Salt Stalker

Family: Salt

Medium monstrosity, unaligned

Armor Class 13
Hit Points 52 (8d8 + 16)
Speed 40 ft., climb 30 ft.

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
15 (+2)	16 (+3)	15 (+2)	5 (-3)	14 (+2)	10 (+0)

Senses passive Perception 12
Languages –
Challenge 2 (450 XP)
Proficiency Bonus +2

SPECIAL TRAITS

• Desiccation Venom. A creature subjected to desiccation venom takes 5 (2d4) poison damage and is poisoned for 1 minute. While poisoned, the target is vulnerable to fire damage.
• Fluidsense. The stalker can detect the presence of liquids, from large bodies of water to potions to even the blood in a creature’s body, up to 1 mile away.
• Pack Tactics. The stalker has advantage on attack rolls against a creature if at least one of the stalker’s allies is within 5 feet of the creature and the ally isn’t incapacitated.
• Water Vulnerability. If the stalker is splashed with at least 1 gallon of water or starts its turn immersed in water, it can’t use Multiattack or attack with its spines until the end of its next turn.

ACTIONS

• Multiattack. The stalker makes two attacks: one with its bite and one with its claws.
• Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d8 + 3) piercing damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 12 Constitution saving throw or be subjected to desiccation venom.
• Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d6 + 3) slashing damage.
• Spines. Ranged Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, range 60/120 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d8 + 3) piercing damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 12 Constitution saving throw or be subjected to desiccation venom.

ABOUT

Salt stalkers are cunning ambush predators that rely on pack tactics in order to harry and exhaust their prey, which includes any animal foolhardy enough to wander through salt stalkers’ stretch of desert. Salt stalkers live in only the hottest and driest deserts, where few people even dare to go. In these uninhabitable sandscapes, where even a single cactus fails to take root, salt stalkers flourish.

Unlike nearly every other form of life, salt stalkers regard water as anathema.

Their alien anatomy violently revolts if they so much as try to digest fluids, and so salt stalkers rely on a strict diet of dehydrated meat. Fortunately for them, salt stalkers’ unusual biology also makes it easy for them to dry out wet food: a salt stalker’s bite injects a potent hygroscopic venom, dramatically dehydrating afflicted creatures in a matter of minutes. Once the poison has done its work, the salt stalkers in the hunting pack howl terribly, signaling to the rest of their kin that it’s time to feast.

The most typical variety of salt stalker is called just that: a salt stalker. These individuals are the de facto hunters, scouts, and caretakers of their packs, and they find a great level of community among their kind. Salt stalkers regard their less common kin-salt scorchers, winged salt stalkers, and the terrifying salt mother as overbearing but necessary elements to maintain the harmony of the pack.

An adult salt stalker resembles a greyhound crossed with a giant lizard, possessing rock-brown skin, double-jointed legs, and wicked claws. The salty bile they naturally secrete from their scaly, chitinous skin culminates in brittle, jagged spines that poke out from every part of their bodies. These spines break off easily, but also regrow rapidly. Although its primary means of offense are its wicked teeth and powerful jaws, a salt stalker can also forcibly eject its venom-loaded spines and ably aim them toward distant prey.

Different kinds of salt stalkers have evolved to fill different niches within their packs.

A pack might include just one type of salt stalker or a mix of different types. The latter variety of pack tends to have a much more complicated social structure and power hierarchy, with different roles and even sub-roles for the different kinds of salt stalkers present. Regardless of the pack’s complexity, though, few people could hope to understand the beasts’ inscrutable social customs, mating dances, and their range of screeching yips and hair-raising calls, all of which strongly suggest a creature that is quite literally an alien to this world.