(It does, however, have to meet or beat that Perception check with its own Stealth for its target to be surprised. As long as it stays in dim light or darkness, the shadow mastiff stays invisible, and as long as it stays invisible, it doesn’t have to meet or beat its target’s Perception check in a skill contest to gain advantage on its attack roll. So it’s never going to attack someone carrying a light source, either magical or mundane-although it can and will attack a target in the ring of dim light around that light source. But there’s a key caveat here: Bright light dispels its invisibility. Like most predators, a shadow mastiff prefers an easy target: the young, old, weak, isolated and/or oblivious. Most player characters, and nearly all low-level PCs, will have actively use Stealth to slip past it, and it nearly always gets to surprise its opponents in round 1 of the combat encounter. If the shadow mastiff relies on its ears and nose instead, disadvantage flips to advantage, giving it an effective passive Perception of 18. ![]() It’s worth noting that to the shadow mastiff, which has darkvision, darkness is effectively dim light, which normally would give it disadvantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks-but only those that rely on sight. And since their Intelligence isn’t high enough for them to adapt to changing circumstances, lighting a torch or lantern or casting an illumination spell is an effective way for a target who survives their initial assault to get them to abandon their attack.Ī shadow mastiff always begins combat invisible, having used Shadow Blend to hide in an area of dim light or total darkness (even if a player character has darkvision, dim light is enough!), and uses its Keen Hearing and Smell to detect prey. If they can’t take down their chosen target in two or three rounds of combat, there’s a good chance that they’ll give up and search for easier prey, and attacking from hiding is essential to their hunting pattern-they may not start a fight at all if they can’t gain surprise on the first round.įive of their features-Shadow Blend, Sunlight Weakness, Keen Hearing and Smell, darkvision, and resistance to physical damage from normal weapons while in dim light or darkness-create such an overwhelming incentive for shadow mastiffs to stay out of sunlight and other areas of bright light that their entire hunting strategy revolves around exploiting the gloom of night. With very high Strength and high Dexterity, shadow mastiffs are ambush attackers without the patience for a drawn-out fight. Packs of them sometimes slip across the boundary between the Shadowfell and the material plane, roving and hunting for the joy of it. Shadow mastiffs are a nasty quasi-canine predators from the Shadowfell, valued as watchbeasts and hunting companions by the kinds of entities that would rather employ a monster for such purposes than pick up a nice puppy from the pound.
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