[MENTION=6776887]Tormyr[/MENTION]
Size determines the number of damage dice used? Really? I'm looking at the section of the DMG concerning creating your own stat blocks (~pg275) and it doesn't really seem to imply that anywhere I'm looking.
The adventurers are delving into the secret maze of tunnels beneath the city to rescue the sister of one of their party members, unaware that they are walking directly into a trap. Unbeknownst to the adventurer carrying it, the magic of the speaking stone the kidnappers left behind has been twisted to serve their needs and their needs alone. While they can enable two-way communication if they so desire, their stone defaults to not capture sound. The stone the adventurer carries, however, can never be disabled, meaning the other stone is constantly letting the kidnappers know everything the party is doing. In addition, it constantly emits an imperceptible whine. Normally, this sound would only attract the attention of dogs, but the adventurer's stone has been specifically attuned to pick up this tone and gently bring it back to the audible spectrum. As the two stones near one another, the kidnapper's stone will start with a soft, low hum, its volume and pitch rising as the distance between the stones diminishes, reaching an ear-splitting screech as the party enters the now abandoned lair of the cult behind the kidnapping. Once one of the adventurers grab the second stone, it falls deathly silent. Moments later, the party hears an immense splash as the balhannoth raised and domesticated by the cult responds to its cue, ready to hunt...
Alright, put simply: I've been planning this campaign for a long time, since 4e was the edition of the day, in fact, which is why I have refused to even consider using another monster. And it's always been a solo monster. While it's only been recently that I've actually considered the possibility of it being a TPK, it has always been intended to <bleep> the players' entire day up. It's not supposed to be "nice".
Well, back in the early days (aka glory days [read: only days; it's been a while]), I started with a group of 6 (even though the adventure stated 5 max). A little later I'm pretty sure I ended up going to 8, but don't quote me. Regardless, that was before I really got a handle on how to manage a game, so I don't know how accurate that frame of reference is on how well I'll do now. Really, it can probably be a huge success, a dismal failure, or anywhere in between.
[MENTION=59848]Hawk Diesel[/MENTION]
I've kind of considered it, but thing is, I want this to be a very story driven game, so I am loathe to give out anything that even remotely approaches being a spoiler. Plus, I have the organization of a squirrel, and have only written like 3% of the story that's in my head, so handing it off to someone else is more than slightly complicated. Also, on the splitting the group point, I don't know, something just rubs me the wrong way. I feel like the balance is precarious but stable at 10, and I don't know how to retain that stability when splitting it into two 5s.
[MENTION=6776887]Tormyr[/MENTION]
I like your version, seems pretty well rounded. Of course, me being me, I'm thinking bigger...
I guess I really am thinking of something unique. Not just any ol' balhannoth, not even an ancient balhannoth, but a balhannoth raised devouring the flesh of shapechangers and bathed in the dark, magical energies of Vecna himself!
OK, maybe not that far, but a truly legendary balhannoth.
I'll post again when I have a new stat block. I think it'll be good...
In 5e some monsters kind of top out at a certain CR because they physically cannot do more damage with the "normal" damage mechanics (i.e. large creatures do 2 dice of damage, gargantuan do 4). There isn't anything stopping you from using more dice of damage, and there are examples of that, but that is how many of the 5e creatures work.
Size determines the number of damage dice used? Really? I'm looking at the section of the DMG concerning creating your own stat blocks (~pg275) and it doesn't really seem to imply that anywhere I'm looking.
If you still go for the higher level campaign, is there a story reason why you only have 1 creature versus a small pack of CR 10 creatures? The simpler creatures will be faster and easier to run while causing chaos on the player side.
The adventurers are delving into the secret maze of tunnels beneath the city to rescue the sister of one of their party members, unaware that they are walking directly into a trap. Unbeknownst to the adventurer carrying it, the magic of the speaking stone the kidnappers left behind has been twisted to serve their needs and their needs alone. While they can enable two-way communication if they so desire, their stone defaults to not capture sound. The stone the adventurer carries, however, can never be disabled, meaning the other stone is constantly letting the kidnappers know everything the party is doing. In addition, it constantly emits an imperceptible whine. Normally, this sound would only attract the attention of dogs, but the adventurer's stone has been specifically attuned to pick up this tone and gently bring it back to the audible spectrum. As the two stones near one another, the kidnapper's stone will start with a soft, low hum, its volume and pitch rising as the distance between the stones diminishes, reaching an ear-splitting screech as the party enters the now abandoned lair of the cult behind the kidnapping. Once one of the adventurers grab the second stone, it falls deathly silent. Moments later, the party hears an immense splash as the balhannoth raised and domesticated by the cult responds to its cue, ready to hunt...
Alright, put simply: I've been planning this campaign for a long time, since 4e was the edition of the day, in fact, which is why I have refused to even consider using another monster. And it's always been a solo monster. While it's only been recently that I've actually considered the possibility of it being a TPK, it has always been intended to <bleep> the players' entire day up. It's not supposed to be "nice".
Have you run a campaign with 10 players before? My experience has been that even at 8 players combat...becomes...slow. Although I guess having half the players stunned because of teleportation would speed things up again (I haven't looked closely at the later versions to see if that changed), but how are you planning on handling giving everyone time to shine the rest of the time? I am interested in hearing your ideas.
Well, back in the early days (aka glory days [read: only days; it's been a while]), I started with a group of 6 (even though the adventure stated 5 max). A little later I'm pretty sure I ended up going to 8, but don't quote me. Regardless, that was before I really got a handle on how to manage a game, so I don't know how accurate that frame of reference is on how well I'll do now. Really, it can probably be a huge success, a dismal failure, or anywhere in between.
[MENTION=59848]Hawk Diesel[/MENTION]
Have you considered perhaps breaking the group into two smaller groups? You may want to consider recruiting one of these people in your group as a co-DM and running parallel adventuring groups. They could take place in the same world, and maybe you could even coordinate how the actions of one group might affect the other. You might even have everyone a part of the same adventuring guild, and each session the whole team regroups based on the needs of the mission, allowing the two groups to get mixed up every so often. If no one else wants to volunteer to be your co-DM, you could attempt to have a revolving DM where each of them takes turns being the co-DM with you, giving everyone a chance to play while also providing everyone the chance to have a smaller group with more potential for "screen time."
I've kind of considered it, but thing is, I want this to be a very story driven game, so I am loathe to give out anything that even remotely approaches being a spoiler. Plus, I have the organization of a squirrel, and have only written like 3% of the story that's in my head, so handing it off to someone else is more than slightly complicated. Also, on the splitting the group point, I don't know, something just rubs me the wrong way. I feel like the balance is precarious but stable at 10, and I don't know how to retain that stability when splitting it into two 5s.
[MENTION=6776887]Tormyr[/MENTION]
So here is my take on a CR 10 Balhannoth, based heavily on the 3.5 Balhannoth from Monster Manual IV. It would be a medium encounter for 4 level 10 PCs, 5 level 8 PCs, 6 level 6 PCs, and hard for 7 level 4 PCs. Adding more PCs makes the encounter easier, but you really cannot go below level 4 or 5 PCs fighting this monster because it does enough damage in a round to knock a level 5 fighter with 16 CON unconscious. So at that point you can have two instead of 1. That makes a medium encounter for 4 level 16 PCs, 5 level 14 PCs, 6 level 12 PCs, 7 level 10 PCs, 8 level 8 PCs, 9 level 6 PCs, or 10 level 5 PCs. These numbers are using my spreadsheet that smooths out the encounter difficulty multipliers between the number of PCs and monsters in the DMG and extrapolates out to 10 PCs. That being said, encounter building numbers at 10 PCs are really shaky, and the encounter could go either way easily.
If you were to change this to level 14 PCs, this would potentially require 2 CR 21 balhannoths to make a medium encounter or 3 to make a Deadly encounter. 10 PCs really throws a wrench in what a DM might expect out of an encounter. It also makes the encounter really long.
If a DM were to make this into a CR 21 or so monster, there are few easy ways to get most of the way there.
* Make it a gargantuan version. All the damage dice change to 4dX instead of 2dX.
* Bump hp and natural AC.
* Give it 3 uses of legendary resistance (each is worth 90 hp for a CR 21 creature) and 3 legendary actions that can be used for attacks.
Balhannoth
Large aberration, chaotic neutral
Armor Class 15 (natural armor)
Hit Points 195 (17d10 + 102)
Speed 50 ft., climb 50 ft.
[TABLE="class: cms_table, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]STR[/TD]
[TD]DEX[/TD]
[TD]CON[/TD]
[TD]INT[/TD]
[TD]WIS[/TD]
[TD]CHA[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]28 (+9)[/TD]
[TD]17 (+3)[/TD]
[TD]23 (+6)[/TD]
[TD]3 (-4)[/TD]
[TD]12 (+1)[/TD]
[TD]8 (-1)[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Saving Throws Wis +5
Skills Perception +5, Stealth +8
Condition Immunities blinded
Senses blindsight 20 ft., passive Perception 15
Languages –
Challenge 10 (5,900 XP)
Dweomersight. A balhannoth is blind, but it hunts through detection of magic. It detects creatures casting spells, carrying magic items, or otherwise using magic, and it can see everything within the range of magical effects, including its own dimensional lock. This functions as a selective, 120-foot radius blindsight.
Dimensional Lock. Everything within a 20-foot radius from the balhannoth is unable to travel between the current plane and another plane.
Antimagic Grapple. A balhannoth that has grappled a creature suppresses the creature’s magical items and effects and keeps the creature from being able to cast spells. The balhannoth suppresses magic items that it wears or holds.
Camouflage. A balhannoth’s skin color changes to match its surroundings. It has advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks.
Spider Climb. A balhannoth can travel on vertical surfaces and the ceiling without an ability check.
Actions
Multiattack. The balhannoth makes two slam attacks and a bite attack.
Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +13 to hit, reach 15 ft., one target. Hit: 16 (2d6 + 9) bludgeoning damage and if the target is a creature it must succeed at a DC 17 Dexterity saving throw or be grappled and suffer an additional 4 (1d8) bludgeoning damage as the tentacle constricts on the creature.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +13 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (2d4 + 9) piercing damage.
I like your version, seems pretty well rounded. Of course, me being me, I'm thinking bigger...
I guess I really am thinking of something unique. Not just any ol' balhannoth, not even an ancient balhannoth, but a balhannoth raised devouring the flesh of shapechangers and bathed in the dark, magical energies of Vecna himself!
OK, maybe not that far, but a truly legendary balhannoth.
I'll post again when I have a new stat block. I think it'll be good...