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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cleon" data-source="post: 8883846" data-attributes="member: 57383">You might notice I mentioned a Spectral Pack in the above Action, that's 'cause I was thinking of making it a trait.REDUCE STRENGTH TO 15 (+2) Special Trait Brute. A melee weapon deals one extra die of its damage when the beast shaman hits with it (included in the attack). Demonhide. A beast shaman's skin is supernaturally tough and covered in shaggy fur, the shaman's AC can't be less than 16, regardless of what kind of armor it is wearing. Rampage. When the gnoll reduces a creature to 0 hit points with a melee attack on its turn, the gnoll can take a bonus action to move up to half its speed and make a bite attack. Spectral Pack. The gnoll beast shaman is surrounded by a ghostly pack of hyenas. Normally intangible and harmless, the shaman can summon spectral hyenas from this pack to serve it on the Material Plane. The number of spectral hyenas the shaman can summon cannot exceed four/six [?]. If the number of spectral hyenas would exceed four/six [?] then some must vanish to reduce the number to four/six [?] or less, the beast shaman can send any spectral hyena it summons back to the spirit realm as a free action. A spectral hyena from the Spectral Pack can be "killed" while on the material plane, but this merely vanishes them back to their normal ghostly form; all materialized spectral hyenas will vanish if the beast shaman is killed or knocked unconscious. Actions Multiattack. The beast shaman makes two attacks: one with its bite and one with its flail. Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (2d4 + 2) piercing damage. Flail. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d8 + 2) bludgeoning damage. Jaws of Ruination. The beast shaman makes two ranged spell attacks (+5 to hit) with a range of 120 feet. Each attack causes a spectral hyena from the shaman's Spectral Pack to materialize at a location within melee range of the target. On a hit, the hyena bites the target for 7 (2d6) necrotic damage. On a miss, the hyena appears next to the target but the creature takes no damage. Summon Spectral Pack (Recharges 4–6). Up to three/four [?] spectral hyenas from the shaman's Spectral Pack materialize within 30 feet of the gnoll beast shaman.Let's see, if we keep the Bonus Action options to summon a spectral hyena or spur one to attack, that should keep the DPR manageable. I'm thinking the Conjure Spirit Hyena could do with a range increase to, say, 120 feet like, say Jaws of Ruination.  Also wondering whether to make it Conjure Spirit Hyenas so it can call one or two spectral hyenas.Let's see how the DPR works.If it uses Summon Spectral Pack and Conjure Spirit Hyenas on the first round, it makes no damage but has either four or six spectral hyenas, depending on what we want to set the cap too, which might be able to attack on round #1 if they roll initiative that's lower than the shaman - not that likely with their Dex's +3 Initiative vs the +1 of the Shaman's Dex, but still possible.On an "average round" the spirit hyenas would be doing 28 damage (four hyenas) or 42 damage (six hyenas) while the shaman would be doing 18 damage (Multiattack) or 14 damage (Jaws of Ruination).That's within the DPR range of Challenge Rating 7, although it could theoretically bump into Challenge 8 in ideal conditions (Multiattack 18 plus 42 Spectral Pack plus 7 Spirit Strike).However, the great bulk of the damage is being done by the Spectral Hyenas.They're contributing up to three times more damage than the Gnoll Beast Shaman, which I don't really care for.I'm thinking we should either reduce the damage of the Spectral Hyenas by, say, making it 4 (1d8) necrotic or 5 (2d4) necrotic for Challenge 1/4 (50 XP) or maybe 3 (1d6) necrotic for Challenge 1/8 (25) OR increase the damage of the Beast Shaman's attacks (boost the Multiattack, give them back a high-damage Bolt of Ruination or similar attack, et cetera.).Or maybe do both?Yes, that would work. For Challenge 7 we want the DPR to be between 45 and 62.If we bring back the "two attacks: one with its bite and one with its flail" Multiattack that's 29 damage. Make the Jaws of Ruination three 2d6 attacks for 21 (it doesn't have to match the bite damage of the spectral hyena.)So that's 25 damage plus any Bonus Action or Reaction damage it'll do on average. Let's say another 7 for 32 DPR.If we add six to eight 1d6 damage spectral hyena bites that's another 21 to 28 damage, so the Spectral Pack is contributing roughly half the damage rather than most of it.That ought to keep the DPR inside the Challenge 7 range, although I'd be fine kicking it up a notch to Challenge 8.</blockquote>

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