I'm looking for a creature that can transform into humanoids and is drawn to deception for a campaign. The most fitting I can think of is a doppelganger, however I wondered if there was a better (maybe also more powerful) monster. It could be anything from a neutral to evil alignment as its supposed to be a minor villain for a campaign arc.
Anyone knows of anything? I'm not averse to using homebrew either, but if there's anything already like it in dnd, that would be grand!
Depends on the CR you want but Changlings, Dopplegangers, Hags/Hag Covens, Oni and various fiends would all be good choices, a slightly less obvious one might be Jackalwere (page 193 of the monster manual), they are only CR 1/2 so you could have a pack of them with a were-Jackal (reskinned were wolf) or Warlock (with Grazzt as a Patron) as pack leader, have lots of shapeshifting shennanigans with some low level magic sleep effects thrown in.
If you want to upt he CR a little then you could have a Lamia as the pack leader, jackalwere's were originally created by Grazzt (according the toe monster manual) to be the servants of Lamia, they are CR4 so a little bit harder than you might be looking for.
If you want something slightly more powerful a succubus / incubus would work. You could scale up their abilities to make them a minor villain.
It depends on how minor you want this villain to be but I think a Rakshasa is an excellent choice! They’re really suited to illusions and enchantments. They also have limited magic immunity so if the party does see through the deceptions it’s hard to make spells stick, which makes it easier for the Rakshaha get away and for you to have a recurring threat if you want.
A Rakshasa might actually work! I'd been playing the character as a doppelganger so far so the 'detect thoughts' has a nice overlap. Although I am worried about the 'not affected by spells less than lvl6' as they're all just level 5 at the moment, but then again they're a party of 6.
A Rakshasa might actually work! I'd been playing the character as a doppelganger so far so the 'detect thoughts' has a nice overlap. Although I am worried about the 'not affected by spells less than lvl6' as they're all just level 5 at the moment, but then again they're a party of 6.
A Rakshasa could probably wreck a level 5 party, if they don’t all have magic weapons yet, but 6 pcs can definitely deal with higher CR threats than their level because of the action economy.
I think the magic immunity is good in the sense that it’s “can’t be affected by spells...unless it wishes to be” so if they somehow managed to detect it earlier than you wanted, then it can either easily get away or it can choose to be affected by some of their spells to lull them into a false sense of security. Then it can come back and wreck them if you want.
It all depends on what you want to get out of this creature. Is it a filler villain till the next part of the campaign? Is it potentially an ally or resource for the party against the BBEG?
You might also consider Lamias, which have Curse-inducing dagger attacks by RAW, as well as Efreeti, who have the Enlarge/Reduce spell. An Efreeti with skills in Deception and access to a Disguise Kit could Reduce to shrink to Medium size and disguise themselves to blend in with adventurer-sized humanoids. Also, don't forget about Vampires, the classic undead manipulator inspired by E. European human folktales.
A Rakshasa might actually work! I'd been playing the character as a doppelganger so far so the 'detect thoughts' has a nice overlap. Although I am worried about the 'not affected by spells less than lvl6' as they're all just level 5 at the moment, but then again they're a party of 6.
A Rakshasa could probably wreck a level 5 party, if they don’t all have magic weapons yet, but 6 pcs can definitely deal with higher CR threats than their level because of the action economy.
I think the magic immunity is good in the sense that it’s “can’t be affected by spells...unless it wishes to be” so if they somehow managed to detect it earlier than you wanted, then it can either easily get away or it can choose to be affected by some of their spells to lull them into a false sense of security. Then it can come back and wreck them if you want.
It all depends on what you want to get out of this creature. Is it a filler villain till the next part of the campaign? Is it potentially an ally or resource for the party against the BBEG?
I originally thought it would be a throwaway character, made as a wakeup call about honesty and trust. They're in the middle of a jungle and a changeling player still didn't come clean about their nature, so I made one of the changeling's personas turn up. It did not go as I expected. They're just playing along with the villain now instead of warning the party, so I want to show that actions have consequences. Through combat or through it just achieving its goal, but not a TPK.
You might also consider Lamias, which have Curse-inducing dagger attacks by RAW, as well as Efreeti, who have the Enlarge/Reduce spell. An Efreeti with skills in Deception and access to a Disguise Kit could Reduce to shrink to Medium size and disguise themselves to blend in with adventurer-sized humanoids. Also, don't forget about Vampires, the classic undead manipulator inspired by E. European human folktales.
A Lamia might work too! Although I might have to alter the creature a bit then. Both for its spells and its CR.
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Hi!
I'm looking for a creature that can transform into humanoids and is drawn to deception for a campaign. The most fitting I can think of is a doppelganger, however I wondered if there was a better (maybe also more powerful) monster. It could be anything from a neutral to evil alignment as its supposed to be a minor villain for a campaign arc.
Anyone knows of anything? I'm not averse to using homebrew either, but if there's anything already like it in dnd, that would be grand!
Depends on the CR you want but Changlings, Dopplegangers, Hags/Hag Covens, Oni and various fiends would all be good choices, a slightly less obvious one might be Jackalwere (page 193 of the monster manual), they are only CR 1/2 so you could have a pack of them with a were-Jackal (reskinned were wolf) or Warlock (with Grazzt as a Patron) as pack leader, have lots of shapeshifting shennanigans with some low level magic sleep effects thrown in.
If you want to upt he CR a little then you could have a Lamia as the pack leader, jackalwere's were originally created by Grazzt (according the toe monster manual) to be the servants of Lamia, they are CR4 so a little bit harder than you might be looking for.
If you want something slightly more powerful a succubus / incubus would work. You could scale up their abilities to make them a minor villain.
It depends on how minor you want this villain to be but I think a Rakshasa is an excellent choice! They’re really suited to illusions and enchantments. They also have limited magic immunity so if the party does see through the deceptions it’s hard to make spells stick, which makes it easier for the Rakshaha get away and for you to have a recurring threat if you want.
A Rakshasa might actually work! I'd been playing the character as a doppelganger so far so the 'detect thoughts' has a nice overlap. Although I am worried about the 'not affected by spells less than lvl6' as they're all just level 5 at the moment, but then again they're a party of 6.
A Rakshasa could probably wreck a level 5 party, if they don’t all have magic weapons yet, but 6 pcs can definitely deal with higher CR threats than their level because of the action economy.
I think the magic immunity is good in the sense that it’s “can’t be affected by spells...unless it wishes to be” so if they somehow managed to detect it earlier than you wanted, then it can either easily get away or it can choose to be affected by some of their spells to lull them into a false sense of security. Then it can come back and wreck them if you want.
It all depends on what you want to get out of this creature. Is it a filler villain till the next part of the campaign? Is it potentially an ally or resource for the party against the BBEG?
You might also consider Lamias, which have Curse-inducing dagger attacks by RAW, as well as Efreeti, who have the Enlarge/Reduce spell. An Efreeti with skills in Deception and access to a Disguise Kit could Reduce to shrink to Medium size and disguise themselves to blend in with adventurer-sized humanoids. Also, don't forget about Vampires, the classic undead manipulator inspired by E. European human folktales.
I originally thought it would be a throwaway character, made as a wakeup call about honesty and trust. They're in the middle of a jungle and a changeling player still didn't come clean about their nature, so I made one of the changeling's personas turn up. It did not go as I expected. They're just playing along with the villain now instead of warning the party, so I want to show that actions have consequences. Through combat or through it just achieving its goal, but not a TPK.
A Lamia might work too! Although I might have to alter the creature a bit then. Both for its spells and its CR.