Corpse Candle

Medium undead, neutral evil

Armor Class 14 (natural armor)
Hit Points 91 (14d8+28)
Speed fly 50 ft., swim 50 ft.

STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
1 (-5) 16 (+3) 14 (+2) 13 (+1) 13 (+1) 17 (+3)

Saves Cha +6, Dex +6
Skills Deception +6, Perception +6, Stealth +6
Damage Resistances bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks
Damage Immunities cold, necrotic, poison
Condition Immunities charmed, exhaustion, frightened, grappled, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned, prone, restrained
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 16
Languages Common, Infernal
Challenge 5 (1,800 XP)

SPECIAL TRAITS

  • Incorporeal Movement. The corpse candle can move through other creatures and objects as if they were difficult terrain. It takes 5 (1d10) force damage if it ends its turn inside an object.

ACTIONS

  • Draining Touch. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (2d6 + 3) necrotic damage, and the target’s Strength score is reduced by 1d4. The target dies if this reduces its Strength to 0. Otherwise, the reduction lasts until the target finishes a short or long rest.
  • Hypnotic Lights. The corpse candle can create a dancing, twisting pattern of ever-shifting lights that slowly change colors. These lights appear within 20 feet of the corpse candle. Creatures viewing the pattern within 50 feet must make a successful DC 13 Wisdom saving throw or become charmed. A charmed creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns to end this effect. A creature that succeeds this saving throw is immune to that corpse candle’s hypnotic lights for 24 hours. The lights remain for 1 minute. A charmed creature moves towards the lights, taking the most direct route available at its normal movement rate. The creature avoids obvious dangers and skirts around obstructions as possible, but it will swim towards the light if necessary, paying no heed for the need to breathe. Any creature starting its turn adjacent to the light has its Constitution score reduced by 1d2. The target dies if this reduces its Strength to 0. Otherwise, the reduction lasts until the target finishes a short or long rest.

ABOUT

Corpse candles are formed when creatures are sacrificed by ritualistic drowning to a sea or water deity. The fear of dying coupled with the hatred of the ones performing the ritual infuses the victims’ spirit with energy that often lingers in the area and empowers the corpse with unlife, raising it as a corpse candle. Corpse candles hate the living and have a particular dislike for clerics. Corpse candles are bound to the area of their death in the sense that they cannot leave that particular body of water (be it a sea, river, lake, or ocean).

Aging Image. A corpse candle appears as a translucent image of its living self. Its body shows little, if any, signs of death, though as it “ages,” the corpse candle’s translucence seems to grow faint and fade (as if a light were burning out).

Some sages have researched this phenomenon and believe that corpse candles can actually die of old age. Perhaps some remnant of their former lives binds them to the mortal world or perhaps sages are just reaching for answers to some unknown equation.

Treacherous Signals. Corpse candles detest the living and seek to lure wayfarers to their doom using trickery and misdirection. Corpse candles use their ability of deception to lure unsuspecting victims to their doom. When a corpse candle successfully fascinates a creature, it waits until the creature draws near and then attacks relentlessly with its incorporeal claws. Corpse candles are particularly fond of luring sailors, swimmers, and other seafarers to their watery graves by first fascinating them, draining sapping them of their strength, and finally allowing them to drown as the lights sap their vitality. Drowned victims are left as food for any aquatic carnivores in the area.

Section 15: Copyright Notice

Faerie Bestiary (5E) © 2022, Legendary Games; Authors Matt Kimmel, Michael “solomani” Mifsud, Miguel Colon, Robert J. Grady, Jason Nelson, Jeff Ibach, Tim Hitchcock.

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