hi all, I've written a homebrew monster which is several degrees more complex than anything I've done before (lair actions, legendary actions) and I'd like to playtest it before I just throw it in a game and end up making all my players upset with a TPK. Can I solicit playtesters on here please? I'm targeting it at a group of 4-5 level 16 characters, or a little lower if they've got particularly snazzy gear. I can either run it myself, or if a DM wants to try it out with people they know rather than a random like me, that's cool too! Or if people have other suggestions on how to go about it, I'm all ears.
I'm a fan of using this battle simulator to simulate combats, although it can get tedious and difficult if you want to manually enter a complex custom monster. Like the previous post, I believe it would be useful if you provided the stat block.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I write homebrew and don't publish it. (evil, I know)
SensesBlindsight 120ft (from each accessory trunk), Passive Perception 18
Languages --
Challenge 21 (33,000 XP)
Proficiency Bonus +7
Accessory Trunks. A Vampire Banyan has 12 animated trunks, which can appear anywhere within its Lair. Each trunk can move independently, but must be within 150ft of the trunk containing the Vampire Spirit. If a trunk ends its turn outside of this distance, it falls dormant. Each trunk has 32 (4d12+6) hit points.
Vampire Spirit. The Banyan's spirit occupies one of its trunks at a time. If this trunk is destroyed while the spirit occupies it, the spirit must take the Heart Of The Tree lair action next turn. If all animated accessory trunks are destroyed, the spirit flees deep into the root system. If the tree is not cut down and the root system destroyed, it will regenerate damaged trunks and return in 3d6 + 4 days. Outside of clues from its actions, the location of the spirit can be determined by a DC 30 Wisdom (Nature) or Intelligence (Arcana) check by a creature that can see the occupied trunk.
Perfect Stillness. The Vampire Banyan's outward appearance is identical to a normal banyan tree until it moves. Those with exceptional understanding of the natural world, or an uncanny ability to sense concentrations of magic, may be able to recognise the tree for what it is with a successful DC 25 Wisdom (Nature) or Intelligence (Arcana) check when they are within 60ft of one of the trunks. It can also be identified with truesight or the commune with nature spell.
Legendary Resistance (3/day). If the Vampire Banyan fails a saving throw, it may choose to succeed instead, except if the damage type is fire.
Actions
Multiattack. The Vampire Banyan makes three attacks, using any combination of Trunk Slam and Vine Lash, originating from any of its accessory trunks.
Vine Lash. Melee Weapon Attack: +15 to hit, reach 40ft., 1 target. Hit: 19 (2d10 + 8) piercing damage, and the target must make a DC 21 Strength saving throw or be dragged to the trunk that made the attack and become grappled.
Strangle. The target must make a DC 23 Strength saving throw. On a failed save it takes 12 (1d12 + 6) bludgeoning damage and 12 (1d12 + 6) necrotic damage. If the trunk making the attack has taken damage, its regenerates the same amount of necrotic damage dealt, up to its hit point maximum.
Choking fog (recharge 5-6). The Banyan raises an acrid mist from the damp earth and swampy waters, in a 40ft sphere centrered around any of its currently animated trunks. Any creature other than the Banyan which starts its turn within the mist must make a DC 21 Constitution saving throw, taking 68 (8d12 + 16) acid damage on a failed save, or half as much on a successful one. The mist disperses at the beginning of the Banyan's next turn.
Reactions
Wounded Shriek. The first time the trunk occupied by the Vampire Banyan's spirit is damaged in a round, it lets out a psychic shriek of pain and rage to defend itself. The creature landing the hit must make a DC17 Charisma saving throw or suffer (2d6 + 8) psychic damage.
Legendary Actions
The Vampire Banyan can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from the options below. Only one legendary action option can be used at a time and only at the end of another creature's turn. The Banyan regains spent legendary actions at the start of its turn. If the trunk containing its spirit has been destroyed, it cannot take Legendary Actions until its spirit has occupied a new trunk.
Thirsting Vines. The Banyan uses its strangle attack on a creature that is grappled by one of its accessory trunks.
Dart Spray. Launching a hail of tiny thorns, the Banyan peppers a 30ft radius area with poisoned darts. Each creature in the area must make a DC 19 Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, they take 2 (1d4) piercing damage and 16 (1d12 + 8) poison damage, and are poisoned for 10 rounds. On a successful save, they take only the piercing damage, and feel a mild burning sensation.
Put Down Roots. Vines dangling from the Banyan's branches twist together and swell, quickly reaching the ground and becoming a solid trunk. A new awakened trunk forms 30ft away from the trunk currently occupied by the Banyan's spirit. Only usable once per round.
Visage Of Despair. Choose one creature within 60ft of the trunk occupied by the Banyan's spirit; it must be able to see the trunk. It sees a nightmarish face form in the trunk, and must make a DC22 Charisma saving throw or suffer 17 (2d12 + 4) psychic damage and become frightened for one minute. It may reroll the save at the end of each of its turns; on a successful save it loses the condition and is immune to the effect for 24 hours.
Description
In the creeping mists of coastal swamps, adventurers have much to fear, but few are more deadly than the Vampire Banyan. A vast tangle of branches drop roots like vines into the murky swamp waters, making identifying the central trunk next to impossible. Little is known about how these creatures come in to being, but some survivors who have escaped their clutches have reported that they had been passing the same banyan for years, and had never been attacked before. Was it an ordinary plant awakened by some twisted magic since their last visit? Was it merely dormant? Nobody truly knows, and certainly no-one dares to find out.
Lair and Lair Actions
A Vampire Banyan is its own lair. Banyans cover vast areas, a single plant extending hundreds of feet in every direction, dropping new trunk-like roots into the swamp to support their branches. The ground is a tangle of roots and vines, stagnant pools covered in algae looking identical to the damp moss-covered muddy patches next to them. Within one mile of the Vampire Banyan, strange mists swirl with deceptive half-shadows looking like movement, and a cloying miasma of rotting vegetable matter and decaying flesh permeates the area. Closer to the centre, the corpses of ensnared creatures, in various states of decay, lie tangled in the roots, or suspended mid-air wrapped in vines.
At the core of a Vampire Banyan's lair, its accessory trunks can move, attacking nearby creatures, and it is often difficult to discern which trunk is occupied by ravenous spirit that animates them. Vampire Banyan's can move, but slowly; moving at most 3 miles per day.
Lair Actions
On initiative count 20 (losing initiative ties), the Vampire Banyan takes a lair action to cause one of the following effects; the Vampire Banyan can’t use the same effect two rounds in a row, with the exception of taking Heart of the tree if its currently occupied trunk is destroyed.
Heart of the tree. The Vampire Banyan's spirit may change the trunk it is occupying to any of the other animated trunks. It only takes this action if the currently occupied trunk is destroyed.
Lacerating thorns. Vines with vicious barbs unfurl from up to 3 of the animated trunks. All creatures within 30ft of these trunks must make a DC16 Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save they take 16 (4d6 + 2) damage.
Befuddling mist. A 60ft sphere of mist forms anywhere within 120ft of the trunk occupied by the Banyan's spirit. Visibility within the mist is reduced to 10ft. Each creature which starts its turn in the mist must make a DC 19 Charisma saving throw. On a failed save, the creature hallucinates, and its speech, vision, and actions are impaired. Physical attacks, ability checks, and spell attacks with a verbal component are rolled with disadvantage, until the beginning of its next turn. The mist lasts for 1 minute.
Regional Effects
The region containing a legendary Vampire Banyan's lair is warped, which creates one or more of the following effects:
Creatures which take a long rest within three miles of the Vampire Banyan's lair are at risk of being attacked by creeping vines. Each creature that rests must make a DC16 Wisdom saving throw or take 16 (4d8 + 2) necrotic damage as thorny vines grow into their campsite to suck on their blood. If a party takes more than one long rest in this area, the Vampire Banyan attacks them during the second rest.
The swamplands that the Banyan lives in are filled with swirling mists which obscure the sun and confuse direction, poisonous fungi grow that mimic edible mushrooms, and game animals are scarce. Survival checks within three miles of the Banyan's lair are made with disadvantage.
If the Vampire Banyan dies, these effects fade over the course of 3d10 days.
I entered your monster into the encounter simulator against a Barbarian, Paladin, Wizard, Cleric, and Warlock, all level 16. For the simulator I made the following assumptions:
the Barbarian and Paladin both have Great Weapon Master and +2 Weapons.
The Wizard has Shield, Fireball, and Draconic Transformation.
The Cleric has Sacred Flame, Bless, Heal, Spiritual Weapon, Spirit Guardians, and Mass Cure Wounds.
The Warlockhas Eldritch Blast+Hex.
The monster has Surprise and always targets the character with the Highest health, so that its damage is evenly spread.
The monster doesn't use Strangle, or any legendary action other than Dart Spray, which always targets two characters. It uses Choking Fog every 3 rounds, which always targets all characters. It uses Wounded Shriek whenever possible. It alternates between Befuddling Mist and Lacerating Thorns, both of which always target all characters.
For the sake of the Simulator, I could not give in any Legendary Resistance, and it is treated as one monster the entire time, as Heart Of The Tree is too complicated to be entered into the simulator.
The resulting HP values at the end were 25, 3, 3, 0, and 2. A very close fight, but the players won. a couple things I noted is that the condition immunites are extreamly powerful. This severely nerfs the power level of the casters in your party, as good caster builds are often battlefield control. If your party can't deal with this, it will be a slaughter. However, if all of your players are DPS, it will be a lot easier; for example, a party of 5 Barbarians were all at ~50 health by the end.
I don't know how difficult you want this encounter to be. Depending on how optimized your party is, this could be an absolute slaughter, or it could be a fun fight. You started this thread by saying you don't want to TPK them. When balancing a monster like this, I often find it more useful to think about how close you want them to get to death. Do you want a potential partial party kill? Do you want a close fight where they all stay up?
The monster seems balanced enough, and I think any additional tweaking would have to be based on your party composition and how difficult you wish the fight to be.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I write homebrew and don't publish it. (evil, I know)
I consider "deadly" to be "if the party takes it on fully rested and expends every resource, they might manage it without one of them dying, and TPK is entirely possible", that's where I'm aiming for this one - it sounds like I got it just about right!
I believe this monster's biggest vulnerability is movement; if a party is at the edge of its area of trunks, they could kite it fairly easily. And that's what its Perfect Stillness is for, it knows that is its weakness, so its tactic is to lure them to the centre so it can kill them before they're able to get out where it can't effectively control their movement.
If that's what you're going for I think you got it perfect! A lot of the damage was caused by the big AOE effects, so if you want them spread out and kite in order to damage it, then I think you have a good build.
For my bosses, I prefer running deadly homebrew with an exploitable weakness, and I have one tip for this kind of encounter: If your players are doing everything right in the bossfight and manage to exploit all of its weaknesses perfectly, but are somehow still losing, its best to just kill the boss early. Otherwise, it just feels bad.
I hope your players have fun with the fight, and I'm glad I could Help.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I write homebrew and don't publish it. (evil, I know)
To be fair there are a couple of other ways you could make the fight with this thing substantially easier
Fire, lots of fire
Focusing the trunk occupied by the Vampire Spirit to suppress its Legendary Actions (I slightly tweaked the build and made it clear that the spirit's location can be seen with truesight; you can also determine it without that if you trigger the Wounded Shriek or when it uses its Visage of Despair)
Do these count as exploitable weaknesses would you say?
As written, It actually doesn't have vulnerability to fire damage given that it is a plant, it definitely should. If you want focus firing the occupied trunk to be an exploitable weakness, I would make Heart of the tree cost two Legendary actions instead of one.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I write homebrew and don't publish it. (evil, I know)
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
hi all, I've written a homebrew monster which is several degrees more complex than anything I've done before (lair actions, legendary actions) and I'd like to playtest it before I just throw it in a game and end up making all my players upset with a TPK. Can I solicit playtesters on here please? I'm targeting it at a group of 4-5 level 16 characters, or a little lower if they've got particularly snazzy gear. I can either run it myself, or if a DM wants to try it out with people they know rather than a random like me, that's cool too! Or if people have other suggestions on how to go about it, I'm all ears.
Rollable Dice Block Generator - Source Code
I can't playtest but I can run it through my spreadsheet to see what effective CR it has. Would you provide the stats?
I'm a fan of using this battle simulator to simulate combats, although it can get tedious and difficult if you want to manually enter a complex custom monster. Like the previous post, I believe it would be useful if you provided the stat block.
I write homebrew and don't publish it. (evil, I know)
Here's the current build:
Accessory Trunks. A Vampire Banyan has 12 animated trunks, which can appear anywhere within its Lair. Each trunk can move independently, but must be within 150ft of the trunk containing the Vampire Spirit. If a trunk ends its turn outside of this distance, it falls dormant. Each trunk has 32 (4d12+6) hit points.
Vampire Spirit. The Banyan's spirit occupies one of its trunks at a time. If this trunk is destroyed while the spirit occupies it, the spirit must take the Heart Of The Tree lair action next turn. If all animated accessory trunks are destroyed, the spirit flees deep into the root system. If the tree is not cut down and the root system destroyed, it will regenerate damaged trunks and return in 3d6 + 4 days. Outside of clues from its actions, the location of the spirit can be determined by a DC 30 Wisdom (Nature) or Intelligence (Arcana) check by a creature that can see the occupied trunk.
Perfect Stillness. The Vampire Banyan's outward appearance is identical to a normal banyan tree until it moves. Those with exceptional understanding of the natural world, or an uncanny ability to sense concentrations of magic, may be able to recognise the tree for what it is with a successful DC 25 Wisdom (Nature) or Intelligence (Arcana) check when they are within 60ft of one of the trunks. It can also be identified with truesight or the commune with nature spell.
Legendary Resistance (3/day). If the Vampire Banyan fails a saving throw, it may choose to succeed instead, except if the damage type is fire.
Multiattack. The Vampire Banyan makes three attacks, using any combination of Trunk Slam and Vine Lash, originating from any of its accessory trunks.
Trunk Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +14 to hit, reach 10 ft., 1 target. Hit: 21 (3d10 + 5) bludgeoning damage.
Vine Lash. Melee Weapon Attack: +15 to hit, reach 40ft., 1 target. Hit: 19 (2d10 + 8) piercing damage, and the target must make a DC 21 Strength saving throw or be dragged to the trunk that made the attack and become grappled.
Strangle. The target must make a DC 23 Strength saving throw. On a failed save it takes 12 (1d12 + 6) bludgeoning damage and 12 (1d12 + 6) necrotic damage. If the trunk making the attack has taken damage, its regenerates the same amount of necrotic damage dealt, up to its hit point maximum.
Choking fog (recharge 5-6). The Banyan raises an acrid mist from the damp earth and swampy waters, in a 40ft sphere centrered around any of its currently animated trunks. Any creature other than the Banyan which starts its turn within the mist must make a DC 21 Constitution saving throw, taking 68 (8d12 + 16) acid damage on a failed save, or half as much on a successful one. The mist disperses at the beginning of the Banyan's next turn.
Wounded Shriek. The first time the trunk occupied by the Vampire Banyan's spirit is damaged in a round, it lets out a psychic shriek of pain and rage to defend itself. The creature landing the hit must make a DC17 Charisma saving throw or suffer (2d6 + 8) psychic damage.
The Vampire Banyan can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from the options below. Only one legendary action option can be used at a time and only at the end of another creature's turn. The Banyan regains spent legendary actions at the start of its turn. If the trunk containing its spirit has been destroyed, it cannot take Legendary Actions until its spirit has occupied a new trunk.
Thirsting Vines. The Banyan uses its strangle attack on a creature that is grappled by one of its accessory trunks.
Dart Spray. Launching a hail of tiny thorns, the Banyan peppers a 30ft radius area with poisoned darts. Each creature in the area must make a DC 19 Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, they take 2 (1d4) piercing damage and 16 (1d12 + 8) poison damage, and are poisoned for 10 rounds. On a successful save, they take only the piercing damage, and feel a mild burning sensation.
Put Down Roots. Vines dangling from the Banyan's branches twist together and swell, quickly reaching the ground and becoming a solid trunk. A new awakened trunk forms 30ft away from the trunk currently occupied by the Banyan's spirit. Only usable once per round.
Visage Of Despair. Choose one creature within 60ft of the trunk occupied by the Banyan's spirit; it must be able to see the trunk. It sees a nightmarish face form in the trunk, and must make a DC22 Charisma saving throw or suffer 17 (2d12 + 4) psychic damage and become frightened for one minute. It may reroll the save at the end of each of its turns; on a successful save it loses the condition and is immune to the effect for 24 hours.
Description
In the creeping mists of coastal swamps, adventurers have much to fear, but few are more deadly than the Vampire Banyan. A vast tangle of branches drop roots like vines into the murky swamp waters, making identifying the central trunk next to impossible. Little is known about how these creatures come in to being, but some survivors who have escaped their clutches have reported that they had been passing the same banyan for years, and had never been attacked before. Was it an ordinary plant awakened by some twisted magic since their last visit? Was it merely dormant? Nobody truly knows, and certainly no-one dares to find out.
Lair and Lair Actions
A Vampire Banyan is its own lair. Banyans cover vast areas, a single plant extending hundreds of feet in every direction, dropping new trunk-like roots into the swamp to support their branches. The ground is a tangle of roots and vines, stagnant pools covered in algae looking identical to the damp moss-covered muddy patches next to them. Within one mile of the Vampire Banyan, strange mists swirl with deceptive half-shadows looking like movement, and a cloying miasma of rotting vegetable matter and decaying flesh permeates the area. Closer to the centre, the corpses of ensnared creatures, in various states of decay, lie tangled in the roots, or suspended mid-air wrapped in vines.
At the core of a Vampire Banyan's lair, its accessory trunks can move, attacking nearby creatures, and it is often difficult to discern which trunk is occupied by ravenous spirit that animates them. Vampire Banyan's can move, but slowly; moving at most 3 miles per day.
Lair Actions
On initiative count 20 (losing initiative ties), the Vampire Banyan takes a lair action to cause one of the following effects; the Vampire Banyan can’t use the same effect two rounds in a row, with the exception of taking Heart of the tree if its currently occupied trunk is destroyed.
Regional Effects
The region containing a legendary Vampire Banyan's lair is warped, which creates one or more of the following effects:
If the Vampire Banyan dies, these effects fade over the course of 3d10 days.
Rollable Dice Block Generator - Source Code
I entered your monster into the encounter simulator against a Barbarian, Paladin, Wizard, Cleric, and Warlock, all level 16. For the simulator I made the following assumptions:
the Barbarian and Paladin both have Great Weapon Master and +2 Weapons.
The Wizard has Shield, Fireball, and Draconic Transformation.
The Cleric has Sacred Flame, Bless, Heal, Spiritual Weapon, Spirit Guardians, and Mass Cure Wounds.
The Warlock has Eldritch Blast+Hex.
The monster has Surprise and always targets the character with the Highest health, so that its damage is evenly spread.
The monster doesn't use Strangle, or any legendary action other than Dart Spray, which always targets two characters. It uses Choking Fog every 3 rounds, which always targets all characters. It uses Wounded Shriek whenever possible. It alternates between Befuddling Mist and Lacerating Thorns, both of which always target all characters.
For the sake of the Simulator, I could not give in any Legendary Resistance, and it is treated as one monster the entire time, as Heart Of The Tree is too complicated to be entered into the simulator.
The resulting HP values at the end were 25, 3, 3, 0, and 2. A very close fight, but the players won. a couple things I noted is that the condition immunites are extreamly powerful. This severely nerfs the power level of the casters in your party, as good caster builds are often battlefield control. If your party can't deal with this, it will be a slaughter. However, if all of your players are DPS, it will be a lot easier; for example, a party of 5 Barbarians were all at ~50 health by the end.
I don't know how difficult you want this encounter to be. Depending on how optimized your party is, this could be an absolute slaughter, or it could be a fun fight. You started this thread by saying you don't want to TPK them. When balancing a monster like this, I often find it more useful to think about how close you want them to get to death. Do you want a potential partial party kill? Do you want a close fight where they all stay up?
The monster seems balanced enough, and I think any additional tweaking would have to be based on your party composition and how difficult you wish the fight to be.
I write homebrew and don't publish it. (evil, I know)
I consider "deadly" to be "if the party takes it on fully rested and expends every resource, they might manage it without one of them dying, and TPK is entirely possible", that's where I'm aiming for this one - it sounds like I got it just about right!
I believe this monster's biggest vulnerability is movement; if a party is at the edge of its area of trunks, they could kite it fairly easily. And that's what its Perfect Stillness is for, it knows that is its weakness, so its tactic is to lure them to the centre so it can kill them before they're able to get out where it can't effectively control their movement.
p.s. thank you very much :)
Rollable Dice Block Generator - Source Code
If that's what you're going for I think you got it perfect! A lot of the damage was caused by the big AOE effects, so if you want them spread out and kite in order to damage it, then I think you have a good build.
For my bosses, I prefer running deadly homebrew with an exploitable weakness, and I have one tip for this kind of encounter: If your players are doing everything right in the bossfight and manage to exploit all of its weaknesses perfectly, but are somehow still losing, its best to just kill the boss early. Otherwise, it just feels bad.
I hope your players have fun with the fight, and I'm glad I could Help.
I write homebrew and don't publish it. (evil, I know)
To be fair there are a couple of other ways you could make the fight with this thing substantially easier
Do these count as exploitable weaknesses would you say?
Rollable Dice Block Generator - Source Code
As written, It actually doesn't have vulnerability to fire damage given that it is a plant, it definitely should. If you want focus firing the occupied trunk to be an exploitable weakness, I would make Heart of the tree cost two Legendary actions instead of one.
I write homebrew and don't publish it. (evil, I know)