Nothic: The Curse of the Knowing

Lore: Rats of the Arcane

The gaze of a nothic is just as horrific as it is intelligent and unnerving. When spurned to violence, its victims will rot from the cursed eye of the beast.

When a wizard dives too deep into arcane secrets, they are often struck by a curse left behind by Vecna, a powerful lich with god-like power. Once transformed, these wizards, now nothics, have no memory of their former selves. They’ll haunt locations of magical knowledge, drawn by a desire that they themselves don’t understand anymore.

Nothics have a strange ability to extract information from other creatures. With this, the creatures have a unique understanding of secret lore; sometimes, they’ll share this information for magical items.

This lore could make for a fun encounter. Maybe the party needs information that the nothic has and they have to trade a magic item for it. Or perhaps they’re hired to hunt one down within a magical academy or library or someplace like that. It isn’t BBEG worthy, but it does make for a fun one-off or side quest!

Design: Meet My Eye!

What kinda curse did Vecna cast to turn its victims into this? Was she feeling creative or did she just really wanna mess with people?

This design is alright. It’s really creative; it’s like a scarier, more magical version of a cyclops or a cave troll! And that eye is creepy as hell! Of all the things you could run into in a dark place, this is among the worst to run into!

As interesting as it is, though, it doesn’t really tell you that much about the monster. It doesn’t reflect the lore all that well. This guy looks more like some kind of cave monster than it does a cursed wizard.

Overall, this is an okay design. It’s creative and creepy, even if it doesn’t entirely match the story behind it. Definitely one of the better ones, even if it isn’t one of the best.

Stats: World’s Worst Staring Contest

In a fight, a nothic is not a particularly interesting foe. It has some unique abilities, but they aren’t applicable for combat. It doesn’t even have any spells, despite what the lore might have you believe.

Defense wise, it isn’t half-bad for a low-level monster. Its AC is decent and it has an alright HP pool. Parties still near the start of their adventure might have a prolonged battle on their hands.

Attack wise, it doesn’t have much to do. It can either slash its victim with its claws twice, or it could use its Rotting Gaze ability. With this, the victim must succeed a Con save or deal a decent amount of necrotic damage.

Their most interesting ability is Weird Insight. When this is activated, the victim must make a Deception check against the nothic’s Insight. Should the nothic win, they will learn one secret about the target. Cool for lore and character growth! Not so useful for a fight.

Placement

This is a really mid-tier monster. Nothing about it is especially amazing, but none of it is bad. The lore is good for a fun session, the design is decent, and the stats can be used for interesting stuff outside of combat. It is thoroughly mid-tier.

With all that in mind, the Nothic is going to #67 of the Best of the Bestiary!

1. Beholder
2. Death Tyrant
3. Mind Flayer
4. Dragon Turtle
5. Mummy/Mummy Lord
6. Nagas (all three of ’em)
7. Green Dragons
8. Red Dragons
9. Blue Dragons
10. Black Dragons
11. White Dragons
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13. Couatl
14. Behir
15. Aboleth
16. Sea Hag
17. Lamia
18. Bronze Dragons
19. Brass Dragons
20. Copper Dragons
21. Gold Dragons
22. Chuul
23. Kuo-Toa
24. Gibbering Mouther
25. Kraken
26. Intellect Devourer
27. Chimera
28. Death Knight
29. Fomorian
30. Bone Devil
31. Dracolich
32. Faerie Dragon
33. Lich
34. Magmin
35. Kobold
36. Kenku
37. Hobgoblins
38. Night Hag
39. Green Hag
40. Ankheg
41. Hook Horror
42. Storm Giant
43. Hill Giant
44. Empyrean
45. Efreeti
46. Grimlock
47. Minotaur
48. Dao
49. Cloud Giant
50. Manticore
51. Drow (all four of ’em)
52. Shadow Demon
53. Modrons (all five of ’em)
54. Marilith
55. Drider
56. Aarackockra
57. Azer
58. Demilich
59. Spectator
60. Hydra
61. Marid
62. Harpy
63. Werejackal
64. Half-Dragon
65. Cambion
66. Fire Giant
67. Nothic <————-
68. Animated Armor
69. Banshee
70. Basilisk
71. Yochlol
72. Bulette
73. Cloaker
74. Darkmantle
75. Doppelganger
76. Ghoul and Ghast
77. Ettin
78. Medusa
79. Pit Fiend
80. Erinyes
81. Chain Devil
82. Bearded Devil
83. Barbed Devil
84. Spined Devil
85. Ice Devil
86. Mimic
87. Djinni
88. Merrow
89. Nalfeshnee
90. Glabrezu
91. Chasme
92. Grell
93. Barlgura
94. Horned Devil
95. Balor
96. Shadow Dragon
97. Myconids (all four of ’em)
98. Werebear
99. Lizardfolk
100. Vrock
101. Dretch
102. Gnolls (all three)
103. Goristro
104. Hezrou
105. Manes
106. Frost Giant
107. Weretiger
108. Werewolf
109. Duergar
110. Quasit
111. Dryad
112. Flumph
113. Goblin
114. Nightmare
115. Wereboar
116. Wererat
117. Githyanki
118. Planetar
119. Imp
120. Clay Golem
121. Flameskull
122. Displacer Beast
123. Carrion Crawler
124. Githzerai
125. Grick
126. Invisible Stalker
127. Rug of Smothering
128. Bugbear Chief
129. Bugbear
130. Flesh Golem
131. Vine Blight
132. Twig Blight
133. Needle Blight
134. Mephits (all six of ’em)
135. Bullywug
136. Hellhound
137. Ettercap
138. Gas Spore
139. Cockatrice
140. Lemure
141. Homonculus
142. Merfolk
143. Solar
144. Deva
145. Gorgon
146. Hippogriff
147. Griffon
148. Cyclops
149. Centaur
150. Ghost
151. Fire Elemental
152. Water Elemental
153. Air Elemental
154. Stone Giant
155. Deep Gnome
156. Dinosaurs (All six of them)
157. Iron Golem
158. Stone Golem
159. Earth Elemental
160. Galeb Duhr
161. Helmed Horror
162. Flying Sword
163. Crawling Claw
164. Violet Fungus
165. Shrieker
166. Gargoyle