Monstrous Monday: Death Sheep (D&D5E)

Continuing my attempts to convert joke monsters from the Dragon magazine issue #156 article "Not Necessarily the Monstrous Compendium" to 5th edition stats (and increasing their usability), I present the death sheep.

In the original article, these monsters (created by M. W. Rodgers) were basically rabid sheep. EDIT: Greenbriar on The Piazza message boards set me straight on the source of the joke. It's from this Monty Python sketch. I can't believe I forgot about this one! Bad nerd, no cookie!

I've given these creatures Pack Tactics to make them a serious threat to even higher-level adventurers. However, it should be noted that this is meant to represent the kind of relentless threat the infected can represent (see, for example, the movie 28 Days Later). It should not be taken to represent actual intelligent tactics.

I was going to start by statting out a regular sheep in 5E terms. As it is, Troll Lord Games has released an OGL sheep in their excellent supplement Mystical Companions (2017), which I reproduce here. Death sheep is then more properly (in 5E terms anyway, IMO) a template that represents the progress of a terrible disease. It just happens that sheep don't die from the disease, so they're the ones usually encountered...


 

Animal, Sheep

Medium beast, unaligned

Armor Class 10
Hit Points 4 (1d8)
Speed 30 ft.

STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
12 (+1) 10 (0) 11 (0) 2 (-4) 10 (0) 5 (-3)

Senses passive Perception 10
Languages –
Challenge 0 (10 XP)

Sure-Footed. A sheep has advantage on Strength and Dexterity saving throws made against effects that would knock it prone.

Actions

Hoof. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 3 (1d4 + 1) bludgeoning damage.

Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1 bludgeoning damage.

Death Fever Template

Only a mammalian beast or humanoid can be infected with this supernatural disease. Infected creatures have their teeth turn black and elongate, dripping a vile ichor. Any creature bitten by an infected creature must make a DC 11 Constitution saving throw or become infected.

It takes 5 (1d10) days for symptoms to manifest after infection. The infected creature becomes enraged and uncontrollable, subject to violent fits and unable to reason. Infected creatures attack any non-infected living creatures they can see, attacking with their diseased bite. They survive by eating the flesh of their kills, either fresh or rotten.

At the end of each long rest, an infected creature, other than a sheep, can make a DC 16 Constitution saving throw. On a successful save, the DC for this save drops by 1. When the DC for the disease drops to 0, the infected creature is cured.

If a creature, other than a sheep, remains infected for a number of days equal to its original hit point maximum, it dies. Thus, a month or so after death fever has ravaged an area, the only creatures generally encountered are death sheep.

This supernatural disease can’t be cured with lesser restoration alone; an infected creature can only be cured if it is subjected to lesser restoration, remove curse, and neutralize poison, all spells cast upon the infected creature in the same round.

When a creature becomes infected, it retains its statistics except as described below. A creature might retain or lose any or all of its lair actions or inherit new ones, as the DM sees fit.

Constitution. The creature’s Constitution increases by 2.

Condition Immunities. The infected creature can’t be charmed, frightened, or paralyzed.

Pack Tactics. An infected creature has advantage on an attack roll against a creature if at least one of the infected creature's allies is within 5 feet of the creature and the ally isn't incapacitated.

New Action: Bite. The creature gains a bite attack that does at least the following damage, unless its bite attack is already at least this damaging. Bite damage becomes piercing damage.

Size

Bite Damage

Size

Bite Damage

Tiny

1d4

Large

2d6

Small

1d6

Huge

2d8

Medium

2d4

Gargantuan

2d10

Some sages have speculated that the death fever is a curse by a demigod of death, or the product of a related disease that mutated upon exposure to extremely magical beasts. Others say that it was a byproduct (perhaps unintended) of a wizard's experiments to design a subtle weapon. Rumors hold that one particularly ambitious and tough death sheep named Basil (9 hit points) is the leader of all the infected.

Death Sheep

Medium beast, unaligned

Armor Class 10
Hit Points 5 (1d8 + 1)
Speed 30 ft.

STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
12 (+1) 10 (+0) 13 (+1) 2 (-4) 10 (+0) 5 (-3)

Condition Immunities charmed, frightened, paralyzed
Senses passive Perception 10
Languages –
Challenge 0 (10 XP)

Pack Tactics. An infected creature has advantage on an attack roll against a creature if at least one of the infected creature's allies is within 5 feet of the creature and the ally isn't incapacitated.
 
Sure-Footed. A sheep has advantage on Strength and Dexterity saving throws made against effects that would knock it prone.

Actions

Hoof. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 3 (1d4 + 1) bludgeoning damage.

Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (2d4 + 1) piercing damage.

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