dungeons and dragons monster: sarlacc
2019.12.19 (updated : 2025.09.14)
| Number Enc.: | 1 | |
| Alignment: None | ||
| Movement: None | ||
| Armor Class | ||
| (tentacles): 5 | ||
| (inside): 2 | ||
| Hit Dice: | stage I: | 4 + 20hp (38hp) |
| stage II: | 8 + 60hp (96hp) | |
| stage III: | 16 + 180hp (252hp) | |
| stage IV: | 32 + 540hp (684 hp) | |
| stage V: | 64 + 1620hp (1908 hp) | |
| Attacks: | 6 | |
| Damage: | 6 x 2d4 + grab | |
| Save: | stage I: | F4 |
| stage II: | F8 | |
| stage III: | F16 | |
| stage IV: | F20 | |
| stage V: | F20 | |
| Morale: | 12 | |
| Hoard Class: | special | |
| XP: | stage I: | 200 |
| stage II: | 8 + 600 | |
| stage III: | 16 + 1,800 | |
| stage IV: | 32 + 5,400 | |
| stage V: | 64 + 16,200 | |
fearsome ambush
The sarlacc is a fungal monster that feeds on meat. Clusters of pits found throughout the world's semi-arid regions but also it's great swamps and fens are thought to represent a single living creature with a network of runners that connect the different sites where it forms a pit at the surface. Individual sites start as small pits the size of a wagon wheel. Hidden among brambles or bushes they are very difficult to spot (except to the erdei). This pit is steep and saturated with fibres that the sarlacc produces to stabilize the walls. The pit become lined with spines as the sarlacc ages.
As the creature grows, so too its pit and its tentacles:
| pit size: | diameter | depth | tentacle length | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| stage I: | 1m | 1m | 40cm | |
| stage II: | 4m | 2m | 1.6m | |
| stage III: 12m | 5m | 5m | ||
| stage IV: | 36m | 12m | 14m | |
| stage V: | 100m | 30m | 40m | |
Any creature that falls into the pit will attract the attention of the sarlacc, which will send its six tentacles out of its maw to grab the prey. A hit signifies a successful grab. Prey is then drawn into the maw and swallowed.
An excavated sarlacc will show that new runners have sprouted from the sarlacc's body with each sufficiently-large victim entombed in its fungal lower reaches. And so, it appears that the sarlacc uses its larger victims to spread.
Digestion
Painful digestion of its victim starts immediately. The sarlacc's digestive track features tendrils that penetrate the victim's body. These tendrils appear to exude a substance that alters soft tissues but leaves all minerals intact. Once reduced to a single hit point, the victim's flesh has been effectively transformed into an organ of the sarlacc. This condition is irreversible as it cannot be addressed with cure disease, remove curse, or resurrection nor by severing the transformed victim from the sarlacc.
Combat
Sarlacc are susceptible to all normal and magical damage. Each tentacle has one tenth of the hit points of the total. The severed portion of a tentacle cut from a sarlacc will reflexively constrict about anything it contacts. This constriction does little damage but prevents action by the victim. The truncated portion of a tentacle still attached to the sarlacc's main body will wither away within three rounds. A new tentacle begins to form immediately and will grow at a rate of one meter per minute.
Only fully armored victims may fight once swallowed, and only for the first three rounds. Movement is extremely limited and usable weapons are limited to small things like knives and daggers and flasks. Additionally, the Anyone attempting to destroy the sarlacc’s main body must take 1d2 damage from the toxins in the tough fibers.
Should a sarlacc finally be killed, the body will become flammable in four days. However, 4d4 vegepygmies will arrive via rapidly-dug tunnels within 20+2d8 hours of a sarlacc’s death. These shock troops will attack demi-humans on sight.
Treasure
The fabled sword dragsonsneedle was found in a sarlacc excavation, and the amazing self-propelling vehicle of the ancients that resides in the citadel of Unphash was recovered when a river undercut a sarlacc. The herd-driver's outpost of Suth Maw was founded on the hoard of coins and steel recovered from a gigantic sarlacc: the mining process continues to this day.
The nature of any treasure from a dead sarlacc of stage II through stage V is up to the dungeon master. Whatever treasure is present it should be difficult to recover.