View source for Publication:Dread Codex/Monsters/Necroling

=== Combat ===

Although necrolings are not the most imposing creatures, they can make terrifying combatants. They dart around with incredible speed, which grants them surprising reach for their size, biting at foes in order to incapacitate them before slashing with their tiny swords. Necrolings are inordinately strong for their tiny stature.

A necroling can travel up to 100 feet from its bottle, always connected by a small tether of smoke (which can be disrupted without injuring the necroling, although the necroling senses the disturbance). Some necromancers who command necrolings wear the bottles at their waists, releasing the creatures to aid them in combat.

The only way to destroy a necroling is to smash the bottle. Due to its magical construction, such a vessel is treated as having hardness 10, with 10 hit points, and a Break DC of 26.

'''{{Anchor|Sleep Bite}} ([[Su]]):''' Anyone bitten by a necroling must make a successful DC 12 Fortitude save or fall into a deep slumber for 10d6 minutes.

'''{{Anchor|Smoke Form}} ([[Ex]]):''' Necrolings can turn gaseous at will, as if by the gaseous form spell cast by a 4th-level sorcerer.

'''{{Anchor|Retreat}} ([[Su]]):''' When a necroling is reduced to 0 hit points, it is not destroyed; instead, it automatically and instantaneously becomes gaseous, teleports into its bottle, and pulls in the stopper. After 24 hours, it returns to full strength and may once again exit its bottle.

'''{{Anchor|Vanishing Bottle}} ([[Su]]):''' Three times per night, as a standard action, a necroling may teleport its bottle up to 300 feet away; this functions as the vanish spell, except the necroling need not touch its bottle, there is no chance of the bottle being disintegrated, and the bottle cannot be sent to the Ethereal Plane. When the bottle teleports, the necroling travels with it. Of course, if the necroling perceives an attack directed at its bottle, it usually activates the bottle's vanishing power to escape. The necroling has usually scouted out the surrounding area to find the most innocuous locations to hide its bottle in the event of an emergency (wine cellars and gutters are favorites).