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

[Casimir Liber]

Damn...this is hard...thinking of buffing spells. Bless, Aid, toll the dead (but a ghostly cackling instead of a bell), War Cry.....

 

[Cleon]

Damn...this is hard...thinking of buffing spells. Bless, Aid, toll the dead (but a ghostly cackling instead of a bell), War Cry.....

I like war cry, but note it won't boost a spectral hyena's Withering Bite as the attack isn't Strength-based, meaning it's only useful if the shaman has other allies such as other Gnolls.

Maybe chill touch for a bit better range? Plus, it's a core rule cantrip rather than being third-party like toll the dead.

 

[Casimir Liber]

I had another idea - Hunters Mark but NOT for the the gnoll shaman but ONLY for its gnoll allies and call it Hunters Aid - reinforces shaman's roll as member of tribe and combines it with a huntey like spell-like power.

 

[Cleon]

I had another idea - Hunters Mark but NOT for the the gnoll shaman but ONLY for its gnoll allies and call it Hunters Aid - reinforces shaman's roll as member of tribe and combines it with a huntey like spell-like power.

Great minds think alike (or fools seldom differ?), since I was musing about an altered version of War Cry that would work on Spectral Hyenas or other allies with DEX-based melee attacks.

This is what I came up with as a first draft:

Hunting Cry. As a bonus action, the gnoll beast shaman can utter a horrible howl, choosing up to two allied creatures within 60 feet [or 30 like the spell?] who can hear or see the shaman to form a hunting pack with. Allied creatures must be conscious to join a hunting pack, and leave the pack if knocked unconscious. This pack targets one creature chosen as prey by the shaman; this may be a creature within 150 feet who the shaman can see or smell, or a creature whose tracks the shaman can see or smell within 10 feet. These tracks may be up to 24 hours old, but at the DM's discretion favorable or unfavorable circumstances can increase or reduce this time limit (e.g. rain or hard and impermeable ground are unfavorable, snowy ground or blundering prey that leave an obvious trail are favorable). The shaman can also choose prey using the scent of objects a creature wore, such as clothes or footwear.​

 Hunting cry is an Innate Spellcasting ability that requires concentration. The beast shaman can use hunting cry when it already has an hunting cry active, using the bonus action to either change the hunting pack's prey creature (restrictions as above) or choose three creatures for the pack, up to a maximum of nine (the shaman plus eight allies).​

 The hunting cry lasts for 1 hour or until the shaman loses concentration. If the prey drops to 0 hit points, the shaman has until the end of its turn to make another hunting cry to choose a replacement prey creature for the pack; failing to do so ends the hunting cry. If a dispel magic spell targets a pack member or the prey creature, the target immediately stops being part of the hunt, this ends the hunting cry if the shaman is the creature dispelled. If the prey is dispelled, the shaman has until the end of its turn to use hunting cry to choose new prey (which may be the same as the old prey).​

 When a creature joins a hunting cry pack (which includes the shaman), they gain one hunting die, which the pack member must spend on the first melee attack it makes against the prey, adding 2 (1d4) to either its attack roll or its damage roll. The hunter rolls to hit first: if the roll to hit fails, it adds the hunting die to try turning the miss into a hit; if the roll to hit succeeds, it adds the hunting die to damage. The hunting die replenishes if the shaman chooses the creature with another hunting cry (it can choose itself). The shaman cannot give a pack member two or more hunting dice, if can only replace a die the hunter has spent.​

 In addition, as long as the hunting cry is active, all pack members gain the following trait:​

 Predatory Senses. The creature has advantage on any Wisdom (Perception) or Wisdom (Survival) check it makes to find the chosen prey.​

 

[Cleon]

The above is a bit clunky. I'm thinking of rewriting it so it can use bonus actions to reassign the prey without having to spend uses of hunting cry, if only to make it easier to parse.

Will probably still have the hunting cry be stackable to increase the pack size and/or replenish spent hunting dice.

 

[Casimir Liber]

Looks good though. Was along the lines of what I was thinking. More flexible than my idea but will be just DM fiddling behind the scenes so not a big deal really.

 

[Cleon]

Looks good though. Was along the lines of what I was thinking. More flexible than my idea but will be just DM fiddling behind the scenes so not a big deal really.

I doubt I'll have time to post a revision of Hunting Cry today, but will get around to it eventually.

Got a few things I need to do that I've been prevarication about like usual, so deadlines are starting to loom.

 

[Casimir Liber]

STOP PRESS.....need to buff/review some fomorians before next weekend....first up, a shaman...(from MM2)

 

[Cleon]

STOP PRESS.....need to buff/review some fomorians before next weekend....first up, a shaman...(from MM2)

Fomorians are faster than base humanoids in 4E (speed 8 vs speed 6), which suggests Speed 40 ft.

The Skills should be Perception +7, Stealth +4 with its DEX, WIS and Proficiency.

The wording of Spirits of Possession is needlessly messy. Why not just have it say failure caused the target to be charmed, and then say what influence the fomorian has over its charmed victim?

It might be easier cribbing some of the text from the 5E dominate monster spell.

Also, the original Ghost Shaman could only spirit-possess a creature that had ongoing necrotic damage (which effectively meant creatures it had just whammied with its Evil Eye attack) and the Spirits could affect anyone within 15 feet of the shaman (as it was a 3 square Close Burst).

That's quite different from your single target within 60 feet version.

The damage of Darksoul Mist seems a bit high. The original didn't do much more than a Death's Touch.

Oh, and did you not like the slow condition the 4E version's eye and mist inflicted? There's no sign of that.

 

[Casimir Liber]

Incorporated all changes suggested except Spirits of Possession - the reason I have adopted this is that having a character charmed in combat is really boring for the player. So this was suggested by slyflourish for one of his monsters (a reworking of vampire). In essence, it means the monster can momentarily possess an opponent to make an attack as an off-turn reaction but the player still controls their character on ntheir turn - a momentary possession.