#stirges

Hullo, Gentle Readers. As we enter the warmer months, I’ve started getting bitten by those little blood-sucking bastards - the mosquitoes. Reflect, however, on how much better we have it than the folks who live in the Realms of D&D, as they have to deal with the mosquito’s steroid-ridden cousin, the Stirge. Thanks, as always, to Scott Fabianek for his wonderful origional artwork of this awful parasite.

Stirges have a special place in my heart as a monster I *hate* as a player. There’s also the phrase “I’ll hit the third stirge” at my gaming tables, which means “You caught me not paying attention. Please repeat?” Long story, which maybe I’ll tell for another freestyle article down the road.

The stirge has been around for ages in D&D lore, having been part of the game almost from the beginning. At their core, they’re a pretty straightforward monster. They want to attach themselves and start draining blood. They’re CR 1/8, so you can throw them at your level 1 party, but they might be better for a slightly higher level. Assuming a group of 5 PCs, 4 stirges are an easy encounter, 6 are medium, 7 are hard, and 8 are deadly. So why is this?

Looking at the stirge’s stats, it has a decent armor class, negligible hit points, no particular saves or skills to speak of...so what makes this critter such a pain in the neck? Well, its attack is +5, which is pretty high for its CR. When it hits, it does an average of 5 hp of damage. If it isn’t killed or detached (which takes an action), it then drains 5 hit points of blood a round. Let’s assume a group of 6 stirges attacking 5 PCs. Odds are good most of them will hit the ACs of first level characters. That means most PCs will take 5 hp, and someone’s probably taking 10. That 10 damage is going to put most 1st level PCs down. If anyone fails to remove or kill their stirge, then there’s a round of blood drain, which will likely put down even the group’s barbarian, if they were attacked by two stirges on the first round. 8 strirges would be a truly deadly encounter for a group of 5 1st level PCs. And if your PCs are higher level? You can always add to the stirges.

Still don’t think stirges are that bad? Let’s think on this. Suppose, through sheer luck, two stirges latch onto the party’s wizard or rogue. That’s 10 damage from the initial attack. But, to make matters worse, it’s two sources of damage on the next round, because the stirges don’t detach until they’ve drained 10 hp of blood or killed the victim. That means 2 failed death saves (thankfully not 4...the blood drain isn’t an attack, so it won’t be a crit to the Unconscious creature) per round. If other PCs don’t get those stirges detached from their fallen friend, that PC is almost certain to die. And that means ignoring stirges that might be attached to them!

I am also delighted by this tidbit at the end of the creature’s description:

Yes, friends, stirges can be found anywhere, including urban environments. And if that doesn’t terrify you, it should. Imagine neighborhoods of a village suddenly waking up to find whole households dead, corpses shrunken and shrivelled, the only clues round holes in the victims and a complete lack of blood in the body. You could take this in a horrible direction worthy of a Ravenloft evening.

Two ideas come to mind when dealing with stirges. One, it might be interesting to treat stirges like a common insect and give them insect-like properties. A Queen Stirge might be a...really awful thing to have to deal with. A swarm of stirges would likewise be something I would personally really rather not have to ever deal with.

One interesting side note - stirges are Beasts in 5E. That means they’re naturally occurring critters in the D&D world. It also means that druids can interact with them using any power they have that can affect beasts. They can cast Animal Friendship on them. They can summon them with Conjure Animals. They can even wild shape into them starting at 8th level (because of their fly speed) if that’s their idea of a good time. And yes, a Beastmaster Ranger could have one as an animal companion, because it takes all kinds!

DM: They’re okay. A little gross maybe.

Adam (playing Billie): *reading* So they’re basically massive demon mosquitoes?

DM: Yeah.