Knotsman

Medium construct, unaligned

Armor Class 14
Hit Points 82 (11d8 + 33)
Speed 30 ft., climb 20 ft.

STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
17 (+3) 18 (+4) 16 (+3) 3 (-4) 12 (+1) 3 (-4)

Skills Athletics +6, Stealth +7
Damage Resistances bludgeoning
Damage Immunities poison
Condition Immunities charmed, exhaustion, frightened, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 11
Languages understands Common but can’t speak
Challenge 5 (1,800 XP)
Proficiency Bonus +3

SPECIAL TRAITS

  • Constructed Nature. The knotsman doesn’t require air, food, drink, or sleep.
  • Regeneration. The knotsman regains 10 hit points at the start of its turn if it has at least 1 hit point. If the knotsman takes fire or slashing damage, this trait doesn’t function at the start of the knotsman’s next turn.
  • Uncoil. As a bonus action, the knotsman can uncoil into a 100-footlong, mundane-looking rope, or resume its true form. While uncoiled, the knotsman gains weakness to slashing damage, its speed increases to 40 feet (30 feet while climbing), and it can slither through spaces as narrow as 1 inch in diameter.

ACTIONS

  • Multiattack. The knotsman attacks twice with its lasso. It can then use Rein In.
  • Lasso. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 15 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d8 + 4) bludgeoning damage, and the target is entangled in the knotsman’s lasso. While entangled, the target can’t move more than 15 feet away from the knotsman. The entanglement ends if the knotsman voluntarily ends it or becomes incapacitated, if the entangled creature escapes by using an action to make a successful DC 13 Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check, or if the lasso is destroyed. The lasso is an object with AC 12, 10 hit points, and immunity to bludgeoning, piercing, poison, and psychic damage.
  • Rein In. Each creature entangled by the knotsman must make a DC 14 Strength saving throw. On a failure, the creature is pulled 15 feet straight towards the knotsman, is no longer entangled, and becomes grappled (escape DC 16).

ABOUT

Knotsmen are brainless, humanoid-shaped minions made of a single length of magically animated rope. Wizards sometimes populate their towers with knotsmen, seeing them as relatively cheaper to construct and maintain than complicated golems. Witches, thieves’ guilds, and even traveling circuses have been known to employ knotsmen as well.

Though they may seem cost effective in the short term, knotsmen’s bizarre intellect (if it can be called “intellect”) makes these creatures unreliable-or, at least, somewhat unpredictable-minions. Knotsmen understand the language of their creator and can execute simple or complex orders with ease, but they have a tendency to take liberties with vaguely stated commands, lingering in villages and countryside alike as suits their whims. Combined with their ability to slither along floors and through cracked doorways unnoticed, knotsmen’s precociousness often ends up more of a liability than a boon.

Knotsmen are terrifyingly sturdy and rarely fall apart even after years of use; the magic that animates a knotsman also enables it to tie and re-tie even the most frayed fibers of its body. When its creator dies, a knotsman invariably strikes out on its own, wandering further and further from its home until it finds a new master. Despite their whimsy, knotsmen want, more than anything, to be of use.

Would-be masters best beware, though-a knotsman commanded to perform tasks at odds with its innate personality might just as quickly lash out in a merciless rage.

Though they lack true intelligence, knotsmen boast curious personalities. A knotsman’s disposition generally reflects the type of rope used to create it; for example, a knotsman made of ship’s rigging might serve its captain faithfully, while one woven from a hangman’s noose could be as treacherous as the criminal that once swung from it.

Section 15: Copyright Notice

Battlezoo Bestiary (5E) © 2022, Skyscraper Studios, Inc.; Authors: William Fischer, Stephen Glicker, Paul Hughes, Patrick Renie, Sen.H.H.S., and Mark Seifter.

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