This morning, while tossing and turning, I got the wild idea to create Gremlins from the 1984 Joe Dante movie.

If you aren’t familiar with gremlins, they are small, lizard-like creatures that live to cause havoc. They spawn from mogwai that have eaten after midnight and they multiply when you put water on them. In addition, they are hypersensitive to sunlight which destroys them almost immediately.

Interestingly, mogwai/gremlins didn’t have their origins in the movie. Their origins are actually in Chinese folklore where mogwai are demons that arrive and procreate (multiply) with the rain.

Design Notes

While creating gremlins, it occurred to me that they more or less already exist in Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition; they’re called kobolds. The only real difference seems to be their alignment (chaotic evil vs lawful evil), and their water spawning ability. Also, gremlins are less inclined to use weapons and use their claws instead.

Gremlin

Small monstrosity, chaotic evil

Armor Class 12 (natural armor)

Hit Points 3 (1d6)

Speed 30 ft, climb 30 ft.

Abilities Str 7 (-2), Dex 15 (+2), Con 10 (+0), Int 5 (-3), Wis 7 (-2), Cha 8 (-1)

Skills Stealth +4

Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 8

Languages Gremlin

Challenge 1/8 (25 XP)

Light Sensitivity. Whenever the gremlin is exposed to bright light from a source other than sunlight, it must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or become stunned until the end of its next turn.

Pack Tactics. The gremlin has advantage on an attack roll against a creature if at least one of the gremlin’s allies within 5 feet of the creature and the ally isn’t incapacitated.

Sunlight Hypersensitivity. The gremlin takes 10 radiant damage when it starts its turn in sunlight. While in sunlight, it has disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks.

Water Spawn. For every pint of water splashed on it, the gremlin spawns 1d6 + 1 new gremlins if it has at least half its hit points. Each new gremlin has hit points equal to the original mogwai’s hit point total.

Actions

Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d4 + 2) slashing damage.

Mogwai

Tiny monstrosity, any alignment

Armor Class 11

Hit Points 2 (1d4)

Speed 20 ft

Abilities Str 3 (-4), Dex 13 (+1), Con 10 (+0), Int 5 (-3), Wis 12 (+1), Cha 10 (+0)

Skills Stealth +3

Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 11

Languages Common, Gremlin

Challenge 0 (10 XP)

Light Sensitivity. Whenever the mogwai is exposed to bright light from a source other than sunlight, it must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or become stunned until the end of its next turn. While in bright light, it has disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks.

Sunlight Hypersensitivity. The mogwai takes 10 radiant damage when it starts its turn in sunlight. While in sunlight, it has disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks.

Water Spawn. For every pint of water splashed on it, the mogwai spawns 1d6 + 1 new mogwai if it has at least half its hit points. Each new mogwai has hit points equal to the original mogwai’s hit point total.

Actions

Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +0 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1 piercing damage.

Thanks for reading!

I don’t know why, but I just wanted to make these guys today. Perhaps it’s from all the Christmas music I’ve been listening to lately? Probably. After all, Gremlins is a Christmas movie, right? 😉

For more free Dungeons & Dragons fifth edition content, follow along with the blog by either signing up with the opt-in form on the right or down in the footer.

See you next time!

Art by Mondo.

Share this: Facebook

Reddit

Pinterest

