New Monster: Pollutoad
Art Credit: https://www.deviantart.com/operion/art/Poison-Creature-419309866
While normal frogs and toads are quite vulnerable to pollution and other toxins on account of their thin, permeable skin, certain fantasy toads are exactly the opposite: spawning and even thriving in murky, polluted waters and spreading toxic miasma wherever they go. This poison toad monster fits perfectly in the alchemical sludge of urban industry, just as it does in the fetid pools surrounding the lair of a coven of green hags or in the diseased swamps of dead landscape plagued with undeath. The hallucinatory variety is even sometimes kept in magical enclosures within the strongholds of giants, who refine the hallucinatory toxin into a rare drug that is potent enough to affect even the largest of giants. Once an area has pollutoads living in it, nothing short of their removal will be able to cleanse the area, and heroic adventurers will likely be the ones tasked with slaying the creatures.
Pollutoads are Challenge Rating 13 (or 14 with the Hallucinatory Toxins trait), but they’re a bit easy to kill for their challenge rating, with only moderate hit points, few resistances, and a low Armor Class. However, the pollutoad is extremely offensively dangerous for its Challenge Rating to make up for that. A group that surrounds the pollutoad (or that lets it jump into their ranks) can be quickly overwhelmed with poison damage from the combination of Belch and two highly poisonous attacks each turn. The pollutoad is stronger and heartier than normal giant toads, allowing it to jump further and attack more ferociously. It can bite a target and Swallow it in the same turn, pulling the target from up to 10 feet away with its tongue. Once swallowed, a player character is in danger of the pollutoad’s poisonous digestion. Combining these effects, a pollutoad can easily deal well over a hundred damage to a group of PCs each round, even if the PCs are careful about staying away from the stinky, belching creature. The pollutoad is just one of a handful of new monsters in The Impermissicon that feature a Stench trait, making them prime targets for the recently-previewed Plague Warden ranger, which will also be appearing in the same compendium. That’s the kind of synergy between bits of content and attention to detail that you can expect from D&D Unleashed homebrew.
