Medium fiend (yugoloth), neutral evil
Armor Class 16 (natural armor)
Armor Class (suggested) 18 (natural armor)
Hit Points 120 (16d8 + 48)
Speed 50 ft.
Proficiency Bonus +3
Proficiency Bonus +7 (5th Edition Advanced Mode)
| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 (+4) | 10 (+0) | 17 (+3) | 5 (-3) | 17 (+3) | 12 (+1) |
Saving Throws (suggested) Str +7, Con +6
Skills Investigation +3, Perception +9
Damage Resistances cold, fire, lightning; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks
Damage Resistances (suggested) bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks
Damage Immunities acid, poison
Damage Immunities (suggested) acid, fire, poison
Damage Vulnerabilities (suggested) cold
Condition Immunities poisoned
Senses darkvision 60 ft. (suggested 120 ft.), truesight 120 ft. (suggested 240 ft.), passive Perception 19
Languages Abyssal, Infernal, telepathy 60 ft.
Challenge 8 (3900 XP)
Dimensional Lock. Other creatures can’t teleport to or from a space within 60 feet of the canoloth. Any attempt to do so is wasted.
Magic Resistance. The canoloth has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
Magic Resistance (suggested). The canoloth has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects, but is immune to illusion spells hat affect the sense of sight.
Magic Weapons. The canoloth’s weapon attacks are magical.
Summon Yugoloths (suggested, long rest). The canoloth can gate in 1d4 canoloths or 1 mezzoloth as a full round action.
Uncanny Senses. The canoloth can’t be surprised while it isn’t incapacitated.
ACTIONS
- Multiattack. The canoloth makes two attacks: one with its tongue or its bite and one with its claws.
- Multiattack (suggested). The canoloth makes three attacks, one with its tongue and two with its claws or one with its bite and two with its claws.
- Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 25 (6d6 + 4) piercing damage.
- Bite (suggested). Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 19 (6d4 + 4) piercing damage. If the canoloth scores a natural 19 or 20 with the hit roll, the target must make a DC 16 Dexterity saving throw or its armor will be destroyed by the powerful maws.
- Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 15 (2d10 + 4) slashing damage.
- Claws (suggested). Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (1d10 + 4) slashing damage.
- Tongue. Ranged Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, range 30 ft., one target. Hit: 17 (2d12 + 4) piercing damage. If the target is Medium or smaller, it is grappled (escape DC 15), pulled up to 30 feet toward the canoloth, and restrained until the grapple ends. The canoloth can grapple one target at a time with its tongue.
5th Edition Advanced Mode
Limiting the power of a character and making the overall difficulty of the game harder, does not reduce the creativity, indeed it does quite the opposite.
The Game Master has the option to use any and all of the instances proposed in this guide, or just some of them according to their preference.
It is the lack of something that move and motivate characters, not the abundance of it
DESCRIPTION
A canoloth is a fiendish creature that resembles a giant, armored dog with a barbed tongue. It is a type of yugoloth, a race of mercenary fiends that serve evil powers. A canoloth has no eyes, but relies on its keen senses of smell and hearing to locate its prey. It has a chitinous exoskeleton that protects it from physical and elemental damage. It can communicate telepathically with other yugoloths, and understands Abyssal and Infernal languages.
A canoloth resembles a great semi-insectile mastiff, with a bulldog-like shape and massive jaws. Its mouth has both a horizontal and a vertical set of teeth, and its tongue can grapple and pull its victims towards it. Its nostrils are gaping wounds in the front of its skull. It has no eyes, but it can sense its surroundings with its uncanny smell and hearing.
COMBAT
A canoloth is a loyal and obedient guardian and tracker, following its master’s orders to the death. It prefers to ambush its enemies by hiding in dark or smoky areas, using its dimensional lock trait to prevent them from escaping by teleportation. It then attacks with its powerful bite and its long, sticky tongue. The tongue can grapple and pull a medium or smaller creature towards the canoloth, where it can be devoured or mauled by its teeth. A canoloth also has magic resistance, making it harder to affect by spells and other magical effects.
Canoloths are specialized yugoloths who serve as scouts, skirmishers, and trackers for the yugoloth mercenary companies. They are not as common as mezzoloths or dhergoloths that make up the bulk of these units, but a couple of canoloths can greatly increase the effectiveness of a yugoloth company by providing the piscoloth or nycaloth commanders with excellent intelligence and reconnaissance reports.
Canoloths make excellent guards, assassins or retrievers. Their lack of intelligence makes canoloths the most loyal of the race, and they will follow the orders of their masters to the death – a rare trait among the lesser yugoloths.
HABITAT / SOCIETY
A canoloth is usually found in the Lower Planes, where it serves as a guard or a hunter for the yugoloths. It can also be hired by other evil beings, such as demons, devils, or evil wizards, to protect their treasures or locations. A canoloth is not very intelligent, but it is cunning and malicious. It enjoys tormenting and killing its victims, especially if they try to resist or escape. A canoloth is not very social, but it tolerates other fiendish creatures as long as they do not interfere with its duties.
Canoloths are well aware of their favored status and use it to bully and pester mezzoloths or hydroloths. When they are not employed with a mercenary company, canoloths spend their time bounding through the foul wastes of the Lower Planes in search of lesser creatures to torment and slay.
It is not unusual to see canoloths saddled and used as great, fearsome mounts by arcanaloths or ultroloths.
ECOLOGY
A canoloth is a carnivorous creature that feeds on the flesh and blood of living beings. It does not need to eat often, but it will not pass up an opportunity to hunt or scavenge. A canoloth does not reproduce naturally, but is created by the yugoloths through a process of alchemy and magic. A canoloth has no natural predators, but it may be hunted by adventurers or other enemies of the yugoloths. A canoloth has no regard for the balance of nature, and will destroy anything that stands in its way.
It is thought that canoloths are created from particularly courageous mezzoloths, but there is little to substantiate this. The creatures are common on the Gray Waste and Gehenna. Some spells of binding and entrapment make use of a piece of the tongue of a canolth; the organ will bring about 1,000 gp in the right market.