So I would like your opinion on something I plan to have my players run it to soon. I have made a homebrew mutation of the Nothic, it's a little sturdier, smarter, deals quite a bit more damage, but it's main thing is that it can eat spell slots.
The idea is that it sucks the magic out of a creature close to it, rolls a d3 and eats a spell slot of that level, if said creature has a spell slot of that level. If not it takes the closet in level below the number rolled, and does dubble damage with that attack.
The party might not even have to fight it. As it is imprisoned by the bad guys for eating the bosses spell slots.
Now to my two questions:
1) Should I up the CR because of this ability? I am using DM tolls to calculate it's CR. Is there an similar ability I could use to get a fair CR for this thing?
2) How should I handle it if this monster is convinced to help the party? Should I reduce the number of times a NPC caster can cast spells if this Nothic succeeds in eating a NPC'S magic, or should I make said NPC unable to cast spells that turn/round?
I don't have any references for an ability that consumes spell slots like that. As general speculation I suspect that a player may not like having their highest level spells taken so I would not recommend running this often if you are planning to use it on players of levels 6 or lower. To reflect that then you may want to aim for a cr 6 but I don't know how the ability to consume spell slots will actually effect cr.
The closest analogy I can give is that traits that give immunity to a certain type of spell aka are likely to waste a spell of a player do not effect CR. I do no think that effects meant to change a players long term resource management are taken into account when calculating the difficulty of individual encounters.
If you set the ability to prevent a player from attacking a turn E.g by preventing a spell caster from casting then you would increase the AC of the monster for the purpose of Cr calculations.
So I would like your opinion on something I plan to have my players run it to soon. I have made a homebrew mutation of the Nothic, it's a little sturdier, smarter, deals quite a bit more damage, but it's main thing is that it can eat spell slots.
The idea is that it sucks the magic out of a creature close to it, rolls a d3 and eats a spell slot of that level, if said creature has a spell slot of that level. If not it takes the closet in level below the number rolled, and does dubble damage with that attack.
The party might not even have to fight it. As it is imprisoned by the bad guys for eating the bosses spell slots.
Now to my two questions:
1) Should I up the CR because of this ability? I am using DM tolls to calculate it's CR. Is there an similar ability I could use to get a fair CR for this thing?
2) How should I handle it if this monster is convinced to help the party? Should I reduce the number of times a NPC caster can cast spells if this Nothic succeeds in eating a NPC'S magic, or should I make said NPC unable to cast spells that turn/round?
I really like this, it's thematic
1) I would absolutely add a point of CR for this
2) I would have it work exactly the same way for the NPCs as it does for the PCs. The biggest benefit the players are getting for befriending the creature, is not having their resources drained.
So I would like your opinion on something I plan to have my players run it to soon. I have made a homebrew mutation of the Nothic, it's a little sturdier, smarter, deals quite a bit more damage, but it's main thing is that it can eat spell slots.
The idea is that it sucks the magic out of a creature close to it, rolls a d3 and eats a spell slot of that level, if said creature has a spell slot of that level. If not it takes the closet in level below the number rolled, and does dubble damage with that attack.
The party might not even have to fight it. As it is imprisoned by the bad guys for eating the bosses spell slots.
Now to my two questions:
1) Should I up the CR because of this ability? I am using DM tolls to calculate it's CR. Is there an similar ability I could use to get a fair CR for this thing?
2) How should I handle it if this monster is convinced to help the party? Should I reduce the number of times a NPC caster can cast spells if this Nothic succeeds in eating a NPC'S magic, or should I make said NPC unable to cast spells that turn/round?
I'm sorry, a d3?
Anyways I'd say raise it maybe by one 1-3 considering you're also making it sturdier and because that's a heck of an ability.
I don't think you understand. The d3 determines what level the spell slot it eats is. So it can eat a spel slot of level 1 to 3.
I don't have any references for an ability that consumes spell slots like that. As general speculation I suspect that a player may not like having their highest level spells taken so I would not recommend running this often if you are planning to use it on players of levels 6 or lower. To reflect that then you may want to aim for a cr 6 but I don't know how the ability to consume spell slots will actually effect cr.
The closest analogy I can give is that traits that give immunity to a certain type of spell aka are likely to waste a spell of a player do not effect CR. I do no think that effects meant to change a players long term resource management are taken into account when calculating the difficulty of individual encounters.
If you set the ability to prevent a player from attacking a turn E.g by preventing a spell caster from casting then you would increase the AC of the monster for the purpose of Cr calculations.
I know, I just have not seen a d3, like how would that even work.
Roll a d6, half the result, round up
I really like this, it's thematic
1) I would absolutely add a point of CR for this
2) I would have it work exactly the same way for the NPCs as it does for the PCs. The biggest benefit the players are getting for befriending the creature, is not having their resources drained.