Pelesit

Tiny fiend (shapechanger), neutral evil

Armor Class 14 (natural armor)

Hit Points 13 (3d4 + 6)

Speed 20 ft., fly 30 ft. (hover)

STR 3 (−4) · DEX 16 (+3) · CON 14 (+2) · INT 10 (+0) · WIS 12 (+1) · CHA 13 (+1)

Saving Throws Dex +5

Skills Deception +3, Insight +3, Stealth +5

Damage Resistances necrotic, poison

Condition Immunities frightened

Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 11

Languages understands the languages of its creator and can communicate telepathically with its creator to a range of 120 ft.

Challenge 1/2 (100 XP)

Traits

Shapechanger. The pelesit can use its action to polymorph into a Tiny green grasshopper or cricket, a dancing spark of light, or a doll-sized humanoid, or back into its true form (a spear-headed insect). Its statistics are the same in each form.

Slip Through Cracks. The pelesit can move through an opening as narrow as 1 inch wide without squeezing.

Keen Hearing. The pelesit has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on hearing.

Fear of Cats. While a cat, panther, or other feline is within 30 feet of it, the pelesit has disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks.

Nimble Escape. The pelesit can take the Disengage or Hide action as a bonus action on each of its turns.

Actions

Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 5 (1d4 + 3) piercing damage plus 3 (1d6) psychic damage.

Infest (Recharge 5–6). The pelesit attempts to skitter tail-first into the ear, nose, or mouth of one creature it can see within 5 feet. The target must succeed on a DC 11 Constitution saving throw or become infested. While infested, the target is poisoned and takes 3 (1d6) psychic damage at the start of each of its turns as the pelesit’s buzzing echoes inside its skull.

The target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on a success. The infestation also ends early if the target takes fire damage, inhales heavy spice smoke (such as chili or pepper), or if a cat comes within 5 feet of it. When the effect ends, the pelesit is expelled into an unoccupied space within 5 feet of the target.

Reactions

Skitter Dodge. When a creature the pelesit can see targets it with an attack, the pelesit adds +2 to its AC against that attack.

Lore

A vampire familiar shaped like a cricket. Witches feed it their own blood; on command it crawls into a victim’s ear and drives the person mad.

In the Malay supernatural worldview, the Pelesit occupies a special niche: it is neither a wandering ghost nor a wild demon, but a familiar spirit deliberately fashioned by a witch. The very word “pelesit” is tied to the root lesit, meaning a sharp sound—a whistle or an insect’s buzz. The etymology points straight to the spirit’s most common guise: a green grasshopper or a large cricket with an elongated, “spear-headed” face. For Malays this chirping is not mere background noise; it is a warning of oncoming illness, a curse, or psychological turmoil brought on by black magic. Visually, the Pelesit differs from an ordinary insect: its eyes glow with a dull, inorganic light, its movements are jerky and punctuated by sudden vanishings, and it can slip into rooms that are sealed tight. Besides the insect form, witnesses speak of other shapes—a flickering spark, a shadow, or a tiny humanoid figure.

The birth of a Pelesit is considered the darkest chapter in Malay necromancy. A witch who wants such a helper must locate a fresh grave of a firstborn infant whose mother was also a firstborn. On the night of the full moon the child’s body is exhumed, temporarily reanimated with spells, and at the very moment the corpse sticks out its tongue and cries, the witch bites the tongue off with her own teeth. The severed tongue becomes bait for the nascent spirit: it is buried at a crossroads where three roads meet, and after the appointed interval and another cycle of incantations, the Pelesit takes shape from it. Such an origin is said to trap the spirit forever between the worlds of the living and the dead and to bind it eternally to its creator; the Pelesit becomes both her instrument and her dependent.

From Vampire Bestiary 5E, p. 82 · Fern Flower Press