Hello magic casters of all shapes and sizes! Welcome to my spellbook and thank you so much for checking out the 24th episode of our find familiar series. We’re gonna be taking a look at another one of the volo’s guide to monsters. We’re gonna be looking at the crawling claw 5e/crawling hand which i love personally.
I think this is probably the coolest one we’ve covered so far, i just really like the aesthetic behind, it’s so characteristic of necromancer’s or anyone who dabbles with the dark magic of undeath. Not to mention i mean how funny, there’s so many funny scenarios that could happen with it. That being said, let’s take a look at its actual stats. So how do you create a crawling claw in d&d?.
Crawling Claw DnD 5E Stats
Crawling claws are the severed hands of murderers animated by dark magic so that they can go on killing. Wizards and warlocks of a dark bent use crawling claws as extra hands in their labors. You can also check out this crawling claw swarm 5e.
Magical Origins. Through dark necromantic rituals, the life force of a murderer is bound to its severed hand, haunting and animating it. If a dead murderer’s spirit already manifests as another undead creature, if the murderer is raised from death, or if the spirit has long passed on to another plane, the ritual fails.
The ritual invoked to create a crawling claw works best with a hand recently severed from a murderer. To this end, ritualists and their servants frequent public executions to gain possession of suitable hands, or make bargains with assassins and torturers.
Creator’s Control. A crawling claw can’t be turned, nor can it be controlled by spells that control undead. These foul monsters are entirely bound to the will of their creator, which can concentrate on a claw in sight to mentally command its every action. If the crawling claw’s creator doesn’t command it, the claw follows its last command to the best of its ability.
Commands given to a crawling claw must be simple. A claw can’t be tasked with finding and killing a particular person, because its limited senses and intelligence prevent it from tracking and picking out specific individuals. However, a command to kill all creatures in a particular locale works. A crawling claw can easily feel out the contours of keys and doorknobs, crawling from room to room on a blind killing spree.
Malign Intelligence. A crawling claw possesses little of the intellect and memories of the individual of which it was once a living part. The hate, jealousy, or greed that drove that person to murder lingers on, however, amplified by the claw’s torturous fragmented state. Left to its own devices, a crawling claw imitates and recreates the same murderous acts it committed in life.
Living Claws. If a crawling claw is animated from the severed hand of a still-living murderer, the ritual binds the claw to the murderer’s soul. The disembodied hand can then return to its former limb, its undead flesh knitting to the living arm from which it was severed. You may also like to read this classes for dwarf 5e.
Made whole again, the murderer acts as though the hand had never been severed and the ritual had never taken place. When the crawling claw separates again, the living body falls into a coma. Destroying the crawling claw while it is away from the body kills the murderer. However, killing the murderer has no effect on the crawling claw.
Undead Nature. A crawling claw doesn’t require air, food, drink, or sleep.
- Crawling Claw: Tiny undead, neutral evil
- Armor Class: 12; Hit Points: 2 (1d4): Speed: walk 20 ft., climb 20 ft.
- STR: 13 (+1)
- DEX: 14 (+2)
- CON: 11 (+0)
- INT: 5 (-3)
- WIS: 10 (+0)
- CHA: 4 (-3)
- Damage Immunities: Poison
- Condition Immunities: Charmed, Exhaustion, Poisoned
- Senses: Blindsight 30 ft. (blind beyond this radius), Passive Perception 10
- Languages: Common understands but can’t speak
- Challenge: 0 (10 XP)
- Turn Immunity: The claw is immune to effects that turn undead.
- Actions: Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 3 (1d4 + 1) bludgeoning or slashing damage (claw’s choice).
It’s the only familiar we’ve covered so far that’s considered to be undead and it is a neutral evil so lean towards evil acts if it has a choice.
It’s AC is 12 which is decent, it has 2 hit points which is the most standard with the main ones, has a 20 foot walk speed, 20 foot climb speed so makes sense. 30 feet of blindsight which is really nice, it is blind beyond this radius though. So bear that in mind. Passive perception of 10 which is an overly impressive.
Condition immunities of charmed, exhaustion and poisoned which is interesting because it means the other familiars do need to sleep right! The damage immunities are just poison which makes sense can’t really poison something that’s dead and in terms of languages it can understand common but it can’t speak in of its own. Partly to do with the fact it doesn’t have a mouth. Do you know what is the fear ability in 5e?
I would make the argument that if you cast magic mouth on it though, it might be able to. Maybe i know that’s not necessarily what the spell does but i would allow it to work in that way. Let’s look at its other traits.
First and foremost it has turn immunity so it’s a immune against turn undead, which is cool! And then it has a claw attack should you pick this using the pact of the chain and you can attack, it does three damage and it’s calculated by 1d4 bludgeoning or slashing it’s kind up to you.
Final Thoughts
That being said, overall i really like this, in my next campaign i’m definitely gonna write one in there i’ll just be purely for comedic sense right! I’m gonna just like imagining a hand running in front of an adventuring party, tripping all these traps let’s just aimed at the adventuring party only to flip him the bird if it gets caught, i think that’d be hilarious. Also check out do tieflings have claws.
Kind of a mini-boss of sorts if you will right, That being said guys thank you so much for checking out today, i really do appreciate it. If you’ve any uses, thoughts or ideas for the crawling claw 5e familiar please put it down beneath in the comment section. That being said, thank you so much for checking out today, i really do appreciate it. I hope you all have a great day and as always happy casting. Don’t miss this crawling claw dnd 5e spells.