Lore: A Bird After Mine Own Heart… Literally
A viscous carnivore, the peryton prefers to eat humanoid creatures like elves, half-elves, and humans. After it kills its prey, it will rip out its heart and carry it back to its nest to feast. Beautiful though the creature may be, it is as terrible as any predator.
Interestingly, its shadow takes on a humanoid form. There are many theories exploring possible explanations for this. Some postulate that the pertyons were originally humans who had been cursed or fell victim to a magical experiment. There are songs that tell of a wife who murdered the woman who stole her husband and devoured her heart in a dark ritual to win his favor back. While the ritual is said to have worked, she was eventually exposed for her sin and hanged. According to the story, the carrion that fed on her corpse transformed into the first perytons.
Well. That was… graphic.
In order for a female peryton to reproduce, they must devour a fresh humanoid heart. Once they do, their shadow will briefly change to reflect their true form. In order to achieve this, the peryton will fight with relentless fervor, attacking until either it or its prey is dead. If one somehow drives it away, it will stalk them until it sees the chance to strike again.
Living in high caves and roosting atop mountain ridges, perytons prey on the creatures living in the vales below, attacking wandering travelers who brave their mountain. As normal weapons aren’t particularly effective against them, most villagers now to avoid them. If a peryton preys too long on a certain village, however, the leaders may hire adventurers to deal with the birds.
This lore is surprisingly good! You can craft some cool short D&D stories with this. Maybe the party is just passing through and they take a job to destroy a peryton nest. Or you could explore the monster’s roots, creating a murder mystery culminating in the birth of the first peryton.
Even if you just want it to be a random encounter in the mountains, you can craft a really creepy set piece with it; the party could discover heartless corpses while being haunted by a humanoid shadow before being attacked. It’s shockingly impressive how much you could do with this monster!
Design: Beauty of the Murder Bird
Well, at least you’d know that your heart would be going to feeding something beautiful. Evil and terrible, sure, but at least it’s pretty!
This is a really cool design. It perfectly balances majestic grace with terror. If you focus on the bird body, you might think it’s just a normal creature. But take one look at its elk-like head, with its sinister eyes and yellow fangs, and you’ll realize that you’re looking at evil incarnate.
Is it the most interesting thing we’ve seen? Not quite. But it’s still really solid all around.
Stats: Dive-Bomber
Flying enemies. Everyone’s favorite thing in anything.
On the surface, the peryton doesn’t seem particularly tough. Both its AC and its HP are on the low side. If it weren’t resistant to all non-magical melee damage, it would be easy to take out of the sky.
Its attacks aren’t especially deadly. It can gore you with its beak or stab you with its talons, or do both in the same turn. However, with its Dive Attack ability, all of these suddenly become a lot more dangerous; if it comes flying at you from thirty feet up, you’re in for some pain.
And it can get away to do just that really easily. Thanks to Flyby, you can’t hit it with any opportunity attacks. So if you’ve got a player who annoys you by constantly shouting ‘I get attack of opportunity!’, throw one of these guys at them and watch them squirm.
Oh yeah, it also has Keen Sight and Smell. Does that matter? Not really.
This can make for a fairly decent fight. Sure, it’s still a slugfest. But with the peryton’s unique mobility and abilities tied to it, it does require some level of strategy and creativity. Be careful; if you’re not careful, this could get annoying really quickly.
Placement
Surprisingly enough, this is a pretty strong monster! It’s lore is surprisingly deep, it’s design is creative and interesting, and its stats are simple but can make for a strong early game fight.
Is it top ten worthy? Not quite. But it’s still really good.
With all that in mind, the Peryton is going to #35 on the Best of the Bestiary!
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- Peryton <————
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