Noxious Toad (5e Creature)

Noxious Toad

Large beast, unaligned Armor Class 14 (natural armour) Hit Points 60 (8d10 + 16) Speed 20 ft., swim 40 ft. STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 16 (+3) 13 (+1) 14 (+2) 2 (-4) 10 (+0) 3 (-4) Senses darkvision 30 ft., passive Perception 10 Languages — Challenge 3 (700 XP) Amphibious. The toad can breathe air and water. False Appearance. While the toad remains motionless, it is indistinguishable from a patch of fungi. Poison Spores. When the toad takes damage, it releases a cloud of spores. Creatures within 5 feet of the toad when this happens must succeed on a DC 12 Constitution saving throw or be poisoned 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. Standing Leap. The toad's long jump is up to 20 feet and its high jump is up to 10 feet, with or without a running start. ACTIONS Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 10 (2d6 + 3) piercing damage plus 5 (1d10) poison damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 14). Until this grapple ends, the target is restrained, and the toad can't bite another target. Swallow. The toad makes one bite attack against a Medium or smaller target it is grappling. If the attack hits, the target is swallowed, and the grapple ends. The swallowed target is blinded and restrained, it has total cover against attacks and other effects outside the toad, and it takes 10 (3d6) acid damage at the start of each of the toad's turns. The toad can have only one target swallowed at a time. If the toad dies, a swallowed creature is no longer restrained by it and can escape from the corpse using 5 feet of movement, exiting prone.

Travellers are warned of the dangers of large patches of fungi in swamps, as not all are as they appear. Some of them are massive amphibians called noxious toads, and they form a symbiotic relationship with the fungi, as the toad protects the fungi and hunts for it, while most predators are deterred by the fungi's toxic spores. When the toads lay their eggs, they also deposit a tiny portion of the fungus on their backs onto the egg. However, while the toad protects the fungus and the fungus protects the toad, the fungus influences the toad's mind, causing it to make decisions that best suit the fungus, and occasionally an especially old toad's eyes glaze over as the fungus temporarily fully controls the beast, though it typically returns to its senses within a few seconds. The control of the fungus is made permanent when the beast dies, and these fungus-encrusted carcasses are singularly dedicated to ensuring the survival of other toads, guarding clusters of eggs and young toads unerringly, and other toads instinctively know these deceased toads to be allies because of the influence of the mind-altering fungus. Variant: Undead Noxious Toads When a noxious toad dies, the fungus on its body begins to take control of the dead animal, unless it is restored to life or its body is destroyed. Over a period of weeks, the toad is rendered entirely under the control of the fungus, manipulating the corpse like a grotesque puppet. A toad so controlled has its type changed to plant, its Intelligence and Charisma scores both reduced to 1 (-5), and its Wisdom score reduced to 5 (-3). It loses its darkvision, but gains blindsight out to 30 feet, and is blind beyond this radius. It is also immune to the blinded, charmed, frightened, and paralysed conditions.

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