Nothic (/noʊθɪk/)
The Nightmares Made Real
A monstrous humanoid with rough, leathery skin, terrible talons, a mouth full of teeth and a single great eye.
Nothics are one-eyed, twisted aberrations that are extremely erratic and malevolent.
A baleful eye peers out from the darkness, its gleam hinting at a weird intelligence and unnerving malevolence. Most times, a nothic is content to watch, weighing and assessing the creatures it encounters. When driven to violence, it uses its horrific gaze to rot the flesh from its enemies' bones.
Cursed Arcanists. Rather than gaining the godlike supremacy they crave, some wizards who devote their lives to unearthing arcane secrets are reduced to creeping, tormented monsters by a dark curse left behind by Vecna, a powerful lich who, in some worlds, has transcended his undead existence to become a god of secrets. Nothics retain no awareness of their former selves, skulking amid the shadows and haunting places rich in magical knowledge, drawn by memories and impulses they can't quite understand.
Dark Oracles. Nothics possess a strange magical insight that allows them to extract knowledge from other creatures. This grants them unique understanding of secret and forbidden lore, which they share for a price. A nothic covets magic items, greedily accepting such gifts from creatures that seek out its knowledge.
Lurkers in Magical Places. Nothics are notorious for infiltrating arcane academies and other places rich in magical learning. They are driven by the vague knowledge that there exists a method to reverse their condition. This isn't a clear sense of purpose, but rather an obsessive tug at the end of the mind. Some nothics are clever enough to realize that this is merely part of the strange lesson for their folly, a false hope to drive them to seek out more arcane secrets.
The Menagerie fought one of these in under the Outding Refuge Temple Ruins, which was seen floating in Session 12 because it was inside of a Gelatinous Cube.
Basic Information
Anatomy
Description
Nothics resembled hunched, misshapen humanoids with an awkward gait. Their most distinctive feature was the large, single eye that dominated their face.Ecology and Habitats
Ecology
Nothics were aberrant creatures variously said to have drifted into the Material plane from the Far Realm, or to have been created from wizards who, in their research of arcane secrets, stumbled across a curse left by Vecna (a curse later also used by the lich Acererak). If the latter was true, then nothics retained no awareness of their former selves but were nonetheless driven by half-remembered memories and desires they no longer understood. They were known to live in underground ruins and caverns as solitary predators, or to serve more powerful creatures that found their erratic behavior amusing. Such behavior generally made them seem more like a pet than the torturer-jester they were normally "employed" as, but their lack of sanity meant they would perform functions that other creatures refused to consider. Nothics were also sometimes found in cults of Vecna; it was said that such nothics had a strong psychic connection to the deity they served and that he could, if he focused, see through their eyes. Nothics were also known to be drawn to places of magical learning, infiltrating and lurking inside such places. Their insanity gave them a strange understanding of forbidden lore and secrets, and they coveted magic items. It was said they were drawn to such places out of a half-understood obsession with reversing their condition- and that some understood the obsession as a false hope and a lesson for their folly.Behaviour
Behavior
Nothics were utterly insane and almost as evil, capering and gibbering in and out of combat for no apparent reason.Combat
Nothics could attack with their claws, but were not particularly adept at doing so, prefering to rely on their strange magical abilities to disable opponents before killing them.Additional Information
Uses, Products & Exploitation
Harvesting
Instructions
Instructions: Because this creature is an Aberration, the player should roll a Arcana Check using the DCs in the table below. On a success, the player is able to harvest the item. On a failure, the item cannot be harvested (either because the character is not skilled enough, or because the item is ruined). The DM should note that many of the items have an expiration, and can not be sold or used after the expiration has passed.
| DC | Item | Description | Value | Weight | Expiration | Crafting |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | Nothic Claws (x2) | Being a former spellcaster, with no knowledge of its past life, a torrent of magic has surged through the creature's fingers over the years. Now, these fingers end in long, sharp talons. The claw on each index fingers of a nothic retain a spark of the spellcaster's former power. The talons aren't very large, but are often used by spellcasters, especially divinators and seers. The talons are believed to help find magic items. Use: A spellcaster can spend an hour, and 100gp worth of materials (incense, rare herbs, special candles, etc.), to perform a ritual with one of the claws. At the end of the ritual, the claw will point to the nearest magical item, and have a slight magnetic pull in that direction (unfortunately, this includes items carried by the spellcaster and their party). The claw will continue to have a slight pull in that direction for the next 12 hours. If any magic items are stored within a lead container, the ritual will not detect those items. Once the ritual is cast, the same claw loses its power and cannot be effective in the ritual again. | 5 gp | 2 lb. | ∞ | — |
| 10 | Nothic Brain | The nothic brain is immense; existing as both a testament and mockery to the nothic's former intellectual callings. Despite its veil of madness, wells of knowledge still exist within it, for those that know how to bring it out. Use: You may spend 1 day pulping, drying, and mixing this item with various reagents. The resulting mixture creates a magical ink that contains magical knowledge. A character with at least 3 levels in the wizard class may use this ink to write in their spellbook. If they do so, they subconsciously write down a random spell (chosen by the DM) of 2nd level or lower into their spellbook. Regardless of the level of the spell, this transcription takes 2 hours and costs nothing except the usage of all the ink. This copied spell functions as well as any other spell copied into the book through a mundane method. | 30 gp | 4 lb. | 7 days | —) |
| 15 | Nothic Eye | The large eye of a nothic is a round white orb with a huge iris and pupil. The eye is swimming with arcane energy, prized by necromancers and divinators. The lens can be extracted and used by skilled artificers. Some spellcasters can preserve the eye into a solid orb, with a glass-like texture and use it as a scrying device. | 30 gp | 7 lb. | ∞ | Lens of Insight (HHH) |
This kind of creature does not normally carry treasure. This kind of creature does not normally have or collect treasure. However, the creature may have a lair full of bodies, or reside somewhere that treasure already exists.
This creature produces 2-12 pieces of Harvested Meat, weight total of 8-48 lb. DC: 5, Expire: 1 day, Value: 4-24 sp The meat of many monsters is considered vile and distasteful. Monstrosities and aberrations, in particular, may have tainted blood or rancid tasting meat. Dungeon Master's discretion.
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
Abilities
Nothics' main magical gifts were focused in their eyes: they possessed both darkvision and truesight, and their gaze could rot the flesh of other creatures. Some nothics could unleash other necrotic or psychic attacks to damage foes, and certain individuals could mentally dominate a target as well. Yet other nothics could magically learn a secret about a target via some weird insight.Civilization and Culture
History
Some of the few Netherese spellcasters that survived the destruction Ythryn became afflicted with a malady known as the arcane blight. These unfortunate souls were transformed into nothics, running rampant across the frozen necropolis for centuries.
In the Year of the Scarlet Witch, 1491 DR, a nothic inhabited a crevasse within a hideout occupied by the Redbrands in Phandalin, lured to the location by an emanation of magic. The creature had struck a deal with the Redbrands to guard the location in exchange for food and treasure.
In the late 15 century DR, groups of nothics wandered the surroundings of Neverlight Grove, attracted by the growing influence of Zuggtmoy in the region.
Sources
Source(s):
- Mike Mearls, Jeremy Crawford, Christopher Perkins (2014-09-30). Monster Manual 5th edition. Edited by Scott Fitzgerald Gray. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 236. ISBN 978-0786965614.
- Rob Heinsoo, Stephen Schubert (May 19, 2009). Monster Manual 2 4th edition. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 169. ISBN 0786995101.
- Mike Donais, Skaff Elias, Rob Heinsoo, and Jonathan Tweet (October 2003). Miniatures Handbook. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 65. ISBN 0-7869-3281-3.
- Christopher Perkins, Will Doyle, Steve Winter (September 19, 2017). Tomb of Annihilation. Edited by Michele Carter, Scott Fitzgerald Gray. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 187. ISBN 978-0-7869-6610-3.
- Christopher Perkins (September 2020). Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden. Edited by Kim Mohan. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 232. ISBN 978-0786966981.
- Wizards RPG Team (July 2014). “Lost Mine of Phandelver”. Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set (Wizards of the Coast), p. 23. ISBN 978-0-7869-6559-5.
- Christopher Perkins, Adam Lee, Richard Whitters (September 1, 2015). Out of the Abyss. Edited by Jeremy Crawford. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 94. ISBN 978-0-7869-6581-6.
- Richard Baker, et al. (April 2015). Princes of the Apocalypse. Edited by Michele Carter, Stacy Janssen. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 120. ISBN 978-0-7869-6578-6.
Genetic Ancestor(s)
Scientific Name
Animalia, Superioria, usque ad regnum, alius (Nothic)
Origin/Ancestry
Aberration (Far Realms, Humanoid)
Lifespan
Unknown
Conservation Status
No conservation in most places as they are hunted down.
Average Height
5'
Average Weight
100 lbs.
Geographic Distribution
Related Ethnicities
5E Statistics
Nothic
| Size | Medium |
| Type | Aberration |
| Alignment | Neutral Evil |
| Challenge Rating | 2 |
General Information
| Vision | Darkvision, truesight |
| Intelligence | low - very |
| Language(s) | Deep Speech, Undercommon |
| Favored terrain | Underdark |
See Also: Nothic on Forgotten Realms Wiki