Pijavica

Medium undead, neutral evil

Armor Class 15 (natural armor)

Hit Points 99 (13d8 + 39)

Speed 40 ft., climb 30 ft.

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

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

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

Damage Resistances necrotic; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks

Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 15

Languages the languages it knew in life

Challenge 5 (1,800 XP)

Traits

Regeneration. The pijavica regains 10 hit points at the start of its turn if it has at least 1 hit point and isn’t in sunlight. If the pijavica takes radiant damage or damage from a silvered weapon, this trait doesn’t function at the start of its next turn. The pijavica is destroyed only if it starts its turn with 0 hit points while sunlight is touching it, it is staked through the heart with a wooden or hawthorn stake, or its body is burned.

Shadow Glide. As a bonus action, the pijavica can become semi-incorporeal until the end of its next turn. While in this state it can move through creatures and objects as if they were difficult terrain and has advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks made in dim light or darkness. It can’t make Bite attacks while in this form.

Kin Sense. The pijavica always knows the distance and direction to the closest blood relative (by birth) within 1 mile.

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

Actions

Multiattack. The pijavica makes two attacks, only one of which can be a Bite.

Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) slashing damage plus 3 (1d6) necrotic damage. The target is grappled (escape DC 15) if it is a Medium or smaller creature and the pijavica isn’t already grappling a creature.

Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature grappled by the pijavica, incapacitated, or restrained. Hit: 7 (1d6 + 4) piercing damage plus 10 (3d6) necrotic damage. The target’s hit point maximum is reduced by an amount equal to the necrotic damage taken, and the pijavica regains hit points equal to that amount. The reduction lasts until the target finishes a long rest, and the target dies if this effect reduces its hit point maximum to 0.

Hypnotic Gaze (Recharge 5–6). The pijavica fixes its stare on one creature it can see within 30 feet. The target must succeed on a DC 14 Wisdom saving throw or be charmed by the pijavica for 1 minute. While charmed in this way, the creature is incapacitated and has a speed of 0. The creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success. A creature that succeeds on the saving throw is immune to this gaze for 24 hours.

Bonus Actions

Surface Thoughts. The pijavica magically reads the surface thoughts of one creature it can see within 30 feet (no save). Until the end of the pijavica’s turn, it has advantage on attack rolls against that creature, and the creature has disadvantage on saving throws against the pijavica’s abilities.

Reactions

Slippery Step. When a creature the pijavica can see misses it with an attack, the pijavica can move up to half its speed without provoking opportunity attacks.

Lore

A red-faced vampire that drinks the blood of its relatives and can sense their location no matter the distance.

In Croatia and the former Yugoslavia, the pijavica, in South-Slavic mythology, is considered one of the most aggressive and dangerous varieties of vampiric revenant. The word pijavica comes from the verb piti—“to drink”—and in folk botany and medicine it also names the blood-sucking medicinal leech, subtly linking the pijavica to all things that feed on blood. People could become pijavice because of extreme cruelty, sadism or greed during life, through the abuse of witchcraft, or by committing especially vile deeds.

After such a person dies, the transformation lasts forty days—the same span the Orthodox faith assigns to a soul’s final departure from the earthly world. At first the creature exists only as a shadow, invisible or barely seen, yet already able to trouble the living. Gradually, by drinking the blood of its own relatives, the shadow thickens into an amorphous, boneless mass. By the end of the forty days this mass turns into a complete body, almost indistinguishable from the person as he looked in life. The vampire then leaves the grave and can even interact with neighbors in everyday ways. Once transformed, the pijavica is extraordinarily fast and strong, can read minds, and wields a powerful hypnotic influence.

From Vampire Bestiary 5E, p. 84 · Fern Flower Press