Kudlac

Medium humanoid (shapechanger), chaotic evil

Armor Class 15 (natural armor)

Hit Points 104 (16d8 + 32)

Speed 30 ft.

STR 14 (+2) · DEX 17 (+3) · CON 14 (+2) · INT 14 (+2) · WIS 15 (+2) · CHA 16 (+3)

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

Skills Arcana +5, Deception +6, Insight +5, Stealth +6

Damage Vulnerabilities radiant (see Consecrated Bane)

Damage Resistances necrotic

Condition Immunities charmed while in spirit form

Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 15

Languages Common, Infernal, one regional tongue (often Slovene or Croatian)

Challenge 5 (1,800 XP)

Traits

Shapechanger. As a bonus action, the kudlac can magically shift between its mortal body and its Spirit Animal Form, which resembles a jet-black beast (bull, boar, cat, or wolf). Its statistics are the same in each form except where noted. Anything it is wearing or carrying doesn’t transform.

Spirit Animal Form. While in this form, the kudlac is incorporeal; it can move through creatures and objects as if they were difficult terrain, taking 5 (1d10) force damage if it ends its turn inside an object. It gains a flying speed of 40 feet (hover) and can’t manipulate objects or cast spells.

Two Worlds at Once. The kudlac’s spirit can roam even while its mortal body sleeps or is incapacitated. If the spirit is reduced to 0 hit points, it vanishes, and the kudlac’s body awakes stunned until the end of its next turn and gains one level of exhaustion.

Consecrated Bane. The kudlac has vulnerability to damage from holy water, silvered weapons, or attacks made by a creature wielding a blessed symbol of faith.

Spellcasting. The kudlac is a 7th-level spellcaster. Its spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 14, +6 to hit with spell attacks). The kudlac requires no material components when it casts its spells.

At will: chill touch (2d8; PHB, p. 221/249)

3/day each: charm person (PHB, p. 221/249), misty step (PHB, p. 260/299), suggestion (PHB, p. 279/321)

1/day each: vampiric touch (PHB, p. 285/337), fear (PHB, p. 239/271)

Actions

Multiattack. The kudlac makes two attacks: one with Shadow Claw and one with Life Drain.

Shadow Claw (Spirit or Mortal Form). Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 12 (2d8 + 3) necrotic damage.

Life Drain. Melee Spell Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 18 (4d6 + 4) necrotic damage, and the kudlac regains hit points equal to the necrotic damage dealt. The target must succeed on a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or its hit-point maximum is reduced by the same amount. The reduction lasts until the target finishes a long rest. The target dies if this effect reduces its hit-point maximum to 0.

Necrotic Pulse (Recharge 5–6). The kudlac releases a wave of withering energy in a 15-foot radius. Each creature of the kudlac’s choice in that area must make a DC 14 Constitution saving throw, taking 27 (6d8) necrotic damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. Creatures that fail are also frightened of the kudlac until the end of its next turn.

Bonus Actions

Shadow Step (Spirit Form Only). The kudlac teleports up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space it can see. It must start and end this movement in dim light or darkness.

Reactions

Slip Between Worlds. When the kudlac in mortal form takes damage, it can immediately shift into Spirit Animal Form and move up to 15 feet. This movement doesn’t provoke opportunity attacks.

Lore

A vampire-sorcerer born in a red “shirt.” At night he slips out of his body in spirit form, hunts for victims, and drains their life-energy.

The kudlac is a figure of Istrian folklore (the stretch of country between Slovenia and Croatia), standing at the crossroads of werewolf, sorcerer, and vampire, and forever paired with his antagonist, the krsnik. The word traces back to the Old Slavic volkolak and still carries in its root the hint of a bestial, wolfish lineage. In legend it came to denote a special kind of living vampire-mage, while the roughly comparable pan-Slavic being upyr’ remained the name for a blood-drinking corpse.

The cult of the kudlac is built around biological signs. A child’s caste is fixed at birth: delivered in a red or dark caul, the baby is fated to become a kudlac; born in a white or transparent membrane, he will be a krsnik. Midwives might try to rewrite fate by misreporting the caul’s color or ritually destroying the placenta, yet such acts were little more than a desperate hope, and no one could guarantee the child would not turn into a kudlac. Thus the Istrians drew a clear line: one child is born to destroy, the other to defend.

From Vampire Bestiary 5E, p. 58 · Fern Flower Press