Stirge

This horrid flying creature looks like a cross between a large bat and an oversized mosquito. Its legs end in sharp pincers, and its long, needle-like proboscis slashes the air as it seeks its next meal.

— Book of Beasts Vol.I

The stirge is a magical beasts that sucks on the blood of its victims. The body of a strige can be described as an unholy combination of a bat, a bird, and a mosquito. Because they are carrion eaters, stirges are known carriers for many deadly and debilitating diseases.
Fighting a stirge can be quite deadly depending if the colony has been alerted or not. A stirge will attack by diving its long nose-like proboscis into the flesh of a creature. It then latches on by extending staple-like feet to grapple the chosen prey. Removing a stirge once it is attached has been described as leaving the wound of a shark bite. Because of this, most will tell you slay the strige before attempting to remove it, as this causes the needles on the feet to retract into the stirges body, allowing for near-painless removal of the creature.

Additional Information

Geographic Origin and Distribution

Stirges can be found in nearly every enviornment of the world, and like the common finch are known to have a vast amount of catalogued sub-species. The most common places to find a stirge is jungles, caves, and warm swamps.

Average Intelligence

Stirges have been known to dislpay average animal-level intelligence when seperated from its colony. After finding prey, a stirge will leave to inform the colony, and attempt to relocate the prey as a swarm. When a strige colony swarms it shows higher than average animal-level intelligence. A swarming colony will only have six stirges attack a medium creature at any given time, as that is about the ratio of blood contained by a medium-sized creature.

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

Stirges have an amazing sense of temperature, being able to attack gaps in armor by sensing the warmest parts of a creatures body.

Scientific Name

Vermin

Origin/Ancestry

Beast, supernatural

Lifespan

2 years

Average Weight

1 lbs

Average Length

1 foot

Geographic Distribution

• Asyur

5e Basic Rules

Stirge CR: 1/8 (25 XP)

Tiny beast, any

Armor Class: 14 (natural armor)

Hit Points: 2 hp ( 1d4 )

Speed: 10 ft , fly: 40 ft

STR

4 -3

DEX

16 +3

CON

11 +0

INT

2 -4

WIS

8 -1

CHA

6 -2

Senses: Darkvison 60ft., Passive Perception 9

Challenge Rating: 1/8 (25 XP)

Actions

Blood Drain. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 1d20+5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 5 ( 1d4+3 ) piercing damage, and the stirge attaches to the target. While attached, the stirge doesn't attack. Instead, at the start of each of the stirge's turns, the target loses 5 ( 1d4+3 ) hit points due to blood loss.
The stirge can detach itself by spending 5 feet of its movement. It does so after it drains 10 hit points of blood from the target or the target dies. A creature, including the target, can use its action to detach the stirge.

Suggested Environments

Coastal, Desert, Forest, Grassland, Hill, Mountain, Swamp, Underdark, Urban