Sickle Weasel
Small Montrosity, Neutral
- Armor Class 16 (natural armor)
- Hit Points 36 (8d8)
- Speed 60ft (natural), 30ft (dust devil)
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 10 (+0) 16 (+3) 11 (+0) 4 (-3) 16 (+3) 14 (+2)
- Saving Throws Dexterity + 8, Wisdom + 5
- Skills Acrobatics + 8, Stealth + 8, Sleight of Hand +8
- Conditions Immunities Prone
- Senses Truesight 60ft, Passive Perception 15
- Challenge 2 (450 XP)
- Darting. The Sickle Weasel does not provoke attacks of opportunity and ignores difficult terrain. It can't be knocked prone or moved from its position and it can spend 5 feet of movement speed to recover from being restrained and grappled.
- Ephemeral. The Sickle Weasel becomes invisible immediately after finishing its action and visible immediately before starting any of its actions.
- Wind Rider. While having a dust devil surrounding itself, the sickle weasel has 30ft of movement of speed. Every turn, the first time any creature is within 5 feet of the dust devil, it must make a DC13 Strength saving throw. On a failed save, the creature takes 1d8 bludgeoning damage and is pushed 10 feet away. The area within 10 feet radius surrounding the dust devil becomes a heavily obscured area. Finally, it can not use Sickle attacks while inside the Dust Devil.
Actions
- Multiattack. The Sickle Weasel makes 3 attacks from any combination of Gust of Wind and Sickle.
- Sickle (Natural form). Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d6 + 3) slashing damage. This damage does not reduce Hit Points until 1 hour after taking the damage.
- Gust of Wind. The Sickle Weasel summon a gust of wind to knock down a creature within 30 feet of it that it can see. That creature must make a DC 13 Strength Saving Throw or be knocked prone.
- Dust Devil. The Sickle Weasel spins its claws around rapidly, summoning a dust devil surrounding itself that moves with it and lasts until dismissed. It can dismiss the dust devil as a free action, but only on its turn.
Reactions
- Defensive Wind. As a reaction to being targeted by an attack, the Sickle Weasel can take the Dust Devil action as a reaction before the attack hits.
Lore
The sickle weasels are monsters born from the ill wind, manifested into dust devil-riding weasels with nails made out of sharpened sickles. The wounds they cause are sharp, but do not bleed, thus people might not even know they are hurt. It might take a while, but eventually, the wounds will manifest themselves as deep gashes flaying deep into your skin up to the exposed bone. So the next time you hear the wind blowing and feel a weird sensation without a discernible source, your fate might have already been sealed.
Strategy for DMs
- The sickle weasel should attempt to attack from stealth and use its superior mobility to conduct constant hit-and-run tactics. Sow as much doubt and paranoia as possible.
- A nice trick to do is to write down the amount of damage done, but don't inform your players that there's damage until the damage is dealt, just a weird sensation on the skin with wind rushing by.
- It's easy to play this monster very unfairly and kills a PC without them even knowing what's happening. Try to break it in two phases before and after they find out about the delay, or use its delaying blows to kill an NPC.
- The sickle weasel should only use dust devil as a defense mechanism, since its movement speed will then be halved and although it is still unseen, the players now know exactly where to attack.
- If the players are struggling, give them hints about Readying action, that it can be incapacitated or that there might be ways to reveal it. The weasel is most exposed when trying to make an attack.
- Use Gust of Wind to gain advantage on your Sickle attacks.
- The sickle weasel does not fight an unwinnable battle, it will never fight to the death, and it will retreat and wait for a chance to return if its invisibility is compromised.
