Dragonlance Dragonlance Shadow of the Dragon Queen shows up in the wild!

[Reynard]

It’s worth remembering that Soth with at least be riding a death dragon and likely accompanied by lots of draconian and skeleton troops. You won’t be fighting him alone in a white room at the end of the module.

That's only relevant if you only care about his DPR. With minions and allies it is even more important that he has commander style abilities and battlefield control abilities. He's a war leader. He should act like one in combat.

 

[overgeeked]

That's only relevant if you only care about his DPR. With minions and allies it is even more important that he has commander style abilities and battlefield control abilities. He's a war leader. He should act like one in combat.

I agree. He only has shared immunity to being turned. That’s not much.

 

[dave2008]

Huh. His hit points are low. Most CR19 monsters should be sitting around 300 hp. His sustained damage is a little low. He should be doing another 20 damage per round, without casting or dailies. I like the "if you hit zero hp from this, you die" stuff. Especially the raise dead fireball. That's nice.

FYI, I checked the math and, depending on a few variables, he checks in at CR 18.5 per the DMG. IME, WotC always rounds up, so you get a CR 19.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

That's only relevant if you only care about his DPR. With minions and allies it is even more important that he has commander style abilities and battlefield control abilities. He's a war leader. He should act like one in combat.

Soth was always more a powerful combatant with allies rather than a leader.

I am also underwhelmed -- not from a power standpoint, but because they don't give him anything interesting to do. He should be loaded up with commander and battlefield manipulation abilities -- preferably as reactions, bonus action and legendary actions to make sure is is also still beating heroes to death. 5E still drags behind MCDM, LevelUp and even DMsGuild monster books in making combatants fun to play and fun to fight.

I think his ability to quickly move him and his mount around while smacking people out of the way and off turn casting make for an interesting opponent.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

FYI, I checked the math and, depending on a few variables, he checks in at CR 18.5 per the DMG. IME, WotC always rounds up, so you get a CR 19.

He came up at 19 exactly for me.

Was using this calculator

https://iadndmn.neocities.org/CRcalc.html

 

[dave2008]

He came up at 19 exactly for me.

Was using this calculator

https://iadndmn.neocities.org/CRcalc.html

Thanks for the link, I haven't seen one so complete before. I usually just do it myself and I have gotten pretty good at, particularly with simple monsters like Soth.

 

[Micah Sweet]

It’s worth remembering that Soth will at least be riding a death dragon and likely accompanied by lots of draconian and skeleton troops. You won’t be fighting him alone in a white room at the end of the module.

True, but that doesn't make him not undertuned for a CR 19. CRs on statblocks represent the statblock, not an entire encounter featuring it.

 

[dave2008]

He came up at 19 exactly for me.

Was using this calculator

https://iadndmn.neocities.org/CRcalc.html

Just took a quick look at the calculator and I think I know why we are a 1/2 CR off. The calculator automatically takes resistances and immunities into account and the DMG is more nuanced than that. I didn't modify Soth's HP because of his resistances and HP as I don't think he had enough to warrant an adjustment, and I imagine the calculator did. Oddly, the calculator doesn't take into account the number of resistances as the DMG specifically mentions having 3 or more, may need a HP adjustment. So that is the floor to determining a HP adjustment (3 resistances)

 

[Micah Sweet]

Soth was always more a powerful combatant with allies rather than a leader.

I think his ability to quickly move him and his mount around while smacking people out of the way and off turn casting make for an interesting opponent.

He was pretty badass in Ravenloft (pre-darklord even). Fought a dragon solo in one of the novels.

 

[Kai Lord]

Does the new book make any mention of Gully Dwarves?