Warlock’s Apprentice: Pech

Bringing you a taste from the dark pages of Warlock…

Natives to the Elemental Plane of Earth, the stalwart and humble pech often cross to the Prime Material Planes to escape threats in their homeland, seek valuable gems and ore, or serve masters in the formation of great stone creations. They also trade with topsiders to obtain new stoneworking equipment, and they have a strong affinity for the ale that they cannot brew themselves.

Physical Features. Pech are small in size, slightly taller and stronger than deep gnomes. Their long arms and legs are made of knotted muscles that appear chiseled from stone.

Slate grey eyes bulge from their angular heads. They rarely have hair on their heads or bodies. Those pech that do grow hair sprout thick strands as sharp and rigid as a metal brush.

A pech’s fingers and toes are long and thin, topped with long, sharp nails as hard as stone. These nails allow them to climb sheer rock walls, acting as pitons that a climber might use.

One with the Stone. Pech are born to work stone, live their lives with a pickaxe in one hand and a hammer in the other, and die with the understanding that their spirits will merge with the stone for eternity, forever surrounding their progeny.

Pech society is built around the notion that pure enlightenment can be attained by communing with the stone that surrounds them. The more one works the stone, the closer one gets to becoming one with it: eternal, immovable, and ever-present.

Pech mine the valuable substances provided by the stone and train their minds to harmonize with the rock until they master certain techniques and become stonemasters. Stonemasters often lead a clan of pech. Truly talented and dedicated stonemasters that reach a higher level of enlightenment with the stone might become lithlords, who travel from clan to clan and teach the young pech the way of the stone.

Servants of the Giants. The pech sometimes come to the surface world to act as servants of the stone giants. Pech are sometimes tasked to bring enormous stone monoliths to the heathers and moors of otherwise stone-free land, which the stone giants can then use as places for their strange mystical ceremonies. Years later, humans walking through the flat fields can only wonder how these huge stone monoliths seemingly appeared out of nowhere.

Pech

Small elemental, neutral good
Armor Class 16 (natural armor)
Hit Points 33 (6d6 + 12)
Speed 20 ft., climb 10 ft.

Skills Athletics +5, Perception +3
Condition Immunities petrified
Senses darkvision 120 ft., passive Perception 13
Languages Common, Terran, Undercommon
Challenge 2 (450 XP)

Light Sensitivity. While in bright light, the pech has disadvantage on attack rolls, as well as on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight.

One with the Stone. As a bonus action, the pech can draw on the power of unworked stone, as long as it is in contact with the stone. Until the end of the pech’s next turn, it gains resistance to piercing and slashing damage. This power recharges after the pech completes a short or long rest.

Actions

Multiattack. The pech makes one melee attack with the pick and one melee or ranged attack with the hammer. If the pech hits the same target with both attacks, the target must succeed on a DC 11 Constitution saving throw or be incapacitated until the start of its next turn.

Pick. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d8 +3) piercing damage.

Hammer. Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft. or range 20/60 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d6 +3) bludgeoning damage.

Pech Stonemaster

Small elemental, neutral good
Armor Class 17 (natural armor)
Hit Points 65 (10d6 + 30)
Speed 20 ft., climb 10 ft.

Skills Athletics +6, Perception +5
Condition Immunities petrified
Senses darkvision 120 ft., passive Perception 15
Languages Common, Terran, Undercommon
Challenge 4 (1100 XP)

Light Sensitivity. While in bright light, the pech stonemaster has disadvantage on attack rolls, as well as on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight.

One with the Stone. As a bonus action, the pech can draw on the power of unworked stone, as long as it is in contact with the stone. Until the end of the pech stonemaster’s next turn, it gains resistance to all damage. This power recharges after the pech stonemaster completes a short or long rest.

Innate Spellcasting. The pech stonemaster’s innate spellcasting ability is Wisdom (spell save DC 13). The pech stonemaster can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components:

• At will: thunderwave
• 3/day: shatter

Actions

Multiattack. The pech stonemaster makes one melee attack with the pick and one melee or ranged attack with the hammer. If the pech stonemaster hits the same target with both attacks, the target must succeed on a DC 13 Constitution saving throw or be stunned until the start of its next turn.

Pick. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (1d8 +4) piercing damage.

Hammer. Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft. or range 20/60 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d6 +4) bludgeoning damage.

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