D&D 5E What's a good example of a Low CR Avatar of a God?

[Shades of Eternity]

I'm building a low level adventure for my players, but want a tiny splinter of a god to be one of the first fights.

Are there any good examples created thus far?

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

A swarm of spiders in the form of a human which is the avatar of Lolth

PS. Which god?

 

[Sword of Spirit]

Have you considered using a servant of the deity in question rather than an avatar?

I find including weaker avatars tends to mean that PCs don‘t get to see the various interesting servants of the deities, and makes their personal presence less awe-inspiring. I value the idea that there are a variety of servants from low to high challenge to face, but an avatar should be awe-inspiring and not something anyone less than high level would be prepared to face.

That might not be what you’re going for, but its something I was thinking about recently so I thought I’d bring it up.

 

[Shades of Eternity]

A swarm of spiders in the form of a human which is the avatar of Lolth

PS. Which god?

well it's supposed to be the great castor spirit. essentially a fragment of a beaver god that heads a cult that wants to flood the world - so thinking nature and tempest for looking at overall powers?

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

There is a low CR avatar of a god in Rhyme of the Frost Maiden.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

There's Gorthok the Thunderboar as a avatar of Talos in Dragon of Icespire Peak.

 

[dave2008]

Auril from Rime of the Frost Maiden has 3 avatars in the book. They are CR 9, 10, and 11. Is that low enough for you?

 

[J.Quondam]

How low-level are you looking for? As "one of the first encounters" that seems pretty low, so like CR4 or 5?
Are you looking for published monsters, or inspiration to homebrew?
Anyway just spitballing with some brainstorms for inspiration i guess, without detail or balance or whatnot.

A couple are a lone monster, with just one action per round, so minions would be necessary versus a party; and/or maybe even a legendary action or two, given their divine nature? (There's a free pdf on DMsGuild called "Not So Legendary Actions" that give a really quick rundown for low-level badguys.)

Avatar as a little reflection of the god:

• A literal giant beaver with flood-inspired divine powers?
• Reskin an anklyosaurus (CR3) as a great big beaver, swim speed, etc
• Boost its INT to human level+, and maybe give it speech?
• Add the innate ability to control water (per the spell) as an action

Avatar as a humanoid embodiment of the god:

• A water/storm-based divine caster type?
• Maybe start with kraken priest (CR5) in Volo's, reskinned to beaver/wilderness theme.
• Reskin the thundertouch with a ghostly divine tail slap (same, but does bludgeoning, + maybe risk of knock prone?).
• Change the Voice of the Kraken to... "Voice of the Flood" that causes nearby opponents to start coughing and drowning (like dust of sneezing and choking)? Or something?

• Or a more martial one?
• Maybe start with a sahuagin baron (CR5), but reskin it on the god's theme
• Change Shark telepathy to Beaver telepathy (use badger stats for beavers, if needed)
  • (Actually, any of these avatars ought to have Beaver telepathy, right?)
• change Trident to Battleaxe or Great axe?
• maybe add a power like tidal wave (as spell from xanathar's), maybe on a 5-6 recharge?

Avatar as an embodiment of the god's ideal, the flood:

• A great, turbulent pool?
  • (so encounter presents more like a "genius loci" than a straightforward monster?)
• Maybe water elemental/s (CR5) or water weird/s (CR3) could be appropriate?
  • Floating detritus might add slashing/piercing damage to attacks?
• Mud mephits on the shore and below water might acts as minions
• Defeat the main "brain" water elemental, and the whole pool goes quiescent (until next full moon or something)

For any of these, thematic encounter locales and hazards might include:

• The fight happens beneath a collapsing dam, imposing a time limit.
• PCs getting swept off their feet in muddy surges
• PCs dodging/getting clobbered by falling logs
• If there's a storm about, lightning strikes could be a threat

 

[Shades of Eternity]

• A literal giant beaver with flood-inspired divine powers?
• Reskin an anklyosaurus (CR3) as a great big beaver, swim speed, etc

Sold! That critter is a pitch perfect base for my plans.
Ty kindly.

 

[Blue]

And if you don't know who the Winslow is, you might not know who Phil & Dixie are either, and that's a crying shame for D&D players.

Though, the question is if the Winslow is a low CR avatar, or just a low CR deity. Or, well, something else. But low CR. For an immortal, indestructable VERY IMPORTANT (so they say) being.