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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Quickleaf" data-source="post: 7028192" data-attributes="member: 20323">Step 5: Making Monsters (part 2 – Monster Variants)Before I get into full-blown monster design/conversion, I wanted to point out something that can be easy for us DMs to forget. There are lots of ways to re-skin a monster or tweak it slightly to give it an entirely different feel. Not only does this save on work / page count, but it makes it easier on you as DM because you're working with a known quantity as the baseline. "It's a goblin, but it throws fire bombs" makes it easy for a DM who already knows how a goblin runs (and I mean runs quite literally <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> ).First, an example of re-skinning. Take Mummies. They're spooky, not terribly bright, malevolent, and usually have semi-tragic backstories. PCs quickly learn that they're best dealt with by either (a) not waking them from their sarcophagi, or (b) with lots of fire from a distance to avoid their rotting touch. Instead, I wanted to play up the role of mummies as archivists, so I have some of the original mystics (before they were corrupted into the Brotherhood of True Flame) as Lawful Neutral mummies watching over one area of the dungeon. The Bonfire (BBEG) occasionally has one summoned up to try to glean ancient secrets from its riddling raspy mouth. These aren't mummies you fight, not really - they're mummies that tell a story and you can interact with, and maybe even make some kind of tentative truce with. That's a big change in feel that was accomplished without changing any stats (except alignment).OK, now for a meatier example. Elder Flameskulls.<img src="http://img03.deviantart.net/f4cd/i/2016/122/1/4/flameskull_by_almega_3-da143r2.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />I want to make the scope & stakes of this dungeon big, appropriate for 15th-16th level PCs. And one way I want to do that is by dropping the names of famous D&D pyromancers and insinuating that they may have had connections with the Brotherhood. This includes Aganazzar, Abi-Dalzim, and Daltim (who conveniently have names that fit the pseudo-Arabian vibe I'm going for). As I was brainstorming, I realized that they would be perfect as some kind of "burning undead" monsters guarding various key areas/zones of the citadel. While I'm converting blazing skeletons and creating cinderhaunts, neither of those quite were what I was looking for. And then it hit me: Flameskulls can be really hard to truly kill due to their Rejuvenation. Of course holy water/remove curse/dispel magic are simple for high-level PCs, so I'll need to make it more challenging to counter their Rejuvenation...maybe with unique conditions.I also want to distinguish the character and signature spells of these three D&D wizards (i.e. The obsessively focused Aganazzar with aganazzar's scorcher, the wicked and envious Abi-Dalzim with abi-dalzim's horrid wilting, and the mad conjurer Daltim with daltim's fiery tentacles).So what does this look like?I re-worked the monster math, but didn't save it and don't feel like rewriting, so you'll just have to trust me.<img src="http://i.imgur.com/OG5QuRe.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />OK, that was a cool example, but I knew going into it that I was going to base the monster on the Flameskull. What if it's not so clear? Well I started off thinking I would convert the Copper Automaton as a new monster; it is described over on the <a href="http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Copper_automaton" target="_blank">Forgotten Realms Wikiw</a> and is called out in a few places as a servant construct of the Brotherhood of True Flame. <img src="http://i.imgur.com/CHyOC9N.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />However, when I began reading its old AD&D stats, I realized that its only real unique trait was that its weapon grew hotter and hotter as it fought. And that's it – the entire mechanical premise of the monster, besides being a construct, was that one trait. There's mention of it being healed by having mechanical work done on it, but in 5e that's kind of built into the mending cantrip (which seems to entirely heal constructs after 10 minutes). So I wondered if I could instead just add a trait to an existing construct. And that's when it hit me. Helmed Horrors are virtually identical to Copper Automatons; heck, in AD&D they have comparable Hit Dice, AC, and attacks/damage.Thinking more on it, I decided to appropriate the Iron Golem's Fire Absorption trait and use it here; since the Copper Automaton is associated with the Brotherhood of True Flame, it makes sense that it would be designed to be healed by fire. And that led me to this...<img src="http://i.imgur.com/HOrp0rU.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />That's just a few examples of how you can leverage existing monsters and re-skin or slightly tweak them to create a monster with an entirely different feel in the narrative of your adventure/dungeon.</blockquote>

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