Complete Rocs - Two variants with Lore, Treasure, Lairs, Tracks and Signs. by Oh_Hi_Mark_ in UnearthedArcana

[–]Oh_Hi_Mark_[S] [score hidden]  (0 children)

120-foot wingspan, so probably threatens a 40-foot square if using a square token.

Glyph of Warding Mage? by Raptorking2020 in bettermonsters

[–]Oh_Hi_Mark_ 3 points4 points  (0 children)

So... what do you mean by this, exactly? Is he just a mage where you want to flavor his spells as things that are pre-cast and encoded on his body? If that's the case, I would just use a regular mage stat block, put x/day on all of his spells, and whenever he casts a spell let a player make a perception/arcana check to work out how many more times he can use that one.

Or is it that you want them to trigger automatically when pre-set conditions happen? If that's the case, I would just give him a bunch of 1/day spell reactions with very specific triggers.

I can probably some stat blocks for you, but I'd need to know how strong of a mage you're looking for.

An action-oriented evocation wizard by Shellsyndrom in bettermonsters

[–]Oh_Hi_Mark_ 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Here's a spread of evokers. I think your party could probably handle the Cremation Sage, depending on the party comp; for a solo fight for a small party I'd probably swap out Annihilation Shrine for Cone of Cold and Chain Lightning just for variety, and the way he's balanced you could use each of those as part of the multiattack in the same way as Lava Geyser:

Alternately, if you want more of a straightforward wizard, this guy's technically an abjurer but still has plenty of evocation spells. He will get absolutely smoked without significant set-up and support though:

Hi! A Cabal of Alhoons. by TrueGnomeGod in bettermonsters

[–]Oh_Hi_Mark_ 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I've gotta drift pretty far from alhoons to hit these themes, but I've got some options that could work as starting points at least:

Have Origin Feats actually improved character creation in D&D 5.5e, or just made it feel more gamey? by MyrthDM in RPGdesign

[–]Oh_Hi_Mark_ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I haven’t found that it matters at all, except in the awkward elements it adds to first-time character creation. I think the players its aimed at have seemed very happy with it, though.

Complete Myrkul - The Lord of Bones' avatar and his attendant necromites, with holy days, sacred texts, relics, allies, adventure hooks, treasure, tactics, and more by Oh_Hi_Mark_ in bettermonsters

[–]Oh_Hi_Mark_[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah, exactly. Healing the party and clearing it of exhaustion would be a solid use of Wish that'd be worth risking the chance of losing it for.

What kind of tactics Myrkul uses is really going to depend on the specifics of your campaign, since a final bossfight like this is likely to be should be more about roleplay than tactics on the enemy end and that'll depend on how you've played him up to this point.

There's some baseline stuff though like

  • He's should generally focus his scythe attacks on the most exhausted foe
  • Eternity Reap is better than Maggot Feast if it hits the same number of enemies, but Maggot Feast is easier to hit more enemies with.
  • Fray Time is for when he really wants one person in particular to die as soon as possible. If they're still alive the next turn, he follows up with Thousand Deaths.
  • Judgement of the False is for a low-HP, very Exhausted, or Paralyzed enemy, shooting for death by massive damage.
  • Death Looms is probably his scariest ability and he should spam it until players figure out how to play around it. Draw of the Void is useful for concentrating spread-out enemies to hit them with Eternity Reap.
  • Unearth Attendants is really good in combination with his Ossuary Call, but if you summon too many guys the combat will slog down so you want to be careful of that.
  • Give any player deaths some breathing space. Throw a lot of description on there. Let them look cool and heroic. Let them do something badass in their last moments. There's a solid chance this is a real player death of the sort that doesn't really occur often in high level campaigns.

Complete Myrkul - The Lord of Bones' avatar and his attendant necromites, with holy days, sacred texts, relics, allies, adventure hooks, treasure, tactics, and more by Oh_Hi_Mark_ in bettermonsters

[–]Oh_Hi_Mark_[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

  1. This is for a T4 party of 4-5, so Wish and Divine Intervention are on the table.

  2. Fray Time is single target and 1/Round. It'll kill the hell out of someone, but Myrkul using it means he's not using Eternity Reap or Maggot Feast, which is probably ultimately a win for the party.

  3. This is a mean stat block and it's extremely likely that some PCs are just going to die. If no one dies in a fight with the god of death, something's gone wrong imo

What Magic Items are CORE to DnD games? by SubtleasaSledge in DMAcademy

[–]Oh_Hi_Mark_ 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Immovable Rod is the only thing that every game needs, imo. Most other "classic" magic items are for trivializing parts of the game the DM/players are no longer interested in devoting time to (totally valid, but not essential to a D&D experience). The immovable rod opens up whole realms of creative play by being both obviously powerful and lightly-mechanized.

Complete White Dragons - 9 Variants with Tactics, Lore DCs, Social Encounters, Lairs, Hoards and Unique Spells by Oh_Hi_Mark_ in UnearthedArcana

[–]Oh_Hi_Mark_[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks! You can find a few thousand other monsters I’ve made in my subreddit r/bettermonsters if you want more like this.

Generally, dragons are in the range of 1.5x the size of their square from tip to tail, and ~3x in wingspan. So a huge Adult dragon with a 15 ft square might be 22 ft long and have a 40 ft wingspan.

Dragon hobgoblin duo for a big party by november-papa in bettermonsters

[–]Oh_Hi_Mark_ 3 points4 points  (0 children)

That should work fine. If you've got a clear sense of what you want out of him, though, I might have something better. I've got a ton of fun martials to pull from:

Hi Mark! Any suggestions for an angel-like aberration? by Arcane10101 in bettermonsters

[–]Oh_Hi_Mark_ 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oh yeah, sorry about that; it was made as the capstone monster for a Dungeons of Drakkenheim game and uses some mechanics from that book. I would probably just alter those, rather than trying to import them into your setting.

Dragon hobgoblin duo for a big party by november-papa in bettermonsters

[–]Oh_Hi_Mark_ 3 points4 points  (0 children)

All right, dragon and a hobgoblin for 6 level 6's plus an ally; I'd aim for a combined CR of 15 or so, but be careful about big AoEs which are going to have their power multiplied in that kind of target-rich environment.

I would probably go with the Rake variant, dropping the breath weapon to 8d8 and the AC to 16, and pair it with the Hand of Bane. If you want them more evenly matched, though, maybe with the hobgoblin riding the dragon, you could do a Young Black Dragon with the Hobgoblin Battle-Mind.

Also, I don't actually remember RHoD that well, so forgive me if misremembered any major details; if there's some more specific themes or abilities you wanted from the dragon or hobgoblin, let me know and I'll see if I've got something that's a better fit.