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.
I love the Japanese mythology of Yokai, especially Oni. In my current campaign I'm playing as a homebrew Giant Oni Paladin. It is pretty fun, and being able to regenerate while playing a large paladin tank has made me the designated damage sponge of the party of mostly spellcasters. Our DM balances out my size, durability, and strength by making enemies more likely to attack me than other players, which I can live with. The ruling our DM and I concluded for my Innate Spellcasting and Shape Changing based on my backstory was that because I was raised by dwarves, I would need to seek out other more mature Oni to properly train me on how to access my Innate magic that powers my special abilities. It really like that reason and it has given my character a personal quest to complete as a journey self discovery and reconnecting with his roots.
cool
That's the point of an oni, they lure and trick travelers into traps so they can eat them. They also have at-will Invisibility and darkness to help with that. For example, they can shapechange into a medium humanoid and say he wants to give the PCs lodging to thank them for protecting a certain village or town, and, at night, try to eat them. Or, as you said, transform into something weak to make the players think they can handle it, but then show it's true form.
Do you think D&D realized how OP is Invisibility at will and regeneration? The oni just transforms to invisible and heals up naturally, then attacks. The process can repeat over and over again. The oni can beat almost anything that doesn't kill it in one turn, because of 1) the strategy I just mentioned and 2) its weapon attacks are magical, so it can hit any monsters with resistance or immunity to non-magical damage. It can ALSO trick adventurers or travelers with the change shape action, so the oni is a very good monster in general.
oni
This monster is Large, so it's not an ideal creature to turn into a playable race. I could give it the Powerful Build feature, plus maybe a feature that adds damage to weapon attacks (though not to the extent of the bonus of being a size larger than Medium). The at-will spellcasting can break the game at lower levels, so maybe I should change it to be once per short rest (though you can still cast the spell using any available spell slots). Charm Person, Sleep, and Gaseous Form seem fine for a racial trait. The shapechanging ability will be just like a Changeling's. I think I can make this work, it just won't be ideal for most groups. I heard that the Changeling is frequently banned, as are races with an innate flying speed. This has flight, shapechanging, and innate spellcasting.
I'm still not completely sure how to handle the innate spellcasting, because at-will invisibility is too powerful at tiers 1 and 2. But I want oni players to have enough uses to make it seem like a primary ability. Maybe 1 + proficiency or [insert ability modifier], recharging on a long rest (short rest at higher levels). I guess I can allow players to turn invisible at will at really high levels.
Since the basis for the Oni was from the orge mage in 3.5e you could always use the guide for playable character from the 3.5e monster manual.
Just saying I think this is the only halfling allowed to wield a glaive
Im playing one in an off and on campaign. Just a reskinned tiefling. Little warlock in there and its just about spot on
Dang this made Oni way better than I was thinking. I was putting an oni into my adventure as a fake assassin inside this assassin cult/guild and I didn't quite realize the power it had. I was going to have the adventurers think it was just another assassin and then have the oni trick them into attacking where it would then call for help, block the exit with a darkness spell and use it's innate flying speed to fly away and then turn invisible when the other assassins arrived leaving himself floating in the corner invisible while the characters are dealt with. But I forgot about their healing which would make that like an impossible battle.
I think that this makes it lose a lot of it's innate abilities like regeneration and flying speed to list a few I also think that you could use a reskinned tiefling for almost any fiend (Helpful for devil PCs!) which also kind of taps into the Japanese folk lore stuff so personally I think using a something like a goliath with modified regen and something like the Drows innate spellcasting would get you a lot closer.
P.S you could add something in like gains 10ft of flying speed every 5 levels or something so it gains a little bit of flying at 5th level but dosen't gain its full speed intel 15th level.
Actually, for the most part, unless specified, the spell needs to be cast as it normally would, requiring whatever it would take as per the spell description. Only difference is they don't need spell slots or material components. You can of course change this as a dm and make it work however you'd like but RAW that is the only thing that's changed
@ Monster_Master Please change your name to Monster_Master(in training) - there are plenty of things that give see invis and it regens 10 hps per turn. What if I can see invis and do 20 DPR?
how tall are they in their large giant form?
MY PLAYERS TRIED TO MARRY AND THEN EAT ONE!!
epic sauce
What kind of jerk shushes a semi spoiler and then hints an earth shattering spoiler? Thanks.
Why can it swap between the form of a Large giant and its true form? It's true form is a Large giant!
how does this guy fit into the ording if he's a giant?
They shoulda given the Oni a(n iron) club, smh