Planescape Monsters for 5e: Wastrels

These monsters are a great challenge for a lower level party travelling the wilderness.

Wastrels resemble dishevelled ravens, with red beaks and claws. They are thought to originate from the hopeless lands of the Gray Wastes, but have since spread to Prime worlds and Neutral planes like the Outlands. Wastrels are a migratory species: any healthy territory they roost in withers and dies after a few months.

A species of cowardly predators, swarms of wastrels will attempt to surprise opponents with hit-and-run attacks before retreating. The swarm will then rely on its Malevolent Persistence ability to follow its prey at a distance, patiently pursuing them until they succumb to its curse.

Swarm of Wastrels

Medium swarm of tiny monstrosities, neutral evil

AC 13
HP 36   

STR 6 (-2)

DEX 16 (+3)

CON 10 (+0)

INT 4 (-3)

WIS 12 (+1)

CHA 6 (-2)

Skills: Perception +5
Damage Resistances: bludgeoning, piercing, slashing
Condition Immunities: charmed, frightened, grappled, paralyzed, petrified, prone, restrained, stunned
Senses: passive Perception 15
Languages: none
Challenge: 2 (450XP)

Flyby. The swarm doesn't provoke opportunity attacks when it flies out of an enemy's reach.

Swarm. The swarm can occupy another creature's space and vice versa, and the swarm can move through any opening large enough for a Tiny wastrel. The swarm can't regain hit points or regain temporary hit points.

Malevolent Persistence. The swarm knows the general location and distance of a creature that is currently under its curse, as long as the creature is within 1 mile.

Beaks. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, one target in the swarm’s space. Hit: 10 (3d6) piercing damage, or 6 (3d4) piercing damage if the swarm has half its hit points or fewer. The target must make a DC14 Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, the target is cursed. While cursed in this way, a creature must repeat the saving throw every 24 hours. On a failed save, the creature’s Constitution score is reduced by 1. A creature dies if its Constitution score is reduced to 0 in this way. On a success, the curse ends, and the target regains 1d4 points of Constitution at the end of each long rest. The curse also ends if a cursed creature spends an hour further than 300 feet away from the swarm that cursed it. 

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