Tsuchinoko ツチノコ

Small monstrosity, unaligned

Armor Class 14 (mottled scales)

Hit Points 32 (5d8 + 10)

Speed 30 ft., climb 10 ft.; Coil-Roll 40 ft. (see trait)

STR 12 (+1) · DEX 16 (+3) · CON 14 (+2) · INT 7 (−2) · WIS 12 (+1) · CHA 11 (+0)

Saving Throws Dex +5, Con +4

Skills Deception +2, Stealth +5

Damage Vulnerabilities thunder (loud noise ruptures its air bladder)

Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 11

Languages understands Common and Sylvan; can utter a few words (“dee!”)

Challenge 1 (200 XP)

Traits

Explosive Jump. The tsuchinoko can long or high jump up to 15 feet without a running start. Jumping doesn’t provoke opportunity attacks.

Coil-Roll. As a bonus action while on a downward slope, the tsuchinoko can swallow its tail and roll up to 40 feet in a straight line. The movement doesn’t provoke opportunity attacks. If it ends the movement in an occupied space, it can immediately make one Bite attack against that creature.

Sake Addiction. If the tsuchinoko starts its turn within 5 feet of an open container holding at least 1 pint of alcohol, it must succeed on a DC 13 Wisdom saving throw or be intoxicated until the end of its turn, granting advantage on attack rolls against it and halving its speed.

Actions

Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 6 (1d6 + 3) piercing damage plus 7 (2d6) poison damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 13 Constitution saving throw or be poisoned for 1 minute. While poisoned in this way, the target takes 3 (1d6) poison damage at the start of each of its turns and can repeat the save at the end of each turn, ending the effect on itself on a success.

Leaping Strike (Recharge 4–6). The tsuchinoko jumps up to 15 feet to an unoccupied space adjacent to a creature it can see and makes one Bite attack with advantage. On a hit, the target must also succeed on a DC 13 Dexterity saving throw or be knocked prone.

Reactions

Tail Whip. When a creature the tsuchinoko can see misses it with a melee attack, the tsuchinoko makes a Bite attack against that creature.

Lore

A short, chubby snake that can leap and mimic human speech.

Tsuchinoko (槌の子) literally means “hammer child,” a reference to the snake’s distinctive outline: the body swells abruptly in the middle like a sledgehammer or bottle, while the head and tail stay relatively thin.

Appearance is described as follows: a snake 1–3 feet (30–80 cm) long, with an unusually thick mid-section. Its scales are a brown-gray mottled pattern, the belly a shade lighter. The head is triangular, very much like a viper’s. Legends credit the creature with traits no normal snake has: it can pronounce a few human words and emit a piercing cry—“dee!”—and is said to carry venomous fangs whose toxin rivals that of the Japanese mamushi, a small yet highly poisonous pit viper.

From Yokai Bestiary 5E, Book Two, p. 100 · Fern Flower Press