Dodelecker

Medium undead, chaotic evil

Armor Class 12 (bloated flesh)

Hit Points 60 (8d8 + 24)

Speed 20 ft.

STR 15 (+2) · DEX 8 (−1) · CON 16 (+3) · INT 6 (−2) · WIS 12 (+1) · CHA 6 (−2)

Saving Throws Con +5

Skills Perception +3

Damage Resistances necrotic; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks that aren’t silvered

Damage Immunities poison

Condition Immunities exhaustion, poisoned

Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 13

Languages understands the languages it knew in life but can’t speak

Challenge 2 (450 XP)

Traits

Bloated Frame. The dodelecker counts as one size larger when determining its carrying capacity and the weight it can push or drag, and it has advantage on Strength checks made to initiate or contest a grapple.

Undead Fortitude. If damage reduces the dodelecker to 0 hit points, it must make a Constitution saving throw with a DC of 5 + the damage taken, unless the damage is radiant or from a critical hit. On a success, the dodelecker drops to 1 hit point instead.

Actions

Multiattack. The dodelecker makes two Slam attacks.

Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (1d6 + 2 bludgeoning plus 1d4 necrotic) damage.

Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 12 (1d6 + 2 piercing plus 2d4 necrotic) damage, and the target’s hit-point maximum is reduced by an amount equal to the necrotic damage taken. The reduction lasts until the target finishes a long rest. The target dies if this effect reduces its hit-point maximum to 0.

Shroud Chew (Recharge 5–6). The dodelecker rends its own flesh and grave clothes, spraying foul ichor in a 10-foot cone. Each creature in the cone must make a DC 13 Constitution saving throw, taking 10 (3d6) necrotic damage on a failed save, or half as much on a successful one. The dodelecker then regains hit points equal to the damage dealt to one creature.

Reactions

Grave Grasp. When a creature the dodelecker can see leaves its reach, the dodelecker can make one Slam attack against that creature.

Lore

A vampire with a grotesquely swollen body that makes him slow and clumsy, forcing him to feed on carrion—or on his own flesh.

The dialect term Dodelecker is used mainly in Westphalia and Lower Saxony. It derives from the elements dode, “dead man,” and lecker, “licker.” Early-modern chronicles list the same beings under names such as Totenkauer and Dobbelsuger. All of them were interchangeable labels for corpses whose graves showed signs of life and whose bodies had remained unnaturally intact, free of decay.

The German version of vampirism almost never hinged on the idea of a bite that transmits the condition. Instead, it treated the vampire as a glitch in the Christian order of death. Suicide, dying unshriven after a long illness, or botched funeral rites—any of these could let a corpse rise again. Suicides were buried either outside consecrated ground or face-down, yet people still feared their return. At ordinary burials it was considered crucial to “close” the deceased’s mouth with a coin, a stone, or wax to prevent any future chewing.

From Vampire Bestiary 5E, p. 46 · Fern Flower Press