Dungeons & Dragons 2024 (D&D) Monster/NPC: Cloistered Maiden
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SGttEH 341
Before the Scourge, before even the First War, the hubris of wizards invited the eldritch powers to assert their will. These osteomancers, magicians who delve into the magic of bones, sought to enhance their own bodies—growing to the heights of giants, making armour of bony plates, and forming blades from calcified protrusions. Like moths to a flame, eldritch beings were drawn to these spellcasters and corrupted their magic, resulting in the malformed creatures known as cloistered maidens.
Sexual Dimorphism. Over a few days, a period known as the Great Unchaining, all who practiced osteomancy lost control of their spells. All male osteomancers began dying, their bones growing in warped, fractal patterns and piercing their own organs. Their female counterparts fared even worse: borne by a flood of necromantic magic, their bodies grew into large, twisted creatures, vessels for the eldritch powers that overcame them.
Eternal Hunger. These half-dead corpses feel nothing more than an insatiable hunger that drives them to devour anything alive. Indeed, reports of a cloistered maiden are often the first priority for hunters lest they turn entire neighbourhoods into corpse and bone. The Radiant Church, ever vocal in its disparagement of osteomancy, proclaims these maidens to be manifestations of the sin of gluttony, another instrument in the toolbox of propaganda they use to sway the populace.
| MOD | SAVE | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| STR | 20 | +5 | +5 |
| DEX | 10 | +0 | +3 |
| CON | 18 | +4 | +4 |
| MOD | SAVE | ||
| INT | 14 | +2 | +2 |
| WIS | 10 | +0 | +0 |
| CHA | 16 | +3 | +3 |
Traits
Sharp Fangs. The maiden has advantage on attack rolls against creatures it is grappling.
Innate Spellcasting. The maiden's innate spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 14, +6 to hit with spell attacks). It can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components:
At will: alter self, chill touch ( 2d8 )
3/day: animate dead (up to five skeletons)
Bone Regeneration. The maiden regains 10 hit points and reforms any of its broken bones at the start of its turn if it has at least 1 hit point.
Magic Strikes. The maiden’s attacks are magical.
Actions
Multiattack. The maiden makes two attacks: one with its bite and one with its claw. It can use Feast instead of its bite.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 18 (2d12 + 5) piercing damage. If the target is a Huge or smaller creature, it is grappled (escape DC 16). Until this grapple ends, the maiden can't bite another target.
Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 16 (2d10 + 5) slashing damage.
Feast. The maiden makes one bite attack against a Medium or smaller creature it is grappling. If the attack hits, the target takes the bite’s damage, the target is devoured, and the grapple ends. While devoured, the creature is restrained, it has total cover against attacks and other effects outside the maiden, and it takes 20 (8d4) piercing damage at the start of each of the maiden’s turns. The maiden can only have one creature devoured at a time.
If the maiden takes 20 damage or more on a single turn from a creature inside it, its teeth break and the creature inside of it falls prone in an unoccupied space within 5 feet of the maiden. If the maiden dies, a swallowed creature is no longer restrained by it and can escape from the corpse by using 10 feet of movement, exiting prone.
Spinal Explosion (1/ Day). The maiden releases all the bony protrusions on its spine. Each creature within 30 feet of the maiden must make a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw, taking 28 ( 8d6 ) piercing damage on a failed save or half as much damage on a successful one. Each creature that fails the saving throw is also embedded with bony spikes. At the start of the creature’s next turn, it must make a DC 14 Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, it becomes restrained, as its body begins to harden. On a successful save, its body ejects the spikes and it isn’t otherwise affected.
A restrained creature must make another DC 14 Constitution saving throw at the start of its next turn. On a success, the effect ends on the creature. On a failure, its skin hardens into bone and it becomes petrified until the maiden dies, or until it is released by a greater restoration spell.
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