These small, winter faeries are vicious and deadly. With their pale skin and translucent wings, they blend perfectly into their snowy environment; only their beady black eyes stand out against the snow and ice.
These malevolent ice-sprites are a plague upon the people of snowy climates, ambushing unwary prey with icy arrows and freezing spell-like powers.
Servants of the North Wind. Known as “patzinaki” in some dialects of Dwarvish, the beli are the servants of winter gods and venerate the north wind as Boreas and other gods of darker aspects. They are frequent allies with the fraughashar.
Feast Crashers. Beli especially delight in disrupting feasts and making off with the holiday cakes—the least deadly of their malicious pranks.
Fear of Druids. They have an irrational fear of northern druids and their snow bear companions.
BELI
Small fey, neutral evil
Armor Class 15 (natural armor)
Hit Points 45 (10d6 + 10)
Speed 30 ft., fly 30 ft.
| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
| 11 (+0) | 16 (+3) | 12 (+1) | 8 (–1) | 11 (+0) | 14 (+2) |
Saving Throws Dex +5
Skills Perception +4, Stealth +5
Damage Immunities cold
Damage Vulnerabilities fire
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 14
Languages Common, Dwarvish, Giant
Challenge 2 (450 XP)
Arctic Hunter. Beli have advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks and Wisdom (Perception) checks made in icy, natural surroundings.
Cold Regeneration. As long as the temperature is below freezing, the beli regains 3 hit points at the start of its turn. If the beli takes fire damage, this trait doesn’t function at the start of the beli’s next turn. The beli dies only if it starts its turn with 0 hit points and it doesn’t regenerate.
Flyby. The beli doesn’t provoke an opportunity attack when it flies out of an enemy’s reach.
Innate Spellcasting. The beli’s innate spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 12, +4 to hit with spell attacks). It can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components:
- At will: invisibility
- 3/day: chill touch
ACTIONS
Ice Dagger. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d4 + 3) piercing damage plus 2 (1d4) cold damage.
Icy Shortbow. Ranged Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, range 80/320 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d4 + 3) piercing damage plus 2 (1d4) cold damage, and the target must make a successful DC 13 Constitution saving throw or gain 2 levels of exhaustion from the arrow’s icy chill. If the save succeeds, the target also becomes immune to further exhaustion from beli arrows for 24 hours (but any levels of exhaustion already gained remain in effect). A character who gains a sixth level of exhaustion doesn’t die automatically but drops to 0 hit points and must make death saving throws as normal. The exhaustion lasts until the target recovers fully from the cold damage.
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But this is where we must stop for now, my friend. My mind, it wanders so at times. Do come see me again, though, for more of the wonders and surprises of Midgard. (OGL)
This creature comes from the Tome of Beasts. You can continue on this adventure in the Midgard Worldbook, Midgard Heroes Handbook, Creature Codex, and Creature Codex Pawns!
I have used these a few times in my campaigns. They are wonderfully dangerous. Their ability to go invisible and regenerate makes them difficult to kill. Their bow range + flying means that they can keep away from anyone who doesn’t have ranged attacks. As a pack, they can rotate positions & invisibility to ensure that PCs can’t track which ones they’ve hit, especially important given that they regenerate.
One thing about these tactics is that a fight with multiple Beli can last for many, many rounds of slow exhaustion and attrition. They don’t deal a lot of damage for CR2. My first fight with these guys went to like 10 or 12 rounds, which is a lot for a 5e fight.
Instead, I would consider these creatures as persistence hunters for PCs going through a winter forest. They can be worked in over several days trying to wear down the PCs or taking pot shots during other fights.