back beings dedicated continue rites

Book of Vile Darkness

Magic Items Dungeon Master’s Guide

, foul rites that allow one to transform into a death knight or lich, or long-lost spells crafted by beings so evil their names ought never to be spoken aloud. Vile Speech. While the book is on your

damage unless the creature is a Fiend or an Undead. Destroying the Book. The Book of Vile Darkness allows pages to be torn from it, but any evil lore contained on those pages finds its way back into the

Cleric

Classes Player’s Handbook

associate themselves with temples dedicated to the deity or other immortal force that unlocked their magic. Harnessing divine magic doesn’t rely on specific training, yet Clerics might learn

prayers and rites that help them draw on power from the Outer Planes. Not every member of a temple or shrine is a Cleric. Some priests are called to a simple life of temple service, carrying out their

Incarnation of Transience

Monsters Lorwyn: First Light

condition. Success: Half damage only.The incarnations of transience represent all that is fleeting or ephemeral. Despite their apparent bulk, these incarnations are actually ephemeral beings with only a

spectral existence in material reality. Each incarnation resembles a saurian behemoth with an axolotl face, a many-frilled tail, and a hulking back covered in bright-orange pustules. In Lorwyn

Kolyarut

Monsters Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse

their questions have been satisfied, they report back to their creator, allowing the Kolyarut to impose accurate judgments. Kolyaruts are four-armed beings of magic and machinery. Like maruts, they

are inevitables, beings dedicated to the smooth exaction of laws across the planes. Kolyaruts wield blades with deadly efficiency, allowing them to defend themselves on their excursions and slice

Kraul Death Priest

Monsters Guildmasters’ Guide to Ravnica

linger at the margins of the undercity but now increasingly making their buzzing voices heard in the subterranean Golgari guildhall. These six-legged, insectile beings are hard-headed and literal-minded

, with little grasp of metaphor or nuance. The death priests occupy the highest roles in kraul society. They lead the buzzing chants of the kraul rites. Their inscrutable clicks and buzzing can summon

Aphemia

Monsters Mythic Odysseys of Theros

bonus action on her subsequent turns to continue singing. She can stop singing at any time. The song ends if Aphemia is incapacitated or dies. Grave Calling Song. Aphemia intones a low, growling

continue singing, and she can mentally command the undead under her control as part of the same bonus action. She can stop singing at any time. The song ends if Aphemia is incapacitated or dies.The

Doppelganger Legacy

Monsters Basic Rules (2014)

Shapechanger. The doppelganger can use its action to polymorph into a Small or Medium humanoid it has seen, or back into its true form. Its statistics, other than its size, are the same in each form

blocks it. While the target is in range, the doppelganger can continue reading its thoughts, as long as the doppelganger's concentration isn't broken (as if concentrating on a spell). While reading the

Spawn of Kyuss

Monsters Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse

Orcus who plundered corpses from necropolises to create the first spawn of Kyuss. Even centuries after Kyuss’s death, his malign disciples continue performing the horrific rites he perfected

Thanoi Hunter

Monsters Monstrous Compendium Vol. 2: Dragonlance Creatures

beings who dwell in the frozen wastelands of Krynn. They sport thick, ivory tusks, which they use both to defend themselves and to poke breathing holes in sea ice as they swim. Often at odds with the

monstrous creatures that live in the frozen wastes, thanoi are adept hunters. In addition to their tusks, they use harpoons on long ropes that they can quickly reel back. Groups of thanoi hunters work

Gnoll Witherling

Monsters Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse

the remains back to a semblance of life in the form of a gnoll witherling. Witherlings travel with their comrades and try to kill anything in their path. They don’t eat and aren’t motivated

service to Yeenoghu or dedicated to the survival of their kin, gnoll war bands seek to soften up foes with surprise attacks and to leave no survivors alive.PoisonRampage. After the witherling reduces a

Acolyte Legacy

Backgrounds Basic Rules (2014)

You have spent your life in the service of a temple to a specific god or pantheon of gods. You act as an intermediary between the realm of the holy and the mortal world, performing sacred rites and

offering sacrifices in order to conduct worshipers into the presence of the divine. You are not necessarily a cleric—performing sacred rites is not the same thing as channeling divine power

Reborn

Species Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft

veins making it clear that they’ve been touched by death. Other reborn are marvels of magic or science, being stitched together from disparate beings or bearing mysterious minds in manufactured

sensations or visions of the past to come rushing back. Rather than sleeping, reborn regularly sit and dwell on the past, hoping for some revelation of what came before. Most of the time, these are dark

Ceremony

Spells Xanathar's Guide to Everything

You perform a special religious ceremony that is infused with magic. When you cast the spell, choose one of the following rites, the target of which must be within 10 feet of you throughout the

ability check, it can roll a d4 and add the number rolled to the ability check. A creature can benefit from this rite only once. Dedication. You touch one humanoid who wishes to be dedicated to

Mercane

Monsters Spelljammer: Adventures in Space

portfolios revolve around fair commerce. Standing 12 feet tall, they are lanky blue beings who dress in elegant robes and have elongated heads and long, spindly fingers. Mercanes conduct most of their

unreliable. Once a mercane has been offended by someone, getting back into their good graces is next to impossible.

Turlang

Monsters Storm King's Thunder

takes a bonus action to turn it back into an inanimate tree. The tree then takes root if possible. Spellcasting. Turlang casts one of the following spells, requiring no material spell components and

, pass without trace, speak with animals 1/day each: commune with nature (cast as 1 action), conjure woodland beings, hallucinatory terrain (cast as 1 action)A xenophobic, moss-covered treant named Turlang.Bludgeoning, PiercingFire

Syndra Silvane

Monsters Tomb of Annihilation

maximum drops to 0, Syndra dies and can’t be brought back from the dead until the death curse has ended (and if her soul hasn’t been devoured). Destroying the Soulmonger is the only way to halt

) spellcasters dedicated to the study of the arcane arts. Benevolent ones counsel kings and queens, while evil ones rule as tyrants and pursue lichdom. Those who are neither good nor evil sequester

Chitine

Monsters Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse

was to create servile warriors dedicated first to the cult and then, only by association with it, to Lolth. The goddess found this arrangement unacceptable. As punishment, the Spider Queen twisted

, attracting spiders and other beings that serve her. Anywhere chitines set up a colony quickly becomes a webshrouded, gloomy, and treacherous place. Chitines resemble spiders, but they behave more like

Eliphas Adulare

Monsters Keys from the Golden Vault

Shapechanger. Eliphas can use his action to polymorph into a Large bear-humanoid hybrid or into a Large bear, or back into his true form, which is humanoid. His statistics, other than his size and AC

magic, fog cloud 1/day each: phantasmal force, shatterEliphas is a gentleman and a tinkerer. For years, he offered his services to the Golden Vault, an organization dedicated to preserving historical

Frostmourn

Monsters Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants

manner—perhaps poisoned, stabbed in the back, or killed while sleeping—the slain giant can rise as a frostmourn. Driven by its desire for vengeance, the frostmourn can turn the living into

wound that seeps frosty vapor or vibrant, purple veins showing the ravages of poison. It can momentarily dissolve its body into a swirling blizzard to avoid harm, reforming at a distance to continue its assault.Cold, PoisonFire

Jiangshi

Monsters Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft

that is Medium or Small or back into its true form. Its statistics, other than its size, are the same in each form. Any equipment it is wearing or carrying is absorbed or borne by the new form (the

their descendants and the communities they knew in life, sowing terror and taking retribution for the slights or neglected burial rites that led to their cursed resurrections. Rigor mortis notoriously

Equinal Guardinal

Monsters Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse

powerful, hocked legs carry them over great distances. These good-natured, boisterous Celestials boast their might in contests of strength and rarely back down from a challenge. Tough and courageous

supernatural virtue puts them at odds with the evil beings of the Lower Planes. Guardinals abhor wickedness and strike out against injustice and villainy without hesitation, determined to eradicate forces that threaten beauty and peace.Radiant

Hederan

races

Hederans are living embodiments of alpine trees, sentient beings of bark and leaf whose bodies host moss, holly and fungi. Their outer skin is made of thick bark that toughens with age, and beneath

its body release pollen and a single silver seed forms upon its back. The seed must be planted within a week, or it will wither away, but from it a new hederan sapling will grow. Once planted by their

Mark of Healing Halfling

Species Eberron: Rising from the Last War

cure. When equipped with dragonshard focus items, the mark can even draw the dead back from the depths of Dolurrh. House Jorasco Leader: Ulara d’Jorasco Headquarters: Vedkyar Enclave (Vedykar

prosperity of the house, so they can continue to help future generations. While the public face of Jorasco is that of the healer, there are rumors that the house engaged in disturbing experiments

Star Spawn Seer

Monsters Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse

often encountered as the leader of a cult dedicated to one or more Elder Evils. Usually, the seer is the only cult member that grasps the full extent of the horror the cult is venerating. The seer

’s goal is to tap into vast energy sources and perform the dire rites that will extend a bridge between the Material Plane and the squirming chaos of an Elder Evil’s realm. An entity that

Topaz Dragon Wyrmling

Monsters Fizban's Treasury of Dragons

the nature of topaz dragons, thanks to the necrotic energy of the Negative Plane that suffuses them. Their psionic power manifests the fundamental entropic principle that mortal beings and their

visibly in the gem-like spines that run in a ridge from the crown of the head to the tip of the tail. These spines hover above a living topaz dragon’s back, dancing and shifting with the dragon

Young Topaz Dragon

Monsters Fizban's Treasury of Dragons

the necrotic energy of the Negative Plane that suffuses them. Their psionic power manifests the fundamental entropic principle that mortal beings and their creations are ultimately doomed to death and

spines that run in a ridge from the crown of the head to the tip of the tail. These spines hover above a living topaz dragon’s back, dancing and shifting with the dragon’s mood. Embodiment of

Returned Sentry

Monsters Mythic Odysseys of Theros

work well together, sharing the unified goals of overcoming their foes and getting back to the task at hand. Returned have escaped the Underworld and dwell among the living once more, but their

, which manifest as separate beings known as eidolons. The experience of escaping the Underworld also causes them to lose their faces, which become expressionless surfaces with empty eye sockets and gaping

Half-Elf Legacy

Species Basic Rules (2014)

Flint squinted into the setting sun. He thought he saw the figure of a man striding up the path. Standing, Flint drew back into the shadow of a tall pine to see better. The man’s walk was

friends and loved ones age while time barely touches them. Others live with the elves, growing restless as they reach adulthood in the timeless elven realms, while their peers continue to live as

Warlock Legacy

Classes Basic Rules (2014)

relationship between warlock and patron is like that of a cleric and a deity, though the beings that serve as patrons for warlocks are not gods. A warlock might lead a cult dedicated to a demon

pacts made with mysterious beings of supernatural power, warlocks unlock magical effects both subtle and spectacular. Drawing on the ancient knowledge of beings such as fey nobles, demons, devils

Acolyte - Baldur's Gate

Backgrounds Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus

between the realm of the holy and the mortal world, performing sacred rites and offering sacrifices in order to conduct worshipers into the presence of the divine. You are not necessarily a cleric&mdash

;performing sacred rites is not the same thing as channeling divine power. Choose a god, a pantheon of gods, or some other quasi-divine being, and work with your DM to detail the nature of your

Demilich (Variant) Legacy

Monsters Monster Manual (2014)

souls of the insolent intruders to his tomb, magically transferring them to his phylactery. Liches who follow Acererak’s path believe that by becoming free of their bodies, they can continue

assume a wraithlike form. The skull then emits a terrifying howl that can slay the weak-hearted and leave others trembling with fear. Left alone, it sinks back down and returns to the empty peace of

Gnome Legacy

Species Basic Rules (2014)

stare, then appeared to go back to sleep. — Richard Lee Byers, The Black Bouquet A constant hum of busy activity pervades the warrens and neighborhoods where gnomes form their close-knit

surprise and appreciation along the way. Though gnomes love jokes of all kinds, particularly puns and pranks, they’re just as dedicated to the more serious tasks they undertake. Many gnomes are

Cradle of the Hill Scion

Monsters Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants

standing stones, a village, or a city on a scion’s back, unaware of the mighty power beneath them. Such settlements can thrive for centuries, as the scion’s magic causes crops to flourish

Myth” in chapter 3 for additional inspiration.) Scions of giants’ gods are enormously powerful beings who infuse the world around them with primeval magic. In many worlds, they slumber

Hulgaz

Monsters The Book of Many Things

long, snakelike tail. In the midst of a conversation with an especially tantalizing victim-to-be, Hulgaz can’t help but whip her tail back and forth with excitement. Selfless heroes and true

martyrs pique Hulgaz’s interest because she loves the challenge of twisting and defiling the souls of such noble beings. She responds to unwavering do-gooders by redoubling her efforts to corrupt

Scion of Grolantor

Monsters Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants

each swallowed creature and regains 10 hit points.A slumbering scion of Grolantor is often mistaken for a hill, and sometimes people erect standing stones, a village, or a city on a scion’s back

giants’ gods are enormously powerful beings who infuse the world around them with primeval magic. In many worlds, they slumber and have become part of the landscape. In this case, each scion is

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