Chimi 魑

Medium aberration (elemental spirit), neutral evil

Armor Class 15

Hit Points 52 (8d8 + 16)

Speed 0 ft., fly 40 ft. (hover)

STR 6 (−2) · DEX 16 (+3) · CON 14 (+2) · INT 12 (+1) · WIS 14 (+2) · CHA 16 (+3)

Saving Throws Wis +4, Cha +5

Skills Deception +5, Insight +4, Perception +4, Stealth +5

Damage Resistances acid, cold, lightning; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks

Condition Immunities charmed, grappled, paralyzed, petrified, prone, restrained

Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 14

Languages understands Common and Sylvan but speaks only telepathically (120 ft.)

Challenge 4 (1,100 XP)

Traits

Incorporeal Movement. Chimi can move through other creatures and objects as if they were difficult terrain. It takes 5 (1d10) force damage if it ends its turn inside an object.

Shroud of Dusk. While Chimi is in dim light or darkness, it is invisible.

Predator of Fear. Whenever a creature within 30 feet that is frightened of Chimi takes damage, Chimi regains 5 hit points.

Sense Anxiety. Chimi automatically knows the location of any creature within 120 feet that is frightened or suffering a level of exhaustion.

Actions

Multiattack. Chimi makes two Psychic Talon attacks.

Psychic Talon. Melee Spell Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 10 (2d6 + 3) psychic damage.

Hallucination Burst (Recharge 5–6). Chimi releases a wave of terror in a 15-foot cone. Each creature in the area must make a DC 13 Wisdom saving throw, taking 18 (4d8) psychic damage on a failed save, or half as much on a successful one. A creature that fails is also frightened of Chimi until the end of its next turn.

Reactions

Feed on Terror. When a creature Chimi can see within 30 feet fails a saving throw against being frightened, Chimi can immediately move up to 20 feet without provoking opportunity attacks.

Lore

Malicious spirits of hills and forests that plague hikers with hallucinations and dread.

Chimi is a malevolent mountain- and forest-dwelling spirit. It belongs to the class of kesin—elemental spirits—and within that class is treated as a type of akki, an evil force that contaminates the very air. Unlike most yokai, which possess a stable physical form, Chimi is a knot of hostile, immaterial energy that can stay completely invisible and intangible until it decides to act on a human. Whenever the spirit chooses to create a visible sign of itself, the image is purely illusory: a traveler may glimpse a shadowy predator shaped like a tiger, a towering oni, or even a familiar figure such as a mountain crone, yet every outline is a projection individually tailored to the victim’s fears so it can frighten them as much as possible.

Chimi’s habitat is Japan’s sparsely explored mountains—the so-called okuyama—remote passes and gorges where human presence is minimal and the land’s raw energy remains unchecked. In such places the spirit feeds on the emotional and physical depletion of people. Its primary tactic is to snarl trails and roads, making a hiker lose his sense of direction, circle back to the same spot repeatedly, or follow false landmarks. At the same time Chimi generates hallucinations that can reshape the terrain, the weather, the sounds, even the smells, leading to panic and insomnia and, ultimately, the collapse of the victim’s will. Fear is its true sustenance: when a desperate person makes a fatal mistake—slipping into a ravine or freezing to death—the spirit consumes the life-force released in that moment.

From Yokai Bestiary 5E, Book Two, p. 18 · Fern Flower Press