Cackle Bird

Medium monstrosity, unaligned

Armor Class 14 (natural armor)
Hit Points 65 (10d8 + 20)
Speed 40 ft., climb 20 ft.

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
15 (+2)	17 (+3)	14 (+2)	7 (-2)	12 (+1)	6 (-2)

Skills Acrobatics +5, Perception +3, Stealth +7
Damage Resistances thunder
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 13
Languages Auran
Challenge 4 (1,100 XP)

Special Traits

• Ambusher. In the first round of combat, the cackle bird has advantage on attack rolls against any creature it has surprised.
• Command Birds. The cackle bird can communicate with other birds as if they shared a language. It can issue simple commands to birds that have an Intelligence of 2 or lower, like the commands in the command spell.
• Forest Camouflage. The cackle bird has advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks made to hide in forest terrain.

Actions

• Multiattack. The cackle bird makes one Beak attack and two Claw attacks.
• Beak. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 10 (2d6 + 3) piercing damage.
• Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d4 + 3) slashing damage.
• Cackle (recharge 5-6). The cackle bird screeches its cackling call in a 15-foot cone. Each creature in that area must make a DC 13 Constitution saving throw. On a failure, a creature takes 21 (6d6) thunder damage and is incapacitated until the end of its next turn. On a success, a creature takes half the damage and isn’t incapacitated.