Displacer Beasts


 * Displacer beast.jpgSource: Monster Manual p. 81


 * Monster Types: Raider, Reach Weapon User

Overview
Displacer Beasts combine a 40ft speed with a reach attack and a considerable amount of hit points. In addition, they have damage reduction abilities that will allow them to stay in a fight longer or take risks and get away with it. Their Displacement ability is akin to a limited version of a free dodge action every round, and their Avoidance ability will devalue a significant portion of the ranged arsenal that PCs typically stock themselves with. These factors combine to make Displacer Beasts excellent and hit-and-run tactics. Their intelligence is a bit higher than animal intelligence, and their reasons for hunting go beyond feeding itself. It would not be a stretch that they could apply some of the tactics of intelligent humanoids, and would be persistent.

Displacer Beasts, staying true to their Fey origins, will typically stalk areas of dense foliage and will benefit from half cover (+2 AC) and three-quarters cover (+5 AC) when speeding away from their victims. Combined with their Displacement ability imposing disadvantage on attacks, they will be very hard to hit.

And while Displacer Beasts are not proficient in stealth, their +2 dex modifier and the fact that they live in places that encourage low visibility (and therefore advantage on stealth checks), they will be able to get the drop on PCs for surprise rounds from time to time. Night sorties are typical given their 60ft darkvision.

How to Run a Displacer Beast Encounter
Displacer Beasts want to fight in a big space where it can get the most value out of its speed. As both creatures of the Feywild and natural raiders, they will likely pick their battles in a dense forest or jungle, and they will often attack at night to get the most value from its darkvision. Displacer Beasts can hunt solo or in groups, so you can vary the challenge level of the encounter significantly.

Displacer Beasts are great for conducting hit-and-run attacks. They can try for a surprise round, but either way should spend their first turn closing ground with the PCs as fast as possible and then focus fire a single target. They should apply reach weapon tactics to circumvent defenses and to dance around melee characters without reach weapons of their own. Once they have taken some serious blows, they should retreat into the safety of dense foliage and the cover and low visibility it provides. Have them take short rest, heal up, and come back at the party.

Using Reach and Speed Together
A Displacer Beast's 40ft speed and 10ft reach attack allow it to attack melee characters without reach weapons of their own and get out safely. In the example to the left, a Displacer Beast can move from it's starting position to make a reach attack on the PC and leave without taking an Opportunity Attack. If the Displacer Beast still has at least 30 ft of movement left (as it does in this example), it can move to a place where a PC with 30 movement can't get to it next round without using their action for dashing or using a special class ability (like cunning action).

Retreating
When retreating, it can spend its actions dashing out of the player's grasp. It gets 80 ft. of movement per turn when dashing and is protected by its Displacement ability: a slightly worse version of the dodge action, but is automatic. If dashing into the cover of dense foliage (half or three-quarters cover, depending on how deep into the forest it gets), it is quite hard to hit! The following table shows the chance to hit a Displacer Beast with different attack bonuses as its abilities and cover begin to stack.

As you can see, even a character with a +7 to hit is only hitting a Displacement Beast 1 out of ever 4 attacks once they are in the thick undergrowth of the forest.