So taking some inspiration from Sarevok from the original Baldurs gate computer game, I'm thinking of an NPC cleric of Bhaal (God of Murder...cue sinister "mu-ha-ha!"). I'm designing it as a character build instead a stat block as I might roll it out as a player option for the next camapign, let me know what you think.....
Lvl 1: Gain proficiency with Martial Weapons and Poisoner's Kits.
Lvl 1: Gain Marked for Death (as per Rogue Assassinate ability)
EDITED: Lvl 2: Channel Divinity: Life's End; you can use your Bonus Action & a use of your channel divinty to Sneak Attack as a Rogue, your sneak attack dice are the same as a Rogue of equivilant level and the decision to use this abiility must be made before you roll to attack and all other restrictions to sneak attack (weapon type etc) apply as normal.
Lvl 6: Flee the scene: Whever you use the Channel Divinity: Life's End ability and hit a creature with the resulting sneak attack you can use your reaction to instantly Misty Step as per the spell.
Lvl 8: Divine Strike: Once on each of your turns when you hit a creature with a weapon attack, you can cause the attack to deal an extra 1d8 Poison Damage damage to the target. When you reach 14th level, the extra damage increases to 2d8.
Lvl 17: Lord of Murder: Functions as per the Rogure Assassine ability Death Strike.
*****
Now, the only issue I have so far is potentially the combo of Steel Wind Strike or a high level Inflict Wounds + Marked For Death/Assassinate + Lord of Murder/Death Strike going off on a surprise round.....
EDIT:
Bhaal Spawn as a race.....
Choose a race to be one of your parents (Bhaal was the other half), regardelss of parent races you gain the following:
Ability Score Increases: +2 Strength or Dexterity & +1 to one other ability score that your parent race got a bonus to.
Bonus Skill: Imitimdation or Stealth
Suprise Attack (functions as per bugbear ability)
Darkvision 60ft
Languages: Common +1 other language spoken by parent race.
Size: Medium but you appear to be a more imposing version of your parent race, if your parent race was medium sized calculate height/weight as if you were a goliath, if you parent race was small sized calculate your height/weight as if you were a human.
Speed: 30ft
Alignment: Any but all feel the pull to commit evil acts.
For anyone interested, turned out it was much easier to run a cleric of the god of murder as an Arcane Trickster with access to cleric spells instead of the normal list and just call them a "Cleric".
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On the followers of Bhaal note, I was going through the AD&D book called Faiths and Avatars and there was a type of priest associated with Bhaal called a Deathstalkers, they had a few interesting powers:
1) Proficiency with Ceremoial Daggers, this functions axactly as per proficiency with normal Daggers except they also had a 1/2% (Half a percent) per level chance of instantly reducing any man sized (medium for 5e) creature they hit with a ceremonial dagger to ZERO hit points or deal normal damage with the dagger. For 5e this is probably another good reason to use Arcane Tricksters with access to the Cleric spell list instead of Wizard so you could use Sneak Attack to represent this ability.
2) They could cast Figner of Death once per month once they reach 7th level, this would be a bit harsh for 5e but having a cult leader able to do it in a manner similar to a warlocks Mystic Arcanum might be fun.
3) From 10th level they could go Plane Skipping: The Deathstalker can step from the material Plane into Gehenna, moves and then step back into the material plane. Movement in Gehenna is quicker than the material plane and moving 10ft in Gehenna is equals one mile in the material plane. For an effective 10th level 5e character thats quite a bit but for a special ability for a BBEG that could be interesting. The only caveat to the power was the user could not enter the material plane in nay area protected by the "the forces of good or areas of anti magic" so for 5e you could take that to assume they could not plane skip into temples to good dieties or places protected by a Hallow spell.
4) At 11th level they could summon an Aeriel Servant once per month, in 5e this would be an Invisible Stalker (CR6 Elemental). Another good power for a BBEG to have but could be ok for a PC if they have access to a summoning spell like Conjure Elementals.
So taking some inspiration from Sarevok from the original Baldurs gate computer game, I'm thinking of an NPC cleric of Bhaal (God of Murder...cue sinister "mu-ha-ha!"). I'm designing it as a character build instead a stat block as I might roll it out as a player option for the next camapign, let me know what you think.....
So far I have:
*****
Domain: Murder
Domain spells:
Lvl 1 spells: Hunters Mark, Inflict Wounds
Lvl 2 spells: Invisibility, Pass Without Trace
Lvl 3 spells: Blinding Smite, Nondetection
Lvl 4 spells: Greater Invisibility, Staggering Smite
Lvl 5: Destructive Wave, Steel Wind Strike
Domain abilities:
Lvl 1: Gain proficiency with Martial Weapons and Poisoner's Kits.
Lvl 1: Gain Marked for Death (as per Rogue Assassinate ability)
EDITED: Lvl 2: Channel Divinity: Life's End; you can use your Bonus Action & a use of your channel divinty to Sneak Attack as a Rogue, your sneak attack dice are the same as a Rogue of equivilant level and the decision to use this abiility must be made before you roll to attack and all other restrictions to sneak attack (weapon type etc) apply as normal.
Lvl 6: Flee the scene: Whever you use the Channel Divinity: Life's End ability and hit a creature with the resulting sneak attack you can use your reaction to instantly Misty Step as per the spell.
Lvl 8: Divine Strike: Once on each of your turns when you hit a creature with a weapon attack, you can cause the attack to deal an extra 1d8 Poison Damage damage to the target. When you reach 14th level, the extra damage increases to 2d8.
Lvl 17: Lord of Murder: Functions as per the Rogure Assassine ability Death Strike.
*****
Now, the only issue I have so far is potentially the combo of Steel Wind Strike or a high level Inflict Wounds + Marked For Death/Assassinate + Lord of Murder/Death Strike going off on a surprise round.....
EDIT:
Bhaal Spawn as a race.....
Choose a race to be one of your parents (Bhaal was the other half), regardelss of parent races you gain the following:
Ability Score Increases: +2 Strength or Dexterity & +1 to one other ability score that your parent race got a bonus to.
Bonus Skill: Imitimdation or Stealth
Suprise Attack (functions as per bugbear ability)
Darkvision 60ft
Languages: Common +1 other language spoken by parent race.
Size: Medium but you appear to be a more imposing version of your parent race, if your parent race was medium sized calculate height/weight as if you were a goliath, if you parent race was small sized calculate your height/weight as if you were a human.
Speed: 30ft
Alignment: Any but all feel the pull to commit evil acts.
Age: As parent race.
Flee the Scene is unusable, since it requires the use of a Reaction and "Life's End", which also requires a reaction.
noted and adjusted to bonus action for lifes end
Nice
Hey another post I forgot I made!
For anyone interested, turned out it was much easier to run a cleric of the god of murder as an Arcane Trickster with access to cleric spells instead of the normal list and just call them a "Cleric".
This is really great Rob, going to be adapting it for my homebrew game. Thanks for making my prep easier!
On the followers of Bhaal note, I was going through the AD&D book called Faiths and Avatars and there was a type of priest associated with Bhaal called a Deathstalkers, they had a few interesting powers:
1) Proficiency with Ceremoial Daggers, this functions axactly as per proficiency with normal Daggers except they also had a 1/2% (Half a percent) per level chance of instantly reducing any man sized (medium for 5e) creature they hit with a ceremonial dagger to ZERO hit points or deal normal damage with the dagger. For 5e this is probably another good reason to use Arcane Tricksters with access to the Cleric spell list instead of Wizard so you could use Sneak Attack to represent this ability.
2) They could cast Figner of Death once per month once they reach 7th level, this would be a bit harsh for 5e but having a cult leader able to do it in a manner similar to a warlocks Mystic Arcanum might be fun.
3) From 10th level they could go Plane Skipping: The Deathstalker can step from the material Plane into Gehenna, moves and then step back into the material plane. Movement in Gehenna is quicker than the material plane and moving 10ft in Gehenna is equals one mile in the material plane. For an effective 10th level 5e character thats quite a bit but for a special ability for a BBEG that could be interesting. The only caveat to the power was the user could not enter the material plane in nay area protected by the "the forces of good or areas of anti magic" so for 5e you could take that to assume they could not plane skip into temples to good dieties or places protected by a Hallow spell.
4) At 11th level they could summon an Aeriel Servant once per month, in 5e this would be an Invisible Stalker (CR6 Elemental). Another good power for a BBEG to have but could be ok for a PC if they have access to a summoning spell like Conjure Elementals.
So there is a few other things to look into.
I'm confused, this seems more like a rogue subclass than a cleric subclass, no?