Snatch Bat

Medium aberration, chaotic neutral

Armor Class 16 (natural armor)
Hit Points 97 (15d8 + 30)
Speed 20 ft., fly 40 ft.

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
16 (+3)	20 (+5)	14 (+2)	6 (–2)	12 (+1)	5 (–3)

Skills Perception +4, Sleight of Hand +8, Stealth +8
Damage Resistances force, psychic
Condition Immunities blinded, charmed, exhaustion
Senses blindsight 60 ft. (blind beyond this radius), passive Perception 14
Languages understands Deep Speech and Umbral but can’t speak
Challenge 5 (1,800 XP)
Proficiency Bonus +3

SPECIAL TRAITS

• Flyby. The snatch bat doesn’t provoke opportunity attacks when it flies out of an enemy’s reach.
• Treasure Sense. The snatch bat can pinpoint, by scent, the location of precious metals, gemstones, and jewelry within 60 feet of it and can sense the general direction of such objects within 1 mile of it.

ACTIONS

• Multiattack. The snatch bat makes three Claw attacks or two Claw attacks and one Pilfering Bite attack.
• Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5. ft., one target. Hit: 12 (2d6 + 5) slashing damage.
• Pilfering Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 10 (2d4 + 5) piercing damage. Instead of dealing damage, the snatch bat can steal one item the target is wearing or carrying, provided the item weighs no more than 10 pounds, isn’t a weapon, and isn’t wrapped around or firmly attached to the target. For example, a snatch bat could steal a hat or belt pouch but not a creature’s shirt or armor. The bat holds the stolen item in its long neck-arm and must regurgitate that item (no action required) before it can make another Pilfering Bite attack.

ABOUT

The creature waddles forward on stubby legs, with a long arm where its head should be. Then, quick as lightning, it pulls a pouch off a man’s belt and takes to the air on large, leathery wings.

Also called yoink bats or thefties, snatch bats are bats in only the broadest sense. Though they fly on leathery wings and they lack discernible eyesight like a common bat, the similarities end there. In addition to its wings, a snatch bat has a pair of sharp three-clawed feet attached to a stubby, bloated torso. Its most notable feature is its head, which is a left hand with six fingers at the end of a double-jointed arm as long as a python. A small maw sits in the palm of the hand, always seen chewing on the creature’s latest bounty.

Extraplanar Scavengers. Native to planes of existence where dreams and shadows shape the laws of physics, snatch bats are nightmarish when unexpected. Only accomplished mages can locate and summon these creatures. Clever summoners use snatch bats for their knack in locating rarities, sending them to retrieve important spell components and disrupt rivals. Unfortunately, what is considered valuable to the snatch bat is often considered trash to others, and such missions don’t always end as the sender hopes.

Thieving Compulsions. Snatch bats are incorrigible kleptomaniacs, and each has preferences about what it steals.

Checking the contents of a snatch bat’s belly after an encounter can be as delightfully surprising as it is gross. Scholars still puzzle over whether snatch bats subsist on actual meat or on the act of thievery itself. Interested parties have followed snatch bat flight patterns, hoping for insight into what drives them and their erratic tendencies. Such endeavors are often fraught with peril and most “successful” expeditions have yielded only worthless trinkets.