following is a set of themed items and monsters. feel free to use in your campaigns as long as you don't claim you made it. of course, I can't tell if you use it in your campaigns, so I'm just saying what I'd like.
Items
death raven mask
wondrous item, rare
while wearing this mask, you have darkvision 60 ft. you also can detect any undead within that same radius, ignoring all obstacles except 1 foot of stone, 1 inch of common metal, a thin sheet of lead, or 3 feet of wood or dirt.
death raven wings
wondrous item, rare(requires attunement)
to attune to these skeletal wings, you must wear them for the duration of the attunement, after which they magically fuse with your back. While attuned to this item, you cannot wear medium or heavy armor, and have a flying speed of 60 ft.
Curse: when you attune to this item, you are cursed. While cursed this way, you gain the creature type Undead. This makes a wide array of healing spells no longer heal you.
death raven claws
weapon(dagger x2), rare
when you hit an attack with both of these daggers in the same turn and target the same creature with both attacks, the target cannot regain hit points for 1 minute and cannot be brought back to life if killed, for 1d4 weeks.
Death Raven Feather
wondrous item, very rare(requires attunement)
while attuned to and wearing this pendant, you can determine your AC as 13+your dexterity modifier. in addition, this item has 5 charges and regains 1d4+1 daily at dawn. Using these charges, you can create the following effects:
- when you hit a target with a melee weapon attack, you can spend 1 charge to affect the target with Bane for 1 minute. When cast this way, it only affects the target, does not require a failed saving throw, and does not require Concentration.
- when a creature within 60 ft of you that you can see regains hit points, you may spend a reaction and 1 charge and regain that amount of hit points instead of the other creature(the other creature regains no hit points).
- as an action, you can spend up to 3 charges and specify an Undead you can see within 30 ft of you. If you spend more charges than half their proficiency bonus(rounded up), you may issue one one-sentence command to that undead, which it must follow. You cannot issue a command that is directly/ obviously harmful to the undead, but you can issue commands that the undead does not know is harmful to it.
| Synergy and Fusion: when you are attuned to this item and the death raven wings, as well as wearing the death raven mask and wielding the death raven claws, all four items fuse into the Death Raven Essence, which you immediately attune to.
Death Raven Essence
wondrous item, legendary(requires attunement)
this item is one with its user, and cannot be removed from the user. When the user’s attunement to it ends, it separates into a Death Raven feather, a Death raven Mask, both of a pair of Death Raven Claws, and a Death Raven Wings.
while attuned to this item, you have the following traits:
- Creature type: your creature types become Undead. You do not require food, drink, air, or sleep, do not age, and cannot gain exhaustion. to complete a long rest, you must engage in light activity for 8 hours.
- Death Raven Wings: you have a flying speed of 60 ft., and cannot wear medium or heavy armor. You do not provoke opportunity attacks by flying outside of an enemy’s reach.
- Death Raven Sight: your darkvision’s range is increased by 60 ft. if you have no darkvision, you instead gain darkvision 60 ft.
- Death Raven senses: you can sense all non-Construct creatures with a Constitution of at least 8 within 60 ft of you that are not behind 1 foot of stone, 1 inch of common metal, a thin sheet of lead, or 3 feet of wood or dirt.
- Death Raven Feathers: you increase your Armor Class by 2, and by an additional 1 if you wear no armor.
- Claws: your unarmed strikes are a light weapon attack, that do 1d8 base slashing damage on a hit. You have a multiattack you can take as an action composed of 3 Claw attacks. When you hit a target with at least 2 claw attacks in a turn, they are cursed for 1 hour. while cursed this way, when a target regains hit points, you regain those hit points instead, even if the source of the healing would not normally heal you. In addition, if a target cursed this way dies, you may use Life Eater on them as a reaction even if you did not create the effect/spell/attack that killed them.
- Call of Death: once per long rest, you can utter a call that drives the living around you to death. Each non-Construct, non-Undead within 60 ft of you that can hear you must make a dc 21 constitution saving throw. on a failure, they take 36(8d8) necrotic damage. a creature that fails that is below 50 hit points after this damage is instantly killed. A creature that fails the saving throw but is not reduced below 50 hit points is affected by Bane for 1 hour.
- Deathmaker: when a creature with a creature type other than undead within your Death Raven Senses dies, you may choose to spend a hit die and revive them as an Undead with 1 hit point. Their creature type(s) become Undead, and they no longer require food, drink, sleep, or air, do not age, and cannot gain exhaustion. You may also revive a dead creature with a creature type other than undead this way as an action if they died in the last hour.
- Life Eater: if you reduce a creature to 0 hit points with any attack, spell, or effect and do not use Deathmaker on them, you may choose to devour their soul. You regain hit points equal to their number of hit dice, and they cannot be revived except by Wish until you are killed.
- Life stealer: when a creature you can detect with Death Raven Senses regains hit points, you may choose to spend a reaction and a hit die, rolling the hit die and adding your constitution modifier. the targeted creature regains no hit points, and you regain hit points equal to the amount the target would have been healed plus what you rolled with the hit die and constitution modifier.
- Undead Command: once per rest, as an action, you may telepathically command up to 12 Undead with a CR less than your CR/half your level that you can sense with Death Raven Senses. Each affected target must make a dc 15 Wisdom saving throw or follow that command on their next turn unless they know it is harmful to them.
| Symbiote: while attuned to this item, you are cursed, a curse that can only be removed by Greater Restoration or Wish. While cursed this way, you cannot unattune from or remove this item. if you die while cursed this way, you turn into a Death Raven Monarch if your CR was greater than 14 or your level was greater than 15, otherwise you turn into a normal death raven. In either form, you have no memory of your previous life. if this curse is removed, your attunement immediately ends, and you are cursed, a curse that can only be removed early by Wish. Each long rest you complete while cursed, you take 2d12 necrotic damage. the curse ends after lasting a number of days equal to the number of days your attunement to the Death Raven Essence lasted.
Monsters
Death Raven
Medium Undead, neutral
Armor class 15(natural armor)
Hit points: 52(7d8+21)
speed 25 ft fly 60 ft.
Str 15(+2) dex 15(+2) con 16(+3) int 10(+0) wis 13(+1) cha 11(+0)
Saving throws: Constitution +(+)
Skills: stealth +(+) perception +(+)
Damage resistances: necrotic; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical weapons not made of gold, silver, or mithral.
Damage immunities: poison
Condition immunities: exhaustion, poisoned, frightened
Senses: darkvision 60, passive Perception (+)
Languages: understands common and 1 other but can only speak through Mimicry.
Challenge: 4(1,100 xp) (1/2-3)(o3(tohit +4 dmg 28) d5(ac 16 hp 114))
Mimicry: the raven can mimic sounds it has heard. Its sounds can only be detected as fake by a successful DC 18 Wisdom(insight) check.
Life Drain: when the Death Raven kills a creature with a soul, it devours its soul and regains (3d8) hit points. The creature can then only be brought back to life if the raven is killed.
Flyby: the raven does not provoke opportunity attacks when it flies out of reach.
Actions:
Multiattack: the raven makes 2 claw attacks and chooses between Beak and Wing beat(if able)
Claw: melee weapon attack. +(+) to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: (1d8+2) slashing damage and the target is cursed for 1 minute. While cursed this way, each time the target regains hit points, it regains no hit points and the raven regains that many hit points instead. This healing can return the raven to undeath if killed.
Beak: melee weapon attack: +(+) to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9(2d6+2) piercing damage and the target must make a dc 14 constitution saving throw or be cursed for 1 hour. if it makes an attack, check, or saving throw while cursed, the target rolls 1d4 and subtracts it from the d20 roll.
Wing beat(recharge 6): each creature in a 20-foot cone emanating from the raven must make a dc (+) constitution saving throw, taking 14(4d6) thunder damage and being pushed back 10 ft on a failure, or taking half damage and not being pushed back on a success.
Death Raven Monarch
Large undead, Neutral
Armor class 16(natural armor)
Hit points: 114(12d10+48)
Speed 30 ft fly 60 ft
Str 17(+3) dex 16(+3) con 18(+4) int 14(+2) wis 16(+3) cha 15(+2)
Saving throws: Constitution +(+)
Skills: Stealth +(+) Perception +(+)
Damage resistances: necrotic, cold; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical weapons not made of gold, silver, or mithral.
Damage immunities: poison
Condition Immunities: exhaustion, poisoned, charmed, frightened
Senses: darkvision 120 ft., blindsight 20 ft., passive Perception (+)
Languages: common and 2 others, telepathy 120 ft.
Challenge: 16(16,000 xp) (3-7)(d14(ac 19 hp 228) o13(tohit +7 dmg 106))
Mimicry: the Monarch can mimic sounds it has heard. Its sounds can only be detected as fake by a successful DC 20 Wisdom(insight) check.
Life Eater: When the Monarch kills a creature with a soul, it regains hit points equal to 3d8+the number of hit dice the creature had. The creature than then only be brought to life if the Monarch is killed.
Death Raven Senses: the Monarch can sense all non-Construct creatures within 60 ft of it with a Constitution of at least 8. This sense is blocked by 1 foot of stone, 1 inch of common metal, a thin sheet of lead, or 3 feet of wood or dirt.
Death defense: the death raven halves all damage dealt to it by Undead.
Deathmaker: when a creature the monarch can detect with Death Raven Senses with a creature type other than Undead dies, the Monarch may choose to revive it as an undead with 1 hit point. The target’s creature type(s) become Undead, and they no longer require food, drink, sleep, or air, do not age, and cannot gain exhaustion. The Monarch may also use this ability as an action on an applicable creature that died within the last hour.
Flyby: the Monarch does not provoke opportunity attacks when it flies out of reach.
Actions:
Multiattack: the Monarch makes two Claws attacks, then makes its choice of Beak or Call of death(if able), then uses Wing Beat.
Claws: melee weapon attack. +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 12(2d8+3) slashing damage and the target is cursed for 1 minute. While cursed this way, each time the target regains hit points, it regains no hit points and the raven regains that many hit points instead. This healing can return the raven to undeath if killed.
Beak: melee weapon attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 13(3d6+3) piercing damage and the target must make a dc 14 constitution saving throw or be cursed for 1 hour. if it makes an attack, check, or saving throw while cursed, the target rolls 2d4 and subtracts it from the d20 roll.
Call of death(1/day): the Monarch utters a call that drives the living to death. Each non-Construct, non-Undead within 60 ft of it that can hear it must make a DC 18 Constitution saving throw. on a failure, a creature takes 36(8d8) necrotic damage. a creature that fails that is below 50 hit points after this damage is instantly killed. A creature that fails the saving throw but is not reduced below 50 hit points is affected by Bane for 1 hour.
Wing beat: each creature in a 30-foot cone emanating from the Monarch must make a dc 16 constitution saving throw, taking 17(5d6) thunder damage and being pushed back 15 ft on a failure, or taking half damage and not being pushed back on a success.
Bonus Actions:
Undead command: the Monarch telepathically commands up to 12 Undead of CR 12 or less it is aware of. Each affected creature must make a dc 17 wisdom saving throw. on a failure, it must follow that command for 1 minute unless the command is obviously harmful to the creature.
Reactions:
Malicious gaze(3/rest): when an attack is made against the Monarch by an attacker the Monarch can see, the raven imposes disadvantage on the attack. this can be done after the first attack roll is made but before hitting is determined.
Life stealer: when a creature other than the Monarch regains hit points, the Monarch regains those hit points instead.