Category: Humanoids

“You hear it don’t you? The sounds of our freedom. Our salvation. Surrender to the chaos of the beyond, let loose your shackles of this realm and embrace what lies beyond.”

– Husk of the End

Humanoids can be a somewhat vague and broad category while at the same time somewhat constricting for creature types in D&D. Typically, if a creature looks like a typical person, its a humanoid. Now if it’s got tentacles for a face, deep purple skin, and psionic powers? Aberration. If it’s missing all of it’s skin and organs? Undead. If it’s the size of a large house? Giant. Mindflayers, Skeletons, and Hill Giants all share the two arms and two legs that a typical person does so why put anything aside from literal human mages and knights in this category? Well for variety. Typically the only thing populating the Humanoid creature type will be humanoid races of varying playstyles, but if that was it then why not just call it the NPC creature type? Sure the Abyss Puppets could fit under the Aberration or even Fiend typing, but all they are is a person with two oversized spectral hands.

Abyss Puppets: The Overview.

Just like our friend from the Abyss Mage in the last Fiend’s entry, Abyss Puppets have ties to the demon-infested realm of The Abyss, forever bound to it through an ill-made pact or corrupted soul. By no means a challenging foe clocking in at CR 4, Abyss Puppets are no means even foot soldiers amongst the Demon hierarchy, more so tools to be used and discarded, sent to spread insanity and spread chaos until they’re end, paving the way for the real muscle to start bulldozing through. Though they’re not the strongest, Abyss Puppets follow in the Abyss Mage’s footsteps by focusing on magical abilities and being able to escape death and reappear unless truly taken care of.

Stats and Abilities:

Epitomizing the squishy backliner, Abyss Puppets offer little in the defensive department, boasting a meager 12 in CON makes them very easy to rush down and pulverize into the ground., so naturally, despite having two gigantic hands that would be great to pulverize someone into the ground, they don’t really want to focus too heavily on that as the second their in melee range then there’s a problem. Instead, Abyss Puppets rely on their good DEX and CHA to evade hits and dish out spells from a distance.

Abyss Puppets rely on their higher INT, WIS, and CHA to ambush and lure adventurers into a trap deep in a shadowy arena. While they resist nonmagical attacks and can’t permanently die easily, it’s not as if they are immune to pain or enjoy being thwarted. Because of their limited physical and melee oriented prowess, it would not be uncommon to use several lower ranking Demons or Aberrations to have aid and serve an Abyss Puppet, or vice versa and have multiple Abyss Puppets aiding a much more physically powerful Aberration/Demon. On top of having a great DEX score, the proficiencies and skills an Abyss Puppet has under their belt allows them to really get the advantage on adventures wandering into a dark area. Paired with an enhanced version of Darkvision, Abyss Puppets should never fight anywhere that’s not at the very least dimly lit if not totally in darkness.

• Stats and Skills: With proficiencies in both Perception and Stealth and with having good DEX and WIS scores to boot, Abyss Mages can both easily sense an ambush or see deceptive tactics while also easily getting the drop on it’s enemies. Being resistant to all nonmagical weapons allows the Abyss Mage to be a tad aggressive in a fight if what is attacking is vastly unprepared for it, thus the Abyss Puppet functions best as a bully: Always trying to fight with other creatures that it knows are weaker than itself.
• Resistances, Immunities, and Senses: being resistant to Necrotic damage makes sense with the fact that while they aren’t full native to The Abyss (and most of which isn’t even immune anyways), they are infected by The Abyss, molded by its influence and corrupted. This also explains the vulnerability to radiant damage as they now again influenced and infected by the literal manifestation of the rabid unholy. Immunities to the Charmed and Frightened conditions allows the Abyss Puppets to stay single-minded in their plans, ignoring those who would try and sway them against The Abyss’ corrupting whims.

Passive Abilities and Actions:

It’s pretty important for an creature that prides itself in ambushes and mastery of the night to actually be able to see in the night, but for some creatures that’s just not enough. This is a one-to-one rip of the Warlock Invocation Devil’s Sight, but the Abyss Puppet isn’t tied to any Devils or the 9 Hells so that’s why the slight name change. Being able to see through magical darkness allows the Abyss Puppet to pull all sorts of nasty tricks against a party, typically by utilizing the Darkness spell in many more ways.

It’s not super common that a creature this low level gets this feature, but to help with its incredibly poor defenses I figured it could use a little bump to help it out.

This is a feature that needs to be slightly reworked for clarity reasons as the term “Heavily Obscured” typically refers to terrain. It would be better to have the Abyss Puppet turn Invisible until the start of its next turn instead as that’s a bit more comprehensive for players to understand. Additionally, since this is a bonus action, making it rechargeable feels needed as there is nothing stopping the Abyss Puppet from attacking and then spending a bonus action and going invisible/heavily obscuring themselves, repeating the process every turn. Making it rechargeable on a 4-6 seems fair, as this isn’t strong enough to completely ruin a combat, but its frequent enough to still give it a noticeable edge over the party. Becoming semi-incorporeal allows the Abyss Puppet to make a quick exit that is near impossible for any other creature of this level as well, adding even very survival useful tool to it’s arsenal.

Initially I had the Abyss Puppet as a full-on spellcaster, but due to the ideas I had in place over what this creature was, there were too few spells that or ones that felt redundant and were just there to fill a quota.
At Will:
– Arms of Hadar – This is a decent enough “get off me” tool as it targets everything within 10ft. of the Abyss Puppet, forcing a STR save and dealing some moderate damage. The only downside is that most creatures that will be within this area are likely to be frontliners who exceed in STR saves. This is still decent as a way to attack multiple close together backliners as part of an ambush.
– Bane – We’ve discussed Bane a little with the Abyss Mage but here’s a review: Targets three creatures forcing each to make a CHA save or be cursed so long as concentration is held (up to one minute). Each cursed creature subtracts 1d4 from any attack roll or save they make while cursed in this way. This is great for a spellcaster to hinder certain party members, typically frontliners as they usually won’t have a high CHA score or be proficient in CHA saving throws.
– Dissonant Whispers – Here’s a real fun one! When you cast this spell, you can target one creature within range and force them to make a WIS save. On a failed save, the target takes a good bit of psychic damage and then immediately uses its reaction to run away from you. So the Abyss Puppet can Bane a creature and then next turn cast Dissonant Whispers, reducing their save by 1d4, and on a failure dealing both moderate damage and forcing the creature to flee for the turn, allowing the Abyss Puppet to flee in return or reposition without fear of taking an attack of opportunity.

3/day each:
– Darkness – So, earlier I mentioned that pairing this spell with Enhanced Darkvision allows the Abyss Puppet to be a bit more creative with its usage right? Well it can use Darkness to drop a 20ft. sphere that hides everything and blinds any creature who can’t see in magical darkness, and it could use this AoE to: Blind backlining spellcasters and force them to reposition while keeping perfect track of them, use Darkness as a smokescreen to hide an escape route and make a quick escape undetected, or place the AoE directly on itself and blind any melee fighters trying to pulverize it. incredible utility only held back by being a concertation spell, but that’s a fair trade off for how potent this spell is.
– Dispel Magic – Another great utility option as this could be great at negating beneficial buffs that the party is using, such as the spell Darkvision which would negate Darkness or simply dispelling a lingering smite from a paladin such as Searing Smite or Blinding Smite, it would just need to pick these uses wisely as it gets 3 charges and it would replace attacking for that turn.
– Misty Step – One of the best 2nd level spells in D&D in my opinion, allowing for a 30ft. movement as a bonus action meaning you could then Dash as an action to really cover ground if you’re trying to escape.

1/day each:
– Hunger of Hadar – This is Darkness’ older more roided up cousin and one of the trump cards for the Abyss Puppet. Just like Darkness, it drops a 20ft. area of magical darkness, but this time it’s different: “No light, magical or otherwise, can illuminate the area, and creatures fully within it have the Blinded condition.” So even creatures that are capable of seeing through magical darkness (Warlocks with Devil’s Sight or the Abyss Puppet for example) can see through it, but if they are in the actual area of the spell, then they are blinded like all the rest. Rules as written, it seems weird to be able to see into/through the area if you’re outside it yet unable to see outside if you’re in the area. Personally, I’d rule it as being unable to see in or out to make it more consistent (which would be an ever so slight nerf for the Abyss Puppet). Aside from that, anything that starts its turn or takes a bit of cold damage (no save) and any creature that ends its turn in the area takes a bit of acid damage (DEX save required). Concentration spell but a beautiful spell to catch a fully party off guard if they are in a tight arena.
– Phantasmal Killer – A single target concentration spell that manifests the target’s nightmares into a fake reality. Requires a WIS save to avoid the good chunk of psychic damage as well as avoiding disadvantage on ability checks and attack rolls for the duration, or if they pass the save on a repeat roll (at the end of each of their turns, taking the psychic damage again on a failed save). A great spell, but because it’s single target, concentration, and has a 1/day use the Abyss Puppet has to be careful and choose carefully when it wants to use it. The best use would be to target a low WIS bruiser that couldn’t reliably pass the save, probably a Fighter and maybe a Barbarian or Rogue.

Very similar to the Abyss Mage’s feature, albeit weaker in the fact the Abyss Puppet has to pass a save to actually benefit from this. Very thematic and it leaves the door open to have a fun story moment where one particular puppet keeps getting thwarted but also keeps harassing the party and never fully dying. Another similarity to the Abyss Mage’s version is the fact that radiant damage and critical hits bypass this feature entirely, forcing the Abyss Puppet to act accordingly when dealing with crit-fishing builds and Paladins/Clerics, as just like the Abyss Mage it is intelligent enough to know when to go on the defensive.

No notes to make.

Minor mistake, the attack should be a +6 to hit and not a +5. Otherwise, this gives the Abyss Puppet both some range to deal with aggressors, having a full 15ft. of range to attack at but also an answer to deal with the pesky frontliners without having to rely on Arms of Hadar. Not the greatest of tools but it serves its purpose enough as a melee option.

Revisions:

All-in-all, I’m quite pleased with this. The change from a typical spellcaster to an innate spellcaster was definitely the right move as there aren’t any I would say are there just to fill up a slot. The only substantial change I would make would be to possibly have the Spectral Grasp attack maybe grapple and deal a slight bit of chip damage (2d4 probably) to whatever is grappled by the hand until it breaks free. This gives the Abyss Puppet a lockdown feature and can then backstep away and reposition. If I were to do this feature, I would probably limit the range of how far the Abyss Puppet can move from a grappled creature to either only being 15ft away or 30ft. away. Any farther and it would be slightly overtuned for a CR 4 creature.

Sorry for the delay on this post! Been busy with other work and projects and needed a bit more breathing room lest I go insane from crunching on deadlines. I will continue posting once every two weeks until I get more time to resume the weekly schedule. Thank you all for understanding! Stick around when we go cover the first of the real monsters in the Monstrosities compendium next week!