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Let's Read: Volo's Monsters
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<blockquote data-quote="Charles Rampant" data-source="post: 7004284" data-attributes="member: 32659"><p>The last of the Illithids from Volo's, the <strong>Neothelid</strong> is radically different from its kin in size and game function. A big solitary hunter, the Neothelid is a very potent beast indeed.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH]80379[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>The Neothelid art in the book is a solid effort, which really focuses the eye on the mouth. It basically looks like an eel with attitude, and thus is pretty disgusting.</p><p></p><p>This creature gets a fairly moderate amount of flavour text, most of which describes how they come about. It does pidgeon-hole these as the results of Illithid colony failure, and makes it tough to use one as a big brute in an Illithid colony dungeon, but you could always override it. The Neothelids are really described as being a solitary encounter in the Underdark, something rare and not encountered with allies of any kind. This makes them one of the rare CR10+ monsters that don't demand a boss-fight situation, unlike say a Vampire, Dragon or Elder Brain. I think that using multiple in the same campaign might make your players wonder just how many failed Illithid colonies there are in the area, but it would be pretty easy to reflavour the statblock as something else to get around that problem. Anyway, it is useful to have a CR 13 monster that you can just drop into any given adventuring day and not worry too hard about it, and they are going to fit wherever you can imagine a big animal that likes brains might end up; I like the idea of having one in the sewers, which could lead into an adventure to find whatever colony it came from, and see what the state of it is. Another option is to spend several sessions hinting at the weirdly <em>melted</em> remains that the players keep stumbling across, with the brains eaten; the horror only grows when they realise that the victims were Mind Flayers. And then, right when they've forgotten about that, and are distracted by another combat, the Neothelid comes erupting out of a side passage and begins lunchtime...</p><p></p><p>The Neothelid has both a difficult name to spell, and an interesting statblock. It gets the same psionic powers that Illithids get - including <em>Levitate</em>, <em>Confusion</em> and <em>Feeblemind</em>, which are all very combat spells, and <em>Magic Resistance</em>. It has absolutely bags of hitpoints, and no resistances for your players to ignore with magic weapons, so it will last a goodly while. Rather oddly, it has no multiattack option, meaning that you get a choice between a single melee attack, or an AoE spray. The former is very swingy, being a single attack for good damage, but it is +13 to hit, so pretty easy except for a Paladin who is trying hard to tank. This melee attack includes a swallow effect, and I'm pleased to see that it includes an explanation of what happens if the creature inside does damage, which I believe we already saw with another creature in this series. Anyway, it is good to have clarification built-in for the way to handle that. The rather more flashy option is the <em>Acid Breath</em> AoE, which is pretty simple; like all AoEs that operate off of Dexterity, be prepared for level-appropriate Rogues and Monks to take no damage, so aim this at the party's front line. Since the single big attack is good for swallowing and damaging one person, you should probably open with the Acid Breath and use it as much as possible, to put the hurt on the party. I've found that holding off on good abilities like this in 5e is a bad idea, since combats go so quickly, and players are, generally speaking, more impressed when everyone takes 10 damage than when one person takes 25. </p><p></p><p>A simple monster to include, and a simple one to run in combat, the Neothelid is a solid addition to your Underdark or Sewers random monster encounter table.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Charles Rampant, post: 7004284, member: 32659"] The last of the Illithids from Volo's, the [B]Neothelid[/B] is radically different from its kin in size and game function. A big solitary hunter, the Neothelid is a very potent beast indeed. [ATTACH=CONFIG]80379._xfImport[/ATTACH] The Neothelid art in the book is a solid effort, which really focuses the eye on the mouth. It basically looks like an eel with attitude, and thus is pretty disgusting. This creature gets a fairly moderate amount of flavour text, most of which describes how they come about. It does pidgeon-hole these as the results of Illithid colony failure, and makes it tough to use one as a big brute in an Illithid colony dungeon, but you could always override it. The Neothelids are really described as being a solitary encounter in the Underdark, something rare and not encountered with allies of any kind. This makes them one of the rare CR10+ monsters that don't demand a boss-fight situation, unlike say a Vampire, Dragon or Elder Brain. I think that using multiple in the same campaign might make your players wonder just how many failed Illithid colonies there are in the area, but it would be pretty easy to reflavour the statblock as something else to get around that problem. Anyway, it is useful to have a CR 13 monster that you can just drop into any given adventuring day and not worry too hard about it, and they are going to fit wherever you can imagine a big animal that likes brains might end up; I like the idea of having one in the sewers, which could lead into an adventure to find whatever colony it came from, and see what the state of it is. Another option is to spend several sessions hinting at the weirdly [I]melted[/I] remains that the players keep stumbling across, with the brains eaten; the horror only grows when they realise that the victims were Mind Flayers. And then, right when they've forgotten about that, and are distracted by another combat, the Neothelid comes erupting out of a side passage and begins lunchtime... The Neothelid has both a difficult name to spell, and an interesting statblock. It gets the same psionic powers that Illithids get - including [I]Levitate[/I], [I]Confusion[/I] and [I]Feeblemind[/I], which are all very combat spells, and [I]Magic Resistance[/I]. It has absolutely bags of hitpoints, and no resistances for your players to ignore with magic weapons, so it will last a goodly while. Rather oddly, it has no multiattack option, meaning that you get a choice between a single melee attack, or an AoE spray. The former is very swingy, being a single attack for good damage, but it is +13 to hit, so pretty easy except for a Paladin who is trying hard to tank. This melee attack includes a swallow effect, and I'm pleased to see that it includes an explanation of what happens if the creature inside does damage, which I believe we already saw with another creature in this series. Anyway, it is good to have clarification built-in for the way to handle that. The rather more flashy option is the [I]Acid Breath[/I] AoE, which is pretty simple; like all AoEs that operate off of Dexterity, be prepared for level-appropriate Rogues and Monks to take no damage, so aim this at the party's front line. Since the single big attack is good for swallowing and damaging one person, you should probably open with the Acid Breath and use it as much as possible, to put the hurt on the party. I've found that holding off on good abilities like this in 5e is a bad idea, since combats go so quickly, and players are, generally speaking, more impressed when everyone takes 10 damage than when one person takes 25. A simple monster to include, and a simple one to run in combat, the Neothelid is a solid addition to your Underdark or Sewers random monster encounter table. [/QUOTE]
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