Ti-khana Pterosaur, War
Huge monstrosity (shapechanger), neutral evil
Armor Class 16 (natural armor)
Hit Points 133 (14d12 + 42)
Speed 30 ft., fly 80 ft.
STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
|---|
20 (+5) | 17 (+3) | 16 (+3) | 5 (–3) | 12 (+1) | 13 (+1) |
Saving Throws DEX +6, WIS +4
Skills Acrobatics +6, Perception +4
Senses passive Perception 14
Languages —
Challenge 7 (2,900 XP)
Proficiency Bonus +3
Shapechanger. The ti-khana war pterosaur can use its action to polymorph into a Huge snake (which cannot fly), or back into its true form. Its statistics are the same in each form, except for the speed changes noted. Any equipment it is wearing or carrying isn't transformed. It reverts to its true form if it dies.
Dive. If the ti-khana war pterosaur dives at least 30 feet straight toward a target and then hits it with a Bite attack on the same turn, the target takes an additional 13 (3d8) piercing damage.
If a creature is riding the war pterosaur when it dives, the rider must succeed at a DC 15 Dexterity (Athletics) check or a DC 15 Wisdom (Animal Handling) check or fall prone while remaining in their saddle. If the rider fails the check by 5 or more, the impact knocks them off the pterosaur: the rider takes 10 (3d6) bludgeoning damage and falls to the ground, landing prone in an unoccupied space adjacent to the target of the dive attack. If hitting the ground would do more than 3d6 falling damage, the rider takes that amount of damage instead.
Flyby. The ti-khana war pterosaur doesn't provoke an opportunity attack when it flies out of an enemy’s reach.
Keen Sight. The ti-khana war pterosaur has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight.
Innate Spellcasting (Pterosaur Form Only). The ti-khana war pterosaur's innate spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 12). The ti-khana can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components:
Magic Resistance. The ti-khana has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
Actions
Multiattack. The war pterosaur makes two attacks: one with its bite and one with its claws. It can use
Venomflame once in place of its bite attack or twice in place of both its bite and claws attacks.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target.
Hit: 15 (3d6 + 5) piercing damage plus 9 (2d8) poison damage.
Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target.
Hit: 14 (2d8 + 5) slashing damage. If the target is a creature that is Large size or smaller, it is grappled (escape DC 16). Until this grapple end, the target is restrained, and the pterosaur can't use its claws on another target. The war pterosaur can then take to the air and carry off its victim, using
Plummeting Doom on its next turn.
Plummeting Doom. If the ti-khana war pterosaur has a creature of Large size or smaller restrained in its claws, it can use its action to fly up into the sky and then dives while releasing its grip, smashing the grappled victim into the ground. This does 15 (3d6 + 5) bludgeoning damage plus an additional 21 (6d6) bludgeoning damage for every
Plummeting Doom action the pterosaur took while it had its victim restrained, up to a maximum of 78 (21d6 + 5) bludgeoning damage for three rounds spent preparing the plummet. For example, if the pterosaur takes two rounds to build up height and speed, the victim takes 57 (15d6 + 5) bludgeoning damage. The victim can make a DC 15 Athletics (Dexterity) check to roll with the impact, which reduces the damage by 10 (3d6) bludgeoning damage.
If a victim escapes the pterosaur's claws and falls, they normally drop from a height of 40 feet for every
Plummeting Doom action the war pterosaur took. (At the end of a fall, a creature takes 1d6 bludgeoning damage for every 10 feet it fell, to a maximum of 20d6. The creature lands prone, unless it avoids taking damage from the fall.)
Venomflame. Ranged Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, range 60/240 ft., one target.
Hit 9 (2d8) fire damage plus 9 (2d8) poison damage.
Ruinous Shriek (Recharge 5-6). The ti-khana war pterosaur screams an appallingly discordant cry. Every creature within 150 feet of the pterosaur that can hear the song and is not a yuan-ti or ti-khana must succeed on a DC 12 Wisdom saving throw or take 13 {2d12) psychic damage and become frightened for 1 minute. A creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success. A target that successfully saves is resistant to this war pterosaur's
Ruinous Shriek for the next 24 hours; they cannot become frightened by the shriek and take half as much damage from it.
Description
A ti-khana war pterosaur is a titanic reptile taller than a giraffe with vast membranous wings that could cover a house. Its dagger-beaked head is longer than a human's height, in some cases twice as long if the pterosaur has a long head crest, and ornamented with colorful scales and plates of horn. The rest of its body may be a dull grey, brown or green in color or as gloriously hued as a tropical bird, depending on the tastes and skill of the yuan-ti who bred the beast. A war pterosaur is frighteningly fast and agile for a creature its size, both on the ground and in the air. It walks and runs on all fours, using the "hands" where its wings fold back as its forefeet.
Death From Above. War pterosaurs were originally intended to serve as aerial cavalry mounts for elite yuan-ti forces, although they are intelligent enough to fight effectively by themselves or alongside allied monsters. A ti-khana war pterosaur can carry a single Large rider, such as a Yuan-ti abomination, or three or four Medium riders in a lightweight howdah, typically a group of yuan-ti malison archers.
Flying Spitfires. All ti-khana are venomous, but a war pterosaur is unusual in having two sets of venom glands. One set produces a relatively normal deadly venom it delivers with its bite, the other set produces a strange glutinous liquid that spontaneously explodes when mixed with its venom and exposed to air. Called
Venomflame, a war pterosaur can use special ducts and grooves in its fangs and palate to spit this mixture with impressive range and accuracy. War pterosaur handlers routinely "milk" their charges of
Venomflame, which the yuan-ti use in traps, incendiary weapons and works of alchemy.
Creatures of the Yuan-ti. Over millennia of experimentation, the yuan-ti have transformed various scaly reptilian animals into monstrosities that share some of their traits. Called ti-khana, these prized pets are carefully trained to serve their ophidian masters. All ti-khana are resistant to magic like yuan-ti and possess the innate ability to detect magic. The majority of ti-khana also have venomous fangs, the ability to transform into a poisonous snake, and some kind of supernatural or magical attack.
Ti-khana require the dark magic and alchemy of the yuan-ti to breed and develop their powers. Ti-khana can survive in the wild, but it is unlikely they can reproduce properly without the yuan-ti's arcane treatments. It is possible some types of ti-khana can mate with their unaltered relatives or lay viable eggs with their own kind. However, feral offspring can not develop ti-khana abilities without yuan-ti intervention so, at best, would grow into beasts resembling the ti-khana's mundane ancestors.
Breeding and training ti-khana is usually performed by specialist yuan-ti spellcasters, but an edifice can be enchanted to perform this task for one or more strains of ti-khana. This allows ancient yuan-ti sites to have a population of ti-khana "guarddogs" even if no yuan-ti has visited them for millennia.
(Based on a monster from the
Fiend Folio (2003).)
