Robobeast, Coilsnake

Family: Robobeast

Tiny construct (robobeast), unaligned

Armor Class 13 (natural armor)
Hit Points 18 (4d4 + 8)
Speed 30 ft., climb 30 ft.

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
16 (+3)	14 (+2)	14 (+2)	6 (-2)	10 (+0)	5 (-3)

Skills Perception +2, Stealth +4
Damage Resistances bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks
Damage Immunities poison, psychic
Condition Immunities charmed, exhaustion, frightened, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned
Senses blindsight 10 ft., darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 12
Languages understands one language of its creator but can’t speak
Challenge 1 (200 XP)
Proficiency Bonus +2

SPECIAL TRAITS

• False Appearance. While the coilsnake remains motionless, it is indistinguishable from a piece of jewelry.
• Magic Resistance. The coilsnake has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.

ACTIONS

• Metal Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d8 + 3) piercing damage.
• Constrict. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d6 + 3) bludgeoning damage and the coilsnake attaches to the target. If the target is Small or smaller, the target is also restrained while the coilsnake is attached in this way. While attached to the target, the coilsnake can attack no other creature except the target but has advantage on its attack rolls and it can use its bonus action to make one metal bite attack against the target. The coilsnake’s speed also becomes 0, it can’t benefit from any bonus to its speed, and it moves with the target. A creature can detach the coilsnake by making a successful DC l2 Strength check as an action. On its turn, the coilsnake can detach itself from the target by using 5 feet of movement.

ABOUT

Originally conceived as customizable jewelry gifts that Sporkus could offer to his lady friends, coilsnakes proved to be too unruly and kept slithering away from jewelry boxes when nobody was looking.

Coilsnakes have an innate fashion sense and are capable of transforming into fancy bracelets, anklets, necklaces, or belts, and they might do so for a while for people they trust.

Pact of the Chain Familiar. At the gamemaster’s discretion, a warlock with a pact of the chain may choose the form of a coilsnake for their familiar.

Crafting Coilsnakes. At the gamemaster’s discretion, player characters who are proficient in the Arcana skill or with Smith’s Tools or Tinker’s Tools and have obtained the coilsnake schematic can create a coilsnake by spending time and materials comparable to creating an uncommon magic item.

In his quest to unlock the secrets of creating artificial life, the technognome demigod of invention Sporkus crafted several mechanical animals and imbued them with arcane energies. After eons of tinkering, Sporkus and his countless lab assistants managed to bestow a spark of sentience upon these robobeasts. Elated, Sporkus quickly shared the secrets of their creation with other artificers, but soon after the robobeasts began multiplying and evolving on their own, surprising the demigod of invention. Since then, several types of robobeasts have emerged, many of them slipping away from the influence of technognomes.

Today, robobeasts are created by other robobeasts, or by master artificers who have either copied the form and function of live robobeasts or have studied and improved upon the original designs by Sporkus.

Assisted Evolution. Each robobeast has the schematics of its own design, and sometimes the schematics of other robobeasts, in its arcanomechanical brain. Given enough time and resources, a robobeast can create a new robobeast, often adding tiny changes, which drive the evolution of these unusual creatures. These changes represent small upgrades or defects that make each robobeast unique.

Crafting Robobeasts. At the gamemaster’s discretion, player characters might be able to find or create schematics that allow them to craft robobeasts. One way to obtain such schematics is for player characters to access them from a robobeast’s brain, either by befriending the robobeast or by force. Each robobeast’s description includes crafting time and cost equivalents using the rules for creating magic items.

Constructed Critters. A robobeast doesn’t require air, food, drink, or sleep. If the mending spell is cast on a robobeast, it regains 2d6 hit points.

Upgrades and Defects

At the gamemaster’s discretion, when a robobeast is created, or when some artificer tinkers extensively with it, it might acquire a small change in the form of one of the following upgrades or defects added to its stat block.

A single upgrade or defect does not affect the robobeast’s challenge rating. A robobeast’s challenge rating increases by 1 for every two upgrades it has and decreases by 1 for every two defects it has.

Upgrades and defects may be changed or removed with sufficient tinkering, at the gamemaster’s discretion.

Robobeast Upgrades

d10	Upgrade
1	Vocalizer. The robobeast can speak the language it knows.
2	Solar-Powered Self-Repair. The robobeast regains 1d4 hit points when it starts its turn in sunlight and it has at least 1 hit point.
3	Reinforced Frame. Any critical hit against the robobeast becomes a normal hit.
4	Warning System. The robobeast has advantage on initiative rolls and can’t be surprised unless it’s incapacitated.
5	Cunning Subroutines. The robobeast can take the Dash, Disengage, or Hide action as a bonus action.
6	Overclockwork. On its turn, the robobeast can take one additional action on top of its regular action and a possible bonus action. Once the robobeast uses this trait, it must finish a short or long rest before it can use it again.
7	Heat Sensors. The robobeast gains blindsight out to 10 feet. If it already has blindsight, this upgrade increases its range by 10 feet.
8	Knowledge Matrix. The robobeast gains proficiency in one skill of the gamemaster’s choice.
9	Planar Positioning System. The robobeast can use an action to learn which way is north, and how high it is flying or how deep it is underground or underwater.
10	Arcane Core. The robobeast can cast one cantrip of the gamemaster’s choice at will. Its spellcasting ability modifier is +0 and its proficiency bonus does apply for that cantrip.

Robobeast Defects

d10	Defect
1	Whirring Gizmos. The robobeast constantly emits various noises and has disadvantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks.
2	Nonwaterproof. The robobeast is incapacitated when fully immersed in water.
3	Reboot Loop. Any critical hit against the robobeast causes it to become stunned until the start of its next turn.
4	Latency Issues. The robobeast has disadvantage on initiative rolls.
5	Backdoor Vulnerability. The robobeast loses its immunity to being charmed or frightened, has disadvantage on saving throws against being charmed or frightened, and its magic resistance does not work against effects that would cause it to be charmed or frightened.
6	Underclockwork. The robobeast can’t use reactions. On its turn, it can use either an action or a bonus action, not both.
7	Low-Grade Optics. The robobeast loses its darkvision. If it didn’t originally have darkvision, this defect lowers the robobeast’s wisdom score by 1.
8	Rusty Armor. The robobeast loses its resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from nonmagical attacks.
9	Buggy Scanners. The robobeast has disadvantage on all Wisdom (Perception) checks.
10	Haunted Circuits. A ghost (CR 4) is haunting the robobeast’s circuits, giving it disadvantage on all ability checks and saving throws. The ghost can be turned or forced out by an effect like the dispel evil and good spell.