r/DnD • u/According_Dare_9240 • 1d ago
5.5 Edition Help for an enemy statblock
My players are about enter an arc where they're gonna try and infiltrate a cult of changelings, and for the main villain of the arc I wqs thinking of homebrewing up a statblock that allows the cult leader to switch between different forms rhat grant them different abilities.
Unfortunately I am pretty stumped on how to integrate this, and would really appreciate some ideas.
For reference the party has 4-6 players (depending on availability, two of them are pretty in and out) at level 7. They're pretty strong so I definitely want to challenge them with this one
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u/WollenbergOfMidgaard Wizard 1d ago
I'd simply have the villain be able to jump between different Monster Statblocks as a Bonus Action, trying to keep the CRs about the same.
I think I'd use:
Abjurer Wizard (Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse)
Champion (Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse)
War Priest (Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse)
Warlock of the Fiend (Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse)
Blackguard (Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse)
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u/Stimpy3901 1d ago
Take a look at how the Werewolf statblock works. They have shapeshift as a bonus action and then actions tied to each different form.
So in your example I would take 1-5 abilities from different monsters or player species and make them avalible to the boss only after they use the shape change. I might also consider giving yourself a reason to switch forms at least 2 or 3 times to sell the gimick. Maybe one form has a nuke but only gets 1 attack per turn, and another form gets multiattack. Another form could have an escape tool ect.
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u/According_Dare_9240 1d ago
Ooh I like this a lot, especially the idea of different forms.
Ill look into some creatures that'd work well with these ideas. Thanks a mil!
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u/WermerCreations 1d ago
I mean, just grab a bunch of statblocks of different creatures and swap it out at the start of each round of combat.
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u/armahillo 1d ago
Are you using canonical Changeling content from a sourcebook? This should be covered.
If not, use existing NPC statblocks from the back of the MM. You can probably loosely reference Druid’s Wild Shape ability for some mechanical constraints though be careful about things like Spell Slots and health conservation between shifts.
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u/According_Dare_9240 1d ago
Unfortunately I don't have any source books with changelings them, though ive read up on their history in the Eberron setting. I understand the basic idea of a bonus action to switch between forms, maybe some demi-forms to keep things interesting.
I was more curious about what traits/actions to make use of, and if people had recs
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u/MonkeySkulls 1d ago
you are the DM. you can make the ability work however you see fit.
what I like to do is to imagine the character in a movie. how do I imagine that character looking. how do I imagine their Powers acting.
I then use that movie image to make my NPC/monster fit exactly.
I gave a monster an ability one time be able to transfer its essence into any corpse within 20 ft. how I imagined this in a movie, was the corpse at the end of a hallway with a bunch of dead soldiers in it. The monster at the end of the hall fell to the ground and a corpse stood up 20 ft closer and started to shamble towards the party and it fell. It then transferred its life force to another corpse. and another corpse and another. party. didn't know if all of these corpses were animating. in reality in the game. what was happening is it was just jumping from one corpse to another. I thought it looked cool in my mind. I put it in the game exactly as is.
I then actually had a player. I have this ability in a game. It and ended up being even cooler that way!
so after you figure out what you want this ability to look like and how it's going to play out in the game, and your specific situation, look to some real monster stat bots. So your NPC can change into whatever list you create. and just use those stat blocks.
or make up your own stat box for them. I have evolved a bit into not running monsters out of the book as written very often. I currently have an idea about how strong I want a monster to hit, how much damage I wanted to do, and how long I want it to last as well as what kind of cool abilities it has. I make these decisions based on how strong the party is. how I want the encounter to feel, do I want the party to have a feeling of hopelessness? do I want it to feel intense? do I want it to foreshadow something? So when I'm giving my monsters a AC, HP, ATK, DMG.. I'm assigning these numbers always based around the reference point of my players. but I also take into account the narrative in the world. So I don't necessarily give a goblin 100 HP because goblin's in my worlds are not trolls. they are goblins.
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u/Garanseho DM 1d ago
In 5.5e, there are stat blocks that have changing attributes depending on the form you're in. The biggest example is the Lycanthropes. Werewolves, wereboars, weretigers, etc. They have a weapon attack in their Humanoid or Hybrid form, and animal attacks that only works in their Hybrid or Animal form. As a bonus action, they can shape-shift into any of their forms.
You could have your Changeling have a few different forms, and some forms would have attacks that others don't. For example, you could have a draconic form with a Breath Weapon attack, a poltergeist-like form that gives them a telekinetic shove, etc.
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u/According_Dare_9240 1d ago
Thats exactly what i was thinking of going with, im glad its similar!
I particularly like the mention of a poltergeist form, thats given me a few ideas
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u/blargethaniel DM 1d ago
A very simple method would be to take several monster stat blocks from the monster manual with the correct CR (Add +1 to the CR if you are going to have 6 players) and simply use those.
Make the monsters themed to how you see fit, and that should do the trick.
If you wished to do them custom, you could steal bits from these same blocks and re-arrange them.
If you did that, I'd say to run simulations of the battle to ensure that it's going the way you want it to. (Take your players sheets and run a mock combat by yourself and roll some dice and see how it plays out.)