Ive been wanting to run a small adventure (a few one shots) were my party fights a fantasy version of the Borg. I welcome any ideas you all have on how their ability to adapt can be done in 5e.
The adventure will be in a steam punk world, where it is common place to use elemental spirits to run tech. Ex flying ships have air spirits and so on. However the borg use this same concept but don't distinguish between spirits they use all souls to power there tech.
This is just a concept at the moment. I welcome any ideas peaple have that can build off what I already said.
Well, have you seen the latest UA (playtest content from WotC) that came out yesterday? The new playtest Rogue subclass has two features that sound like you might be able to use as a basis for your idea. I think as class features they’re kind of problematic (but it’s only because it tracks off of Proficiency bonus so it would even work the same for multiclass characters). But as a racial trait for a villain like your Borg idea it might work well. Not exactly as they are, but more the idea of capturing soul energy to be hard to kill and maybe fuel other features like your “adaptions.” I wouldn’t give them much else though because this could make them really powerful depending on what adaption choices you give them and how many. Just a thought.
Tokens of the Departed
9th-level Phantom feature When a life ends in your presence, you’re able to snatch a token from the departing soul, a sliver of its life essence that takes physical form: as a reaction when a creature you can see dies within 30 feet of you, you open your free hand and a Tiny trinket appears there, a soul trinket. The DM chooses the trinket’s form or has you roll on the Trinkets table in the Player’s Handbook to determine it. While the soul trinket is on your person, you have advantage on death saving throws and Constitution saving throws, as your vitality is enhanced by the life essence within the object. You can have a maximum number of soul trinkets equal to your proficiency bonus, and you can’t create one while at your maximum. As an action, you can destroy one of your soul trinkets, no matter where it’s located. When you do so, you can ask the spirit associated with the trinket one question. The spirit appears to you and answers in a language it knew in life. It’s under no obligation to be truthful, and it answers as concisely as possible, eager to be free.
Ghost Walk
13th-level Phantom feature You can now phase partially into the realm of the dead, becoming like a ghost. As a bonus action, you assume a spectral form. While in this form, you have a flying speed of 10 feet, you can hover, and attack rolls have disadvantage against you. You can also move through creatures and objects as if they were difficult terrain, but you take 1d10 force damage if you end your turn inside a creature or an object. You stay in this form for 10 minutes or until you end it as a bonus action. To use this feature again, you must finish a long rest or destroy one of your soul trinkets as part of the bonus action you use to activate Ghost Walk.
You could run them as just normal guards or veterans (dependent on the level of your party) but as your party attacks them, their weapons do less and less damage.
- after 1 attack of a damage type, the group gains resistance to the damage type (or this could be a damage threshold, like 50 points of damage)
- after 5 attacks of a damage type, the group gains immunity to that damage type (could also be a damage threshold)
this will encourage your party to innovate on their attacks (and not fireball everything) and make the threat of the borg adapting to the attacks feel real. You would have to adapt too.
You could maybe make an exception for Psychic damage, or make them vulnerable to it, as it disrupts their link to the collective.
The the zombie rule to “undead fortitude” that could represent them not dying, you could also add a modifier for how many have died so it becomes more likely they make the save as combat goes on
to me borg would use a cross between undead zombie rules and/or maybe construct abilities
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Ive been wanting to run a small adventure (a few one shots) were my party fights a fantasy version of the Borg. I welcome any ideas you all have on how their ability to adapt can be done in 5e.
The adventure will be in a steam punk world, where it is common place to use elemental spirits to run tech. Ex flying ships have air spirits and so on. However the borg use this same concept but don't distinguish between spirits they use all souls to power there tech.
This is just a concept at the moment. I welcome any ideas peaple have that can build off what I already said.
Well, have you seen the latest UA (playtest content from WotC) that came out yesterday? The new playtest Rogue subclass has two features that sound like you might be able to use as a basis for your idea. I think as class features they’re kind of problematic (but it’s only because it tracks off of Proficiency bonus so it would even work the same for multiclass characters). But as a racial trait for a villain like your Borg idea it might work well. Not exactly as they are, but more the idea of capturing soul energy to be hard to kill and maybe fuel other features like your “adaptions.” I wouldn’t give them much else though because this could make them really powerful depending on what adaption choices you give them and how many. Just a thought.
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You could run them as just normal guards or veterans (dependent on the level of your party) but as your party attacks them, their weapons do less and less damage.
- after 1 attack of a damage type, the group gains resistance to the damage type (or this could be a damage threshold, like 50 points of damage)
- after 5 attacks of a damage type, the group gains immunity to that damage type (could also be a damage threshold)
this will encourage your party to innovate on their attacks (and not fireball everything) and make the threat of the borg adapting to the attacks feel real. You would have to adapt too.
You could maybe make an exception for Psychic damage, or make them vulnerable to it, as it disrupts their link to the collective.
I like this 👌
The the zombie rule to “undead fortitude” that could represent them not dying, you could also add a modifier for how many have died so it becomes more likely they make the save as combat goes on
to me borg would use a cross between undead zombie rules and/or maybe construct abilities