Stick-thin and moon-faced with a raptor’s eyes and a mane of hawk feathers, this grinning humanoid pirouettes as nimbly as a dancer. Between its long, taloned fingers trickles sand that gleams with the cold light of stars.
Bringers of Nightmares. Sandmen are sinister-looking bringers of sleep and dreams. Visiting the mortal world each night, sandmen ensure that their targets slumber deeply and experience vivid dreams that swell the dream realm’s power. Some sandmen develop a talent for a specific flavor of dream; fantasies of lost love or childhood, prophecies and religious visions, or terrible nightmares.
Abduct Dreamers. Powerful dreamers attract both the attention and the protection of sandmen: children, madmen, would-be tyrants, and heroes. They protect such charges fiercely but have also been known to abduct them, taking them on wild adventures to inspire yet greater dreams. To them, all dreams are vital and good, be they uplifting or terrifying. Although they bring horrific nightmares as well as idyllic dreams, sandmen are not specifically baneful. Their actions are motivated by their connection to the dream realm, not by concerns over good and evil.
Ethereal Dreamscapes. When not on the Material Plane, sandmen ride bubble-like dreamscapes through the Ethereal Plane, breaching the Sea of Possibilities, nurturing and harvesting its contents. Sandmen are a common and welcome sight in markets across the Fey Realms, elemental planes, and even in Hell—anywhere that dreams or nightmares are a valuable commodity. They are merciless to any who threaten the sanctity of dreams, but especially dream eaters.
Sandman
Medium celestial, chaotic neutralArmor Class 14
Hit Points 82 (11d8 + 33)
Speed 40 ft.
| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 (+0) | 19 (+4) | 16 (+3) | 13 (+1) | 14 (+2) | 19 (+4) |
Saving Throws Dex +7, Cha +7
Damage Resistances cold, fire, lightning; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical weapons
Damage Immunities poison, psychic
Condition Immunities charmed, exhaustion, frightened, poisoned, unconscious
Senses truesight 60 ft., passive Perception 12
Languages Common, Celestial, Giant, Infernal, Umbral
Challenge 5 (1,800 XP)
Eye-Closer’s Curse. If a sandman obtains a critical hit or successful surprise attack against an opponent, its talons scratch a rune onto the target’s eyeballs that snaps their eyelids shut, leaving them blinded. This effect can be ended with greater restoration, remove curse, or comparable magic.
Innate Spellcasting. The sandman’s innate spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 15). It can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components:
At will: darkness, minor illusion, plane shift (at night only), phantom steed, prestidigitation, sleep (11d8)
3/day each: hypnotic pattern, major image
1/day each: dream, phantasmal killer (5d10)
Stuff of Dreams. Made partially from dreams and imagination, a sandman takes only half damage from critical hits and from sneak attacks. All of the attack’s damage is halved, not just bonus damage.
Surprise Attack. If the sandman hits a surprised creature during the first round of combat, the target takes 14 (4d6) extra damage from the attack.
Actions
Multiattack. The sandman makes two claw attacks.
Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) slashing damage.