Copyright 2008 Wizards of the Coast

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I first read about kruthiks in 4e itself, though I think they might have been introduced in 3e. Here, they’re only on the Monster Manual.

The Lore

Kruthiks are dangerous and clever predators that hunt in packs and live in hives. They resemble big pointy four-legged bugs, but are actually reptiles beneath those chitin plates.

These beasts were created by the ancient tiefling empire of Bael Turath, which mutated “wordly reptiles” (likely drakes) through infernal magic in order to turn them into bioweapons capable of infiltrating enemy camps and fortifications by burrowing underneath them. It’s likely they had means of controlling kruthiks back them, but those have been lost to time.

Kruthiks install their hives in large subterranean caves, either natural or dug out by the monsters themselves. The tunnels they dig are stable, so kruthik territory will be completely riddled with them. It wouldn’t be uncommon for these caves and tunnel networks to extend into the “shallow” Underdark.

A kruthik hive will methodically hunt all available prey in the region and then move or expand somewhere else. Kruthiks butcher their kills and carry the meat and any treasure back to their hives, and they can communicate through a series of clicks and insectile buzzing sounds. They also associate the smell of their own dead with danger, so killing a bunch of them is a way to get the rest of the hive to move away.

A kruthik undergoes metamorphosis several times over its life, but all of its forms are dangerous.

The Numbers

Kruthiks are Natural Beasts of varying size, with the Reptile keyword. They have low-light vision and tremorsense, and have land, climb, and burrow speeds, though that last one tends to be lower.

Their signature trait is Gnashing Horde, an aura 1 that deals 2 damage to any enemy that ends their turn inside. This stacks: if you’re inside multiple auras, you take damage from all of them.

Kruthik Hatchling

Hatchlings are Small, Level 2 Minions. They run and climb at speed 8, and burrow at speed 2. They only attack with a basic bite and Gnashing Horde, but you can expect a lot of them (and a lot of pre-dug tunnels) if you breach a kruthik hive.

Kruthik Young

Slightly older, nonminion versions of the hatchling. These are still Small, but they’re Level 2 Brutes with 43 HP. Their speeds are the same as that of the hatchlings, and their bites do full damage.

Kruthik Adult

Adults are Medium size, and Level 4 Brutes with 67 HP. Their greater size makes them a bit slower, with a running and climbing speed of 6, but they burrow better with speed 3.

Adults keep the Gnashing Horde aura, but their main attack is now their pointy claws. They can also launch Toxic Spikes from their body at up to 2 simultaneous targets (Ranged 5 vs. AC; recharge 5-6). A hit from these does immediate physical damage, ongoing poison damage, and slows (save ends both).

They’re basically a larger and stronger version of the young, but the spikes are a nice addition and a nice surprise for unfamiliar PCs.

Kruthik Hive Lord

Though kruthiks are animals they display some instinctive organization, and hive lords are at the top of the heap. Some times, an adult will undergo a second metamorphosis into one of these.

Hive lords grow to size Large, and are Level 6 Elite Controllers (Leaders) with 148 HP. The Gnashing Horde aura is replaced with Hive Frenzy, an aura 2 that makes any kruthik inside deal double damage with its basic attacks. This actually takes them from “slightly weak” to “noticeably stronger” when compared to the updated average damage for their level. You might want to replace this with a flat +5 bonus if you fix base kruthik damage, which should lead you to the same end result. Hive Lords are as fast as adults.

A hive lord’s claw attack remains a bit too weak for its level, and doesn’t benefit from the lord’s own aura. It can also spray victims with an at-will Acid Blast (Close Blast 5 vs. Fortitude; Enemies only), which does immediate and ongoing acid damage and weakens on a hit (save ends both).

The little tactics paragraph says hive lords open with an acid blast and switch to claw attacks, but there’s no reason not to spam the blast if you’re so inclined. In either case, they should keep as many fellow kruthiks in their aura as possible.

Sample Encounters and Final Impressions

The sample encounters are what you’d expect: lots and lots of kruthiks in different combinations. One of them includes a couple of zombies, though, which is interesting. Perhaps they don’t eat undead flesh.

Not only had I never heard of kruthiks before 4e, my first contact with them was actually in Keep on the Shadowfell or another low-level adventure that came out before the Monster Manual. The text on those adventures just expected me to know what these things were, so the first time I actually saw a picture of one was when I first read this entry.

They work well enough mechanically, but I don’t remember seeing them used as anything other than a single encounter off to one side of the dungeon in these published adventures. Perhaps this led to them not being very popular. Reading the lore makes me think you could make a “kruthik apocalypse” scenario instead of using the usual zombies, though you’d probably need to come up with more varieties of the beasts (like skirmishers and artillery) to keep things varied.