Innate Spellcasting. The oni's innate spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 13). The oni can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components:
At will: darkness, invisibility
1/day each: charm person, cone of cold, gaseous form, sleep
Magic Weapons. The oni's weapon attacks are magical.
Regeneration. The oni regains 10 hit points at the start of its turn if it has at least 1 hit point.
Multiattack. The oni makes two attacks, either with its claws or its glaive.
Claw (Oni Form Only). Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (1d8 + 4) slashing damage.
Glaive. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 15 (2d10 + 4) slashing damage, or 9 (1d10 + 4) slashing damage in Small or Medium form.
Change Shape. The oni magically polymorphs into a Small or Medium humanoid, into a Large giant, or back into its true form. Other than its size, its statistics are the same in each form. The only equipment that is transformed is its glaive, which shrinks so that it can be wielded in humanoid form. If the oni dies, it reverts to its true form, and its glaive reverts to its normal size.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/223-how-to-play-an-oni-like-a-living-nightmare
I'm a little unclear on the innate spellcasting and how to play this properly. Innate spellcasting still requires an Action right? So, the Oni wants to start out invisible, take some sort of Action to attack or cast a different spell, probably end up taking some damage on the group's turns, then turn invisible again, wait for the group to take turns unable to do much since they can't see the Oni, and finally start the whole process over? (Using its flying ability to stay out of melee reach and REALLY make things difficult to find it.)
With innate spellcasting the spells require the action, bonus action or reaction as determined by the spell being cast. So, yes, since Invisibility, for instance, takes an action to cast then the Oni must use its action to cast it.
Matt Mercer gave a good demonstration of how to effectively run combat as an Oni in Critical Role Campaign 2 Episode 29, "The Stalking Nightmare"
The highlight of that was the oni reveal. The whole build up was spot on
I am only on 27 so shush. I actually don't care and I will make sure to listen for the oni when I get there. P.S. Rip Molly
As another poster pointed out above, yes, casting a spell costs an Action (or Bonus Action or Reaction) as designated in the spell's description.
However!
As the DM, you're allowed to switch things up and change them to 1) keep the players on their toes and 2) give the monsters a healthy fighting chance. You could, for instance, rule that monsters with at will casting abilities cast those spells as a bonus action, overriding the spell's original designation. Or just give some monsters with the at will ability that feature.
this is an incredibly blatant spoiler, my dude. please tag it.
Ha
Get over it. It came out August of last year. If you haven't listened or watched it at this point, it's your fault.
The "innate" part refers to the lack of a need for components.
And yeah, that's a strategy that could be used, if one combat session is all you're doing. The shape change, gaseous form, and invisibility, and the fact that they'll work for stronger folks also open A LOT of good opportunities to use these things outside of combat, though, or make them extremely good escape artists. They're a great resolution to a "missing children" arc, for example.
Who here would love to see these as a pc race? I know I would.
Why isn't the oni a fiend? In Japanese mythology they are demons so I don't get it. Also, what happens when someone gets the oni's Glaive? does it shrink to fit the player or does it stay at normal size?
In RL beliefs, Oni were vulnerable to Soy Beans & Holly in the same way Vampires were to Garlic & Holy Water. Not saying you need to use this, just adding some lore if anyone wants to use it.
Yes Please! Been trying to figure out how to build one, but can’t figure out at which lvl to give its different abilities. Also, do there need to be abilities that are drop altogether; eg, Brute aspect with Bugbear.
Yes Please! Been trying to figure out how to build one, but can’t figure out at which lvl to give its different abilities. Also, do there need to be abilities that are drop altogether; eg, Brute aspect with Bugbear.
I think some older editions of D&D used to allow monstrous humanoid player-character races as they were written, but counted them as a set number of levels onto which you could ad PC levels. So if, for the sake of argument, you decided that an Oni was something like a 10th level PC, you could play a level 2 Oni Wizard as if it were a level 12 character. Doesn't let you play them in low level campaigns, and you'd have to scale cantrips and the like in order to make it work right, but might be one approach.
Or, in 2nd edition, Oni needed 2X xp to level up, were capped at single-digit numbers of levels, and gained their abilities with each level like so:
"Ogre magi develop special abilities as they gain hit dice: 1) assume gaseous form once per day (as the potion), fly for 12 turns; 2) become invisible at will, charm person once per day; 3) cast sleep once per day, regenerate one hit point per round (lost mem- bers must be reattached to regenerate); 4) cause darkness in a 10-foot radius at will; 5) polymorph to a human or similar biped creature (4 feet to 12 feet in height), cone of cold once per day (creates a 60-foot cone, 20 feet in diameter at the far end, that inflicts 8d8 points of damage, save vs. spells for half damage)." (2nd Edition Humanoid Handbook)
I also like running low-level PCs with unlockable abilities they don't fully understand. I've got an Elven Fighter in a campaign I'm running now who is gradually getting access to the powers of his family's dormant Moonblade as his heroic deeds restore it. You could do a similar thing with an Oni - perhaps cursed for its evil deeds to be unaware of its own true form. The DM could have its various powers first activate at times of high stress and then allow the character to master them at level appropriate times. Lots of fun RP opportunities in that kind of approach and plenty of control over balance.
I believe by default Glaive is only magical because the Oni is bounded with it, so it would remain “large” sized after the oni died.
But, a DM could easily give it a glaive that’s magical item in its own right, and those do tend to resize to fit it’s weirder.
Just to point this out it says at will for invisibility and darkness that means it doesnt need an action it can be a reaction or bonus action. Many spells that say at will for an enemy monster means that they don't need to be an action.
The post on the feed about how to play an Oni is also really helpful, but I wish they still did more of those. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, go to the main page and go back to some old posts and you’ll see it.