Shantak for 5e

Just a quick update. Continuing my 5e conversions. Another monster from the Cthulhu Mythos.

Not any birds or bats known elsewhere on earth . . . for they were larger than elephants and had heads like a horse’s . . . . The Shantak-bird has scales instead of feathers and those scales are very slippery.


—H.P. Lovecraft, The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath





Shantak, Gargantuan Monstrosity, Neutral
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AC 15 (natural armor) HP 129 (10d20+24) Speed 30 ft., fly 120 ft.
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STR 24 (+7) DEX 10 (+0) CON 14 (+2) INT 4 (-3) WIS 11 (+0) CHA 12(+1)
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Skills Perception +3
Damage resistances cold, nonmagical weapons
Senses darkvision 60 ft. Passive Perception 13
Languages -
Challenge 7 (2900 XP)
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Fear of Nightgaunts A Shantak has disadvantage on attack rolls and saving throws versus Nightgaunts

Otherworldy Appearance A creature that is aware of a Shantak must succeed on a Sanity check DC 15 or suffer short term madness per DMG

Slippery. A Shantak has advantage on abilty checks and saving throws to escape a grapple


Vacuum Immunity A Shantak doesn't need to breathe air


Actions
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Multiattack The shantak makes three attacks: one with its bite and two with its claws.

Claw. Melee Weapon Attack +10 to hit, reach 10ft., one target. Hit 12 (1d10+7) piercing damage. If the target is Large or smaller, it is grappled (escape DC 15)

Bite. Melee weapon Attack +11 to hit, reach 10 ft., on target. Hit 11 (1d8+7) piercing damage.




Shantaks are enormous, elephantine beasts that serve as aerial mounts for the Great Old Ones.














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Cthulhu Mythos creature for 5e

Mi-Go have always been one of my favorite Mythos creatures. I'm a fan of Delta Green and they play a large role in some aspects of the game. There's a version of it for your D&D game.

Mi-Go Medium Aberration, Lawful evil
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AC 13 (natural armor) HP 16 (3d8+3) Speed 20 ft., fly 30 ft. (120 ft. in vacum)
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STR 12 (+1) DEX 15 (+2) CON 12 (+1) INT 17 (+3) WIS 15 (+2) CHA 6(-2)
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Skills Science +5, Perception +2, Stealth +4
Damage resistances nonmagical weapons
Damage Immunities cold
Senses blindsight 30 ft, darkvision 60 ft. Passive Perception 12
Languages Mi-Go
Challenge 2 (450 XP)
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Disable device: A Mi-go adds its proficiency bonus on any attempts to disable a trap or device

Innate Spellcasting. (Psionics) The Mi-go spellcasting ability is Intelligence (spell save DC 15). The Mi-go can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components:
at will - detect thoughts
1/day - clairvoyance

Otherworldly Appearance A creature that is aware of a Mi-Go must succeed on a Sanity check DC 15 or suffer short term madness per the DMG

Telepathy A Mi-Go can magically communicate with any creature within 100 ft of it that can understand a language

Vacuum Immunity A Mi-Go doesn't need to breathe air

Vulnerability to drowning A Mi-Go has disadvantage on all Swim checks
Actions
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Claw. Melee Weapon Attack +3 to hit, reach 5ft., one target. Hit 16 (3d8+3) piercing damage. If the target is Medium or smaller, it is grappled (escape DC 15)

Lightning gun. Ranged Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, range 100/300 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (3d8 lightning)



These creatures are found in the HP Lovecraft story The Whisperer in Darkness and other sources including Delta Green. It is rumored they have a base on Pluto.









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New 5e Ravenloft creature

Like a lot of gamers I was excited for the release of 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons last year. The reviews have been fantastic. I've always been a fan of the numerous settings of 2nd edition Dungeons & Dragons too. I find older editions are easily convertible to 5th edition. There weren't a lot of Ravenloft creatures in the Monster Manual. So here's a creature from the Ravenloft Monstrous Compendium Appendix III.

Bakhna Rakhna Small humanoid (goblinoid), Neutral evil
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AC 14 (leather) HP 7 (d6) Speed 30 ft ____________________________________________________
STR 12 (+1) DEX 15 (+2) CON 10 (+0) INT 10 (+0)WIS 10 (+0) CHA 10(+0)
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Skills Perception +2, Stealth +8
Damage Immunities poison
Senses Darkvision 60 ft. Passive Perception 12
Languages Common, Goblin
Challenge 1/2 (100 XP)
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Sunlight sensitivity. While in sunlight the bakhna rakhna has disadvantage on attack rolls, as well as on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight.

Inate Spellcasting. The Bakhna Rakhna spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 11). The Bakhna Rakhna can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components:
3/ day Passwall
2/day silence

Jungle Camouflage. The Bakhna Rakhna has advantage on Dexterity
(Stealth) checks made to hide in jungle terrain

Actions
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Dagger. Melee Weapon Attack +4 to hit, reach 5ft., one target. Hit 4 (1d4+2) piercing damage. The target must make a DC 11 Constitution saving throw or take 7 (3d4) poison damage) or half as much on a successful one.
Shortbow. Ranged Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, range 80/320 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d6 + 2) piercing damage. The target must make a DC 11 Constitution saving throw or take 7 (3d4) poison damage) or half as much on a successful one.


These small jungle creatures look like albino goblins and lurk in jungles. They are known for magic abilities and poisoned weapons.



I hope to add more 5e conversions from 2e in the coming weeks. Let me know what you think! I'm qstor2 on Twitter btw.



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Dragonborn in Greyhawk

When 5th edition came out I decided to restart an old Greyhawk campaign that I had run in 2005. Several new races were included in 5th edition that weren't in older products. Dragonborn aren't included in the overwhelming number of Greyhawk products. So I Googled Dragonborn and came up with a few ideas for including them in the campaign. These are some of my notes. I used Player's Handbook Races – Dragonborn as a inspiration as well as Dragon Magazine. Skip Williams published a Greyhawk map of a continent on the other side of Oerth and the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer notes that Oerth has four continents. I decided that dragonborn originated from the other continent. Its basically a blank slat for DMs to work with. One of the countries on the map was Lynn. Lynn was founded on the ruins of ancient Arkhoisa three hundred hundred years ago. It has lived in relative piece since then. When the empire of Arkhoisa flew in the turmoil several hundred dragonborn sailed across the vast Solnor Ocean in search of new lands. Here they found the human and demihuman races of the Flanness. Once settled they multiplied and moved across the Flanness. Over time other dragonborn migrated to the Flanness as well. The dragonborn have prospered in the Flanness working their powerful magic or hiring themselves out as mercenaries. They are as diverse as the dragons that spawned them ages ago. The descendants of blue dragons have found work with Rary in the Bright desert while white blooded dragons fight alongside Suel mercenaries in the Northern reaches of the Flanness. These are just a few of my ideas for fitting dragonborn into Greyhawk. Any thoughts?

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Chhanges....to Organized Play

D&D Adventurers League Player's Guide: a review

Today Wizards of the Coast released the new 21 page guide to organized play: D&D Adventurers League Player's Guide. . The new guide is designed to be the starting point for new Wizards of the Coast organized play campaigns. Earlier this year Wizards announced that they were doing away with their traditional organized play structure namely the RPGA, which stood for the Role Playing Game Association which was started in 1980 by Frank Mentzer. Going forward Wizards has broken down organized play into three parts, Encounters (their traditional weekly store based games) D&D Expeditions (convention based scenario play) and D&D Epics (large multi table events exclusive to large conventions such as GenCon) The guide outlines in three parts, Characters, the campaign and other information for game play. Part one - characters contains the biggest surprise. Evil characters are now allowed to be played. This might come as a shock to some long time members of the organized play community. Since the first organized play campaign Living City was started in 1987, evil characters have not been allowed. This was continued in Wizards 3rd edition campaign Living Greyhawk, D&D Campaigns like Xen'drik Expeditions and the Pazio Pathfinder supported campaign Pathfinder Society. Both of which are/were highly popular campaigns. Some might say that evil characters can be disruptive to game play. In the rules for the campaign Wizards has included some of the rules for infractions which used to exist under the old RPGA. It allows for the DM to control problem players at the table. The Forgotten Realms and the area of the Moonsea in particular, is the focus of the campaign. The guide also outlines the new faction system borrowed from Pathfinder Society. Joining factions such as the Zhentarim and the Harpers allow players to have additional in game motivations apart from successful conclusion of the adventure. But with evil characters allowed I imagine that Wizards has decided to take a bold, and some might say controversial step in Organized Play.

EDIT: Apparently evil PCs were allowed at some point during Encounters. But I have never played Encounters.

If you want to continue the discussion my Twitter ID is qstor2. Thanks!

Setting the Stage

Wizards of the Coast recently announced the schedule for releases for the new edition of Dungeons and Dragons with much fanfare. In early April Chris Perkins one of the designers for the new edition announced at PAX East that there would be Eberron support and in an article in Forbes it was announced that Ravenloft would receive support. Although at this point I'm not sure if its beyond a new board game. Perennial favorite the Forgotten Realms is also receiving strong support and is the focal point of the new Organized Play campaign as it was for 4th edition.

Mike Mearls another designer of the new edition has gone out of his way to make sure that the new edition is simple, easily convertible from past editions and embraces core elements of the old editions like Vancian Magic. But one step that Wizards of the Coast can take to wholly embrace fans of older editions is to publish editions of old D&D settings too. As much as I'd like to see an edition of Greyhawk. I think that's unlikely for a variety of reasons. Some of the other settings more likely are:

1. Dragonlance : Kender were in the play test editions and creator Margaret Weis has expressed some interest on Twitter in having a new edition of the Dragonlance published setting using the new rules for D&D.

2. Planescape – a setting that was overlooked in 3rd and 4th editions and has a lot of hardcore fans. Plancescape writers such as Colin McComb and Monte Cooke have moved onto other work but perhaps a new generation of writers can pick up were they left off.

3. Mystara – Wizards of the Coast refused to license this setting when author and ex TSR employee Bruce Heard announced plans to do a Kickstarter based on his stories in Dragon magazine. Perhaps the beloved Basic D&D setting will be revlived in the new edition of Dungeons and Dragons?

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Mastadons and Cave Men oh my!

Looking for something different for your next game. I recently backed Primeval-Thule on Kickstarter. Its written in part by WOTC veteran Rich Baker. The page suggests its something different. It has its basis in dark magic and pulp writers like Robert E Howard and the fierce worlds of Edgar Rice Burrough’s plus lost worlds and horror. This is the first setting apart from Freeport that I've backed on Kickstarter. I did just its not just another generic fantasy world. It doesn't seen that an Elminster would have a part here. Its more like the old school animated movie Fire & Ice which I'm a fan of. So if you're looking for a Kickstarter project to back before GenCon. I'd say chip in and help fund this one. Also it gives support to the new 13th Age system which I haven't picked up yet but I'm looking forward to getting a copy.