Minotaur, Cocytus-Corrupted

Family: Minotaur

Large monstrosity, chaotic evil

Armor Class 14 (natural armor)
Hit Points 76 (9d10 + 27)
Speed 40 ft.

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
18 (+4)	11 (+0)	16 (+3)	6 (–2)	16 (+3)	13 (+1)

Skills Intimidation +3, Perception +7
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 17
Languages Abyssal
Challenge 3 (700 XP)

SPECIAL TRAITS

• Charge. If the minotaur moves at least 10 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.
• Reckless. At the start of its turn, the minotaur can gain advantage on all melee weapon attack rolls it makes during that turn, but attack rolls against it have advantage until the start of its next turn.
• Vengeful Recall. The minotaur can perfectly recall any path it has traveled and the appearance of any creature that has ever damaged it.

ACTIONS

• Greataxe. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 17 (2d12 + 4) slashing damage.
• Gore. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d8 + 4) piercing damage.

REACTIONS

• Vengeful Retaliation. When the Cocytus-corrupted minotaur is reduced to 0 hit points, it makes a weapon attack before dying. If this attack is made against the creature that reduced the minotaur to 0 hit points, the minotaur makes this attack with advantage. The minotaur then dies.

ABOUT

Savage carnivores and vicious brutes, minotaurs prowl mazes or cavern networks, obsessively worried that another creature might learn the secret of the passages and trick or ambush them. Legends of an ancient hero foiling a minotaur’s maze with a ball of string are, to minotaurs, distressingly common. Minotaurs who have been defeated or outsmarted in the past make ideal candidates for corruption by the Cocytus legion, as they burn with a desire for vengeance and fight to the death to avoid being bested again.

Focused on spite and retribution, the Cocytus legion’s corruption takes root in the desire for revenge, turning creatures into twisted mockeries of their former selves. Ironically, the hatred of the legion itself often corrupts mundane creatures into joining it. In addition, many creatures are willing to sacrifice their wealth, slaves, or souls in exchange for the power to resolve a longstanding grudge or eliminate a bitter rival; petitioners for the Cocytus legion’s favor are common enough that every fourth-circle fiend and Archlord devotes some of its own time to listen or assigns a trusted lieutenant (such as a cackling cacodaemon or shining gryllus) to hear them out. As a result, Cocytus corruptions are among the most common.

Although the fiends’ enemies may think of this corruption as their punishment while supplicants may think the corruption as a necessary price to have vengeance, the fiends of the legion always force the corrupted creatures to serve the legion, insisting that the corruption includes an obligation to obey or else face even worse consequences. Like Cocytus fiends, a corrupted creature sprouts glowing, angry-red scars upon its flesh that represent the grudges it holds, of which new injuries gleam brightest.

Cocytus Corruption

Cocytus corruption grants the Vengeful Retaliation reaction.

Vengeful Retaliation. When the Cocytus-corrupted creature is reduced to 0 hit points, it makes a weapon attack just before dying. If this attack is made against the creature that reduced the corrupted creature to 0 hit points, the corrupted creature makes this attack with advantage. The corrupted creature then dies.