Below you will find the statblock for the Children of Marrow. These creatures are in the first state of the conversation process. My goal was with the Child of Marrow is to show how difficult these creature become to kill after they have begun the ritual process. They do not have a lot of damage output, but their damage mitigation, regeneration, and undead fortitude make them a pain to do away with.
The next statblock I am going to create will be representation of the higher ranks: there will be Cultists of Lady Marrow, the Death-Knight of Lady Marrow and the Necro-Monger of Lady Marrow. All of which are aimed at a higher level party before they engage with the lich queen herself.
Languagesthe languages it knew in its life before conversion
Challenge6 (2,300 XP)
Proficiency Bonus+3
Regeneration. The child of Marrow regains 13 (4d4 + 3) hit points at the start of its turn if it has at least 1 hit point and has not taken damage from a silver weapon. If the child of Marrow takes damage from a weapon made or lined with silver, this trait doesn't function at the start of the child of Marrow's next turn.
Undead Nature. A child of Marrow does not require food or water to live. If damage reduces the child of Marrow to 0 hit points, it must make a Constitution saving throw with a DC of 5 + the damage taken, unless the damage is from a silver weapon or from a critical hit. On a success, the child of Marrow drops to 1 hit point instead.
Actions
Multiattack. The child of Marrow makes two Longsword attacks, or three Claw attack.
Claws. Melee Weapon Attack:+6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 7 (1d6 + 3) slashing damage.
Longsword. Melee Weapon Attack:+6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d8 + 3) slashing damage, or (1d10 + 3) slashing damage if used with two hands.
Reactions
Unnatural Contortion. The child of Marrow contorts its body and moves it in an unpredictable manner as to damped income damage. When an attacker that the child of Marrow can see hits it with an attack, the child of Marrow can use its reaction to reduce the attack’s damage against it by 8 (1d10 + 3).
Description
Children of Marrow are humanoid children whose body have accepted the conversion process to the in-between state of alive and dead; a process designed by the lich queen, Lady Marrow. Those just recently having gone through the conversion process are as feral creatures and must be restrained. Their physical form made stronger, denser, and more agile. Their minds and spirits however, have been cracked, broken, and then mended into blank slates; they have been readied for their next undertaking, a necromantic ritual that scorches runes onto the bones of the creatures body.
Each creature that makes it through the first stage of conversation have their fingernails turn black and hardened like claws. Eyes become wells of darkness with only thin white lines to outline their irises. If the creature has skin or hide, it is likely to turn a sickish green or yellow.
Firstly, the claws attack seems to have the wrong average damage (should be 6).
Second, there doesn't seem to be much of an incentive to use the two longsword attacks over the three claws, as even two-handing the longsword doesn't do enough extra damage. I mean they're pretty similar (18 average vs. 16 average two-handing) but doesn't seem worthy of having a separate attack option as personally I'd just have the claws and let DMs reskin it as a weapon if they want to. Personally I tend to try to just have one basic attack, and then something special; maybe something that can cause a target to be grappled then a second action that automatically drains health from a grappled target (no attack roll, just have to maintain the grapple)?
Third, the damage resistance should probably just be to non-magical rather than non-silvered; the point of silvered weapons is that they count as magical for the purposes of damage resistances, though this would make it weaker (closer to CR 4 than 6) so maybe you've already factored this in?
Fourth is that it basically just seems to be a giant damage sponge; its own damage output isn't that threatening so it seems like it's just going to be a really long fight. Personally I'd make the damage resistance non-magical rather than non-silver, give it more base HP and then add some additional threat (if you want to up its damage, then maybe some way to impose a condition, or a frightening aura etc.?). Otherwise my main concern is that it's just going to be the same thing for several (probably quite a few) rounds so it could get boring unless you plan to run it in an interesting environment, or with other creatures?
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Hello Beyond community,
Below you will find the statblock for the Children of Marrow. These creatures are in the first state of the conversation process. My goal was with the Child of Marrow is to show how difficult these creature become to kill after they have begun the ritual process. They do not have a lot of damage output, but their damage mitigation, regeneration, and undead fortitude make them a pain to do away with.
The next statblock I am going to create will be representation of the higher ranks: there will be Cultists of Lady Marrow, the Death-Knight of Lady Marrow and the Necro-Monger of Lady Marrow. All of which are aimed at a higher level party before they engage with the lich queen herself.
Other creatures I've created to go with this arc:
- Bollok, the Bagger (Oni kidnapper) - https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/dungeons-dragons-discussion/homebrew-house-rules/145355-sharing-my-minor-bbeg-for-feedback-sketch-drawing#c3
Regeneration. The child of Marrow regains 13 (4d4 + 3) hit points at the start of its turn if it has at least 1 hit point and has not taken damage from a silver weapon. If the child of Marrow takes damage from a weapon made or lined with silver, this trait doesn't function at the start of the child of Marrow's next turn.
Undead Nature. A child of Marrow does not require food or water to live. If damage reduces the child of Marrow to 0 hit points, it must make a Constitution saving throw with a DC of 5 + the damage taken, unless the damage is from a silver weapon or from a critical hit. On a success, the child of Marrow drops to 1 hit point instead.
Multiattack. The child of Marrow makes two Longsword attacks, or three Claw attack.
Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 7 (1d6 + 3) slashing damage.
Longsword. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d8 + 3) slashing damage, or (1d10 + 3) slashing damage if used with two hands.
Unnatural Contortion. The child of Marrow contorts its body and moves it in an unpredictable manner as to damped income damage. When an attacker that the child of Marrow can see hits it with an attack, the child of Marrow can use its reaction to reduce the attack’s damage against it by 8 (1d10 + 3).
Description
Children of Marrow are humanoid children whose body have accepted the conversion process to the in-between state of alive and dead; a process designed by the lich queen, Lady Marrow. Those just recently having gone through the conversion process are as feral creatures and must be restrained. Their physical form made stronger, denser, and more agile. Their minds and spirits however, have been cracked, broken, and then mended into blank slates; they have been readied for their next undertaking, a necromantic ritual that scorches runes onto the bones of the creatures body.
Each creature that makes it through the first stage of conversation have their fingernails turn black and hardened like claws. Eyes become wells of darkness with only thin white lines to outline their irises. If the creature has skin or hide, it is likely to turn a sickish green or yellow.
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Firstly, the claws attack seems to have the wrong average damage (should be 6).
Second, there doesn't seem to be much of an incentive to use the two longsword attacks over the three claws, as even two-handing the longsword doesn't do enough extra damage. I mean they're pretty similar (18 average vs. 16 average two-handing) but doesn't seem worthy of having a separate attack option as personally I'd just have the claws and let DMs reskin it as a weapon if they want to. Personally I tend to try to just have one basic attack, and then something special; maybe something that can cause a target to be grappled then a second action that automatically drains health from a grappled target (no attack roll, just have to maintain the grapple)?
Third, the damage resistance should probably just be to non-magical rather than non-silvered; the point of silvered weapons is that they count as magical for the purposes of damage resistances, though this would make it weaker (closer to CR 4 than 6) so maybe you've already factored this in?
Fourth is that it basically just seems to be a giant damage sponge; its own damage output isn't that threatening so it seems like it's just going to be a really long fight. Personally I'd make the damage resistance non-magical rather than non-silver, give it more base HP and then add some additional threat (if you want to up its damage, then maybe some way to impose a condition, or a frightening aura etc.?). Otherwise my main concern is that it's just going to be the same thing for several (probably quite a few) rounds so it could get boring unless you plan to run it in an interesting environment, or with other creatures?
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.