D&D 5E Building a shadowfell monster

[Mind of tempest]

Foolish mortal. Thou has uttered my name!

Glancing through the Original Premise, walking through walls and stealing souls could easily be translated to one of the incorporeal undead such as a wraith or spectre.

If you fancy something more substantial the soul-stealing Nabassu Demon springs to mind, although that outsider does not appear to have official 5E stats yet.

It's easy enough to reskin a monster or add/change a special trait or attack to make it appear wildly different while still using the same or similar numbers.

it is more that they are not incorporeal just able to move through walls to make them tough to fight.

 

[Cleon]

I liiterally have no idea how to make a stat block.

any ideas for the Fossil lord?

It'd be easier starting with the weakest iteration and working your way up from there.

Presumably the Fossil Lord will be the strongest of the four, analogous to a Greater Demon, powerful Vampire, or maybe even a Nightwalker.

I'd suggest deciding on an appropriate Challenge Ranking and role for the Fledgling/Haunting/Flesh Master/Fossil Lord before starting to decide on the numbers.

While you're at that, try to come up with a shctick that distinguishes the monster from other menaces or otherwise makes it memorable/creepy.

 

[Mind of tempest]

It'd be easier starting with the weakest iteration and working your way up from there.

Presumably the Fossil Lord will be the strongest of the four, analogous to a Greater Demon, powerful Vampire, or maybe even a Nightwalker.

I'd suggest deciding on an appropriate Challenge Ranking and role for the Fledgling/Haunting/Flesh Master/Fossil Lord before starting to decide on the numbers.

While you're at that, try to come up with a shctick that distinguishes the monster from other menaces or otherwise makes it memorable/creepy.

I was thinking cr 1 for fledgling a dumb brute used for hunting, tracking and basic labour.

 

[Cleon]

I was thinking cr 1 for fledgling a dumb brute used for hunting, tracking and basic labour.

Okay, to me that suggests something similar to a Ghoul.

Do you still want it to regenerate? That might be tricky to balance at Challenge 1.

Maybe have it only regenerate while "alive" and have relatively modest Hit Points, so it can fairly easily be killed with focused attacks.

 

[Mind of tempest]

Okay, to me that suggests something similar to a Ghoul.

Do you still want it to regenerate? That might be tricky to balance at Challenge 1.

Maybe have it only regenerate while "alive" and have relatively modest Hit Points, so it can fairly easily be killed with focused attacks.

can only regenerate after a particular attack?

 

[Cleon]

it is more that they are not incorporeal just able to move through walls to make them tough to fight.

So an ability similar to phase door? That's not an official 5E spell, but has a grand pedigree dating back to 1E.

The 3E phase door is in that edition's System Reference Document.

 

[Cleon]

can only regenerate after a particular attack?

So it regenerates from certain type of damage but not others?

Like, you slash or bludgeon it and it just reforms, but any sort of piercing injury or magical/energy damage is permanent?

That'd work.

 

[Mind of tempest]

So it regenerates from certain type of damage but not others?

Like, you slash or bludgeon it and it just reforms, but any sort of piercing injury or magical/energy damage is permanent?

That'd work.

okay so how do I do it?

 

[Casimir Liber]

Okay - thinking about it another way. what level characters are you thinking of the fledgling facing, and how many would attack them? I can help you do a statblock...

 

[Cleon]

okay so how do I do it?

Just write a Special Trait that describes how it works!

For example, a 5E Troll has:

Regeneration. The troll regains 10 hit points at the start of its turn. If the troll takes acid or fire damage, this trait doesn’t function at the start of the troll’s next turn. The troll dies only if it starts its turn with 0 hit points and doesn’t regenerate.

If you want a creature that only has limited regeneration of, say 5 points from piercing and slashing damage you could change that to:

Regeneration. If a [name] takes piercing or slashing damage in a round it regains [5?] hit points of that piercing or slashing damage at the start of its next turn. The [name] does not regain hit points from any other type of damage. It cannot regenerate leftover damage from piercing or slashing attacks it received in previous rounds (e.g. if it takes 7 points of piercing damage, it can regain 5 hit points and the remaining 2 points of damage must heal normally). The [name] dies if it starts its turn with 0 hit points.

Or whatever other wording you fancy - maybe it can completely regenerate that damage time like a troll, or it regenerates faster or slower.

The world's your oyster.