D&D 5E 5e EPIC MONSTER UPDATES

[Blacklight85]

Happy new year! Thanks for the amazing work!

 

[dave2008]

Sweet. This is a good way to start the new year. ^_^

Also, Dave, I did some work on Ancient Dracoliches and Shadow Dragons here: http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?607652-Ancient-Dracoliches-and-Shadow-Dragons

Would you like it if I worked on different versions of these for the Epic Updates?

Awesome, they look great.

It is up to you. However, I am of the belief that becoming a lich or shadow actually weakens a dragon. That is why the ancient red dracolich in these epic updates is only CR 22 (it is in the Undead section, not the Dragon section). So if you want to rework them with that in mind I would love to post them.

 

[dave2008]

Happy new year! Thanks for the amazing work!

Happy New Year!

 

[Blacklight85]

Awesome, they look great.

It is up to you. However, I am of the belief that becoming a lich or shadow actually weakens a dragon. That is why the ancient red dracolich in these epic updates is only CR 22 (it is in the Undead section, not the Dragon section). So if you want to rework them with that in mind I would love to post them.

Decaying flesh and weak bones isn't stronger than a physical body. But it could help if it made them more magically inclined? Weaker physical body by a large margin but slightly boosted magical capabilities.

 

[dave2008]

Decaying flesh and weak bones isn't stronger than a physical body. But it could help if it made them more magically inclined? Weaker physical body by a large margin but slightly boosted magical capabilities.

That is definitely a possibility. I also wonder if it really boosts them magically or just makes them different magically. One advantage they have against other dragons is that necrotic energy is not something dragons generally are immune or resistant too (though I did give it to black dragons).

 

[SkidAce]

[MENTION=83242]dave2008[/MENTION] , So I was considering kaiju....

The first one the players met was a colossal ankylosaur , and I had it indifferent to any attacks or spells. More of a set piece with discover-able weaknesses etc.

Your colossal constructs have interesting traits, any thoughts on "set piece" gigantic monsters versus "hard to defeat" ?

Looking for ideas before we recreate the rest of the kaiju for that area of the world.

 

[dave2008]

[MENTION=83242]dave2008[/MENTION] , So I was considering kaiju....

The first one the players met was a colossal ankylosaur , and I had it indifferent to any attacks or spells. More of a set piece with discover-able weaknesses etc.

Your colossal constructs have interesting traits, any thoughts on "set piece" gigantic monsters versus "hard to defeat" ?

Looking for ideas before we recreate the rest of the kaiju for that area of the world.

Kaiju type monsters are definitely hard to do in a game like D&D. I have some sort of innate bias to "set piece" monsters (though that is probably more appropriate), so I try to give them stat blocks. The best method I have seen to do this is to break them into parts. I do this for the Primordials and the Draeden (under monstrosities). It might also make sense to use some type of damage reduction because of their thick hide, etc.

I recently purchased the 5e version of the Kaiju Codex on DMs Guild and their approach was mainly the following trait:

"Colossal Creatures. Kaiju are creatures far larger than
the scale of others. Conventional weapons, even highlyenchanted
ones, lack the mass to deal serious wounds
to a kaiju. The same is true for all but the mightiest spells.
When a creature of Huge size or smaller deals damage
to a kaiju with a weapon or feature, or with a spell of 8th
level or lower, it deals half damage, which can be reduced
further by resistance or saving throws. Siege weapons
and creatures with the Siege Monster trait are treated
like Gargantuan creatures.
Gargantuan creatures and 9th-level spells (including
lower-level spells cast with 9th-level slots) deal normal
damage, which can be reduced further by resistance or
saving throws.
Kaiju deal double damage to objects and structures."

There is also "Kaiju Fight" available for free on the DMs Guild. Which has a few different options. It is not fully fleshed out, but t is worth a look. It has "Titanic Creatures" traits and body location actions which are similar to my primordial parts.

This is something I definitely want to address with the 2nd drafts, but I don't have a final solution at this time. When I focus on the Primordials I will probably work on this concept some more. Good luck and please let me know what you come with.

 

[Blacklight85]

Kaiju type monsters are definitely hard to do in a game like D&D. I have some sort of innate bias to "set piece" monsters (though that is probably more appropriate), so I try to give them stat blocks. The best method I have seen to do this is to break them into parts. I do this for the Primordials and the Draeden (under monstrosities). It might also make sense to use some type of damage reduction because of their thick hide, etc.

I recently purchased the 5e version of the Kaiju Codex on DMs Guild and their approach was mainly the following trait:

"Colossal Creatures. Kaiju are creatures far larger than
the scale of others. Conventional weapons, even highlyenchanted
ones, lack the mass to deal serious wounds
to a kaiju. The same is true for all but the mightiest spells.
When a creature of Huge size or smaller deals damage
to a kaiju with a weapon or feature, or with a spell of 8th
level or lower, it deals half damage, which can be reduced
further by resistance or saving throws. Siege weapons
and creatures with the Siege Monster trait are treated
like Gargantuan creatures.
Gargantuan creatures and 9th-level spells (including
lower-level spells cast with 9th-level slots) deal normal
damage, which can be reduced further by resistance or
saving throws.
Kaiju deal double damage to objects and structures."

There is also "Kaiju Fight" available for free on the DMs Guild. Which has a few different options. It is not fully fleshed out, but t is worth a look. It has "Titanic Creatures" traits and body location actions which are similar to my primordial parts.

This is something I definitely want to address with the 2nd drafts, but I don't have a final solution at this time. When I focus on the Primordials I will probably work on this concept some more. Good luck and please let me know what you come with.

It's definitely hard to balance these huge and powerful creatures due to having technically more actions and health pools. A CR 50 Ahat Hir might be more powerful than an average CR 50 creature. Also considering the dracolich I kinda thought it would be fitting to give them higher magical defense or something similar, while a fighter or a paladin based player composition would defeat a dracolich easily, a magic caster based player composition will have a hard time. But since we are talking about a dracolich here, it's not like it will fight a group of enemies without sufficient preparations.

 

[dave2008]

A CR 50 Ahat Hir might be more powerful than an average CR 50 creature.

Actually, Ahat-Hit is like fighting 9 CR 50 monsters because the total CR is based on the average of of all the parts.

 

[SkidAce]

I recently purchased the 5e version of the Kaiju Codex on DMs Guild and their approach was mainly the following trait:

What is the title of the product you purchased?