Fifth Edition Foes Monster Book

The PDF's out? How cool!

 

[Nebulous]

I'm personally a big fan of the "different mechanics" the book utilizes. It keeps it fresh and makes it far more interesting to read.

Cerebral Stalker

TRAITS
Cocoon (3/day): As an action, a cerebral stalker can
cocoon a grappled foe with sticky webbing. The webs
completely encase the victim, excluding the top of the
victim’s head, its eyes, and its nose. The cocooned victim
is restrained and anchored by the webs to the cerebral
stalker’s body. The cocooned creature can, as an
action, attempt to break free with a successful
DC 20 Str (Athletics) check or Dex (Acrobatics) check.
The webbing can be cut open
enough for a trapped character to escape with 8 points of slashing
damage against AC 10.

Consume Brain: Once it has its victim underground, the cerebral stalker
begins gnawing on the victim’s head, rapidly chewing through
bone and tissue, dealing 2d8 + 4 points of piercing damage
each round. When the victim dies, the cerebral stalker reaches its goal:
the victim’s brain, which it promptly devours. A victim slain in this manner
reanimates in 1d4 rounds as a zombie. Typically, the cerebral stalker
“tosses” them back up to the surface of the ground so their traveling
companions can witness the reanimation and deal with their newly undead friend.
Zombies created in this manner are under no one’s control.

Earth Glide: A cerebral stalker can glide through any sort of natural
earth or stone as easily as a fish swimsthrough water. Its gliding leaves
no sign of its passage or hint of its presenceto creatures that don’t
possess tremorsense. It can bring cocooned victims along with it, but
they have no special capacity for breathing while underground. Getting into
the ground, however, is not as easy for the cerebral stalker
as moving underground. It must spend four moves on
four rounds (no dashing) melding into the ground. On the
first round, the creature sinks to its knees; on the second
round, to its waist; on the third round, to its neck; and
on the fourth round, the stalker and any creature it has
cocooned disappear completely underground. Melding
into the ground does not provoke an opportunity attack.
If the cerebral stalker is grappled while sinking into the
ground, it must win a Str contest against its grapplers to
sink farther that round. Dispel magic or a similar spell cast
on a sinking cerebral stalker paralyzes it the same as a
hold monster spell. The spot where the cerebral stalker
sank radiates magic for one hour.

 

[Morrus]

Just pre-ordered my copy. I'm excited! Now I have to wait a couple months....

 

[Nebulous]

I'm sure you'll like it. Just browsing through the book you're hit repeatedly by "Oh! I want to use this!" And in that Earth Glide example above, they could have just said by default "The creature moves through stone like a fish through water" and left it at that, but instead they offered a story hook/mechanics where a kidnapped ally has a chance to be rescued. I think that's clever.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

I just got off work. I'll give it a look after dinner. Thanks for the heads up!

EDIT: Nope, it looks like you were right. I must have looked at that 10k and thought CR 10 for some silly reason. I'll get that corrected in the article. Thanks again!

I've done the same thing in reverse with Vampires: thought they were worth 13,000 XP when calculating encounter budgets, but they are only 10,000. Something about those two numbers...

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

I'm personally a big fan of the "different mechanics" the book utilizes. It keeps it fresh and makes it far more interesting to read.

Generally true. There are a few cases where the new mechanics are a bit jarring, and I won't use them. For example, the Amphoron of Yothri (Juggernaut) has a mechanic where, if it hits you with a crane, you are automatically grappled. Fine, I can live with that, since it took an attack roll to hit at first and since you (as usual) can use your action to break free of the grapple. But on the next round, you are dropped into the processing chamber and and "immediately reduced to 0 hit points". That seems pretty iffy to me. Even the Tarrasque only inflicts lots of damage on things it swallowed; the few things that have automatic death effects which reduce you to zero hit points (like Banshees) still allow a saving throw. I think when I run these creatures I will probably just assign an appropriate amount of damage (5d10?) to the Juggernaut's processing chamber.

One a positive note: I like the concept of the biclops , and I like how the Dark Creeper can see perfectly in darkness (including magical) but imperfectly in dim light, and not at all in light. It makes a nice reversal which is more interesting than Devil's Sight, especially for a CR 1/4 creature.

 

[Nebulous]

Generally true. There are a few cases where the new mechanics are a bit jarring, and I won't use them. For example, the Amphoron of Yothri (Juggernaut) has a mechanic where, if it hits you with a crane, you are automatically grappled. Fine, I can live with that, since it took an attack roll to hit at first and since you (as usual) can use your action to break free of the grapple. But on the next round, you are dropped into the processing chamber and and "immediately reduced to 0 hit points". That seems pretty iffy to me. Even the Tarrasque only inflicts lots of damage on things it swallowed; the few things that have automatic death effects which reduce you to zero hit points (like Banshees) still allow a saving throw. I think when I run these creatures I will probably just assign an appropriate amount of damage (5d10?) to the Juggernaut's processing chamber.

Oh yeah, it's perfectly reasonable to just add some huge damage instead of insta-kill. But it keeps the intent the same: this "thing" is fricking dangerous. Oh, well you DO get death saving throws every round, so I guess it's not insta-kill, just slow kill

 

[Queer Venger]

Just pre-ordered my copy. I'm excited! Now I have to wait a couple months....

Same here too, I just pre-ordered and am flipping through the pdf. I missed the kickstarter but Im glad I can pre-order these books. They really do have a 1e feel to them.

Is this a sign of what the new OGL will be like? Because I like it!

 

[Gilladian]

Do any of the monsters in the 5F have legendary or lair abilities? I really like those features, and would hate it if they ALL miss out on them. I'm still only in the A's reading, as I am entering each monster into my database as I go.

 

[Queer Venger]

The Shroom, p. 209
Sea Serpent, p. 202, & Demon-Thalasskoptis p. 82 are listed with a legendary actions
There could be more, Im still perusing...

edit:
Dagon, (yeah, DAGON) is a CR 20, with legendary actions, I think he's the resident big baddie of 5ed Foes.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Dagon, (yeah, DAGON) is a CR 20, with legendary actions, I think he's the resident big baddie of 5ed Foes.

Wow...I may HAVE to buy one now...damn