Medusa

Medium monstrosity, lawful evil

Armor Class
15
natural armor
Hit Points
127
17d8 + 51
Speed
30 ft.
  • STR 0
  • DEX +2
  • CON +3
  • INT +1
  • WIS +1
  • CHA +2
Skills
Deception +5, Insight +4, Perception +4, Stealth +5
Senses
darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 14
Languages
Common
Challenge 6 2,300 XP · Proficiency +3

Traits

Petrifying Gaze

When a creature that can see the medusa's eyes starts its turn within 30 feet of the medusa, the medusa can force it to make a DC 14 Constitution saving throw if the medusa isn't incapacitated and can see the creature. If the saving throw fails by 5 or more, the creature is instantly petrified. Otherwise, a creature that fails the save begins to turn to stone and is restrained. The restrained creature must repeat the saving throw at the end of its next turn, becoming petrified on a failure or ending the effect on a success. The petrification lasts until the creature is freed by the greater restoration spell or other magic.

Unless surprised, a creature can avert its eyes to avoid the saving throw at the start of its turn. If the creature does so, it can't see the medusa until the start of its next turn, when it can avert its eyes again. If the creature looks at the medusa in the meantime, it must immediately make the save.

If the medusa sees itself reflected on a polished surface within 30 feet of it and in an area of bright light, the medusa is, due to its curse, affected by its own gaze.

Actions

Multiattack

The medusa makes either three melee attacks—one with its snake hair and two with its shortsword—or two ranged attacks with its longbow.

Snake Hair

Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 4 (1d4 + 2) piercing damage plus 14 (4d6) poison damage.

Shortsword

Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d6 + 2) piercing damage.

Longbow

Ranged Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, range 150/600 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d8 + 2) piercing damage plus 7 (2d6) poison damage.

How to run it

The medusa is a conversation before it is a fight. Deception +5, Insight +4 and Common mean she can talk, and the classic encounter is a veiled host in a ruin full of statues who is perfectly civil until someone looks directly at her.

In combat, Petrifying Gaze at DC 14 that instantly petrifies on a failure by 5 or more is genuinely lethal. Three attacks a round with heavy poison damage on the snake hair is almost secondary. Run her at range with the longbow if the party averts their eyes.

Building the encounter

One medusa for a party of four at level 5 or 6 is a hard fight and an excellent one. Her 127 hit points mean she lasts, and the gaze pressure compounds each round.

The setting is doing as much work as the stat block. A lair with statues in mid-flight, a mirror the party can use, and somewhere she can break line of sight. A medusa fought in a featureless room loses most of what makes her interesting.

What to pair it with

Nothing that fights, ideally. She is a set piece. If you need support, use terrain and the statues themselves rather than more monsters.

A petrified NPC the party came to rescue is the strongest addition available: it gives them a reason to negotiate and a reason not to simply burn the room down.

Reskins

A social predator with a save-or-die stare. Reflavour as a cursed noble, a fey with an unbearable true form, or something wearing a veil for everyone's protection.

The key is that she can be talked to. A medusa reskinned into a mindless monster loses the thing that makes her better than a basilisk.

Commonly played wrong

The gaze only works if the creature can see the medusa's EYES, which gives averting, blindfolds and mirrors real mechanical weight. Rule on this before the session, because it will come up in the first round.

Multiattack is either three melee attacks or two longbow shots, not a mix. And the snake hair carries 4d6 poison on top of its unimpressive 1d4, which makes it by far her best melee attack.

Compared to others at this CR

At CR 6 the medusa is the save-or-die option. Most creatures at this tier threaten a character's hit points; she threatens their existence in the campaign.

Against the basilisk three CRs below her, she is the same mechanic played by something intelligent, which is a completely different encounter. The basilisk is a hazard. The medusa is an antagonist.

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