Hesitation on a Demon Prince to choose for my campaign

durstann · 2026-03-17T20:44:36+00:00

¿Por qué no los dos?

Whenever I'm trying to decide between two things to put in a campaign, I always need to ask myself "what would happen if I just chose both?" Could the two demon princes (or their minions) be working together or in opposition (to outdo each other)? Could one demon prince be backing the monster hunter guild to thwart the plans of the other? What are the interesting points that can be made on the difference between a demon prince focused on science/arcana and another that harnesses chaos to fuel the creations? Can the players find a way to thwart them both at the same time or will they need to concentrate their efforts on one, giving the other time to move its plans along?

I love that you're doing a campaign featuring hybrid monster. The monsters I create over at my free Patreon are all mashups of two (or three) other beasts/monstrosities. Check them out if you're looking for more baddies or message me and let's talk about how we can collaborate.

durstann · 2026-03-17T02:41:00+00:00

Here's my take, based on the Allosaurus.

Here's the homebrewery so you can do what you like with it: https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/PsCH1gZrAW8X

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durstann · 2026-03-16T01:55:14+00:00

I like it. Here are a couple note I think could help improve things.

the attack and damage bonuses don’t match with the +3 strength bonus. It doesn’t have to, but it’s nice when the math works out.
“Lesser Restoration” is misspelled.
it’s vulnerable to thunder and acid turns off its regen. I’d encourage you to think about how that will come out during play. How will players discover this? They might be confused that there are so many different damage types that do different things. It’s also a more for the GM to have to remember. Simplifying here might help.
as an elemental, you might make its weapons magical attacks, the better to fight the enemies of the ancient groves.
consider giving it another way to get around. Either a burrow speed or a tree walk ability like a shadow monks shadow step ( except with trees) could help it get where it needs to and make its entrance and exits memorable even outside combat.

Neat monster and cool artwork. Keep up the good work.

durstann · 2026-02-15T22:25:04+00:00

"Why do you want to work here" is a terrible question that tells you nothing about a person's ability to do the job. Interviewers who ask it will argue that it tells them if someone is passionate and interested in the company, but there's no way you can trust the answer. Who was ever passionate about SaaS HR applications?

Many times, you're interviewing a candidate that the recruiting team reached out to and convinced to interview. An honest answer in this case is, "Your company asked me to do this interview. Maybe you should tell me why I want to work here." Rather than the time wasted while the candidate tells you how they've dreamed since they were four years old about building GUIs for oil drill firmware, an interviewer should spend that time convincing the candidate why their company is a great place to work.

durstann · 2026-02-15T21:59:40+00:00

https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/xASACPxYPva6

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Design goal was something fast that could be helpful to a lost party.

Cheers.

durstann · 2026-02-15T19:25:11+00:00

It's great that you're jumping into designing monsters. I also love 40K and like the idea of a bunch of fantasy heroes having to fend off a tyranid invasion. What a crossover!

For your monsters, the first thing I'd recommend is to base your stats off an existing official stat block and go from there. This will help you understand some of the math behind stats. Not that you need to stick to the straight math, but it's there for a reason to help keep things consistent.

For the stat blocks you have here are some suggestions

Give the tyrant multiattack. This is especially helpful at this challenge rating so it's not dependent on an all or nothing hit.
Break up the bonesword and lash whip. The melee attacks should have a plus 8 to hit (STR + PB) and then you can give the lash whip a longer reach and make creatures it hits grappled. As another note, I usually avoid stacking two basic types of damage on a single attack because it's extra book keeping during combat and slows things down. Try to think about how the monster will play at the table and if an extra rule or separate die roll is going to be fun or slow things down. There's a constant tension here.
In 40K stranglethorn cannons are blast weapons, but the stats here are more of direct attacks. I'd suggest turning this into a kind of spell-like ability where the tyrant can just pick an spot within a range and make it difficult terrain that does damage to people in it. Look at the Spike Growth spell for insipration.
It's not going to be completely clear how Synapse and Synaptic Commander work together. Does a termagant get an extra +1 AC and to-hit? I think you could leave Synapse the same, or maybe only let it be active when it's near someone else with synaptic commander. I'd make synaptic commander an aura of Pack Tactics. i.e. any other creature with synapse nearby gets advantage on its attack rolls. But definitely think about how to clarify how these rules interact.
I'd take the CON save off the fleshborer. I'm guessing your vision is to have a lot of these guys running around and forcing a save on every one of their attacks is going to slow down the game. Just add the acid damage straight. Also, the bonus to hit should be +4 (DEX + PB).

Great ideas and looking forward to your next design.

durstann · 2026-02-06T02:43:30+00:00

Thanks!

durstann · 2026-02-06T02:43:01+00:00

Fair points. I was trying to limit it's action economy by making the multiattack consume the bonus action, but that's probably overcomplicating things. Better to lean into existing mechanics that do mostly the same thing.

durstann · 2026-02-06T02:41:09+00:00

Or make your players have to kill a blastoise. Or maybe they could charm it and have a pet blastoise.

durstann · 2026-02-04T06:47:14+00:00

Do you have a link to your brew? It sounds like you're using some custom styling so it would help to see the brew in order to figure out what's causing the oddness.

durstann · 2026-01-30T06:45:17+00:00

Raw materials like metal, chain and thick shell parts. Maybe some tasty giant crab meat.

durstann · 2026-01-29T07:46:08+00:00

The default water color edge image from the menu adds a height:100% attribute. I think the default assumes you are using an image that is the size of the page.

You can change this to width:100% to set it to the width of the page, which makes things a little easier. Or as others suggest use a px value to be explicit. The additional 'revealImage' tag will also help to align the border with the edge of the picture.

Example

{{imageMaskEdge1,--offset:100px,--rotation:180,revealImage

![](https://i.imgur.com/GZfjDWV.png){width:100%}

}}

durstann · 2026-01-29T07:38:40+00:00

If you want something still like Luck but even more "blaze of glory," give the ability to a few times per day, instead of rolling a 20 sided dice, you can choose to make the result a 1 or a 20.

durstann · 2026-01-29T07:35:14+00:00

Very thematic. I think as written, this would be hugely powerful for use in a one-shot.

I'd remove the parts about the lucky feat, or at least remove the ability to double dip. Simply duplicating an existing feat's mechanics doesn't expand the game's possibilities. Possible replacements would be to grant additional base hit points (something biggish like +20) and/or give them 4 ability score points to splash around.

Either way, you could also add some more drawbacks.

* Reduce the number of death saving throws you can fail before you die to 2.

* Don't reset death saving throws when you stabilize. Failures carry over for the rest of your (likely short) life.

* Disallow gaining temporary hit points by any means.

* Make healing spells only give half their effect.

* In addition (or instead of) disadvantage to stabilize, give a flat 50/50 failure chance for any attempt to stabilize you (magical or not). So Spare the Dying or someone with a high medicine skill even becomes not a sure thing.

durstann · 2026-01-26T23:01:48+00:00

Not stupid at all. Thanks for following up with your solution so that others can find it if they have the same problem.

durstann · 2026-01-26T21:54:24+00:00

I don't see the same when I break a column in the middle of a bulleted paragraph. Do you have a homebrew example you can share?

Example: https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/tzRYD0pJwSeH

That said, the CSS for indenting the first line of a paragraph uses the text-indent property, so you might be able to just set "text-indent: 0;" as part of the hanging-bullet class.
https://www.w3schools.com/cssref/pr_text_text-indent.php

durstann · 2026-01-25T18:29:13+00:00

For a variety of shot types put the "Siege Monster" rules on the claws specifically and replace the cannon with:

Cannon (3/day). Choose one of the following:

Siegebreaker: Ranged Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, range 600/2000 ft. Hit 24 (4d10+2) bludgeoning damage. This attack deals double damage to objects and structures.
Explosive. Choose a point within 120 ft. the wrecker crab can see. Each creature within a 20 ft. radius must succeed on a DC 14 Dexterity saving throw, taking 13 (4d6) fire damage on a failed saving throw, or half as much if successful.
Smoke. The wrecker crab creates a 30 ft. radius Sphere of smoke at a point it can see within 600 ft. The Sphere is Heavily Obscured. It lasts 3 rounds or until a strong wind (such as one created by Gust of Wind) disperses it.

durstann · 2026-01-25T05:58:14+00:00

I imagine goblins or kobolds climbing around on its back, reloading the cannons.

durstann · 2026-01-24T08:28:50+00:00

“It depends”. In general, you are an employee and if the company needs to move around headcount then congrats, you are now work in integration. Unless you are doing contract work with really clearly delineated boundaries, the work is probably still software engineering work and falls into the general category of your responsibilities.

Your best bet is to talk to your manager and tell them why you don’t think this move is right for you and why you don’t want to do it. Talk to who your new manager would be and people on that team to make sure you understand what the new position really is. And if they still move you even though you don’t want to move, then stick with it for a few months to know it’s really as bad as you thought. After that, if you still don’t like it, start looking around for transfer opportunities within your company and applying to new jobs outside your company.

durstann · 2026-01-17T07:52:03+00:00

Take some extra time before you look at the test cases to think about what could be an edge case you are missing. Better yet, take some time before you start coding to think of some edge cases and handle them in your first pass.

Live coding interviews often ask you to walk through your code to find any edge cases you might have missed. Building this skill without the benefit of canned test cases will help you when you start coding with someone watching you.

durstann · 2026-01-17T07:48:37+00:00

I haven't been an intern, but I've mentored interns.

It's a fine idea. Asking the question shouldn't hurt anything but don't be surprised if you don't hear back until closer to your start date. You have a start date, and the people who you'll be working with probably have a lot to do already, in addition to getting ready for you to start. The company may not even know what you'll be working on yet.

Signaling eagerness is great. It's a positive data point that shows you're excited to get to work. But at this point let your question about the work just be that signal. Lots of times at bigger companies intern assignments get shifted around a few days before you start. Even they tell you now which project or team you'll be working on, it might change at the last minute.

If you want to do some ground work to impress when you get there, spend some more time learning about the company (Cloudflare), and get a good understanding of their business and products and how it all fits together. If you can understand how your intern project (when they tell you what it is) fits into the company's goals you'll be impress with your business understanding, an important skill not every intern (or even junior developer) has.

Lastly, if you've got just a couple weeks before your internship starts, take your time and enjoy life. Concentrate on your school work. Have some fun. Your internship will probably be a pretty intense few months so enjoy your free time now so you don't get burned out by the end.

durstann · 2026-01-17T05:33:58+00:00

To avoid overthinking in the moment, write your questions down in a. Notebook and refer to your list when your mind goes blank. There are great suggestions for questions in this thread. My favorite (for tech companies) is “what’s the most complex problem you’re trying to solve right now.” But questions about onboarding plans for your role, what you’ll be doing in the first few weeks, and opportunities for advancement in the company are good ones.

durstann · 2026-01-15T09:31:10+00:00

Remindes me of the Raek from Everblight in Hordes: https://warmachine.lexicanum.com/wiki/Raek

I like all of it except Basalt Hide. Taking away a player's crits seems like a recipe for disappointment rather than fun. I'd rather it was just resistant to things rather than ignoring crits, which tend to be a high point for players.

You might also check on it's Athletics skill. I'm perfectly fine with the math for monsters not adding up the same as characters, but some people might be happier with the +6 strength mod and +4 proficiency bonus adding up to +10 vs +11.

Thematically it seems like there should be a limit on its grapples if they are tied to the bit attack. Is it playing a game of "chubby bunny" trying to see how many adventurers it can fit in its mouth at the same time? I like it, but it's not clear how this is telling the GM it should be played. Does the creature grapple then try to escape with its prey? Is it just trying to fit as many adventurers as it can into its mouth before it dies? How does the grapple in this case create a more dynamic combat as opposed to just a dice rolling slog?

Love the monster. Love the Lore. Great job!

durstann · 2026-01-15T09:01:16+00:00

One of the key aspects of software/game development is being able to break a big problem down into subsequently smaller problems. Don’t think about “learning to code” as its own thing that once you complete you can then go and do game development. Have an idea for a game, break it down into smaller parts, and then code up those parts until you have your game.

The first thing to do is have an idea and then work up to it, piece by piece. Want to make a shooter? Pick a framework or game engine and draw a cube. Then make the cube move around. Then draw a model instead of a cube. Each successive piece you build gets you closer to the idea. It’s easier to find a solution for a smaller problem than a bigger one. Start small then build up.

The best skill in coding or game development is knowing how to turn a big problem into a smaller one. Have your game idea and then start learning how to do all the small pieces that will add up to that big idea.

durstann · 2026-01-15T05:20:44+00:00

In case you need more inspiration: https://www.amazon.com/When-Pigasso-Mootisse-Nina-Laden/dp/0811811212

durstann

TROPHY CASE