Level Up (A5E) Monster preview thread!

[Faolyn]

It can’t.

Ah, OK. Then having it explained each time is fine.

 

[Rabulias]

I feel like the Combat section (which as is, needs a period) should be a header like Actions and Bonus Actions.

I agree with this. The green line is not enough to make Combat stand out as its own section, and it looks like it's a Bonus Action (for the Cambion) or a Reaction (for the Aboleth and the Behir).

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

Ah, OK. Then having it explained each time is fine.

I agree! I think it should be it's own section like Legends & Lore or Encounters

 

[Morrus]

C is also for Cockatrice. (work in progress -- that empty area will be filled)

 

[Faolyn]

Nice! I still really think that the Combat section needs to have a bigger header, though; as it is, it's too easy to miss.

 

[Stalker0]

Overall looks like the LU is a straight up buff. +1 AC, attack, damage....and defacto gets an extra attack each around assuming some PC hits it. Probably more worth of the 1/2 CR, the original cockatrice was pretty frail. The only weakness of the LU one is that lesser restoration can undo the petrification before it completes....but that maybe out of the paygrade for low level parties fighting such creatures.

 

[tetrasodium]

That coral fish is straight evil for anyone reliant on a water breathing spell to well... not. drown.

 

[Staffan]

I will say I'm not a huge fan of your treasure tables. Obviously, I can ignore them at substitute my own treasure, but it's a weird image, that every aboleth encounter will result in a periapt of health. (<Old Lady Voice> "In my day, aboleths had Treasure Type F, with its 10% chance of 3k-18k silver pieces and so forth, and we liked it like that!" </OLV>)

The way I see it, most campaigns will feature a variety of monsters (because it's more fun to fight a variety of things). It will likely be rare for most campaigns to feature more than one fight against each monster important enough to have their own treasure. If you're doing a campaign where you'll be fighting numerous aboleths, feel free to give them different treasure, but most campaigns will have That One Aboleth fight, and for that it's nice to have treasure pre-figured.

 

[Morrus]

So I, of course, have questions, now that I've taken a second look and compared it to the o5e version...

You've changed Enslave from 3/day, DC 14, to practically at-will, because it's a Legendary, to DC 16. That's going to increase the size of the aboleth's retinue of thralls by a lot. This isn't a bad thing, mind, just a thing I noticed.

I do wish you had made Thrall into a template, although it isn't shouldn't be too hard to reverse-engineer it. I like templates.

The Sea Change disease can only be reversed by a disease-removing spell of 4th level or higher. Does this mean other effects--such as the adept's ability to remove disease, or a magic item of disease-B-gone--also don't work, because it's not a spell?

I can't tell if this is the entirety of the aboleth entry, but what you've shown us lacks the lair actions of 05e's aboleth. Are you doing away with the aboleth's lair actions, or is it on the next page?

(Speaking of which, considering each entry seems to have a lot more info in it, what with the Legends & Lore, Encounters, Signs, and Behaviors, do you have an estimated page count for your MM?)

I will say I'm not a huge fan of your treasure tables. Obviously, I can ignore them at substitute my own treasure, but it's a weird image, that every aboleth encounter will result in a periapt of health. (<Old Lady Voice> "In my day, aboleths had Treasure Type F, with its 10% chance of 3k-18k silver pieces and so forth, and we liked it like that!" </OLV>)

Re treasure. Those are monster specific examples for handy quick use, or there are big random tables. The ones you see in the monster entry are convenience lists. You can always roll your own.

 

[ZehirDisciple]

Are we going to get one preview for each letter of the alphabet?!