Buy me a coffeeDemon, Dretch
This creature’s bloated frame shudders with each heaving step, yet despite its shape, the thing moves with surprising quickness.
Even the lowest demons of the Abyss are dangerous and filled with a driving need to spread ruin and dismay. The lowly dretch is as hideous and foul as it is cruel, even if it lacks the strength and power to realize its need to brutalize others in its native realm. The lot of the dretch’s existence is to serve more powerful demons as victims, and only the lucky few survive long enough to evolve.
The dretch is a favorite target for dabblers in Abyssal summonings to call forth. Relatively weak and easy to bully, dretches can often be pressured into long periods of servitude with only vague promises of the opportunity to vent their frustrations and anger on softer foes. Yet the prospective dretch-summoner would do well to remember that these demons are as craven and untrustworthy as they come. A dretch faced with a more powerful foe is only too eager to trade what it knows for its pitiful excuse for a life.
Unlike most demons, a dretch’s slovenly personality and disdain for prolonged physical labor rarely result in success. Advanced dretches are rare, but those who do find it within themselves to be more than they were at creation often become the pauper-kings of the Abyss, cruel and bitter in their rule over vermin, broken souls, mindless undead, and other dretches. Their empires are confined to abandoned stretches of sewers under backwater cities, unstable reaches of swampland avoided by more sensible minds, and other undesirable corners of the Abyss that even demons find uncomfortable or foul. Yet to the dretch lords, these realms are their empires, and they defend them with a pitiful tenacity.
A dretch stands 4 feet tall and weighs 180 pounds. Dretches typically form from the souls of slothful, evil mortals—yet it only takes a small fragment of a soul to trigger such a hideous birth. A single soul can often trigger the manifestation of a small army of dretches, and the sight of a horde of fresh-birthed dretches pulling free from the heaving protomatter of the Abyss is a nauseating and terrifying one indeed.
Demon, Dretch
This creature’s bloated frame shudders with each heaving step, yet despite its shape, the thing moves with surprising quickness.
Family: Demons
Small fiend (demon), chaotic evil
Armor Class 11 (natural armor)
Hit Points 18 (4d6 + 4)
Speed 20 ft.
| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 (+0) | 11 (+0) | 12 (+1) | 5 (-3) | 8 (-1) | 3 (-4) |
Damage Resistances cold, fire, lightning
Damage Immunities poison
Condition Immunities poisoned
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 9
Languages Abyssal, telepathy 60 ft. (works only with creatures that understand Abyssal)
Challenge 1/4 (50 XP)
Actions
- Multiattack: The dretch makes two attacks: one with its bite and one with its claws.
- Bite: Melee Weapon Attack: +2 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 3 (1d6) piercing damage.
- Claws: Melee Weapon Attack: +2 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (2d4) slashing damage.
- Fetid Cloud (1/Day): A 10-foot radius of disgusting green gas extends out from the dretch. The gas spreads around corners, and its area is lightly obscured. It lasts for 1 minute or until a strong wind disperses it. Any creature that starts its turn in that area must succeed on a DC 11 Constitution saving throw or be poisoned until the start of its next turn. While poisoned in this way, the target can take either an action or a bonus action on its turn, not both, and can’t take reactions.
Dretch CR 2
XP 600
CE Small outsider (chaotic, demon, evil, extraplanar)
Init +0; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +5
DEFENSE
AC 14, touch 11, flat-footed 14 (+3 natural, +1 size)
hp 18 (2d10+7)
Fort +5, Ref +0, Will +3
DR 5/cold iron or good; Immune electricity, poison; Resist acid 10, cold 10, fire 10
OFFENSE
Speed 20 ft.
Melee 2 claws +4 (1d4+1), bite +4 (1d4+1)
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 2nd)
1/day—cause fear (DC 11), stinking cloud (DC 13), summon (level 1, 1 dretch 35%)
STATISTICS
Str 12, Dex 10, Con 14, Int 5, Wis 11, Cha 11
Base Atk +2; CMB +2; CMD 12
Feats Toughness
Skills Escape Artist +5, Perception +5, Stealth +9
Languages Abyssal (cannot speak); telepathy 100 ft. (limited to Abyssal-speaking targets)
ECOLOGY
Environment any (Abyss)
Organization solitary, pair, gang (3–5), crowd (6–12), or mob (13+)
Treasure none
DRETCH LORE
Originally Posted by Dracomortis of the Wizards Community forums.
Characters with ranks in Knowledge (the Planes) can learn more about dretches. When a character makes a successful skill check, the following lore is revealed, including the information from the lower DCs.
| Knowledge (the Planes) | |
| DC | Result |
| 12 | This wretched creature is a dretch, a pathetic type of demon. This result reveals all outsider and tanarri traits. |
| 17 | While weak and unintelligent, dretches are often used as fodder in demonic armies. Without more powerful demons to keep them in line, they often flee at the first sign of defeat. |
| 22 | A dretch will use its summoning ability to call more dretches as soon as battle starts. It can also use stinking cloud and scare once per day. |