Dodkong minions
Make it so!
Cleon
Legend
Getting back on track with the Cairn Shadowraith Working Draft.
Are we done with the mechanics and ready for the Description?
Are we done with the mechanics and ready for the Description?
Casimir Liber
Adventurer
Yes - one thing, does it seem a bit silly for a noncorporeal creature to have rock catching as a reaction?
Cleon
Legend
Well going by the 5E Rules As Written, a wraith is as capable of manipulating physical objects as a regular creature with Strength 16. It's only its movement that's Incorporeal. It could wield weapons, use tools or carry heavy loads if it wanted to.
Think of it like the Nazgul from Lord of the Rings. Their flesh and bones are "wraithlike" but they wore armor and clothing while using material weapons.
Casimir Liber
Adventurer
ok sold me
Cleon
Legend
Guess I'll blue the Cairn Shadowraith Working Draft then.
How's this for the rest:
Description
A spectral figure several times taller than a man and completely without color, ranging from the gloomy grey of a shadow to the utter blackness of a sealed tomb, a cairn shadowraith is a wraith-like undead stone giant. It always looks like it's been dead for decades, if not centuries, no matter its age.
Phantom Flesh & Shadowy Bones. The appearance and substance of a cairn shadowraith is uncannily mutable. One moment it could be an insubstantial ghostly skeleton, the next a full-fleshed mummy with skin as hard as rock. In darkness it becomes a nigh invisible shadow. This unnatural state of being, neither corporeal not incorporeal, allows a cairn shadowraith to reach an insubstantial hand inside a victim and tear apart their life force, even if the target is outside the shadowraith's physical reach. Shadowraiths can also condense shadow-stuff into rocks to hurl at their enemies or play catch with their peers.
Tomb Dwellers. The cairn shadowraith is closely related to the cairn wight, a fully corporeal undead stone giant. Some necrologists believe that a cairn wight so ancient its flesh and bones have rotted away replaces them with ectoplasmic substitutes and becomes a shadowraith.
However, it is certain that cairn shadowraiths can be newly created from fresh stone giant corpses. The undead monarch known as the Dodkong has several such shadowraiths in its retinue, created from the wisest stone giant elders who have died and been entombed.
Both the wight and shadowraith types of cairn inhabit underground tombs. A normal cairn will only ever leave its tomb to punish an enemy or retrieve something stolen from it, but cairns in service to some powerful entity often venture forth on missions for their master. The Dodkong's cairn shadowraith elders act as advisors and spymasters to their lord. They send specter minions to spy on Cairnheim's rivals and watch its living citizens for signs of disloyalty.
A spectral figure several times taller than a man and completely without color, ranging from the gloomy grey of a shadow to the utter blackness of a sealed tomb, a cairn shadowraith is a wraith-like undead stone giant. It always looks like it's been dead for decades, if not centuries, no matter its age.
Phantom Flesh & Shadowy Bones. The appearance and substance of a cairn shadowraith is uncannily mutable. One moment it could be an insubstantial ghostly skeleton, the next a full-fleshed mummy with skin as hard as rock. In darkness it becomes a nigh invisible shadow. This unnatural state of being, neither corporeal not incorporeal, allows a cairn shadowraith to reach an insubstantial hand inside a victim and tear apart their life force, even if the target is outside the shadowraith's physical reach. Shadowraiths can also condense shadow-stuff into rocks to hurl at their enemies or play catch with their peers.
Tomb Dwellers. The cairn shadowraith is closely related to the cairn wight, a fully corporeal undead stone giant. Some necrologists believe that a cairn wight so ancient its flesh and bones have rotted away replaces them with ectoplasmic substitutes and becomes a shadowraith.
However, it is certain that cairn shadowraiths can be newly created from fresh stone giant corpses. The undead monarch known as the Dodkong has several such shadowraiths in its retinue, created from the wisest stone giant elders who have died and been entombed.
Both the wight and shadowraith types of cairn inhabit underground tombs. A normal cairn will only ever leave its tomb to punish an enemy or retrieve something stolen from it, but cairns in service to some powerful entity often venture forth on missions for their master. The Dodkong's cairn shadowraith elders act as advisors and spymasters to their lord. They send specter minions to spy on Cairnheim's rivals and watch its living citizens for signs of disloyalty.
Casimir Liber
Adventurer
Cleon
Legend
Updating the Cairn Shadowraith Working Draft.
Okay, let's see…
The text for Umbral Armor should be "If the cairn shadowraith is in dim light or darkness, its AC can't be less than 14 plus its Dexterity modifier, regardless of what kind of armor it is wearing."
The Create Specter text is different. The Enworld version has a range of 10 feet (matching the Create Specter of the SRD Wraith) and an increased limit of twelve specters, while the D&D Beyond version has a longer range than the Wraith at 30 feet but the same seven specter limit.
So which is it?
My immediate impulse is to use the higher of the two: 30 feet and 12 spectres, but I'd consider a baker's dozen of 13 spectres instead of a regular dozen, just to mix it up a bit.
Or maybe give it the same maximum range as the shadowraith's Soul Grip, namely 60 feet?
You said my argument for Rock Catching had won you over but I'm not seeing it in Reactions!
