dd – The Speer-Head Lounge

D&D Homebrew Monster of the Week: Aetheriphan Swarm

*Aetheriphan – Creature Concept* by Pencil Equipped

“Now while alone, these little guys won’t bother you too much, they just love to seek out other Aetheriphans, leading to massive rolling schools. While swarming, these fellas might as well be a sentient lightning bolt, flying around and zapping anything and everything that gets too close!”

– Eve Stirwin.

Finally, we reach the real monsters (literally). Monstrosities are a hard bag to exactly explain why they are classified as such, but from what I’ve seen and chosen to rule is that a Monstrosity needs to either invoke the feeling of a typical monster. So for example, the Hydra. This is a creature that could easily go into either the Beast or Dragon category as at its core, it is a huge multi-headed aquatic reptilian creature that uses its multiple heads to bite and tear prey apart. There’s nothing inherently magical about it unless you choose to believe it’s rapidly regenerating heads as inherently magic (I personally choose to believe this to be a biological trait of the same caliber as why a dragon can breathe fire.) So why put the Hydra as a Monstrosity as opposed to the other two? Well, it lacks the wings, presence, features, and shape a dragon might have. Sure we have Drakes which are quadrupedal wingless reptiles like the Hydra, but they still have horns and a truly draconic aesthetic to them. You can look at a Drake and say “yep, that’s definitely related to a Dragon,” while a Hydra doesn’t invoke that feeling. As for why it wouldn’t put it as a Beast? Well, Beasts are reserved for more “normal” creatures I’d put it, things that don’t wholly invoke the vibe that a monster would. A Hydra has too much going for it to be merely classified as “just a regular beast,” in my opinion. With all that said, why make the Aetheriphan a Monstrosity as opposed to a Beast? While it could very easily go into either, I feel with the nature of the Aetheriphan and how they function leads them closer to a Monstrosity than a simple Beast.

Aetheripahn: The Overview

Aetheriphans are tiny shrimp-like creatures that draw energy from static electricity as well as direct electrical sources such as a construct or elemental powered by lightning. They frequently can be found in massive swarms amidst storms and trailing after lighting bolts. A starved Aetheriphan Swarm is a dangerous matter as these little critters will swarm the biggest electrical source they can sense and latch on to it, both shocking the prey to death with the lingering static electricity trapped in the swarm, but also drawing out the electrical charges from the creature, though typically the prey is long dead from the static shocks produced by the swarm before the Aetheriphan Swarm is done feeding. Despite being only CR 6, that is still a credible enough of a threat for even up-and-coming heroes to be warry of and with their habitat being wherever storms brew, they can be found virtually everywhere that is above ground, though most frequently residing high above and inside the clouds.

Stats and Abilities:

Despite being frail as an individual, Aetheriphans in a swarm will rush towards danger or a potential meal and attempt to use their overwhelming numbers to subdue their quandary. Because of the size of their swarm (Huge), an Aetheriphan Swarm is not easy to fully clear and they cna prove to be resilient with their 16 CON. Additionally they’re incredibly nimble with both a 60ft. hovering speed and a 16 in DEX making them incredibly hard to lock down. Sadly, all of their other stats falter with only a 10 in WIS being their next highest and a 6 in CHA, 4 in INT, and 3 in STR means the Aetheriphans will be able to see threats or prey from a far, but they won’t know how ton adapt if a prey proves difficult. They have one plan of attack and they’re going to stick with it, no matter how much of the swarm falls.

Aetheriphan Swarms are fast, being able to dash up to 120ft. in a single turn which drastically outpaces a massive amount of creatures. Even their regular movement of 60ft. is the same speed as a typical adventurer running full sprint, allowing the swarm to keep pace without losing the ability to attack. This massive speed advantage pairs nicely with their Scatter feature and the necessity to be sharing the same space as other creatures to actually land an attack, all of which will be discussed in more detail here shortly. Simple minded and direct attackers, if they aren’t aimlessly floating above the hills an Aetheirphan Swarm would lock on to what it perceives to be the biggest meal and dives from above and engulfs the target with blinding speed and subjecting it to a myriad of painful and likely deadly shocks.

Stats and Skills: Lacking proficiencies in any skills or saving throws leaves a lot to be desired, forcing the swarm to play as aggressively as possible to try and end a fight as soon as possible. It could be argued to give the swarm at least one or two proficiencies, likely in CON and Perception, but all in all these are simple creatures that swarm and overwhelm prey with little nuance. Their biggest boon is their large size as they can quickly descend and even encircle multiple characters at once to deal as much damage with Static Aura as possible. With the fact the AC is a tad low, there can be an argument for bumping the hit points up a few notches, but all in all this is a nice balance that possibly needs some tweaking once it’s actually being used in a fight.
Resistances, Immunities, and Senses: Because a swarm of creatures is not a singular entity but instead a multitude, it is very easy to bludgeon, stab, or slash a singular Aetheriphan, but to do it to multiple with a singular strike is nigh impossible. Just like most if not every other swarm of creatures in D&D5e, the Aetheriphan Swarm is resistant to all Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing damage type, magical or nonmagical it doesn’t matter. Minor mistake, Aetheriphans should be immune to Lightning damage not resistant due to that being their primary food source and it doesn’t make sense for a creature that both feeds of electricity and harnesses it for offensive means to be able to take Lightning damage. I do also suppose the swarm should get pseudo-Blindsight as well due to their ability to locate electrical pulses as described, and this would have a lengthy range to it but could be balanced by only being able to detect creatures but not structures like walls, trees, or see through X amount of feet of a material. Otherwise, a lot of their remainign immunities are present because like with Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing damage types, you could probably charm a singular Aetheriphan, but not a whole swarm at once and the rest of the conditions follow this same idea.

Passive Abilities and Actions:

Static Aura. A creature that starts its turn sharing the same space as the swarm takes 7 (2d6) lightning damage.

With how much electricity is stored in a swarm, it’s no surprise anything caught in the same space as them is bound to get shocked. Flavor wise, this also causes the swarm to target whatever just got shocked as their food source just zapped into a nearby creature. Good moderate chip damage, and with how much area they cover, this can easily chip away at multiple creatures at once.

Swarm. The swarm can occupy another creature’s space and vice versa, and the swarm can move through any opening large enough for a Tiny creature. The swarm can’t regain hp or gain temporary hp.

this isn’t a fight against one creature, this is a fight against hundreds. If one can get in, the rest will surly follow. Granted, Aetheriphans don’t want to be in closed spaces or underground as they need open areas for their speed advantage to shine, but any animal that is hungry enough will do whatever it takes to secure a meal. Another rule of swarming creatures is the no regaining hit points or gaining temporary hit points. Every successful attack or spell, tens of members of the swarm die instantly, so it’s rather hard to say “oh, the 14 tiny beetles splattered into paste by the swinging maul suddenly got better! +15 hit points!”

Shocking Touch. Melee Weapon Attack. +6 to hit, reach 0ft., one creature in the swarm’s space. Hit: 25 (10d4) lightning damage, or 12 (5d4) lightning damage if the swarm has lost half of it shit points or fewer. If the target is a creature wearing metal armor or holding a metal weapon, the swarm has advantage on this attack.

So unlike other attacks, attacks from a swarm don’t add their respective mod, instead focusing on the raw dice damage which will weaken once the swarm reaches half health since half the swarm is now dead. Additionally, most swarms don’t get the Multiattack feature since most swarming creatures attack in unison, so its one attack has to hit hard to compensate for that and even harder at that since halfway through the fight it’s severely weakened.

Overload (Recharge 6). The swarm overloads its own electrical energy. Each creature within 20 feet of it must make a DC 14 Dexterity saving throw, taking 28 (8d6) lightning damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

The big-damage option for the swarm, where it lashes out and shocks everything nearby. Covering a rather large range of 20ft. from the swarm (not a radius, just everything within 20ft.) and dealing a nice bit of damage that’s just slightly better than its standard attack, the swarm is starting with this feature and using it every chance it recharges. After all, why hit one creature for 25 damage when you could hit everybody for 28? This probably does need a weaker version similar to its standard attack however to help keep it in line with how swarms function in D&D5e.

Scatter (Recharge 5-6). When the swarm is hit by an attack, the swarm scatters and reappears within 20ft. of it’s initial space. This movement does not provoke attacks of opportunity.

This reaction allows the nimble swarm to rapidly disperse and relocate within 20ft. This is another ability the swarm has no reason not to use whenever it can unless it’s only fighting one creature. Being able to suddenly move for free as a reaction is a valuable tool and allows the swarm to rapidly shift targets with ease. The wording does need to be cleared up as the swarm would still take the damage before vanishing, those of the swarm who don’t get hit just scatter in opposite directions before reforming nearby.

Revisions:

All in all, I’m quite happy with how this statblock turned out as this isn’t supposed to be anything groundbreaking and mainly relies on its quick speed, good hit point pool, and decent damage output as opposed to any real tricks or tactics. The only thing I would consider changing is possibly adding an ability to heal when they are hit with lighting damage for half the damage they would have taken if they weren’t immune. The main reason I haven’t is that they already have over 100 hit points and resistant to all weapon damage types, so they effectively have 200+ hit points for martials. Adding a healing effect feels like it’s too much for a CR 6 monster. The only other thing I would change is changing the creature type from Monstrosity to Beast, but with the fact they feed off electricity and are far more aggressive than typical creatures, Monstrosity still feels like the better fit in my opinion.

Sorry for the late upload, got carried away with other projects and work this week. I will make sure my next post will be on time next time. Hopefully each of you reading and staying up to date are enjoying this little series! Until next time!

D&D Homebrew Monster of the Week: Abductors

Solmorph from *Alchemy Stars* (Tecent Games)

WARNING: TRAVEL AT NIGHT STRICTLY FORBIDDEN

The guild is currently undergoing an investigation of the missing persons along this road. All disappearances occur during the night. For your safety all travels past 10pm are forbidden until further notice. Thank you.

– A warning posted by a local guild.

Abductors: The Overview

The first of the Aberrations, the Abductor! Consisting of a smallish body compensated by two long and razor sharp claws, Abductors are not common enemies within a majority of the planes within the D&D realm. The thought behind these creatures is that they are designed less as mindless creatures and more intellectual hunters, sent by something stronger to detain and capture persons of interest while fending off any interlopers that stand in-between them and and their target. Quick, nimble, and aggressive, Abductors prefer to utilize swift hit-and-run and ambush tactics to quickly capture their target and quickly get out, sometimes securing another creature alongside their target to feed on to help rejuvenate themselves after a fight.

The overall idea I had for this creature was for it to be a decently strong ambush monster that could use its agility to whittle the party down and forcefully reposition them/remove individuals from the fight for a short time. This is a fairly dangerous encounter even by itself due to the ability to outright remove combatants from the field for a time, making it so there is one less creature attacking it and that there is one less enemy for it to focus on. On top of this, I wanted Abductors to be able to survive and heal themselves mid combat, so they can suck the vitality from creatures they get in their grasp.

Stats and Abilities:

As mentioned, this is a fairly dangerous, nimble, and intelligent creature, so its stats are nothing to scoff at. It is decently frail for its level in its defensive capabilities, but it makes up for it in spades with its offensive prowess.

As we can see, the Abductor lacks a lot of bulk and resistances that a lot of other creatures at this level would have. Despite my prior statements harping on its agile and nimble nature its DEX is still lower than its STR score. My reasoning for this behind some of the secondary attacks this creature can cause when it attacks the player’s characters require a higher STR than DEX to maintain the effect. Despite this, it is still agile with a 40ft. flying speed (most creatures usually have a 30ft. movement (walking/running) speed). With a high WIS and INT this is not a creature that can be easily deceived or evaded and can quickly figure out a plan or ambush held against it.

Stats and Skills: Focusing on strength, intelligence, and speed rather than defensive bulk, Abductors rely on ambushing to quickly gain momentum in a fight and keep their targets on the back foot. Being able to fly about leaves them hard to pin down by most classes, allowing them to terrorize from above with swooping attacks, though getting too close leaves them susceptible to be attacked when entering a player’s range. Only gaining proficiency with the Perception and Stealth skills means the Abductors lean more into hiding away and watching for potential victims or targets rather than brashly charging in for a fight.
Resistances, Immunities, and Senses: Being resistant to specifically nonmagical weapons means this creature is not for the novice adventurers to confront. Usually, a starting hero will have not a lot of valuable or powerful equipment to wield and such would not be able to properly deal with an Abductor before it either kills the adventurer or whisks them away. immune to the Charmed condition means the Abductor cannot be swayed or influenced easily by those it’s attacking or stalking. While nothing is impossible, this would be a very steep check to make in order to try and talk your way out from a fight. Darkvision allows the Abductor to see in gray hues in dark areas, allowing it to hunt and ambush in the dead of night against unprepared or unsuspecting individuals. Without a torch, Darkvision, or some other source of light/sight the party would be attacking wildly, leaving the Abductor largely unscathed and free to act as it pleases. While it can speak, only being able to speak in Deep Speech leaves it difficult to communicate with as Deep Speech is a language widely saved for the aberrant creatures from beyond the realms like Mind Flayers.

Passive Abilities and Actions:

Now that we have moved through the introduction of the Abductor’s stats and abilities, its time to get to the real meat and bones of this creature’s statblock:

Faultless Tracker. The abductor has advantage on Wisdom (Survival) checks made to track creatures.

Faultless Tracker allows the Abductor to stake out creatures and follow them for great distances, possibly allowing for it to escape a combat only to return later when its target is resting from any wounds it took.

Magic Resistance. The abductor has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.

Its no surprise that magic plays a big part of the D&D world with how many classes get access to spells in one way or another. Magic Resistance is a frequent ability used by possibly hundreds of D&D creatures, especially as you enter the higher tiers of monsters. Being able to roll at advantage can really make or break a combat encounter, saving the Abductor from an otherwise quick loss at the hands of a sudden Polymorph or similar spell.

Siphon Vitality. At the start of each of its turns, if the abductor has a creature grappled the grappled creature takes 18 (4d8) necrotic damage and the abductor heals for the same amount.

This was the reason I wanted the Abductor to have a higher STR than DEX as with 5th editions rulings for grappling, grappled creatures can make a contested check using either their Acrobatics (DEX) or Athletics (STR) skills while the creature maintaining the grapple (the Abductor in this case) must use its Athletics (STR) to continue the grapple. So long as the Abductor has a creature grappled, it continues to both damage the grappled target but also heal itself, prolonging the fight. This does pose a bit of a bigger threat than the Abductor has a right to as a CR 8, by bumping the collective damage between all its Claw attacks and Siphon Vitality to a collective 46 average damage per turn, which is a monstrous amount.

Multiattack. The abductor makes two attacks with its claws.

This is possibly the most common ability for monsters within D&D as nearly everything above CR (Challenge Rating) 5 has Multiattack tacked on allowing it to make multiple attacks in a single turn. The only caveat for this feature is if something is incredibly slow or if it packs all of its damage into one singular strike, which is rare.

Claw. Melee Weapon Attack. +7 to hit, reach 10ft., one target. Hit. 14 (2d8 + 4) slashing damage. If the target is Medium or smaller, it is grappled (escape DC 16). Until this grapple ends, the target is restrained, and the abductor can’t attack another creature with its claws.

This is the basic attack of the Abductor and is arguably a bit strong for being CR 8. On top of grappling a creature on hit, this attack also inflicts the Restrained condition which does differ from the Grappled condition. While Grappled only reduces a creatures movement speed to 0, Restrained makes it so all attacks towards the restrained target are made at advantage while all attacks made by the restrained creature are made at disadvantage and it still cannot move. After successfully grappling a creature, the Abductor now has to attack the same creature until the creature breaks free, the Abductor decides to release the creature itself, or if the Abductor dies.

Planar Hop (3/day). The abductor quickly travels to the Astral Plane. If it is grappling a creature in its claws, the grappled creature must succeed on a DC 16 Charisma saving throw or be dragged into the Astral Plane with the abductor.

The Astral Plane is a sperate plane of existence, often acting as a bridge for the other planes within the realm. This ability poses a massive threat to a party as with one bad save, a player could become stranded in a completely different plane of existence with no foreseeable way back. While I personally envisioned this more of a ‘Get out of Jail Free’ ability, I cannot deny that the ability to toss a creature into the Astral Plane at this level is not only dangerous, but also unfun for players as you’re doing more than just removing them from combat as if they were stunned or downed, you are instead outright removing them from the scene and story.

Void Cell (Recharge 6). The abductor channels the magic within its body and attempts to pull a creature into an extradimensional space within itself. The abductor targets one creature it can see within 60 feet.

The target must succeed on a DC 16 Charisma saving throw or be pulled into an extradimensional space within the abductor’s body. While inside, the target is blinded and restrained. The abductor can hold only one creature at a time in this manner. A restrained target can repeat this saving throw at the end of each of its turns. If the abductor dies, the restrained creature is freed and appears at a random spot within 30ft. of the abductor’s corpse.

This is the crowning ability for the Abductor, being able to magically teleport a creature it can see into a pocket dimension stored within its body. I imagined this as the orange light underneath its face and within its head. Another dangerous ability as it can quickly lock a player inside, removing them from the fight and quickly flee, depositing the trapped creature a good distance away or using its Planar Hopping ability to escape to the Astral Plane with the creature in tow.

Revisions

The Abductor is by no means an easy foe to conquer, and in retrospect it is a tad over-tuned. While there is a lot of good in this statblock as I think the synergy between its claws being able to grapple and syphoning hit points to help heal itself is a good combo, having not one but two separate ways to outright remove players not only from the combat but from the same plane of existence as the rest of their party is too much. While I wish to keep the Void Cell feature mostly as it is, I think the Planar Hop feature should not be able to drag grappled creatures with it. This way it remains the escape card for the abductor to be able to flee quickly if a fight gets tricky for it and to return to ambush at a later time but can’t just remove a player off of one failed save with no way back to the fight or plane. Additionally, the damage output when factoring in Siphon Vitality is a bit much for a CR 8 creature as when compared to a Hezrou from the Monster Manual, its Multiattack feature uses one attack from its Bite (15 damage) and one from its Claws (11 damage) for a total of 26 damage. Already, the Abductor deals slightly more damage at 28 damage from its two claws, but adding the additional 18 from Siphon Vitality brings this way out of the league of the average CR 8. Instead of lowering the damage however, bumping the Challenge Rating up to 10 and increasing the stats and hit points slightly would make for a better change as this creature all-in-all is not designed for weaker or lower level parties.

This wraps it up for the first Aberration and the first D&D Homebrew Monster of the Week. Stay tuned next week for the next addition!