So I recently made a homebrew Phoenix Elemental, and one part of its stat block kind of worries me. I gave it the fire bolt cantrip, and I'm worried that, coupled with its regeneration ability, it can swoop in, deal a bunch of damage with its talons, and then just fly out of range of the party's long range weapons, shoot fire bolts every turn, recharge its HP and then swoop back down to finish the players off. This is my first time creating a monster, and I tried to stick with the Dungeon Master's Guide guidelines, so I'm not sure if this is a real issue or not. If there is something else about the monster that you think is strange/needs corrections/other, I'd love to hear it. Thanks!
Edit: I've added Fire Form and raised the AC to 15
Cold damage does nothing to it? it is just damage, other than stopping its regen which for a creature that has a +5 to hit and 10 average damage meaning 60% change to deal 20 damage with multiattack and fire bolt dealing 6 damage on a 63% chance to hit, it is out classed as a CR 3 to a group of 4 Adventures at Level 3.
A fighter at 3rd level has a +4 to +6 to hit, with the average damage of 10 - 15 a hit, and assuming your running the common max Hit points for the first 3 levels your looking average 40 hit points. even taking 5 damage a round, the bounded accuracy assures the group wins in 2 to 3 rounds. 4 attacks to 2 attacks if it doesn't move that round.
Honestly Upping the AC to 15 and if your going to hinder it to non resurrection by use of Cold damage when killing it, then cold damage should be a vulnerability for it as well. not sure why it is immune to poison or why it is immune to restrain or grapple. Most 3rd level parties don't have spells that restrain monsters and if the crazy barbarian totem bear guy wants to grapple with the Phoenix let him he takes 2 damage a round and gets clawed or fire bolted, or he breaks out of it cause he is all flame. i mean the last don't matter lOL don't listen to me I am nit picking at that point
This is well done in my opinion! For a CR 3 it is challenging enough for low level characters, and having extra mobility and ranged attacks forces a party to think tactically. It's also strong enough to be used as a minion or supporting monster for encounters at later levels without being the primary threat. I had wanted to make lower CR phoenixes compared to the one we got in Mordenkainen's, so this is added straight to my collection!
The only thing I would add would be the Fire Form that the fire elemental gets to squeeze through 1 inch spaces since it is an elemental.
This is well done in my opinion! For a CR 3 it is challenging enough for low level characters, and having extra mobility and ranged attacks forces a party to think tactically. It's also strong enough to be used as a minion or supporting monster for encounters at later levels without being the primary threat. I had wanted to make lower CR phoenixes compared to the one we got in Mordenkainen's, so this is added straight to my collection!
The only thing I would add would be the Fire Form that the fire elemental gets to squeeze through 1 inch spaces since it is an elemental.
I see where you're coming from but I still think because of Bounded accuracy that with it's lower end AC and lower damage out put despite flying it is almost to easy. But this is me just theory crafting it out and not actually play-testing it.
I guess when I design monsters I design them with the thought of how can i make this creature reasonably hard for new players still wet behind the ears with out killing them and not a push over for experienced players that build group comp. I feel this is as you said a good monsters and challenging for new players, but a experienced party that plays a session Zero and makes a group comp this monsters dies to fast. Which is why I suggested raising the AC. The challenge of a Monster can be greatly increased for higher end players ( in a bounded accuracy game such as 5e) simply by raising the AC.
With that I agree with the Admiral here something I didn't think of the fire form should be something it has
It's a good point on the AC, upping to 15 makes perfect sense for this type of creature that would still not be too hard to hit in most cases. Looking at official monsters, if we use a monster like the gold dragon wyrmling as a comparison, it has both higher AC and HP with a similar damage output at the same CR. I don't like to use others as a direct comparison because each monster is unique, but it gives a good blueprint to where things should be.
(I lost track where I was going with those last two sentences, so I will just leave them as is. TL;DR, I agree with kaimick!)
Honestly Upping the AC to 15 and if your going to hinder it to non resurrection by use of Cold damage when killing it, then cold damage should be a vulnerability for it as well. not sure why it is immune to poison or why it is immune to restrain or grapple. Most 3rd level parties don't have spells that restrain monsters and if the crazy barbarian totem bear guy wants to grapple with the Phoenix let him he takes 2 damage a round and gets clawed or fire bolted, or he breaks out of it cause he is all flame. i mean the last don't matter lOL don't listen to me I am nit picking at that point
The cold damage wasn't a vulnerability because I based this off of the Fire Elemental, which doesn't have cold vulnerability. I did, however, want to play up the phoenix's regeneration powers, so I gave it the regeneration ability, with susceptibility to cold. The immunity to poison damage, restraining, and grappling is also from the Fire Elemental's stats. You said in an earlier post that with the fighter getting +4 to +6 to hit, and fifteen damage a turn, this monster dies too fast. This was why I gave it Fire Bolt in the first place, so it could do some ranged damage. As I said, its traits were mostly from the Fire Elemental, but Fire Form slipped past me. I'll add it to the Phoenix's stats, and up the AC to fifteen as you've all suggested.
So I recently made a homebrew Phoenix Elemental, and one part of its stat block kind of worries me. I gave it the fire bolt cantrip, and I'm worried that, coupled with its regeneration ability, it can swoop in, deal a bunch of damage with its talons, and then just fly out of range of the party's long range weapons, shoot fire bolts every turn, recharge its HP and then swoop back down to finish the players off. This is my first time creating a monster, and I tried to stick with the Dungeon Master's Guide guidelines, so I'm not sure if this is a real issue or not. If there is something else about the monster that you think is strange/needs corrections/other, I'd love to hear it. Thanks!
Edit: I've added Fire Form and raised the AC to 15
"Halt your wagging and wag your halters, for I am mastercryomancer!"
Check out my Expanded Signature
It's probably fine. Characters that don't have good ranged attack options should flee, or lure it into a more advantageous area.
Cold damage does nothing to it? it is just damage, other than stopping its regen which for a creature that has a +5 to hit and 10 average damage meaning 60% change to deal 20 damage with multiattack and fire bolt dealing 6 damage on a 63% chance to hit, it is out classed as a CR 3 to a group of 4 Adventures at Level 3.
A fighter at 3rd level has a +4 to +6 to hit, with the average damage of 10 - 15 a hit, and assuming your running the common max Hit points for the first 3 levels your looking average 40 hit points. even taking 5 damage a round, the bounded accuracy assures the group wins in 2 to 3 rounds. 4 attacks to 2 attacks if it doesn't move that round.
Honestly Upping the AC to 15 and if your going to hinder it to non resurrection by use of Cold damage when killing it, then cold damage should be a vulnerability for it as well. not sure why it is immune to poison or why it is immune to restrain or grapple. Most 3rd level parties don't have spells that restrain monsters and if the crazy barbarian totem bear guy wants to grapple with the Phoenix let him he takes 2 damage a round and gets clawed or fire bolted, or he breaks out of it cause he is all flame. i mean the last don't matter lOL don't listen to me I am nit picking at that point
This is well done in my opinion! For a CR 3 it is challenging enough for low level characters, and having extra mobility and ranged attacks forces a party to think tactically. It's also strong enough to be used as a minion or supporting monster for encounters at later levels without being the primary threat. I had wanted to make lower CR phoenixes compared to the one we got in Mordenkainen's, so this is added straight to my collection!
The only thing I would add would be the Fire Form that the fire elemental gets to squeeze through 1 inch spaces since it is an elemental.
AdmiralChry's Homebrew Compendium - A collection of all my classes, subclasses, magic items, and etc.
I see where you're coming from but I still think because of Bounded accuracy that with it's lower end AC and lower damage out put despite flying it is almost to easy. But this is me just theory crafting it out and not actually play-testing it.
I guess when I design monsters I design them with the thought of how can i make this creature reasonably hard for new players still wet behind the ears with out killing them and not a push over for experienced players that build group comp. I feel this is as you said a good monsters and challenging for new players, but a experienced party that plays a session Zero and makes a group comp this monsters dies to fast. Which is why I suggested raising the AC. The challenge of a Monster can be greatly increased for higher end players ( in a bounded accuracy game such as 5e) simply by raising the AC.
With that I agree with the Admiral here something I didn't think of the fire form should be something it has
It's a good point on the AC, upping to 15 makes perfect sense for this type of creature that would still not be too hard to hit in most cases. Looking at official monsters, if we use a monster like the gold dragon wyrmling as a comparison, it has both higher AC and HP with a similar damage output at the same CR. I don't like to use others as a direct comparison because each monster is unique, but it gives a good blueprint to where things should be.
(I lost track where I was going with those last two sentences, so I will just leave them as is. TL;DR, I agree with kaimick!)
AdmiralChry's Homebrew Compendium - A collection of all my classes, subclasses, magic items, and etc.
The cold damage wasn't a vulnerability because I based this off of the Fire Elemental, which doesn't have cold vulnerability. I did, however, want to play up the phoenix's regeneration powers, so I gave it the regeneration ability, with susceptibility to cold. The immunity to poison damage, restraining, and grappling is also from the Fire Elemental's stats. You said in an earlier post that with the fighter getting +4 to +6 to hit, and fifteen damage a turn, this monster dies too fast. This was why I gave it Fire Bolt in the first place, so it could do some ranged damage. As I said, its traits were mostly from the Fire Elemental, but Fire Form slipped past me. I'll add it to the Phoenix's stats, and up the AC to fifteen as you've all suggested.
"Halt your wagging and wag your halters, for I am mastercryomancer!"
Check out my Expanded Signature