D&D 5E Let's Read: Volo's Monsters

[fuindordm]

If the Goblinoids are the Roman Empire, then the Orcs are the barbarian tribes.

Sounds like an interesting campaign! Take bronze-age Europe, populate it heavily with humanoid monster races taking the place of major civilizations.

Then require the PCs to be primitive human slaves.

 

[Charles Rampant]

The Orc Blade of Ilneval is a leader style melee combatant, and he duplicates the role and CR rating for the Orc Warchief so closely that we can regard him as essentially a variant entry for that role.

The Blade of Ilneval is described as a leader of Orcs, who has gained the ability to direct the ferocity of his comrades to achieve victory. Like the Warchief, he also gains extra damage on melee attacks as a reward from his patron deity. However, his deity is one of strategy and tactics, rather than rulership, and so these fellows are going to be subordinate to any Warchiefs around.

This is somewhat odd, for the Blade is basically an upgrade on the same combat concept. The damage output for the two entries is nearly identical - 28 DPR vs 30 DPR - and while the Warchief has more hit points, the Blade has greater AC, making that probably a wash. The real point of comparison is their leadership ability, and in this regard the Warchief is totally outshone by his subordinate; the Warchief gives advantage on attack rolls to all Orcs in 30ft, but only once a day, and for a single round, getting only half of his attacks on that round himself. Meanwhile, the Blade can let three Orcs within 120ft make another attack as a Reaction, an ability that not only recharges on a 4-6, but does not prevent the Blade from making all his attacks as normal. In other words, the Blade gets a better ability more often, and it doesn't affect his damage output. One upside to the Warchief's ability is that the two abilities stack, so you can use a Blade and a Warchief and have both active at once.

The Blade of Ilneval is a good statblock - meaty, strong attacks, a great leadership ability - but it effectively makes the Warchief look like a Warchump, and I'd want to give a boost to the latter in order to make him look more imposing as a result. After meeting this guy in a preliminary fight, I can't imagine that the players will be that impressed by the Warchief's efforts! Happily, you can convert the Champion entry in the back of the book without too much trouble I reckon, adding only the Aggressive trait and a Greataxe to make it feel Orcish, and that should serve as a solid boss fight for your Orc storyline.

 

[Leatherhead]

This is somewhat odd, for the Blade is basically an upgrade on the same combat concept.

I wouldn't go quite that far. While Volo's does provide a lot of monsters that are basically "Version 2.0", The War Chief and the Blade of Ilneval have significantly different roles in encounter design.

Firstly, the War Chief can hit every creature that happens to be within 6 squares of it, which is a huge range and effectively the entire battle encounter if you are fighting indoors. This means they get to boss around orcs, half orcs, humans, (half)ogres, Aurochs, and possibly a demon or two. Additionally, the Battle Cry is more effective on creatures with Multiattack, which happens to include most of the new Orcs, the other War Chiefs (Also granting advantage on it's own bonus attack, for a bit more boost), and Orogs.

Secondly, the War Chief has a better ranged attack option. It's not much if you don't need it, but when you do need it, it's so good. And they could potentially lead a ranged unit just as effectively as a melee one.


The Blade of Ilneval, on the other hand, may get to use their power up to twice, only on orcs, and it uses up reactions. Meaning the orc power player (Tanarukk) doesn't have as much opportunity to benefit from it. However, it does have quadruple the range of the Battle Cry, which gives it absurd coverage. Also, that shield really puts a crimp in the DPR (suffering from the Gnoll Problem), and their ranged attack option is rather pathetic. That isn't to say the Blade of Ilneval isn't impressive for it's weight class, but the flashiness of it's power overshadows it's practicality.

The end result:
Use the War Chief for mass-battles, or for Higher CR encounters where it's abilities grant the most benefit.
The Blade of Ilneval should be used as a leader for lower CR mostly orc squad encounters, where an OA isn't quite as likely to happen.

Or you could use them both, the lore supports it, and their abilities stack incredibly well, which is a rare thing among leader units.

 

[Charles Rampant]

You said that the Blade can use the Ilneval's Command power up to twice - unless you mean how long the combat is likely to last, I'm not seeing a restriction. Also, it has quadruple the range of the Warchief ability, 30ft vs 120ft.

 

[Leatherhead]

You said that the Blade can use the Ilneval's Command power up to twice - unless you mean how long the combat is likely to last, I'm not seeing a restriction. Also, it has quadruple the range of the Warchief ability, 30ft vs 120ft.

Yes, also fixed~

 

[Charles Rampant]

Well, as you say, the two used together are going to be incredible. I just think that a 'Warchief' who is the same CR as a lieutenant statline and whose leadership ability is a once/day ability is rather underwhelming, in comparison. I'd like a CR 6 or 7 version of the Warchief now, something with just a lot more oomph. I mean, he should be a real presence in the Orcish ranks.

 

[MechaTarrasque]

It almost makes me think orcs should go back to being LE. The boss doesn't have to be more physically powerful than the subordinate, since social power > physical power, and one could almost argue that in the orc religious fundamentalism, propriety (albeit a very different kind than we think of in modern times) seems pretty important. Finally it would fit with "good orcs go to Archeron (LN with E tendencies) when they die."

 

[Chaosmancer]

One thing I always like about my monsters is when they do something and the players go "Oh crap, what now?"

The Blade gives us that. I play with a lot of people who have read all the books, including unfortunately Volo's in some cases, and this guy let's them know that this fight is not going to be your standard orcish brawl.

I agree the Warchief probably needs a little bit of a buff in retrospect, it just isn't terrifying enough if you want to make Orcs a big bad for an intense mid-level campagin.

Another glorious thing about the Blade's though, it is perfectly reasonable (since they are essentially the strategic priests of the Orcs) that a high-level band could be headed by more than one Blade.

An orcish mercenary company for example, who takes a contract out on the players. With two Blades of Ilneval running it, can potentially cause an entire free round of attacks from their entire band. And Orcs hit hard, so that is going to cause everyone to step back and take notice.

Also, random notice, they have an improved wisdom save, which is probably really helpful against a lot of standard caster nonsense like hold person and dominate.

 

[Charles Rampant]

It almost makes me think orcs should go back to being LE. The boss doesn't have to be more physically powerful than the subordinate, since social power > physical power, and one could almost argue that in the orc religious fundamentalism, propriety (albeit a very different kind than we think of in modern times) seems pretty important. Finally it would fit with "good orcs go to Archeron (LN with E tendencies) when they die."

The Acheron thing is really notable, but on reading Planescape stuff you see loads of examples where creatures go to the 'wrong' afterlife for their alignment, due to racial pantheons and the like. Most (all?) Drow go to the Abyss, regardless of their personal alignment, thanks to Lloth. Chromatic Dragons all seem to go to Ba'ator, thanks to Tiamat. Vikings go to Ysgard, regardless of whether they were CE or CG. That sort of thing. It's probably because the 'alignment determines afterlife' thing makes it hard to turn each individual plane into anything other than a random mishmash of afterlives with no themes, which is not very helpful from a story point of view. Whereas it is easy to imagine how 'Evil Dragon afterlife' can be used.

@Chaosmancer A pair of Blades of Ilneval would hugely jump the difficulty on an Orc encounter, I agree - they really make the Greataxe attacks come fast and furious! They're also the kind of guy that you can easily justify in large numbers, as you say - there is only one Warchief, but there can be plenty of officers, which is kind of what the Blades appear to be. I also think that the trio of Orcish clerics serve the same goal - you can justify several turning up over the course of an adventure by observing that they all come from different cults and whatnot.

 

[MechaTarrasque]

The Acheron thing is really notable, but on reading Planescape stuff you see loads of examples where creatures go to the 'wrong' afterlife for their alignment, due to racial pantheons and the like. Most (all?) Drow go to the Abyss, regardless of their personal alignment, thanks to Lloth. Chromatic Dragons all seem to go to Ba'ator, thanks to Tiamat. Vikings go to Ysgard, regardless of whether they were CE or CG. That sort of thing. It's probably because the 'alignment determines afterlife' thing makes it hard to turn each individual plane into anything other than a random mishmash of afterlives with no themes, which is not very helpful from a story point of view. Whereas it is easy to imagine how 'Evil Dragon afterlife' can be used.

Racial/pantheon gods do tend to mess up the after lives and alignments (although they did tend to break up some RW pantheons into different planes--Tyr was in Celestia, Hel was in the Grey Wastes). I tend to think of that as a reason for the non-god powers on the planes to try to recruit them to their planes (like when City A or State B offers an incentive to company C to build a plant there). It might explain why the demons put up with Lolth.....

In my campaigns, gods are interested in their portfolios (Lolth cares about spreading strife, Asmodeus gets more power the more tyranny there is, ect), and it costs them energy to bring a soul into their godly realm (instead of where they would end up in the Outer Planes based on alignment), so they tend to focus on certain people. If 90% of your devoted followers are going to Mt. Celestia, and you live on the Mountain, you don't need to spend any energy on them (and they will be living good afterlives after all), you focus on Bob, your favorite paladin, to make sure he is your angel instead of an archon, or Sally, a barbarian that really pushed your faith, but never quite made it out of being CG herself....

The reason they seek worship is it is easier to move society (ies) if people are dedicated to your ideal and set up an institution to support your goals.