Charybdis

Gargantuan aberration, unaligned

Armor Class 20 (natural armor)
Hit Points 351 (18d20+162)
Speed 20 ft., swim 50 ft.

STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
30 (+10) 9 (-1) 28 (+9) 4 (-3) 15 (+2) 6 (-2)

Saving Throws Str +16, Dex +5, Cha +4
Skills Athletics +16, Perception +6
Damage Resistances cold; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks
Damage Immunities acid
Condition Immunities frightened, prone
Senses blindsight 60 ft., darkvision 200 ft., passive Perception 16
Languages Aquan
Challenge 19 (22,000 XP)

Special Traits

  • Amphibious. The charybdis can breathe water and air.
  • Innate Spellcasting. The charybdis’s spellcasting ability is Wisdom (spell save DC 16). It can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components:
  • Regeneration. The charybdis regains 10 hit points at the start of its turn if it has at least 1 hit point.
  • Ship Eater. The charybdis deals double damage to objects and structures.

Actions

  • Multiattack. The charybdis makes two attacks: one with its bite, and one with its claws.
  • Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +10 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 21 (3d8 + 8) piercing damage. If the target is a Huge or smaller creature, it must succeed on a DC 19 Strength saving throw or be swallowed by the charybdis. A swallowed creature is blinded and restrained, it has total cover against attacks and other effects outside the charybdis, and it takes 24 (7d6) acid damage at the start of each of the charybdis’s turns. If the charybdis takes 40 damage or more on a single turn from a creature inside it, the charybdis must succeed on a DC 26 Constitution saving throw at the end of that turn or regurgitate all swallowed creatures, which fall prone in a space within 10 feet of the charybdis. If charybdis dies, a swallowed creature is no longer restrained by it and can escape from the corpse by using 10 feet of movement, exiting prone.
  • Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +16 to hit, reach 30 ft., one target. Hit: 19 (2d10 + 8) piercing damage.
  • Vortex (Recharge 4-6). The charybdis draws creatures and ships within 100 feet of it in the water towards it by creating a massive whirlpool. Ships attempting to avoid this require someone at the helm of the ship must make a relevant check (usually a water vehicle proficiency) with a DC of 20, or be drawn 50 feet closer to the charybdis. Creatures in the water must make a similar Strength (Athletics) check to avoid being drawn close 25 feet. Any creature or ship that is drawn to within 10 feet or closer of the charybdis is subject to a claw attack as part of the Vortex action.

Legendary Actions

The charybdis can take 2 legendary actions, choosing from the options below. Only one legendary action option can be used at a time and only at the end of another creature’s turn. The charybdis regains spent legendary actions at the start of its turn.

About

Sailors tell many tales of the creatures of the deep, from the terrible kraken to the beautiful mermaid. Yet few are stranger or more feared than the dread charybdis, for it exists to capture ships, crack them open like nuts, and feast on the doomed sailors within. So legendary are these violent attacks that many sailors have come to view the charybdis not as a species of aberrant life, but as the vengeful personification of an angry sea god. A charybdis is 60 feet long and weighs 26,000 pounds.

Living Maelstrom. In truth, the charybdis is not the sending of an angry deity, but in fact little more than a monstrous predator capable of churning even the calmest of seas into a whirling maelstrom. The charybdis uses this vortex ability not only to capture prey like sharks or small whales, but also to entrap ships on the ocean surface above.

Shipwrecker. A charybdis’ claws are particularly well suited to puncturing the hulls of ships, and most charybdises have learned that a single large merchant vessel contains enough sailors to make a perfectly sized meal. Often, a charybdis settles in along a well-known shipping route near the shoreline or amid an archipelago of islands where ships are forced along relatively narrow lanes between rocky isles-such locations allow the charybdis to lie in wait and increases the chance of its prey being unable to circumvent its vortex.

Section 15: Copyright Notice

Sea Monsters (5E) © 2021, Legendary Games; Authors Michael Ritter, Michael “solomani” Mifsud, Robert J. Grady, Mark Hart, Jeff Ibach, Alex Riggs, Scott D. Young, Jeff Lee, Matt Kimmel, and Jason Nelson.

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