Dodkong minions

[Casimir Liber]

What I have so far...


Troglo-wights are corporeal undead created when troglodytes are killed by an undead being of great power or in a locale blighted by great evil. Dark powers then grant their spirits undeath, leaving them to wreak havoc among the living. They appear as deathly pale troglodytes with dark eyes, which blaze with a white spark when living prey is attacked.

Possessing (the admittedly limited) intellect of their formerly living selves, troglo-wights have some capacity for planning and free will. However, this is usually overridden by their compulsion to serve the agents that made them.

Unearthly Cave Dwellers. Their subterranean origins allow troglo-wights more freedom than sun-fearing undead have above ground, and they are less likely to be bound to a specific lair location.

 

[Cleon]

What I have so far...


Troglo-wights are corporeal undead created when troglodytes are killed by an undead being of great power or in a locale blighted by great evil. Dark powers then grant their spirits undeath, leaving them to wreak havoc among the living. They appear as deathly pale troglodytes with dark eyes, which blaze with a white spark when living prey is attacked.

Possessing (the admittedly limited) intellect of their formerly living selves, troglo-wights have some capacity for planning and free will. However, this is usually overridden by their compulsion to serve the agents that made them.

Unearthly Cave Dwellers. Their subterranean origins allow troglo-wights more freedom than sun-fearing undead have above ground, and they are less likely to be bound to a specific lair location.

Hmm, okay let's get niggling with the first paragraph!
 There's something about the "spirits" in "Dark powers then grant their spirits undeath" I don't care for. I know the Monster Manual wight mentions spirits, but it just sounds more appropriate for a spectral undead. Maybe move the "corporeal" from the first sentence to the second?
 Using "killed" is a bit vanilla, how about "slain" or even "murdered"?
 The whole "are corporeal undead created when" suggests that ALL troglodytes killed by a nasty undead or who die in a cursed area become these wights, which doesn't seem right. Maybe change that to "can be created" or "are sometimes created"?

Shouldn't the parenthesis in the second paragraph open after "the" rather than before it? The "However" in the second paragraph seems superfluous.

The ", and they are" in Unearthly Cave Dwellers is a bit clunky. The third paragraph could do with starting a new sentence there.

I'd suggest the following tweaks:

Troglo-wights can be created when troglodytes are slain by an undead being of great power or in a locale blighted by great evil. Dark powers then granted their spirits corporeal undeath, leaving them to wreak havoc among the living. They appear as deathly pale troglodytes with dark eyes, which blaze with a white spark when living prey is attacked.​

 Possessing the (admittedly limited) intellect of their formerly living selves, troglo-wights have some capacity for planning and free will. This is usually overridden by their compulsion to serve the agents that made them.​

 Unearthly Cave Dwellers. Their subterranean origins allow troglo-wights more freedom than sun-fearing undead have above ground. They are less likely to be bound to a specific lair location.​

Well at least I didn't overwrite it completely this time. There's a fair amount of the original wording there!

 

[Casimir Liber]

I'll take it

published here

 

[Cleon]

I'll take it

Updating the Troglo-wight.

published here

You've still got a 13 in passive Perception that ought to be 12.

The second paragraph in the Description is misaligned.

Apart from that it looks good to go.

 

[Casimir Liber]

ok redone to here

 

[Cleon]

ok redone to here

Will Index it in due course.

What about the Description for the Stone Giant Wight?

 

[Casimir Liber]

"Stone giant wights can be created when stone giants are slain by an undead being of great power or perish in a locale blighted by great evil. Dark powers then granted their spirits corporeal undeath, leaving them to wreak havoc among the living. They appear as deathly pale stone giants with dark eyes, which blaze with a white spark when living prey is attacked.

Possessing the intellect of their formerly living selves, stone giant wights have capacity for planning and free will. This is usually overridden by their compulsion to serve the agents that made them."

(shamelessly cut-and-pasted)

 

[Cleon]

"Stone giant wights can be created when stone giants are slain by an undead being of great power or perish in a locale blighted by great evil. Dark powers then granted their spirits corporeal undeath, leaving them to wreak havoc among the living. They appear as deathly pale stone giants with dark eyes, which blaze with a white spark when living prey is attacked.

Possessing the intellect of their formerly living selves, stone giant wights have capacity for planning and free will. This is usually overridden by their compulsion to serve the agents that made them."

(shamelessly cut-and-pasted)

You could have at least rearranged the words to make it less obvious! Like say:

Stone giant wights appear as deathly pale stone giants whose dark eyes blaze with a white spark when they attack live prey. They exist to wreak havoc among the living.​

 If a stone giant dies in a place blighted by great evil or is murdered by an undead being of great power, dark powers sometimes grant the giant's spirit corporeal undead, creating a stone giant wight. These giant wights possess the intellect of their former selves, so is capable of planning and free will, but this is often overridden by their compulsion to serve agents of the evil powers that create them.​

 

[Casimir Liber]

ok published here

3 more monsters I wanna do and then I'll be happy - stone giant wraith (revived spirits of long-dead stone giant nobles), nightcrawler (from 3.5e - fits my campagin perfectly) and fix up the dodkong...

(NB: rather than make a new nightcrawler from scratch, do any of the existing ones look internally coherent/interesting according to 5e rules.


In the meantime I have the wraith to polish

 

[Cleon]

ok published here

I make its Death Grip escape DC 19 (8 +5 Proficiency +6 STR), not 16.

The Death Grip should also have Constitution save DC 15 (8 +5 Proficiency +2 CHA) like Soul Drain.

Apart from those errors I noticed a few differences in the wording of the D&D Beyond version above to the Enworld Stone Giant Wight, which I've just edited to match.

Nothing important. The Camouflage and Rock Catching has "stone giant wight" rather than "giant."

Finally, I had the Stone Giant Wight pegged at CR 14 (11,500) based the "piercing/slashing/bludgeoning damage resistance that can be pierced by magical weapons is useless at that level" theory.

If that resistance was actually applicable it would be CR 18 (20,000)!

I guess Challenge 16 (15,000) is a neat average, so I've updated my Working Draft with it.

Guess the only way to tell is to sic it on some PCs and see how quickly it liberates them from their mortal coils.