D&D 5E 5e Updates: Monstrous Compendium

[dave2008]

For the die at 0, its no save. If the bow brings you to 0, you die...no con save, no death saves, just done. You used the mechanic on some of the high level dragon breath weapons as an example.

Your saying eliminate the save at 0, Ok I get it now. That wasn't clear to me in your previous posts. I will think about it, but I am not inclined to change from the MM version just yet.

EDIT: Never mind. I decided to add it. Now it has both traits!

 

[dave2008]

I think you forgot the +6d8 slashing for the solar.

It is 8d6 in Angelic Weapons, is that what you mean?

 

[Stalker0]

Looking at the Seraphim. At CR 26 (even before the Mythic) I imagine this creature as the final boss of a 20th level campaign. Aka this is something that I expect a fully rested party with all of the things PCs could in theory get access to, and yet still be one of the deadliest challenges they have faced. And wow, does this monster show up! Really impressive saves + unstoppable + magic resistance + at-will dispel magic + 3/day counterspell means that fighting this thing is more of a physical affair, and its physical skills are still quite impressive. My notes:

1) There are a few typos in the stat block. You reference dragon and solar at one point. Greatspear section of legendary actions has (tow instead of two). Under Globe of Protection you use spear instead of sphere.

2) So wanted to get your thoughts on how the great spear "restrain" actually works because of its lack of duration. For example, in my head the spear has literally speared through the person and is immobile like some immovable rod. This would mean that if the seraphim teleported, the spear would remain (and therefore you lose the spear attack), and the person would be restrained forever. Or if the player teleports away from the spear, he loses the restrained condition, and the spear just stays there? Or perhaps the spear actually merges with the person (imposing the restrained condition no matter where they go), and can be resummoned to the seraphim at a moment's thought.

This is one of those that maybe its just up to the DM to interpret, but since teleports are likely to be pretty common in such a high level battle, it was something I had to give some real thought to as I imagined how such a fight would go down.

3) Healing "Touch" isn't a touch. It may be a flavor thing but I could easily see a DM forget that its not touch just because of the name. Even players may go "wait you just said healing touch, you can't just look at the guy and do it can you?" ....which of course means they will stop and check the stats. Those names matter.

Also important check, unlike the other celestial healing touches, it does seem that the Seraphim can use this to heal themselves. I think that is completely appropriate for such a high CR, but if that is the intention, its even more important to change the name, to really showcase that the rules on this ability work differently than lesser celestials.

3) I like the decision between greatspear and slam. In some statblocks the first attack is simply better than the second, but the second is used as a bonus action in some way later. Aka its not really meant to be its own true attack. But in this case, its a tough call. The paralization DC is incredible, I would expect it to just work on the majority of targets (barring freedom of movement, which I would expect to have been removed by wheel of fire before I attempt this if the Seraphim considers this an actual fight). And paralysis with this guy is just brutal, both for the legendary action follow up attacks he can take, but also that with advantage he crits a good portion of the time. The great spear does a good bit more damage, but its really that +3 extra attack which gives it the juice, so both attacks are just really good in their own right.

4) Honestly this guy's only real weakness is his hitpoints are quite low for such a high CR. His energy resistances do help, and the high AC is nice, but I would not imagine he will last long against a full 20th level party that actually brings physical pain. I think this would definitely be a scenario where he would teleport or plane shift to a host of lesser angels that would heal him straight up, and then come back as needed (again another reason that spear effect might linger in interesting ways).

 

[dave2008]

Looking at the Seraphim. At CR 26 (even before the Mythic) I imagine this creature as the final boss of a 20th level campaign. Aka this is something that I expect a fully rested party with all of the things PCs could in theory get access to, and yet still be one of the deadliest challenges they have faced. And wow, does this monster show up! Really impressive saves + unstoppable + magic resistance + at-will dispel magic + 3/day counterspell means that fighting this thing is more of a physical affair, and its physical skills are still quite impressive. My notes:

Thanks as always for the comments!

1) There are a few typos in the stat block. You reference dragon and solar at one point. Greatspear section of legendary actions has (tow instead of two). Under Globe of Protection you use spear instead of sphere.

I think I caught most of them - thanks!

2) So wanted to get your thoughts on how the great spear "restrain" actually works because of its lack of duration. For example, in my head the spear has literally speared through the person and is immobile like some immovable rod. This would mean that if the seraphim teleported, the spear would remain (and therefore you lose the spear attack), and the person would be restrained forever. Or if the player teleports away from the spear, he loses the restrained condition, and the spear just stays there? Or perhaps the spear actually merges with the person (imposing the restrained condition no matter where they go), and can be resummoned to the seraphim at a moment's thought.

This is one of those that maybe its just up to the DM to interpret, but since teleports are likely to be pretty common in such a high level battle, it was something I had to give some real thought to as I imagined how such a fight would go down.

I originally wanted to leave it open to DM interpretation, but I think some more clarification is needed. I added a line about needed a str check.

3) Healing "Touch" isn't a touch. It may be a flavor thing but I could easily see a DM forget that its not touch just because of the name. Even players may go "wait you just said healing touch, you can't just look at the guy and do it can you?" ....which of course means they will stop and check the stats. Those names matter.

Also important check, unlike the other celestial healing touches, it does seem that the Seraphim can use this to heal themselves. I think that is completely appropriate for such a high CR, but if that is the intention, its even more important to change the name, to really showcase that the rules on this ability work differently than lesser celestials.

Name changed, I changed it from touch and completely forgot to change the name - thanks!

3) I like the decision between greatspear and slam. In some statblocks the first attack is simply better than the second, but the second is used as a bonus action in some way later. Aka its not really meant to be its own true attack. But in this case, its a tough call. The paralization DC is incredible, I would expect it to just work on the majority of targets (barring freedom of movement, which I would expect to have been removed by wheel of fire before I attempt this if the Seraphim considers this an actual fight). And paralysis with this guy is just brutal, both for the legendary action follow up attacks he can take, but also that with advantage he crits a good portion of the time. The great spear does a good bit more damage, but its really that +3 extra attack which gives it the juice, so both attacks are just really good in their own right.

Yep, I really wanted to make it choice with this one. I was a bit concerned Slam might be to favorable. Should I reduce the damage?

4) Honestly this guy's only real weakness is his hitpoints are quite low for such a high CR. His energy resistances do help, and the high AC is nice, but I would not imagine he will last long against a full 20th level party that actually brings physical pain. I think this would definitely be a scenario where he would teleport or plane shift to a host of lesser angels that would heal him straight up, and then come back as needed (again another reason that spear effect might linger in interesting ways).

Yep, I wondered about that too, but that was how the CR worked out. I may have over compensated for its resistances and immunities with regard to effective hit points and other epic monsters I have done. I will think about changing it.

 

[Stalker0]

Yep, I really wanted to make it choice with this one. I was a bit concerned Slam might be to favorable. Should I reduce the damage?

As it stands right now, I would probably always open up with a slam to get that paralysis, and then immediately change to the sword against the paralyzed target for that juicy crit damage.

What you might do is change multiattack to "Two greatsword attacks or two slam attacks". That way if your choosing slam, you have to commit to it for the whole attack routine (which in many cases means the paralysis is "wasted" on the second attack). That may be enough to round it off.

In terms of the HP, I mean I would playtest it before changing it, but that's my gut feel on the creature. To me at high levels, its all about balance....its not about a creature's strengths its about their weaknesses, because you assume a party of that level has the intelligence and variety of abilities to target any weakness and exploit. For example if was a wizard going into this fight, and actually knew what I was facing....then it would likely be summons to bring extra physical damage, I wouldn't even bother with spells that require saves against such a creature.

 

[Matrix Sorcica]

It is 8d6 in Angelic Weapons, is that what you mean?

View attachment 132303

Do'h! Yes. Didn't catch it was only on a critical

 

[tommybahama]

I found this thread while searching for a 3rd party CR 1/2 beast to replace the wolf for Conjure Animals since my DM is butthurt that my eight CR 1/4 wolves are wreaking havoc on his encounters. I believe most people regard the wolf as overpowered but there isn't a decent alternative to it between CR 1/2 to CR 2.

Can you please design a CR 1/2 beast to be somewhat more on par with the wolf for conjuration? I was thinking something like a dire coyote. Since regular coyotes are smaller than regular wolves the dire type coyote should be smaller than a dire wolf but still have better AC and HP than a regular wolf to make up for the loss in numbers.

Alternatively, in Greek myth there are at least a couple two-headed dogs. The first Hercules killed and the other was Perseus I believe. Maybe two bite attacks instead of pack tactics and higher HP than wolves?

Apologies if this is the wrong thread for requests.

 

[dave2008]

I found this thread while searching for a 3rd party CR 1/2 beast to replace the wolf for Conjure Animals since my DM is butthurt that my eight CR 1/4 wolves are wreaking havoc on his encounters. I believe most people regard the wolf as overpowered but there isn't a decent alternative to it between CR 1/2 to CR 2.

Can you please design a CR 1/2 beast to be somewhat more on par with the wolf for conjuration? I was thinking something like a dire coyote. Since regular coyotes are smaller than regular wolves the dire type coyote should be smaller than a dire wolf but still have better AC and HP than a regular wolf to make up for the loss in numbers.

Alternatively, in Greek myth there are at least a couple two-headed dogs. The first Hercules killed and the other was Perseus I believe. Maybe two bite attacks instead of pack tactics and higher HP than wolves?

Apologies if this is the wrong thread for requests.

No worries, I love request. I'm a bit busy at the moment, but I can try to get to it this weekend

 

[dave2008]

I found this thread while searching for a 3rd party CR 1/2 beast to replace the wolf for Conjure Animals since my DM is butthurt that my eight CR 1/4 wolves are wreaking havoc on his encounters. I believe most people regard the wolf as overpowered but there isn't a decent alternative to it between CR 1/2 to CR 2.

Can you please design a CR 1/2 beast to be somewhat more on par with the wolf for conjuration? I was thinking something like a dire coyote. Since regular coyotes are smaller than regular wolves the dire type coyote should be smaller than a dire wolf but still have better AC and HP than a regular wolf to make up for the loss in numbers.

Alternatively, in Greek myth there are at least a couple two-headed dogs. The first Hercules killed and the other was Perseus I believe. Maybe two bite attacks instead of pack tactics and higher HP than wolves?

Apologies if this is the wrong thread for requests.

PS I am a little confused that a CR 1/4 wolf is too strong, but you want a CR 1/2 variant? A CR 1/2 animal should be stronger than a CR 1/4 one.

 

[tommybahama]

Supposedly it's the eight wolves that makes them overpowered and an annoyance to some due to all the dice rolls. Even if you use mob rules, eight attacks against an AC 14 creature will statistically hit for about 25 to 30 HP per round. No other beast comes close to that under CR 2.

So four CR 1/2 creatures that weren't underpowered compared to the wolves might be a good compromise for DMs and players.