Chương 41: Bonus Content: Bestiary Entry — Cknoll Chieftain

CKNOLL CHIEFTAIN Large humanoid (cknoll), typically neutral Armor Class 16 (natural armor, camouflage cloak) Hit Points 133 (14d10 + 56) Speed 40 ft., climb 40 ft. STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 19 (+4) 16 (+3) 18 (+4) 11 (+0) 14 (+2) 12 (+1) Saving Throws Str +7, Con +7 Skills Athletics +7, Perception +5, Stealth +6 Senses: darkvision 90 ft., passive Perception 15 Languages Cknoll Challenge 6 (2, 300 XP) · Proficiency Bonus +3 Spider Climb.

The chieftain can climb difficult surfaces, including upside down along ceilings, without needing to make an ability check. Independent Eyes. Its eyes track in two directions at once. It has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight; it can't be surprised while conscious, and attackers gain no benefit from flanking it. Camouflage Cloak.

While it wears its cknoll-made cloak in dim light or darkness, the chieftain has advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks, and creatures relying on sight have disadvantage on Perception checks to locate it beyond 30 feet. Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators! Stench. Any creature other than a cknoll that starts its turn within 10 feet of the chieftain must succeed on a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or be poisoned until the start of its next turn.

On a success, the creature is immune to the Stench of all cknolls for 24 hours. Actions Multiattack. The chieftain makes two attacks: one with its Obsidian Staff and one with its Bite. Obsidian Staff. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 15 (2d10 + 4) slashing damage. Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d8 + 4) piercing damage. If the target is Large or smaller, it is grappled (escape DC 15).

On a critical hit, or against a grappled target, it bites at the start of its turn; the chieftain rips and swallows: the target takes an extra 9 (2d8) piercing damage, and the effect can maim an exposed limb at the DM's discretion. Blurring Charge (Recharge 5–6). The chieftain surges forward in a blur, moving up to 40 feet in a straight line, and slams into the first creature in its path.

That creature makes a DC 15 Strength saving throw, taking 18 (4d8) bludgeoning damage and being knocked prone and pushed 10 feet on a failure, or half damage and no movement on a success. The chieftain commits fully to the charge; it moves the entire distance in a straight line and cannot stop short or change direction. Bonus Actions Blur Step. The chieftain moves up to half its speed without provoking opportunity attacks, appearing to flicker from one spot to another. Ecology & Behavior What it is.

The chieftain is the apex of a cknoll warren — the same gecko-kin heritage as the guards and the common rank-and-file, carrying the same independent eyes, grey-green scales, and broad flat head, but built on an altogether different scale. A cknoll reaches this size only through a very different, richer diet and a very long time to grow, which makes a chieftain both rare and old: at most one to a warren, and the individual every other cknoll in the system ranks around and defends. Bearing and kit.

It carries itself with unhurried, patient stillness, content to sit, watch, and let others test an intruder while it takes the measure of the room. Across its shoulders hangs a dark, mottled cknoll-made cloak that blurs its outline into the background. In one hand it holds a long staff tipped with a blade of chipped obsidian. Intelligence. A chieftain is markedly smarter than its subjects — a deliberate, assessing intelligence rather than the instinct-and-swarm of lesser cknolls.

It reassesses mid-fight, adjusts, and picks its moments. It does not waste itself on the opening exchange; it lets its guards absorb the first shock and watches for what the intruder is actually capable of. The blur. Its signature is speed that reads as impossible. It steps, and for a moment it simply isn't where it was — flickering across a chamber to turn up in the spot its target least wants it.

In a fight, this makes it maddening to keep in front of you; it repositions constantly and strikes from angles that shouldn't have been available. Fighting a chieftain. It is the largest and hungriest predator in a warren for a reason. It attacks only after the target is weakened and vulnerable.

It uses its size without mercy, including shoulder-checks that put a target flat, grapples that drive them into stone hard enough to crack it — and its bite is genuinely dangerous, powerful enough to take a hand or worse in a single snap. Role in the warren. A chieftain's presence is what turns a scatter of cave vermin into something with a head.

Where there is a chieftain, there is organization, a guard caste, and a warren that has grown past nuisance into a defended holdfast — and clearing it means getting through everything that stands between an intruder and the thing all of it is protecting.