Search Results
All Results
Characters
Compendium
Spells
Items
Monsters
Vehicles
Forums
Returning 35 results for 'beings before death comes rites'.
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
attuned to the book, you can cast the following spells (save DC 18) from it:
Animate Dead
Circle of Death
Dominate Monster
Finger of Death
Once you use the book to cast a spell, you can’t
Classes
Player’s Handbook
Breathe the Magic of Dragons
Your innate magic comes from the gift of a dragon. Perhaps an ancient dragon facing death bequeathed some of its magical power to you or your ancestor. You might have
Magic Items
Dungeon Master’s Guide
Jester, the card reappears in the deck, making it possible to draw the same card twice. (Once the Fool or Jester has left the deck, reroll on the table if that card comes up again.)
Deck of Many Things
combat, you have Advantage on Death Saving Throws for 1 year. If someone else reduces your chosen foe to 0 Hit Points or you don’t choose a foe, this card has no effect.
Donjon. You disappear
Monsters
Guildmasters’ Guide to Ravnica
, 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
Feed on Death. When a creature within 30 feet of the kraul drops to 0 hit points, the kraul or another creature of its choice within 30 feet of it gains 5 (1d10);{"diceNotation":"1d10","rollType
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
.
From a distance or in poor light, a spawn of Kyuss looks like an ordinary zombie. As it comes into clearer view, however, the scores of little green worms crawling in and out of it become visible. These
Classes
Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide
Death holds no sway over your patron, who has unlocked the secrets of everlasting life, although such a prize—like all power—comes at a price. Once mortal, the Undying has seen mortal
lifetimes pass like the seasons, like the flicker of endless days and nights. It has the secrets of the ages to share, secrets of life and death. Beings of this sort include Vecna, Lord of the Hand and
Classes
Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide
Death holds no sway over your patron, who has unlocked the secrets of everlasting life, although such a prize—like all power—comes at a price. Once mortal, the Undying has seen mortal
lifetimes pass like the seasons, like the flicker of endless days and nights. It has the secrets of the ages to share, secrets of life and death. Beings of this sort include Vecna, Lord of the Hand and
Monsters
Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen
damage.Skeletal knights are powerful Undead that arise to serve even more wicked beings—often death knight;death knights. Those who become skeletal knights were typically virtuous in life but betrayed
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
Death isn’t always the end. The reborn exemplify this, being individuals who have died yet, somehow, still live. Some reborn exhibit the scars of fatal ends, their ashen flesh or bloodless
Monsters
The Book of Many Things
the living portents impact the earth, they carve great craters, yet miraculously, none who live in the impact zone are harmed. These beings of light then assume Humanoid forms to blend in with the
inhabitants of the world.
Living portents seek out beings who will play a part in the prophecies they serve, and as the living portents search, they relate fragments of the prophecies to those they
Classes
Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft
firsthand the paths of ambition and the routes past the doors of death. They eagerly share this profane knowledge, along with other secrets, with those who work their will among the living.
Beings of this
You’ve made a pact with a deathless being, a creature that defies the cycle and life and death, forsaking its mortal shell so it might eternally pursue its unfathomable ambitions. For such
Deck of Many Things
Legacy
This doesn't reflect the latest rules and lore.
Learn More
Magic Items
Basic Rules (2014)
30 feet of you. The fighter is of the same race as you and serves you loyally until death, believing the fates have drawn him or her to you. You control this character.
Moon. You are granted the
.
Skull. You summon an avatar of death--a ghostly humanoid skeleton clad in a tattered black robe and carrying a spectral scythe. It appears in a space of the GM's choice within 10 feet of you and attacks
Classes
Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft
firsthand the paths of ambition and the routes past the doors of death. They eagerly share this profane knowledge, along with other secrets, with those who work their will among the living.
Beings of this
You’ve made a pact with a deathless being, a creature that defies the cycle and life and death, forsaking its mortal shell so it might eternally pursue its unfathomable ambitions. For such
Monsters
Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus
charming and disarming when they wish, but in combat their true, bloodthirsty nature comes to the fore.
Bloodletters. All cultists of Bhaal learn to call upon their god’s power to leave their
rank are the death’s heads, who can take on the skull-faced guise of their deity to terrify their prey. In combat, they intimidate foes by shrugging off the deadliest attacks with ease, showing that resisting Bhaal’s schemes is futile.
Monsters
Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse
, 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
social insects such as ants. They are divided into worker and warrior castes; choldriths, when present, occupy the top levels of a colony’s hierarchy. Each chitine has a social position that comes
Monsters
Waterdeep: Dragon Heist
hulking shadow that glares from its perch, rains down death in the form of long black arrows, and slinks off without so much as a whisper. Where he comes from — if he even has a home — remains a mystery, as
Monsters
Eberron: Rising from the Last War
island domain.
Long ago, it was revealed that the elven line of Vol — a house that practiced the art of necromancy and bore the Dragonmark of Death — was engaged in secret blood rites
, polymorph
5th level (3 slots): cloudkill, cone of cold, hold monster, scrying
6th level (2 slot): chain lightning, circle of death, create undead
7th level (2 slot): finger of death, forcecage
Monsters
Vecna: Eve of Ruin
, Strahd takes 20 radiant damage at the start of his turn, has disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks, and can’t use his Change Shape bonus action.Multiattack. Strahd makes two Death Strike
attacks. He can replace one of these attacks with Blighted Fire if available.
Death Strike. Melee Weapon Attack: +9;{"diceNotation":"1d20+9", "rollType":"to hit", "rollAction":"Death Strike"} to hit
Backgrounds
Guildmasters’ Guide to Ravnica
found me floating facedown in the sewer, moments from death.
Flaws
d6
Flaw
1
Death comes for us all, so you can’t expect me to take care of someone who can’t
You are a member of a teeming horde — one small part of a sprawling organism. Just as you are part of the swarm, the swarm is part of a larger ecosystem, a never-ending cycle of life, death
Magic Items
Lost Laboratory of Kwalish
Kwalish’s lab in Daoine Gloine (area O7), whichever comes later in the adventure.
Skull. You summon an avatar of death — a mechanical skeleton (use bone naga statistics) clad in a
drops to 0 hit points, whereupon it disappears. If anyone tries to help you, the helper summons its own avatar of death. A creature slain by an avatar of death can’t be restored to life.
Star
Monsters
Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants
treasures—often by gambling. While many cloud giants are content with risking their wealth in games with each other, those who aim for the top of their ordning challenge all manner of beings in
games of chance and wit. A destiny gambler is a cloud giant who has won increasingly high-stakes wagers against other giants, smaller folk, and even beings from the Outer Planes.
Destiny gamblers wear
Classes
Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide
Your innate magic comes from the power of elemental air. Many with this power can trace their magic back to a near-death experience caused by the Great Rain, but perhaps you were born during a
Classes
Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide
Your innate magic comes from the power of elemental air. Many with this power can trace their magic back to a near-death experience caused by the Great Rain, but perhaps you were born during a
Monsters
The Wild Beyond the Witchlight
key between her hunched shoulders that rotates quickly when she’s in a good mood and slows down as her mood sours. When she is furious, the key comes to a dead stop.
Alignment. Neutral evil
Skabatha and Bavlorna bedevil Endelyn. Nothing much ever comes of these petty plots and squabbles, however.
SHARED SPELLS OF THE HOURGLASS COVEN
On the rare occasions when all three hags of the
Monsters
Mythic Odysseys of Theros
them.
Twister of Wills. Being obsessed with wealth and dominating lesser beings, eaters of hope hoard treasure for the sole purpose of tempting and manipulating mortals. They revel in using creatures
death. The worst of these hateful dead, through ages of bitterness, gradually transform into fiends, the tormentors of the Underworld. The people of Theros know these fiends as demons.
Immortal Nature
Monsters
Mythic Odysseys of Theros
Bolt","rollDamageType":"necrotic"} necrotic damage.Although the dead typically recall little of their lives, some have an obsession with magic that survives both death and rebirth as a Returned. These
, 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
Monsters
Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden
Petrified Death. A tomb tapper reduced to 0 hit points turns into a lifeless stone statue. Anything it's wearing or carrying is not transformed.
Sense Magic. The tomb tapper senses magic within 30
tombs, temples, and caves in search of magic items, which they bear off. They usually try to seize magic from beings that they encounter.
Magic is sacred to tomb tappers. They don't use any magic items
Monsters
Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft
dementia and death. The results were vampiric mind flayers, feral atrocities spawned from mind flayer tadpoles infected with vampirism. These specialized but flawed terrors serve a single purpose: to drain
grotesque balm stalls the elder brain’s degeneration but is far from a cure.
Vampiric mind flayers are physically and mentally unstable beings. Ghoulish creatures, they let nothing stand between
Monsters
Vecna: Eve of Ruin
great evil and is unable to forgive itself, the dryad might transform into a wicked Fey monster called a deadbark dryad. Such dryads relinquish any compassion they once felt for living beings and
, it becomes stronger and more violent, and it typically gains a renewed dedication to protecting its now-fetid domain. Most deadbark dryads would rather fight to the death than allow any intrusion into
Monsters
The Wild Beyond the Witchlight
waste my time.”
Bond. “My world is the stage, and my theater is of paramount importance to me.”
Flaw. “My death will occur during an eclipse. That is my doom, and I can
bedevil Endelyn. Nothing much ever comes of these petty plots and squabbles, however.
SHARED SPELLS OF THE HOURGLASS COVEN
On the rare occasions when all three hags of the Hourglass Coven are
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
creations are ultimately doomed to death and decomposition, and the dragons’ demeanor is typically morbid and curmudgeonly as a result.
Gleaming Gold
Upon hatching, topaz dragon wyrmlings&rsquo
Monsters
Eberron: Rising from the Last War
dreams dusk hags might share with unsuspecting sleepers.
Dusk Hag Prophecies
d10
Prophecy
1
“A red hat approaches with ill intent. Be wary.”
2
“A ship comes on a sea of bones, but treasure
the golden key.”
6
“Beware the black horse.”
7
“The fish is your friend.”
8
“The stairs downward lead to that which you seek.”
9
“Look for two crossed swords. There your goal lies.”
10
“If you see two crows, turn back. Beyond is death.”
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
creatures.
8
I secretly enjoy conversing with lesser beings, although I usually do so only to find their weaknesses.
Topaz Dragon Ideals
d6;{"diceNotation":"1d6","rollType":"roll
Monsters
Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants
, creating one or more of the following effects:
Compulsory Offering. The first time a sapient creature comes within 6 miles of the scion, the creature must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or feel
inspiration.)
Scions of 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
Monsters
Mythic Odysseys of Theros
(3d6);{"diceNotation":"3d6","rollType":"damage","rollAction":"Shortsword","rollDamageType":"poison"} poison damage.Even death and the loss of their identities can’t erase the rage that inspires
expected—not that they remember what it was they expected. As a result of having followed the Path of Phenax (see chapter 4), the Returned lose their identities, which manifest as separate beings