Animalitos

Tiny fiend (demon), chaotic evil

Armor Class 16 (natural armor)

Hit Points 18 (4d4 + 8)

Speed 30 ft., climb 30 ft., swim 30 ft.

STR 4 (−3) · DEX 17 (+3) · CON 14 (+2) · INT 7 (−2) · WIS 12 (+1) · CHA 8 (−1)

Saving Throws Dex +5

Skills Perception +3, Stealth +7

Damage Vulnerabilities silvered weapons

Damage Resistances necrotic; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks that aren’t silvered

Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 13

Languages understands Infernal and the languages of its master but can’t speak

Challenge 1 (200 XP)

Traits

Tiny Vampire. The animalitos can occupy another creature’s space and move through openings as narrow as 1 inch wide without squeezing.

Spider Climb. The animalitos can climb difficult surfaces, including upside down on ceilings, without needing to make an ability check.

Silver Bane. If the animalitos takes damage from a silvered weapon, the attack deals an extra 5 (2d4) radiant damage and the animalitos can’t turn invisible or use Blood Drain until the end of its next turn.

Familiar Bond. While the animalitos is within 120 feet of a creature that has performed the binding ritual (its “master”), the animalitos has advantage on saving throws, and the master has advantage on saving throws against disease. If the animalitos dies by silver damage, the bond is permanently broken.

Actions

Blood Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 5 (1d4 + 3) piercing damage plus 3 (1d6) necrotic damage, and the animalitos attaches to the target. While attached, the animalitos can’t make Blood Bite attacks. At the start of each of the animalitos’s turns, the target loses 7 (2d6) hit points to blood drainage and the animalitos regains that many hit points. The attack also reduces the target’s hit-point maximum by the necrotic damage taken; this reduction ends when the creature finishes a long rest. The animalitos drops off if it or the target is reduced to 0 hit points, the target is subjected to a successful DC 13 Strength (Athletics) check, or the target is immersed in running water.

Vanish (Recharge 5–6). The animalitos magically turns invisible until it attacks, uses Blood Bite, or is forced to make a saving throw. Anything the animalitos is carrying is invisible with it.

Bonus Actions

Skitter. The animalitos moves up to half its speed without provoking opportunity attacks.

Reactions

Dart Away. When the animalitos takes damage, it can move 10 feet. This movement doesn’t provoke opportunity attacks.

Lore

A small vampiric creature with a lizard’s head and a dog-like maw. It lurks in natural swimming holes, latching on like a leech.

In Spanish folklore the word “animalitos” refers to a class of miniature vampiric beings. The term itself comes from the Spanish animal plus the diminutive suffix ‑itos, underscoring their small size and—at least in theory—softening the sense of real danger they pose. In everyday Spanish the same word can mean bedbugs or fleas, yet in a magical setting it points to supernatural imps that witches create or tame for protection, luck, and healing. All the legends agree that a typical animalitos looks like a reptile with a dog’s muzzle, sports scaly skin and gripping paws, and never exceeds four inches in length. Despite their tiny build they’re packed with muscle, able to pierce a mammal’s hide in an instant and live off a slow, steady drain of blood until the victim slips into anemia. Taken together, the traits sketch a creature that’s small but genuinely dangerous.

These same legends trace the rise of the animalitos to the late-medieval trade in “bottle devils” that flourished in Spain and France. Sorcerers would slip the little beasts into hollow reeds, stopper the ends with wooden plugs, and sell them to anyone who could pay. Buyers were usually people chasing invulnerability or quick profit, because the caged demon—so long as it was fed blood on schedule—would carry out whatever errands its owner set.

From Vampire Bestiary 5E, p. 12 · Fern Flower Press