plisnithus8
Adventurer
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- Thread starter plisnithus8
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Hmm, the description and stat block contain a number of typographical or syntax errors and the creature design is... interesting.
My 5 minute review: The oculon is a floating eye that is Large for no reason, has a Strength of 20 for no reason, and a Wisdom of 30 solely in order to boost its Perception to a value that seems a little excessive. It is almost as smart and certainly much wiser than any creature that it purports to serve. Its abilities (traits) that affect creatures - Memory of the Beholder and Peaceful Sight - have no saving throws. Its only Action is an action that any creature can take, and hence is unnecessary for a stat block. But, oddly, it doesn't have Mage Hand as an innate spell, so it can't manipulate anything - so avoiding its gaze is as simple as closing a door and stepping behind the 3-foot-thick stone wall next to the door. And since it is not in constant contact with its master, so in order to report on anything it has seen, it has to get within 120 feet of its master and report to them using telepathy.
The creature's purpose is to screw over stealthy PCs, and not in any reasonable way. There are plenty of ways to improve it, but at the end of the day, it is unnecessary, and can be replaced with with a simple tweak of the standard Lair Actions of a beholder: an eye appears on a surface within 60 feet of a PC, and the beholder can perceive through that eye as if through one of its own.
Cheers, Al'kelhar
My 5 minute review: The oculon is a floating eye that is Large for no reason, has a Strength of 20 for no reason, and a Wisdom of 30 solely in order to boost its Perception to a value that seems a little excessive. It is almost as smart and certainly much wiser than any creature that it purports to serve. Its abilities (traits) that affect creatures - Memory of the Beholder and Peaceful Sight - have no saving throws. Its only Action is an action that any creature can take, and hence is unnecessary for a stat block. But, oddly, it doesn't have Mage Hand as an innate spell, so it can't manipulate anything - so avoiding its gaze is as simple as closing a door and stepping behind the 3-foot-thick stone wall next to the door. And since it is not in constant contact with its master, so in order to report on anything it has seen, it has to get within 120 feet of its master and report to them using telepathy.
The creature's purpose is to screw over stealthy PCs, and not in any reasonable way. There are plenty of ways to improve it, but at the end of the day, it is unnecessary, and can be replaced with with a simple tweak of the standard Lair Actions of a beholder: an eye appears on a surface within 60 feet of a PC, and the beholder can perceive through that eye as if through one of its own.
Cheers, Al'kelhar
humble minion
Legend
Yeah, this looks like a dungeon obstacle rather than a creature. It has Int 15 and Wis 30(!!!) - what are its goals, what does it want, what does it spend its time doing other than annoying any passing rogues?
It doesn't scream 'Ravenloft' to me, either. This is a critter designed for adversarial dungeoncrawling play, and there's almost no D&D setting less suited for that than Ravenloft. In Ravenloft, every monster should have a story, a goal, a tragedy. This monster really, really lacks any context or reason for being.
You could replace this with a permanent Alarm spell and the story would lose nothing.
It doesn't scream 'Ravenloft' to me, either. This is a critter designed for adversarial dungeoncrawling play, and there's almost no D&D setting less suited for that than Ravenloft. In Ravenloft, every monster should have a story, a goal, a tragedy. This monster really, really lacks any context or reason for being.
You could replace this with a permanent Alarm spell and the story would lose nothing.
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