Moonbeast

The moonbeast is a ferocious, tenacious, and thoroughly horrifying adversary. Simply seeing one can send strong adventurers fleeing for their lives, and actually fighting one is a challenge beyond the capabilities of all but the most powerful heroes. Unfortunately, because of the monster’s ties to certain magic devices, some adventurers find themselves inadvertently (and often fatally) entangled with a moonbeast.

Since moonbeasts are active only at night and are usually invisible, eyewitness descriptions of them tend to be hazy. In reality, a moonbeast’s body is a roughly cylindrical mass of squishy flesh, usually between 20 and 30 feet tall. Its height is variable; even a single beast sometimes changes in size from one appearance to the next. A moonbeast has no discernible head, no front or back, and no top or bottom—it is equally comfortable in any orientation. Its trunk is encircled at each end by a ring of tentacles. Each ring has a number of tentacles equal to 1 + ½ the moonbeast’s Hit Dice, rounded down. (Advanced moonbeasts may have more tentacles, and thus more tentacle rake attacks, than the standard 18-HD variety.) These tentacles are lined with barbs and hooks to catch objects or prey, and they also serve as the moonbeast’s means of locomotion. To move, the creature grabs fixed objects with its tentacles and drags itself forward. Its body is covered with a slick, oily substance. Four rings, each consisting of eight flexible, retractable, 1-foot-long eyestalks are placed above and below each ring of tentacles.

In spite of its immense size, a moonbeast can squeeze its soft body through an opening as small as a 5-by-5-foot square. Wherever it passes, it leaves a telltale trail of glistening slime. Moonbeasts are invisible most of the time, but their horrid smell and the noises they make almost constantly give away their presence to observant creatures.

Combat

A moonbeast uses its greater invisibility ability to remain invisible even in combat. In battle, a moonbeast prefers to strike, grab, and constrict. It can use as many as seven of its tentacles against a single target.

Bite (Ex): With a successful grapple check, a moonbeast can attempt to bite a grabbed opponent (+21 melee), dealing 4d8+5 points of slashing damage on a successful hit. A moonbeast cannot use its bite attack against a creature it has not already grabbed.

Constrict (Ex): With a successful grapple check, a moonbeast can crush a grabbed opponent, dealing 3d10+15 points of bludgeoning damage.

Fear Aura (Su): A moonbeast continually emanates a fear effect in a 60-foot-radius, centered on itself. Any creature within the area that fails a Will save (DC 23) is paralyzed with fear for 2d6 rounds. A new saving throw is required each time a potentially affected creature comes within range of the moonbeast.

Improved Grab (Ex): If a moonbeast hits an opponent that is at least one size category smaller than itself with a tentacle rake attack, it deals normal damage and attempts to start a grapple as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity (grapple bonus +31). If it gets a hold, it automatically constricts and can attempt to bite the grabbed opponent in the same round. Thereafter, the moonbeast has the option to conduct the grapple normally, or simply use a single tentacle to hold the opponent (–⁠20 penalty on grapple check, but the moonbeast is not considered grappled). In either case, each successful grapple check it makes during successive rounds automatically deals tentacle rake and constrict damage and allows another bite attempt.

Spell-Like Abilities: At will⁠—​dispel magic, fog cloud, greater invisibility, lightning bolt; 1/day⁠—​black tentacles, chain lightning, cloudkill, disintegrate, fireball, ice storm, mirror image, summon monster VI. Caster level 18th; save DC 14 + spell level.

All-Around Vision (Ex): A moonbeast can see in all directions at once. Because of this ability, it gains a +4 racial bonus on Search and Spot checks, and it cannot be flanked.

Moonstones

In general, moonbeasts want nothing to do with the world. They are content to hide in their remote lairs, dreaming of their native homes (wherever those may be) and venturing out only occasionally to catch a meal. But each of these creatures is inseparably linked to a item called a moonstone⁠—​a rare and unusual gem that resembles a pearl. Magic items and very expensive pieces of jewelry occasionally contain moonstones.

Once in a creature’s possession, a moonstone slowly and insidiously works its way into its owner’s psyche. After 1d6+3 weeks, the owner must succeed at a Will save (DC 30) or become so attached to the item containing the moonstone that he or she would refuse to relinquish it under any circumstances. In the course of a campaign, this obsession can go unrecognized for quite a long time, and the owner may not be consciously aware of it until a situation arises that would require separation from the item.

At some point, however, the moonbeast that is linked to that moonstone awakens, leaves its lair, and begins tracking down the gem. Its ultimate goal is to recover the moonstone, slay the owner, and then return to its lair. Oddly, the monster seems to care nothing for the moonstone itself; it desires only that absolutely no one else possess it. In fact, the moonbeast is quite likely to abandon the recovered moonstone item somewhere during its return trip. The object may then lie forgotten for years before another unlucky adventurer discovers it anew and begins the horrid cycle all over again.

Source: Monster Manual II, page 149. This creature’s statistics block has been updated to version 3.5 as given in the D&D® V.3.5 Accessory Update for Monster Manual II. Changed all references to improved invisibility to greater invisibility.