do, don't cast spells!
Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft introduces the gremishka, a catlike creature with an unhealthy relationship with magic. Cast a spell near one, and chaos will ensue as the gremishka's tiny body surges with magical energy. If you're unlucky enough, a single gremishka can explode into a whole swarm of gremishkas.
Monster preview: Gremishka
Gremishkas are the vicious products of mistakes made by novice spellcasters seeking to create life. The results are cat-sized, magically unstable creatures with a taste for the trappings of magic — particularly spellbooks, spell components, familiars, and the like. Gremishkas delight in tormenting magic-users, holding vicious grudges against those who gave them life as they infest the walls of spellcasters’ homes or the surrounding lands.
Source: Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft
Gremishka are born out of unstable magic — and boy, do they despise their creators! These creatures look like monstrous familiars, and their tempers are just as fierce. Gremishkas hunt spellcasters, and will terrorize areas where magic is regularly found.
While gremishkas have low hit points, they make up for this with their cunning. They'll happily work in packs to terrorize adventurers, or even mimic the sounds of a wounded child or animal to coax do-gooders into a trap. But the real danger in gremishkas is in the unpredictable way they respond to spells cast near them:
Magic Allergy (1/Day). Immediately after a creature within 30 feet of the gremishka casts a spell, the gremishka can spontaneously react to the magic. Roll a d6 to determine the effect:
1–2. The gremishka emanates magical energy. Each creature within 30 feet of the gremishka must succeed on a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or take 3 (1d6) force damage.
3–4. The gremishka surges with magical energy and regains 3 (1d6) hit points.
5–6. The gremishka explodes and dies, and one swarm of gremishkas instantly appears in the space where this gremishka died. The swarm uses the gremishka’s initiative.
Like the gremishka's Bite, Magic Allergy can do serious damage to low-level adventurers. Gremishkas have a low challenge rating of just 1/8, too. That means you'll be facing these creatures in multiples.
For a group of four 1st-level adventurers, three gremishkas represent an easy encounter, according to our Encounters tool. Five gremishkas represent a medium encounter. So, one cast spell can have your Dungeon Master reaching for multiple d6s as each gremishka within 30 feet surges with magic.
For spellcasters who are being attacked by multiple gremishka, they'll be faced with a serious dilemma: get overrun by these monstrosities, or see what fate the dice hold when they cast a spell to defend themselves. Depending on how the dice fall, things can quickly sour, however, as each gremishka has a chance of becoming a swarm!
Gremishka statistics
Monster preview: Swarm of gremishkas
Gremishkas can be a pest when thrown into any combat encounter, but things can get dangerous when these creatures explode into a swarm with a challenge rating of 2. Like a swarm of cranium rats, a swarm of gremishkas have a slew of damage resistances and condition immunities. The gremishka's Magic Allergy is also replaced with two abilities that make these creatures even more problematic for spellcasters: Limited Spell Immunity and Spell Redirection.
Limited Spell Immunity. The swarm automatically succeeds on saving throws against spells of 3rd level or lower, and the attack rolls of such spells always miss it.
This first ability is straightforward. It forces low-level spellcasters to utilize auto-hit spells like magic missile and area of effect spells like thunderwave that deal damage on a successful save. Choose a different strategy, and you're liable to fail altogether. But player characters might not immediately realize that a swarm of gremishkas has spell immunity. That is due, in part, thanks to this ability:
Spell Redirection. In response to a spell attack roll missing the swarm, the swarm causes that spell to hit another creature of its choice within 30 feet of it that it can see.
As a reaction, a swarm of gremishkas can bounce a spell back at the spellcaster or at another target in range. For a creature with solid Intelligence and Wisdom ability scores, the swarm of gremishkas is liable to choose a target that is visibly hurt or represents the biggest threat.
When it's the swarm of gremishkas' turn in combat, it has one option for its Attack action, Bites. The swarm's bonus to attack rolls is low, but when Bites hits, it deals 3d6+2 piercing damage, plus 2d6 force damage. The amount of piercing damage the swarm deals drops significantly when it has half of its hit points or fewer, but the force damage remains the same. As Absorb Elements doesn't grant resistance to force damage, you'll want to reserve your spell slots for Shield, instead.
Swarm of gremishkas statistics
Playing with gremishkas at your table
Gremishkas are angry little critters packed with chaotic magic. But their efficacy in combat depends on the party's composition. In a group with a lone spellcaster, gremishkas won't represent much of a threat. Once the party learns about Magic Allergy, the spellcaster will likely pull out their dusty dagger and start swinging rather than risk casting another spell.
Luckily, gremishkas are intelligent and fairly wise, so they can be picky when choosing targets, and use tactics to avoid getting stomped. When including gremishkas in your game, be mindful that their low challenge rating can be deceiving. A single gremishka can quickly become a swarm depending on how you roll with Magic Allergy. For 1st-level adventurers, this can bump an easy combat encounter to a deadly one.
Here is an easy way to introduce your player characters to gremishkas:
Infestation at the inn!
As you settle into your bed at the inn to rest for the night, you hear a quiet rustling from the floor. You peer over the edge of the bed and see two bald, catlike creatures tearing into your spell component pouch. Leaping to you feet, the creatures hiss and run for the open window on the far side of the room. Just then, you feel claws digging into your legs as more of these creatures climb up your nightshirt, their teeth chittering.
A spellcaster has limited options when they're without a component pouch, and gremishkas know this. If gremishkas can devour the contents of a spellcaster's component pouch, they will begin tracking the spellcaster in the hopes of catching them defenseless and unawares. The gremishkas could follow the spellcaster as they venture to a magic shop for a replacement component pouch, and attack in an alleyway or other area where there are few passerby to help.
Because gremishkas are about the size of a cat, they can be found in all manner of places. They could lurk under the floorboards of an inn or be hidden behind books on a shelf, for example. When they do attack, gremishkas will prioritize spellcasters. As much as gremishkas despise magic, triggering their Magic Allergy is key to their victory. If things start looking grim for gremishkas, they're sure to retreat and formulate a new plan of action.
Wreck magical havoc with gremishkas
With the release of Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft, gremishkas and swarms of gremishkas offer new ways to terrorize your players.
As with the carrionettes we previewed last week, gremishkas and swarms of gremishkas are strongest when player characters are guessing at their abilities. A damage-dealing Cantrip could cause the battlefield to erupt with magical energy, or your player characters could discover that their bag of holding has been chewed through, and the diamond they'd reserved for Revivify has been eaten. What do you think of gremishkas?
Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft is available for preorder now in the D&D Beyond Marketplace! All preorders come with digital dice, as well as character themes, frames, and backdrops!
Michael Galvis (@michaelgalvis) is a tabletop content producer for D&D Beyond. He is a longtime Dungeon Master who enjoys horror films and all things fantasy and sci-fi. When he isn’t in the DM’s seat or rolling dice as his anxious halfling sorcerer, he’s playing League of Legends and Magic: The Gathering with his husband. They live together in Los Angeles with their adorable dog, Quentin.
How does the Swarm's ability to be completely missed by spells react to a natural 20? I have feeling this question will be important.
that is actually stupid the fact that cantrips do not work make it so a warlock that is not with a pact of the blade would be destroyed
and the fact that this creature target spellcasting componant and spellbooks is also dumb that is way too expensive to replace for low level are you sure you want them to drop a quest because they must go back in the city to find the items they need?
and they eat diamond dust?? really? I've read something about this monster being metagamed into existence and I believe it to be true and lorewise it make no sence that mages that failed to create life would not destroy/clean their failed work like any lab worker do
also those creatures are known so why have they not been exterminated? they target magic user they are literally a threat
It’s on iPhone directly above the keyboard as you type
Still misses. Specific (spell attacks automatically miss) overrides general (natural 20 automatically hits).
Totally!
Thats perfect! Totally stealing it!
AW HELL NAW! IM NOT LETTING THESE THINGS EAT MY SPELLBOOK!
As a response to ItsNotAChest’s challenge:
The gremshika ate my dinner and then my car.
this will be great if the spell caster goes out to get something and everyone's somewhere else, I feel like the more experience players that will know what this is might meta game though and tell the player not to use spells. are there any great strategies to limit meta gaming.
Just tell them they can't do it if they are metagaming by doing something they couldn't.
EDIT: I don't know if it works because my players don't really metagame.
I feel like these things would be infamous among spellcasters, so any checks to see what your characters know about them upon encountering them for the first time would be based on Arcana.
I'm imagining a variant of this that feeds off magic, that would be totally fine as the familiar of a sorcerer (because they have innate magic), but would wreak havok a wizard's magic abilities. This is my imagination, not what a gremischka actually is, just so no one is confused.
Reminds of the Viscous Voidling from Divinity Original Sin 2!
The Gremshika ate my birthday... must have been a magical birthday!
As someone whose first homebrew monster they made was a Multiplying Zombie Chicken I am very happy about the 5-6 rolls of allergies. I am a little bit disappointed that the swarm also doesn't have the allergies and you can't in theory just have a never-ending chain if you un/lucky with your rolls. But I get why.
MWAHAHAHAHAHA.
TGIDM.
Thank God Imma DM.
All of my players are spell casters and happen to all be optimizationers, and they are incredibly OP for the Curse of Strahd campaign, this should give them that boost of worrisome that will really get them into the Barovia mood! (Also they're stopping in Vallaki tonight, and guess who's gonna show up and eat their rod of power? :D)
Well, keep in mind that if they're employed to a hag, then they might just end up exploding when their master casts a spell, just think about that...
Yeah, I wish the swarm had allergies too.
These sound like chaotic fun.
Also, may I recommend another friendly edit--
As written:
Leaping to you feet, the creatures hiss and run for the open window on the far side of the room.
I think it should read:
Leaping to your feet, the creatures hiss and run for the open window on the far side of the room.
I must never let my DM know about these
alternatively I could play monk again and tell my DM about them to be evil to the spellcasters of my group
probably not though because I want to be a spellcaster again later
neat