My group will be transitioning into Dragons of Icespire Keep in two weeks. One of the adventures, the Dragon Barrow quest, has an invisible Stalker as the final monster, a guardian of the magical sword. The problem is, based on the timeframe since the barrow was created and the invisible stalker summoned to guard the tomb, and the monster description, I don't think this will work.
For one, it says, "An invisible stalker is an unwilling servant at best. It resents any undertaking assigned to it. A mission that requires significant time might drive the invisible stalker to pervert the intent of a command unless it is worded carefully."
Secondly, if the players put the sword back, technically its mission is Complete (perverted, see above) and all the players have to do is wait for it to leave, and take the sword once more.
My group is smart. If I can figure out that it might be willing to "modify the details" of its orders, they likely will. It's also VERY likely they will mow this creature down, like they have already done to everything else I've thrown at them, to include the green dragon in Thundertree. I even upscaled that to a young dragon, and the druid gave them several warnings that it was likely beyond their strength to tackle. But they still went in, and managed to kill it because they snuck into its lair (multiple successful Stealth checks) and had line of sight as it attempted to fly away at half health. You can bet Cryovain will be upscaled as well, and unless they once again sneak into the lair, it will be an outdoor encounter, and they will be at a tactical disadvantage.
The issue you bring up about the amount of time that the Invisible Stalker might have to accomplish their directed task, might be superseded by the death of the caste, unless the spell was cast relatively recently. Also, the return of the sword might cause one of two effects: The guardian vanishes and then re-appears if anyone disturbs the sword again, or the guardian vanishes and returns to the caster, which notifies the caster that someone took and returned the sword, or was killed and the spell needs to be reset to maintain protection on the sword.
Another quick point, how will your players determine that this interaction between creature, spell and task exists? Did the PCs learn something about the guardian before getting to the barrow? Or are you inferring that your players will look up the monster stat block and the description? The portion of the monster description that we are discussing here is subject to DM fiat and change. The entire stat block, even the existence of the monster in YOUR version of this encounter is subject to your fiat as the DM. Change it. You decide how the interactions of the monsters in the world behave, not the players.
Regardless, any monster can be a guardian. They just need to be capable of understanding instruction, be able to carry out that instruction, and willing to project lethal force if required to cary out their instructions. Tanamere Alagondar with or without her Squires rising to protect the sword might be a bit much, but you get the idea. Use any Undead, Construct or Elemental and narratively reskin it to look like what you want it to look like.
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“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad
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My group will be transitioning into Dragons of Icespire Keep in two weeks. One of the adventures, the Dragon Barrow quest, has an invisible Stalker as the final monster, a guardian of the magical sword. The problem is, based on the timeframe since the barrow was created and the invisible stalker summoned to guard the tomb, and the monster description, I don't think this will work.
For one, it says, "An invisible stalker is an unwilling servant at best. It resents any undertaking assigned to it. A mission that requires significant time might drive the invisible stalker to pervert the intent of a command unless it is worded carefully."
Secondly, if the players put the sword back, technically its mission is Complete (perverted, see above) and all the players have to do is wait for it to leave, and take the sword once more.
My group is smart. If I can figure out that it might be willing to "modify the details" of its orders, they likely will. It's also VERY likely they will mow this creature down, like they have already done to everything else I've thrown at them, to include the green dragon in Thundertree. I even upscaled that to a young dragon, and the druid gave them several warnings that it was likely beyond their strength to tackle. But they still went in, and managed to kill it because they snuck into its lair (multiple successful Stealth checks) and had line of sight as it attempted to fly away at half health. You can bet Cryovain will be upscaled as well, and unless they once again sneak into the lair, it will be an outdoor encounter, and they will be at a tactical disadvantage.
The issue you bring up about the amount of time that the Invisible Stalker might have to accomplish their directed task, might be superseded by the death of the caste, unless the spell was cast relatively recently. Also, the return of the sword might cause one of two effects: The guardian vanishes and then re-appears if anyone disturbs the sword again, or the guardian vanishes and returns to the caster, which notifies the caster that someone took and returned the sword, or was killed and the spell needs to be reset to maintain protection on the sword.
Another quick point, how will your players determine that this interaction between creature, spell and task exists? Did the PCs learn something about the guardian before getting to the barrow? Or are you inferring that your players will look up the monster stat block and the description? The portion of the monster description that we are discussing here is subject to DM fiat and change. The entire stat block, even the existence of the monster in YOUR version of this encounter is subject to your fiat as the DM. Change it. You decide how the interactions of the monsters in the world behave, not the players.
Regardless, any monster can be a guardian. They just need to be capable of understanding instruction, be able to carry out that instruction, and willing to project lethal force if required to cary out their instructions. Tanamere Alagondar with or without her Squires rising to protect the sword might be a bit much, but you get the idea. Use any Undead, Construct or Elemental and narratively reskin it to look like what you want it to look like.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad