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A death kiss lacks the combat finesse and intelligence of a beholder. It might attempt an unusual maneuver to control its prey (such as flying up while grappling), but in most cases, it attaches one or more of its tentacles to a creature and drains blood until its prey collapses.
- Description
- Behavior
- Abilities
- Combat
- Society
- Ecology
- History
Death kisses resembled beholders but lacked their eyestalks and their mouth below their main eye, and instead were covered in ten, 20-foot-long (6 meters) tentacles ending in mouths. Their bodies were 10 ft (3 m) across and their leathery skin was a mottled gray, or a muted hue of the original beholder's skin.At the end of each of their tentacles w...
Death kisses would attempt to escape the clutches of their creators at the first opportunity, as they were clearly superior. They would typically submit to more powerful entities if only to keep their lives, lacking the egotistical nature of normal beholders. They were only paranoid about the loss of blood and so drained the blood of any creature t...
By ingesting blood, the death kiss could generate electricity, which it could use to further damage its foes. Ingesting blood also caused the death kiss to recover from injury, so death kisses would seek to restrain their prey with their tentacles before draining their blood until death.Because of the electricity in a death kiss's blood, causing th...
When on the hunt, death kisses would retract their tentacles and suddenly extend them to full length, surprising the target and catching them off guard. They typically hunted alone, preying on anything around them with blood, and when in combat were neither sophisticated nor subtle, violently lashing out at any nearby food source. While not stupid,...
Death kisses preferred to hunt alone, preying on whatever they found. They might submit to a more powerful being, although only so long as they could not escape. When two death kisses met, they might attempt to kill one another, leave each other alone, or even team up depending on the situation.The most common result was a mid-air fight to the deat...
Death kisses were lone hunters who haunted the Underdark. They could only survive by digesting the blood of other entities. This somehow generated electricity within them that was released if they bled.If food became scarce, they were capable of going into a state of heavy hibernation, from which they could only be roused by a sufficient level of h...
From 1371 DR through early 1372 DR, death kisses from all across the Underdark converged on the Sharn Wall—the ancient prison of the phaerimm—and appeared to be waiting for something.
A death kiss consumes ingested blood, which it also uses to heal and generate electrical energy inside its body. Terrified of dying from starvation, it obsessively drains even little creatures such as rats, leaving behind a trail of bloodless corpses.
One creature grappled by a tentacle of the death kiss must make a DC 16 Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, the target takes 22 (4d10) lightning damage, and the death kiss regains half as many hit points.
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A creature within 5 feet of the death kiss takes 5 (1d10) lightning damage whenever it hits the death kiss with a melee attack that deals piercing or slashing damage. Actions. Multiattack. The death kiss makes three tentacle attacks.
Death Kiss is a large aberration that resembles a beholder, but with toothed mouths on its tentacles that can drain blood. Learn its stats, actions, immunities, and how to fight it in D&D 5e.
