Zardnaar
Legend
So rereading a few things from 5E and 5.5 there's a few abilities that can really mess up PCs.
Those are.
Unstoppable . NPCs take 0 damage.
Greater Magic Resistance. Spell attacks auto fail, saving throws automatically succeed.
Multiple reactions.
These abilities are on few creatures though. Unstoppable is on 2 creatures in Descent into Avernus and they're bhaalists. Rakshasa greater magic resistance is unique.
A typical 5E boss usually has a buckets of hp. AC usually not high enough along with danage. To many can be wrecked with a failed wisdom save even with 3-5 legendary saves. High CR ones can have lots of immunities.
Unstoppable works differently in BG3 vs tabletop. BG3 its a number eg 3. The best 3 attacks deal 0 damage (or very little bugged?). Table top it uses your reaction. This lets squishies tank damage in both games.
Orin the Red carries it to extremes. In BG3 she has Unstoppable 12. Two level 11 fighters using action surge inflict 0 damage. On honor mode Bhaal refreshes them each round.
Tabletop use reactions. Unstoppable 3 may as well be unstoppable 1 due to focus fire. Unstoppable 2 and 3 are as far as it goes.Players tend to use hold person spells on bhaalist due to weak wisdom saves and no reactions. BG3 it works regardless its just ignore the first Unstoppable 123 damage effects.
Online people still think soellcasters are OP. Spell casters are fairly poor at killing stuff though. The most meta way to defeat things in 5.5 imho is control + strikers. Even without being a powergamer go and read some level 10 and 11 fighter and paladin abilities. Honorable mention to Monks and Barbarians. Barbarians tend to top out comparatively earlier on however along with Rangers. Spoiler alert if you want to dominate 5.5 take a sorcerer packing tashas mindwhip and twin spell. Just saying. Twinned hold monster is also really nasty espicially with a Paladin. Twins just stupidly good (read cheap) in 5.5.
I've mentioned my better monster design concept before. How about a 5.5 "Orin the Red".
She's a Marilith. Has multiple reactions. She has greater magic resistance. She doesn't need to be worried about hold monster,/command/Tasha's Laughter/mindwhip etc. Unstoppable 12 let's her ignore criticals and nova abilities such as action surge to some extent. Things like legendary saves have always felt like a band aid solutions to me. She can gave that as well for things like Stunning strikes. She doesn't need buckets of hit points but even 5.5 ones are struggling with PC nova broadsides.
So the mechanics actually exist in 5E to build tougher monsters. How would you feel though if a DM used them more frequently or started combining them on DM specials.
Consider some worst case scenarios.
1. You encounter an "Orin". Your paladin blows a high level spell slot. You roll a crit. Orin uses a reaction 0 damage.
2. You're a spellcaster. All your control spells fail. Chromatic orb, sunbeams and disintegrate all miss. Magic missile can work (DM doesn't bother using Unstoppable on it). But you didnt take it because its a bad spell in normal 5E and you've been metagaming for 10 years.
3. Your fighter with a great weapon action surges. 6 attacks Orin soaks them all or maybe the last 1or 2 inflict damage. You don't know it but you've depleted a lot of her Unstoppable 12. She will likely run out round 2 at the latest.
4. Orin might have 5 or 6 reactions but there's 4 or 6 players maybe more. Most probably have nova buttons. Some may have 5-7 attacks available or per round (dual wielding, monks).
The meta to defeat "Orin" is overload her reactions or deplete Unstoppable 12 then nova hacking her to bits. However when do these abilities cross the line between unfair or no fun. Modern design paradigms need modern design solutions vs fun. I've got DM specials using unstoppable and murder aura PCs fear those abilities.
Your thoughts?
Those are.
Unstoppable . NPCs take 0 damage.
Greater Magic Resistance. Spell attacks auto fail, saving throws automatically succeed.
Multiple reactions.
These abilities are on few creatures though. Unstoppable is on 2 creatures in Descent into Avernus and they're bhaalists. Rakshasa greater magic resistance is unique.
A typical 5E boss usually has a buckets of hp. AC usually not high enough along with danage. To many can be wrecked with a failed wisdom save even with 3-5 legendary saves. High CR ones can have lots of immunities.
Unstoppable works differently in BG3 vs tabletop. BG3 its a number eg 3. The best 3 attacks deal 0 damage (or very little bugged?). Table top it uses your reaction. This lets squishies tank damage in both games.
Orin the Red carries it to extremes. In BG3 she has Unstoppable 12. Two level 11 fighters using action surge inflict 0 damage. On honor mode Bhaal refreshes them each round.
Tabletop use reactions. Unstoppable 3 may as well be unstoppable 1 due to focus fire. Unstoppable 2 and 3 are as far as it goes.Players tend to use hold person spells on bhaalist due to weak wisdom saves and no reactions. BG3 it works regardless its just ignore the first Unstoppable 123 damage effects.
Online people still think soellcasters are OP. Spell casters are fairly poor at killing stuff though. The most meta way to defeat things in 5.5 imho is control + strikers. Even without being a powergamer go and read some level 10 and 11 fighter and paladin abilities. Honorable mention to Monks and Barbarians. Barbarians tend to top out comparatively earlier on however along with Rangers. Spoiler alert if you want to dominate 5.5 take a sorcerer packing tashas mindwhip and twin spell. Just saying. Twinned hold monster is also really nasty espicially with a Paladin. Twins just stupidly good (read cheap) in 5.5.
I've mentioned my better monster design concept before. How about a 5.5 "Orin the Red".
She's a Marilith. Has multiple reactions. She has greater magic resistance. She doesn't need to be worried about hold monster,/command/Tasha's Laughter/mindwhip etc. Unstoppable 12 let's her ignore criticals and nova abilities such as action surge to some extent. Things like legendary saves have always felt like a band aid solutions to me. She can gave that as well for things like Stunning strikes. She doesn't need buckets of hit points but even 5.5 ones are struggling with PC nova broadsides.
So the mechanics actually exist in 5E to build tougher monsters. How would you feel though if a DM used them more frequently or started combining them on DM specials.
Consider some worst case scenarios.
1. You encounter an "Orin". Your paladin blows a high level spell slot. You roll a crit. Orin uses a reaction 0 damage.
2. You're a spellcaster. All your control spells fail. Chromatic orb, sunbeams and disintegrate all miss. Magic missile can work (DM doesn't bother using Unstoppable on it). But you didnt take it because its a bad spell in normal 5E and you've been metagaming for 10 years.
3. Your fighter with a great weapon action surges. 6 attacks Orin soaks them all or maybe the last 1or 2 inflict damage. You don't know it but you've depleted a lot of her Unstoppable 12. She will likely run out round 2 at the latest.
4. Orin might have 5 or 6 reactions but there's 4 or 6 players maybe more. Most probably have nova buttons. Some may have 5-7 attacks available or per round (dual wielding, monks).
The meta to defeat "Orin" is overload her reactions or deplete Unstoppable 12 then nova hacking her to bits. However when do these abilities cross the line between unfair or no fun. Modern design paradigms need modern design solutions vs fun. I've got DM specials using unstoppable and murder aura PCs fear those abilities.
Your thoughts?
Last edited:
