Dybbuk

Medium fiend, chaotic evil

Armor Class 15 (natural armor)

Hit Points 71 (11d8 + 22)

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

STR 6 (−2) · DEX 16 (+3) · CON 14 (+2) · INT 15 (+2) · WIS 14 (+2) · CHA 18 (+4)

Saving Throws Dex +6, Wis +5, Cha +7

Skills Deception +7, Insight +5, Perception +5, Stealth +6

Damage Resistances acid; fire; lightning; thunder; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from non-magical attacks

Damage Immunities necrotic, poison

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

Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 15

Languages Abyssal, Common, telepathy 60 ft.

Challenge 6 (2,300 XP)

Traits

Incorporeal Movement. The dybbuk 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.

Aura Sight. The dybbuk magically perceives the deepest guilt and hidden sins of creatures within 30 feet. It has advantage on Wisdom (Insight) checks and on attack rolls against creatures it has sensed in this way during the current turn.

Magic Resistance. The dybbuk has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.

Sunlight Sensitivity. While in bright sunlight, the dybbuk has disadvantage on attack rolls and on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight.

A Sweet Distraction. If a pound or more of concentrated sugar (such as candy, honey, or dried fruit) is presented within 10 feet of the dybbuk, the fiend must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or be distracted until the end of its next turn. While distracted, the dybbuk has disadvantage on attack rolls and can’t take reactions.

Actions

Multiattack. The dybbuk makes two Life-Drain attacks.

Life-Drain. Melee Spell Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 18 (4d8) necrotic damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or be frightened of the dybbuk until the end of the dybbuk’s next turn. A humanoid killed by this attack rises as a corpse under the dybbuk’s control at the start of the dybbuk’s next turn (use zombie statistics) and remains animated for 1 hour, after which it collapses.

Possession (Recharge 6). One humanoid the dybbuk can see within 5 feet must succeed on a DC 15 Charisma saving throw or be possessed by the dybbuk; the dybbuk then disappears, and the target is incapacitated and loses control of its body. The dybbuk now controls the body but doesn’t deprive the target of awareness.

While possessing a creature, the dybbuk keeps its Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma, and saving throw bonuses, is immune to being charmed, and gains the host’s AC, speed, and any resistances or immunities. The possession lasts until the body drops to 0 hit points, the dybbuk ends it as a bonus action, the dybbuk is turned or forced out by an effect such as dispel evil and good, or sugar is forced into the host’s mouth (an action for an adjacent creature, requiring a successful DC 15 Dexterity check). When the possession ends, the dybbuk reappears in an unoccupied space within 5 feet of the body.

Bonus Actions

Expose Secret (1/Turn). The dybbuk telepathically reveals a dark secret of one creature it can see within 30 feet. The target must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or be rattled by guilt and shame, granting advantage to the next attack roll made against it before the end of the dybbuk’s next turn.

Reactions

Flickering Form. When a creature the dybbuk can see misses it with an attack, the dybbuk can move up to 10 feet without provoking opportunity attacks.

Lore

A formless goatlike spirit that possesses bodies through nostrils or food, feeds on life, and is expelled only by trained rabbis.

The word “dibbuq” goes back to the Hebrew root ד-ב-ק and the verb דָּבַק, meaning “to cling,” “to stick to,” “to attach.” As a noun it entered widespread use only in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries among German and Polish Jews, functioning as a shortened form of dibbuk me-ru’aḥ ra’ah or dibbuk min ha-ḥiẓonim. The term refers not to a creature’s shape but to its action: a dibbuq is an act of violent intrusion rather than an independent entity; without a host it loses its anchor in the material world and becomes an ephemeral anomaly. Some old sources describe a dibbuq as a dead soul that forcibly merges with a living person’s flesh—often the soul of someone wicked in life, a murderer or grievous sinner. In the twentieth century and after, the phrase “dibbuq syndrome” appeared in psychiatry to label certain hysterical states, dissociative identity disorder, and severe psychoses.

In its true bodiless form a dibbuq shows itself as an anthropomorphic, goat-like silhouette with coarse, filthy fur, vestigial horns, a warping of the space around it, and the stench of decay and sulfur. Its eyes look like light-swallowing pits that signal absolute emptiness.

From Demonic Bestiary 5E, p. 50 · Fern Flower Press