Catoblepas

Family: Catoblepas

Large monstrosity, neutral

Armor Class 14 (natural armor)
Hit Points 178 (17d10 + 85)
Speed 40 ft., swim 20 ft.

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
20 (+5)	8 (-1)	21 (+5)	5 (-3)	15 (+2)	10 (+0)

Senses darkvision 60 ft. passive Perception 12
Languages –
Challenge 12 (8,400 XP)

Special Traits

• Keen Smell. The catoblepas has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on smell.
• Stench. Any creature other than a catoblepas that starts its turn within 10 feet of the catoblepas must succeed on a DC 16 Constitution saving throw or be poisoned until the start of the creature’s next turn. On a successful saving throw, the creature is immune to the stench of any catoblepas for 1 hour.
• Charge. If the catoblepas moves at least 20 feet straight toward a target and then hits it with a gore attack on the same turn, the target takes an extra 9 (2d8) piercing damage. If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a DC 14 Strength saving throw or be pushed up to 10 feet away and knocked prone.

Actions

• Multiattack. The catoblepas makes one Hooves attack, one Gore attack, and one Tail attack.
• Gore. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 18 (3d8 + 5) piercing damage.
• Hooves. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (2d8 + 5) slashing damage.
• Tail. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 15 ft., one target. Hit: 21 (5d6 + 4) bludgeoning damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 14 Strength saving throw or be pushed 10 feet away from the catoblepas and knocked prone.
• Poison Breath (recharge 5-6). The catoblepas exhales its horrid, stinking breath in a 60-foot cone. Each creature in that area must make a DC 14 Constitution saving throw, taking 36 (8d8) poison damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. If the saving throw fails by 5 or more, the target instead takes 63 (14d8) poison damage. The target dies if reduced to 0 hit points by this breath.
• Stench. Any creature that starts its turn within 10 feet of the catoblepas must succeed on a DC 12 Constitution saving throw against poison. On a failed save, the creature spends its action that turn retching and reeling and is poisoned until the start of its next turn. Creatures that don’t need to breathe or are immune to poison automatically succeed on this saving throw. On a successful saving throw, the creature is immune to the catoblepas’s stench for 24 hours.

About

The catoblepas is an aggressive beast at the best of times, willing to knock down trees, fences, even small houses to eat whatever it finds interesting, be that meal plant or animal or human being. Though it prefers swamps, the catoblepas has been known to forage in plains and forests for short periods before returning to the buoyant support of water and mud. Few creatures linger near a catoblepas’s feeding ground because of the monster’s bad temper and poisonous breath, and only rot-loving predators such as oozes or exceptionally large otyughs have any interest in hunting them.

A catoblepas’ primary motivation is hunting and exerting its dominance over lesser creatures in its territory. Easily detected by its foul odor, the creature tolerates the presence of wild animals, humanoid tribes, and even predators that it can bully as long as these things flee or act submissive when the poisonous brute lumbers into view. The catoblepas is known to engage in physical battles with other Large swamp creatures such as crocodiles or even froghemoths. Some humanoid tribes claim to know techniques to domesticate a catoblepas for use as a guard animal, but the monster’s intractable nature and not insignificant intelligence almost certainly means magic is involved, as the creature has little need for alliances and can wipe out entire villages with its breath. Some have been known to use their breath underwater, creating a churning cloud of bubbles that kills fish in the area and starves out other creatures.

A catoblepas’s sense of smell is blunted by its own ungodly stench, and it can’t easily recognize rival odors such as skunk musk (though this provides the beast no immunity to odor-based effects from other creatures).

A catoblepas is 15 feet long and weighs 2,200 pounds.