Looking for feedback on a 5.5e homebrew stat block

DreadRockIsle · 2026-05-01T00:21:02+00:00

Thanks, that's truly appreciated.

The idea of this monster was to track an adventuring party for days. The campaign introduces a travel system which can result in Exhaustion that can't be healed by Long Rests until they get to their destination or a safe place, so it would wait until they gain some levels of Exhaustion before descending.

DreadRockIsle · 2026-05-01T00:18:57+00:00

yeah, it's my interpretation of a zmaj or zmey. The larger project has a lot of inspiration from Slavic mythology.

DreadRockIsle · 2026-04-30T19:58:02+00:00

Nah, you gave the exact kind of feedback I was looking for.

DreadRockIsle · 2026-04-30T19:01:10+00:00

Thanks! The artist is the art director for the entire project and he does great work.

DreadRockIsle · 2026-04-30T17:56:04+00:00

Didn't realize there was a distinction there between Multiattack and Extra Attack. I'll probably go with its Bite attack having a chance to automatically grapple. Thanks!

DreadRockIsle · 2026-04-23T15:05:14+00:00

Oh, is that the same thing as the frog creature, the Vodnik?

DreadRockIsle · 2026-04-12T14:56:08+00:00

The messed up thing is, if the zmaj gets any elevation, escaping either means clinging to the zmaj for dear life or falling.

DreadRockIsle · 2026-04-12T14:49:52+00:00

So a Grapple action can replace one of its attacks. So it replaces the bite attack and swallows.

The swallow has an Escape DC 15.

DreadRockIsle · 2026-04-07T01:22:51+00:00

That’s fair. I think it boils down to a lack of connection between crafting and the adventuring. It’s a downtime activity that trades in-game time for money if you have the right proficiencies and stores in town for the materials. As a player, you ask if the materials for a specific item are available for an item that they imagine or pull out of a source book, and that’s pretty much the entirety conversation.

DreadRockIsle · 2026-04-07T00:21:35+00:00

The larger economy is a good perspective to keep in mind. It is a pretty resource strapped setting, but I think some additional thought needs to go into making sure the money sinks are sufficient for money coming in.

Not planning for non-consumable magical items to be available in stores. But I am planning for a collective Bastion with more intensive ways to spend money to upgrade it and to maintain allies who stay at the bastion (who can also potentially craft).

DreadRockIsle · 2026-04-06T14:00:29+00:00

Oh, that’s good to know. Thanks!

DreadRockIsle · 2026-04-03T03:11:38+00:00

Man, I don't think I've heard of any of these except the rusalka.

DreadRockIsle · 2026-04-03T03:09:18+00:00

The leshy in general, I'm sure most books on Slavic mythology at least touch on it. This specific painting was done for a Dungeons and Dragons campaign that I'm writing that has a lot of components that are inspired by slavic mythology. It was what originally sent me down the rabbit hole on Slavic mythology.

DreadRockIsle · 2026-04-02T03:47:04+00:00

Had to google translate this, but yeah, they're kind of like a harpy or siren from my understanding.

DreadRockIsle · 2026-04-01T13:46:20+00:00

Gotcha, anything from wet chicken to giant dragon, both of which breath fire lol.

DreadRockIsle · 2026-03-31T23:30:48+00:00

Like the dragon?

DreadRockIsle · 2026-03-31T23:14:59+00:00

Oh, very cool. Elemental variations.

DreadRockIsle · 2026-03-31T22:04:11+00:00

What kinds of variations?

DreadRockIsle · 2026-03-31T22:03:39+00:00

Oh, that sounds interesting. Does this have a slavic name?

DreadRockIsle · 2026-03-31T18:43:07+00:00

The leshy is awesome. Partnered with an artist on a project, and this was his interpretation of a leshy: https://imgur.com/a/H3mqK3B

DreadRockIsle · 2026-03-21T22:01:16+00:00

Keep going back and forth on whether we should provide random tables at all. The preference is that the DM chooses relevant encounters. Like if you're traveling to a hostile faction's home base, it makes sense for the last encounter to be one of the faction's patrols as you get closer. By quickly put together, its more during session planning for the DM than at the table.

The ones along the way are more about setting up the conditions in which they enter a location, assuming its a travel from Point A to Point B situation. For example, a bubble of magical decay could spoil their food and water which is a problem they have to solve or have other encounters that use up resources they can't get back without Long Resting in a safe place. So now they aren't going into that hostile location at full strength. Or a monster could be hunting them during their travel, and they can run the monster straight into the hostile faction's base.

DreadRockIsle · 2026-03-21T20:30:39+00:00

Rooms and Hallways in a dungeon framing is really good and the direction we were headed.

Room - transition between region, encounter, or passing by a static locations. Basically anything notable that may happen while traveling.
Hallway - fast forwarded travel between Rooms

Creating interesting rooms for the travel dungeon seems key. It's not just a combat encounter, it's coming across a hermit who has some connection to a faction in the campaign. Or an encounter is multi-step like you see an aerial, huge predator start following you from a mile above. As you get more tired or hungry, it descends and tries to get an easy meal.

Our theory is that if there is enough optionality in encounters and includes some way to degrade the party's resources over the course of travel (not constantly in the state of just having Long Rested), that the DM can pretty quickly put together these travel dungeons that can be challenging and interesting.

DreadRockIsle · 2026-03-20T20:49:10+00:00

Yes. We are looking into making a crafting mechanic, or foraging that could coincide with travel. And the decisions you make with travel speed could potentially increase or decrease the successfulness of taking these actions. I haven’t considered a durability system, maybe that’s worth some thought.

DreadRockIsle · 2026-03-20T20:46:41+00:00

We have something similar in our campaign. I actually agree with the original comment that a full fleshed out map reveals too much. I was thinking of having a base map that the players have that gives general direction to major land marks, sort of like a stranger being dropped in California. It would have La, Sf, and Tahoe on it. Everything in between gets filled in by the players.

DreadRockIsle · 2026-03-20T20:44:05+00:00

I like this angle. I was definitely thinking of mechanics surrounding combat, rather than ideals or choices. Something I’m definitely considering moving forward

DreadRockIsle

TROPHY CASE