MonsterEnvy
Legend
It's not at all. Krakens have always been very intelligent in D&D.
D&D 5E Let's Read: Volo's Monsters
It's not at all. Krakens have always been very intelligent in D&D.
Leatherhead
Possibly a Idiot.
That's a good point. I suppose it is easy to just rip out the "iconic" parts of something so simple.
Charles Rampant
Explorer
I've just added a contents list to the first post, which took a not inconsiderable amount of effort thanks to this forum's incredibly wonky post editor. Hopefully this makes the thread more useful for future reference.
Krakens here definitely seem to be being played up as a Big Deal Bad Guy. I think that they envisage one being used in the same role that a Demon Lord or Elder Brain might be - the central bad guy of a campaign. It is weird, because they are kind of just lurking there in the Monster Manual, but with this and SKT they've really highlighted the Kraken's potential. I've been wondering whether we'll be getting a Moonshaes adventure - Fey, Nautical adventures, crumbling castles being fought over by various factions, a new Druid subclass, etc - and if so whether Slarkrethkel will reappear there.
Krakens here definitely seem to be being played up as a Big Deal Bad Guy. I think that they envisage one being used in the same role that a Demon Lord or Elder Brain might be - the central bad guy of a campaign. It is weird, because they are kind of just lurking there in the Monster Manual, but with this and SKT they've really highlighted the Kraken's potential. I've been wondering whether we'll be getting a Moonshaes adventure - Fey, Nautical adventures, crumbling castles being fought over by various factions, a new Druid subclass, etc - and if so whether Slarkrethkel will reappear there.
Charles Rampant
Explorer
There are very few extra-planar monsters in the book, which itself notes that they kept them back for a future effort. So perhaps in a year or two we’ll be back here, talking about Volo’s Guide to Ways to Make High Level Characters Cry. Until that time however, we have a few Demons here to use. They appear to have been selected primarily for their adjacency to the themes of the book; so we get one that combines well with the Bodak, a couple that go well with Gnolls, and one that… well, I’m not sure why the Babau made the cut, to be honest, but it did. Maybe because the Xvart entry also mentions Graz’zt? Tenuous!
The art in Volo’s is basically the same as the above image, only he’s twisting a little to the left. These guys remind me mostly of DOOM, which I recently played; they have a fairly generic ‘demon’ look to them. Technically the image is fairly strong, though the thighs look distinctly undeveloped for a guy with 40ft move. I like the pile of rubble as backdrop, it gives a nice sense of desolation to the image. Overall though, the above image is the better of the two.
These guys arose when Glasya (of Brimstone Angels fame, to me at least) and Graz’zt (of ‘not appearing in Out of the Abyss’ fame) were trading blows. When Glasya slashed Graz’zt with her devilish sword, his demonic blood splattered the ground and rose up again as these guys; presumably why they have blood oozing from various pores in the image. They then helped turn the tide, rout Glasya, and establish Graz’zt as a preeminent Demon Lord. It does occur to me that their weapon attacks are non-magical, so it seems somewhat unlikely that they could have done real damage to an Arch-Devil, but plot trumps mechanics, so nevermind. They could have done lots of Grapple-Push Prone attempts, I guess?
They combine the “cunning of a devil and the bloodthirstiness of a demon”, but we are given little clue as to how that should work in practice, and they don’t have any of a Devil’s manipulation powers that I can see. In use, these guys primarily seem suited to spice up a wider Demon fight. I’m a firm believer in the use of Fiends as high level mooks; you can safely put a half-dozen different Fiends down against level 16 players and know that you’ll have a fun, challenging fight that won’t last all evening, unlike using fifty Gnolls or whatever. Though you could use one by itself for a low level party, I’m not sure that these guys have the personality and powers to suit being a solo bad guy - especially when the Cambion is available. Perhaps one could do as a surprise attack, following the players around and then getting the drop on them when they try and take a rest; that also seems like a viable option.
The combat stats on these guys are reasonably interesting. They’re tough, they move fast, they have stealth abilities; they have standard Demon resistances, and they can innately cast some useful spells - Heat Metal is a particularly good one that doesn’t allow a save, so great for hurting a Paladin, Cleric or Fighter of any level. The Babau does little damage with its main attacks, (16 average if both hit), but it does have a rather odd Weakening Gaze that can half the strength-based damage of a character, albeit it is based on a DC 13 Con save. I don’t see that being failed very often by people you’d want to affect, but the Babau can do it for free every time it makes an attack action, so I think that it is designed to be a minor rider to the damage of their attack, one that highlights their tankiness, rather than being a big deal by itself.
Overall, these guys seem good for adding into a combat to complicate matters for the players when they are trying to take down a more powerful Demon, or perhaps for stealthly hunting the players in packs. Their low damage, outside of Heat Metal means that you’ll not really put much hurt on a party with them alone, I think, but they are tanky enough to be annoying to get rid of, and they bring a lot of intriguing abilities to the table. Since my homebrew campaign will be visiting the Abyss soon, I’ll make sure to use these guys to victimise the characters!
The art in Volo’s is basically the same as the above image, only he’s twisting a little to the left. These guys remind me mostly of DOOM, which I recently played; they have a fairly generic ‘demon’ look to them. Technically the image is fairly strong, though the thighs look distinctly undeveloped for a guy with 40ft move. I like the pile of rubble as backdrop, it gives a nice sense of desolation to the image. Overall though, the above image is the better of the two.
These guys arose when Glasya (of Brimstone Angels fame, to me at least) and Graz’zt (of ‘not appearing in Out of the Abyss’ fame) were trading blows. When Glasya slashed Graz’zt with her devilish sword, his demonic blood splattered the ground and rose up again as these guys; presumably why they have blood oozing from various pores in the image. They then helped turn the tide, rout Glasya, and establish Graz’zt as a preeminent Demon Lord. It does occur to me that their weapon attacks are non-magical, so it seems somewhat unlikely that they could have done real damage to an Arch-Devil, but plot trumps mechanics, so nevermind. They could have done lots of Grapple-Push Prone attempts, I guess?
They combine the “cunning of a devil and the bloodthirstiness of a demon”, but we are given little clue as to how that should work in practice, and they don’t have any of a Devil’s manipulation powers that I can see. In use, these guys primarily seem suited to spice up a wider Demon fight. I’m a firm believer in the use of Fiends as high level mooks; you can safely put a half-dozen different Fiends down against level 16 players and know that you’ll have a fun, challenging fight that won’t last all evening, unlike using fifty Gnolls or whatever. Though you could use one by itself for a low level party, I’m not sure that these guys have the personality and powers to suit being a solo bad guy - especially when the Cambion is available. Perhaps one could do as a surprise attack, following the players around and then getting the drop on them when they try and take a rest; that also seems like a viable option.
The combat stats on these guys are reasonably interesting. They’re tough, they move fast, they have stealth abilities; they have standard Demon resistances, and they can innately cast some useful spells - Heat Metal is a particularly good one that doesn’t allow a save, so great for hurting a Paladin, Cleric or Fighter of any level. The Babau does little damage with its main attacks, (16 average if both hit), but it does have a rather odd Weakening Gaze that can half the strength-based damage of a character, albeit it is based on a DC 13 Con save. I don’t see that being failed very often by people you’d want to affect, but the Babau can do it for free every time it makes an attack action, so I think that it is designed to be a minor rider to the damage of their attack, one that highlights their tankiness, rather than being a big deal by itself.
Overall, these guys seem good for adding into a combat to complicate matters for the players when they are trying to take down a more powerful Demon, or perhaps for stealthly hunting the players in packs. Their low damage, outside of Heat Metal means that you’ll not really put much hurt on a party with them alone, I think, but they are tanky enough to be annoying to get rid of, and they bring a lot of intriguing abilities to the table. Since my homebrew campaign will be visiting the Abyss soon, I’ll make sure to use these guys to victimise the characters!
Leatherhead
Possibly a Idiot.
How exactly do you use a demon in a clever way and unsuspected way without totally disregarding them being instruments of bloody destruction?
In the Babau's case, you take a page from their lore:
On the Black Market is a vial of something called "Graz'zt's Blood", and everyone wants it. Some think it to be a powerful poison, others an arcane reagent tied to the planes and/or warlocks, and a few dwarves fancy it a potent alcoholic brew. However, the truth of the this treasure just so happens to be skin deep. It is, in fact, a vial of the Demon Prince's blood, that somehow made it into mortal hands. Designed so that a Babau will spring forth when the vial is opened, it is intended to spread The Dark Prince's influence in the resulting chaos. And there is an entire ship (or even a fleet) full of the stuff, spreading this foul "brew" across the coast.
Incidentally, how do you pronounce "Babau"? Sometimes these names look like they came out of someone's soup bowl.
In the Babau's case, you take a page from their lore:
On the Black Market is a vial of something called "Graz'zt's Blood", and everyone wants it. Some think it to be a powerful poison, others an arcane reagent tied to the planes and/or warlocks, and a few dwarves fancy it a potent alcoholic brew. However, the truth of the this treasure just so happens to be skin deep. It is, in fact, a vial of the Demon Prince's blood, that somehow made it into mortal hands. Designed so that a Babau will spring forth when the vial is opened, it is intended to spread The Dark Prince's influence in the resulting chaos. And there is an entire ship (or even a fleet) full of the stuff, spreading this foul "brew" across the coast.
Incidentally, how do you pronounce "Babau"? Sometimes these names look like they came out of someone's soup bowl.
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ArchfiendBobbie
First Post
"ba.ˈbaw"
And, it's a Meditterranean bogeyman in real life mythology. A lot of DnD creatures are named, and often based, on real-world mythology.
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Chaosmancer
Legend
Looking these guys over again, they get some nice at will magic.
At-will dispel magic means warded areas never keep them out for long. Any spell 3rd or lower is automatically snuffed and... that includes Magic Circle, the go to "let's summon a demon and get it to work for us/let's keep demons out" spell. This could be an ability they use very rarely, allowing themselves to be summoned by mortals, get them used to making it easy, then dispelling the circle that contains them and ripping into their erstwhile masters.
Any spell higher than 3rd is going to take some time to get through, +1 wisdom means d20+1 needing to get 10+spell level DC... but give them however much time they would need to "take 20" and even the most powerful wards are going to be destroyed by these guys.
Combine this with at-will fear (even with a crappy save, DC 11 is nothing) and a half dozen of these guys could sneak into a magic school to terrorize and kill the students and perhaps bring more powerful demons who can't defeat magic wards along with them.
At will levitate is good too (again crappy save) because I think the caster controls the movement, so levitating a warrior makes them rather helpless against any ranged spear attacks these things make, because they wouldn't be able to close on the Babau to hit them.
Man, the more I think about at-will Dispel Magic opens so many possibilities for Babau to lead the charge on an infiltration, or sneak up to the city walls and slowly tear apart the wards that protect it. Eventually they will roll high enough to break the spell.
At-will dispel magic means warded areas never keep them out for long. Any spell 3rd or lower is automatically snuffed and... that includes Magic Circle, the go to "let's summon a demon and get it to work for us/let's keep demons out" spell. This could be an ability they use very rarely, allowing themselves to be summoned by mortals, get them used to making it easy, then dispelling the circle that contains them and ripping into their erstwhile masters.
Any spell higher than 3rd is going to take some time to get through, +1 wisdom means d20+1 needing to get 10+spell level DC... but give them however much time they would need to "take 20" and even the most powerful wards are going to be destroyed by these guys.
Combine this with at-will fear (even with a crappy save, DC 11 is nothing) and a half dozen of these guys could sneak into a magic school to terrorize and kill the students and perhaps bring more powerful demons who can't defeat magic wards along with them.
At will levitate is good too (again crappy save) because I think the caster controls the movement, so levitating a warrior makes them rather helpless against any ranged spear attacks these things make, because they wouldn't be able to close on the Babau to hit them.
Man, the more I think about at-will Dispel Magic opens so many possibilities for Babau to lead the charge on an infiltration, or sneak up to the city walls and slowly tear apart the wards that protect it. Eventually they will roll high enough to break the spell.
Charles Rampant
Explorer
Some good insights there; I'm really bad at making use of monster spells, so the thought are welcome. Of course, Dispel Magic is going to be a good way to shut down a Spirit Guardians right when the party is depending on it...
Of course, Dispel Magic is going to be a good way to shut down a Spirit Guardians right when the party is depending on it...Demetrios1453
Hero
One of the few issues I had with VGtM is that the babau's acidic slime wasn't addressed. It's definitely there in the picture, but it's not mentioned in either the text or the stat block. Granted, it's easy enough to just port over the rust monster's corroding attack which acts in pretty much the same way (other than rusting instead of acidic corroding), but it does seem a rather odd oversight to leave out an ability that has been associated with the babau pretty much since its inception back in 1e (and doesn't appear that it would raise the CR as it doesn't appear on the monster ability chart in the DMG).
MonsterEnvy
Legend
I do like the actual art more.
