So I have this idea for a recurring villain I wanna throw at the party now and again - every time he dies, he reappears somewhere else and begins to stalk the heroes again. I won't go into too much detail about how this makes sense, but Warforged in this setting were battle golems created by an ancient empire way back when, and our player group has one of them as a Warforged Barbarian. My idea is that my own villain Warforged believes our player has the soul of his rival from back when in it, and that he wishes to destroy his rival once and for all, even after all their hard work has dissappeared to time.
The "Tool-tip Not Found" is a Burning Hands modified spell called Fell Cut that for some reason won't appear.
Is CR 6 fitting for this bad boy? My heroes will be around level 5 when they meet him, and I'll make sure that he mostly gets to fight my Barbarian alone, though of course that may not happen. Thoughts?
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I have some semblance of an idea of what I'm doing!
Aarh shucks; well I know what it does so it should be fine!
You don’t need to publish this stuff to use it. As long as you don’t publish it, you can make it a hyperlink instead of a tooltip, you can even format it to look similar too. You can’t publish with a hyperlink, but you you can totally use them.
How many level 5 players are in your group? This will help answer the CR 6 question...
Actually, in the Encounter Builder... if you have 2 Party Members, it is Deadly. If you have 3 Party Members it is Hard... and everything else is easy...
I would have him on the high end of deadly when the players first encounter him, and then they can slowly work up to being able to defeat him. However, since he comes back, perhaps he doesn't just pop into existence, and instead he possesses a different machine each time, which could more or less give him different "phases".
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"Ignorance is bliss, and you look absolutely miserable."
Easy answer: you can ignore his spells, because his base melee attack, at 34.5 dpr, is better than any spells he has (well, the flaming hands, cast at level 3, will be 5d6 area, and is thus treated as 35 dpr, but that's not meaningful). Doing that, his basic CR is
Easy answer: you can ignore his spells, because his base melee attack, at 34.5 dpr, is better than any spells he has (well, the flaming hands, cast at level 3, will be 5d6 area, and is thus treated as 35 dpr, but that's not meaningful). Doing that, his basic CR is
Defensive Adjustment (AC): expected AC 13, actual AC 18, +2 for having 4 save proficiencies, so net +3
Overall, looks like a CR 5-6.
Sounds good! It fits because I wanted to make a character that was equally martially skilled (compared to my Warforged Barbarian player) but more magically adept and with some tricks up his sleeve that could allow him to outmaneuver him and trick him. Brute force against wit and planning.
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I have an NPC that is very much like Q from star trek. In my case he just pops in now and then and causes some mischief for the players. He cannot be killed, and if they attack him he hits them very hard just to show off some power. I just use him and offer up riddles and puzzles to the players. Ill have him pill out a deck of cards (many things) and have a player draw one. If not he will toss something really nasty at them. Just for example. When its all over he just goes away.
I have an NPC that is very much like Q from star trek. In my case he just pops in now and then and causes some mischief for the players. He cannot be killed, and if they attack him he hits them very hard just to show off some power. I just use him and offer up riddles and puzzles to the players. Ill have him pill out a deck of cards (many things) and have a player draw one. If not he will toss something really nasty at them. Just for example. When its all over he just goes away.
That sounds really fun, actually! In a "Oh **** not this guy again!" kind of way... I can't do mine that way unfortunately, because he's invariably a key to understanding the entire continent's past.
There was a huge empire a thousand years ago that was stupid advanced in their understanding of magic and magitek; they used giants as slaves and fought anything that was even close to a threat. Most of the inner circle of the government was aligned and in bond with a creature that could be said to be the embodiment of the Shadowfell - essentially a titanic Nightwalker of sorts... One of the people in that inner circle who was not a part of these deals, Lanus, found out and attempted to stop a catastrophe by helping the resistance groups on the continent fight the empire so he could eventually remove the leadership and save every soul in the empire, but Exatos, his immediate rival, stopped it - and just after this "Night-titan" arose with a host of Nightshades to entirely purge the continent of life as payment for lending their power, most of the leadership of the empire, including Lanus and Exatos, parted an imprint of their souls into Warforged body-doubles, to be awakened after the purge was over. Exatos even put in a fail-safe that he'd be awakened too if Lanus awoke first... Which he did. A thousand years later, randomly because some adventurers resurrected him by accident.
Now calling itself Ebon, the Warforged with Lanus' soul adventures to find a meaning with life, but far from him, Exatos has awoken as well, and Exatos fully knows who he is and what has happened! Exatos has messed with the remains of the warforged system from the empire so that he will be resurrected in a new Warforged body every time his old one dies - and he'll die as many times as it takes to get revenge over his rival, and to reawaken the leadership of his empire!
Also, they were Gnomes, all of them. It's my in-joke for why I don't have Gnomes in my world - They're literally all dead! Maybe apart from the original Lanus. I'm debating whether or not to let them meet the actual Lanus, so my Ebon player can meet... Well, themselves in a way. Is it nature or nurture that makes a person? Hmmm.
Anyone have an idea for a name for the "Night-titan"? I don't even know if I want it to be sentient, but it should be the primordial avatar of what the Shadowfell, and Death itself, is.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I have some semblance of an idea of what I'm doing!
I have an NPC that is very much like Q from star trek. In my case he just pops in now and then and causes some mischief for the players. He cannot be killed, and if they attack him he hits them very hard just to show off some power. I just use him and offer up riddles and puzzles to the players. Ill have him pill out a deck of cards (many things) and have a player draw one. If not he will toss something really nasty at them. Just for example. When its all over he just goes away.
To each his own, but as a player (and I think most of my groups would agree), I would find this to be extremely annoying. What is the purpose here, if they can't do anything ? Is there a reason in the campaign, something they have done to deserve this ? At least, although extremely annoying in Star Trek, Q had some history and a purpose...
And the Deck of Many Things is a really annoying object as well. What happens when a PJ draws something really nasty ?
"To each is his own." I get where you are coming from and sure, it could be annoying for some. Also this is not something I just drop on them every game. It could be two or more months in between. Honestly my players love it and I happen to have a player that is more then happy to draw from the deck. Not that the deck is used all that much. One time was all so far. This could be very group dependent.There is always a worthwhile prize once the encounter is over. The NPC is not there to kill the players or anything. He usually offers up different riddles or puzzles for the players to twist their minds over. Also there is no reason for the NPC other then just showing up for now. This could change over time but who knows. I often times get asked if I will bring the character back because its been a while. You might be surprised as to how entertaining this can be. Not everything in a campaign has to be tied to the main story or even have a rhyme or reason to it to work within the game. If ever I find my players do not like something or its just not jiving with the group I just drop it and move on. Hell I just recently tossed in an area with various things to do that had nothing to do with the game. The players jumped on in just to do it.
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So I have this idea for a recurring villain I wanna throw at the party now and again - every time he dies, he reappears somewhere else and begins to stalk the heroes again. I won't go into too much detail about how this makes sense, but Warforged in this setting were battle golems created by an ancient empire way back when, and our player group has one of them as a Warforged Barbarian. My idea is that my own villain Warforged believes our player has the soul of his rival from back when in it, and that he wishes to destroy his rival once and for all, even after all their hard work has dissappeared to time.
Anyway, I'm not good at creating proper CRs for spellcasters, so here's the guy: https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/850728-exatos
The "Tool-tip Not Found" is a Burning Hands modified spell called Fell Cut that for some reason won't appear.
Is CR 6 fitting for this bad boy? My heroes will be around level 5 when they meet him, and I'll make sure that he mostly gets to fight my Barbarian alone, though of course that may not happen. Thoughts?
I have some semblance of an idea of what I'm doing!
That’s because it is impossible to tooltip a homebrewed spell.
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Aarh shucks; well I know what it does so it should be fine!
I have some semblance of an idea of what I'm doing!
You don’t need to publish this stuff to use it. As long as you don’t publish it, you can make it a hyperlink instead of a tooltip, you can even format it to look similar too. You can’t publish with a hyperlink, but you you can totally use them.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
How many level 5 players are in your group? This will help answer the CR 6 question...
Actually, in the Encounter Builder... if you have 2 Party Members, it is Deadly. If you have 3 Party Members it is Hard... and everything else is easy...
Six players; they're at lvl 3 now but I won't introduce this guy before lvl 5 at least.
I have some semblance of an idea of what I'm doing!
I would have him on the high end of deadly when the players first encounter him, and then they can slowly work up to being able to defeat him. However, since he comes back, perhaps he doesn't just pop into existence, and instead he possesses a different machine each time, which could more or less give him different "phases".
"Ignorance is bliss, and you look absolutely miserable."
Easy answer: you can ignore his spells, because his base melee attack, at 34.5 dpr, is better than any spells he has (well, the flaming hands, cast at level 3, will be 5d6 area, and is thus treated as 35 dpr, but that's not meaningful). Doing that, his basic CR is
Overall, looks like a CR 5-6.
Sounds good! It fits because I wanted to make a character that was equally martially skilled (compared to my Warforged Barbarian player) but more magically adept and with some tricks up his sleeve that could allow him to outmaneuver him and trick him. Brute force against wit and planning.
I have some semblance of an idea of what I'm doing!
I have an NPC that is very much like Q from star trek. In my case he just pops in now and then and causes some mischief for the players. He cannot be killed, and if they attack him he hits them very hard just to show off some power. I just use him and offer up riddles and puzzles to the players. Ill have him pill out a deck of cards (many things) and have a player draw one. If not he will toss something really nasty at them. Just for example. When its all over he just goes away.
That sounds really fun, actually! In a "Oh **** not this guy again!" kind of way... I can't do mine that way unfortunately, because he's invariably a key to understanding the entire continent's past.
There was a huge empire a thousand years ago that was stupid advanced in their understanding of magic and magitek; they used giants as slaves and fought anything that was even close to a threat. Most of the inner circle of the government was aligned and in bond with a creature that could be said to be the embodiment of the Shadowfell - essentially a titanic Nightwalker of sorts... One of the people in that inner circle who was not a part of these deals, Lanus, found out and attempted to stop a catastrophe by helping the resistance groups on the continent fight the empire so he could eventually remove the leadership and save every soul in the empire, but Exatos, his immediate rival, stopped it - and just after this "Night-titan" arose with a host of Nightshades to entirely purge the continent of life as payment for lending their power, most of the leadership of the empire, including Lanus and Exatos, parted an imprint of their souls into Warforged body-doubles, to be awakened after the purge was over. Exatos even put in a fail-safe that he'd be awakened too if Lanus awoke first... Which he did. A thousand years later, randomly because some adventurers resurrected him by accident.
Now calling itself Ebon, the Warforged with Lanus' soul adventures to find a meaning with life, but far from him, Exatos has awoken as well, and Exatos fully knows who he is and what has happened! Exatos has messed with the remains of the warforged system from the empire so that he will be resurrected in a new Warforged body every time his old one dies - and he'll die as many times as it takes to get revenge over his rival, and to reawaken the leadership of his empire!
Also, they were Gnomes, all of them. It's my in-joke for why I don't have Gnomes in my world - They're literally all dead! Maybe apart from the original Lanus. I'm debating whether or not to let them meet the actual Lanus, so my Ebon player can meet... Well, themselves in a way. Is it nature or nurture that makes a person? Hmmm.
Anyone have an idea for a name for the "Night-titan"? I don't even know if I want it to be sentient, but it should be the primordial avatar of what the Shadowfell, and Death itself, is.
I have some semblance of an idea of what I'm doing!
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ModeratorYou could name the Night-titan "Crepuscule", which means evening, or dusk.
EDIT: Spelling.
Beat my rolls. I dare you.
"To each is his own." I get where you are coming from and sure, it could be annoying for some. Also this is not something I just drop on them every game. It could be two or more months in between. Honestly my players love it and I happen to have a player that is more then happy to draw from the deck. Not that the deck is used all that much. One time was all so far. This could be very group dependent.There is always a worthwhile prize once the encounter is over. The NPC is not there to kill the players or anything. He usually offers up different riddles or puzzles for the players to twist their minds over. Also there is no reason for the NPC other then just showing up for now. This could change over time but who knows. I often times get asked if I will bring the character back because its been a while. You might be surprised as to how entertaining this can be. Not everything in a campaign has to be tied to the main story or even have a rhyme or reason to it to work within the game. If ever I find my players do not like something or its just not jiving with the group I just drop it and move on. Hell I just recently tossed in an area with various things to do that had nothing to do with the game. The players jumped on in just to do it.