Stat Block: The Lizardfolk Champion and the Lizardfolk Blackspawn Even more varieties of lizardfoes

From time to time, we will be publishing quick stat blocks. Some will be original. Others, like this one, are tweaks of existing stat blocks. What you do with them is up to you. Note: All of the monster stats and descriptions in this article are designated as Open Game Content. (Click here for license). 

Lizardfolk Champion

Macuahuitl. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License. It was posted by Zuchini One.

Medium humanoid (lizardfolk)
Challenge 3 (700 XP)

Defense & Maneuver
Armor Class 16 (natural armor and shield)
Hit Points 48 (8d8 +16)
Speed 30 ft.
Senses Passive Perception 13

Attacks
Lizardfolk Champion may make two attacks in one Attack action, one with the Macahuitl and one with its bite.

Ranged Attack (+6 to hit, 6 piercing damage): The lizardfolk champion can hurl a large spear with a range of 30/120, inflicting 1d6+3 piercing damage.

Melee Attack, Macuahuitl (+6 to hit, 8 piercing damage): The lizardfolk champion’s wooden sword is set with razor-sharp obsidian blades, inflicting 1d10+3 slashing damage.

Melee Attack, Bite (+6 to hit, 6 piercing damage): The lizardfolk champion’s sharp fangs inflict 1d6+3 piercing damage.

Miscellany
Alignment Neutral
Languages Draconic
Skills Perception +3, Stealth +4, Survival +5
Hold Breath Lizardfolk can hold their breath for up to 15 minutes.
Ability Modifiers Str +3, Dex +1, Con +2, Int -2, Wis +1, Cha -2

The lizardfolk champion is a member of the culture’s elite fighting class. These warriors have been trained since hatching and are doughty adversaries. They are stronger and quicker than regular lizardfolk, and they wield the fearsome macuahitl, a wooden sword set with vicious razor sharp obsidian flakes, sharper than steel. These weapons are tricky to use and hard to maintain, but they suit the lizardfolk’s aquatic habitat well and are a sign of the lizardfolk champion’s elite status.

Lizardfolk Blackspawn

Medium draconic humanoid (lizardfolk)
Challenge 6 (2,300 XP)

Defense & Maneuver
Armor Class 18 (natural armor)
Hit Points 104 (13d10 +39)
Speed 30 ft.
Senses Passive Perception 13

Attacks
Lizardfolk blackspawn may make three attacks in a single Attack action, one with its bite and two with its claws. If its Acidic Breath is available it may replace its bite attack with its fearsome breath weapon.

Melee attack, Bite (+7 to hit, 9 piercing damage): The lizardfolk blackspawn’s sharp fangs inflict 1d10+4 piercing damage.

Melee Attack, Claws (+7 to hit, 11 piercing damage): The lizardfolk blackspawn’s vicious claws inflict 2d6+4 slashing damage.

Acidic Spray [Recharge 5-6] (10-foot cone; DC 14 Dexterity; 22 acid damage; 11 damage on save): Any creature in the cone’s area must make the saving throw or take 5d8 acid damage. A successful save results in half damage.

Miscellany
Alignment Neutral
Languages Draconic
Skills Perception +3, Stealth +5, Survival +5
Hold Breath Lizardfolk can hold their breath for up to 15 minutes.
Ability Modifiers Str +4, Dex +2, Con +3, Wis +1, Cha -2

The lizardfolk blackspawn is a terrible hybrid of black dragon and lizardfolk, Most often spawned when a clutch of lizardfolk eggs are fertilized by a black dragon, these creatures often become the nobility among the lizardfolk with whom they reside. They shun crafted armaments, instead relying on their fearsome natural weapons. Their acidic spit is a particular fearsome ability, a legacy of their draconic heritage.

Monsters Modified: Why I Needed More Lizardfolk

Truth be told, lizardfolk are actually fairly well represented in the Monster Manual. We have the standard CR ½ lizardfolk, the lizardfolk shaman with a CR of 2, and the Lizard King/Queen topping out at a CR of 4. I really appreciate that the folks at WotC gave some CR range to a number of classic monsters like this, and they have a nice versatility among the three types as well.

However, I was in a bit of a bind as the players actually were getting to the lizardfolk quite a bit later in their adventuring career than I’d expected. They first encountered the scaly foes when they were a mixed group of levels 2 and 3, but they didn’t follow up on the plot thread that led them to the lizardfolk swamps until they’d already done quite a bit of other adventuring and were pushing level 7. This the kind of thing that happens in sandbox play. Players get to things in their own time.

Anyway, I needed some tougher lizardfolk to throw at them. Even the King/Queen wasn’t really going to cut it at this point except in large groups, and that just seemed wrong somehow. I needed a high-end lizardfolk warrior type that I could throw in numbers against the party, perhaps led by a Lizard King/Queen or two. I settled on the idea of creating a lizardfolk champion, a creature just a bit less powerful than the King/Queen, but enough to be a real threat in numbers to a higher level party. I went for a CR 3 creature and I gave the lizardfolk champion a special weapon, the Macuahuitl, or Aztec obsidian-bladed sword, just to give them something visually distinct. I also think it makes sense as metal weapons don’t really mix well with living in a swamp.

Even with that, I still needed a bigger threat as well. I also had strongly hinted that the lizardfolk were connected to a clutch of black dragons rumored to haunt the swamp, and that there were lizardfolk/black dragon hybrids. I wanted a threat a step above the Lizard King/Queen, and something that felt a bit more dragonish. I settled on the lizardfolk blackspawn, a brutal combination of lizardfolk savagery and draconic power. I had it eschew weapons but gave it the traditional claw, claw, bite routine of its dragon forebears. To cap it all off I gave it something akin to the black dragon wyrmling’s acid breath, but with a cone spray and a shorter range.

I’ll be trying them out on my PCs soon, and I’ll come back and let you know how they playtested.

Side Note: I love that lizardfolk have become an egalitarian society in terms of gender. No longer shackled by the epithet “lizardman,” they are now “folk.” They also get a gender neutral “King/ Queen” version so even their leadership is gender neutral. It’s touches like this that make me realize how far the new edition really went to make the game less sexist than it had been in prior iterations. As I’ve argued elsewhere in the Ludus, it’s important to the future of this hobby that we take issues of gender and race seriously. An inclusive game means more members, more varied play, a healthy market for the products we enjoy, and more fun. Having even fairly minor monsters like lizardfolk at least have the option of a matriarchy strikes me as a cool touch.