5E: Alternate Takes on Official Fifth Edition Monsters

[Cleon]

Animated Object, Huge
Huge construct, unaligned
Armor Class 16 (natural armor)
Hit Points 110 (17d12)
Speed 30 ft. or fly 30 ft. (hover)

STR​	DEX​	CON​	INT​	WIS​	CHA​
22 (+6)​	8 (–1)​	10 (+0)​	1 (–5)​	3 (–4)​	1 (–5)​

Damage Immunities poison, psychic
Condition Immunities blinded, charmed, deafened, frightened, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned
Senses blindsight 60 ft. (blind beyond this radius), passive Perception 6
Languages —
Challenge 4 (1,100 XP) Proficiency Bonus +2

Antimagic Susceptibility. The animated object is incapacitated while in the area of an antimagic field. If targeted by dispel magic, the fan must succeed on a Constitution saving throw against the caster's spell save DC or fall unconscious for 1 minute.

False Appearance. While the animated object remains motionless, it is indistinguishable from a normal object.

Actions

Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 17 (2d10 + 6) bludgeoning damage.


Description

A standard construct created by the animate objects spell. The DM might rule that a specific object inflicts slashing or piercing damage based on its form.

(Variant monster designed by Cleon on the Creature Catalog General Monsters forum.)

 

[Cleon]

Okay, I think the Top Ballista is about ready for release, so that only leaves the Animated Object Shrapnel Swarm.

I'm currently undecided on how tough to make that. Keep on vacillating between Challenge 3 and 5. On the one hand, I'd like to have an easily created CR 5 subject for an animate objects spell, of the other hand the 5E Monster Manual swarms are all low CR, with the strongest being the CR 2 Swarm of Poisonous Snakes.

Let's see, an individual Poisonous Snake is CR 1/8 while a spell-standard Tiny Animated Object is CR 1/4, implying the object is twice as dangerous as the snake, so if a Snake Swarm is CR 2 then the Object Swarm would be around CR 4… which is exactly between the CR 5 and 3 I'm considering.

That's not much help!

Don't fancy using CR 4 as we've already got the spell-standard Huge Animated Object in that slot.

Heck, I'll figure it out in the morning. Done enough for today.

EDIT: I've more or less deciding to do split the issue and do two swarms, the Shrapnel Swarm at CR 5 and a generic "Swarm of Animated Objects" at CR 3 that is less lethal and usually does bludgeoning damage like the default constructs produced by animate objects.

 

[Cleon]

Swarm of Animated Objects
Medium swarm of Tiny constructs, unaligned
Armor Class 16 (natural armor)
Hit Points 45 (10d8)
Speed 30 ft. or fly 30 ft. (hover)

STR​	DEX​	CON​	INT​	WIS​	CHA​
16 (+3)​	14 (+2)​	10 (+0)​	1 (–5)​	3 (–4)​	1 (–5)​

Damage Resistances bludgeoning, piercing, slashing
Damage Immunities poison, psychic
Condition Immunities blinded, charmed, deafened, frightened, grappled, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned, prone, restrained, stunned
Senses blindsight 60 ft. (blind beyond this radius), passive Perception 6
Languages —
Challenge 3 (700 XP) Proficiency Bonus +2

Antimagic Susceptibility. The swarm of animated objects is incapacitated while in the area of an antimagic field. If targeted by dispel magic, the swarm must succeed on a Constitution saving throw against the caster's spell save DC or fall unconscious for 1 minute.

False Appearance. While the swarm of animated objects remains motionless, it is indistinguishable from a group of normal objects.

Swarm. The swarm can occupy another creature's space and vice versa, and the swarm can move through any opening large enough for a Tiny creature. The swarm can't regain hit points or gain temporary hit points.

Actions

Multiattack. The swarm of animated objects makes two attacks with blizzard of blows.

Blizzard of Blows. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 0 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (4d6) bludgeoning damage, or 7 (2d6) bludgeoning damage if the swarm has half of its hit points or fewer.


Description

A swarm of animated objects is a single creature with a body formed from numerous individual objects, none bigger than Tiny. These construct swarms are typically formed from whatever random bric-a-brac is in the area: stones, crockery, firewood and so forth. Swarms of animated objects normally move by flying and do bludgeoning damage, but the DM might rule that swarms formed from specific components inflict piercing or slashing damage (see Variant Object Swarms below for examples).
 Animated object swarms can be created from groups of mundane objects by the animate objects spell. All the target objects that aggregate into a swarm must lie within a 30-foot diameter sphere; if the spell creates multiple swarms, the original objects of each swarm come from separate or overlapping spheres.

VARIANT: OBJECT SWARMS
Different kinds of objects can be animated into swarms, some of which have special characteristics as described below.
 Swarm of Marbles. A swarm of marbles has a walking speed of 30 feet, a flying speed of 30 feet (hover), and the following action options.
 Multiattack. The swarm of marbles makes two attacks with blizzard of blows. It may use Tripping Hazard instead of one blizzard of blows attack.
 Rolling Dash. If the marble swarm takes the Dash option, its walking speed doubles as long as it does not move onto difficult terrain (this immediately ends its doubled speed).
 Tripping Hazard. Each creature in a space occupied by a swarm of marbles must succeed on a DC 13 Dexterity (Acrobatics) check or fall prone. A target that succeeds does not fall. On any turn the marble swarm uses Tripping Hazard, it may use its Bonus Action to make one blizzard of blows attack against a prone target.
 Swarm of Sharps. A mass of iron spikes, nails, kitchen cutlery, skewers, wooden stakes, thorns, bone needles or other piercing objects. A swarm of sharps has a walking speed of 0, a flying speed of 30 feet (hover), inflicts piercing damage with blizzard of blows, and gains the following additional action option.
 Prickly Shower (Recharge 5–6). The swarm sprays pins and splinters in a 10-foot cone. Each creature in that area must make a DC 13 Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, the target takes 14 (4d6) piercing damage, or 7 (2d6) piercing damage if the swarm has half of its hit points of fewer; the target takes half as much damage on a successful save.
 Swarm of Toy Soldiers. This troop of brightly painted warriors has a walking speed of 30 feet, no flying speed, and does piercing or slashing damage with blizzard of blows.

(Original monster designed by Cleon on the Creature Catalog General Monsters forum.)

 

[Cleon]

Swarm of Animated Objects, Large
Large swarm of Tiny constructs, unaligned
Armor Class 16 (natural armor)
Hit Points 71 (13d12)
Speed 30 ft. or fly 30 ft. (hover)

STR​	DEX​	CON​	INT​	WIS​	CHA​
18 (+4)​	14 (+2)​	10 (+0)​	1 (–5)​	3 (–4)​	1 (–5)​

Damage Resistances bludgeoning, piercing, slashing
Damage Immunities poison, psychic
Condition Immunities blinded, charmed, deafened, frightened, grappled, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned, prone, restrained, stunned
Senses blindsight 60 ft. (blind beyond this radius), passive Perception 6
Languages —
Challenge 5 (1,800 XP) Proficiency Bonus +3

Antimagic Susceptibility. The swarm of animated objects is incapacitated while in the area of an antimagic field. If targeted by dispel magic, the swarm must succeed on a Constitution saving throw against the caster's spell save DC or fall unconscious for 1 minute.

False Appearance. While the swarm of animated objects remains motionless, it is indistinguishable from a group of normal objects.

Swarm. The swarm can occupy another creature's space and vice versa, and the swarm can move through any opening large enough for a Tiny creature. The swarm can't regain hit points or gain temporary hit points.

Actions

Multiattack. The swarm of animated objects makes three attacks with blizzard of blows.

Blizzard of Blows. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 0 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (4d6) bludgeoning damage, or 7 (2d6) bludgeoning damage if the swarm has half of its hit points or fewer.


Description

This is simply a larger version of a swarm of animated objects. It can be created with the animate objects spell from any pile of bric-a-brac, but requires about four times as many mundane objects to form its body than a Medium sized swarm of animated object.

VARIANT: OBJECT SWARMS
A large swarm can be formed from different kinds of objects, some have special characteristics as described below.
 Swarm of Marbles. A large swarm of marbles has a walking speed of 30 feet, a flying speed of 30 feet (hover), and the following action options.
 Multiattack. The swarm makes three attacks with blizzard of blows. It may use Tripping Hazard instead of one blizzard of blows attack.
 Rolling Dash. If the swarm takes the Dash option, its walking speed doubles as long as it does not move onto difficult terrain (this immediately ends its doubled speed).
 Tripping Hazard. Each creature in a space occupied by a large swarm of marbles must succeed on a DC 15 Dexterity (Acrobatics) check or fall prone. A target that succeeds does not fall. On any turn the marble swarm uses Tripping Hazard, it may use its Bonus Action to make one blizzard of blows attack against a prone target.
 Swarm of Sharps. A mass of iron spikes, nails, kitchen cutlery, skewers, wooden stakes, thorns, bone needles or other piercing objects. A large swarm of sharps has a walking speed of 0, a flying speed of 30 feet (hover), inflicts piercing damage with blizzard of blows, and gains the following additional action option.
 Prickly Shower (Recharge 5–6). The swarm sprays pins and splinters in a 20-foot cone. Each creature in that area must make a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, the target takes 21 (6d6) piercing damage, or 10 (3d6) piercing damage if the swarm has half of its hit points of fewer; the target takes half as much damage on a successful save.

(Original monster designed by Cleon on the Creature Catalog General Monsters forum.)

 

[Cleon]

EDIT: I've more or less deciding to do split the issue and do two swarms, the Shrapnel Swarm at CR 5 and a generic "Swarm of Animated Objects" at CR 3 that is less lethal and usually does bludgeoning damage like the default constructs produced by animate objects.

Had trouble persuading the Shrapnel Swarm to fit into Challenge 5 and still be what I was aiming for, so I did an "ordinary" Swarm of Animated Objects upscaled to Large and CR 5 and made the Shrapnel Challenge 6.

Was toying with the notion of doing an Army of Lead Figurines swarm with all sorts of special abilities (changing formation, breaking off parts of itself as smaller "Regimental" swarms, making forced marches, forming a field hospital to recover hit points, et cetera et cetera), but sanity prevailed and I decided I'd have spent enough time on animated object swarms once I've finished the Shrapnel Swarm.

Can always add more later if I can think of some interesting animated objects…

 

[Cleon]

An animated swarm of shrapnel may appear to be a pile of metal junk, but its component objects have been carefully selected for their lethal potential.
 Instead of being a creature created by animate objects or similar magic, a shrapnel swarm may be a normal construct that does not require the Antimagic Susceptibility trait.

A standard construct created by the animate objects spell. The DM might rule that a specific object inflicts slashing or piercing damage based on its form.
 A tiny animated object may be a normal construct that does not require the Antimagic Susceptibility trait.

I thought it'd be cool to add the option for an animated object to be a typical construct that wasn't incapacitated by antimagic or knocked unconscious by dispel magic.

Upon reflection, I decided to remove it again from the bog standard animated objects (tin, small, medium, large, huge, swarm and large swarm) since Antimagic Susceptibility was a standard trait of Animated Objects in the 5E SRD.

Still seemed worthwhile leaving the option in the "special edition" animated creatures on this thread (the shrapnel swarm, et cetera).

Alternatively, you could give them a less restrictive weakness to antimagic.

I have a few ideas for that I hope to add later.

 

[Cleon]

Alternatively, you could give them a less restrictive weakness to antimagic.

I have a few ideas for that I hope to add later.

Finally got around to writing developing a couple of those ideas and adding them to the Top Ballista.