Flay Beast

Medium beast, unaligned

STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
10 (+0) 15 (+2) 20 (+5) 3 (-4) 13 (+1) 1 (-5)

Armor Class 14 (natural armor)
Hit Points 57 (6d8 + 30)
Speed 20 ft., climb 20 ft., fly 60 ft.
Skills Athletics +2, Perception +3, Stealth +4
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 13
Languages
Challenge 2 (450 XP)

Special Traits

  • Foliage Camouflage. The flay beast has advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks made to hide among plants or other greenery.

Actions

  • Pounce (Recharge 5-6). The flay beast moves its entire distance and then makes both a bite attack and a claw attack with advantage.
  • Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (2d6 + 2) piercing damage and the target must make a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or become Poisoned. The target can repeat the saving throw at the end of its turn, ending the effect on a success.
  • Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (3d4 + 2) slashing damage.

Tactics

The flay beast is usually a solitary hunter and ambushes its prey, either from the sky above or by hiding in foliage until the creature is close enough for an effective pounce attack. Once it reveals itself, it is relentless in its attacks and will use its pounce attack indiscriminately, even if provokes other attacks. They fight to the death, because a wounded flay beast is simply another meal to a healthy one.

Description

A flay beast resembles a man-sized praying mantis with the strong back legs and wings of a grasshopper. Despite their size, they possess only animal-level intelligence. Flay beats are relentless and vicious predators, willing to attack anything that they might have a chance of killing.

Flay beasts almost always hunt alone and remain alone for most of their lives. They are hermaphroditic and lay clutches of eggs beneath the ground. The eggs hatch within 2d4 weeks – a flay beast’s first meal is often their slightly slower sibling. Those that survive are fully grown after a year. Grown flay beasts will sometimes organize into flights of 4 to 8 creatures in order to hunt something that they could not individually take down.

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