Lamia (Dungeons & Dragons)

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In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, the lamia is a magical beast. They are tauric creatures, resembling animals such as lions, goats and deer, with a human torso and head coming up from where the animal's head would usually be. The upper body is fully humanoid, however, not bearing animalistic features such as scales, horns or fur.

[edit] Characteristics and habits

Lamias are evil creatures who live in desert ruins. They sustain themselves by eating human flesh. To bring prey to them, they use a variety of abilities, including seduction, disguise, ventriloquism, illusions, mirrages, mirror images and other such things, to lure, entice and confuse those who wander into their midst into dangerous situations. When they have secured their victim, they carve up a feast out of them with curved daggers. Lamias do not wear any form of clothing or adornment. They seem devoted to chaos and destruction in their native habitats. They never venture more than 10 miles from their lairs. Lamias also have the ability to drain wisdom with their touch.

One type of rarer lamia is the lamia noble. These beings rule over other lamias and the locations they inhabit. Unlike normal lamias, they have the lower bodies of serpents. Males fight with curved swords and magic, while females only with magic. Lamia nobles are also capable of venturing further from their lairs than other lamias, and prefer to go into urbanized areas in the guise of a human to infilitrate human and demihuman societies. Lamia nobles are given to outbursts of senseless violence. They can speak all forms of human and demihuman language.

Lamias are chaotic evil in alignment.