One of my players wants to create a character who's a mute little druid girl. In her story, she grew up in a forest and one day met a little monkey, and this monkey speaks for her.
This monkey was a young human who had a daughter and lost her very young. Then he tried to find a way to bring her back. It went wrong, and he was cursed to become this creature. In the agreement we reached, this monkey will be just a roleplay character. It won't have a stat block, just its own skills and attributes.
I want to know how you would balance this interaction.
I can't answer this as I can't see how it is/stays balanced in the future. A talking monkey at a permeant 0 level will eventually receive so much damage from an area effect spell that there is no way to keep it going.
If it's purely for roleplay/flavour purposes, handwave the stats entirely. The monkey is never in danger, so your players don't have to stress about protecting it - but it can't help with skill checks, can't keep watch, etc.
It'll be basically like Official_FBI said the monkey will never be in danger and cant help with skill checks, only the player stats will be rolled for this purposes.
I disagree with how the monkey is never in danger. If the PC is a victim of an area spell, everything is affected, how is the monkey not also zapped? Cloudkill is effective for each creature. Is the monkey not a creature?
Can we assume the Monkey has a mind as it is communicating with the PC? Can a Warlock opponent cast Dissonate Whispers and send the monkey away, or do something nefarious?
I can't wrap my head around the monkey being able to communicate, yet still be an imamate object that is worn for other instances/cases.
But If the monkey is a familiar (like a warlock one which is not the same as a Mage version), then the creature can die every turn and be recast ever turn as well. That might work with the statless result. That said, who/why does the monkey exist? Is this a long term DM hook for the future?
I want to know how you would balance this interaction.
All of this is about the balance you asked for. The DM has ultimate power and can (dis)allow what ever they want. This means the DM can refuse to cast certain area effect spells. But because you asked for balance, I repeat, that balance means that harm can come to the monkey. If no harm can occur, that results in the interaction is forever out of balance.
The issue is that the monkey isn't really a standalone creature - it's flavour from the player. It's not intended to do anything, other than give the player a colourful narrative explanation for how their character communicates.
Once you start treating the monkey as a creature, you actively create balance issues. If the monkey can be affected by spells and other effects, it needs a stat block. Once it has a stat block, it can start to influence skill checks and other mechanics which might give the player an advantage. That becomes even more pronounced if you start pinning on other features which the druid wouldn't normally have, like a Pact of the Chain-esque free-summon familiar. More than anything, though, it's extremely not-fun if your enemies can actively gun down the only way for one of your party to communicate. This isn't the Silence spell, which you can avoid or dispel - it's just removing that character's voice.
Tl;dr, I think treating the monkey as a creature, rather than writing it off as a fun-but-irrelevant bit of flavour, creates more balance issues than it solves.
The monkey is not a creature, is it an inanimate item/object that can communicate? If it is not a creature or an inanimate object, what is it?
Whatever it is deemed, how does the monkey find the PC? How does it communicate and how does it move? If it is a creature, finding the PC is easy to state. If it is not a creature, it becomes much more difficult to explain.
it's flavour from the player. It's not intended to do anything, other than give the player a colourful narrative explanation for how their character communicates.
But that is not in balance either. You have a spell caster or PC that can never be silenced by the way you just described.
That flavor as described can never be in balance. If an opponent can never silence a PC, how is that balanced? If the PC has mirror images (non druid spell) cast on it, is the monkey visible on the original image, and what about the mirrors?
There are places you can enter and hide (forget the name) that has 10 minutes of air for 1 creature and 5 minutes for 2 creatures 1 minute for 10 creatures. If the monkey and the PC enter, how many minutes of air is there for the PC? 10? then does the monkey not breath? if it is less then 10 minutes, is the monkey now a creature?
The monkey has to be classified as something, because it does communicate, and I assume it moves as well. By waving a hand and say it is just flavor, is not balanced. That is fine if you want that, but it is still an unbalanced solution. To answer the original question, you can't balance the monkey until you determine how to classify it. Depending on the how it is classified will create other issues.
So just handwave the monkey as a colorful mouth piece. just don't ask about balance.
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One of my players wants to create a character who's a mute little druid girl. In her story, she grew up in a forest and one day met a little monkey, and this monkey speaks for her.
This monkey was a young human who had a daughter and lost her very young. Then he tried to find a way to bring her back. It went wrong, and he was cursed to become this creature. In the agreement we reached, this monkey will be just a roleplay character. It won't have a stat block, just its own skills and attributes.
I want to know how you would balance this interaction.
I can't answer this as I can't see how it is/stays balanced in the future. A talking monkey at a permeant 0 level will eventually receive so much damage from an area effect spell that there is no way to keep it going.
If it's purely for roleplay/flavour purposes, handwave the stats entirely. The monkey is never in danger, so your players don't have to stress about protecting it - but it can't help with skill checks, can't keep watch, etc.
It'll be basically like Official_FBI said the monkey will never be in danger and cant help with skill checks, only the player stats will be rolled for this purposes.
I disagree with how the monkey is never in danger. If the PC is a victim of an area spell, everything is affected, how is the monkey not also zapped? Cloudkill is effective for each creature. Is the monkey not a creature?
Can we assume the Monkey has a mind as it is communicating with the PC? Can a Warlock opponent cast Dissonate Whispers and send the monkey away, or do something nefarious?
I can't wrap my head around the monkey being able to communicate, yet still be an imamate object that is worn for other instances/cases.
But If the monkey is a familiar (like a warlock one which is not the same as a Mage version), then the creature can die every turn and be recast ever turn as well. That might work with the statless result. That said, who/why does the monkey exist? Is this a long term DM hook for the future?
All of this is about the balance you asked for. The DM has ultimate power and can (dis)allow what ever they want. This means the DM can refuse to cast certain area effect spells. But because you asked for balance, I repeat, that balance means that harm can come to the monkey. If no harm can occur, that results in the interaction is forever out of balance.
The issue is that the monkey isn't really a standalone creature - it's flavour from the player. It's not intended to do anything, other than give the player a colourful narrative explanation for how their character communicates.
Once you start treating the monkey as a creature, you actively create balance issues. If the monkey can be affected by spells and other effects, it needs a stat block. Once it has a stat block, it can start to influence skill checks and other mechanics which might give the player an advantage. That becomes even more pronounced if you start pinning on other features which the druid wouldn't normally have, like a Pact of the Chain-esque free-summon familiar. More than anything, though, it's extremely not-fun if your enemies can actively gun down the only way for one of your party to communicate. This isn't the Silence spell, which you can avoid or dispel - it's just removing that character's voice.
Tl;dr, I think treating the monkey as a creature, rather than writing it off as a fun-but-irrelevant bit of flavour, creates more balance issues than it solves.
The monkey is not a creature, is it an inanimate item/object that can communicate? If it is not a creature or an inanimate object, what is it?
Whatever it is deemed, how does the monkey find the PC? How does it communicate and how does it move? If it is a creature, finding the PC is easy to state. If it is not a creature, it becomes much more difficult to explain.
But that is not in balance either. You have a spell caster or PC that can never be silenced by the way you just described.
That flavor as described can never be in balance. If an opponent can never silence a PC, how is that balanced? If the PC has mirror images (non druid spell) cast on it, is the monkey visible on the original image, and what about the mirrors?
There are places you can enter and hide (forget the name) that has 10 minutes of air for 1 creature and 5 minutes for 2 creatures 1 minute for 10 creatures. If the monkey and the PC enter, how many minutes of air is there for the PC? 10? then does the monkey not breath? if it is less then 10 minutes, is the monkey now a creature?
The monkey has to be classified as something, because it does communicate, and I assume it moves as well. By waving a hand and say it is just flavor, is not balanced. That is fine if you want that, but it is still an unbalanced solution. To answer the original question, you can't balance the monkey until you determine how to classify it. Depending on the how it is classified will create other issues.
So just handwave the monkey as a colorful mouth piece. just don't ask about balance.