I was thinking of using a polymorphed Death Slaad as a "Villian acting as Ally" NPC but their shapechanger ability makes it sound like they still have the same stats as the Slaad in their polymorphed form instead of the new creature's stats?
Shapechanger. The slaad can use its action to polymorph into a Small or Medium humanoid, or back into its true form. Its statistics, other than its size, are the same in each form. Any equipment it is wearing or carrying isn’t transformed. It reverts to its true form if it dies.
I was going to use the Knight (CR8) stat block for them until they revealed themselves, does that make sense? Is there a better aberration to use for this instead idea?
I mean, it's an NPC until the big reveal. There's no rules saying that it can't be "pulling it's punches" as it were to appear to function as a lower CR monster. If anything you could use this performative action as a way to seed information to your party. If the opportunity arose, you could allow for Insight checks from the more combat savvy players to notice that their friendly NPC seems to be holding back the true depth of their power. Maybe the knight plays this off as an "honor" thing if confronted, maybe they milk it as some past mental hang-up, or maybe it just seeds doubt in the players over time until the big reveal happens?
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"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
Correct, monster shapeshifting generally doesn't work like PC shapeshifting. On the other hand, it's not like it can't pretend to be less powerful than it is.
Hi,
I was thinking of using a polymorphed Death Slaad as a "Villian acting as Ally" NPC but their shapechanger ability makes it sound like they still have the same stats as the Slaad in their polymorphed form instead of the new creature's stats?
Shapechanger. The slaad can use its action to polymorph into a Small or Medium humanoid, or back into its true form. Its statistics, other than its size, are the same in each form. Any equipment it is wearing or carrying isn’t transformed. It reverts to its true form if it dies.
I was going to use the Knight (CR8) stat block for them until they revealed themselves, does that make sense? Is there a better aberration to use for this instead idea?
I mean, it's an NPC until the big reveal. There's no rules saying that it can't be "pulling it's punches" as it were to appear to function as a lower CR monster. If anything you could use this performative action as a way to seed information to your party. If the opportunity arose, you could allow for Insight checks from the more combat savvy players to notice that their friendly NPC seems to be holding back the true depth of their power. Maybe the knight plays this off as an "honor" thing if confronted, maybe they milk it as some past mental hang-up, or maybe it just seeds doubt in the players over time until the big reveal happens?
Correct, monster shapeshifting generally doesn't work like PC shapeshifting. On the other hand, it's not like it can't pretend to be less powerful than it is.
Just use NPC Knight stat block for the Slaad. The Slaad can be what ever you want unless your PCs figure it out.