Nautiloid

Gargantuan elemental, neutral good

Armor Class 18 (natural armor)
Hit Points 216 (16d20 + 48)
Speed 0 ft., swim 90 ft.

STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
21 (+5) 15 (+2) 16 (+3) 7 (–2) 12 (+1) 6 (–2)

Saving Throws Con +8
Skills Perception +6
Damage Resistances piercing, bludgeoning, and slashing from nonmagical attacks
Damage Immunities cold Condition Immunities exhaustion, poisoned
Senses blindsight 60 ft., darkvision 300 ft., passive Perception 16
Languages understands Primordial but can’t speak
Challenge 13 (10,000 XP)
Proficiency Bonus +5

SPECIAL TRAITS

  • Elemental Traveler. The nautiloid doesn’t require air, food, drink, sleep, or ambient pressure.
  • Enchanted Shell. A dome of magic covers the nautiloid, just large enough to contain its shell. The nautiloid can control the ambient pressure, temperature, water levels, and breathable air levels (for air-breathing passengers) inside, allowing creatures and objects within it to exist comfortably in spite of conditions outside the nautiloid. Creatures and objects within the shell have total cover against attacks and other effects outside the nautiloid. Creatures inside the shell can exit whenever they want, but nothing can pass into the shell’s dome unless the nautiloid allows it. The area inside the dome is a magnificent palace carved into the nautiloid’s shell, complete with open ‘air’ balconies used as entrances or exits, and numerous covered chambers that can comfortably hold up to 50 passengers. The palace is 60 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 80 feet tall. When the nautiloid dies, any creatures inside the dome are expelled into unoccupied spaces near the closest exit.
  • Limited Telepathy. The nautiloid can magically communicate simple ideas, emotions, and images telepathically with any creature inside the magical dome that surrounds it shell. Similarly, it can hear and understand any creature inside the dome, regardless of the language it speaks.

ACTIONS

  • Multiattack. The nautiloid makes two Beak attacks and one Tentacles attack.
  • Beak. Melee Weapon Attack: +10 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 21 (3d10 + 5) piercing damage plus 9 (2d8) poison damage.
  • Tentacles. Melee Weapon Attack: +10 to hit, reach 30 ft., one target. Hit: 18 (2d12 + 5) bludgeoning damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 18). Until this grapple ends, the target is restrained, the nautiloid can automatically hit the target with its Tentacles, and the nautiloid can’t make Tentacles attacks against other targets.
  • Jet Propulsion (Recharge 5–6). The nautiloid releases a magical burst of pressure that propels it backwards in a line that is 90 feet long and 10 feet wide. Each creature within 15 feet of the space the nautiloid left and each creature in that line must make a DC 18 Constitution saving throw. On a failure, a creature takes 45 (10d8) force damage and is pushed up to 20 feet away from the nautiloid and forced prone. On a success, a creature takes half the damage, but isn’t pushed or forced prone.

REACTIONS

  • Withdraw. When a creature the nautiloid can see targets it with an attack, the nautiloid can pull its body into its shell, gaining a +5 bonus to AC until the start of its next turn.

ABOUT

This enormous creature’s shell resembles white marble, shot through with veins of shimmering gold and carved with caverns and columns like an abandoned palace. The nautiloid is a great, snail-like deep-sea creature with a multi-chambered shell capable of housing dozens of humanoids.

Banished Outcasts. Though nautiloids hail from the elemental Plane of Water, the few living in the Material Plane cannot return to their home plane. It is unclear whether this is a natural trait or a punishment inflicted upon the nautiloids and those who once called the nautiloids home.

Lonely Wanderers. A nautiloid desires nothing more than to have people living in its shell once again. Their naïve desire makes nautiloids too trusting when any creature shows them kindness; very few nautiloids remain in the oceans, and those few are often protected by merfolk or used by deep ones.

Section 15: Copyright Notice

Tome of Beasts 3 © 2022 Open Design LLC; Authors: Eytan Bernstein, Celeste Conowitch, Benjamin L. Eastman, Robert Fairbanks, Scott Gable, Basheer Ghouse, Richard Green, Jeremy Hochhalter, Jeff Lee, Christopher Lockey, Sarah Madsen, Ben Mcfarland, Jonathan Miley, Kelly Pawlik, Sebastian Rombach, Chelsea Steverson, Brian Suskind, Mike Welham

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