Comments/suggestions on Jester's rules (5e)

[Jester of the FoS]

Another thing: Jester, did you add the ghoul lord?

Yup.

1. give him resistance to non-magical weapons that aren't made of cold iron

I've been avoiding using cold iron in the monster document that since that metal doesn't technically exist in 5e.
I included it in my Ravenloft document, but I can't guarantee someone is going to use that and my monster doc.

2. increase his con to 16 (and reduce HD if you want less hp) so that the ghoul lord could have paralysis DC 13 and sickness 13.
NOTE: Sickness = poisoned = disadvantage to attack rolls. Hence I would say this ability increases the Ghoul Lord's effective AC by 1. (Someone will get infected probably, but not immediatelly)
Paralysis = attack with advantage, doing critical on hit, enemy doesn't attack. So I would say it should give a +2 to effective attack roll and increase effective hp by 15% (you suffer less attacks)

I kept the saves low on purpose. Keep in mind, most characters will have the same saves at level 4 as they did at level 1, and the ghoul lord will almost certainly have ghoul allies. The PCs are going to be making a LOT of saves vs paralysis. One failed save and that character is pretty much out of the fight. Even the high Con fighter type with proficiency might only be rocking a +4 to Con saves, meaning they have a 35% chance of failure.

Now aside of the above suggestions, I find the damage 2d8+3 too much. Perhaps reduce to 1d8+3? After all the ghoul lord makes 3 bite attacks per round.

Three bites is a maximum of 36 damage, which is in the CR5 range. But with the ghoul lord's low hp it evens out. The monster hits hard but might go down quickly if the party focuses fire.

[Jester of the FoS]

If I had to make a vampyre, I'd actually make it a variant of the vampire spawn. Use that statblock but remove regeneration, spider climb, and vampire weakness.
Add a trait that creatures bitten by the vampyre must succeed on a DC 12 Wisdom saving throw or become charmed for 1 minute.
Maybe also allow nonmagical silver weapons to damage it.

[Jander Sunstar]

Another thing: Jester, did you add the ghoul lord?

Yup.

1. give him resistance to non-magical weapons that aren't made of cold iron

I've been avoiding using cold iron in the monster document that since that metal doesn't technically exist in 5e.
I included it in my Ravenloft document, but I can't guarantee someone is going to use that and my monster doc.

Something I just now realised, The 5e ghoul doesn't have stats for ghoul fever. Would it be possible that ghoul fever will be in the manuscript?

[Jester of the FoS]

Another thing: Jester, did you add the ghoul lord?

Yup.

1. give him resistance to non-magical weapons that aren't made of cold iron

I've been avoiding using cold iron in the monster document that since that metal doesn't technically exist in 5e.
I included it in my Ravenloft document, but I can't guarantee someone is going to use that and my monster doc.

Something I just now realised, The 5e ghoul doesn't have stats for ghoul fever. Would it be possible that ghoul fever will be in the manuscript?

sure, I'll add that to the campaign doc.

[alhoon]

Even the high Con fighter type with proficiency might only be rocking a +4 to Con saves, meaning they have a 35% chance of failure.

For one round... if he hits, and you have inspiration, bless etc. The ghoul lord has at most 40% to hit the fighter with his claws and if he does, the fighter has 35% chance of failure (paralysis for 1 round and then repeat unless bless, lesser restoration or inspiration are used). That is 14% chance to knock down the fighter for 1 round and 5% to knock him out for 2 rounds.

Also the whole party would be concentrated on the ghoul lord, so I doubt he will be able to survive more than 3 rounds. Chances are, he will go down without having paralyzed anyone but having delivered 9 bite attacks, 3-4 of which probably hit for about 45 damage.
Hence the danger of the ghoul lord as presented is not the paralysis but the bite. If that's what you're going for, then everything's fine. After all, the ghoul lord is the epitome hungry dead.
If you want less emphasis on the bite and more on the paralysis, numbers need a bit twinkering.

[Jander Sunstar]

Something I just now realised, The 5e ghoul doesn't have stats for ghoul fever. Would it be possible that ghoul fever will be in the manuscript?

sure, I'll add that to the campaign doc.

Thank you.

[therealvang]

Well I tested it out and attacked a party of 4 lvl 4s with 2 vampyres without holding back I managed to down one and almost down another. But they defeated them. Your right 4 would have likely downed all of them haha.

[alhoon]

They killed a character? Did the chars play well, used all their resources wisely etc? Was the dice mostly fair?

If so, then the encounter would be considered "deadly". So, your Vampyres are (if the PCs handled them well and luck didn't favor any sides) about 650 XP worth each. Hence... CR3.


NOTE ON YOUR VERSION:
Charm DC should have been 13 according to the "Accepted" rules. The DC is usually 8 + prof bonus + ability modifier (charisma in your case)

I still stand by my version, with grapple being needed first before blood drain and CR being 2 because I think that's how tough they should be.
Personal preference that is. Nothing binding.

[therealvang]

They killed a character? Did the chars play well, used all their resources wisely etc? Was the dice mostly fair?

If so, then the encounter would be considered "deadly". So, your Vampyres are (if the PCs handled them well and luck didn't favor any sides) about 650 XP worth each. Hence... CR3.

Yeah that's about how it went. The cleric could have played a bit better he had a bless and pray of healing but never used either. The other players played about as well as they could. The vampyre did get lucky one round and got a crit. Id say if the cleric had played a bit better they would have gotten thru with no one going down.

[alhoon]

Jester: Aside of the Ghoul Lord, I saw something peculiar with the Goblyns. Originally they were tougher than ogres, with HD 4+4, very good chance to surprise someone, AC 4, thAC0 13 and a couple more abilities. Which IMO was very, very much for such a monster.

And yet, the Goblyns in your version are kinda ... weak. May I suggest you give them 1d6 hp more and lower their AC to compensate? After all, Goblyns don't use shields...

About Gremshikas now, I think CR 1/2 for a tiny creature that by itself should be an annoyance is too much. Lowering its dex to 16 (and all derivative traits) would put the Gremshika to what I believe is a more appropriate difficulty for such a monster (2' tall). As you've put it now (15 AC, 7 hp, +7 to hit, 1d4+5 damage) a single Gremshika could kill a guard, let alone a farm woman with a broom that tries to chase it out of the cellar.
PS. you write CR 1/2 but you put 50XP. Which is it? CR 1/4 50 XP or CR 1/2 100 XP?

As a note, I want to make clear here that I appreciate what you do. I try to offer constructive criticism because that's the reason you have the document open I think. For example, I totally agree with the need to drastically lower the difficulty of a single goblyn. I just think it would be better to have it a bit "tough" than presented. Same with the ghoul lord. I find a 14% chance to paralyze the fighter a bit low and the "total bite damage" a bit high but I appreciate the effort you put in making him, balancing him etc. I just try to offer a different perspective that may have escaped you.

[therealvang]

I saw something peculiar with the Goblyns. Originally they were tougher than ogres, with HD 4+4, very good chance to surprise someone, AC 4, thAC0 13 and a couple more abilities.

I agree I was looking thru some of the monster in the conversion particularly ones that are in Castles Forlorn and was surprised to find that they shared a stat block with goblins. In 2e they had 2 attacks in a round and if they managed to hit with both they would get a grapple and have a 3rd!

[Jester of the FoS]

Aside of the Ghoul Lord, I saw something peculiar with the Goblyns. Originally they were tougher than ogres, with HD 4+4, very good chance to surprise someone, AC 4, thAC0 13 and a couple more abilities. Which IMO was very, very much for such a monster.

And yet, the Goblyns in your version are kinda ... weak. May I suggest you give them 1d6 hp more and lower their AC to compensate? After all, Goblyns don't use shields...

I agree I was looking thru some of the monster in the conversion particularly ones that are in Castles Forlorn and was surprised to find that they shared a stat block with goblins. In 2e they had 2 attacks in a round and if they managed to hit with both they would get a grapple and have a 3rd!

Goblyns are tricky. They're expected to fill the niche of evil fey humanoid for the most part and are presented as goblins in Tepest. They're really just "dread goblins". A separate statblock is tricky, especially when they don't even have a unique name.
It seemed easier just to make them a variant.

About Gremshikas now, I think CR 1/2 for a tiny creature that by itself should be an annoyance is too much. Lowering its dex to 16 (and all derivative traits) would put the Gremshika to what I believe is a more appropriate difficulty for such a monster (2' tall). As you've put it now (15 AC, 7 hp, +7 to hit, 1d4+5 damage) a single Gremshika could kill a guard, let alone a farm woman with a broom that tries to chase it out of the cellar.
PS. you write CR 1/2 but you put 50XP. Which is it? CR 1/4 50 XP or CR 1/2 100 XP?

IIRC I just statted up based on the older versions and then figured out the Challenge. It might need to be toned down.

[alhoon]

I could do the Goblyn full thing for you and I could give further suggestions for the Gremshikas.

As for the Goblyns. I totally agree with you on the scope and role they should fill, hence their difficulty being 1/2 instead of something like CR3. Even in 3.5 I was at how powerful they were. When I reread how they were in AD&D I was about to fall out of my chair laughing.

VIEW CONTENT:

AC 4 ~> chain mail and shield ~> 18 AC in D&D next
Thac0 13 ~> hits plate and shield (AC 2) with 11 ~> hits plate and shield (AC 20) with 11 ~> hr+9 in D&D next
4HD+4 ~> average 22 hp when the fighter was expected to do 1d8+1 and the wizard didn't have at will attacks of 1d10 damage ~> equivalent 34 hp in D&D next

[alhoon]

Jester: I started putting comments on the monsters and I made some "suggested" edits (that would require your approval)
Everyone else: Please don't accept/abort those suggested changes.

EDIT: Added the red widow.

[alhoon]

Also added a lich