Witherlings are undead created by gnoll priests of Yeenoghu, fusing the body of a slain foe with the head of a hyena, and grafting poisoned gazelle horns on to the hands. The resulting creature is fiercely loyal to the gnoll priest that created it, obeying every command given, regardless of danger.
Witherling
Move: 160 feet/turn/climb 120 feet/turn/leap 80 feet/turn
Hit Dice: 4
Armor Class: 8
Treasure Type: nil
Alignment: neutral
Attacks: 2
Damage: 1d6
Anyone struck by a witherling's poisoned claws is paralyzed as per the touch of a ghoul, though a witherling's claws effect elves as well. A saving throw against paralysis is allowed to avoid this effect. Witherlings are turned as wraiths.
Thanks for bringing these to my attention. I skipped 4th edition entirely, so I never saw any of its monsters.
ReplyDelete'Nail a hyena head to my dead enemy's corpse and then animate it' seems pretty much par for the course for gnolls, but poisoned gazelle horns for hands seems kinda random. Is there any explanation for what the point of that is?
Also having heard of it just now, I immediately connected the "poisoned gazelle horns" to the paralysis ability. Otherwise there's no effect from the poison.
DeleteAn assumption on my part, as I also pretty much skipped 4e (and 3e, and 2e).
I've never heard of these either, but you could explain it as both hyenas & gnolls having a preference for eating gazelles, and thus having an abundance of leftover horns for decorating or undead creation.
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