Buy me a coffeePoludnica “Lady Midday”
A tall, beautiful woman with pale flesh and long, silvery hair, advances with a graceful stride. She is dressed in simple but elegant garb and is both clean and well groomed.
Poludnica is usually pictured as a young woman dressed in white that roams field bounds. She assails folk working at noon causing heatstroke and aches in the neck. Sometimes she even caused madness.
She makes herself more evident in the middle of hot summer days, takes the form of whirling dust clouds and carries a Scythe or shears. She will stop people in the field to ask them difficult questions or engage them in conversation. If anyone fails to answer a question or tries to change the subject, she will cut off their head or strike them with illness. She may appear as an old hag or beautiful woman, and she is useful in scaring children away from valuable crops. She is only seen on the hottest part of the day and is a personification of a sunstroke.
Liber Mysterium
The Netbook of Witches and Warlocks
By Timothy S. Brannan and The Netbook of Witches and Warlocks Team
A distant cousin to the more common hags, she appears as a very tale, beautiful pale woman with long white hair, but she is in fact anything but. Her skin is warty and leathery; she resembles an ancient, wrinkled woman. Her nose is long and bent downward, and her chin bends upward, so that they almost meet when she grins.
She lives in vast underground complexes, filled with ovens and roaring fires. Her dominated slaves fulfil her wishes, roasting sheep and baking bread for her, all day long. poludnica exits her underground lair only during sunlight hours. She usually perches in the immediate vicinity ofher lair, waiting for unwary travellers to pass.
Poludnica is always hungry, and always looking for her next meal. She is not commonly encountered, but parents of children commonly warn about her. Any child that wanders off, especially into fields of rye, run the risk of being captured. Parents will often warn “Don’t go to the rye, poludnica will eat you!” or “Poludnica will burn you up!”
A poludnica stands some 6 feet tall and weighs about 150 pounds. Their favored class is a Witch.
Poludnica
Kain’s 5e Monstrous Manual – Page 52 – Dicefreaks (tapatalk.com)
Medium fey, chaotic neutral
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Armor Class 17 (unarmored defense)
Hit Points 161 (17d8 + 85)
Speed 30 ft.
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STR 19 (+4) DEX 17 (+3) CON 20 (+5) INT 10 (+0) WIS 15 (+2) CHA 19 (+4)
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Saves Con +9, Wis +6, Cha +8
Skills Insight +10, Nature +8, Stealth +11
Tools Farmer’s tools +8
Damage Resistances bludgeoning, piercing and slashing from non-cold iron weapons
Damage Immunities fire, radiant
Condition Immunities blinded, exhaustion
Senses passive Perception 12
Languages Common, Sylvan
Challenge 10 (5,900 XP)
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Heatstroke A creature that begins its turn within 10 feet of a poludnica takes 7 (2d6) fire damage and gains 1 level of exhaustion. A successful DC 16 Constitution save reduces the damage to half and negates the exhaustion.
Magic Weapons. The poludnica’s weapon attacks are magical.
Nighttime Curse During the night, a poludnica vanishes into the Ethereal plane, unable to affect the world around her, but able to observe.
ACTIONS
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Scythe. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 12 (2d6 + 5) slashing damage plus 7 (2d6) fire damage. On a critical hit, the target gains one level of exhaustion.
Sunbeam. Ranged Spell Attack: +8 to hit, range 100 ft., one target. Hit: 17 (5d6) radiant damage. The target must make a DC 16 Constitution save or be blinded for 1d4 rounds. A successful save reduces the duration to 1 round.
REGIONAL EFFECTS
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A poludnica’s territory is affected in any of the following ways by the creature’s presence:
• Plant growth is roughly doubled within 1 mile of the poludnica’s lair.
• The average temperature is about 10-20 degrees hotter during the daytime.
• Mundane protections against heat or light (not permanent structures or buildings) have a 50% chance to fail and fall apart at noon.
| Poludnica | |
| Medium-size Monstrous Humanoid (Fire) | |
| Hit Dice | 7d8+28 (59 hp) |
| Initiative | +6 (+2 Dexterity, Improved Initiative) |
| Speed | 50 ft. |
| AC | 20 (+2 Dexterity, +8 natural) |
| Attacks | Stinging-nettle + 10/+8 melee, or 2 claws + 10 melee |
| Damage | Stinging-nettle 1d4 Constitution damage, claw 1d4+3 |
| Face/Reach | 5 ft. by 5 ft./5 ft. |
| Special Attacks | Stinging-nettle, domination |
| Special Qualities | Fire subtype, immunities, bestow immunity, devouring |
| Saves | Fort +6, Refl +7, Will +8 |
| Abilities | Strength 16, Dexterity 14, Constitution 19, Intelligence 14, Wisdom 16, Charisma 17 |
| Skills | Climb +9, Hide +9, Intimidate +10, Jump +10, Listen +9, Wilderness Lore +10 |
| Feats | Alertness, Improved Initiative, Run |
| Climate/Terrain | Any temperate, warm, and underground |
| Organization | Solitary |
| Challenge Rating | 7 |
| Treasure | Standard |
| Alignment | Always chaotic evil |
| Advancement | By character class |
Combat
In combat, poludnica relies on her stealth and quickness to surprise opponents, and then renders them unconscious with her stinging-nettle.
Stinging-Nettle (Su): On a successful stinging nettle attack, poludnica deal 1d4 points of Strength damage. When a creature’s Strength drops to 0, he falls helpless and unconscious on the ground.
Domination (Sp): They can breathe on unconscious humanoid creatures to gain control of their actions. Creatures must succeed on a DC 18 Will save or be controlled as the dominate person spell (caster level 7th). The save DC is Charisma based and includes a +2 racial modifier.
False Appearance (Su): This inherent ability changes the appearance of the poludnica into a tall, beautiful woman as the disguise self spell (caster level 7th). This ability is constant, but the poludnica can suppress or resume it as a free action. Once a creature recognizes this as an illusion, it can not be affected again by the false appearance of the same poludnica.
Bestow Immunity (Su): By breathing on a creature, poludnica can bestow immunity to fire on that creature for 24 hours. This ability is equivalent to a 4th-level spell.
Devouring (Ex): Poludnica can devour incredible amounts of food without any ill effects. She can eat virtually anything soft enough to chew, but prefers roast sheep and bread straight from the oven.
They can devour a helpless Medium creature in but a minute.
Poludnica’s Sheep
The sheep poludnica keep are anything but ordinary. Each is a Large monstrosity, with wool the color of fresh blood. For poludnica’s sheep, use the Bison’s statistics. Change the creature type to magical beast, and add the Fire subtype.