A sand bride, which looks like a pretty lady lounging in an illusory oasis that hides a sandstorm.

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The Lore

This wouldn’t be a proper D&D monster book without at least one vile seductress that tries to lure in unsuspecting adventurers with her womanly wiles.

Sand Brides are basically Darker and Sunnier Nymphs. More specifically, they are the things this world’s surviving nymphs turned into when the ecosystem went to shit and the Feywild was mostly destroyed. Like a lot of other Athasian fey, they blame all intelligent natural creatures for their corrupted state, and try to victimize them as an act of vengeance.

Their preferred tactic is to build traps and ambush spots out in the desert and use their illusion powers to disguise them as safe places like oases, sheltering ruins, or caravan rest stops. Then they disguise themselves as harmless humanoids and try to lure their targets to the ambush. The illustration and some of the descriptions imply these “harmless humanoids” are pretty ladies, but they don’t have to be.

Once the victims are at the intended spot, the ambush is sprung, and the sand bride will use her sand-bending powers and dehydrating touch to kill the victims, leaving only dried husks behind.

The Numbers

Sand Brides are Medium Fey Humanoids and Level 10 Elite Controllers with an even 200 HP. Despite being living beings they have Darkvision and are immune to disease and poison, traits commonly found in undead. Their ground speed is 8, and they have a burrow speed of 6. This doesn’t say it’s for loose earth only, so they could theoretically tunnel through rock.

Their Sandform Body lets them ignore all difficult terrain, tough they’re less diffuse than the dune constructs we saw previously. They attack in melee with a Dehydrating Touch that deals necrotic damage and inflicts -2 to all defenses for a turn on a hit. At range, they use Sand Blasts that deal physical damage and push 4 squares. Double Attack lets them make two melee attacks per action.

They can also employ a Sand Drown power (recharge 5+) if the PCs bunch up too much. This is an Area 1 Within 10 attack, dealing heavy physical damage and restraining on a hit.

Its ability to create illusory terrain is weaponized as an Insidious Mirage (Encounter), which lets the Sand Bride create a zone 4 squares on a side that lasts until the end of the encounter. This counts as difficult terrain for enemies, lets the bride slide enemies who end their turns inside by up to 2 squares as a free action, and can be moved by up to 4 squares as minor action.

And finally they have Deceptive Veil, allowing them to appear as a humanoid of any species. Piercing the illusion requires an Insight contest against the bride’s Bluff skill of +15. This doesn’t have to be a pretty lady, but it’s apparently traditional. The bride’s stats remain the same while disguised, and she can attack without dropping the illusion.

Encounters and Final Impressions

Sand brides target groups of travelers The creatures are fairly social with each other and will organize in groups. They can probably ally with other fey too, or have some Athasian beasts under their control ready to attack.

I’m not overly fond of vile seductress monsters but sand brides seem easy to reskin into something less cliche while keeping the same tactics.