“Like the cold hands of her dead companions nearly invisible tendrils drag the elf toward a twisting, miasmic cyclone. She digs the heels of her adventuring boots into the soft ground struggling in vain to resist the elemental, but the wind currents are too strong, the monster has a hold on her that she can’t break. Wrapped in a maelstrom made of necrotic air, her eyes and mouth open wide in a silent scream, there is nothing she can do as her breath is drawn from her lungs.”
•What is the Withering Wind
•The Withering Wind in Combat
•New Stat Block
•Conclusion
The Withering Wind, an Elemental made from the Breath of the Dying.
What is the Withering Wind?
When a concentration of creatures on the Material Plane die, especially when strong emotions are involved, a curious or malevolent elemental from the plane of air may manifest capturing the last breaths of the dying. When this happens a Withering Wind is born. This elemental variant seeks out prey with a greedy desire to collect the breath of the living.
Being a native to Elemental Plane of Air the Withering Wind doesn’t manifest on the Material Plane on its own. Typically they are created after a great battle with heavy casualties, when an epidemic decimates a city’s population, or summoned by an evil spell caster. How they come into existence matters very little to the Withering Wind it has only one goal: to drain the breath from the living. This craving isn’t limited to only humanoids though: giants, monstrosities, and aberrations can fall victim to the elemental’s greedy hunger. If it has breath in its lungs, it is a potential meal for the elemental.
The Withering Wind can appear in any shape and is up to the Dungeon Master. The elemental could be giant noxious bone-filled cyclone, spinning with the remains of its victims trapped in its current. Or it can take on a transparent humanoid form, one with dozens of reaching arms. If the elementals in your campaign take on flesh and blood corporeal forms when on the Material Plane the Withering Wind may appear as a two-headed winged serpent. One that uses its coils to constrict its victims before inhaling the life through either of the serpentine mouths. The description can be whatever you choose to make it.
The Withering Wind in Battle
The Air Elemental from the Monster Manual uses an action called Whirlwind that, on a failed DC 13 strength save, flings a target away from the it. But the Withering Wind is a predator, it doesn’t want its prey far from it. So we replace Whirlwind with Whelm stealing the ability straight from the stat block of its cousin, the Water Elemental. The target will still make a strength save but now it is to escape a grapple instead of being thrown. This attack deals 13 or 2d8 + 4 and the target is restrained and takes necrotic damage instead of cold.
The Gelatinous Cube is a great example of a monster with a ravenous appetite that can overwhelm a creature by using engulf. However the Withering Wind has an huge advantage over the Gelatinous Cube: a massive 90 feet of movement speed. To better emphasize the flavor and make use of the elemental’s impressive speed we add the Rampage ability from the Gnoll stat block. This ability allows the elemental to move toward a target after reducing another creature to zero hit points. This bonus action takes advantage of its 90 feet of movement allowing the Withering Wind to chase down its prey with ease and there will be virtually no Player Character that can outrun it on the battlefield.
Stat Block
The changes above allow the Withering Wind to maintain the same challenge rating as the air elemental from the Monster Manual. If you're looking to up the ante then here are a few more updates you can you add to the monster to increase the difficulty.
Life Stealer- Leaning hard into the life stealing flavor of the Withering Wind you can give it the Life Draining ability like that of the wraith.
Vampiric Tempest- If your players are mowing through the Withering Wind's hit points you can allow it to regain health after it inflicts necrotic damage to any target. The hit points regained would be equal to half of the necrotic damage taken.
Conclusion
A necromancer or evil cult leader might use the Withering Wind as a minion in place of the usual undead. Since the new monster is an elemental it would be immune to a cleric’s Turn Undead while still remaining thematic to an undead campaign. The Withering Wind could also be used as a clue, the side effect from your Big Bad Evil making humanoid sacrifices that adds an unexpected challenge for the party and leads them to his lair.
How would you use the Withering Wind in your game? What kind of creatures would your elemental be made from? Let me know in a comment below.
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