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A displacer beast is a fictional species from the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. This magical beast resembles a puma with a pair of powerful black tentacles sprouting from its shoulders, and two to four additional forelimbs. Displacer beasts are coloured blue-black, like a dark panther. The tentacles are tipped with horny edges which can inflict terrible wounds and resemble the club-shaped catching tentacles of a squid.
Displacer beasts are fierce and vicious, and hate all other creatures. These sentient, magical cats often kill purely for pleasure, though they never fight among themselves. This beast uses a magical displacement ability, a form of illusion which causes it to appear to be a few feet away from where it actually is. This makes the creature hard to hit, while it attacks with its long tentacles.
The hide of a displacer beast has many useful magical properties, making it highly sought after by wizards and alchemists. Many thieves use the eyes of a displacer beast as good luck charms, believing that they will protect the bearer from detection.
The displacer beast is inspired by the Couerl, a feline-like creature from the science fiction novel The Voyage of the Space Beagle by A. E. van Vogt.
In the Eberron campaign setting, the displacer beast is the heraldic animal of the dragonmarked House Thuranni.
Further reading
- Cook, David, et al. Monstrous Compendium Volume One (TSR, 1989).
- Mickelson, Bill. Ecology of the Displacer Beast, Dragon Magazine #109 (TSR, 1986).