Epic (Cool Dudes Only) Dungeons and Dragons Discussion Thread

[CrackerVolley]

1, It's mostly just a wip draft
2. I have never made a campaign before, Idk what I'm doing
3. I wanted Uni to have a legendary action that lets him back out, but keeping it to a max of 2 spaces since he has stumpy legs

 

[Mr. Bambu]

Shan't offer balancing stuff but if you want him to back out, should specify that it doesn't provoke Attacks of Opportunity. Or, since you're the DM, you could just decide mentally it works like that, who will know anyways, etc.

If you ever do want help with this sort of thing, I offer what insight I can muster to anyone who is in this thread.

 

[SlendVeny]

I made a very silly Handbook-style page for one of my side quest bosses in my very dumb campaign I've been making.

Shouldn't they have a Proficiency Bonus of 3 or 4 applied to attacks?

 

[Quibster]

How do we feel about the OneD&D UA's now that playtesting is over?

I hope they fix Monk and Ranger

Edit: Not a huge fan of the Cleric nerfs (RIP, spiritual weapon), and Sorcs have a resource problem lol

 

[Mr. Bambu]

I don't know what it is about Monk that just makes it such a repulsive, vile little thing, but it seems like every addition makes it seem worse than before. This is a consistent trend outside of D&D, too.

 

[Quibster]

Monks are a bit better as of Playtest 8, but suffer from having no ******* HP and Tough feels almost necessary in spite of MADness early on. It definitely feels more technical, but that also looks like a weakness when you crunch numbers-- and realize they get really menial gains... The one thing that bothers me personally is that Monks are just forcefully tied to Wisdom-- and it rules out a design dissonance: wisdom as a theme and wisdom for class balance.

 

[Mr. Bambu]

Drite, one of the VSBW folks in my D&D server, went through the possible monk builds for 3.5e and found that, strictly speaking, many other classes make objectively better unarmed combatants, including clerics.

As for modern stuff, Armorchompy recently had an idea about a Monk class that was a dex wrestler, so changing grapples to work by initiating an Acrobatics check (as opposed to only Athletics) and so on. It's a fun idea that would allow the Monk to fill in an extra niche, I liked it. Had been planning to write up a subclass for it but never got around to it. I'm afraid I'm painfully unaware of a lot of the UA stuff, having forgotten most of it since I first looked into it several months ago.

Monks are just forcefully tied to Wisdom-- and it rules out a design dissonance: wisdom as a theme and wisdom for class balance.

It is a weird choice, for sure. I think WotC just doesn't really know what to do with the Monk. That, or one of them is super funny and wants to spite the players as a joke.

 

[SlendVeny]

Monk would be drastically improved by the invention of Vorpal Brass Knuckles.

 

[Quibster]

Monk would be drastically improved by the invention of Vorpal Brass Knuckles.

I've always wanted to punch someone's head off

 

[SlendVeny]

I've always wanted to punch someone's head off

I made an item that basically channels the magical effect of one thing into another, and my players haven't reached a shop yet, I feel like that won't use the goated Scroll + Sword combo I suggested.

 

[LephyrTheRevanchist]

Drite, one of the VSBW folks in my D&D server, went through the possible monk builds for 3.5e and found that, strictly speaking, many other classes make objectively better unarmed combatants, including clerics.

Cleric is the best class in 3.5, only rivaled by the Druid, cuz they can literally take any role in the party. Druid has something similar, but it's overall harder because it takes way more books to properly get their broken stuff. So being beaten in unarmed by a Cleric isn't saying much; they beat literally everyone else.

Martials is general are beaten straight by any semi dedicated caster in the edition. When you needed to make an entire splatbook (Tome of Battle) just to make martial even remotely able to compete with casters, and they still fell short compared to them because they could also access these martial abilities, you know martials in general got ****** in the edition.

 

[CrackerVolley]

Shouldn't they have a Proficiency Bonus of 3 or 4 applied to attacks?

Idk. I’m blaming the statblock generator on that one.

 

[SlendVeny]

Idk. I’m blaming the statblock generator on that one.

Honestly, if you apply the Prof Bonus of +3 to attack rolls, the Ability mod to damage rolls, make the Pounce DC 12, and add in a multiattack, this creature would be a serious threat, and it wouldn't deviate from your original design. Maybe make Scamper include a disengage as well, and specify what save Disarming Mew uses(insert mewing joke here), to increase the validity of Legendary Actions. When a creature like this is relatively low HP in this tier of combat, where even squishier players will most likely be ranging from 31hp(10 CON Wizard) to 58hp(10 CON Barbarian, if such a thing could exist), you want it to be able to support itself through other means against your typical party of 3-5 8th levelers, or 2-4 9th levelers, etc.

 

[Mr. Bambu]

Hey so I decided to take a crack at remaking your Uni statblock, for fun, because I like making statblocks anyways.

(I hope this is cool with you @CrackerVolley, sorry if it is unwanted). I added in the Box Dweller and Fortify traits to try to bump it up in terms of CR, mathematically this is still a CR 4 but with abilities I think it becomes a reasonable 6. While doing this, I ran into a bunch of my old statblocks I made for my campaigns, so uh. Sharing those too, for the interested:

Klaus the Child Butcher: Santa Claus themed boss fight for a series of Christmas one-shots I ran. They ended up running away rather than fighting him, the cowards. This mini-campaign had the most spectacularly awful ending imaginable, in a good way. The players, entirely accidentally, damned an entire country to ruin and regression for hundreds, possibly thousands of years: they sent the poor bastards to the dark ages. Klaus here was meant to be an extremely formidable fight for the party (level 6, all, but also mostly comprised of experienced players with reasonably powerful builds), that allowed for some summoning from past parties who were related to the campaign (their characters had been sent to Hell, into Klaus' domain, and could have been resurrected/called upon by a mechanic in the fight if figured out). Klaus, for his part, had two allies with him: a substantially upgraded Bearded Devil that served as his bodyguard and captain, and a member of another infernal enclave that was there to negotiate a pact between the two- these guys were CR 6 and 7 respectively.

The Avatar: Another non-serious entry in the statblock repository, one of many creatures drawn up for the Halloween one-shots I ran for a couple years. This guy is Freddy Krueger, written as an illusory devil bound to a pirate ship by the name of the Wicked Smile. He was called upon to defend the ship against the party, and pulled them all into a modern factory setting filled with other slasher villains (Chucky or the Doll, Jason Vorhees or the Curse, The Creeper, Michael Myers or the Shape, and Leatherface or the Face)- the ultimate fight against the Avatar itself began with one of the party members, who was secretly a skeleton, being run over by a shipping truck slamming him into the wall just outside the arena, and ended with another of the party members being cast into the literal gate of hell that was being opened on the floor. Some survived, and in the real world learned that in all this fighting they'd actually killed the sole crew member of the Wicked Smile, so two of them decided to take the ship and become pirates while the moral compass of the party left and went through the cargo they'd left ashore... which was mostly silver. So he got fairly rich. Both the Avatar and Klaus were made in 2023.

Nightseed: A giant flying ooze creature I updated from 3.5e as a summon for a magic item I'd made for my players in the Spelljammer game I ran. I like him. He's cool. I think they only used him once because it was progressively riskier to use the summons from the magic item the more powerful they were. This was made in 2022.

The Governor's Gargoyles: A mini-boss fight consisting of three of these guys: one would activate first and, when destroyed, the other two would awaken. These were also from the Spelljammer game I ran, enormous statues erected outside of a mansion left on a desolate and transitory moon the party was exploring for elaborate reasons too complicated to explain here seamlessly. They were going to be these massive winged statues with corrupted plant life growing into them, wielding great glaives of tainted white stone. The party managed to completely sidestep this fight, they never got used. Also a 2022 creation. As was...

The Old Lord Governor: ...the Governor himself. Rad ******* boss fight with this guy, initiated exactly how I had wanted. After defeating a cult that was gathering in the ruined mansion, the party found a long since mummified corpse in a simple throne with a grand, golden staff plunged straight through his chest. So. The rogue took it, and the Governor grabbed him by the wrist and stopped him. Initiate fight. The remnant of a long dead and only sparingly referred to civilization that inhabited the moon, the Governor has tons of lore... that they didn't read. Such is life. Using his staff, he disintegrated two party members over the course of the fight: Tremendant, their Giff navigation officer NPC who was a character originating from an earlier campaign some of them had been in, and Jar-Brawn, the party's Hadozee druid. When he died, he exploded, destroying the Weave per his Fray the Weave ability. I loved this fight sincerely, it drew up the tension a shitload.

Astel, Naturalborn of the Void: One of the many conversions I made for Elden Ring when it came out. I think I have about 40 of them, ranging from fodder enemies to guys like this and Morgott. I intended to do them all, but I never got around to it and other people who get paid for this sort of thing on Patreon ended up doing it faster than me. Oh well.

The Crimson Queen: Made this while never intending to run it. There was a homebrew contest being run for Valentine's Day in 2022, I entered this: a fey noble clad in red that used love and enchantment to make her way in the world, brutally manipulating others to advance herself. For what it's worth, I won first place in that competition. No reward involved, but as it was a matter of votes, it made my heart warm.

Gryla and the Yule Cat: Another challenge in the same group of RPG people, this one for Winter in 2021. I used old Icelandic myths as a basis for these, I converted the two figures into D&D terms is all, really. Gryla is the mother of a giant clan who owns the Yule Cat, a gargantuan cat who eats people on Christmas who didn't wear the clothes they received. There's more to it than that, of course, look it up if it interests you. I did actually end up using these guys for the Christmas mini-campaign, with Gryla's sons and husband also ending up being statted (each son being a base template statblock with unique abilities added on per their quirks; each of them had one). You could consider these two the first bosses in the set of three leading up to Klaus the Child Butcher (the second, Arnkatla, wasn't particularly unique: a Snow Hag upgraded to be an appropriate challenge to the party and given Infernal minions, little else).

Fenrick the Great Deceiver: A bossfight from my first 5e campaigns, in 2021. A revenant trapped within a battlefield catacomb system called Grimfall, Fenrick had little lore implications other than he was a rogue caught amidst the armies and when he was resurrected as an undead by the curse that befell the battlefield, the remaining tenders of the crypt created an entirely mirrored room to restrain him in. The party opened it up and fought him. It was a good time. I really didn't expect any of the party members to figure out The Other World, but the one who got sent in remarkably got it very quickly.

Eschaton: ...all the way back in 2020, I was trying to write up a new monster a day for a few months. Eschaton was the culmination of a series of monsters, quasi-religious idols wrent into aberrant forms resulting in this, an ever-spreading biological apocalypse that consumed the earth beneath it to fuel its incessant expansion. I have never intended to actually run anything with Eschaton, nor his Saints and Apostles and Ministers (who ranged from CR 3 to 13). The idea I had in mind was mostly inspired by Ragnorra, from actual D&D, but upscaled to allow him to eventually consume an entire world, only to crash into the next and begin the next bout of anti-divine interference. I was running my original 5e campaigns at the time of writing, I think they were about level 6, so I wanted something crazy to work on.

That's all from the random pickings of the vault, a lot of it was just random media characters I converted into 5e upon requests (Doomslayer, Satoru Gojo, the Amongus Imposter, Steve from Minecraft, etc), these probably aren't my proudest work but they are ones I like.

 

[SlendVeny]

Best boss fight I ever had with a homebrew character was my characters blowing up and running from different forms of Shin Godzilla.

 

[CrackerVolley]

Wow thanks.

What's especially funny about Uni is that they're probably going to end up as a more threatening side boss than my version of ******* Shabriri from Elden Ring (half of the campaign's identity revolves around crossover stuff).

 

[Drite77]

Santa Claus themed boss fight for a series of Christmas one-shots I ran. They ended up running away rather than fighting him, the cowards. This mini-campaign had the most spectacularly awful ending imaginable, in a good way. The players, entirely accidentally, damned an entire country to ruin and regression for hundreds, possibly thousands of years: they sent the poor bastards to the dark ages. Klaus here was meant to be an extremely formidable fight for the party (level 6, all, but also mostly comprised of experienced players with reasonably powerful builds), that allowed for some summoning from past parties who were related to the campaign (their characters had been sent to Hell, into Klaus' domain, and could have been resurrected/called upon by a mechanic in the fight if figured out). Klaus, for his part, had two allies with him: a substantially upgraded Bearded Devil that served as his bodyguard and captain, and a member of another infernal enclave that was there to negotiate a pact between the two- these guys were CR 6 and 7 respectively.

Fun fact, if we tpked the world would probably be a better place then the actually is by the end of this '-'

The Avatar: Another non-serious entry in the statblock repository, one of many creatures drawn up for the Halloween one-shots I ran for a couple years. This guy is Freddy Krueger, written as an illusory devil bound to a pirate ship by the name of the Wicked Smile. He was called upon to defend the ship against the party, and pulled them all into a modern factory setting filled with other slasher villains (Chucky or the Doll, Jason Vorhees or the Curse, The Creeper, Michael Myers or the Shape, and Leatherface or the Face)- the ultimate fight against the Avatar itself began with one of the party members, who was secretly a skeleton, being run over by a shipping truck slamming him into the wall just outside the arena, and ended with another of the party members being cast into the literal gate of hell that was being opened on the floor. Some survived, and in the real world learned that in all this fighting they'd actually killed the sole crew member of the Wicked Smile, so two of them decided to take the ship and become pirates while the moral compass of the party left and went through the cargo they'd left ashore... which was mostly silver. So he got fairly rich. Both the Avatar and Klaus were made in 2023.

Weird way to spell Michale Myers man '-'

The Old Lord Governor: ...the Governor himself. Rad ******* boss fight with this guy, initiated exactly how I had wanted. After defeating a cult that was gathering in the ruined mansion, the party found a long since mummified corpse in a simple throne with a grand, golden staff plunged straight through his chest. So. The rogue took it, and the Governor grabbed him by the wrist and stopped him. Initiate fight. The remnant of a long dead and only sparingly referred to civilization that inhabited the moon, the Governor has tons of lore... that they didn't read. Such is life. Using his staff, he disintegrated two party members over the course of the fight: Tremendant, their Giff navigation officer NPC who was a character originating from an earlier campaign some of them had been in, and Jar-Brawn, the party's Hadozee druid. When he died, he exploded, destroying the Weave per his Fray the Weave ability. I loved this fight sincerely, it drew up the tension a shitload.

Legit one of the most tense moments of that campaign... Spelljammer was awesome '-'

 

[CrackerVolley]

What's especially funny about Uni is that they're probably going to end up as a more threatening side boss than my version of ******* Shabriri from Elden Ring (half of the campaign's identity revolves around crossover stuff).

Speaking of free Ronin Armor

 

[CrackerVolley]

Alright, I kinda want some more encounter ideas for my campaign, although I should probably explain it a bit more.

As previously mention, half of its identity is oriented around homebrew/crossover stuff through the plot device of multiversal portals that reach beyond the normal scope of DnD realms.

However, the other half is oriented around the setting of a land that is equivalent to irl New Zealand, with thematic elements representitive of its time in the mid-1800s to the mid-1900s. The big bad is straight up a Drow civilization that's representitive of the British empire, but more visibly racist since that's kinda how Drow are. There's also the secret third agenda of showing off my OCs and characters I am reclaiming from obscurity.

So through the scope of those two ideas, please give me some suggestions for enemies, allies, or npcs you would like to see.

 

[XSOULOFCINDERX]

Rothé (D&D) vs Carnotaurus (Primal Carnage) [0-0-0]

This is a 9-B Ghost Rothé being used, speed is equalized and the fight takes place in an environment suited perfectly for both of them. Rothé : Carnotaurus : Incon :

vsbattles.com

 

[Drite77]

Alright, I kinda want some more encounter ideas for my campaign, although I should probably explain it a bit more.

As previously mention, half of its identity is oriented around homebrew/crossover stuff through the plot device of multiversal portals that reach beyond the normal scope of DnD realms.

However, the other half is oriented around the setting of a land that is equivalent to irl New Zealand, with thematic elements representitive of its time in the mid-1800s to the mid-1900s. The big bad is straight up a Drow civilization that's representitive of the British empire, but more visibly racist since that's kinda how Drow are. There's also the secret third agenda of showing off my OCs and characters I am reclaiming from obscurity.

So through the scope of those two ideas, please give me some suggestions for enemies, allies, or npcs you would like to see.

TBH, using the theme of "Multiverse beyond the normal scope of DND realms" that adds a lot of stuff you can do

You could, for example, show beings from a universe that is based on a show you like, like Invincible or Ben 10... I don't know if you like those or note those just came to my mind '-'

In the DND realm you could have a Drow inside agent on the empire? Perhaps from an alternative universe where Lolth and her followers are good instead of evil (Somewhat cliche, but hey, you don't play D&D to be that creative, you play it to have fun, and I think those concepts are fun)

Perhaps introduce a universe where gods work different? Perhaps like something they do in Marvel or Hades, something like that '-'

I don't know, the concept itself has a lot of reach and potential that I don't think most of us can do it justice more then you

 

[CrackerVolley]

Ah yeah. I should probably specify a bit more about the multiversal stuff. They’re made when breaking a certain type of crystal that may or may not be related to one of my ocs that just started growing for unknown reasons.

Most of what comes out of these portals didn’t intentionally do so. A lot of it are just people who have no idea where they are and either contiuing their shtick (such as sayyy… Quick Draw McGraw going around fighting criminals) or are trying to make ends meet until they find another crystal to go home.

Meanwhile, the inhabitants of the island are mostly confused by all the new people (possibly assuming they’re just foreigners), while the Drow are trying to locate a large source of the crystals so they can use them as weapons AND colonize more universes.

 

[Drite77]

Ah yeah. I should probably specify a bit more about the multiversal stuff. They’re made when breaking a certain type of crystal that may or may not be related to one of my ocs that just started growing for unknown reasons.

Most of what comes out of these portals didn’t intentionally do so. A lot of it are just people who have no idea where they are and either contiuing their shtick (such as sayyy… Quick Draw McGraw going around fighting criminals) or are trying to make ends meet until they find another crystal to go home.

Meanwhile, the inhabitants of the island are mostly confused by all the new people (possibly assuming they’re just foreigners), while the Drow are trying to locate a large source of the crystals so they can use them as weapons AND colonize more universes.

I mean, once again, it does feel like you would have a better grasp of what you would want to do better then us '-'

When you go beyond the DND multiverse, beyong the Forgotten Realms, beyond Greyhawk, beyond Eberron, to places where the cosmology of D&D is meaningless (Or at least I assume it is), it opens a lot of stuff

People being brought to your world, once again, that feels like something you would have a better grasp to design stuff, for example, why would a character know that said crystal is the key to go home? Are those crystals common or is the they are here that obvious?

About the Drow colonizing, how strong are the Drow? What kind of worlds would not be able to beat them? What kind, if any, would be able to fight them off?

Like, there is too many variables to really put my input here, if you want a place to show off some of your OCs, that's great! If you want to throw some reference to other media you like and maybe some of your players would get that, that's great! I would say do those stuff if you feel like you and your players would have fun

Sorry if this isn't very helpful but I do believe I could spend an entire comment talking about certain characters I love that could work in any story and I am sure it wouldn't fit for your stuff because that's a character I think makes sense in a story like that, not a character that you think makes sense in a story like