Shape change might work depending on weapons/formation of the army. But if the 2000 are within short range they have a decent chance of burning through all the Temp hit points in a single round which ends the spell. And given it takes an action to change forms and you need a action to attack your 300 hit points have to last closer to 2 rounds. But given your gear now can be worn instead of merging with you and only worn if it fits the creature your ancient dragon form might be in a cloak of displacement or something insane. God shape change is going to look silly.
As an aside they seem to have made shape change significantly better, which seems insane to me.
Shape change might work depending on weapons/formation of the army. But if the 2000 are within short range they have a decent chance of burning through all the Temp hit points in a single round which ends the spell. And given it takes an action to change forms and you need a action to attack your 300 hit points have to last closer to 2 rounds. But given your gear now can be worn instead of merging with you and only worn if it fits the creature your ancient dragon form might be in a cloak of displacement or something insane. God shape change is going to look silly.
As an aside they seem to have made shape change significantly better, which seems insane to me.
Ancient Dragons are still too high a CR to use. Adult Dragons are more applicable with plenty of hit points to use. A Dragon Turtle is CR 17 with AC 20 and 341hp with a breath weapon that wipes out army mobs as an example a form. I'm more impressed with Shapechange now than I was in the past.
Shapechange into something weapon immune is possible enough, but there's a shortage of non-concentration spells that can do much to an army, nor are the choices for forms ones that would be especially good at destroying armies.
Shapechange into something weapon immune is possible enough, but there's a shortage of non-concentration spells that can do much to an army, nor are the choices for forms ones that would be especially good at destroying armies.
60' cone breath weapons that don't cost spell slots aren't too shabby, IMO. You're right about concentration though. Using Shapechange snags a lot of thp but it also blocks out other concentration spells in the process.
Shape change might work depending on weapons/formation of the army. But if the 2000 are within short range they have a decent chance of burning through all the Temp hit points in a single round which ends the spell. And given it takes an action to change forms and you need a action to attack your 300 hit points have to last closer to 2 rounds. But given your gear now can be worn instead of merging with you and only worn if it fits the creature your ancient dragon form might be in a cloak of displacement or something insane. God shape change is going to look silly.
As an aside they seem to have made shape change significantly better, which seems insane to me.
Ancient Dragons are still too high a CR to use. Adult Dragons are more applicable with plenty of hit points to use. A Dragon Turtle is CR 17 with AC 20 and 341hp with a breath weapon that wipes out army mobs as an example a form. I'm more impressed with Shapechange now than I was in the past.
The problem is you'd be hit by like 400 arrows even with DR vs piercing that chews through all those hit points in one round. You need something weapon immune as Pantagruel666 said but, something that is weapon immune, in your CR of 17-20, good at fighting armies and that you have seen, might not be a list of even 1.
Shapechange into something weapon immune is possible enough, but there's a shortage of non-concentration spells that can do much to an army, nor are the choices for forms ones that would be especially good at destroying armies.
60' cone breath weapons that don't cost spell slots aren't too shabby, IMO. You're right about concentration though. Using Shapechange snags a lot of thp but it also blocks out other concentration spells in the process.
Except it's once every 3 rounds or so on average, with potential dry spells.
Shape change might work depending on weapons/formation of the army. But if the 2000 are within short range they have a decent chance of burning through all the Temp hit points in a single round which ends the spell. And given it takes an action to change forms and you need a action to attack your 300 hit points have to last closer to 2 rounds. But given your gear now can be worn instead of merging with you and only worn if it fits the creature your ancient dragon form might be in a cloak of displacement or something insane. God shape change is going to look silly.
As an aside they seem to have made shape change significantly better, which seems insane to me.
Ancient Dragons are still too high a CR to use. Adult Dragons are more applicable with plenty of hit points to use. A Dragon Turtle is CR 17 with AC 20 and 341hp with a breath weapon that wipes out army mobs as an example a form. I'm more impressed with Shapechange now than I was in the past.
The problem is you'd be hit by like 400 arrows even with DR vs piercing that chews through all those hit points in one round. You need something weapon immune as Pantagruel666 said but, something that is weapon immune, in your CR of 17-20, good at fighting armies and that you have seen, might not be a list of even 1.
There's a whole three blocks that fit the CR and immunity criteria- Androsphinx, Demilich, and Flesh Colossus. Demilich is a glass cannon without any major AoE; Flesh Colossus does have a 90 ft cone breath attack and 280 HP, so it could pretty well tank mundane weaponry and with 60 ft of movement disengaging would be about impossible; Androsphinx one 500 ft radius AoE, but it takes a bit of work up and it's a one shot of 8d10 damage. Flesh Colossus is the only one that really jumps out for potential to consistently bash armies, and it's one of those "lost art" constructs so it'd be a very permissive DM who lets you happen to have seen one previously.
Shapechange into something weapon immune is possible enough, but there's a shortage of non-concentration spells that can do much to an army, nor are the choices for forms ones that would be especially good at destroying armies.
60' cone breath weapons that don't cost spell slots aren't too shabby, IMO. You're right about concentration though. Using Shapechange snags a lot of thp but it also blocks out other concentration spells in the process.
Except it's once every 3 rounds or so on average, with potential dry spells.
They can shape-shift every other round to renew thp and select a different form with a breath weapon that hasn't been used yet. And still cast spells in those forms.
The bigger issue is the risk of losing concentration. It's a ton of thp and breath weapons can AoE but it stops on a failed Concentration save. I'm curious how long a Diviner Wizard with the Resilient CON and War Caster feats might keep it going.
Natural 1's always fail on an Attack Roll, but not a Saving Throw or Ability Check. As long as the forms used are high CON forms +6 proficiency bonus and 16 or higher CON gives that minimum 10 roll when the army mobs aren't don't 22+ damage on a hit.
Shape change might work depending on weapons/formation of the army. But if the 2000 are within short range they have a decent chance of burning through all the Temp hit points in a single round which ends the spell. And given it takes an action to change forms and you need a action to attack your 300 hit points have to last closer to 2 rounds. But given your gear now can be worn instead of merging with you and only worn if it fits the creature your ancient dragon form might be in a cloak of displacement or something insane. God shape change is going to look silly.
As an aside they seem to have made shape change significantly better, which seems insane to me.
Ancient Dragons are still too high a CR to use. Adult Dragons are more applicable with plenty of hit points to use. A Dragon Turtle is CR 17 with AC 20 and 341hp with a breath weapon that wipes out army mobs as an example a form. I'm more impressed with Shapechange now than I was in the past.
The problem is you'd be hit by like 400 arrows even with DR vs piercing that chews through all those hit points in one round. You need something weapon immune as Pantagruel666 said but, something that is weapon immune, in your CR of 17-20, good at fighting armies and that you have seen, might not be a list of even 1.
They're attacking with disadvantage outside of the 80' range and they cannot all fit withing that range and sight vs sound encounter distance. A random encounter doesn't start with the whole army surrounding the character at 5' away. 1 Shield spell works against all the attacks and coming from the Dragon Turtle example (AC 20) after applying Shield all attacks require a 20 to hit while any outside of that range require 2 20's to hit and anyone outside of max range cannot attack at all.
The caster might take ~125 damage being generous here, assuming he doesn't go first and Fireball the closest large group or something.
Shape change might work depending on weapons/formation of the army. But if the 2000 are within short range they have a decent chance of burning through all the Temp hit points in a single round which ends the spell. And given it takes an action to change forms and you need a action to attack your 300 hit points have to last closer to 2 rounds. But given your gear now can be worn instead of merging with you and only worn if it fits the creature your ancient dragon form might be in a cloak of displacement or something insane. God shape change is going to look silly.
As an aside they seem to have made shape change significantly better, which seems insane to me.
Ancient Dragons are still too high a CR to use. Adult Dragons are more applicable with plenty of hit points to use. A Dragon Turtle is CR 17 with AC 20 and 341hp with a breath weapon that wipes out army mobs as an example a form. I'm more impressed with Shapechange now than I was in the past.
The problem is you'd be hit by like 400 arrows even with DR vs piercing that chews through all those hit points in one round. You need something weapon immune as Pantagruel666 said but, something that is weapon immune, in your CR of 17-20, good at fighting armies and that you have seen, might not be a list of even 1.
There's a whole three blocks that fit the CR and immunity criteria- Androsphinx, Demilich, and Flesh Colossus. Demilich is a glass cannon without any major AoE; Flesh Colossus does have a 90 ft cone breath attack and 280 HP, so it could pretty well tank mundane weaponry and with 60 ft of movement disengaging would be about impossible; Androsphinx one 500 ft radius AoE, but it takes a bit of work up and it's a one shot of 8d10 damage. Flesh Colossus is the only one that really jumps out for potential to consistently bash armies, and it's one of those "lost art" constructs so it'd be a very permissive DM who lets you happen to have seen one previously.
Undead and Constructs are restricted from Shapechange.
Androsphinx is actually a solid choice -- turn 1 shapechange and fly 60' toward center of army, turn 2 roar and cast expeditious retreat, turn 3 roar, turn 4 roar.
Shape change might work depending on weapons/formation of the army. But if the 2000 are within short range they have a decent chance of burning through all the Temp hit points in a single round which ends the spell. And given it takes an action to change forms and you need a action to attack your 300 hit points have to last closer to 2 rounds. But given your gear now can be worn instead of merging with you and only worn if it fits the creature your ancient dragon form might be in a cloak of displacement or something insane. God shape change is going to look silly.
As an aside they seem to have made shape change significantly better, which seems insane to me.
Ancient Dragons are still too high a CR to use. Adult Dragons are more applicable with plenty of hit points to use. A Dragon Turtle is CR 17 with AC 20 and 341hp with a breath weapon that wipes out army mobs as an example a form. I'm more impressed with Shapechange now than I was in the past.
The problem is you'd be hit by like 400 arrows even with DR vs piercing that chews through all those hit points in one round. You need something weapon immune as Pantagruel666 said but, something that is weapon immune, in your CR of 17-20, good at fighting armies and that you have seen, might not be a list of even 1.
They're attacking with disadvantage outside of the 80' range and they cannot all fit withing that range and sight vs sound encounter distance. A random encounter doesn't start with the whole army surrounding the character at 5' away. 1 Shield spell works against all the attacks and coming from the Dragon Turtle example (AC 20) after applying Shield all attacks require a 20 to hit while any outside of that range require 2 20's to hit and anyone outside of max range cannot attack at all.
The caster might take ~125 damage being generous here, assuming he doesn't go first and Fireball the closest large group or something.
Shape change might work depending on weapons/formation of the army. But if the 2000 are within short range they have a decent chance of burning through all the Temp hit points in a single round which ends the spell. And given it takes an action to change forms and you need a action to attack your 300 hit points have to last closer to 2 rounds. But given your gear now can be worn instead of merging with you and only worn if it fits the creature your ancient dragon form might be in a cloak of displacement or something insane. God shape change is going to look silly.
As an aside they seem to have made shape change significantly better, which seems insane to me.
Ancient Dragons are still too high a CR to use. Adult Dragons are more applicable with plenty of hit points to use. A Dragon Turtle is CR 17 with AC 20 and 341hp with a breath weapon that wipes out army mobs as an example a form. I'm more impressed with Shapechange now than I was in the past.
The problem is you'd be hit by like 400 arrows even with DR vs piercing that chews through all those hit points in one round. You need something weapon immune as Pantagruel666 said but, something that is weapon immune, in your CR of 17-20, good at fighting armies and that you have seen, might not be a list of even 1.
There's a whole three blocks that fit the CR and immunity criteria- Androsphinx, Demilich, and Flesh Colossus. Demilich is a glass cannon without any major AoE; Flesh Colossus does have a 90 ft cone breath attack and 280 HP, so it could pretty well tank mundane weaponry and with 60 ft of movement disengaging would be about impossible; Androsphinx one 500 ft radius AoE, but it takes a bit of work up and it's a one shot of 8d10 damage. Flesh Colossus is the only one that really jumps out for potential to consistently bash armies, and it's one of those "lost art" constructs so it'd be a very permissive DM who lets you happen to have seen one previously.
Undead and Constructs are restricted from Shapechange.
So yeah, currently there's nothing in the official books in that CR range with immunity that's viable.
Androsphinx is actually a solid choice -- turn 1 shapechange, turn 2 roar, turn 3 roar, turn 4 dimension door to the center of the army, turn 4 roar.
That's a combo. Reliant on this being a bunch of very low CR units, though- the average damage on the roar on a failed save is 44, a CR 3 Veteran has 58 HP. Definitely softens enemies up by a lot, but as a once-per-day effect the per unit damage is a bit on the low end for the full spectrum of what "army" might represent. There's scenarios where this is a personal nuke or it sets up a wipe once the rest of that side swoops in, but given the DC is one that can be hit by straight rolls, there's also scenarios where the other side knows they've been kissed but aren't wiped and the sphinx doesn't have anything else that's good for consistently hitting large areas. It's coming out ahead in the accounting and the army can't give much of a reply without a lot of magic, but it seems flaky for achieving the TTRPG ideal of a defeat in detail.
Shape change might work depending on weapons/formation of the army. But if the 2000 are within short range they have a decent chance of burning through all the Temp hit points in a single round which ends the spell. And given it takes an action to change forms and you need a action to attack your 300 hit points have to last closer to 2 rounds. But given your gear now can be worn instead of merging with you and only worn if it fits the creature your ancient dragon form might be in a cloak of displacement or something insane. God shape change is going to look silly.
As an aside they seem to have made shape change significantly better, which seems insane to me.
Ancient Dragons are still too high a CR to use. Adult Dragons are more applicable with plenty of hit points to use. A Dragon Turtle is CR 17 with AC 20 and 341hp with a breath weapon that wipes out army mobs as an example a form. I'm more impressed with Shapechange now than I was in the past.
The problem is you'd be hit by like 400 arrows even with DR vs piercing that chews through all those hit points in one round. You need something weapon immune as Pantagruel666 said but, something that is weapon immune, in your CR of 17-20, good at fighting armies and that you have seen, might not be a list of even 1.
They're attacking with disadvantage outside of the 80' range and they cannot all fit withing that range and sight vs sound encounter distance. A random encounter doesn't start with the whole army surrounding the character at 5' away. 1 Shield spell works against all the attacks and coming from the Dragon Turtle example (AC 20) after applying Shield all attacks require a 20 to hit while any outside of that range require 2 20's to hit and anyone outside of max range cannot attack at all.
The caster might take ~125 damage being generous here, assuming he doesn't go first and Fireball the closest large group or something.
Shape change might work depending on weapons/formation of the army. But if the 2000 are within short range they have a decent chance of burning through all the Temp hit points in a single round which ends the spell. And given it takes an action to change forms and you need a action to attack your 300 hit points have to last closer to 2 rounds. But given your gear now can be worn instead of merging with you and only worn if it fits the creature your ancient dragon form might be in a cloak of displacement or something insane. God shape change is going to look silly.
As an aside they seem to have made shape change significantly better, which seems insane to me.
Ancient Dragons are still too high a CR to use. Adult Dragons are more applicable with plenty of hit points to use. A Dragon Turtle is CR 17 with AC 20 and 341hp with a breath weapon that wipes out army mobs as an example a form. I'm more impressed with Shapechange now than I was in the past.
The problem is you'd be hit by like 400 arrows even with DR vs piercing that chews through all those hit points in one round. You need something weapon immune as Pantagruel666 said but, something that is weapon immune, in your CR of 17-20, good at fighting armies and that you have seen, might not be a list of even 1.
There's a whole three blocks that fit the CR and immunity criteria- Androsphinx, Demilich, and Flesh Colossus. Demilich is a glass cannon without any major AoE; Flesh Colossus does have a 90 ft cone breath attack and 280 HP, so it could pretty well tank mundane weaponry and with 60 ft of movement disengaging would be about impossible; Androsphinx one 500 ft radius AoE, but it takes a bit of work up and it's a one shot of 8d10 damage. Flesh Colossus is the only one that really jumps out for potential to consistently bash armies, and it's one of those "lost art" constructs so it'd be a very permissive DM who lets you happen to have seen one previously.
Undead and Constructs are restricted from Shapechange.
So yeah, currently there's nothing in the official books in that CR range with immunity that's viable.
The begs the question of whether immunity is required, and that's a premise I did not agree with. Androsphinx is in the official books in that CR range, however, and has a 500' radius on it's roar attacks.
My premise that I countered was AC, the actual concentration save mechanics, and the limitation on area from the attackers and range in a typical encounter. I don't think you're giving other options much credit, however. An Invisible Stalker has a fly speed and natural invisibility after taking a high hp thp form. Any number of creatures with a burrow speed can take ground cover, such as a Bulette.
Shape change might work depending on weapons/formation of the army. But if the 2000 are within short range they have a decent chance of burning through all the Temp hit points in a single round which ends the spell. And given it takes an action to change forms and you need a action to attack your 300 hit points have to last closer to 2 rounds. But given your gear now can be worn instead of merging with you and only worn if it fits the creature your ancient dragon form might be in a cloak of displacement or something insane. God shape change is going to look silly.
As an aside they seem to have made shape change significantly better, which seems insane to me.
Ancient Dragons are still too high a CR to use. Adult Dragons are more applicable with plenty of hit points to use. A Dragon Turtle is CR 17 with AC 20 and 341hp with a breath weapon that wipes out army mobs as an example a form. I'm more impressed with Shapechange now than I was in the past.
The problem is you'd be hit by like 400 arrows even with DR vs piercing that chews through all those hit points in one round. You need something weapon immune as Pantagruel666 said but, something that is weapon immune, in your CR of 17-20, good at fighting armies and that you have seen, might not be a list of even 1.
They're attacking with disadvantage outside of the 80' range and they cannot all fit withing that range and sight vs sound encounter distance. A random encounter doesn't start with the whole army surrounding the character at 5' away. 1 Shield spell works against all the attacks and coming from the Dragon Turtle example (AC 20) after applying Shield all attacks require a 20 to hit while any outside of that range require 2 20's to hit and anyone outside of max range cannot attack at all.
The caster might take ~125 damage being generous here, assuming he doesn't go first and Fireball the closest large group or something.
Shape change might work depending on weapons/formation of the army. But if the 2000 are within short range they have a decent chance of burning through all the Temp hit points in a single round which ends the spell. And given it takes an action to change forms and you need a action to attack your 300 hit points have to last closer to 2 rounds. But given your gear now can be worn instead of merging with you and only worn if it fits the creature your ancient dragon form might be in a cloak of displacement or something insane. God shape change is going to look silly.
As an aside they seem to have made shape change significantly better, which seems insane to me.
Ancient Dragons are still too high a CR to use. Adult Dragons are more applicable with plenty of hit points to use. A Dragon Turtle is CR 17 with AC 20 and 341hp with a breath weapon that wipes out army mobs as an example a form. I'm more impressed with Shapechange now than I was in the past.
The problem is you'd be hit by like 400 arrows even with DR vs piercing that chews through all those hit points in one round. You need something weapon immune as Pantagruel666 said but, something that is weapon immune, in your CR of 17-20, good at fighting armies and that you have seen, might not be a list of even 1.
There's a whole three blocks that fit the CR and immunity criteria- Androsphinx, Demilich, and Flesh Colossus. Demilich is a glass cannon without any major AoE; Flesh Colossus does have a 90 ft cone breath attack and 280 HP, so it could pretty well tank mundane weaponry and with 60 ft of movement disengaging would be about impossible; Androsphinx one 500 ft radius AoE, but it takes a bit of work up and it's a one shot of 8d10 damage. Flesh Colossus is the only one that really jumps out for potential to consistently bash armies, and it's one of those "lost art" constructs so it'd be a very permissive DM who lets you happen to have seen one previously.
Undead and Constructs are restricted from Shapechange.
So yeah, currently there's nothing in the official books in that CR range with immunity that's viable.
The begs the question of whether immunity is required, and that's a premise I did not agree with. Androsphinx is in the official books in that CR range, however, and has a 500' radius on it's roar attacks.
My premise that I countered was AC, the actual concentration save mechanics, and the limitation on area from the attackers and range in a typical encounter. I don't think you're giving other options much credit, however. An Invisible Stalker has a fly speed and natural invisibility after taking a high hp thp form. Any number of creatures with a burrow speed can take ground cover, such as a Bulette.
I was addressing the particular set of parameters previously outlined, not every possible combination.
4th Warlock/10th Sorcerer. Eldritch Blast, Eldritch Spear, Distant Spell, Spell Sniper feat. You would be out of range of any return fire. Broom of Flying would be the easiest, cheapest way to fly indefinitely.
That's a combo. Reliant on this being a bunch of very low CR units, though- the average damage on the roar on a failed save is 44, a CR 3 Veteran has 58 HP. Definitely softens enemies up by a lot, but as a once-per-day effect the per unit damage is a bit on the low end for the full spectrum of what "army" might represent.
The original scenario involved large numbers of mooks, which will probably die even on a successful save.
4th Warlock/10th Sorcerer. Eldritch Blast, Eldritch Spear, Distant Spell, Spell Sniper feat. You would be out of range of any return fire. Broom of Flying would be the easiest, cheapest way to fly indefinitely.
Only works if the army is stupid. It requires an unbroken line of sight of however far that combo let's you fire your Eldritch Blast, and there's a billion ways to avoid that. So .. only if the army stands around in the open waiting to be blasted to nothing, does that actually work - but if so, then it does, sure.
It can only target creatures. If the troops take sailcloth, stick it on poles, and hide beneath - they're safe.
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Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
4th Warlock/10th Sorcerer. Eldritch Blast, Eldritch Spear, Distant Spell, Spell Sniper feat. You would be out of range of any return fire. Broom of Flying would be the easiest, cheapest way to fly indefinitely.
You will run out of sorcery points for distant spell long before you have made a dent in the army, after which you have the same 600' range as someone using a longbow. Of course, if the army doesn't have longbows there are lots of sharpshooter builds that can kite forever.
Druid mid 20's ac _ Shield spell for 30 - Spellsniper - cartomancer - hidden ace - tsunami - then o look another tsunami for good measure.
Well - that has a casting time of 1 minute, something the caster isn't going to ever finish. Also, depending on deployment, 300 feet sounds like an absolutely awesome area, but really it only takes care of 30 mooks if they're conveniently spaced. And since you get to assume AC, Spellsniper, Shield Spell, and Hidden Ace - I get to assume my mooks are conveniently spaced for this. It's fine to select a build. But it's also fine for the troops to employ intelligent tactics.
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Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
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Shape change might work depending on weapons/formation of the army. But if the 2000 are within short range they have a decent chance of burning through all the Temp hit points in a single round which ends the spell. And given it takes an action to change forms and you need a action to attack your 300 hit points have to last closer to 2 rounds. But given your gear now can be worn instead of merging with you and only worn if it fits the creature your ancient dragon form might be in a cloak of displacement or something insane. God shape change is going to look silly.
As an aside they seem to have made shape change significantly better, which seems insane to me.
Ancient Dragons are still too high a CR to use. Adult Dragons are more applicable with plenty of hit points to use. A Dragon Turtle is CR 17 with AC 20 and 341hp with a breath weapon that wipes out army mobs as an example a form. I'm more impressed with Shapechange now than I was in the past.
Shapechange into something weapon immune is possible enough, but there's a shortage of non-concentration spells that can do much to an army, nor are the choices for forms ones that would be especially good at destroying armies.
60' cone breath weapons that don't cost spell slots aren't too shabby, IMO. You're right about concentration though. Using Shapechange snags a lot of thp but it also blocks out other concentration spells in the process.
The problem is you'd be hit by like 400 arrows even with DR vs piercing that chews through all those hit points in one round. You need something weapon immune as Pantagruel666 said but, something that is weapon immune, in your CR of 17-20, good at fighting armies and that you have seen, might not be a list of even 1.
Except it's once every 3 rounds or so on average, with potential dry spells.
There's a whole three blocks that fit the CR and immunity criteria- Androsphinx, Demilich, and Flesh Colossus. Demilich is a glass cannon without any major AoE; Flesh Colossus does have a 90 ft cone breath attack and 280 HP, so it could pretty well tank mundane weaponry and with 60 ft of movement disengaging would be about impossible; Androsphinx one 500 ft radius AoE, but it takes a bit of work up and it's a one shot of 8d10 damage. Flesh Colossus is the only one that really jumps out for potential to consistently bash armies, and it's one of those "lost art" constructs so it'd be a very permissive DM who lets you happen to have seen one previously.
They can shape-shift every other round to renew thp and select a different form with a breath weapon that hasn't been used yet. And still cast spells in those forms.
The bigger issue is the risk of losing concentration. It's a ton of thp and breath weapons can AoE but it stops on a failed Concentration save. I'm curious how long a Diviner Wizard with the Resilient CON and War Caster feats might keep it going.
Natural 1's always fail on an Attack Roll, but not a Saving Throw or Ability Check. As long as the forms used are high CON forms +6 proficiency bonus and 16 or higher CON gives that minimum 10 roll when the army mobs aren't don't 22+ damage on a hit.
They're attacking with disadvantage outside of the 80' range and they cannot all fit withing that range and sight vs sound encounter distance. A random encounter doesn't start with the whole army surrounding the character at 5' away. 1 Shield spell works against all the attacks and coming from the Dragon Turtle example (AC 20) after applying Shield all attacks require a 20 to hit while any outside of that range require 2 20's to hit and anyone outside of max range cannot attack at all.
The caster might take ~125 damage being generous here, assuming he doesn't go first and Fireball the closest large group or something.
Undead and Constructs are restricted from Shapechange.
Androsphinx is actually a solid choice -- turn 1 shapechange and fly 60' toward center of army, turn 2 roar and cast expeditious retreat, turn 3 roar, turn 4 roar.
So yeah, currently there's nothing in the official books in that CR range with immunity that's viable.
That's a combo. Reliant on this being a bunch of very low CR units, though- the average damage on the roar on a failed save is 44, a CR 3 Veteran has 58 HP. Definitely softens enemies up by a lot, but as a once-per-day effect the per unit damage is a bit on the low end for the full spectrum of what "army" might represent. There's scenarios where this is a personal nuke or it sets up a wipe once the rest of that side swoops in, but given the DC is one that can be hit by straight rolls, there's also scenarios where the other side knows they've been kissed but aren't wiped and the sphinx doesn't have anything else that's good for consistently hitting large areas. It's coming out ahead in the accounting and the army can't give much of a reply without a lot of magic, but it seems flaky for achieving the TTRPG ideal of a defeat in detail.
The begs the question of whether immunity is required, and that's a premise I did not agree with. Androsphinx is in the official books in that CR range, however, and has a 500' radius on it's roar attacks.
My premise that I countered was AC, the actual concentration save mechanics, and the limitation on area from the attackers and range in a typical encounter. I don't think you're giving other options much credit, however. An Invisible Stalker has a fly speed and natural invisibility after taking a high hp thp form. Any number of creatures with a burrow speed can take ground cover, such as a Bulette.
I was addressing the particular set of parameters previously outlined, not every possible combination.
4th Warlock/10th Sorcerer. Eldritch Blast, Eldritch Spear, Distant Spell, Spell Sniper feat. You would be out of range of any return fire. Broom of Flying would be the easiest, cheapest way to fly indefinitely.
The original scenario involved large numbers of mooks, which will probably die even on a successful save.
Only works if the army is stupid. It requires an unbroken line of sight of however far that combo let's you fire your Eldritch Blast, and there's a billion ways to avoid that. So .. only if the army stands around in the open waiting to be blasted to nothing, does that actually work - but if so, then it does, sure.
It can only target creatures. If the troops take sailcloth, stick it on poles, and hide beneath - they're safe.
Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
You will run out of sorcery points for distant spell long before you have made a dent in the army, after which you have the same 600' range as someone using a longbow. Of course, if the army doesn't have longbows there are lots of sharpshooter builds that can kite forever.
Druid mid 20's ac _ Shield spell for 30 - Spellsniper - cartomancer - hidden ace - tsunami - then o look another tsunami for good measure.
Well - that has a casting time of 1 minute, something the caster isn't going to ever finish. Also, depending on deployment, 300 feet sounds like an absolutely awesome area, but really it only takes care of 30 mooks if they're conveniently spaced. And since you get to assume AC, Spellsniper, Shield Spell, and Hidden Ace - I get to assume my mooks are conveniently spaced for this. It's fine to select a build. But it's also fine for the troops to employ intelligent tactics.
Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.