Night-Touched Controller

Medium fiend (titanspawn), chaotic evil

STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
15 (+2) 18 (+4) 17 (+3) 16 (+3) 15 (+2) 18 (+4)

Armor Class 18 (natural armor)
Hit Points 120 (16d8 + 48)
Speed 30 ft.
Saving Throws Dexterity +8, Constitution +7, Wisdom +6
Skills Perception +6, Stealth +8
Damage Resistances lightning, necrotic; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks that aren’t silvered
Damage Immunities cold, poison
Condition Immunities exhaustion, poisoned
Senses darkvision 120 ft., passive Perception 16
Languages Infernal, Titan Speech (can’t speak); telepathy 120 ft.
Challenge 9 (5,000 XP)

Special Traits

    • Innate Spellcasting. The night-touched controller’s spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 16). It can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components.
      • At will: animate dead, darkness
      • 1/day: create undead
        • Magic Weapons. The night-touched’s weapon attacks are magical.
        • Night-Touched. Magical darkness doesn’t impede the night-touched’s darkvision. In areas of dim light or darkness, the night-touched has advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks to hide.
        • Sunlight Sensitivity. While in sunlight, the night-touched has disadvantage on attack rolls, as well as on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight.
        • Sense Undead. The night-touched controller can automatically sense and discern the location of any undead within 120 feet.

Actions

        • Life Drain. Melee or Ranged Spell Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft. or range 60 ft., one target. Hit: 26 (5d8 + 4) necrotic damage plus 22 (5d8) cold damage. The target must succeed on a DC 16 Constitution saving throw or its hit point maximum is reduced by an amount equal to the necrotic damage taken. This reduction lasts until the target finishes a long rest. The target dies if this effect reduces its hit point maximum to 0. A humanoid slain by this attack rises 24 hours later as a zombie under the night-touched controller’s control, unless the humanoid is restored to life or its body is destroyed.
        • Charm Undead. The night-touched controller targets one undead it can see within 60 feet of it. The target must succeed on a DC 14 Wisdom saving throw against this magic or be charmed by the controller. The charmed target regards the controller as a trusted friend to be heeded and protected. The effect lasts 24 hours or until the night-touched is destroyed, is on a different plane of existence.

Tactics

Night-touched controllers generally do not engage in direct combat. They prefer to summon or create the appropriate creatures to defeat whatever obstacles are present. When forced into combat, they attack with their club-like hands once their useful spells are exhausted.

The night-touched are one of the many varieties of creatures created, it is said, as an experiment that combined the essence of demonic fiends with the negative energies of the shadow realms. The results were monstrous beings that are almost alive, part fiend and part undead. Physically, night-touched are very strange. In its natural state, their “skin” is extremely smooth, with an almost rubbery feel to it. It is always a deep midnight blue, aubergine, or obsidian color that seems to absorb any light that touches it. The night-touched have internal organs, but like those of undead creatures, they do not really function. They have thick, dark green blood that oozes slowly out of wounds, rather than spurting or pulsing like that of a living creature.

Creatures of Darkness. Although night-touched are intelligent, their minds are incomprehensible to most mortals. They are generally solitary, paranoid creatures who believe that anything they cannot control must be destroyed. They have been known to join forces on occasion, or even to form extremely powerful bands with other types of creatures, ravaging nearby regions. Night-touched can be found anywhere, but they prefer to remain in darkness at all times. There are several breeds of night-touched, each of which was granted different powers to make the chase more interesting. Only two types are shown here, but numerous others exist.

Night-touched controllers are able to manipulate undead. Their mastery is so great that they can force spirits back into the material realm, animating simple undead seemingly at will. They are often found in the company of undead creatures, and they shun contact with other night-touched.

A night-touched controller is a strange being with a vaguely humanoid shape, roughly the size of a human male. Its skin is a rubbery deep purplish-black, and it has a severely hunched back. Its abnormally large, thick hands have just three fingers and a thumb.

Section 15: Copyright Notice

Creature Collection 5e Copyright 2020 Onyx Path Publishing, Inc.