5E: Fifth Edition Monster Variants Inspired by Fourth Edition Sources

[Cleon]

I'd go with Reactive Shove - other sounds a bit odd. Maybe Reflex Shove ?

The latter might work better the other way round as Shoving Reflex.

Care to pick one?

 

[Casimir Liber]

Ok Shoving Reflex it is.

 

[Cleon]

Ok Shoving Reflex it is.

Done.

Updating the Fomorian Butcher.

That's everything apart from the Description finished.

 

[Cleon]

Done.

Updating the Fomorian Butcher.

That's everything apart from the Description finished.

Speaking of which, the original Monster Manual 2 doesn't give much for the background Info, namely:

Intro:​

BRUTAL AND RELENTLESS, a fomorian butcher fixates on one opponent, trying to hack the creature to death with its falchion.​

​

Tactics:​

A fomorian butcher charges the most physically dangerous-looking foe, hewing wildly with its massive falchion. It then uses its evil eye to prevent the enemy from escaping. It spends an action point to make another falchion attack when that opponent becomes bloodied. It concentrates on one foe, trying to do as much damage as possible with fomorian butchery.​

​

Lore:​

Fomorian butchers are the most sadistic among fomorians and have been known to cut slaves in half simply for the joy of it. Their simpleminded pleasure in slaughter makes them frequent targets for recruitment and manipulation by other creatures. Fomorian butchers often work with devils, greedily trading their souls and some mysterious afterlife for the power they desire in the Feywild and beyond.​

​

Encounter Groups:​

In a Level 21 Encounter with a Fomorian Cackler and Painbringer, suggesting they like hanging around with similarly sadistic Fomorians.​

If we rework the above facts that should be enough for a Description.

Let's see…

A fomorian butcher is a grossly misshapen giant like the rest of its kin. They wear leather armor covered in plates of metal scrap which act as surprisingly effective armor. The giant wields an enormous falchion in two hands, a cleaver-like blade massive enough to chop an elephant in half. The fomorian's skin and equipment is covered in gore, ranging from fresh red blood to blackened dried stains. Its most obvious deformity is an enormous eye that glares with baleful intensity.​

 Fey Eye of Malevolence. stuff about Evil Eye.​

 Obsessed with Slaughter. They really like to cut up creatures.​

 Gullible Associates. Not the Brightest. Easily manipulated by beings who can exploit their desire for butchery.​

That'll do for a rough outline.

 

[Casimir Liber]

Fey Eye of Malevolence. As well as having the ocular powers of their ordinary kin, fomorian butchers can restrain opponents with a glance of their evil eye.
Obsessed with Slaughter. Fomorian butchers are among the most malign of their kind, obsessed with causing mayhem in battle and slaughtering foes.
Gullible Associates. Fomorian butchers are easily manipulated by beings who can exploit their desire for butchery.

 

[Cleon]

Fey Eye of Malevolence. As well as having the ocular powers of their ordinary kin, fomorian butchers can restrain opponents with a glance of their evil eye.
Obsessed with Slaughter. Fomorian butchers are among the most malign of their kind, obsessed with causing mayhem in battle and slaughtering foes.
Gullible Associates. Fomorian butchers are easily manipulated by beings who can exploit their desire for butchery.

Hmm, that seems rather vanilla. I'd go for…

 Fey Eye of Malevolence. Some fomorians retain traces of the vast magical ability they lost while invading the Feywild. This grants the giant truesight, allowing them to overcome the invisibility common to Fey, and often increases and alters the power of their Evil Eye. A fomorian butcher can restrain or paralyze opponents with a glance, and they can inflict their Curse of the Evil Eye repeatedly, unlike a common fomorian which must rest before it can use its cursed faze a second time.​

 Obsessed with Slaughter. The mind of a fomorian butcher is twisted and brutal. It derives pleasure from slaughter and bloodshed, loving nothing better than slowly chopping a living creature into mincemeat. Once it picks a target, often the most beautiful or athletic among a group of humanoid or giant opponents, the fomorian butcher becomes obsessed with hacking them to death. This fixation can be a weakness, as it often causes the butcher to neglect other dangers in its lust to cleave the chosen victim's flesh. A fomorian butcher keeps slaves like other fomorians, but these usually die quickly to the butcher's bloody whims. The commonest exception are trolls, who are a fomorian butcher's preferred slaves because they regenerate after being chopped up.​

 Gullible Associates. A fomorian butcher is no smarter than an ordinary fomorian and their obsession with butchery makes them easy to manipulate. Cunning and powerful creatures who can provide the butcher with victims sometimes exploit these giants as disposable champions. Powerful warriors who will slay the enemies of their "friend" for the price of a few captives.​

What think thee?

 

[Cleon]

 Obsessed with Slaughter. The mind of a fomorian butcher is twisted and brutal. It derives pleasure from slaughter and bloodshed, loving nothing better than slowly chopping a living creature into mincemeat. Once it picks a target, often the most beautiful or athletic among a group of humanoid or giant opponents, the fomorian butcher becomes obsessed with hacking them to death. This fixation can be a weakness, as it often causes the butcher to neglect other dangers in its lust to cleave the chosen victim's flesh. A fomorian butcher keeps slaves like other fomorians, but these usually die quickly to the butcher's bloody whims. The commonest exception are trolls, who are a fomorian butcher's preferred slaves because they regenerate after being chopped up.

Hmm, upon reflection I might cut that bit about trolls out since a troll doesn't seem to feel much pain from being cut up so the Butcher might not get its jollies from doing it. Meaning trolls might not be preferred.

If I do keep it, would probably tighten the sentence to "The commonest exception are trolls, who are favored victims since they can regenerate after being hacked apart."

 

[Casimir Liber]

Yep - done and dusted. I cut out bit on trolls as I don't think it adds much and I could see some people finding it a bit gratuitously icky.

Fomorian Butcher

 

[Cleon]

Yep - done and dusted. I cut out bit on trolls as I don't think it adds much and I could see some people finding it a bit gratuitously icky.

Yes, that was a factor. Although they are pretty icky when one thinks about them, like many monsters.

Will leave it out.

Upon reflection, I'll tweak "They wear leather armor covered in plates of metal scrap which act as surprisingly effective armor" to "They wear thick leather clothes, aprons and gloves, sometimes reinforced with metal scraps to form surprisingly effective armor." It rings better and I don't care for the duplication of "armor" in the original wording.

Updating the Fomorian Butcher.

Fomorian Butcher

I fear there are numerous errors and omissions in this draft. For example, its truesight has gone AWOL and it's CR 12 with most of its numbers using a +4 proficiency adjustment instead of +5 and its actual Challenge 13. That means its DCs of 15 should be 16. Speaking of which, the Butchery DC should be 16 not 20.

There's multiple sections that are wrongly worded, or have remnants of older drafts. For example, the ? bit in Shove, the wording of Multiattack,

Also, its Evil Eye is a Bonus Action, not a Reaction.

It'd be easier for you to compare it to the Enworld Fomorian Butcher and note the differences rather than me listing all of them. Well, easier for me!

 

[Cleon]

Also, its Evil Eye is a Bonus Action, not a Reaction.

Speaking of Bonus Actions, it's got Fomorian Brutality which I haven't got in the Enworld version.

I'm OK keeping it, since it doesn't increase the DPR that much (effectively it's similar to a weapon that does triple damage on a hit rather than double, or rather slightly less than triple as it needs to hit with the "free" attack.

The wording is a bit suspect though. It's worded as though the butcher had no option but to use its bonus action to make that attack, even if it wanted to use it for an Evil Eye.

Also, shouldn't it be a Reaction rather than a Bonus Action?

Like so:

Reactions​

Fomorian Brutality. If the fomorian butcher scores a critical hit on a target affected by its Evil Eye or its Curse of the Evil Eye, it can use its reaction to make a falchion attack against that target.​

Shall I toss that into the Enworld Fomorian Butcher?

 

[Casimir Liber]

Yes - changed to reaction and kept. I think I got everything
now here

 

[Cleon]

Yes - changed to reaction and kept. I think I got everything

Yeah, you moved it to Reactions but forgot to delete the old Bonus Actions version!

It's also missing the "or 17 (natural armor plus scraps armor)" in Armor Class.

It could do with a line space either side of Fomorian Butchery so it doesn't blend with Curse of the Evil Eye and Shove. Oh and it's got double line spaces in Reactions and Bonus Actions between the two abilities, although once you delete the extraneous bonus Brutality that should fix it.

 

[Casimir Liber]

ok done - here

 

[Cleon]

ok done - here

Is there a stray space in front of Evil Eye?

The paragraph seems slightly first-line-indented compared to the others.

It needs a line space before "(Inspired by the Fomorian Butcher in 4th Edition's Monster Manual 2 (2009).)" so it's not flush with Gullible Associates.

Also would benefit from either adding a linespace before Fey Eye of Malevolence so all the Description subentry paragraphs are evenly separated OR making the subentries all flush with their preceding paragraphs and adding an em-space first-line-indent to them, like they are in the Enworld Fomorian Butcher.

Doesn't matter which of those it is. I'll leave the decision to your sense of aesthetics!

 

[Casimir Liber]

Done - Fomorian Butcher

 

[Cleon]

Done - Fomorian Butcher

That'll do.

For some reason D&D Beyond has now made most of the paragraph spacings in the Description extra wide, but they're all even so that's good enough for me.

The way their website interprets formatting is rather temperamental, isn't it!

Will update the Indexes and call it a day.

Let's see, if memory serves me right I think the next item on this thread was that variant Derro Savant.

Shall we proceed with that?

 

[Cleon]

Okay, I've updated the 5E Monsters Inspired by Fourth Edition and Completed Fifth Edition Creatures Index.

The most recent Derro Chaos Savant you posted was this one, but I haven't done an Enworld version of that yet so I'll just post a blank spaceholder here…

 

[Cleon]

Derro Chaos Savant
Small humanoid (derro), chaotic evil
Armor Class 16 (armor of the insane)
Hit Points 99 (18d6 + 36)
Speed 30 ft.

STR​	DEX​	CON​	INT​	WIS​	CHA​
9 (–1)​	15 (+2)​	14 (+2)​	16 (+3)​	7 (–2)​	18 (+4)​

Saving Throws WIS +4 (due to mad insight)
Skills Arcana +9, Perception +3 (due to mad insight), Stealth +5
Senses Darkvision 120 ft., passive Perception 13
Languages Dwarvish, Undercommon
Challenge 6 (2,300 XP) Proficiency Bonus +3

Armor of the Insane. The derro chaos savant's AC can't be less than 16, regardless of what kind of armor it is wearing.

Mad Insight. The derro chaos savant can use its Charisma modifier for Wisdom saving throws (giving it a WIS +4 save) and its Intelligence modifier for Perception skill checks (giving it Perception +3) if that's better than using its Wisdom modifier.

Magic Resistance. The derro has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.

Innate Spellcasting. The chaos savant's spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 15). The chaos savant can innately cast the following spells, requiring only verbal components:

• At will: comprehend languages, identify (ritual spellcasting only}, mage hand, message, prestidigitation
• 2/day each: invisibility, sleep, spider climb
• 1/day each: dimension door, slow

Sunlight Sensitivity. While in sunlight, the derro has disadvantage on attack rolls, as well as on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight.

Actions

Multiattack. The chaos savant makes three attacks using any combination of chaos staff, bolt of chaos and mind scourge.

Chaos Staff. Melee Spell Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 3 (1d6) bludgeoning damage plus 10 (3d6) damage of a random type (roll d4: 1=necrotic, 2=poison, 3=cold, 4=lightning) and the target must make a DC 15 Charisma saving throw. If they fail, the target has disadvantage on Intelligence and Wisdom ability checks and Attack Rolls until the start of the chaos savant's next turn.

Bolt of Chaos. Ranged Spell Attack: +7 to hit, range 120 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (4d6) damage of a random type (roll d4: 1=necrotic, 2=poison, 3=cold, 4=lightning) and the target must make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw. If they fail, the target suffers a special effect that depends on the bolt's damage type:

• Necrotic Damage: Target can't regain hit points until the start of the chaos savant's next turn.
• Poison Damage: Target is poisoned until the start of the chaos savant's next turn.
• Cold Damage: Target's speed is reduced by 10 feet until the start of the chaos savant's next turn.
• Lightning Damage: Target can't take reactions until the start of the target's next turn.

Mind Scourge. The chaos savant targets one creature within 60 feet, who takes 10 (3d6) psychic damage and must make a DC 15 Intelligence saving throw. If the save fails, then at the start of the target's next turn it must choose between taking an additional 10 (3d6) psychic damage or being stunned until the end of that turn.

Window to Madness (Recharge 5-6). The chaos savant targets one creature within 60 feet. The targeted creature must succeed at a DC 15 Wisdom or Charisma saving throw (target's choice) or take 10 (3d6) psychic damage and become crazed for 1 minute. All other creatures within 10 feet of the creature targeted by Window to Madness must succeed at a DC 15 Wisdom or Charisma saving throw (creature's choice) or take 5 (1d10) psychic damage and be crazed until the end of their next turn. Derro are immune to psychic damage caused by Window to Madness but can become crazed.
 A crazed creature has disadvantage on any ability check to interact socially with creatures who are not crazed or insane (such as derro).
 The crazed target must make a DC 15 Wisdom or Charisma saving throw (target's choice) at the start of each turn, ending the effect on itself on a success. If the save fails, the target must choose whether to take 5 (1d10) psychic damage or become Dancing Mad (see below) until the start of its next turn. If the target fails the saving throw by 5 or more, it takes 5 (1d10) psychic damage and is Dancing Mad that turn.

NEW CONDITION: DANCING MAD
A dancing mad creature must move one-third of its movement (minimum 5 feet) in a random direction at the end of each of its turns. If the random direction is blocked by an obstacle, the creature changes direction to randomly use up its remaining dancing movement. The creature will only remain in place if there is nowhere for it to randomly dance into. Dancing movement counts against the creature's normal movement allowance (i.e. its Speed does not increase by one third). The random movement avoids hazards the creature is aware of, such as cliffs or traps: the creature is insane, not stupid!

Bonus Actions

Dance of Madness. The chaos savant targets a creature within 130 feet that is crazed by one of its Madness attacks. Each creature in a 10-foot-radius sphere centered on that target must succeed at a DC 15 Wisdom or Charisma saving throw (creature's choice) or take 5 (1d10) psychic damage and become crazed and dancing mad (see above) until the start of its next turn. Derro are immune to psychic damage caused by Dance of Madness.

Strength of Madness (Recharge 4-6). Until the end of the chaos savant's turn, the savant gains advantage on melee attack rolls and its melee weapons do an additional 4 (1d8) damage if they hit.


Description

A chaos savant is a derro with a deep insight into arcane magic, the occult, chaos, madness and the Far Realm. They understand secrets no rational mind would care to know. A chaos savant dresses and acts bizarrely even by the eccentric standards of the derro. Each chaos savant always carries an arcane implement fitted with strange contraptions of their own design called a Chaos Staff. This device most often resemble a staff, rod or cudgel, but may be crafted into almost any shape that is easily portable and sturdy enough to be swung as a weapon.
 Derro savants are revered for their insights and advice and have a highly influential role in their society. While it typically takes half a century of study to become a savant, some youthful or middle-aged derro become chaos savants after a period of insane revelation.

(Inspired by the Derro Savant in 4th Edition's Monster Manual 3 (2010).)

 

[Cleon]

Checking the Index, we're still missing the completed version of the Gnoll Beast Shaman on D&D Beyond, at least it doesn't appear to be posted on this thread.

It's just a matter of someone (hint hint) transcribing the finished Enworld version over the older version on D&DB.

 

[Casimir Liber]

Done - Gnoll Beast Shaman