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

[Casimir Liber]

Updated spectral hyena's dex - now here

 

[Cleon]

Updated spectral hyena's dex - now here

Updated the 5E Monsters Inspired by Fourth Edition Index and the Completed Fifth Edition Creatures Index.

 

[Casimir Liber]

Ok have aligned the shamen - went for recharge 4-6 for jaws of ruination (is cool, wanna see it used a bit in combat)

 

[Cleon]

I was thinking we could give it one or two other actions inspired on the original's Encounter Powers or Daily Powers, but would have to look up the original Chosen in Monster Manual 3 to remind me what it had.

From my calculations, it's better if the Shaman's Conjure Pack summoned a fairly substantial number of hyenas since the shaman sacrifices a standard attack action to do so.

Remember, the Jaws of Ruination can summon three hyenas AND can do 6d6 damage. Summoning one extra hyena instead of 6d6 damage seems to be a poor trade.

I think it'd work better if Conjure Pack was, say "The gnoll beast shaman summons up to six spectral hyenas from their Spectral Pack, which appear within 30 feet of the shaman."

Not sure whether it needs the pack conjuring needs a Recharge too, will have to think about that.

Oh, the draft is missing a full stop at the end of Conjure Hyenas in its Bonus Actions.

 

[Cleon]

I was thinking we could give it one or two other actions inspired on the original's Encounter Powers or Daily Powers, but would have to look up the original Chosen in Monster Manual 3 to remind me what it had.

Y'okay, we've already got versions of pretty much all the Chosen of Yeenoghu's powers, although they differ in details and may be renamed, most are a bit stronger in our version than the 4E one. The Jaws for example can make three attacks instead of one.

Hmm, I suppose we could change the Jaws so it teleports already summoned spectral hyenas rather than summoning new ones. That'd follow the original monster more closely.

Also, the original's To the Front ability would teleport EVERY ally, not just one of them. That's pretty potent!

I'd be OK having it teleport multiple allies but would rather it only work on spectral hyenas!

How about adding a Recharge After a Short Rest power with the name Call Beyond the Grave but some more exciting mechanic than just summoning a few hyenas. Maybe it causes psychic damage, fear and/or paralysis over a largish radius or cone, and afterwards spectral hyenas who "hear the call" and pop into existence on their turns during the following round?

 

[Casimir Liber]

Yeah I can live with restricting To The Front to the hyenas.

Yeah, maybe 7 (2d6) psychic damage and fear over 60 ft radius?

 

[Cleon]

Yeah I can live with restricting To The Front to the hyenas.

Rereading To The Front I realized the original was also restricted to allies adjacent to the Chosen (i.e. in a neighbouring square, which is a quite significant restriction).

Okay, so maybe change the name too?

Release the Hounds! Any [?] spectral hyena of the shaman's Spectral Pack within 10 feet of the gnoll beast shaman teleports to a spot within 120 feet of the shaman that the shaman can see. The hyenas arrive exactly where the gnoll beast shaman desires.​

So what about the idea of changing Jaws of Ruination so it teleports instead of summons?

Jaws of Ruination (Recharge 4–6). The gnoll beast shaman makes three ranged spell attacks (+6 to hit) with a range of 120 feet. On a hit, the target takes 7 (2d6) necrotic damage. Each attack can also teleport a spectral hyena of the beast shaman's Spectral Pack from a spot within 10 feet of the shaman to a spot within melee range of the target; the hyena teleports regardless of whether the attack hits or misses.​

That keeps the range consistent for teleport abilities of the Gnoll Beast Shaman.

Yeah, maybe 7 (2d6) psychic damage and fear over 60 ft radius?

I was thinking maybe a graduated "If the target fails the saving throw by 5 or more" effect like the Dreadful Glare of a Mummy, so it goes Nothing/fear/paralyzed and any psychic damage (if it does damage, which I haven't quite decided on could be similarly graduated to, I don't know None/1d6/2d6).

Here's an outline:

Call Beyond the Grave (Recharge After a Short Rest) #1. The gnoll beast shaman unleashes an unearthly howl. Any living creature within 120 feet that is not an ally of the shaman must make a DC ## Wisdom saving throw or become frightened until the end of the shaman's next turn. If the target fails the saving throw by 5 or more, it is also paralyzed for the same duration.​

 The call summons six spectral hyenas from the shaman's Spectral Pack. Each spectral hyena appears on its turn at a spot within 120 feet of the shaman that the shaman can see. The hyenas arrive exactly where the gnoll beast shaman desires.​

​

Call Beyond the Grave (Recharge After a Short Rest) #2. The gnoll beast shaman unleashes an unearthly howl. Any living creature within 120 feet that is not an ally of the shaman must make a DC ## Wisdom saving throw or become frightened until the end of the shaman's next turn. If the target fails the saving throw by 5 or more, it takes 7 (2d6) psychic damage and is also paralyzed for the same duration.​

​

Call Beyond the Grave (Recharge After a Short Rest) #3. The gnoll beast shaman unleashes an unearthly howl. Any living creature within 120 feet that is not an ally of the shaman must make a DC ## Wisdom saving throw or take 3 (1d6) psychic damage and become frightened until the end of the shaman's next turn. If the target fails the saving throw by 5 or more, it takes 7 (2d6) psychic damage and is also paralyzed for the same duration.​

Wondered about using "must make a DC ## Wisdom or Charisma saving throw (target's choice which)" or just a Charisma saving throw instead of Wisdom. Or maybe, for extra complexity, we use both saving throws!

Also, "Call" is a bit of a vanilla word, how about "Howl" instead?

Howl From the Grave (Recharge After a Short Rest); aka Call Beyond the Grave #4. The gnoll beast shaman unleashes an unearthly call. Any living creature that is not an ally of the shaman within 120 feet must make a DC ## Charisma saving throw and a DC ## Wisdom saving throw. If the target fails the Charisma saving throw, it takes 3 (1d6) psychic damage, or 7 (2d6) psychic damage if it failed the saving throw by 5 or more. If the target fails the Wisdom saving throw, it become frightened until the end of the shaman's next turn, it is also paralyzed for the same duration if it failed the saving throw by 5 or more.​

Any of those tickle your fancy?

 

[Cleon]

I'm still thinking it needs at least one more at-will attack action and maybe some minor Spellcasting. Shamans can usually cast spells, after all.

For the attack, I'd repurpose the "Bolt of Ruination" idea without the spectral hyena addendum. Just have it do damage to a single target, probably with some harmful condition rider. Maybe have the condition be randomly determined for each hit? With the options, say, panicked (frightened and flee in terror), poisoned, slowed (as per the slow spell) and maybe something else Yeenoghu-related?

Maybe call it Bolt of Chaos?

The original spirit hyena's bite attack briefly slowed the target, so I would like a slow effect in this conversion somewhere.

 

[Casimir Liber]

I like Howl From the Grave (Recharge After a Short Rest); aka Call Beyond the Grave #4.

Also agree with another spell - Ray of Frost is a cantrip that slows slightly. Or could just call it Crippling Bolt and make it necrotic damage, specifically targeting muscles - just lower move speed or slow ?

 

[Cleon]

I like Howl From the Grave (Recharge After a Short Rest); aka Call Beyond the Grave #4.

Updating the Gnoll Beast Shaman.

Are we using the teleporting or the summoning version of Jaws of Ruination?

I favour the teleporting one as that's closer to the MM3 version.

What about the Release the Hounds! bonus action?

Also agree with another spell - Ray of Frost is a cantrip that slows slightly. Or could just call it Crippling Bolt and make it necrotic damage, specifically targeting muscles - just lower move speed or slow ?

We could just give it ray of frost in Spellcasting. I wouldn't overburden it with spells though, I'm thinking Innate Spellcasting with a limited repertoire rather than full caster. It ought to focus on using its unique Actions against the enemy, not boring standard spells!

Will put those possibilities in the Enworld version.

Innate Spellcasting. The gnoll beast shaman's spellcasting ability is Wisdom (spell save DC 14; +6 to hit with spell attacks). The shaman can innately cast the following spells, requiring only verbal components:

• At will: spell, spell
• #/day each: spell, spell

OR
Spellcasting. The gnoll beast shaman is a #th-level spellcaster that used Wisdom as its spellcasting ability (spell save DC 14; +6 to hit with spell attacks). The shaman has the following spells prepared [OR "has the following druid spells prepared"?].

• Cantrip (at Will): spell, spell
• 1st level (# slots): spell, spell

Ta da!

 

[Casimir Liber]

Ok up now with coffee:

• teleporting over summoning yes
• yes to bonus action Release the Hounds!
• post MMoMV seems to be 'at will', 'x/day' - agree on limited number - include Ray of Frost (3d8 I guess) here

 

[Cleon]

Ok up now with coffee:

• teleporting over summoning yes
• yes to bonus action Release the Hounds!
• post MMoMV seems to be 'at will', 'x/day' - agree on limited number - include Ray of Frost (3d8 I guess) here

Updated the Gnoll Beast Shaman with teleporting Jaws.

Still got Bolts and Spells to sort out.

 

[Casimir Liber]

Hmm, no previous lore to go on re spells. Two options:

(a) forget spells, just make a Crippling Bolt , which does necrotic damage and slows the target due to muscle damage or somesuch

(b) list 3-5 spells, maybe 2 at will, 2 3/day ones and maybe 1 x 1/day one.

at will - Ray of Frost

3/day - Hunter's Mark, Pass without trace

(hard to think...more later)

 

[Cleon]

(b) list 3-5 spells, maybe 2 at will, 2 3/day ones and maybe 1 x 1/day one.

at will - Ray of Frost

3/day - Hunter's Mark, Pass without trace

(hard to think...more later)

I like the hunter's mark.

Not sure about pass without trace, gnolls being destructive creatures that leave trails of ruin behind them, but would fancy putting longstrider (self only?) on the list to give the shaman a bit more mobility. Although we could just give it a higher base speed like a Barbarian rather than bothering with a spell.

Maybe a few utilities like detect magic and detect poison and disease to cover its shamanic duties. As it's a beast shaman one would expect some "animal spells" such as speak with animals, locate animals or plants and possibly animal messenger?

If we're going higher level utility, my favourites are scrying and/or contact other plane (I doubt a gnoll shaman would have commune with nature like a druid, but it's quite likely to contact demonic forces instead!).

For combat effective spells, I'd put dispel magic high on the list. That's always handy for a caster.

Not feeling very inspired for other combat spells, but that's probably too many already already.

Going by SRD precedents the Innate Spellcasting list should be pretty short, no more than five or six in total.

 

[Casimir Liber]

agreed.

ok

At will - Ray of Frost, detect poison and disease, detect magic

3/day - Hunter's Mark, animal messenger or dispel magic (or both?)

1/day - scrying

 

[Cleon]

agreed.

ok

At will - Ray of Frost, detect poison and disease, detect magic

3/day - Hunter's Mark, animal messenger or dispel magic (or both?)

1/day - scrying

I'd go for dispel magic over animal messenger and prefer the more "demonic" contact other planes to scrying if we're only doing one of them.

You haven't got "each" with the 3/day spells, which I believe means it can use a combination of hunter's mark and dispel magic three times a day in total (i.e. two marks, one dispel, three dispels, three marks, but it could not use two marks and two dispels, as that's four spells).

Was that deliberate or accidental?

Or maybe just make hunter's mark another At-will. It's only a 1st level spell

I'm thinking we might as well drop detect poison and disease as I doubt it'd get much use, plus it makes room for another spell. If we're looking for a druid spell of roughly similar level I'd suggest either darkness, locate animals or plants, sleet storm or vampiric touch.

Innate Spellcasting #2. The gnoll beast shaman's spellcasting ability is Wisdom (spell save DC 14; +6 to hit with spell attacks). The shaman can innately cast the following spells, requiring only verbal components:

• At will: detect magic, ray of frost (3d8 damage)
• 5/day: dispel magic, hunter's mark
• 1/day: contact other plane

Innate Spellcasting #3. The gnoll beast shaman's…

• At will: detect magic, hunter's mark, ray of frost (3d8 damage)
• 3/day: dispel magic
• 1/day: contact other plane

Innate Spellcasting #4. The gnoll beast shaman's…

• At will: detect magic, hunter's mark, ray of frost (3d8 damage)
• 3/day each: dispel magic plus one of darkness/locate animals or plants/sleet storm/vampiric touch
• 1/day: contact other plane

Do any of those appeal?

 

[Cleon]

Oh, and I suggested speak with animals (hyenas only) and longstrider, but then proposed making them Special Traits, such as:

Fast Movement. The gnoll beast shaman's speed increases by 10 feet while it isn't wearing heavy armor (included in its speed).

Speak With Hyenas. The gnoll beast shaman can communicate simple concepts to hyenas (both living and undead) when it speaks in Gnoll.

Speaking of, well, speaking. I think the Shaman should have Abyssal in its Languages as well as Gnoll, since the 4E Monster Manual 3 version could speak that tongue.

 

[Casimir Liber]

Went with #4 with locate animals or plants. Agree on above x 3.

 

[Cleon]

Went with #4 with locate animals or plants. Agree on above x 3.

Updating the Gnoll Beast Shaman.

Got an idea for Bolt of Chaos figured out in my head but don't have the time/energy to type it out now.

It'll have to wait for another day.

 

[Cleon]

Went with #4 with locate animals or plants. Agree on above x 3.

Hold on a second, I've just realized that hunter's mark will throw off its Challenge Rating as it adds 1d6 damage to all three of its Multiattacks, increasing its damage for those rounds by 10.5.

We ought to swap it for something else. Any ideas?