Cave Worm
Level 13Attacks
Abilities
The cave worm recovers from the Paralyzed, Slowed, and Stunned conditions at the end of its turn. It's also immune to penalties to its Speeds and the Immobilized condition, and it ignores difficult terrain and greater difficult terrain.
Frequency once per day
Trigger The cave worm would be affected by a condition or adverse effect (such as Cursed Metamorphosis)
Effect The cave worm negates the triggering condition or effect by sloughing an outer layer of its skin. Effects from artifacts, deities, or a similarly powerful source can't be avoided in this way.
Saving Throw DC 32 fortitude
Maximum Duration 6 rounds
Stage 1 5d6 poison damage and Enfeebled 2 (1 round)
Stage 2 6d6 poison damage, and enfeebled 2 (1 round)
Stage 3 8d6 poison damage and enfeebled 2 (1 round)
Trigger The cave worm Grabs a creature.
Effect The worm uses Swallow Whole.
The purple worm can violently regurgitate a creature or boulder it has swallowed to make a ranged Strike. The Strike deals bludgeoning damage depending on the size of the projectile:
- •Tiny (2d6+13)[bludgeoning]
- •Small (3d6+13)[bludgeoning]
- •Medium (4d6+13)[bludgeoning]
- •Large (5d6+13)[bludgeoning]
- •Huge (6d6+13)[bludgeoning]
A regurgitated creature takes falling damage from the height of the target or from 20 feet, whichever is greater.
Boulders occupy space in the worm's stoma
A cave worm can burrow through solid stone at a Speed of 20 feet. It can leave a tunnel if it desires, and it usually does.
Huge, (3d6+9)[bludgeoning], Rupture 24
The worm makes a Strike once against each creature in its reach. It can Strike up to once with its jaws, up to once with its stinger, and any number of times with its body. Each attack counts toward the worm's multiple attack penalty, but the multiple attack penalty doesn't increase until after it makes all the attacks.
The most common and infamous of the cave worms gives its name to the entire family—a much-feared monster wandering the twisting tunnels of the Darklands that is capable of carving out entire cave systems. Tunnels bored by a cave worm don't always last long after these creature's passage, and areas where they nest are maddening mazes of passageways that lead nowhere, yet navigating the labyrinth to find the worm's central nest often yields amazing treasures left behind by the worm's prior victims.
Cave worms are gigantic scavengers that bore through the depths of the world, eating whatever material they find. Named for their distinctive habitats, these worms are ravenous and display overwhelming destructive capabilities. Cave worms of different types and abilities lurk in the more remote corners of the world—tales speak of arctic worms that dwell within immense glaciers or icebergs and grave worms that burrow through the boneyards of long-forgotten ruins, to name a few.