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Wax-Tear - AI-generated fantasy Monster

Wax-Tear

Underdark guides call the creature Wax-Tear after the glossy black streaks it leaves where lamps once stood. Scholars suspect the name began as a tally mark in a lost demonological ledger, recording the residue found at vanished camps. The demon is drawn to a person’s most consuming desire, but it offers no bargain: it wants the desire to remain forever unmet.

Monsters
Huge fiend · CR 5 , deadly for a typical party of four 5th-level characters · Unique

Wax-Tear

A huge demon that embodies the hungry absence left when desire curdles into destruction. It snuffs light, hope, and healing, leaving black wax-like streaks as its calling card.
AC15
HP95/95
CR5 , deadly for a typical party of four 5th-level characters
Init
STR
DEX
CON
INT
WIS
CHA
ConditionsNone

Combat

AC 15 · HP 95 · CR 5 , deadly for a typical party of four 5th-level characters

Wax-Tear

Huge fiend (demon), chaotic evil
Armor Class15 (natural armor)
Hit Points95 (10d12 + 30)
Speed
Speed 30 ft.,
Climb 20 ft.
STR
DEX
CON
INT
WIS
CHA
Saving ThrowsConstitutionWisdom
SkillsPerceptionStealth
Damage Resistances
Cold,
Fire,
Lightning,
Bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks
Immunities
Poison
Weaknesses
The demon has no special vulnerability to light, but steady illumination can expose its approach and reduce the value of its concealment.
Senses
Darkvision 120 ft.,
Passive Perception 13
Languages
Abyssal,
Telepathy 60 ft.
Challenge5 , deadly for a typical party of four 5th-level characters
Proficiency Bonus+3
Initiative+1
Passive Perception13
Magic Resistance. The demon has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
Cavern Crawler. The demon can move across difficult terrain made of stone, rubble, or cavern formations without spending extra movement.
Lightless Hide. The demon's body sheds no light and is difficult to distinguish from unlit stone. In dim light or darkness, it has advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks made to hide.

Actions

Multiattack. The demon makes two Grasping Claw attacks.
Grasping Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 13 () slashing damage plus 3 () necrotic damage.
Wanting Gaze. Ranged Spell Attack: to hit, range 60 ft., one target. Hit: 18 () necrotic damage, and the target cannot regain hit points until the start of the demon's next turn. The target can end this effect early by succeeding on a Constitution saving throw at the end of its turn.
Drown the Light (Recharge 5–6). The demon exhales a 15-foot cone of clinging blackness. Each creature in the area must make a Dexterity saving throw, taking 21 () necrotic damage on a failed save, or half as much on a success. The area becomes lightly obscured until the start of the demon's next turn.

Reactions

Spiteful Reach. When a creature the demon can see within 10 feet hits it with a melee attack, the demon lashes out with one Grasping Claw attack against that creature.
Role
Elite
Built for
Designed as a deadly single-monster encounter for a party of four 5th-level characters. Adjust for party size, optimization, and available magic items.

Notes for the game master

Custom demon designed for D&D 5E, calibrated as a single CR 5 elite-style threat.
Drown the Light is a custom area attack, not a canonical demon ability.
Huge size does not increase its reach beyond the distances listed in its attacks.

Tactics

  1. Opening

    Begin just beyond torchlight if possible. Use Drown the Light to obscure the approach, then close on the most vulnerable or brightly lit target.

  2. Mid-fight

    Keep prey within reach, using Wanting Gaze on a healer or wounded target and claws on whoever tries to hold it in place.

  3. End of the fight

    If badly wounded, use Drown the Light to cover a retreat, then attack the most isolated creature with Wanting Gaze. It fights to the death when protecting a ritual or lair.

  4. Retreat

    It does not surrender. If reduced to 20 hit points or fewer and not bound to a task, it retreats through the nearest fissure, cursing its pursuers.

How it fights

Use darkness and terrain to isolate one character at a time.
Do not stand still in the open while multiple characters attack from range.
Save Drown the Light for a cluster of enemies or a moment when obscuring the battlefield will enable a strong reposition.

Who it attacks first

A healer or character concentrating on a spell.
An isolated character carrying a bright light source.
A wounded creature it can finish with Wanting Gaze.

Works well with

Dim light and broken sight lines support its ambush tactics.
Allies who restrain or slow targets help it keep prey within claw reach.

How to beat it

Bright, steady light makes its approach easier to spot, though it does not prevent its attacks.
Spread out to reduce the number of creatures caught by Drown the Light.
Its damage is largely necrotic and slashing, so resistance to either can blunt its offense.
A sturdy front line can hold its attention while ranged attackers exploit its modest saving throws.

Ways to avoid a fight

It can imitate a faint voice calling from beyond a nearby bend, using scraps of speech it has heard through telepathy.
It may leave a survivor alive if that survivor can lead it toward a community with stronger desires to feed upon.
A creature might distract it by presenting a compelling object or promise, though the demon is not capable of a genuine bargain.

Ecology

A towering, hunched demon with four long arms and a head like a smooth, split seedpod. Its skin drinks in light, while pale seams across its torso pulse as if something inside is trying to escape. Its claws leave glossy black streaks on stone, like melted candle wax.

Behavior

It stalks by extinguishing small lights and waiting for someone to investigate. It prefers to break a group’s formation before committing, and it toys with isolated prey by dimming lights just beyond their reach.

How it lives

It feeds on intense cravings and the fear of losing what one wants most. It needs no food, but lingers near places where desperate creatures gather, such as sealed refuges, abandoned mines, and settlements under siege.

Lair

A lightless chamber around a collapsed shrine or abandoned refuge. The walls are scored with black, waxy trails, and flames burn lower near the demon’s resting place.

Habitat
Underdark, especially abandoned tunnels, cavernous ruins, and deep fissures where light is scarce.

Signs that it is near

Black wax-like streaks on stone, sometimes running upward against gravity.
Lanterns gutter and candles burn with a pale blue edge.
A sudden, specific longing or homesickness among creatures near its lair.

Tags

demon,
underdark,
elite,
custom

Lore

Underdark guides call the creature Wax-Tear after the glossy black streaks it leaves where lamps once stood. Scholars suspect the name began as a tally mark in a lost demonological ledger, recording the residue found at vanished camps. The demon is drawn to a person’s most consuming desire, but it offers no bargain: it wants the desire to remain forever unmet.

What drives it

To make every living creature feel the ache of wanting, then extinguish the hope that the want can ever be fulfilled.

After the fight

When the demon dies, its body folds inward like a collapsing tent. It leaves a smear of black, waxy residue that stays cold for a day. Nearby flames relight, but their wicks briefly burn with a pale blue edge.

“Scholars suspect the name began as a tally mark in a lost demonological ledger, recording the residue found at vanished camps.”
From its lore

Variants

A scarred Wax-Tear has lost its ranged gaze and instead gains 15 additional hit points.
A starving Wax-Tear has 75 hit points and uses Drown the Light only once per encounter.

Hooks

Plot hooks

A mining crew has vanished, leaving only black streaks on the walls and one lantern burning with a blue-edged flame.
A desperate settlement has begun making offerings to the demon in exchange for a temporary reprieve from a rival threat.
The party finds a survivor who insists the demon spoke aloud using the voice of someone they lost.

How to use it

Use as the centerpiece of a fight in a cavern with narrow ledges, scattered light sources, and several routes of approach.
Pair with a few lesser demons or frightened cultists, but avoid adding enough extra damage to overwhelm a low-level party.
For a tense pursuit, have it extinguish lanterns behind the characters without attacking until they split up.

Treasure

A fist-sized bead of black residue that remains cold and can be sold to an occult collector for 100 gp.
A surviving miner’s cache of gems or tools concealed near the lair.

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