NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Quickleaf" data-source="post: 7899963" data-attributes="member: 20323">[USER=83242]@dave2008[/USER] Thank you for all the art ideas! I've been thinking the frog-themed monster space is a bit crowded where you have regular monsters like bullywugs, grung, and froghemoths, as well as planar monsters like the slaad and hydroloth. At least the RAW stat block really could be interpreted as a baboon or a giant troglodyte or a hyena and it would still apply.Your direction seemed to be to lean into the frog identity, and you did a great stat block encouraging ambush tactics, giving it a leap, and a tongue attack. Whereas my initial approach was trying to get a sense of the totality of the hezrou across the editions and present minimal changes to evoke that essence.That makes sense. I don't know how that informs their mechanical or artistic design, but it totally fits lore-wise.There's several good ideas... I don't want to say alternative takes... that involve reading between the lines more carefully/creatively.<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">[USER=4937]@Celebrim[/USER] described the hezrou as "black magic wizard's toad familiar turned into a combat brute." While 5e doesn't usually give origin stories to demon types (i.e. they're spawned by the Abyss itself), it could make for a compelling origin. Maybe every time a quasit damns a soul it "earns its wings"...er...not wings, but something else...and is turned into a hezrou. EDIT: "...earns the Dark Walk."</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">[USER=58197]@Dausuul[/USER] described the hezrou as a "plague-bringer." This was actually well reflected in its spell abilities back in 2e and 3.5e, and I missed it. Maybe that's a big reason why mortal mages summon hezrous – to cast a plague upon the house of their enemy. This is the demon that is invited when a mortal utters a curse like "a pox upon your house". However, poison and disease are poor weapons against other fiends, and given that the hezrou is a warrior/sergeant in the Blood War, this might not be as useful. Then again, that's making me re-think the hezrou's Stench feature... maybe something that doesn't lean on the poisoned condition (which devils and most fiends are immune to) would make more sense.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">[USER=6801226]@MechaTarrasque[/USER] portrayed the hezrou as a morale-enforcer of sorts. That dovetails pretty seamlessly with the "demonic sergeant" theme. And my Caustic Miasma touches on this a little – "Advance with me if you wish to live. Cowards who fall behind will fall to arrow fire."</li> </ul></blockquote>

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