“Consider, even the untrained ratatosk can hold their own in a conflict. Now, I want you to imagine a squirrel-folk trained to be an assassin.” (Lucano Volpe)
With the knowledge of the planes quite literally at their claw-tips, it comes as no surprise that ratatosk have a wide variety of skills and abilities.
Citizens of the World Tree
The ratatosk presented in the Tome of Beasts represents a squirrel-folk trained to travel the pathways of Yggdrasil and is the one most often encountered by PCs. However, a sizable portion of the ratatosk community is made up of squirrel-folk who tend the fungus farms, run shops, craft items, or otherwise stay within the bounds of their villages.
Ratatosk Commoner
Tiny celestial, chaotic neutral
Armor Class 13
Hit Points 63 (18d4 + 18)
Speed 20 ft., climb 20 ft.
| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
| 4(−3) | 16(+3) | 12(+1) | 15(+2) | 10(+0) | 15(+2) |
Saving Throws Wis +2, Cha +4
Skills Deception +4, Persuasion +4, Stealth +5
Damage Resistances bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from nonmagical weapons
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 10
Languages Celestial, Common; telepathy 100 ft.
Challenge 2 (450 XP)
Innate Spellcasting. The ratatosk’s spellcasting attribute is Charisma (save DC 14). They can innately cast the following spells without requiring material or somatic components:
- At will: message, vicious mockery
- 1/day: mirror image
Skitter. The ratatosk can take the Dash, Disengage, or Hide action as a bonus action on each of its turns.
Actions
Gore. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1 piercing damage plus 7 (2d6) psychic damage, and the target must make a successful DC 12 Wisdom saving throw or be charmed for 1 round. While charmed in this way, the creature regards one randomly determined ally as a foe.
Reactions
Desperate Lies. A creature that can hear the ratatosk must make a DC 12 Wisdom saving throw when it attacks the ratatosk. If the saving throw fails, the creature still attacks, but it must choose a different target creature. An ally must be chosen if no other enemies are within the attack‘s reach or range. If no other target is in the attack’s reach or range, the attack is still made (and ammunition or a spell slot is expended if appropriate), but it automatically misses and has no effect.
Yggdrasil’s Hidden Blade
Most hidden blades work in pairs and excel at infiltrating secure camps or structures, launching coordinated strikes at any who pose a threat to the World Tree. Others, however, break away from traditional ratatosk society and venture forth to make their way as hired killers. Hidden blade ratatosk typically have darker colorations either naturally or by the application of various dyes distilled from acorns.
Ratatosk Assassin
Tiny celestial, chaotic neutral
Armor Class 14
Hit Points 63 (18d4 + 18)
Speed 20 ft., climb 20 ft.
| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
| 4(−3) | 18(+4) | 12(+1) | 17(+3) | 10(+0) | 18(+4) |
Saving Throws Wis +5, Cha +7
Skills Deception +7, Persuasion +7, Stealth +7
Damage Resistances bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from nonmagical weapons
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 10
Languages Celestial, Common; telepathy 100 ft.
Challenge 5 (1,800 XP)
Evasion. The ratatosk assassin can nimbly dodge out of the way of certain area effects. When they are subjected to an effect that allows them to make a Dexterity saving throw to only take half damage, they instead take no damage if they succeed on the saving throw, and only half damage if they fail.
Innate Spellcasting. The ratatosk’s spellcasting attribute is Charisma (save DC 14). They can innately cast the following spells without requiring material or somatic components:
- At will: minor illusion, true strike, vicious mockery
- 1/day each: longstrider, silence
- 3/day: disguise self
Pack Tactics. The ratatosk assassin has advantage on an attack roll against a creature if at least one other ratatosk is within 5 feet of the creature and the other ratatosk is not incapacitated.
Skitter. The ratatosk can take the Dash, Disengage, or Hide action as a bonus action on each of their turns.
Actions
Multiattack. The ratatosk assassin makes two curved dagger attacks (melee or ranged) or one dagger attack and one gore attack.
Curved Dagger. Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft or 20/60 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d4 + 4) piercing damage. The target must make a DC 14 Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, the target takes 10 (3d6) poison damage and is poisoned. On a successful saving throw, the target takes half as much and is not poisoned. A poisoned target may repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the condition on itself on a success.
Gore. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1 piercing damage plus 14 (4d6) psychic damage.
Psychic Strike (recharge 5–6). The assassin delivers a quick slashing blow to the mind of a single creature within 30 feet. The target must make a DC 14 Charisma saving throw, taking 31 (9d6) psychic damage on a failed saving throw or half as much on a successful saving throw.
Reactions
Nimble Reposition. When a creature the ratatosk assassin can see hits them with an attack, the assassin can move up to their normal movement without provoking opportunity attacks.
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Stay tuned for the second part of this article where we shall reveal more new ratatosk variants!
Until then, my friends, stay squirrely.
