Dodkong minions

[Cleon]

ok have aligned them and gone with teleporation circle

Will update with the circle.

Freezing Death. Melee Spell Attack: +13 to hit, reach 15 ft., one target. Hit: 55 (10d10) cold damage plus slow (DC 21 CON save to avoid)

I was thinking something that causes paralysis and/or exhaustion, not just slow, but doesn't do much damage.

Something like:

Freezing Death #1. Melee Spell Attack: +13 to hit, reach 15 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (4d6) cold damage plus 14 (4d6) necrotic damage. If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a DC 21 Constitution saving throw or choose between suffering 1 level of exhaustion or being paralyzed for 1 minute. If the target fails the saving throw by 5 points or more, it instead suffers 1 level of exhaustion as well as being paralyzed for 1 minute. This exhaustion remains until it is healed magically: a lesser restoration can remove one level of exhaustion from a victim with two or fewer levels, a greater restoration will remove three levels of exhaustion. The target dies if it suffers 6 levels or exhaustion.​

 A paralyzed target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the paralysis effect on itself with a success.​

 A humanoid or giant slain by this attack rises 24 hours later as a shadow [spectre?] under the dodkong's control, unless the victim is restored to life or its body is destroyed. The dodkong can have no more than twelve shadows [spectres?] under its control at one time.​

​

Freezing Death #2. Melee Spell Attack: +13 to hit, reach 15 ft., one target. Hit: 10 (3d6) cold damage plus 10 (3d6) necrotic damage. If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a DC 22 Constitution saving throw or suffer 1 level of exhaustion and be paralyzed for 1 minute. If the target fails the saving throw by 5 points or more, it instead suffers 2 levels of exhaustion as well as becoming permanently paralyzed. This exhaustion remains until it is healed magically: a lesser restoration can remove one level of exhaustion from a victim with two or fewer levels, a greater restoration will remove three levels of exhaustion. The target dies if it suffers 6 levels or exhaustion.​

 A paralyzed target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the paralysis effect on itself with a success. A permanently paralyzed target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of the turn for 1 minute after being effected; after this initial minute the target can repeat the saving throw once a day, but with disadvantage. If it succeeds, the permanent paralysis effect ends, but the recovering victim is slowed for 1 minute.​

 A humanoid or giant slain by this attack rises 24 hours later as a shadow [spectre?] under the dodkong's control, unless the victim is restored to life or its body is destroyed. The dodkong can have no more than twelve shadows [spectres?] under its control at one time.​

The second one is obviously WAY nastier than the first and is a homage to the AD&D version of the Lich, which caused permanent paralysis with its touch.

Also thought about fiddling around with the damage type, like making it 21 (6d6) cold or 28 (8d6) cold or perhaps 21 (6d6) necrotic cold damage? (A target must be resistant or immune to both cold damage and necrotic damage to be protected from necrotic cold; a target immune to one damage type but only resistant to the other damage type will be resistant to necrotic cold)

However, I started to feel I was making it too complicated as is my tendency.

The advantage of "necrotic cold" is it allows the attack to do full damage against most kinds of undead, who tend to be immune to necrotic but not cold in 5E.

Might be worth renaming it or doing it as a new damage type insert, like I've been musing about for the Efreeti Firelord if you recall my idea of it being able to generate "Spiritual Flames" that do psychic fire damage.

But that's a matter for another thread!

 

[Casimir Liber]

2nd one - it's a megaboss on par with demigods etc. and we can make it necrotic-cold damage as described (easy as can be done in text section so is not short-circuited by a drop down menu (like saves etc).

 

[Cleon]

2nd one - it's a megaboss on par with demigods etc. and we can make it necrotic-cold damage as described (easy as can be done in text section so is not short-circuited by a drop down menu (like saves etc).

Not in the original it wasn't.

The 3E Dodkong was weaker than most human liches.

Still, if you need a megalich for your campaign, a megalich it'll be.

Had an idea for a third variant that only caused permanent paralysis if the victim was at a high stage of exhaustion, maybe even as a replacement for the "death" effect.

Partially as another homage to the AD&D Lich, whose paralysis left victims appearing to be dead.

Something like:

Freezing Death #3. Melee Spell Attack: +13 to hit, reach 15 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (4d6) cold damage plus 14 (4d6) necrotic damage. If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a DC 22 Constitution saving throw or suffer 1 level of exhaustion and be slowed for 1 minute. If the target fails the saving throw by 5 points or more, it instead suffers 2 levels of exhaustion and is paralyzed for 1 minute. This exhaustion remains until it is healed magically: a lesser restoration can remove one level of exhaustion from a victim with two or fewer levels, a greater restoration will remove three levels of exhaustion. The target becomes permanently paralyzed if it reaches 5 or more levels or exhaustion because of Freezing Death. This permanent paralysis is almost indistinguishable from death; an observer must succeed at a DC 20 Wisdom (Medicine) check to realize the target is still alive.
 A slowed or paralyzed target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the slow or paralysis effect on itself with a success. A permanently paralyzed target can repeat the saving throw once a day, but with disadvantage. If it succeeds, this ends the permanent paralysis effect and the target is at 4 [or 5?] levels of exhaustion.
 A humanoid or giant slain by this attack rises 24 hours later as a spectre under the dodkong's control, unless the victim is restored to life or its body is destroyed. The dodkong can have no more than twelve spectres under its control at one time.​

 

[Casimir Liber]

ooo yes that one!

 

[Cleon]

ooo yes that one!

So are we going for:

Freezing Death. Melee Spell Attack: +13 to hit, reach 15 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (4d6) cold damage plus 14 (4d6) necrotic damage. If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a DC 22 Constitution saving throw or suffer 1 level of exhaustion and be slowed for 1 minute. If the target fails the saving throw by 5 points or more, it instead suffers 2 levels of exhaustion and is paralyzed for 1 minute. This exhaustion remains until it is healed magically: a lesser restoration can remove one level of exhaustion from a victim with two or fewer levels, a greater restoration will remove three levels of exhaustion. The target becomes permanently paralyzed if it reaches 5 or more levels or exhaustion due to Freezing Death. This permanent paralysis is almost indistinguishable from death; an observer must succeed at a DC 20 Wisdom (Medicine) check to realize the target is still alive.
 A slowed or paralyzed target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the slow or paralysis effect on itself with a success. A permanently paralyzed target can repeat the saving throw once a day, but with disadvantage. If it succeeds, this ends the permanent paralysis effect and the target is at 5 levels of exhaustion.
 A humanoid or giant slain by this attack rises 24 hours later as a spectre under the dodkong's control, unless the victim is restored to life or its body is destroyed. The dodkong can have no more than twelve spectres under its control at one time.​

With the 5 levels of exhaustion upon recovering from the permanent paralysis?

Also reverted back to the "due to Freezing Death" over "because of" since the Cairns exhaustion-dealing attacks had the "due to" wording.

 

[Casimir Liber]

yes - looks good!

 

[Cleon]

yes - looks good!

Fine, will add it to the Enworld Dodkong…

…added​

 

[Cleon]

Before we get too carried away, we'd better sort out the Rejuvenation questions.

The first question being, are we giving it Rejuvenation?

The Dodkong was created accidentally via an artifact. It's not a regular Lich, so you don't have to give it Rejuvenation if you don't want to.

Failing that, the next question is what its phylactery is, for which the obvious choice is the crown that created him.

But if the crown has to be destroyed to destroy the Lich, doesn't that mean that the Dodkong is the first Lich ever created by the crown? Which seems a bit odd: isn't the crown meant to turn its wearer into a Lich? That'd mean that no previous owner used it to become a Lich, including its creator. Since if they did, that Lich would still be around (as the crown still exists) and the crown likely couldn't produce another Lich (since a phylactery is unique to each Lich it creates).

Maybe the crown only acts as a Phylactery while attuned and/or worn/within a certain distance of the Lich it created. So if someone stole the crown and either attuned it themselves or kept it a long way from the Dodkong, then the Dodkong would be vulnerable to permanent destruction if destroyed rather than popping back into existence later, and would need to reclaim/reattune the crown to regain its Rejuvenation.

Or perhaps there's a time limit? Like the crown stops being the Dodkong's Phlyactery if the Cairn Lich loses attunement to it for over a day or a week?

 

[Casimir Liber]

Hmm. If he's wearing the crown, it doesn't make it a very safe phylactery then really.

Alternatives (a) ditch rejuvenation, (b) crown "holds" the dodkong at 1hp for 1d4 rounds, during which time he is conscious and can try to escape or heal (? - this second one ditches idea of rehashing whole fight and just gives dodkong a chance of staving off defeat in dramatic fashion)

 

[Cleon]

Hmm. If he's wearing the crown, it doesn't make it a very safe phylactery then really.

I was thinking a "attuned OR worn" approach.

So the Dodkong can hide when the crown is attuned to him, but if it lost attunement (methods to be determined, but maybe including another stone giant getting attuned to it or the crown being stolen and having some special process to block the necromantic connection with the Dodkong) then the Dodkong couldn't rejuvenate unless it got the crown back on its head, and it'd have to reattune the crown to take it off and still be able to rejuvenate.

Or just ditch rejuvenation.

The holding the Dodkong at a hit point for a few rounds is unlikely to work if it's just fell to that level in combat and is surrounded by enemies.