Savarusa lounged in her padded throne and peered into her reflecting pool. The image shimmered and shifted, showing a caravan on its journey through her desert. Her amber-like eyes transfixed on the multitudes of silk, incense, and jewelry, as well as men and women of great beauty — she knew it had to be hers and adorn her lair. Her insatiable greed grew into a dire hunger; her eyes flicked to one of her thralls who was aging faster than the rest. Surely it would not please her lord to allow this indignity to continue.
Savarusa called forth a cadre of her Jacklewere servants and instructed them. “A caravan is headed south, past the Bloodstone Gulch. Bring them to me with their wares... whichever of you brings the greatest prize shall be greatly rewarded.”
The Jackleweres scattered, howling and barking as they clambered over each other. She looked at the aging thrall and beckoned him to join her. Her eyes returned to the reflections in her Scrying pool and watched eagerly. The thoughts of her new bounties, the riches and thralls, joining her fine collection roused a purr from deep within her. The thrall approached her and bowed deeply, pressing his head to the floor. She drew a dagger, eyes still watching the reflections, and licked her lips.
Aged meat always tasted better.
Overview
I must confess, I have never run the Lamia in any campaign I have DMed. I would always pause when flipping through the Monster Manual because the art would catch my eye, but I never found a campaign of mine that I felt it would fit into. However, I hope this post changes that for me and for you.
Let’s take a look at the fluff text and see what the Lamia has to offer. Now, the first thing we can take note of is their servitude to Graz’zt. This was always missed by me, but here we have a natural narrative arc to take your players from fighting on the Material Plane to fighting Demons and a Demon Prince. Not only that, but it reads that they are made by Graz’zt1 to do as he bids, while also being free to spread their own evil. This is juicy for that narrative deliciousness; we have a baddie that commands their own forces. And as the party navigates through the lair of the Lamia, they can find missives from Graz’zt themselves, instructing the Lamia to protect this ruinous lair at all cost.
Next, Lamia use Jackalweres2 as minions, as well as their enthralled humanoids. (The Jackalweres have a similar origin and will be receiving their own post eventually.) The enthralled minions are subject to constant illusions, and the Lamia’s Intoxicating Touch weakens their ability to see through the illusions. Once broken, the enthralled minions will serve as bodyguards, chefs, entertainment — whatever the Lamia needs. This ties into the idea that the Lamia prefers to fight indirectly, using their minions to fight their battles, and casting spells or making their enemies fight among themselves and against illusions.
Finally, I want to point out this line from their fluff text: “A Lamia uses this power to watch over trade routes and nearby settlements, or to seek out objects and creatures it fancies.” Here is Wizards of the Coast saying, This is an adventure idea, and we are going to take it and run. In fact, the entire fluff text for the Lamia is how I would start to build out an idea for a campaign. It quite literally provides everything you will need. Provided in the fluff text is a Boss, their minions, who the boss answers to, their targets, methods of how they act, and where it takes place. This is the set up for a fun and interesting Tier 1 campaign that will allow you to let the heroes kill some bad guys that might be the root cause of the issue, only for it to happen again the following night with some kidnapping happening in the town they are in.
Stat
Now that we have gone through the overview of the beastie, let’s see what they can do.
A lower Armor Class and high Hit Points for a CR 4 monster. This makes the Lamia a classic Hit Point sponge. However, given the fluff for them and the rest of their stat block, we aren’t going to use our Lamia in melee range for long.
The high Deception Skill lets you place the Lamia in towns (in magical disguise, of course) that can misguide townsfolk and NPC-adventurers to wander into traps set up by their thralls, so that the Lamia can gain new thralls.
Innate Spellcasting is generally a good thing; it gives you more options and room to play a caster without having to fuss with spellslots or components.
Looking at the spells, we can learn that the Lamia is an enchanter. They will use magic to confuse adventurers and obfuscate information, but don’t have anything for offensive combat. Don’t let this deter you; this will let you have fun with traps, fun-house type mirror mazes, and fake-out your players with them attacking illusory enemies.
Geas is a spell that can be misunderstood by some newer players or DMs. It isn’t a catch-all ability that allows you to mind control people entirely. Make sure the command provided by the Lamia is not one that will contradict the rules of the spell.3 This applies to all Enchantment charms, but I wanted to bring focus to Geas since it is the Lamia’s big once-per-day spell. Also, while Geas is tempting to use on a player mid-combat, I would remind you that it takes one minute to cast. Also also, I would not cast it on one of the player characters. If they fail, then they are a servant of the Lamia for 30 days, and removing that level of player agency is ridiculous.
The Lamia’s Multiattack provides some good damage output, especially with the 2d10+3 Claw attack, and a debuff with the Intoxicating Touch ability. As I said in point 1, the Lamia won’t want to stay in melee combat for too long. I would use being in melee range to primarily hit adventurers with the Intoxicating Touch and then skedaddling to get to a safe distance to begin the Enchanting.
Okay, now, let's talk about Intoxicating Touch. It is a Spell attack, but isn’t a spell in the sense of spellcasting, so whether or not you allow your players to Counterspell the attack is up to you. Personally, I wouldn’t. I would let the player know that it’s a magical attack similar to a spell but not a spell in the traditional sense. This will let the players know that there is a magical effect associated with this specific attack and thus, might signal them to use other resources on players hit by it, and won’t tempt your casters into Counterspelling the attack, wasting their few spell slots.
Combat Example
The combat example we are going to work with here will include some traps that are covered by illusions, illusory combatants, Jackalweres, other minions, and an illusory Lamia. Specifically, in this fight, we have 1 Lamia, 2 Jackalweres, 6 Commoners, 1 Scout, 1 Acolyte, and 1 Noble against 4 sixth Level adventurers. Now, this looks like a large amount of combatants for 4 adventurers, but it should be noted that commoners are cannon fodder and the Scout, Acolyte, and Noble (which should be described to look like adventurers) will be wrapped up in short order. In fact, the Commoners and NPC adventurers should be gone in less than three rounds.
After gathering information and following tracks from the most recent caravan raid, our adventurers find themselves in the jaws of danger. Descending into ancient ruins, the adventurers are assailed by various illusions and traps. Winding through halls of shifting illusory walls, they finally make their way into the heart of the beast’s lair.
For the trap layout of the battlefield, I would suggest dividing the area into quadrants and making 3-10 tiles in each quadrant a ten foot pit trap, each covered by an illusion that makes it invisible to all but the most perceptible. For a combat encounter, I would rule that as they move through the room, they can make an Investigation check to see through the illusions around them, but only once at least one trap has been triggered. This will: 1. force players to slow down and try to figure out where it is safe; 2. disrupt player movement and have them spend movement on climbing out of pits4; and 3. potentially deal a small amount of damage to them as they twist their ankle in the fall.
For the turns in combat, we are going to break the enemies into four groups: The Lamia, Jackalweres, NPCs (Scout, Acolyte, Nobel), and fodder (Commoners). On the first turn, the following will happen:
The Lamia will use Suggestion on one of the adventurers (just a reminder: Suggestion can be up to two sentences).
The Jackalweres will use their Sleep Gaze on two adventurers. This action is presuming the adventurers have already encountered the Jackalweres and know they can wake up their allies.
The NPCs will stick close to the Lamia to defend her from the adventurers. If the adventurers kill the Lamia without killing the NPCs, they may prove to be valuable allies in the future of the campaign.
Finally, the Fodder will charge at the adventurers. They will have no greater idea than “Kill the intruders”. They will, however, know the layout of the terrain and not fall into the pit traps.
After the first turn, plan on continuing to use the fodder to absorb attacks from the adventurers. Your Jackalweres should run around for hit-and-run attacks, the NPCs will stay close to the Lamia, and the Lamia will continue to attempt to fool the adventurers with her magic.
If you want to run this combat with lair actions — to mix up the fight a little — you can try the following:
Lair Actions
On initiative count 20 (losing initiative ties), the Lamia takes a lair action to cause one of the following effects (the Lamia can't use the same effect two rounds in a row):
The Lamia weaves illusions that come to life within the lair. These illusions take the form of seductive phantasms or terrifying nightmares, creating difficult terrain in a 20-foot radius centered on a point the Lamia can see within 120 feet. Creatures that start their turn or enter the area must succeed on a DC 13 Wisdom saving throw or be restrained by the illusions until the start of their next turn.
The Lamia uses its illusions to amplify the charm effects in its lair. All creatures within the lair must succeed on a DC 13 Wisdom saving throw or become charmed for 1 minute. A charmed creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on a success.
The Lamia releases haunting whispers that sow discord among intruders. Each creature of the Lamia's choice within the lair must make a DC 10 Charisma saving throw. On a failed save, the creature is compelled to attack its nearest ally on its next turn. The effect lasts until the end of the creature's turn.
Additionally, something I would add to the Stat block of the Lamia: a ranged physical attack. Nothing amazing, just an ability to give them access to ranged damage. That being said, I would add:
Light Crossbow. Ranged Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, range 80/320 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d8 + 1) piercing damage.
This is comparable to a bandit’s ranged attack, so I don’t feel it is too excessive to allow the Lamia to attack from across the room.
Final Thoughts
The Lamia brings a level of trickery to campaigns that usually is difficult to plan out. Having built-in minions, we have the best example of a boss designed for a dungeon or campaign that doesn’t rely on pure damage to overpower the players. With the ability to almost guarantee their spells success, the Lamia will test your players in ways they probably haven’t thought of before.
As seen in Out of the Abyss.
More akin to a Gnoll shapeshifter than a Werewolf type shapeshifter.
I encourage you as a DM to remember the “bring no harm to themselves” part of most Enchantment charms. Do not let players run wild with “Autodefenestratio” or similar potentially harmful commands.
Unless the player has a climb speed, Climbing is considered difficult terrain. You can read more on page 182 of the Players Handbook.