Epic Monsters: Nyarlathotep (5E)

Today’s Epic Monster for Mythological Figures is the “Mighty Messenger” of the Great Old Ones, an endless font of maleficent darkness known to humanity as Nyarlathotep!

Near as I can tell this is Lovecraft’s vampiric Great Old One. That’s an oversimplification for the “God of Thousand Forms” (29 of which can be found here) but gets the important bits across the plate: he’s a deceptive manipulator that likes to build (or subtly control existing) cults, can’t stand sunlight, and takes some enjoyment out of inflicting insanity upon others.

Design Notes: Unlike the other Great Old Ones there’s no Pathfinder Roleplaying Game statblock for this fellow so I’ve tricked out a standard vampire with some important changes—including Legendary Actions because unlike his peers he’s actually moving his true body around from place to place as well as Lair Actions (which he can only use in his lair inside the core of the planet).

Nyarlathotep
Medium aberration (shapechanger), neutral evil

Armor Class 21 (natural armor)
Hit Points 340 (40d8+160)
Speed 30 ft., fly 90 ft. (hover)

[TABLE="class: grid, width: 475"]
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STR​

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DEX​

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CON​

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INT​

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WIS​

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CHA​

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19 (+4)​

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18 (+4)​

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19 (+4)​

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22 (+6)​

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21 (+5)​

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20 (+5)​

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Saving Throws Int +14, Wis +13, Cha +13
Skills Deception +13, Insight +13, Perception +13, Persuasion +13, Stealth +12
Damage Resistances cold, fire, force, necrotic; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from magical or adamantine weapons
Damage Immunities bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical weapons not made from adamantine
Condition Immunities charmed, diseased, frightened, paralyzed, petrified
Senses darkvision 200 ft., truesight, passive Perception 23
Languages Common, Deep Speech, telepathy 200 ft. (tongues)
Challenge 25 (75,000 XP)

Brilliant. Nyarlathotep has advantage on and gains his proficiency bonus (+8) to all Intelligence ability checks.

Deathly Touch. All of Nyarlathotep’s weapon attacks are magical and deal an extra 21 (6d6) necrotic damage (included in the attack). A creature’s hit point maximum is reduced by an amount equal to the necrotic damage taken, and Nyarlathotep regains hit points equal to that amount. The reduction lasts until the creature finishes a long rest. The creature dies if this effect reduces its hit point maximum to 0.

Immortality. When Nyarlathotep is slain his potent spirit retreats to the planet’s core, slowly regenerating his corporeal form. During this time he is reforming. While reforming, Nyarlathotep cannot move, is unable to take any actions but lair actions, and regains 1 hit point at the end of each day. When Nyarlathotep has his full hit points he is no longer reforming. Killing Nyarlathotep while he is reforming destroys him permanently.

Innate Spellcasting. Nyarlathotep’s innate spellcasting ability is Intelligence (spell save DC 22; spell attack +14). He can innately cast the following spells, requiring no components:

Constant: freedom of movement, tongues, true seeing
At will: astral projection, charm monster, counterspell, dimension door, dispel magic, dream, mirage arcane, sending, suggestion, teleport
5/day: dominate monster, symbol
3/day: feeblemind, project image, mass suggestion, weird​

Insanity. Any creature that attempts to interact directly with Nyarlathotep’s thoughts (such as via detect thoughts or telepathy) must succeed at DC 22 Intelligence saving throw or gain an indefinite madness. When using its telepathy to communicate Nyarlathotep doesn't activate this feature unless he spends an action to focus his mind on one opponent.

Legendary Resistance (3/Day). If Nyarlathotep fails a saving throw, he can choose to succeed instead.

Magic Resistance. Nyarlathotep has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.

Regeneration. Nyarlathotep regains 20 hit points at the start of his turn if he has at least 1 hit point and isn’t in sunlight.

Shapechange. Nyarlathotep magically polymorphs into a humanoid or beast that has a challenge rating no higher than his own, or back into this form. Nyarlathotep only reverts to this form if he dies. Any equipment he is wearing or carrying is absorbed or borne by the new form (Nyarlathotep’s choice). In a new form, he retains his alignment, hit points, Hit Dice, ability to speak, proficiencies, Legendary Resistance, and Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma scores, as well as this action. Nyarlathotep’s statistics and capabilities are otherwise replaced by those of the new form except any class features of that form.

Sunlight Hypersensitivity. Nyarlathotep takes 20 radiant damage when he starts his turn in sunlight. While in sunlight, he has disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks.

ACTIONS

Multiattack. Nyarlathotep uses his Frightful Presence, makes two weapon attacks, and casts a spell.

Ebony Dagger. Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +12 to hit, reach 5 ft. or range 20/60 ft., one creature. Hit: 6 (1d4+4) magical piercing damage plus 21 (6d6) necrotic damage.

Evil Quarterstaff. Melee Weapon Attack: +12 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 7 (1d6+4) magical bludgeoning damage plus 21 (6d6) necrotic damage or 8 (1d8+4) magical bludgeoning damage plus 21 (6d6) necrotic damage if wielded with two hands.

Unarmed Strike. Melee Weapon Attack: +12 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 8 (1d8+4) magical bludgeoning damage plus 21 (6d6) necrotic damage.

Frightful Presence. Each creature of Nyarlathotep’s choice that is within 120 feet of him and aware of him must succeed on a DC 21 Wisdom saving throw or become frightened for 1 minute. A creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success. If a creature’s saving throw is successful or the effect ends for it, the creature is immune to Nyarlathotep’s Frightful Presence for the next minute.

LEGENDARY ACTIONS

Nyarlathotep can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from the options below. Only one legendary action option can be used at a time and only at the end of another creature’s turn. Nyarlathotep regains spent legendary actions at the start of his turn.

• Extra Attack (costs 2 actions). Nyarlathotep makes one weapon attack.
• Move. Nyarlathotep moves up to his speed without provoking opportunity attacks.
• Solidify Fear. Nyarlathotep chooses a frightened creature he can see within 50 feet, taking the fear in its mind and making it a physical reality inside of its skull. The creature makes a DC 21 Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, the creature takes 28 (8d6) force damage and 28 (8d6) psychic damage, and it gains the stunned condition until the start of Nyarlathotep’s next turn. On a successful save the creature is not stunned and takes no force damage.

LAIR ACTIONS

On initiative count 20 (losing all initiative ties), Nyarlathotep can use one of his lair action options. He can only do so while inside of his lair in the planet’s core. If surprised, Nyarlathotep can’t use one until after his first turn in the combat.

• Disruptive energies roil around Nyarlathotep’s lair. Until the start of the next round, any healing spells or effects (such as cure wounds or a paladin’s Lay on Hands) only restore half as many hit points as normal.
• Evil essence infused into Nyarlathotep’s lair spikes upward and manifests into psychic shards. Until the end of the next round, the area is difficult terrain. A creature can choose to ignore the difficult terrain, but doing so causes it to have disadvantage on Wisdom and Charisma saving throws until the start of its next turn.
• Pure malevolence pours out from the walls, ceiling, and floor, corrupting the souls it touches upon. Creatures make a DC 21 Charisma saving throw. On a failed save, a creature takes 45 (10d8) necrotic damage.

 

[Stalker0]

Personally I think these stats don’t really measure a legendary CR 25. The healing and max hp drain looks nice on paper but a well oiled level 20 party dishes out ridiculous damage...and the damage he deals isn’t hard enough to scare them.

I see this as a pure meat grinder. The party just wails on him until he dies, taking flea bites of damage in the process. And nothing in his spell list is particularly threatening.

 

[Seramus]

Seems like a good Mastermind.
At Will Suggestion, Teleport, and Tongues combined with the Brilliant trait means that this guy can poof around and cause endless trouble and aggravation for any group of adventurers. Like an unkillable Jafar.

 

[dave2008]

Thank you again for another "epic" entry A few thoughts:

1) I believe Deathly Touch should be in the traits section, not the Actions section
2) As I have noted before I think legendary epic foes need strong movement abilities. His Move legendary action is nice and helps, but a feel a teleport action & legendary would be helpful
3) On Innate Spellcasting, you can just say: ...requiring no components. You don't have to spell out each type if it is all of them.
4) as @Stalker0 alluded to, his regeneration ability isn't really a 60 HP boost a to any group w/ chill touch. I would suggest giving him immunity to cantrips to solve that problem.
5) Finally, in Shapechange it mentions that he..."reverts to his true form if he dies." However, the stat block here is not his true form. It is generally excepted in the Cthulhu mythos that the form described here is what he uses when he is working with/against mortals and his true form is the tentacled headed monstrosity, like this (which I think needs a separate stat block - which I would like you to take a stab at as well ):

 

[Quartz]

From where does the sunlight sensitivity come? There are some forms which are dispelled by sunlight (The Haunter of the Dark / Shining Trapezohedron) but I'm struggling to recall any story where it is damaged by sunlight. And he's not hurt or dispelled by sunlight in the Neonomicon (very NSFW).

 

[dave2008]

From where does the sunlight sensitivity come? There are some forms which are dispelled by sunlight (The Haunter of the Dark / Shining Trapezohedron) but I'm struggling to recall any story where it is damaged by sunlight. And he's not hurt or dispelled by sunlight in the Neonomicon (very NSFW).

Being dispelled by sunlight does imply a certain sensitivity to sunlight. It doesn't seem completely out of line to me.

 

[dave2008]

On initiative count 20 (losing all initiative ties), Nyarlathotep can use one of his lair action options. He can only do so while incapacitated and inside of his lair inside the planet’s core.

Also, it is odd to say he can only take lair actions while he is incapacitated since the incapacitated conditions states:
"An incapacitated creature can’t take actions or reactions."

I understand the intent, but by RAW he can't take actions while incapacitated. I would suggest changing the condition to something unique like "stasis" and then describe that in Immortality.

 

[dave2008]

I also just realized that the necrotic damage for Deathly Touch should in included it the attack, I was begining to wonder how you figured the DPR until I remember about Deathly Touch. Typical it is written like this:

Deathly Touch. All of Nyarlathotep’s weapon attacks are magical and deal an extra 21 (6d6) necrotic damage (included in the attack). A creature’s hit point maximum is reduced by an amount equal to the necrotic damage taken, and Nyarlathotep regains hit points equal to that amount. The reduction lasts until the creature finishes a long rest. The creature dies if this effect reduces its hit point maximum to 0.

and:

Ebony Dagger. Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +12 to hit, reach 5 ft. or range 20/60 ft., one creature. Hit: 6 (1d4+4) piercing damage plus 21 (6d6) necrotic damage.

Evil Quarterstaff. Melee Weapon Attack: +12 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 7 (1d6+4) bludgeoning damage plus 21 (6d6) necrotic damage or 8 (1d8+4) bludgeoning damage plus 21 (6d6) necrotic damage if wielded with two hands.

Unarmed Strike. Melee Weapon Attack: +12 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 8 (1d8+4) bludgeoning damage plus 21 (6d6) necrotic damage.

 

[dave2008]

Personally I think these stats don’t really measure a legendary CR 25. The healing and max hp drain looks nice on paper but a well oiled level 20 party dishes out ridiculous damage...and the damage he deals isn’t hard enough to scare them.

Well, Mike is trying to stick to RAW pretty much here and by RAW a CR 25 monster is noted a threat to a well oiled level 20 party. However, I agree a DPR of 58 even with adding a spell to that is pretty low. On the other hand, reducing 42 max hit points per round is nothing to sneeze at.

I see this as a pure meat grinder. The party just wails on him until he dies, taking flea bites of damage in the process. And nothing in his spell list is particularly threatening.

I agree it probably needs a few tweaks (and I would like to see its monster form too), but its legendary Move action gives it some mobility and the necrotic damage reducing max hit points will be scary as it can't be healed simply. I would like to see some more mobility, more HP, and higher DPR (maybe 3 or 4 weapon attacks), or, as you seem to imply, a lower CR.

 

[Mike Myler]

Sorry about the delay on responses, folks! I've got a Kickstarter launching in a couple hours and didn't get to this last night.

Personally I think these stats don’t really measure a legendary CR 25. The healing and max hp drain looks nice on paper but a well oiled level 20 party dishes out ridiculous damage...and the damage he deals isn’t hard enough to scare them.

I see this as a pure meat grinder. The party just wails on him until he dies, taking flea bites of damage in the process. And nothing in his spell list is particularly threatening.

The party wails on him as each turn he perma-soaks 42 hit points (which sometimes will crit into 63), whoever is wasting their turn (or sorcery points) casting chill touch eats one of an infinite number of counterspells, and as soon as one of the martials fails their save against dominate monster the adventurers need to split focus on an ally and Nyarlathotep. So long as nobody is frightened then it's just an extra 21 perma-soak instead of an unavoidable 28 (possible 56 with stun). This also assumes that Nyarlathotep is encountered alone, not with a bunch of cultists about ready to get involved as well (which seems like a more likely scenario), and that whoever is doing melee can fly (faster than a dragon flies, not counting the legendary move action that doesn't provoke opportunity attacks). IMHO that's way more interesting a fight than, say, the tarrasque.

Seems like a good Mastermind.

At Will Suggestion, Teleport, and Tongues combined with the Brilliant trait means that this guy can poof around and cause endless trouble and aggravation for any group of adventurers. Like an unkillable Jafar.

You have the right idea for using Nyarlathotep I think

Thank you again for another "epic" entry

A few thoughts:

1) I believe Deathly Touch should be in the traits section, not the Actions section
2) As I have noted before I think legendary epic foes need strong movement abilities. His Move legendary action is nice and helps, but a feel a teleport action & legendary would be helpful
3) On Innate Spellcasting, you can just say: ...requiring no components. You don't have to spell out each type if it is all of them.
4) as @Stalker0 alluded to, his regeneration ability isn't really a 60 HP boost a to any group w/ chill touch. I would suggest giving him immunity to cantrips to solve that problem.
5) Finally, in Shapechange it mentions that he..."reverts to his true form if he dies." However, the stat block here is not his true form. It is generally excepted in the Cthulhu mythos that the form described here is what he uses when he is working with/against mortals and his true form is the tentacled headed monstrosity, like this (which I think needs a separate stat block - which I would like you to take a stab at as well ):

As ever you are most welcome!
1) Sure! Moved it and amended attack lines.
2) Nyarlathotep has a higher speed than I think any creature of a CR near him, and then the legendary action (which doesn't provoke opportunity attacks) is essentially a teleport. 180 feet of mobility in a round is a *lot* and I feel comfortable with it.
3) I was figuring it'd be easier on folks (because most innate spellcasting still requires some components) but fair enough! Changed.
4) Endless counterspells and if someone in the group of 20th level adventurers wants to spend their turn/sorcery points casting chill touch (which can miss and does only half damage to Nyarlathotep on a hit) by all means have at it. I don't think they'll be keen to though.
5) It's been a few weeks since I wrote this but from what I remember, he does not have a true form, he's the God of Thousand Forms. That should get recognized in the trait though so there's no longer any mention of his "true form" there, only "this form".

From where does the sunlight sensitivity come? There are some forms which are dispelled by sunlight (The Haunter of the Dark / Shining Trapezohedron) but I'm struggling to recall any story where it is damaged by sunlight. And he's not hurt or dispelled by sunlight in the

Neonomicon (very NSFW).

Out of the stories I skimmed, one of his forms is destroyed by light and another dislikes it--to get a working monster statblock I decided that putting him definitively in the darkness was the way to go.

Being dispelled by sunlight does imply a certain sensitivity to sunlight. It doesn't seem completely out of line to me.

Woot! You are definitely more steeped in the mythos than I am so glad to hear it wasn't totally out of whack to do that.

Also, it is odd to say he can only take lair actions while he is incapacitated since the incapacitated conditions states:

"An incapacitated creature can’t take actions or reactions."

I understand the intent, but by RAW he can't take actions while incapacitated. I would suggest changing the condition to something unique like "stasis" and then describe that in Immortality.

Easily done--went with "reforming".

I also just realized that the necrotic damage for Deathly Touch should in included it the attack, I was begining to wonder how you figured the DPR until I remember about Deathly Touch. Typical it is written like this:

Deathly Touch. All of Nyarlathotep’s weapon attacks are magical and deal an extra 21 (6d6) necrotic damage (included in the attack). A creature’s hit point maximum is reduced by an amount equal to the necrotic damage taken, and Nyarlathotep regains hit points equal to that amount. The reduction lasts until the creature finishes a long rest. The creature dies if this effect reduces its hit point maximum to 0.

and:

Ebony Dagger.Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +12 to hit, reach 5 ft. or range 20/60 ft., one creature. Hit: 6 (1d4+4) piercing damage plus 21 (6d6) necrotic damage.

Evil Quarterstaff.Melee Weapon Attack: +12 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 7 (1d6+4) bludgeoning damage plus 21 (6d6) necrotic damage or 8 (1d8+4) bludgeoning damage plus 21 (6d6) necrotic damage if wielded with two hands.

Unarmed Strike. Melee Weapon Attack: +12 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 8 (1d8+4) bludgeoning damage plus 21 (6d6) necrotic damage.

Yup! Fixed up the trait and attacks.

Well, Mike is trying to stick to RAW pretty much here and by RAW a CR 25 monster is noted a threat to a well oiled level 20 party. However, I agree a DPR of 58 even with adding a spell to that is pretty low. On the other hand, reducing 42 max hit points per round is nothing to sneeze at.

I agree it probably needs a few tweaks (and I would like to see its monster form too), but its legendary Move action gives it some mobility and the necrotic damage reducing max hit points will be scary as it can't be healed simply. I would like to see some more mobility, more HP, and higher DPR (maybe 3 or 4 weapon attacks), or, as you seem to imply, a lower CR.

If for some reason the adventurers encounter him on the Salt Flats of Utah totally by himself then yeah, this might be a little boring, but even then Nyarlathotep ought to hold his own for a good while. For anyone using this guy in an actual game and not a thought experiment, cultists will be involved, it's probably taking place in a locale with more going on than wide open spaces, and Nyarlathotep's focus should be on team-disruption more than simply doling out damage. A party that is fighting only against him will do well, but if he's being used right there should be some fighting amongst themselves too.