Chuul

This lobster-like creature has a thick armored shell. A pair of tiny eyes gleams above a mouth full of writhing tentacles.

Large aberration, chaotic evil

Armor Class 16 (natural armor)
Hit Points 93 (11d10 + 33)
Speed 30 ft., swim 30 ft.

STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
19 (+4) 10 (+0) 16 (+3) 5 (-3) 11 (+0) 5 (-3)

Skills Perception +4
Damage Immunities poison
Condition Immunities poisoned
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 14
Languages understands Deep Speech but can’t speak
Challenge 4 (1,100 XP)

Special Traits

  • Amphibious: The chuul can breathe air and water.
  • Sense Magic: The chuul senses magic within 120 feet of it at will. This trait otherwise works like the detect magic spell but isn’t itself magical.

Actions

  • Multiattack: The chuul makes two pincer attacks. If the chuul is grappling a creature, the chuul can also use its tentacles once.
  • Pincer: Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) bludgeoning damage. The target is grappled (escape DC 14) if it is a Large or smaller creature and the chuul doesn’t have two other creatures grappled.
  • Tentacles: One creature grappled by the chuul must succeed on a DC 13 Constitution saving throw or be poisoned for 1 minute. Until this poison ends, the target is paralyzed. The target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.

About

Chuuls are armored, crustacean-like predators that lurk beneath the surfaces of shallow ponds and mires, bursting from concealment to snatch up prey in their chitinous pincers and then paralyzing them with their mouth tentacles before eating them alive.

Chuuls are excellent swimmers but prefer to attack land-bound creatures or those wallowing in shallow water. Once they seize their victims, chuuls often drag grappled foes back into deep water to drown them. Lizardfolk are by far the chuul’s favorite prey, though those pale chuul breeds that live underground prefer morlocks, duergar, unwary drow, and other unfortunates who get too close to their subterranean waterways-with the exception of troglodytes, whose flavor chuuls find particularly offensive.

Chuuls are surprisingly intelligent, leading many to speculate fruitlessly on their origins and motivations. They speak a chittering, burbling dialect of Common, but few are inclined to speak to those outside their race, and if chuul society exists beyond their frenzied mating season, humanoids have yet to record it. Instead, chuul intellects seem entirely devoted to seeking out the perfect ambush sites to attack other intelligent creatures and decorating their elaborate lairs with trophies from their kills. Though the chuuls themselves seem uninterested in using tools of any kind, they have an almost compulsive need to collect keepsakes from their victims.

A typical chuul is 8 feet tall and weighs 650 pounds.