Hello spellcasters of all shapes and sizes! Welcome to my spellbook and thank you so much for checking out the 23rd episode of our find familiar series, for next few episodes here we’re gonna be covering the volos guide familiars please bear in mind that these are actually meant as NPC familiars not necessarily meant as player familiars. Most of them are fine, i just run a past your DM first.
Today we’re going to be covering the cranium rat 5e which in my opinion is one of the cooler ones out there, not just aesthetically but also roleplay wise i think it’d be hilarious to roleplay one of these, just hoping that player character asks me. I mean i guess i can always make an NPC maybe i’ll do that actually. In any case let’s get on to the statistics here.
Cranium Rat DnD 5E Stats
Mind flayers create cranium rats by bombarding normal rats with psionic energy.
Evil Collectives. Cranium rats are no smarter than ordinary rats and behave as such. However, if enough cranium rats come together to form a swarm, they merge their minds into a single intelligence with the accumulated memories of all the swarm’s constituents. The rats become smarter as a result, and they retain their heightened intelligence for as long as the swarm persists. The swarm also awakens latent psionic abilities implanted within each cranium rat by its mind flayer creators, bestowing upon the swarm psionic powers similar to spells.
A rat separated from the swarm becomes an ordinary cranium rat with an Intelligence of 15. It loses 1 point of Intelligence each day that it remains separated from the swarm. Its Intelligence can’t drop below 4 and becomes 15 again if it rejoins the swarm or another one.
Telepathic Vermin. A single, low-intelligence cranium rat uses its natural telepathy to communicate hunger, fear, and other base emotions. A swarm of cranium rats communicating telepathically “speaks” as one creature, often referring to itself using the collective pronouns “we” and “us.”
Spies for an Elder Brain. Mind flayer colonies use cranium rats as spies. The rats invade surface communities and act as eyes and ears for the elder brain, transmitting their thoughts when they swarm and are within range of the elder brain’s telepathy.
Cranium rats occasionally spread beyond the elder brain’s range of influence. Whatever these rats do is of no concern to the elder brain, and the illithids can always make more if they so desire.
- Cranium Rat: Tiny beast, lawful evil
- Armor Class: 12; Hit Points: 2 (1d4); Speed: 30 ft.
- STR: 2 (-4)
- DEX: 14 (+2)
- CON: 10 (+0)
- INT: 4 (-3)
- WIS: 11 (+0)
- CHA: 8 (-1)
- Senses: Darkvision 30 ft., Passive Perception 10
- Languages Telepathy 30 ft.
- Challenge 0 (10 XP)
First and foremost it is a lawful evil tiny beast which is kind of cool when you think about it, i really like it. Alright so AC of 12 which is fairly standard, 2 hit points caused by the average of a die four you can roll that if you want, 30 feet of walking speed so boat on par with most humanoids. In any case you may also like to read how big is a giant rat 5e.
It stats are fairly average ish as far as families are concerned, it’s not bad index but its intelligence, the strength are pretty low. In terms of senses you got darkvision up to 30 feet and a passive perception of 10 and under languages you have telepathy which is super cool! That being said, let’s move on to its other traits and actions here.
- Illumination. As a bonus action, the cranium rat can shed dim light from its brain in a 5-foot radius or extinguish the light.
- Telepathic Shroud. The cranium rat is immune to any effect that would sense its emotions or read its thoughts, as well as to all divination spells.
- Actions: Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1 piercing damage.
You can perform illumination…as a bonus action, it can shed a dim light from its cranium for a five foot radius or extinguish the light for another bonus action, we’re just pretty cool! The telepathic shroud is another one so immune to any effect that would affect that would sense its emotions read its thoughts as well as to all divination spells which is really cool…when it comes to this being a spy super cool!
As an action it can bite as well which is a plus four to hit and one piercing damage in terms of damage. I’m a homebrew a poison effect on to that, in terms of who can use this i mean that’d be fine with personally i’d be cool with anyone taking this it’s not particularly overwhelmingly good in any ways, i can think of core familiars were more stronger than this and mainly the owl would actually, i would rank above this in almost every conceivable way. Also read swarm of cranium rats dnd 5e.
Conclusion
That being said, if you agree, disagree. If you have any thoughts, comments, anything to do with cranium rats dnd 5e please put it down beneath, i really enjoy reading them and i really enjoy hearing from you guys. That being said, i hope you all have a wonderful day and as always a happy casting.