They descended into the depths of the world below, their torches flickering weakly against the oppressive darkness. Footsteps echoed against the cold stone walls as they pressed on, unaware of the lurking danger that awaited them. Without warning, the ground trembled beneath their feet, before they could react, the earth erupted in a cacophony of crumbling rock and dust. A large hulking insectoid beast burst forth from its hidden lair, its chitinous form towering over the startled adventurers.
With primal fury, the beast descended upon the adventurers, its razor-sharp claws tearing through armor as if it were paper. Screams of anguish filled the cavernous tunnels, drowned out only by the thunderous roars of the beast. One by one, they fell beneath its relentless assault, their hopes dashed against the unyielding might of the creature.
As the last echoes of battle faded into the darkness, the creature stood amidst the carnage, its massive form stained with the blood of its victims. With a satisfied growl, it dragged the lifeless bodies of the adventurers back to its lair, where it would feast upon their remains until its hunger was sated once more.
The Umber Hulk would feed on warm flesh tonight.
Overview
The Umber Hulk is a nearly perfect ambush hunter from the Underdark. A creature that will know where you are before you even see it. Let’s take a look at what WotC has to say about the Umber Hulk.
First things first, the Umber Hulk has psychic abilities that allows it to mess with the minds of its victims; few who survive an encounter with an Umber Hulk remember every detail, spaces often blank or spotty. This mind-shenaniganry, that causes the creature to usually stand still, is how the Umber Hulk ambushes its prey. Being an ambush hunter allows us to use this creature well on a “Random Encounter Table” in the Underdark.
Next we are going to talk a little more about how they ambush. The Umber Hulk is a devious little tunneler, diggin their grubbly little mitts into the Underdark’s stone. They burrow into the walls of a cavern or passageway and lay in wait for an unfortunate soul to wander past them. It then erupts from its hiding spot getting the drop on their prey, showering them with bits of stone, and catching them with its Confusing Gaze. This tunneling leave behind small trails that players can investigate and traverse through to go beyond the paths that they know. If you want to add a little spice to your post-encounter exploration, the tunnel can lead back to a lair for the Umber Hulk were the remains of its previous prey lay and rot leaving behind any coin, gems, or items.
Stats
Now that our brains are scrambled, lets see what this beastie can do.
The Umber Hulk has a high armor class and an fairly above average Hit Points for a CR 5 creature. The armor class will prop up the Hit Point total that will drop quickly, especially when the players get their power boost at level 5.
A burrow speed will let your Umber Hulk break line of sight quickly during their turn. This will also allow the Umber Hulk to burst out of the ground springing an ambush on unsuspecting adventurers.
Looking at the attributes, that 9 Intelligence puts it just below average of the standard commoner, allowing the Umber hulk to set rudimentary traps or ambushes.
Speaking of ambushes, their Tremorsense will give the Umber Hulk ample warning to prep their ambush.
Now Confusing Gaze is the Umber Hulk’s main ability, and is also the ability the creature was designed around.
The Umber Hulk can incapacitate creatures that can see its eyes, so long as the creature is within 30 feet and fails a DC 15 Charisma saving throw. That is fairly straight forward and it causes a couple of things to happen.
5.1. First a creature that fails the saving throw cannot take reactions until the start of their next turn. This can cause some issues, but won’t be too troublesome. The second effect of Confusing Gaze is what it is structured around.
5.2. Next at the start of the creatures turn they roll a d8 to get their delicious punishment. On a 1-4 the creature does nothing and their turn ends, a 5 or 6 the creature takes no actions but uses their entire movement in a random direction, on a 7 or 8 the creature attacks a random target —with a melee attack— or nothing if no creature is in range. If this sounds familiar, that is because it is very similar to the Confusion spell, but more unfortunate because there is no “you act normally” effect.1
5.3. Now unless surprised a creature can aver its eyes to avoid having to make the saving throw. If they choose to do so, they cannot see the Umber Hulk until the start of its next turn. If for whatever reason they end up looking at the Umber Hulk, they immediately make the saving throw.
5.4. Finally, the effect does not last more than one turn. We know this because there isn’t a note about when the creature can make another save; so unless the effects are permanent, it only lasts one turn.The Tunneler ability allows the Umber hulk to burrow through solid stone. This is normally not possible with a burrow speed, which only allows movement through sand, dirt, mud or ice. This will be very useful in the underdark, and setting up ambushes in seemingly impossible locations.
Once again the attack actions and the Multiattack are nothing special. In the instance that it hits all three attacks the average damage is 32, which can be devastating if they are under the effects of Confusing Gaze.
Combat Example
Today we going to ambush our players and make them hate the Underdark more than they already do. Here we have 2 Umber Hulks against 4 eighth level adventurers. This will be a perfectly set up ambush from the Umber Hulks, unfortunately for our intrepid adventurers they won’t see it coming.
Our adventurers have delved deep into the far reaches of the Underdark as they hunt their quarry. While they walk along a path carved into the side of a subterranean ravine the prep themselves for the worst as a rumble echoes around them. The adventurers pause, holding still and and waiting, as nothing happens they breathe a sigh of relief and continue ahead; unaware that they are only walking into a trap.
Before the first turn of combat, go ahead and ask the players to roll initiative. If asked what is attacking them, repeat that you are asking for initiative. At the start of the first turn of combat, before any player takes actions describe the Umber hulks bursting through the walls on their side of the adventurers; as they burst out and the players see them, ask the players to make their Charisma Saving throws. Now this may upset some players, they can make arguments about being snuck up on, or abilities that allow them to not be surprised, but that is not what is going on here. The creatures are bursting out from cover, even if they players have abilities that allow them to not be surprised, that doesn’t prohibit the creatures from entering the battle and having their passive abilities activate.
Now, we check against players being surprised. If any of the adventurers have abilities preventing them from being surprised, they are excluded from the check.2 If anyone is surprised by the sudden arrival of the Umber Hulks, well…rip.
Since we have that handled, we can now take combat turns. On their first turn the Umber Hulks will charge into the group and make there attacks on the first person they encounter. If an Umber Hulk emerges in the middle group, they will split their attacks randomly against whoever is nearby. Given the Umber Hulks ability to confuse their prey, they won’t be jumpy when it comes to movement or attacks from the adventurers. However, they are still animals, if they fall under 50 Hit Points, the Umber Hulk will flee.
Final Thoughts
Umber Hulks are arguably the perfect ambush hunter in the Underdark. Once your players encounter an Umber Hulk, they will begin to gain a paranoia for every situation that is similar to where they encountered it. You definitely should imply that Umber Hulks are in the area if they players begin to question it. Have their roar in the distance, have the players stumble upon the molted exoskeleton, let a player fall into a tunnel left behind by one or several Umber Hulks. Let the effects of Confusion Gaze impair the adventurers to where they fear looking into the dark or tunnels. This is where you can lean into the DM vs Players mentality but not letting it manifest into toxicity, just a fun little tease.
Womp womp
Here you go Rules Lawyers and Rule of Cool deniers, we are sticking to the rules.