Despair

Medium fiend (titanspawn), neutral evil

STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
12 (+1) 17 (+3) 16 (+3) 17 (+3) 14 (+2) 19 (+4)

Armor Class 15 (natural armor)
Hit Points 97 (13d8 + 39)
Speed 30 ft., fly 60 ft. (hover)
Saving Throws Dexterity +6, Wisdom +5
Skills Deception +7, Perception +5, Stealth +6
Damage Resistances acid, cold, lightning; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical weapons that aren’t silvered
Damage Immunities fire, poison
Condition Immunities poisoned
Senses darkvision 90 ft., truesight 30 ft., passive Perception 15
Languages Infernal, Primordial, Titan Speech; telepathy 120 ft.
Challenge 7 (2,900 XP)

Special Traits

  • Disease Immunity. The despair is immune to disease.
  • Foul Pinions. As a bonus action, the despair plucks one of the foul, sickly feathers from its wings to be used as a Foul Dart attack. Its feathers grow back almost instantly, so the despair never runs out of darts.
  • Innate Spellcasting. The despair’s innate spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 15). It can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components:
  • Magic Resistance. The despair has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
  • Magic Weapons. The despair’s weapon attacks are magical.

Actions

  • Multiattack. The despair makes three attacks: one with its bite and two with its claws.
  • Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d6 + 3) piercing damage plus 31 (9d6) poison damage.
  • Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d4 + 3) slashing damage.
  • Foul Dart. Ranged Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, range 30/120 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d4 + 3) piercing damage plus 24 (7d6) poison damage, and the target is afflicted by the contagion spell (save DC 14).

Tactics

Despairs are cowards, so they attack only isolated individuals or small groups they are certain that they can overcome. They most often attack from ambush, using darts and spells on their hapless victims and then fleeing immediately, allowing time for their foul diseases to do their work. If threatened, they prefer flight over resistance.

Description

Foul beings akin to devils or daemons, despairs were created in the tarnished image of angelic hopes. Dirty, bedraggled, emaciated, and ugly, with greasy dark gray wings covered in scant, scraggly feathers, their expression mixes scorn and cruelty in one withering glance.

Withdrawn and Cowardly. Despairs focus their attention on isolated settlements and distant locations, where the threat of organized resistance is minimal. Whole villages are often targeted by a despair, which spreads disease and doubt among the population, reveling in the darkness and sorrow that it creates. After a despair has visited a place – usually leaving behind a ghost town – it drops a single dirty gray feather as a calling card.

Section 15: Copyright Notice

Creature Collection 5e Copyright 2020 Onyx Path Publishing, Inc.