Could someone hire a banshee to kill a dragon for them??? It looks like it could drop any living creature to zero if it rolled low enough. It has an int. of 12 so you could trade with it? It also says they like beatiful objects as well.

Not going to lie, that wail ability is complete BS, even if you did pass the save, if you're damaged enough, a party of injured players can still get one shot. 

I agree, with the Detect Life the Banshee will have a general idea of where the party is, combined with the fact that the Banshee will know her territory a lot better than the party means the Banshee will be able to setup where the encounter takes place and will be able to maximize it's Incorporeal Movement to it's best advantage. For example, a Banshee can hide itself behind a solid wall and use it's Wail to put down party members on the other side before passing through the next turn to expose those still up to it's Horrifying Visage. Assuming it encounters no further resistance after that, it can mop up the fallen.

A few suggestions to tackling a Banshee. One could probably play to it's vanity with gifts of beautiful (nonreflective) objects, and laying on the charm and flattery (if you pass the check versus it's Horrifying Visage first) might put her at ease long enough to formulate an attack or an escape from the Banshee's territory. Leaving mirrors where the Banshee will come across them might buy you time to flee, as the Banshee will likely spend time destroying the hated object first. A creature like a Banshee will doubtlessly have a history, objects from it's past would likely distract or enrage her as well.

Depends on the Dragon. The Banshee is fairly fragile and most dragons beyond hatchlings shouldn't have trouble with the DC 13 Constitution saving throw. There's also the issue of the Banshee being bound to an area of 5 miles around the area of it's death (so the potential employer would have to bring the dragon to the Banshee rather than the reverse). Banshees, being undead, don't exactly cotton to the living either (though the Banshee seems less "immediately attempt to murder the breathing" than most undead). A thick laying on of charm and flattery combined with gifts of beautiful objects might get one to listen to you for a short while, maybe get it to turn its attention to the dragon chasing you through the Banshee's territory, but that's about it.

thanks

I find it interesting that D&D portrays Banshee as evil when they were originally benign in Irish culture. Has anyone used a Banshee in a game where they were used for their original purpose which is also quite gameable (warns player party of a coming death).

I also created a Banshee image as part of my Misunderstood Myths project

Here's the main image (I have laptop stickers if anyone is interested):
Banshee key art
Banshee laptop stickers

I know this is an old question, but I just want to share one thing. Be careful with the wail.

We had a party of 3 lvl 5's - Barbarian, Rogue, Wizard vs one banshee. We were having some success trying to reason with her when the rogue said the wrong thing, the banshee wailed, all 3 of us were within 30 ft, and all 3 of us failed our saves. Required some serious storyline gymnastics to avoid a really unsatisfying TPK (Unexpected NPC returned to stabilise us, but there were a stack of knock-on story effects). We didn't even get a chance to lay a finger on her.

4 level 3 characters are going to be killed by a Banshee, if played like a Banshee.

They are vengeful. They detect life at 5 miles. So she is never surprised. Almost certainly will surprise the party because she is an ethereal ghost. 

So her lair will be somewhere that is surrounded by other undead creatures and difficult to reach (island, sunken ship, mausoleum in a cemetery, etc.). She will move and use her voice to lure the party into an encounter with undead and once engaged she will appear by surprise, drop her visage on them and then wail. Anyone left alive or unafraid will be finished by her touch or the other undead.

Banshees are nasty, but if you just play them as a stat block they could be defeated by 4 level 3's.

Quote from mechwolf23 >>

Four lvl 3s would tear this thing apart. She could probably take out one or two of them (which the cleric would heal), but then the party still has two or three actions and presumably two or three bonus actions before her next turn. Assuming the three non healers did about ten damage each per turn, she'd be dead in two rounds.

Using two of them would probably tpw, but I would say jack up her hit points, add environmental dangers, or add other, weaker undead.

You could also change her tactics so that she only wails if she's in serious danger, or tries to split them up. Keep in mind she only wails once and at least the barbarian will likely succeed

 Hilariously, our 3rd level party (Bard, Artificer, Monk and Warlock) faced a single one of these yesterday. 3/4 of us failed the save against Wail, and at least two of us definitely not including me failed it badly enough that even an additional 1d8 added to the save couldn't possibly have kept us on our feet.

Whist it's usually accurate to state that, with adequate tactics and IC knowledge, four 3rd level PCs could take this thing out without too much trouble, this one can absolutely turn more than most encounters on a small number of bad rolls.

Also, I just did the calcs: this thing by itself is a Hard encounter for four 3rd level PCs, but adding even a single CR 1/4 Zombie alongside it takes the encounter up to Deadly. Obviously CR is an imperfect guide at best (looking at you, Quicklings), but assuming the baddies are played in a realistic manner then this could easily end badly for a 3rd level party.

i thought that the horrifying visage action was a trait that happened whenever you looked at it. although, who cares when you pit this against my party of five level 6 characters. 

as in the players were surprised that it killed them or the characters were surprised by it

Another way to give a Banshee just a slight "bump" up, is to give it the Turn immunity that Revenants have. It isn't a huge boost, but if a Cleric in the party steps forward to hit it with Turn Undead, it'll cause panic for the whole party when she brushes it off.

Her main/most powerful attack is her wail.  You can take some psychic damage from it,  around 10 points which is perhaps enough to kill weak, low level, or already heavily damaged characters or npcs - or if you fail your save it will drop you to zero hit points which in D&D means you are unconcious yet not bleeding out.   So you'd be wide open to massive attack damage in your unconcious state, and regardless completely out of the combat scenario.    "D&D beyond" ruleset's version of the banshee - she can only wail once per day so I guess it's all or nothing on the first wail for most encounters, unless you repeatedly encounter her or are purposefully tracking her down in the area you are staying or adventuring. 

Her other attack is a necrotic melee +4 to hit attack with 5' reach for around 12 points damange.   She has a horrifying visage "aura" (anyone who can see her within 60') and the wail,  and she can pass through solid objects in ethereal form as well as detect lifeforms for up to 5 miles.  

So she'd never be surprised by the living and would have a rough idea where they were, could phase through solid objects, inluding the ground, walls, etc as if they were difficult terrain (prob 20' per round but she takes damage if she ends her turn inside of a solid object so these would be 10 to 20 through a barrier).   She would almost always suprise the group between incorporal form through solid objects and her standard floating/flying movement (40').  Her reveal would potentially scare one or more individuals off who fail their wisdom save just by them seeing her, and wail with her surprise round causing constitution saving throws.   Anyone left standing to face her who passed their con save would be within 30' of her (wail range) but would take around 10 pts. psychic damage.   She takes half damage from most common attacks without magic weapons but otherwise the 1 wail/day is a one shot thing.  Those who failed the wail save would be shred down from zero hitpoints but if anyone with a handful of levels as a character and who still retained a good hitpoint pool remained standing they might be able to take her down.  She'd have around 58 hp average but at 1/2 damage essentially 116 and dealing 12 melee pts of necrotic dmg per round, if she hits.  The strongest hp banshee could theoretically have 104hp which if all the party's attacks here at 1/2 dmg would essentially be 208hp.

A good DM might have her use her float-flying ability and her non-corporal ability to her advange.  Perhaps even luring characters through pitfalls like bogs of difficult terrain that she would just float above.  She could lead them into dead ends that she could pass through too.   She could also use water to escape characters since she could float over it.   Since they are known to haunt moors -  quicksand/tar-pit like areas of bogs as well as choosing foggy conditions would often come into play.   You could also optionally have some of the people she killed over the years have risen as lower undead types spread throughout the area.     They aren't incredibly intelligent or wily/wise (12, 11) though so they might not have too clever of a strategy.

They could also perhaps be the pawn of someone more powerful.  Working with a witchdoctor, swamp hag, evil priest or other chatoic undead type.   That wail is pretty powerful even if a 1 trick pony, but would be even moreso if she's wasn't on her own. They are known as solitary though so unless commanded  by someone more powerful that would be unlikely.

bansheee

I find the 5e lore of the banshee to be a little uncomfortable, tbh. Specifically the Divine Wrath part. "Banshees are the undead remnants of elves who, blessed with great beauty, failed to use their gift to bring joy to the world." It kind of reads like "if you were born pretty enough, the rest of the world is entitled to you, and if you don't accomodate their desires to a satisfactorily degree, the gods will turn you into a monster as a punishment". It just... reads a little strange, you know? I feel like every elf would live their lives in terror of not "bringing enough joy to the world".

     "To corrupt and control others".  Also to bring joy to the world can be many thing, something akin to being normal and not bringing other people down and bending them to your will. Inspiring confidence in others would also be bringing joy, as confident people are more often than not happy people

Not a very experienced DM or Player but I’m in a level 3 campaign now and I’d say with a bit of fluffing of rolls it could be possible. As long as the party can work well together and work strategically they should be decently ok

We had six level (7) characters TPW against three these in a DIA encounter. They rolled higher initiative than 5 of the characters. The wail put all but the wizard down on the first action (lulu, sorlock, barbarian, rogue, and cleric put to 0 HP on poor rolls).  The next two attacked the wizard but he threw shield up to defend. He used his sole healing potion to get the cleric up who was able to get the barbarian and rogue up. Without going into too much detail, one banshee left at the end used a wail that dropped the whole group again except the rogue who was a chaotic neutral and had less than 5 hp left (banshee was 30+). We role played the rogue ran away based on alignment and not having a long history with the group. I went into this encounter thinking eh there’s 3 of them, no problem but I spent the whole time face down on the ground making death saves (sorlock). Lulu and the wizard did not make their death saves. DM had us awaken a few hours later with 1 HP totally stripped of our gear. Probably one of the most memorable encounters I’ve had just for how insanely bad the rolls were on our side. 

Hi! Im a starting Dm but I have an idea for said safety net. As a 14 year old (M) not a lot of people I know want to play but I have 3 PCs so I'm filling in for one with a NPC, kind of like a hireling. I don't know if you have already started said campaign, but I suggest using a NPC hireling type thing as a safety net. You could also use it as a way to keep the adventurers on track, or as a plot point/way to enhance the plot. I plan on using a modified form of the Banshee for a fear/horror based campaign, but you could use some convenient dm magic and if all the adventurers fail on the saving throw to make the NPC succeed and get the rest of them up. Make them a bard with mass healing word if they fail. I'm new so this may not be as good a idea as I think but I hope this helps!

You also might want to level up the banshee artificially.

Hey your starting to be a Dm take advice from other Dms around the area and try focusing on your scene and your creatures. The way your characters turn out is ether negative or positive try giving them potions before hand in case of deadly battles.

Have a good day,

Siren the singer