So I have been fighting a few too many things lately and wanted to give a fair shake to see what others thought on a few things pertaining to the Shadow Sorcerer's class ability- the Hound of Ill omen.
1. Would a hound of ill omen be able to climb? The arguments presented here are A) It is a dog and would stand no chance of doing so unless there is an obvious incline. This rules out ladders, but not stairs or anything of the sort. B) It can go through walls and creatures while still having footing and not falling through to the center of the Earth, so it must have some ability to only harden specific portions. This would mean while thinner things such as bars and ladders could still be out of the question, they could quite literally climb through walls at half speed but take the 5 force damage if they are still climbing at the end of their turn. C) Creatures climb at half of their speed same as anything else, nothing more nothing less.
2. Can you see the hound in darkness?
3. Does it make sound like a normal creature, and would it be able to be healed? Also, how does falling damage work on their turn(would they take it if they still have movement speed)?
4. If walking near a cliff, if its target were on the other side but there was an obvious path to them, would they just go along the cliffside until they reached their target, or would they literally just launch off the side of the cliff due to it being "the most direct route"? (Think an "L" shaped ledge where the hound starts at the top of the L and wanted to approach a target at the bottom right)
(Bonus points if you can find a way to make the hound more permanent or be able to hold things)
(Double bonus points for stats on a Doomfist style gauntlet with knock back and additional movement)
The hound of Ill Omen reads:
At 6th level, you gain the ability to call forth a howling creature of darkness to harass your foes. As a bonus action, you can spend 3 sorcery points to magically summon a hound of ill omen to target one creature you can see within 120 feet of you. The hound uses the dire wolf statistics, with the following changes:
The hound is size Medium, not Large, and it counts as a monstrosity, not a beast.
It appears with a number of temporary hit points equal to half your sorcerer level.
It can move through other creatures and objects as if they were difficult terrain. The hound takes 5 force damage if it ends its turn inside an object.
At the start of its turn, the hound automatically knows its target’s location. If the target was hidden, it is no longer hidden from the hound.
The hound appears in an unoccupied space of your choice within 30 feet of the target. Roll initiative for the hound. On its turn, it can move only toward its target by the most direct route, and it can use its action only to attack its target. The hound can make opportunity attacks, but only against its target. Additionally, while the hound is within 5 feet of the target, the target has disadvantage on saving throws against any spell you cast. The hound disappears if it is reduced to 0 hit points, if its target is reduced to 0 hit points, or after 5 minutes.
1. Nothing indicates it is different from other creatures. I would use the regular creature rules.
2. Depends on what you can see in darkness. It doesn’t say anything special except some non-mechanical text about it being a “howling creature of darkness.”
3. Nothing indicates it is silent, immune to healing, or immune to fall rules.
4. Even with intelligence 3, I’d say it would know whether it could jump the gap and that falling down a cliff and having to find a way back up would be less direct than going around a corner.
For the climbing of trees question. People keep saying this is a dog. in the description it is called "a howling creature of darkness". It may resemble a dog but it is a creature of darkness. I would say that means rules for dogs do not apply.
For the climbing of trees question. People keep saying this is a dog. in the description it is called "a howling creature of darkness". It may resemble a dog but it is a creature of darkness. I would say that means rules for dogs do not apply.
The reason people keep saying it is a dog is that it looks like a dog and barks like a dog.
The hound uses the dire wolf statistics (see the Monster Manual or appendix C in the Player’s Handbook), with the following changes:
[the rules then go on to list changes, none of which involve climbing]
The rules for a dog (in this case, a dire dog) certainly apply in all cases except for what the feature says it changes.
For the climbing of trees question. People keep saying this is a dog. in the description it is called "a howling creature of darkness". It may resemble a dog but it is a creature of darkness. I would say that means rules for dogs do not apply.
The rules for dogs absolutely do apply because that is specifically the stat block it has, but that stat block isn't unable to climb. Even so, only 1 person besides original post had mentioned dogs, so not even sure why you have posted this...
So I have been fighting a few too many things lately and wanted to give a fair shake to see what others thought on a few things pertaining to the Shadow Sorcerer's class ability- the Hound of Ill omen.
1. Would a hound of ill omen be able to climb? The arguments presented here are A) It is a dog and would stand no chance of doing so unless there is an obvious incline. This rules out ladders, but not stairs or anything of the sort. B) It can go through walls and creatures while still having footing and not falling through to the center of the Earth, so it must have some ability to only harden specific portions. This would mean while thinner things such as bars and ladders could still be out of the question, they could quite literally climb through walls at half speed but take the 5 force damage if they are still climbing at the end of their turn. C) Creatures climb at half of their speed same as anything else, nothing more nothing less.
2. Can you see the hound in darkness?
3. Does it make sound like a normal creature, and would it be able to be healed? Also, how does falling damage work on their turn(would they take it if they still have movement speed)?
4. If walking near a cliff, if its target were on the other side but there was an obvious path to them, would they just go along the cliffside until they reached their target, or would they literally just launch off the side of the cliff due to it being "the most direct route"? (Think an "L" shaped ledge where the hound starts at the top of the L and wanted to approach a target at the bottom right)
(Bonus points if you can find a way to make the hound more permanent or be able to hold things)
(Double bonus points for stats on a Doomfist style gauntlet with knock back and additional movement)
The hound of Ill Omen reads:
At 6th level, you gain the ability to call forth a howling creature of darkness to harass your foes. As a bonus action, you can spend 3 sorcery points to magically summon a hound of ill omen to target one creature you can see within 120 feet of you. The hound uses the dire wolf statistics, with the following changes:
The hound appears in an unoccupied space of your choice within 30 feet of the target. Roll initiative for the hound. On its turn, it can move only toward its target by the most direct route, and it can use its action only to attack its target. The hound can make opportunity attacks, but only against its target. Additionally, while the hound is within 5 feet of the target, the target has disadvantage on saving throws against any spell you cast. The hound disappears if it is reduced to 0 hit points, if its target is reduced to 0 hit points, or after 5 minutes.
1. Nothing indicates it is different from other creatures. I would use the regular creature rules.
2. Depends on what you can see in darkness. It doesn’t say anything special except some non-mechanical text about it being a “howling creature of darkness.”
3. Nothing indicates it is silent, immune to healing, or immune to fall rules.
4. Even with intelligence 3, I’d say it would know whether it could jump the gap and that falling down a cliff and having to find a way back up would be less direct than going around a corner.
I agree with wolf.
me too
You can, but it will give you nightmares for weeks…
no, it should blend in but only animals with a strong sense of smell would see it
And dogs can climb. They have limits, are not as good at it as cats, but they can definitely climb - both in and out of the game.
For the climbing of trees question. People keep saying this is a dog. in the description it is called "a howling creature of darkness". It may resemble a dog but it is a creature of darkness. I would say that means rules for dogs do not apply.
The reason people keep saying it is a dog is that it looks like a dog and barks like a dog.
The rules for a dog (in this case, a dire dog) certainly apply in all cases except for what the feature says it changes.
The rules for dogs absolutely do apply because that is specifically the stat block it has, but that stat block isn't unable to climb. Even so, only 1 person besides original post had mentioned dogs, so not even sure why you have posted this...
Summoning one in Ravenloft to fight a Shadow Demon also trapped in the demi-plane of dread, won't go as you had intended :)
just a fair warning :)
Don't look up, cos I could be looking down :)