Check out the Astral Deadnought from Mordenkainen's Tome

WotC's Nathan Stewart celebrated hitting 5,000 Twitter followers by sharing a page from Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes, the upcoming D&D book due for release next month. The art gloriously evokes Jeff Easley's art from the cover of 1987's Manual of the Planes (a monster originally called an "ethereal dreadnought" and changed to "astral dreadnought" in D&D 2E).

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[Swarmkeeper]

Not sure I understand all the quibbling over the HP presented in the stat block. The 297 that is presented is just the average. Based on 17d20 + 119, the DM could choose to utilize a very beefy Astral Dreadnaught with 459 HP or a relatively feeble one with just 136 HP. Or something in between. A DM should not feel constrained by the average.

 

[Schmoe]

I have to admit, the Easley cover for MotP did more to fire my imagination than just about any image in the game. Simply amazing, and I'm really happy to see that the dreadnaught continues to terrorize astral travelers. I agree with earlier posters that the abilities are just flat-out cool and present a lot of creative options. Kudos to the designers for making a creature that has some interesting tactical options.

As a side note, I'm a little confused by all the fuss over high-level monster CRs. I don't profess to be an expert on 5E, as I'm much more familiar with 3.5 and Pathfinder. That being said, it seems like a lot of the quibbles with monsters for "advanced" character options could be solved with a few simple rules:

If you allow feats or multi-classing, increase all monster HP by 50%, double if you use both.
If you allow magic items, double all monster proficiency bonuses and increase all monster damage dice by 50% (round down).

 

[CapnZapp]

Not sure I understand all the quibbling over the HP presented in the stat block. The 297 that is presented is just the average. Based on 17d20 + 119, the DM could choose to utilize a very beefy Astral Dreadnaught with 459 HP or a relatively feeble one with just 136 HP. Or something in between. A DM should not feel constrained by the average.

If your question is genuine:

Because people think 459 hp needed to have been the minimum, not the maximum.

Hope that helps.

 

[darjr]

If you want feel free to start out another thread.

 

[Dausuul]

Not sure I understand all the quibbling over the HP presented in the stat block. The 297 that is presented is just the average. Based on 17d20 + 119, the DM could choose to utilize a very beefy Astral Dreadnaught with 459 HP or a relatively feeble one with just 136 HP. Or something in between. A DM should not feel constrained by the average.

I'm the DM. I'm not constrained by anything in a statblock. I can give the astral dreadnought 10,000 hit points if I want to.

But the whole point of the statblock is to save me time and effort. Each thing that I have to tinker with, instead of just using straight out of the book, reduces the value of the statblock to me.

 

[darjr]

Varying hit points in the stat block using the given range is hardly tinkering. The range is in the statblock for a reason.

 

[Dausuul]

Varying hit points in the stat block using the given range is hardly tinkering.

I'm not gonna argue semantics. My objection is to where I have to spend time and effort figuring out what hit point value will enable the monster to perform at its listed CR. If that is something I have to think about, then the statblock is not fulfilling its purpose.

 

[darjr]

Adjusting hit points or rolling them is, imho, part of the DMs job. And it’s easy peasy too. But I do understand that your mileage may vary.

I have run this monster solo, and while the PCs defeated it, it wasn’t easy. Throw in some backup or have it as the surprise third axis in a three way fight and it could be glorious.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Adjusting hit points or rolling them is, imho, part of the DMs job. And it’s easy peasy too. But I do understand that your mileage may vary.

I have run this monster solo, and while the PCs defeated it, it wasn’t easy. Throw in some backup or have it as the surprise third axis in a three way fight and it could be glorious.

I always roll for HP for monsters, so yeah it is easy.

 

[Swarmkeeper]

If your question is genuine:

Because people think 459 hp needed to have been the minimum, not the maximum.

Hope that helps.

If by "people" you actually mean "CapnZapp and friends who have not posted here", then that is fine. Your opinion is that you want 459 HP to be the minimum for this monster. You are entitled to that opinion.

If by "people" you mean any of the posters here that have actually said that 297 is low, then you are literally putting words in their mouths... er... posts. No one else here has mentioned that 459 should be a minimum except you. Maybe they do think so, maybe they don't - but until they actually say it, you really shouldn't claim otherwise.