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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Charles Rampant" data-source="post: 6981971" data-attributes="member: 32659">One of the more impressive sequences in the Fellowship of the Ring is the failed attempt to cross the Misty Mountains by way of Caradhras, with the malevolent will of the mountain driving back the Fellowship. We today look at the Storm Giant Quintessent, who will let you recreate that struggle. <img src="http://cdn.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000f.EINkfn9_Y/s/850/Snow-Blizzard-Piz-Cambrena-Bernina.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />I really like the art for the Quintessent. The armour is really cool looking and well detailed, the green fabric is both interesting and appropriately covering (rather than sexy, as so often the case with fabrics in fantasy art) and the pose conveys understated power. This is art that I’d happily steal for a court wizard, and it more than adequately conveys the dignity and worth of these beings.The most powerful and solitary of the Giant variants, the Quintessent is a Storm Giant who refuses to go the way of all flesh, and who use their connection to the elements to become a kind of elemental force, dispersing their life essence into a thunderstorm, a mountain blizzard, or an oceanic vortex. They can reverse the transformation temporarily, allowing them to communicate with your party, or just try and obliterate them. As part of their high CR and status as powerful nature spirits of a kind, the Quintessent gets both Lair Actions and Regional Effects, which both emphasise elemental and weather magic. I think that the Quintessent is best used like a Sphinx: someone important and scary for the players to meet, discuss the plot with, and then leave alone. The Quintessent is the kind of being that you can include on your regional map in the form of an icon - the “Everhowling Blizzard of the Mountains” - and include in your writing as a powerful but neutral entity in the events of your game. Alternatively, you can have the Quintessent serve as the Caradhras of your campaign, serving as an elemental obstacle for the players to meet and overcome in both the Exploration and Combat pillars of the game, before they can continue to the next stage in the story. In combat, the Quintessent is a formidable opponent. Blessed with a good number of hit points and a fairly comprehensive set of resistances - though, as usual, a Paladin or Fighter with a magical weapon will do real damage - the Quintessent can also boast some of the heaviest attack options in Volo’s. It can either form a sword out of lightning, which will do very hefty damage on each of its two swings, or it can toss a pair of javelins, made of pure wind. This latter attack requires no roll to hit, which I’m sure will please nobody in your party. Of course, with a +14 to hit, I don’t imagine that the Quintessent will miss very often with the Sword either. In addition, the Quintessent has Truesight - good for shutting down high level Rogues - and an impressively high set of saves. If that wasn’t enough, she also comes equipped with a set of Legendary Actions, which includes a battlefield control effect (good for pushing people off of ledges in its mountainous lair, perhaps), a direct damage spell, and the ability to turn back into a storm. This latter effect means that it cannot be targeted by any effect, but there is no mention made of regenerating damage, so it is very cool, but unlikely to save a Quintessent that is losing a fight. Overall, I’m a huge fan of the Quintessent, and I’m likely to add one to my future games as a not-quite benevolent NPC who the party can meet early on, before they realise that actually she is partly to blame for the evils that they face. Combined with some elemental creatures - Ice Toad, Crag Cats, cultists from Princes of the Apocalypse, I think that the Quintessent will be able to provide interesting challenges in all three pillars of the game, and be a very compelling presence in your campaign.</blockquote>

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