CHARACTER SHEETS: Khenath the Horrifying Slasher
Every good story is defined by its characters. Heroes and villains and everyone in between, whose feet trod the byways of the Nation?
The TTRPG community has been SO supportive of our project, we wanted to offer this NPC remix for free to the community! This terrifying fiendish ranger/barbarian mix was play-tested against a group of six level nine characters, this offered thrills and fear before ultimately falling, but revived itself in time for the inevitable sequel. If you're looking for a trick or treat for your players next Halloween, consider Khenath the Horrifying Slasher.
KHENATH THE HORRIFYING SLASHER
medium fiend, chaotic evil
Armor Class: 15
Hit Points: 239 (20d12+45)
Speed: 50 ft.
STR: 20
DEX: 12
CON: 20
INT: 16
WIS: 16
CHA: 1
Saving Throws: STR +9, DEX +5, CON +9 INT +3, WIS +3, CHA -5
Skills: Acrobatics +5, Animal Handling +2, Arcana +3, Athletics +9, Deception -5, History +3, Insight -3, Intimidation +10, Investigation +0, Medicine +0, Nature +3, Perception +4, Performance -5, Persuasion -5, Religion +0, Sleight of Hand +0, Stealth +5, Survival +7
Damage Immunities: necrotic
Condition Immunities: blinded, charmed, deafened, exhausted, frightened, incapacitated, paralyzed, poisoned, unconscious
Damage vulnerabilities: psychic
Damage resistances: fire
Senses: darkvision 120 ft.
Initiative: +5
Passive Perception: 13
Languages: Common
Challenge Rating: 16
SPELL ATTACK MODIFIER: 1d20+7
SPELL SAVE DC: 15
PROFICIENCY BONUS: +4
• Traits: Relentless, vengeful and taciturn
• Ideal: To kill
• Bond: To bloodshed
• Flaw: Doesn't know when to quit
AGE: 216 years
HEIGHT: 6'10"
WEIGHT: 300 lbs.
BACKSTORY: Once, the slasher was a simple tiefling from the west coast of the Nation. Unfortunately, the accursed machete fell into his possession and, over time, he was overcome by its evil, transforming into a ruthless fiend. Now he is a hunter who is relentless in his pursuit. When he targets prey, he will do anything in his power to prevent their escape, and not even death will stay the slashing blade. Woe be unto any who picks up this accursed machete, for they too shall become Khenath.
FEAT: Lucky
The slasher can reroll one of their attacks, ability checks or saves, or force the reroll of an attack on themselves, three different times between long rests.
FEAT: Grappler
The slasher has developed the skills necessary to hold your own in close-quarters grappling. You gain the following benefits:
He has advantage on attack rolls against a creature he is grappling.
He can use his action to try to pin a creature grappled by him. To do so, he makes another grapple check. If he succeeds, he and the creature are both restrained until the grapple ends.
FEAT: Sentinel
Opportunity attack hit drops target to Speed 0, opp. attack even vs. disengage, reaction attack vs. enemy's opp. attacks in 5 feet if targeting another. No special notes.
FEAT: Mobile
The slasher is surprisingly speedy and agile. He gain the following benefits:
His speed increases by 10 feet.
When he uses the Dash action, difficult terrain doesn't cost him extra movement on that turn.
When he makes a melee attack against a creature, he doesn't provoke opportunity attacks from that creature for the rest of the turn, whether he hits or not.
TRAIT: Innate Spellcasting
The slasher is a 10th level spellcaster. The slasher's innate spellcasting ability is wisdom, and he does not need material components to cast spells. The slasher has the following ranger spells prepared:
1st level (4 slots): hunter's mark, detect magic, entangle
2nd level (3 slots): hold person, misty step
3rd level (3 slots) slow, bestow curse, feign death (self only)
TRAIT: Land's Stride
Moving through nonmagical difficult terrain costs the slasher no extra movement. He can also pass through nonmagical plants without being slowed by them and without taking damage from them if they have thorns, spines, or a similar hazard.
In addition, he has advantage on saving throws against plants that are magically created or manipulated to impede movement, such as those created by the Entangle spell.
TRAIT: Favored Enemies: Humanoids
The slasher has significant experience studying, tracking, hunting, and even talking to humanoids. He has advantage on wisdom (survival) checks to track his favored enemies as well as advantage on intelligence checks to recall information about them.
TRAIT: Danger Sense
The slasher has an uncanny sense of when things nearby aren't as they should be, giving him an edge when you dodge away from danger. He has advantage on Dexterity saving throws against effects that you can see, such as traps and spells. To gain this benefit, he can't be blinded, deafened, or incapacitated.
TRAIT: Mindless Rage
The slasher can’t be charmed or frightened while raging. If he is charmed or frightened when he enters the rage, the effect is suspended for the duration of the rage.
TRAIT: Relentless Rage
The slasher's rage can keep him fighting despite grievous wounds. If he drops to 0 hit points while he's raging and doesn't die outright, he can make a DC 10 Constitution saving throw. If he succeeds, he drops to 1 hit point instead.
TRAIT: Vengeful Return
When the slasher is reduced to 0 hit points, he is reduced to 1 hit point instead and he appears to be dead, as per feign death, but he can end this spell on his turn as a free action.
In addition, when the slasher ends this state on himself, any hostile creature that can see him within 30 feet is frightened by you for 1 minute. A frightened creature can make a Wisdom saving throw against a DC 17 saving throw to end the effect. The Relentless Rage feature also triggers this frightening effect.
The slasher can use this trait once between long rests.
TRAIT: Unholy Resistance
The slasher has resistance to fire damage and is immune to necrotic damage.
TRAIT: Intimidating Presence
The slasher can use an action to frighten someone with his menacing presence. When he does so, he chooses one creature that he can see within 30 feet. If the creature can see or hear him, it must succeed on a DC 14 Wisdom saving throw or be frightened of the slasher until the end of the slasher's next turn. On subsequent turns, he can use his action to extend the duration of this effect on the frightened creature until the end of his next turn. This effect ends if the creature ends its turn out of line of sight or more than 60 feet away from the slasher.
If the creature succeeds on its saving throw, the slasher can’t use this feature on that creature again for 24 hours.
TRAIT: Hide In Plain Sight
The slasher can spend 1 minute creating camouflage for himself. He must have access to fresh mud, dirt, plants, soot, and other naturally occurring materials with which to create your camouflage.
Once he is camouflaged in this way, he can try to hide by pressing yourself up against a solid surface, such as a tree or wall, that is at least as tall and wide as he is. He gains a +10 bonus to Dexterity (Stealth) checks as long as he remains there without moving or taking actions. Once he moves or takes an action or a reaction, he must camouflage himself again to gain this benefit.
Inventory
Accursed machete, 4,293 gold pieces, potion of greater healing (4d4+4), dust of deliciousness
ACTION: Extra Attack
When making an Attack action, the slasher may make three attacks rather than one.
ACTION: Accursed Machete
Melee Weapon Attack: +10 to hit, reach 5 ft. Hit: 1d12+10 magical slashing damage. (Must be used two-handed.), target must succeed against a DC 15 Strength save or fall prone and take 2d6 psychic damage.
If the slasher is truly slain, their corpse reverts into the form of a normal person, and whoever that is not undead or a construct (like a forged being) picks up the weapon must succeed on a DC 17 wisdom saving throw or be compelled to keep it hidden. Whether or not they fall prey to this compulsion, if they retain the weapon in their possession, the holder must then succeed on a DC 19 wisdom saving throw every day for seven straight days or be consumed by the spirit of the slasher, taking on the personality, appearance and all of the attributes of a slasher. After the second check, they will not voluntarily be parted from this weapon. The saving throws are required for every day the weapon is in someone’s possession.
If taken over, the effect can only be undone on the wielder with a remove curse or wish spell, but the machete's curse itself cannot be removed. The weapon’s curse does not work on undead or synthetic beings.
If the machete is out of sight for longer than 12 hours, or held that long by an undead or construct, the weapon magically teleports to a random spot on land within 500 miles, waiting to be discovered. If lost farther than 500 miles from land, or in some otherdimensional void, it will simply wait to be found.
ACTION: Primeval Awareness
The slasher can use an action and expend one ranger spell slot to focus his awareness on the region around himself. For 1 minute per level of the spell slot he expends, he can sense whether humanoids of creatures are present within 1 mile of himself.
ACTION: Grapple
Melee attack, 5 ft. range, one target. 1d20+10, and in success, target is grappled, meaning:
A grappled creature’s speed becomes 0, and it can’t benefit from any bonus to its speed.
The condition ends if the grappler is incapacitated (see the condition).
The condition also ends if an effect removes the grappled creature from the reach of the grappler or grappling effect, such as when a creature is hurled away by the thunderwave spell.
ACTION: Rage
In battle, the slasher fights with primal ferocity. On his turn, he can enter a rage as a bonus action. While raging, he gains the following benefits:
He has advantage on Strength checks and Strength saving throws.
When he makes a melee weapon attack using Strength, he gain a +4 bonus to the damage roll.
He has resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage.
He can't concentrate on spells while raging.
Rage lasts for 1 minute. It ends early if he is knocked unconscious or if his turn ends and he hasn't attacked a hostile creature since his last turn or taken damage since then. He can also end his rage on your turn as a bonus action. He can rage four times between long rests.
ACTION: Sense Living
The slasher has gained the ability to know exactly where his prey hides. As a bonus action, he can sense the number and exact location of every creature within 120 feet of himself that is not a construct or undead until the start of his next turn. Furthermore, any creature he senses with this ability gains no benefit from invisibility or obscurement against the slasher.
ACTION: Persistence Hunter
When a creature moves out of the slasher's reach, he can use his reaction to move up to his speed towards them. The movement does not trigger opportunity attacks. If he ends his movement next to the creature that triggered this reaction, he can make a melee weapon attack against it.
ACTION: Vanishing Strike (3/Day)
The slasher makes one Accursed Machete attack. If the attacks hits or misses, the slasher can teleport up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space he can see.
Source materials sampled for this NPC:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/ranger-archetype-58008469?src=BSky (via @dartagnantt.bsky.social)
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/relentless-slasher--814518282617721600/
https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Slasher_(5e_Subclass)
Please feel free to load the Compendium file (ZIP file download) into Encounter+. Other tools used to complete this include Fast Character and Photopea for FPE art (better art will be included in the next book).
The Sundering is created by Hannibal Tabu in conjunction with Damion Poitier and Unlikely Heroes Studios.
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