First of all, if you're playing a Wild Magic Sorcerer chef named Josh in a game right now, then get outta here bub!
Ok, that business aside, during a downtime solo mission between game sessions, my party's sorcerer (who's on a quest to become the greatest baker in the land) aided a morally questionable Fey gourmand in attempting an ancient and powerful recipe in order to hone his skills. The recipe went slightly wrong and the result was a giant sentient muffin monster with tentacles and a giant mouth full of chocolate chip fangs. The Fey banished the muffin back to the mortal world after it attacked them (much to the sorcerer's ire, realizing that the Fey didn't give a damn about anyone but himself), so now there's this muffin monster loose in the world that's gonna cause a little havoc and maybe stalk the sorcerer and the party a little as a recurring bad guy.
All that said, I thought I'd have some fun homebrewing the monster's stats (I checked; giant Frankenstein muffin isn't in the book), and also thought I'd play around with Coville's Action Oriented Monster method to make it extra fun.
I'm thinking of using a mimics stats for the base chassis, changing things here or there as needed, but I was wondering if people had any fun suggestions for Action-Oriented abilities i could give it?
Thanks, hope this is at least worth a chuckle.
*edit*
The party consists of 4 level 4 characters, though they'll probably be at least level 5 by the time they encounter the muffin monster again.
In the lore, the muffin is a cherry chocolate chip muffin made with magically delicious cherries from Mammon's garden, and "Darkest Chocolate" which in its pure form radiates darkness, if that's useful information for anyone.
Mammon is the god of Greed. So it would be fun for the thing to sing, and cause trouble, so have it sing a silly song at the party that can damage them, like Vicious Mockery, and they can stop it by feeding it a coin. It will sit there happily munching on coins as long as they keep feeding it, and then it will start attacking them and trying to eat other things. It will never try to harm the player characters directly, but eventually, the characters will get tired of it, and kill the poor thing. How hard that is to do is up to you. I'd have it only have the hit points equal to the toughest character in the party, so they wouldn't have much trouble if they worked together to take it down.
For added humor, have it sing off key, "Oh do you know the muffin man... the muffin man... the muffin man... oh do you know the muffin man... on this early Saturday morning!" Even more points if it happens on your game's equivalent of Saturday.
If it radiates darkness maybe it should have necromantic and mild illusion powers. The monster seems pretty fun, and I would love to include it in my campaign, so when it’s done if you could post it here that would be great.
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This isn't actually a signature, just something I copy and paste onto the bottom of all my posts. Or is it? Yep, it is. Or is it..? I’m a hobbit, and the master cranial imploder of the "Oops, I Accidently Destroyed Someone's Brain" cult. Extended sig. I'm actually in Limbo, it says I'm in Mechanus because that's where I get my WiFi from. Please don't tell the modrons, they're still angry from the 'Spawning Stone' fiasco. No connection to Dragonslayer8 other than knowing them in real life.
I'd give it a breath attack which covers anyone in the target area in the darkest chocolate (melted). Dex save to avoid the small amount of fire damage, and if failed the target is blinded until the chocolate is washed or wiped off (an action, unless they swim), and if passed then the target is only partially covered and sees everything as if it were dark (so darkvision can help), and their darkvision is halved if they are actually in the dark, until they wash or wipe it off.
I'd make the most delicious cherries have a charmed effect, where they can tempt a creature to approach to eat the cherries.
If it is not fully baked, then letting it change shape would be a cool approach (perhaps give it 3 shapes with different abilities, AC, & attacks), and then say that it cannot change shape if it has taken any fire damage since its last turn, as it is partially baked!
I'd give it a breath attack which covers anyone in the target area in the darkest chocolate (melted). Dex save to avoid the small amount of fire damage, and if failed the target is blinded until the chocolate is washed or wiped off (an action, unless they swim), and if passed then the target is only partially covered and sees everything as if it were dark (so darkvision can help), and their darkvision is halved if they are actually in the dark, until they wash or wipe it off.
I'd make the most delicious cherries have a charmed effect, where they can tempt a creature to approach to eat the cherries.
If it is not fully baked, then letting it change shape would be a cool approach (perhaps give it 3 shapes with different abilities, AC, & attacks), and then say that it cannot change shape if it has taken any fire damage since its last turn, as it is partially baked!
Ooh! I like those ideas!
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This isn't actually a signature, just something I copy and paste onto the bottom of all my posts. Or is it? Yep, it is. Or is it..? I’m a hobbit, and the master cranial imploder of the "Oops, I Accidently Destroyed Someone's Brain" cult. Extended sig. I'm actually in Limbo, it says I'm in Mechanus because that's where I get my WiFi from. Please don't tell the modrons, they're still angry from the 'Spawning Stone' fiasco. No connection to Dragonslayer8 other than knowing them in real life.
Ok, here's something I whipped up, lemme know if you think it might be a little OP for a party of 4 lv 5's:
The Muffin, AC 15, HP 135, Speed 30ft
Resistances: bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing dmg from non-magic weapons.
Immunities:Prone, Charmed.
Traits
Life Hunger: If a creature the Muffin can see regains hit points, the Muffin gains advantage on attack rolls and its bite attack deals an extra 2d12 necrotic damage till the end of its turn.
Many-Eyed: The Muffin cannot be Blinded and can see in a 360 degree area around it.
Multiattack: If the Muffin has an opponent grappled, it can, on its turn, make a bite attack against that opponent.
Standard Actions
Tentacle-- Melee weapon attack, +7 to hit, 10 ft reach, Hit: 2d8+3 bludgeoning dmg and target must succeed a DC 15 STR save or be grappled. Can grapple 4 creatures at once.
Bite--Melee weapon attack, +7 to hit, 5 ft reach, Hit: 2d8+3 piercing dmg.
(for want of a better term) Legendary Actions
Irresistable Aroma-- The Muffin blows a gust of delectable scent in a 40ftx5ft line to overcome a target with desire. Failing a DC 17 Wis save will cause the target to use its movement on its next turn to move towards the Muffin, and it's action to try and take a bite (standard unarmed attack; on a hit, target must succeed a DC 18 Wis save or be stunned for their next turn by the deliciousness). This cannot be used if the Muffin is below 100hp.
Half Baked--The Muffin reverts to a doughier state, doubling the reach of its tentacles, raising it's AC to 18 (as it's elasticity makes it harder to damage), and giving it a -2 penalty to attacks. This condition ends if the Muffin takes more than 15 points of fire damage. The Muffin cannot use this ability unless it is between 60 and 75hp.
Flambe-- The Muffin spouts molten dark chocolate into the air, falling around it in a 20ft radius. Creatures in the radius must make a DC 16 Dex save or else are blinded by the darkness of the chocolate for 1d4 rounds and take 2d8 fire damage. On a successful save, the target takes half damage and is not blinded, but does see as if in darkness for 1d4 rounds (this does not count as 'magical darkness' and interacts normally with darkvision and light sources on the target's person). The Muffin can only use this action once, and only if its HP is 35 or less.
As you can see, I'm setting up the not-really-Legendary Actions as something the Muffin can use periodically throughout the fight when around full health, half health, and almost dead, that way it (hopefully) gives the feeling that the fight is happening in stages, kind of changing the game as the fight goes on. Let me know what you think!
Life hunger seems like it is a bit powerful, I would give the Muffin advantage against any creature which has regained hitpoints since the muffins last turn, that should be pretty effective! The extra necrotic damage will render any healing moot as the enemy gains damage to take it away again!
I'd let it make 1 tentacle attack and 1 bite attack, and have an AC of 18 when it's crunchy, then let it go half-baked to reduce AC to 15 but get multiattack of 3 tentacles, and the ability to absorb the enemy like a gelatinous cube! Baking it will get rid of this effect but also increase the escape DC to get out of the hold!
Irresistable aroma is cool, perhaps making the muffin steal life from the people eating it and making it a repeat test (test each turn, once passed you're immune for one minute) to not try to eat it. 1d6 necrotic damage and the muffin heals 1d6 hp for each bite taken? Making it a radius of 20ft. would make the fight very interesting, as the standard "run up and hit it" approach may result in the barbarian endlessly eating it!
I'd make flambe work from higher health, chances are it might go from over 35hp to 0 in a single round!
Looks fine. The PCs should be able to deal with it, provided all the relevant characters have a magic weapon. If they don't then basically it has 200+ hit points.
Add Blinded as an immunity, and the saving throws look too high to me. I would think that for level 5 PCs you probably don't want the saves to be higher than 15 for a CR7 monster (which is what I would say this is). I'd make all the saving throws DC14 or 15 (or even 13 if you want this encounter to be fun but not deadly), as you need to consider that otherwise if someone has a -1 Wisdom modifier, they have only a 15% chance to pass that Wis DC17 save which seems like it's a deadly encounter.
I am also unsure about your reasoning - why is it resistant to b/p/s damage? Bludgoning I get, it's spongey and piercing, sure it has no organs - but slashing should be a vulnerability! I would have fire damage cause it to lose half its movement speed for a turn as well, as it gets crusty.
Flambe is too weird. Keep things simple - you save, and you're not blinded. That's all you need. 1d4 turns of acting like you're in darkness? Darkness and blinded actually have the exact same effect.
Life hunger seems like it is a bit powerful, I would give the Muffin advantage against any creature which has regained hitpoints since the muffins last turn, that should be pretty effective! The extra necrotic damage will render any healing moot as the enemy gains damage to take it away again!
I'd let it make 1 tentacle attack and 1 bite attack, and have an AC of 18 when it's crunchy, then let it go half-baked to reduce AC to 15 but get multiattack of 3 tentacles, and the ability to absorb the enemy like a gelatinous cube! Baking it will get rid of this effect but also increase the escape DC to get out of the hold!
Irresistable aroma is cool, perhaps making the muffin steal life from the people eating it and making it a repeat test (test each turn, once passed you're immune for one minute) to not try to eat it. 1d6 necrotic damage and the muffin heals 1d6 hp for each bite taken? Making it a radius of 20ft. would make the fight very interesting, as the standard "run up and hit it" approach may result in the barbarian endlessly eating it!
I'd make flambe work from higher health, chances are it might go from over 35hp to 0 in a single round!
All told though, it looks like a lot of fun!
My one hesitancy with flipping how half-baked works is that lowering the AC midway through the fight seems like it'll be a kind of slippery slope and they might speed through the rest of the fight and then they especially won't get to flambe. I thought it made more sense to give it a defensive buff with an off-switch baked in (pun intended) than an offensive buff at that point.
Life Hunger I stole from a CR 7 monster, but I halved the damage it adds to the bite and I dunno how often it'll really get a chance to go off so I thought that would help balance it out. Also it adds a strategic element. The muffin can't deal max damage if it's just wacking stuff, so it'll try and use Aroma to get people in grapple range, chip down their health with the tentacle/bite combo till they try to heal, then deliver a coup de grace with Hunger.
I could raise the ceiling for Flambe to 50, cause yeah on reflection 35 could be gone in a single round. 50 could too, but at that point I think the players should be rewarded for dealing that much damage in a round.
Looks fine. The PCs should be able to deal with it, provided all the relevant characters have a magic weapon. If they don't then basically it has 200+ hit points.
Add Blinded as an immunity, and the saving throws look too high to me. I would think that for level 5 PCs you probably don't want the saves to be higher than 15 for a CR7 monster (which is what I would say this is). I'd make all the saving throws DC14 or 15 (or even 13 if you want this encounter to be fun but not deadly), as you need to consider that otherwise if someone has a -1 Wisdom modifier, they have only a 15% chance to pass that Wis DC17 save which seems like it's a deadly encounter.
I am also unsure about your reasoning - why is it resistant to b/p/s damage? Bludgoning I get, it's spongey and piercing, sure it has no organs - but slashing should be a vulnerability! I would have fire damage cause it to lose half its movement speed for a turn as well, as it gets crusty.
Flambe is too weird. Keep things simple - you save, and you're not blinded. That's all you need. 1d4 turns of acting like you're in darkness? Darkness and blinded actually have the exact same effect.
B/p/s resistance was more of a balance thing than a "I have a rationale for it" thing. Most boss-level monsters at that level have it so I kinda tacked it on.
The darkness thing is more flavor than anything, since most of the members of the party in my game have darkvision.
As far as the saves go, I erred on making them a little higher because most of them relate to abilities that are highly situational and non-damaging. Aroma can only be used at the top of the fight, and only compels movement and possibly stuns for one round. I can't imagine he can get many of those off before HP drops below 100, and Flambe likely can only be used once. I might lower the grapple DC for the tentacles, since that's the only saving throw people will have to make regularly
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First of all, if you're playing a Wild Magic Sorcerer chef named Josh in a game right now, then get outta here bub!
Ok, that business aside, during a downtime solo mission between game sessions, my party's sorcerer (who's on a quest to become the greatest baker in the land) aided a morally questionable Fey gourmand in attempting an ancient and powerful recipe in order to hone his skills. The recipe went slightly wrong and the result was a giant sentient muffin monster with tentacles and a giant mouth full of chocolate chip fangs. The Fey banished the muffin back to the mortal world after it attacked them (much to the sorcerer's ire, realizing that the Fey didn't give a damn about anyone but himself), so now there's this muffin monster loose in the world that's gonna cause a little havoc and maybe stalk the sorcerer and the party a little as a recurring bad guy.
All that said, I thought I'd have some fun homebrewing the monster's stats (I checked; giant Frankenstein muffin isn't in the book), and also thought I'd play around with Coville's Action Oriented Monster method to make it extra fun.
I'm thinking of using a mimics stats for the base chassis, changing things here or there as needed, but I was wondering if people had any fun suggestions for Action-Oriented abilities i could give it?
Thanks, hope this is at least worth a chuckle.
*edit*
The party consists of 4 level 4 characters, though they'll probably be at least level 5 by the time they encounter the muffin monster again.
In the lore, the muffin is a cherry chocolate chip muffin made with magically delicious cherries from Mammon's garden, and "Darkest Chocolate" which in its pure form radiates darkness, if that's useful information for anyone.
Mammon is the god of Greed. So it would be fun for the thing to sing, and cause trouble, so have it sing a silly song at the party that can damage them, like Vicious Mockery, and they can stop it by feeding it a coin. It will sit there happily munching on coins as long as they keep feeding it, and then it will start attacking them and trying to eat other things. It will never try to harm the player characters directly, but eventually, the characters will get tired of it, and kill the poor thing. How hard that is to do is up to you. I'd have it only have the hit points equal to the toughest character in the party, so they wouldn't have much trouble if they worked together to take it down.
For added humor, have it sing off key, "Oh do you know the muffin man... the muffin man... the muffin man... oh do you know the muffin man... on this early Saturday morning!" Even more points if it happens on your game's equivalent of Saturday.
<Insert clever signature here>
If it radiates darkness maybe it should have necromantic and mild illusion powers. The monster seems pretty fun, and I would love to include it in my campaign, so when it’s done if you could post it here that would be great.
This isn't actually a signature, just something I copy and paste onto the bottom of all my posts. Or is it? Yep, it is. Or is it..? I’m a hobbit, and the master cranial imploder of the "Oops, I Accidently Destroyed Someone's Brain" cult. Extended sig. I'm actually in Limbo, it says I'm in Mechanus because that's where I get my WiFi from. Please don't tell the modrons, they're still angry from the 'Spawning Stone' fiasco.
No connection to Dragonslayer8 other than knowing them in real life.
The silly ones are often the best!
I'd give it a breath attack which covers anyone in the target area in the darkest chocolate (melted). Dex save to avoid the small amount of fire damage, and if failed the target is blinded until the chocolate is washed or wiped off (an action, unless they swim), and if passed then the target is only partially covered and sees everything as if it were dark (so darkvision can help), and their darkvision is halved if they are actually in the dark, until they wash or wipe it off.
I'd make the most delicious cherries have a charmed effect, where they can tempt a creature to approach to eat the cherries.
If it is not fully baked, then letting it change shape would be a cool approach (perhaps give it 3 shapes with different abilities, AC, & attacks), and then say that it cannot change shape if it has taken any fire damage since its last turn, as it is partially baked!
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
DM's Guild Releases on This Thread Or check them all out on DMs Guild!
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Ooh! I like those ideas!
This isn't actually a signature, just something I copy and paste onto the bottom of all my posts. Or is it? Yep, it is. Or is it..? I’m a hobbit, and the master cranial imploder of the "Oops, I Accidently Destroyed Someone's Brain" cult. Extended sig. I'm actually in Limbo, it says I'm in Mechanus because that's where I get my WiFi from. Please don't tell the modrons, they're still angry from the 'Spawning Stone' fiasco.
No connection to Dragonslayer8 other than knowing them in real life.
Goose Hydra. Untitled Goohydra Game.
Ok, here's something I whipped up, lemme know if you think it might be a little OP for a party of 4 lv 5's:
The Muffin, AC 15, HP 135, Speed 30ft
Resistances: bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing dmg from non-magic weapons.
Immunities: Prone, Charmed.
Traits
Life Hunger: If a creature the Muffin can see regains hit points, the Muffin gains advantage on attack rolls and its bite attack deals an extra 2d12 necrotic damage till the end of its turn.
Many-Eyed: The Muffin cannot be Blinded and can see in a 360 degree area around it.
Multiattack: If the Muffin has an opponent grappled, it can, on its turn, make a bite attack against that opponent.
Standard Actions
Tentacle-- Melee weapon attack, +7 to hit, 10 ft reach, Hit: 2d8+3 bludgeoning dmg and target must succeed a DC 15 STR save or be grappled. Can grapple 4 creatures at once.
Bite--Melee weapon attack, +7 to hit, 5 ft reach, Hit: 2d8+3 piercing dmg.
(for want of a better term) Legendary Actions
Irresistable Aroma-- The Muffin blows a gust of delectable scent in a 40ftx5ft line to overcome a target with desire. Failing a DC 17 Wis save will cause the target to use its movement on its next turn to move towards the Muffin, and it's action to try and take a bite (standard unarmed attack; on a hit, target must succeed a DC 18 Wis save or be stunned for their next turn by the deliciousness). This cannot be used if the Muffin is below 100hp.
Half Baked--The Muffin reverts to a doughier state, doubling the reach of its tentacles, raising it's AC to 18 (as it's elasticity makes it harder to damage), and giving it a -2 penalty to attacks. This condition ends if the Muffin takes more than 15 points of fire damage. The Muffin cannot use this ability unless it is between 60 and 75hp.
Flambe-- The Muffin spouts molten dark chocolate into the air, falling around it in a 20ft radius. Creatures in the radius must make a DC 16 Dex save or else are blinded by the darkness of the chocolate for 1d4 rounds and take 2d8 fire damage. On a successful save, the target takes half damage and is not blinded, but does see as if in darkness for 1d4 rounds (this does not count as 'magical darkness' and interacts normally with darkvision and light sources on the target's person). The Muffin can only use this action once, and only if its HP is 35 or less.
As you can see, I'm setting up the not-really-Legendary Actions as something the Muffin can use periodically throughout the fight when around full health, half health, and almost dead, that way it (hopefully) gives the feeling that the fight is happening in stages, kind of changing the game as the fight goes on. Let me know what you think!
Life hunger seems like it is a bit powerful, I would give the Muffin advantage against any creature which has regained hitpoints since the muffins last turn, that should be pretty effective! The extra necrotic damage will render any healing moot as the enemy gains damage to take it away again!
I'd let it make 1 tentacle attack and 1 bite attack, and have an AC of 18 when it's crunchy, then let it go half-baked to reduce AC to 15 but get multiattack of 3 tentacles, and the ability to absorb the enemy like a gelatinous cube! Baking it will get rid of this effect but also increase the escape DC to get out of the hold!
Irresistable aroma is cool, perhaps making the muffin steal life from the people eating it and making it a repeat test (test each turn, once passed you're immune for one minute) to not try to eat it. 1d6 necrotic damage and the muffin heals 1d6 hp for each bite taken? Making it a radius of 20ft. would make the fight very interesting, as the standard "run up and hit it" approach may result in the barbarian endlessly eating it!
I'd make flambe work from higher health, chances are it might go from over 35hp to 0 in a single round!
All told though, it looks like a lot of fun!
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
DM's Guild Releases on This Thread Or check them all out on DMs Guild!
DrivethruRPG Releases on This Thread - latest release: My Character is a Werewolf: balanced rules for Lycanthropy!
I have started discussing/reviewing 3rd party D&D content on Substack - stay tuned for semi-regular posts!
Looks fine. The PCs should be able to deal with it, provided all the relevant characters have a magic weapon. If they don't then basically it has 200+ hit points.
Add Blinded as an immunity, and the saving throws look too high to me. I would think that for level 5 PCs you probably don't want the saves to be higher than 15 for a CR7 monster (which is what I would say this is). I'd make all the saving throws DC14 or 15 (or even 13 if you want this encounter to be fun but not deadly), as you need to consider that otherwise if someone has a -1 Wisdom modifier, they have only a 15% chance to pass that Wis DC17 save which seems like it's a deadly encounter.
I am also unsure about your reasoning - why is it resistant to b/p/s damage? Bludgoning I get, it's spongey and piercing, sure it has no organs - but slashing should be a vulnerability! I would have fire damage cause it to lose half its movement speed for a turn as well, as it gets crusty.
Flambe is too weird. Keep things simple - you save, and you're not blinded. That's all you need. 1d4 turns of acting like you're in darkness? Darkness and blinded actually have the exact same effect.
My one hesitancy with flipping how half-baked works is that lowering the AC midway through the fight seems like it'll be a kind of slippery slope and they might speed through the rest of the fight and then they especially won't get to flambe. I thought it made more sense to give it a defensive buff with an off-switch baked in (pun intended) than an offensive buff at that point.
Life Hunger I stole from a CR 7 monster, but I halved the damage it adds to the bite and I dunno how often it'll really get a chance to go off so I thought that would help balance it out. Also it adds a strategic element. The muffin can't deal max damage if it's just wacking stuff, so it'll try and use Aroma to get people in grapple range, chip down their health with the tentacle/bite combo till they try to heal, then deliver a coup de grace with Hunger.
I could raise the ceiling for Flambe to 50, cause yeah on reflection 35 could be gone in a single round. 50 could too, but at that point I think the players should be rewarded for dealing that much damage in a round.
B/p/s resistance was more of a balance thing than a "I have a rationale for it" thing. Most boss-level monsters at that level have it so I kinda tacked it on.
The darkness thing is more flavor than anything, since most of the members of the party in my game have darkvision.
As far as the saves go, I erred on making them a little higher because most of them relate to abilities that are highly situational and non-damaging. Aroma can only be used at the top of the fight, and only compels movement and possibly stuns for one round. I can't imagine he can get many of those off before HP drops below 100, and Flambe likely can only be used once. I might lower the grapple DC for the tentacles, since that's the only saving throw people will have to make regularly