Monster Academy: the Nothic

With the Strixhaven book now available and Magical Academies otherwise back in vogue, I felt it only appropriate to wade through dusty tomes and illegible scrolls to unearth an otherwise forgotten scavenger of arcane lore: the Nothic. As is often the case with Dungeons & Dragons fifth edition, the Nothic is a creature with such rich storytelling potential that is hamstrung by an entirely underwhelming stat block. However, this is not an entry in Monster Mash; this time, we’re going to pore over the Nothic’s entry in the Monster Manual, contrast that with what we’re given in its stat block, and wrap up with some suggestions to achieve parity between the two.

Welcome to the first entry in the Monster Academy series!

Curiosity Cursed the Cat (…or Wizard, as it were)

So, what is a Nothic? According to its entry in the Monster Manual, Nothics are the byproduct of a curse that reduces its victim, who must be a wizard or other seeker of arcane secrets, into a “creeping, tormented monster” with a single “baleful eye…its gleam hinting at a weird intelligence and unnerving malevolence.” We then learn this curse was devised by the notorious Vecna, a powerful lich who has served as a major antagonist in earlier editions of D&D.

While the Nothic curse strips its victim of their previous identity, it does not rob them of their need for knowledge. This need, however, is similarly cursed: the cure they instinctively hunt for does not exist. But how does the Nothic, warped beyond comprehension and only able to speak Undercommon, feed this need? The curse bestows upon them “a strange magical insight that allows them to extract knowledge” from others. The Nothic then barters those secrets for esoteric clues to the cure or magic items. How exactly does a broom of flying get the Nothic any closer to returning to their original form? Your guess is as good as mine.

And where might the Nothics search for this occult knowledge? Why, the halls of “arcane academies and other places rich in magical learning,” of course! Now the intro to this article makes more sense, right? I can already imagine a horror scenario (or future Dungeon Masters Guild adventure) of academy students being stalked in the halls by a Nothic. A key moment could even be the Nothic gleaning a dark secret from one of the students and blackmailing them for some of the academy’s restricted lore!

Expectations vs Reality

Okay, so we’ve explored the details provided by the Monster Manual, but how does the Nothic’s stat block shape up? It’s…okay. Nothing about its middling Intelligence score and lack of spells screams wizard to me, but hitting a PC with Rotting Gaze and describing it eating away at their skin could be a satisfying moment for a horrific encounter. That said, if this is a creature created by a lich’s curse, why does it only speak Undercommon? And how is the Nothic supposed to barter if it can’t even understand a Standard Language (per the Player’s Handbook)?

Weird Insight, the ability Nothics use to glean secrets from other creatures, straddles the line between game mechanic and narrative device, and I don’t really think it accomplishes either particularly well. For instance, why does the target win against Weird Insight if they’re immune to being charmed? And what kind of information are you going to pull from PCs with this? It almost feels like you would have to plan the Nothic’s inclusion in the campaign far enough in advance to give your PCs enough time to acquire a secret worth stealing.

So, are there any ways to adjust this stat block so it feels more in-line with its incredibly compelling lore? Absolutely! Given the time and direction, I bet you could add all sorts of interesting gimmicks into the Nothic’s repertoire, but today we’re going to focus on some quick tricks you can implement with relative ease:

• Give it detect thoughts with a use of At Will or 3/day without requiring material components. Given their past, the fact that Nothics have no form of magic at their disposal is embarrassing. If you want to go the extra mile, pairing detect thoughts with something like the encode thoughts cantrip from Guildmaster’s Guide to Ravnica would be an incredible way to realize the intent of Weird Insight without the strangeness of making Insight checks against having your mind probed or the fact that being immune to charms negates the ability.
• Give it at least 1 Standard Language. If the Nothic is supposed to barter for knowledge, it should probably be able to communicate in more than just Undercommon.
• Swap its CON and INT scores. Curse or not, Nothics used to be wizards and have a proclivity toward the collection of magic items/lore. It should have more than a +1 bonus to its INT checks. If you want to maintain its hit point average, increase the number of hit die until it balances out.
• Give it a cloak of elvenkind. As a collector of magical items, it should have at least one on hand, no? I picked the cloak of elvenkind because it has an uncommon rarity (suitable for a CR 2 creature), it works perfectly with the Nothic’s preference for hiding among the shadows, and it would be a great incentive for the party to at least listen to the Nothic’s request.

So how would you spice up the Nothic to give it a stat block worthy of its awesome lore? And in what scenarios do you think you’d use one?

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