Gloomflower

A tiny flower with shining black petals sways lightly on its thorny stem.

Tiny plant, unaligned

Armor Class 12 (natural armor)
Hit Points 44 (8d4 + 24)
Speed 10 ft.

STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
10 (+0) 6 (-2) 16 (+3) 1 (-5) 6 (-2) 18 (+4)

Condition Immunities blinded, deafened, frightened
Senses blindsight 120 ft. passive Perception 8
Languages understands all languages known by creatures within 120 feet, but can’t speak, telepathy 120 ft.
Challenge 3 (700 XP)

Special Traits

  • Blur. Creatures have disadvantage on attack rolls against the gloomflower. An attacker is immune to this effect if it doesn’t rely on sight, as with blindsight, or can see through illusions, as with truesight.
  • Psychic Scream. Whenever the gloomflower takes damage, each creature within 10 feet of the gloomflower must succeed on a DC 14 Wisdom saving throw or take 7 (2d6) psychic damage.

Actions

  • Multiattack. The gloomflower makes two psychic strike attacks.
  • Psychic Strike. Ranged Spell Attack: +6 to hit, range 120 ft., one target. Hit: 10 (3d6) psychic damage.
  • Corrupting Visions (Recharge 5-6). Each creature of the gloomflower’s choice that is within 60 feet of the gloomflower and aware of it must make a DC 14 Wisdom saving throw. On a failure, a creature is bombarded with visions of its fears and anxieties for 1 minute. While bombarded, it takes 7 (2d6) psychic damage at the start of each of its turns and must spend its action to make one melee attack against a creature within 5 feet of it, other than the gloomflower or itself. If the creature can’t make a melee attack, it takes the Dodge action. The creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success. On a success, a creature is incapacitated by hallucinations until the end of its next turn but isn’t bombarded with visions of its fears and anxieties. A creature that is reduced to 0 hp by this psychic damage falls unconscious and is stable. When that creature regains consciousness, it suffers permanent hallucinations and has disadvantage on ability checks until cured by a remove curse spell or similar magic.

About

Corpse Blooms. Gloomflowers are tiny blooms that thrive in the umbral light of the Shadow Realm. When a wanderer dies or goes mad within the darkness, a single gloomflower blooms in the shadow of its corpse. Some shadow fey say that the tortured mind of that creature now inhabits the ebon petals of the gloomflower, the air around the flower humming with its silent screams.

Alternate Traits and Actions

Source ExpCod (Open Design)

The following changes allow GMs to alter a gloomflower without modifying its challenge rating.

  • Focused Scream. Whenever the gloomflower takes damage, if the creature dealing the damage is within range of the gloomflower’s blindsight, the creature must succeed on a DC 14 Wisdom saving throw or take 10 (3d6) psychic damage. The gloomflower loses its Psychic Scream trait.
  • Howling Darkness (Recharges after a Short or Long Rest). The gloomflower creates a 15-foot-radius sphere of magical darkness at a point it can sense within 60 feet. This darkness works like the darkness spell, except creatures inside it have disadvantage on saving throws against any of the gloomflower’s actions or traits. The gloomflower loses its Blur trait.
  • Soul Splice. The gloomflower places the soul belonging to its corpse into a creature it can sense within 90 feet, creating an effect like the magic jar spell. The gloomflower can use this power at will, but it can only splice its soul onto one other creature at a time. The target resists the attack with a successful 20 DC 14 Charisma saving throw. While the soul is inside the target, the target is unconscious and takes 7 (2d6) psychic damage at the start of each of its turns. The creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success. On a success, the creature remains unconscious until the start of its next turn and is immune to the same gloomflower’s Soul Splice for 24 hours. If the target is reduced to 0 hp by Soul Splice’s psychic damage, it must make death saving throws until it dies, stabilizes, or regains hit points, as usual. If the creature stabilizes or regains hit points, the soul returns to the corpse tied to the gloomflower, the creature is immune to the same gloomflower’s Soul Splice for 24 hours, and the gloomflower cannot use this action again until it finishes a long rest. The gloomflower loses its Corrupting Visions action.
Section 15: Copyright Notice

Creature Codex. © 2018 Open Design LLC; Authors Wolfgang Baur, Dan Dillon, Richard Green, James Haeck, Chris Harris, Jeremy Hochhalter, James Introcaso, Chris Lockey, Shawn Merwin, and Jon Sawatsky.

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