Deadliest Monsters in Dungeons and Dragons 5e by CR - Part Two
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- Опубликовано: 19 авг 2024
- Who are the Deadliest monsters in Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition? Today is a lesson in encounter design and balance as we look at the strongest monsters in 5e by each level. This is part two which will cover all monsters from CR 9 to CR 21!
Links to books mentioned in video:
Monster Manual: amzn.to/3etvAjZ
Volo's Guide to Monsters: amzn.to/3fvWNUj
Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes: amzn.to/2CDdoaw
Explorer's Guide to Wildemount: amzn.to/2OmyLzp
Princes of the Apocalypse: amzn.to/3fsqKF2
Dungeon of the Mad Mage: amzn.to/2Ommzyw
Curse of Strahd: amzn.to/3fvoGfc
Tasha's Cauldron of Everything: amzn.to/2SdeYnP
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I'd be disappointed if Dragons didn't feature heavily on the strongest monster list. They form a cornerstone of fantasy settings and are physically imposing while still being incredibly intelligent.
I would kind of be disappointed if Dragons were not top notch in a Dungeons and DRAGONS game.
Yeah. It's like, any list of places PCs are going to visit HAS to feature...dungeons, you know?
@@GunarBastos yeah... thats literally the first sentence of the guy you're responding to.
Tho boring and predictable "strongest" stereotype of monster, same as the obvious strongest entity would be a god.
Some great dragon types that many people don't know about are those from spelljammer such as the stellar and radiant dragons. With stellar dragons at their greatest size being from 10000 to 2 million feet long, able to use any wizard spell and have a gravity-based sphere of annihilation breath attack. Honestly just really cool.
Love the shirt! I am currently battling it right now, and have been since December. Thank You all for the very kind words. I am so far doing well and hope to continue to do so.
Hang tough!
No words, just support.
Cancer got nothing on u, u got this. good luck ^^
And don't you dare stop fighting!
You got this
"cr 15 strahd von zarovich wishes he had a spell list this good." , you mean he does have a list this good. This is a good spell list and will be using it on enemies from now on :)
DMs should not be afraid of changing the spell list of Strahd or any other wizard, for that matter. Strahd has access to the library in the Amber Temple, so he should theoretically have a spellbook filled with every spell in existence that he has slots for. The provided list is just a basic one, but just like PCs, NPC casters can switch it up.
@@EricBurnetMusic ooh, thank you for this idea, I'm running a COS right now as a new DM, I'll likely have to take into account how my players are doing as they get closer but my former DM is one of my players... so it would be fun to change it up.
@@kitsunerose9545, also take in to account the destined ally! I know that the Paladin is redicously more useful than the others because it is a vampire and Paladins get all flavors of smiting power against vampires!
If I ever run Curse of Strahd, Strahd is getting a 2nd and possibly 3rd form, Castlevania style.
He doesn't need them. Give him a couple buffs that the players can remove, maybe, but his lair actions in Castle Ravenloft are BROKEN! Yeah, he's weak. Kite and cheese the hell out of them. He has an Int of 20, as the DM, do not hold back. Ever.
there's a few vampirey things they peeled out of vampire for lord knows what reason in 5e. start by giving him back his unreasonable hp, domination powers, negative levels on every attack, etc.
@@davidtucker9498 This right here. This fight should be HOURS long. He isn't a Tarrasque, he should be phasing into other parts of the castle, summoning minions, isolating PCs, healing. There are a few great vids that show what a truly ruthless DM can do with Stan von Zakinowicz.
He doesn't need that if you use his older stats. 3e gave him 35 character levels + vamp abilities!
I'm playing my first ever game of d&d in 2 weeks time and the campaign is CoS So I am soooooo keen 🙏
I've run Curse of Strahd, and yeah the party knocked him down in 2 rounds. But those 2 rounds were thoroughly planned and built up to by the party over the course of the last couple levels of the campaign, acquiring the items and magics they'd need and learning the specific conditions under which he could die, and the trick that killed Strahd also killed two PCs. So I wouldn't say that it was underwhelming by any means.
So it's like making an ad. You plan and work for weeks, and the end product lasts only 12 seconds...
ive attempted strahd 4/5 times now. havent gotten past level 3 yet. i genuinly think that module is ment to be anti-fun lol
I've played strahd twice and I've run it twice as well. The longest the boss fight took was 8 round. Shortest was 3. But that was with a super built party that had amazing tactics and had 2 sunblades which just blasted the room with sunlight (our DM moved us straight from Out of the Abyss into Strahd, we had a huge advantage). But yeah, generally its a really quick fight, that can be made much faster if the players find his coffin first.
@@joeguman2122 Yeesh, that's rough. I ran it for a group of really experienced players who love lore and RP, most of whom had played together for years -- that's the group that leaned into the horror theme, had a ton of fun, and finished the campaign (took us 2.5 years to do it, though). I also tried running it for a group much newer players, who preferred a very different kind of d&d, weren't as engaged during sessions, and really just killed the tone of encounters all the time -- that group I quit because it wasn't fun by 5th level. I think the first PC death in the campaign can tell you everything you need to know -- in the former group, the player treated it as an opportunity for character growth (they excitedly became a Revenant) and the rest of the party took it as a sign that no one was safe (in a good, tension-building way); and in my latter group it was treated as a massive pain in the ass by the player because they weren't interested in changing their character at all and the rest of the party literally never stopped blaming each other for it (even a year after I quit running it).
I think in general it's not a good campaign for immature players, players that just want to slay monsters and get loot, or that need a railroad to move the plot along. On the other hand, it's not a good campaign for DMs that can't hold a ton of information in their head (the book was organized by a freaking lunatic-- why wasn't there an index??), or struggle with improvisation. It's an acquired taste, for sure.
@@annaschulmeyer9356 that sounds awesome! In my game Strahd went down quickly, but then the real final fight was an absolute nail-biter as the party raced Rahadin to Strahd's crypt and then fought him over Strahd's incapacitated body. Then again, Rahadin was the more immediate threat to the party throughout my campaign, while Strahd had been a bully who showed up occasionally to terrify and threaten them, so Rahadin as the final boss was maybe more satisfying than just killing Strahd for my group.
I'm not disappointed to see dragons well represented. They are after all the titular monster of the game.
They don’t get nearly enough use imo. Hoard of the Dragon Queen aside I don’t think the published campaigns feature them at all. I only know of one off my head, and she’s an optional side bit in PotA.
AxeCrazyOrc Lost mine of phandelver and Dragon of Icepire Peak come to mind immediately.
@AxeCrazyOrc I believe Tomb of Annihilation has a young Red Dragon
Basic dragons in 5e are surprisingly easy to take down if the party knows what they are doing. It'll still be tough, but they generally aren't that lethal. Shadow Dragons and Dracolichs, however, are significantly more lethal if used right.
Shadow Dragon are insane...
I just recently played through Curse of Strahd and the experiences there confirmed my theorycrafting of them. They do **not** flat out suck, BUT they're very underwhelming to the levels they're supposed to be a challenge to.
Vampires are truly murderous to characters and even entire parties of low level, or parties that don't (yet) have effective countermeasures to their abilities. All the vampire's abilities are geared towards winning a long protracted fight. They reduce the maximum hitpoints of victims so they can't be healed, and if it looks like they might lose they can easily disengage and regenerate back up and then come back and fight again. This makes them way WAY more dangerous to low level parties than even a beholder, which can be outwitted and worn down through clever play and luck. With a vampire it barely matters what plan you have or how good your dice are, if you don't have a critical mass of power to back your play, you just lose plain and simple.
There comes a critical point however, when a party can just about challenge a vampire, a sweet spot where the fight could go either way. This is when vampires are the best to include in your game and where they're actually fun to fight. This point is really short lived however. Once your PCs gain even just a tiny bit more power than is the bare minimum to break through the regeneration, and to endure a couple of attacks without needing to heal in between, then suddenly they can overwhelm a vampire really REALLY fast with near-impunity. I don't think there's any monster that falls off as hard as a vampire does.
Yeah reminda me of when our group of level 4-5 characters managed to kill a vampire before it even got a turn, funnily enough that was the first and only time we had to fight a vampire 🤣
They're vampires. Of *course* they suck!
I remember our DM's voice when we went to face a vampire spawn, while being level 3. "So you go down the hatch, right. You DO hear cries of gluttony ans desperation from down bellow, you know!... Oh well." And still remember her re-reading chill-touch cantrip, that I used on poor leech, several times. "But it deals necrotic damage! Oh... But it stops regeration..." And the long pause after fight, before saying: "Goodness. I thought he would kill you all, but you've turned off his regeration, pinned him down and he went down so fast!"
That's a thing about monsters. They should have weak spots to exploit and should be deadly when those spots are left unexploited.
@@vladimirserpov6773 Well played. Direct Counter.
Elder Oblex: For when you absolutely, positively must run "John Carpenter's The Thing WITH MAGIC!" in your game.
*YES*
I've never actually read the stat block and that thing is insane! I'd love to use it in my game but I'd be too scared I'd wipe the party lol
...an Oblex Bard...
Geezer here...
Good vid...
Must say the most dangerous "monster" in any game system is what ya kids call the "murder hobo"... TPK for sure at any level.
Game on.
Your pretty cool for a geezer. Please don't yell at me
"Geezer here..."
>name checks out
Seriously, I'm a new DM but I'm starting to get a taste for how my former murder hobo lifestyle may have made things harder for my team (I was a very good damage caster...... but also the only competent healer lol)
@@kitsunerose9545 As a unsolicited tip. Don't sweat it. Just enforce whatever consequences are setting appropriate. Let them murder hobo all they want. No worries. The good guys and the bad will in time hunt them down.
as someone who is fighting pancreatic cancer. i FING love that shirt your wearing!
Fight hard!
“That i did a few weeks ago”
Oh yeah, 2 months ago is technically a few weeks ago, sure
I jest, I’ve just been waiting for this for so long!!! (apparently 2 months)
@Aaron Pangilinan also apparently he forgot about corpse plant. because God that thing is a tpk machine! and yes I know that’s a challenge and eight not nine but still!
Do you say shit like “I jest” in real life? If so, how often do you get your ass kicked and your lunch money taken from you? Because it clearly needs to be more often
@@themostdiabolicalhater5986
You are seriously trying to cyber bully someone here? Obviously that just shows that you have inferiority complexes and need to try and put others down in order to feel good. But what confuses me the most is you GO TO A NERDY DND CHANNEL and try to bully someone there?
Also, you think kicking someones ass and taking their money will teach them a lesson? All that does is make them hateful and not progress anything productively.
Just because your parents never loved you and beat you does NOT mean that their way of raising you was correct lol. You are clearly a failure.
Ardyn Izunia Cyber bullying people is just one of my hobbies 🥺 you reacting so strongly to it is totally not the exact thing I was looking for and you blindly assuming things about me is definitely gonna make me think about what I did and change my ways 😇
IMO it is underwhelming that Strad has basically the same stats that the standard vampire comes with. The only difference is that he has lore.
The point would be that if Strahd can tell what the adventures are going to do and where they are, he ought to have the maximum number of allies from each of what could be rolled out for him in his stat block.
The first rule of war is to never fight unless you have done what you believe is necessary to guarantee success (paraphrasing Sun Tzu). Of course, this doesn’t fit with the mentality of Dungeons and Dragons of “balance all encounters by CR and let the dice fall where they may,” but this is better in terms of forcing the party to have complicated tactics set up beforehand in order to avoid dying.
That’s kind of the point. He is the archetypal vampire. The intro to CoS mentions how they think all vampires should have equivalent personality depth and backstory to Strahd, rather than be nameless dungeon mobs.
Also because Strahd’s main advantage comes as a military commander and manipulator rather than a combatant.
They also stacked spellcasting onto Strahd and that alone raises his deadlines quite a bit more.
The "move across walls" lair action, paired with the move legendary action and spider climb ability, is what it makes SvZ a challenge, because he can pop into the room, fireball the place, and hide far from the party to heal. But if he is pinned down...
I mean he's actually much harder, his spell casting aside he also deals an extra 4d6 necrotic damage on all his unarmed attacks. Considering he can make up to five unarmed attacks per turn with legendary actions, an extra 20d6 damage is nothing to sniff at
Aboleths also dont get legendary resistances. We were level 10 and all I had to do was feed it drugs that was the equivalent of the confusion spell and we shut it down immediately.(I know they werent chosen I'm just adding why they arent the pick XD)
Our group did something similar. We simply used Banishment on it, and when it returned we'd had 1 minute to prep an ambush.
@@MoffMuppet if you werent in the elemental plane of water (or where ever aboleths are from) it should've stayed gone too!
I had an Aboleth as a BBEG for an underwater temple, party at level 7. Two of them were summoning Elemental creatures, and the Aboleth gained control of those PCs. So i ruled that the Aboleth took control of summons as well. The action economy tipped really fast. I thought I was about to have some deaths, but then the Warlock started attacking allies, which woke them up.
@@BubblingBrooke they are from Far Realm, where old man's Lovecraft sould now probably resides.
Personally, I was almost wanting to expect to see the Nightwalker for CR 20 because of its ability to outright kill on fairly decent damage, despite it being a little squishy. It still does have quite a few resistances from what I remember as well.
I half expected half the comments to be about the shirt.
Awesome shirt by the way :D
Missed you Cody! Hope you are doing ok!!!
Had an episode idea, ask commenters for worst multiclass ideas. Would be funny, revoke some more dnd cards lol
Love your shirt bro, lost two besties this year from that truly dangerous BBEG. Alas Stephen who passed last night was also part of the passion that drove me to try be a GM 1/2 as good as he was. Thanks for the amazing content and shows, big fan.
I'm sorry for your loss
Not surprised that dragons were on this list, but a lot of them are "good" so the chances of them fighting the party are pretty low unless they're playing evil PCs, or the dragons were dominated.
True but someone being good or evil doesn't really say anything about their personality and quite a few dragons are easily irritated. I guess the message is: Don't piss of a dragon. Ever.
Lawful Good is an interesting alignment though. Combine with the strength of a dragon, that could easily lead to a personality that's arrogant, self-righteous, and uncompromising. There are a lot of things that could lead the party into conflict with one, even unintentionally.
Example: You loot an item off an evil mage that stole it from the dragon and has been casting non-detection on it or themselves to keep the dragon from finding it. Now the dragon thinks the party are the thieves and can find you, and fully believes it's lawful and good to eat you.
Example: A lich slipped their phylactery into its hoard, and you need to destroy it to defeat your true adversary. The dragon won't tolerate theft, its arrogance making it refuse to believe it had been tricked.
Etc. There are a lot of ways to end up on the wrong side of a lawful good NPC, despite the noblest intentions.
In Ebberon monsters aren't defined by their stat block alignments. Gold Dragons can be chaotic evil and Red lawful good. You can't tell by the color of skin. Orcs are the same, as are the drow. No racial stereotypes.
@@Pharoic, most valuable comment.
@@rokkkrinn2793 you're on some real bugman energy
I'd like to see a video of the deadliest named monsters too. Maybe a top 10 or something. It'd be neat learning about what they can do.
I think there’s a limitation to this in that monsters are mostly considered in their combat contexts. Vampires are not especially lethal combatants, but as manipulator characters they’re top-tier. It’s not hard to have them bribe, convince or even outright charm party members to fight against one another, potentially without the players even knowing that they’re vampires.
Or in the case of a recent event involving a character of mine on a play by post (text based) D&D discord server... both charm my character, and convince them they might not be all that bad. Leading to my character enabling it's escape by casting invisibility on it when it was in critical condition. (More info below if anyone wants context)
Funny thing about that vampire. It didn't even attack any party members during that encounter. (although we did find it next to the corpse of a npc it had drained of blood) It just charmed my naive Wis Dump stat (10 was my lowest stat due to stat rolls, and my 10 was in wis) bard, and played the victim role while other party members attacked the vampire.
Even after the charm ended after the vampire escaped, my naive character still thinks the vampire might have just drained that body thinking there was no other way for it to survive, and thinks it might have charmed them for a similar reason. (that being said. There have been past instances of creatures not being of their stereotypical alignment on this server, and my character thinks that this vampire might be one of those cases)
At least my character was convinced to be cautious if they ever seek that vampire out again, and not go alone. (there's many players and DMs on that play by post server. and party layouts change from outing to outing)
My character has also decided to research vampires extensively before seeking this one out again.
edit(to add this note): my bard is a level 8 Changeling Lore Bard on the server. They have 20 charisma, 18 dex, and the only stat they have that is below 14 is their 10 in WIS (i gave them that as their dump stat for character personality reasons)
@@eleksitia I love it. Thanks for sharing my friend :D
And thats ultimately the thing.
A vampire ran by a dm who doesn't know how to run vampires will fall on its face and the same thing applies to most monsters.
Like you should see the kinda bullshit I've pulled with goblin and kobold centric encounters
The Elder Oblex is basically the Thing from John Carpenter's "The Thing" that can possess multiple people AND has supernatural mind control. I ran a horror one-shot one time with this thing and was AMAZED by how easily I TPK'ed my players, like I wasn't even trying.
One of the many reasons why it's AWESOME! It's a straight up combo of The Thing and Shoggoths (whitch were already pretty similar anyway). Former primordial shapeshifting slave race that went rogue (shoggoths) against their anchient hyper advanced masters (the mind flayers/Elder Things). John Carper's The Thing? You can totally run with this. The Mountains of Madness? You can easily run. If that was'nt cool enough, all the Oblexes were created by a Fan with the Make a Wish Foundation. I for one cannot wait to run a game in the Cold, Cold, spine of the world wherein the party, sponsored by a Mage university sponsors an expedition into a frozen mountain range.
I would like a continuation on this video including the Demon Lords and Archdevils from Mordekainen's Tome of Foes, because despite them being named they are BIG contenders, also I wouldn't mind to see the mythic monsters from Theros being ranked as well, that spider looks really nasty
This video, and Part One is the best videos you have done so far. They are, possibly, the best D&D-related videos here on RUclips for us DMs. Good job! Keep em coming.
For the Challenge rating 20 spot I'm under the personal opinion that the adult gold dragon shadow variant takes the cake, as it can create such absolute chaos in combat, with a stealth bonus of +14 it can easily get the drop on the party; combine that with its breath weapon that is now necrotic rather then fire making it less commonly resisted, that also happens to kill a party member if they drop to 0 hp because of it and proceeds to be raised as a shadow to further devastate the party. This combined with the inherit bulkiness(256hp and 19ac), speed(80ft flying speed), and the very scary ability to throw 2d10+4d6+24 dmg out with a single action via multi attack, it makes it quite a forced to be reckoned with. At the very least, it's defiantly a viable pick for true polymorph at the very top level of play lol
Also yeah, Oblex is devastating, our DM TPK'd us when we were grinding up giants the day before. Vampires are lame, i made strahd a skinned nalfeshnee I think, with the archmage spell list.
I hope things can be better for you and your family this month, times really are hard.
Hey Cody! I like that you didn't just pick the "expected" or semi-commonplace monster for ANY of these CR choices. You listed one of my favorites in the Silver Dragon as well! Thanks for making these videos!
Funny that I just watched part 1 this morning and was confused as to why there hadn't been a part two yet lol
Hey Cody, just wanted to drop a little compliment, im a ForeverDm but didnt lead a single DnD Game. Still i check in for your videos cause you're able to lighten up all the important aspects and making them understandable not only for DnD but for any kind of rpg situation. Don't know if you are aiming for it, but i think its great and your videos are usefull, thanks all the way.
I love that monsters featured in expansions representing the MtG universe are represented here. It is so cool to see that Ravnica and Theros campaign monsters are legitimately playable (not to mention worthy bosses and end game monsters) for my parties to clash with.
Strahd has a secret extra like 300 hp that the book doesn't tell you about unless you read all of chapter 4
For vampires, I recommend people look at the old van Richten's guide to vampires. You have to slog through 2e stats, but it can give great ideas.
YES!! I’ve been waiting so long for Part 2!!!
kinda surprised there was no mention of the CR16 Storm Giant Quintessent (Volos pg151) with its 600ft range autohitting windjavelin and ability to turn into an untargetable storm cloud as its legendary action
Great video set Cody! Thanks.
I think the Devourer (from VGtM) at CR 13 is worth a mention. I beat up a much higher level party (18-20) with one of these bad boys.
comment for youtube algorithm
Comment for matching profile pic.
@@paleomancer13 holy shit, either your twins or someone pulled out the shadow clone jutsu
As a new DM this is very nice to see.
I've been working on a Castlevania themed one-off campaign for some friends around Halloween and knowing (sort of) how to balance vampires is good to hear.
I managed to make the Strahd encounter considerably more dangerous/taxing for my party with a considerable amount of effort--mostly with hit and run tactics, and the fact that he had managed wrest a couple of the artifacts away from the party in previous encounters.
The scene was Sergei's Tomb, and Strahd had hidden the Sun Sword and the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind in Sergei's coffin. When a party member entered the tomb to reach the level that opens the door, only a couple of party members were able to get in before Strahd's lair action closed the door and made it difficult to open. Strahd also cast Animate Objects on the three statues in the tomb (I counted the two angels as Large and the Sergei as Medium), which proceeded to batter the people in the tomb alongside Strahd. Meanwhile, a group of direwolves attacked the party trapped outside of the tomb.
When the party started to deal significant damage to Strahd, he escaped from the tomb using his lair action to pass through walls, leaving his statues to batter the party. When the party regrouped in the tomb, he started tossing Fireballs down into the tomb, though a mage with See Invisibility managed to counterspell some of Strahd's better spells. Everyone, including Strahd, was running out of resources by the end.
One of the party members attempted to resurrect Sergei using a power they got from the Amber Temple, which was a cool idea, but I decided since Sergei's death was the price Strahd paid for power, and the fact that the ability was given to the party from a Dark Power, the effect was that Sergei was only half-alive, constantly in torment until he accepts death again. So, Sergei wouldn't be of any direct help (and it all just made Strahd angrier), BUT he did have a few moment to speak to the party and allow them to become instantly attuned to the artifacts.
Even with the artifacts, Strahd could have continued his hit and run tactics until the party fled the castle, but when Strahd attempted to get away and heal up for a bit the party pumped a character full of buffs (including Haste and Fly) and sent him after Strahd with the Sun Sword. This Spirit Bomb technique was a gamble, but with a few hits including a critical they managed to bring him down just before he had a chance to escape or counterattack. (It was fitting that the character to kill Strahd was himself killed by Strahd earlier in the battle.)
It was a rough battle, making full creative use of Strahd's abilities and environment, as well as full use of the party's allies, some of whom joined in the battle while others simply provided buffs beforehand. I was DETERMINED to make this final showdown difficult and memorable.
So I am running a level 20 combat tournament, and I threw 2 Zehir's at themtoday. That thing is so much stronger than a CR 11! This thing almost completely took out one 20 level character while two others where simultaneously whaling on it!
Some BA monsters there
I love using giants against my party
Love the shirt. I have that exact thing tattooed above my cancer scar since the incision cut out a previous tattoo.
my theory is that Ilithids come from some evil intelligent monster's experiment (an Aboleth maybe) with Neotelhid tadpoles, putting them in the head of the proto-Gith race to see what would happen, but it went through ceromorphosis, & few of the guinea pigs turned out as a Ulitharids, one of whom became the 1st Elder Brain.
I misread Strahd's statblock when I ran Curse of Strahd, and didn't realize that he was actually damaged by sunlight. That made the fight quite a big harder than it probably would have been
How are you supposed to get sunlight in a Domain of Dread in the Shadowfell (the sun is on the material plane)? Or did a cleric cast Daylight?
@@evannibbe9375 without spoiling too much, one of the major goals in the adventure is obtaining an item which can create sunlight
@@evannibbe9375 you get the sunsword and the holy symbol of ravenkind both of which create sunlight
Your analysis for vampires as written in D&D lore was correct. I greatly enhanced their abilities in my world. They are a CR 22 in my world, they are masters of escape, they have up to 6 attacks per round, claw/claw, grapple, bite, gaze, spell or weapon. They use an at will unique move rate ability I have named “blurring speed” , treat this move rate as 90’ per action. They move at a rate that is fast enough to appear literally as a blur, They have vampiric regeneration, can only take damage from blessed holy weapons, or magical weapons with +3 or greater magical bonuses, they have greater strength, can spider climb at will at their top move rate, they drain experience levels 1-2 per successful hit, grapple with the strength of an Ogre.
They can, as a bonus action once per day, summon 1d6 lesser Vampire wives to aid them which arrive in 1d6 rounds. Any party member that even accidentally meets a vampires gaze must save v.s. a strong hypnotic effect, which allows the vampire to use that victim as an ally to aid them in the fight, this hypnotic effect will weaken over the course of three days, finally ending at that time, or upon the vampires complete destruction..
Vampires gain all the same saves and immunities as liches. Vampires all have alteration and invocation/evocation spell lists. They also move silent 100% of the time, they can use a bonus action to fly by turning into a large vampire bat, or by turning gaseous. They have a 20 Int score, and a dexterity of 19. Their claws and teeth are treated as +3 magical weapons. They can use a drain life spell effect once per turn, against a single living target within 90’ that if not saved against, will permanently drain half your hit points and heal the vampire for that much damage, this effect does not cause any loss of actual levels and the lost hit points can be regained by subsequent long rests which will restore 20 lost hit points for each long rest. This spell attack form does not use any spell slots. The drain life effect will not be able to drain the target to a hit point total lower than 1 hit point.
Vampires can also summon 10d8 large rats to assist them in a fight, this is a bonus action and the rats will arrive in 1d4 rounds. Each rats will have 24 hit points.
Vampires must be beheaded and their heads buried separately in hallowed ground at least 20’ apart from their bodies, or the vampire must be disintegrated or completely submersed in the running water of a stream/river for 3 rounds, or the vampire must be subjected to 3 rounds of direct sunlight or for the same duration of similar positive energy effects in order to completely destroy the vampire or they will totally regenerate within 1d6+1 turns from a point of zero hit points.
Vampires cannot normally cross the running water of a stream or river unless it’s width would allow them to step across 4’ wide. Vampires can fly across any flowing stream or river but must fly above it by at least 1 mile in height over it.
Vampires cannot enter a home or business unless they are specifically invited by the rightful owner of the home or business, this invitation can be coerced by the vampires gaze attack.
me: *sees Balor on the list*
"FLY you fools!"
Good stuff man. My friends and I were able to handle a vampire pretty easily about a month ago. I was definitely expecting more due to all of the hype. Was still a fun fight.
13:00 on the strahd comment, you are completely right, it's not the vampire that makes the encounter hard, it's the building around him.
I wish dragons had been in the running for more of the CRs
Great video. My party is getting up there in levels, and they are durable as hell so it is good to know about some standout monsters. I agree that any combination of additional action economy, stun locking, and strong AOE are all big things to look for. Some monsters, while deserving of their CR rating, are essentially a sponge of HP with strong melee attacks. Unless you as the DM a crazy amount of crits your party will most likely get by just fine if they are appropriately leveled.
Finally! I've been waiting for this video for awhile now
Honestly, the Lich is very overrated with a CR 21. Yes, it has mighty spells with a decent save DC and legendary actions and resistances. But what are these spells doing against a level 17+ party? The lich will get counterspelled left and right and with only 135 HP it won't survive a single round of combat.
I would definitely rank the Solar as the top CR 21 creature. It has great stats all around, including an intelligence even a Lich is jelaous of, it has a very high damage output - and it is fast. The Solar is by a great margin the fastest monster of them all with a flying speed of 150 feet (only tied with some named monsters like Zariel, who essentially is a fallen Solar or Yan-C-Bin from PotA), which is almost twice the speed of a dragon and a legendary action that allows it to teleport for 120 feet. And it has a longbow with a long range of 600 feet, which has the potential of insta-killing a creature that has less than 100 HP.
I believe a well-played solar might be stronger than higher CR dragons despite the lack of a breath weapon, simply because it is so blazingly fast. Basicially only archers with Sharpshooter can reliably hit that thing.
Give the lich prep time. The description discusses how it will use magic items and it is a wizard, capable of having many spells. Why not give a simulacrum, and have it come to the battle with prismatic wall and sickening radiance prepared?
Again, counterspell, subtle counterspell, dispel magic ("kills" the simulacrum, could theoretically be twinned by a sorc to dispel the Lich's own spells/buffs at the same time), just dealing damage... there are many ways to kill a Lich quickly. It might get off a devastating spell or two if it gets lucky on Initative, bit mit might as well only get a legendary action off before the fighter action surges in its face or the paladin unloads a couple of smites.
@@arthilas_ Counterspell wouldn't kill the Simulacrum, only Dispel Magic. Lich could run counterspell to counter their dispel magic, and the simulacrum could *also* run counterspell. A clever Lich would also have the battefield itself set up, and a contigency upon itself to maybe teleport away if it gets seriously harmed. The idea behind the Lich is that yes, it is frail, but you have to actually be able to get it through all of it's schemes, contingencies, simulacrums, and other bs to be able to kill it. I would say a lot of it's difficulty comes from properly setting up and role playing an ancient 20 intelligence being with access to countless resources, not necessarily how easy it is to drop once you actually get into a fair fight.
Try 190 for the instakill on a Solar.
You have been missed sir. Glad to have you back.
Thats very kind Ron
storm giant quintessant is absolutely underrated.
YES I WAS WAITING FOR THIS SINCE THE FIRST ONE
Amazing video as always man, thank you so much for your effort to make this
So glad to see you uploading again
good video, I love it when people dig down on this type of stuff and do the research for us..
"Soul Mongers don't seem all that bad."
((Does Exhaustion levels as a cone attack))
"Oh...oh no...."
And its multiattack gives disadvantage to the ST, so a pair would be super deadly. And when it dies, it comes back with half it's HP and has advantage on all attacks. The thing is bonkers
If anything... Dragons may be under represented. Played right, they are killing machines!
I disagree. No great spells nor magics. They're essentially big both flamy talon boys. Not much there besides lore and rp
Been waiting for this!
In my campaign plan (characters are part of a thieves guild, any class allowed), a Vampire (CR 13) is funding the guild until the Prince of Thieves himself returns to take over the guild. I gave her a spell list for an 11th level Ranger, and tossed in Chain Lightning for a bigger threat. As the funder, she will actually end up saving the party on two different occasions, I'm thinking once at level 7 vs an Adult Green Dragon, second vs Person who's vault they break into, when the Man with One Hundred Magic Items attacks the party for breaking into his vault. The Vampire is learning the ways of the world, and as such, is funding a small Guild to do what needs done.
It actually makes me happy how many dragons were on here. They are literally in the name of the whole game, they better be one of the most fearsome foes you can face
Jacob from xp talked about the issue with vampires if I remember correctly.
My solution is to make vampire weaknesses be dependent on the vampire, and idea I stole from Adventure Time. That provides the players with the air of familiar fear that hangs about vampires, while not being completely neutered by weaknesses
One thing about the Death Tyrant and how you said it can use multiple desintegration rays: It can only use one of each ray on a turn. I know you probably misspoke, but that was just something I noted.
I also 100% agree about vampires. They're way too weak for what they are, much like the rakshasa
Eh, I think you could've done better with CR 21. For CR 21 I think the Molydeus could've been up there because of AT WILL POLYMORPH! It could just keep polymorphing itself into giant apes over and over again or polymorphing the players into snails. Great work as always!
I was about to comment on that very monster I think it should’ve been on the list especially when it can outright kill a pc if it rolls a 20
Love your vibe and channel. BTW that shirt kicks ass!
Thanks for all your hard work!
I was just thinking yesterday that I hadn't seen anything from you recently. I hope your t-shirt isn't why you've been gone. Either way, I hope everything is ok/getting better. Thanks for all the content you make, it's been extremely helpful.
Welcome back, Cody! xD We missed you!
It's cool that even with the power creep of recent source material; giants, beholders, dragons and mm fiends still cluttered the top of the list
When it comes to deadly monsters, there's nothing more deadly to a campaign than the question of spell selection and use for casters. Not sure how to fix that, honestly, but I have thoughts along the lines of 1) roll for different spell packs when the magic-user is created, 2) spell packs should include tactics using said spells, 3) some spells should be cast before the encounter if the magic-user knows the PCs are approaching, 4) there should be a 'routine' loadout and a 'paranoia' loadout, the latter to be prepared when the magic-user expects trouble that day, 5) the 'routine' loadout should have a retreat option by the second or third round, while the paranoia should have tactics customized to what the magic-user can cast and prepare (i.e., more strategizing than the scope of a youtube comment can go into).
One example of a paranoia loadout might be having the magic-user cast for one round each time the PCs are in an encounter with other foes, then ducking back to safety, seeking attrition over a series of (hopefully deadly to the PCs) encounters.
Not fair to the PCs, of course, but like dragon lairs, attacking the stronghold of a wizard should be a dangerous business.
A way my DM balanced the oblex was by having every tavern patron be part of it, and each person had drastically lower health, so before we fought it's full form we could lower it's health. Granted my ranger still had is memories sapped...and we were level 4....and he had to make some saving throws....but he survived so yknow, she scaled it down immensely for us.
The oblex is kinda my pet monster as a DM, I love the way it can fit into so many places in a campaign
@@johnstarinieri7360 literally
Woo he's back!
While I think the basic CR 13 vampire is not necessarily the strongest in any situation, but it does say a vampires lair will be a grand yet defensible position, a castle, a fortified manner, a walled abbey or such. I'd have the vampire design their lair of heavy stones, with multiple hidden passages, secret rooms, and ubiquitous small cracks that a mist could easily move around through. Then the vampires actual resting place would be in a room with no doors, just big enough for the vampire to rest in, with walls, ceiling and floor that are 30' thick, with the same small cracks allowing a mist to easily move through. Then there would be an area for vampire spawn which would be hidden but not too well hidden with secret chamber next to it that would be a fake resting place for the vampire, while the real resting place would be far from the fake one.
Then, playing the vampire smartly, meaning defensively seeking first and foremost to stay alive, it could pose a pretty serious threat and be very hard to kill.
I don't know if it counts, but when I saw the CR 30 monsters in Fizban's Treasury of Dragons, who are the Aspects of Tiamat and Bahamut, I taught that CR 30 was low, just because of the mythic awakening. A dnd party who prepared for a long time to kill one of these beasts could manage to down just to see it come right back up with almost all their hit points and a breath weapon ready to blast the party, and some extra legendary actions that are devastating. Kinda the same thing with the chromatic, metallic and gem greatwyrms. Any of these dragon could just destroy a tarrasque because they won't die.
Now technically, beating them after awakening counts as beating them twice, but a party that doesn't have something prepared for that will just lose. They either got to escape or have something special prepared for that (maybe power word kill you skip this ability, because it doesn't fall to 0 hit points)
Yay part 2!!!
Frost giant zombies are wicked. I love and hate them simultaneously
I agree with this heavily, as I have used a Cadaver collector against my party they ended up running away after it spent a week raising specters from a massive battle field.
12:53 I remember that in my first ever game of dnd it had to be cut short so out dm just had us fight Strahd at level 5 or 6 and we won with not a single member of the party lost. We also beat the tutorial house without knowing the boss' weakness. The only death that game was one player to an unfortunate set of rolls vs a few ghouls.
What about the Sibriex at CR18 ?
They are really really scary to fight...
They have an aura that restrict moovement and deal some poke damage
They flight
They have legendary resistance and magic resistance coupled with insane save (exept dexterity but since they have a lot of resistance its kinda negated)
They have good spell list with 3 feeblemind and charm person/hold person AT WILL
The warp attack that stack Exhaustion is insane, the Sibriex can just fly 120 feet up to the PC, target the weaker one and the more you fail your save the more difficult it is to escape this feature... I mean it stack poison on top of exhaustion. And you have to succed the save THREE TIMES. Thats completly nuts with disavantage.
And the Sibriex can outpass the shortcoming of spellcaster monster : he can use his legendary action to use his spell... Including the DC 21 intelligence save feeblemind. That means he keeps his DPS while spamming 3 spells per turn, including charm spell, dispel magic or hold monster
Good luck, your party is now braindead.
Also the Flesh Warping variant is disturbing, especially for poor player that see their PC turning hopelesdly into eldritch horror. Really disturbing
My favorite : arms and legs switch places.
I appreciate the shout out! ENERGY SWOOOOOOOOORD!!!!
Well done, Cody! That was a good ride!
Three combos that I've found are pretty intimidating thrown at a party, regardless of CR rating are;
- Hag(s) + Scarecrow(s) or Shadows(s)
- Succubus(s) + Cambion(s), and
- Erinyes + Doppelganger(s)
(or mix 'em up as deemed appropriate)
These can all be pretty devastating put against a Party that are more familiar with hack 'n slash fights and unprepared for more intriguing and subversive plot-lines. :)
Showed up in my recommended and earned yourself a like and subscribe, good video! Very informal and I even learned a few things
I've run CoS a couple different times with different groups, and I've got to say a couple things about why vampires and Strahd specifically feel week.
One: if your players know they're going to be playing CoS, then they're more likely to build their party, or pick classes, that will fair well against vampires (like Paladins, Clerics, sun soul monks, etc).
Two: The module itself gives the party chances to earn magic items that will help them significantly in their fight against Strahd (and other Vamps). In fact, it's actually encouraged to get them before the final fight. These magic items basically make it so any party comp will have a fair chance of beating Strahd. Compound that on to a party that already has good anti-vamp classes, and it's not even a fair fight anymore.
But take players outside the CoS campaign, take them away from the land of Vampires, and then introduce one as a villain to your party when they aren't built to be the ultimate vampire slayers? Then those charm abilities, regeneration, calling reinforcements, life drain attacks, those become a seriously bigger threat. If the party has no paladin or way to deal radiant damage consistantly, then I think a Vampire is actually pretty deadly. It's just running CoS lends itself to to encouraging players to make PCs that will do well against vampires, thus making vampires feel weak :/
Even without foreknowledge of vampires, they come across as weak. However, they're exceedingly good at one thing: seal-clubbing weak parties. Everything in a vampire's statblock makes them extremely good at bullying a party far below the level appropriate to their CR, far more so than other monsters do. In essence the vampire embodies the concept of a death-spiral really well, where the enemies snowball a small advantage once they gain it.
The vampire is more sinister in this regard than things like the wraith, because it's not immediately obvious. Its resistances, domination and regeneration abilities tend to drag the fight out, but the more the fight drags out, the more its domination and regeneration come into play, which perpetuates things even further. On top of this, they can reduce their victims max hp so the PCs' ability to sustain through a protracted fight is reduced.
The reason vampires seem weak though, is because by the time you're "supposed" to fight them, you likely have the ability to bypass their resistances and their hitpoints are so low compared to other creatures you have the power to simply blow through their regeneration before it can come into full effect, even if you're down a party member to the domination ability. In essence all their abilities that earn them their CR are "win more" mechanics to snowball an existing numbers-advantage, but aside from those their stats are very low. Thus by the time you fight them they no longer have an advantage to snowball and the abilities that earn them their CR don't come into play.
Really, just give Strahd the maximum in each category of ally he is supposed to appear with, and give him a couple of illusion spells like Major Image (concentration, could wrap this around himself as a repeat of himself) and Mirror Image (not concentration). Since it does not require Strahd’s concentration to Shapechange into a bat or gaseous form, he can have the party waste several spells taking out the Mirror Images and just having attacks pass through the illusion of him while all his allies can force the players to flee!
This may seem “unbalanced”, but that’s really the only way to fight with him since he is supposed to be a master tactician and you are supposed to keep Strahd in play for as long as possible.
Nice to see you back in action. 👍
Very happy to see a video again keep up the fight!
New to the channel thought it was an amazing video learned a lot from it, can't wait to see more
Weakening Breath on a Gold Dragon is great. Once the dragon determines who was affected by their breath weapon, pick one, grapple it, and fly into the sky! They won't be easily able to break the grapple, allowing the Gold Dragon to fly up high enough so that when they finally let go, the fall damage kills their intended target.
Man, I actually threw a Frost Giant Zombie at my friends who were playing Lv. 20 characters in a one shot i ran. Long story short, the F.G.Z. Paralyzed the ranger, and the Eye of Fear and Flame detonated the Ranger's Helm of Brilliance and nearly died from an after effect of that fight from the boss monster.
The tricky part with a lot of the high CR monsters especially with long spell lists is they rely on the DM playing them tactically. The lich who just throws out a spell trying to batter them down will get taken down by the paladin in 1-2 rounds since their hit points are so low. And a lot of the smart monsters would've planned ahead, have allies to hinder or distract the players etc. A Lich or other spellcaster played poorly easily drops 4-5 challenge ratings. Which can also be a lot for a DM to have to do especially someone new who doesn't know all the spells!
I am very surprised to not see the Solar in the CR 21 block.
No legendary resistance is a big deal at the level, but with absurd mobility especially with legendary teleport, ranged attacks, and excellent spells that complement its abilities(invisibility at will, control weather to give itself cloud cover) it easily beats the pit fiend imo. Even pit fiend summoner, it can just outrange the fiend and it's allies and drop it with it's bow and flying sword.
It literally has best mobility in-game, and epic ranged attacks make that absurdly tough to fight. Unless the party forces it to land(threaten an innocent etc) the solar should be teleporting away every chance it gets, before flying in to just nail someone. If a party is outside this creature should easily kill a party at this CR simply as they can't attack most turns. 90% of powerful spells don't even work at the range the solar should be attacking from(150 ft) shutting down held actions, and it doesn't even end it's turn that close. Also melee is irrelevant, not even a haste with fly spell on the barbarian gets them in range. And it is definitely smart enough to fight like this if given a reason.
I think a Solar played well is more likely to kill or threaten to kill the Party than the Ancient Brass Dragon.
Thoughts?
(edit spelling) Note: I just realized I mistakenly misunderstood the video and what creatures were in what stat block, and was comparing the Solar to the CR 20 creatures. The Lich definitely beats the Solar, although I would have loved an honourable Mention for the Crown Jewel of Celestials.
I've fought one Solar in a level 20 oneshot.
I was a (nerfed) wizard, had a few minions and the solar had been given about 1.3x max hp roll (somewhere in the 400s). It lasted about one turn of my attention teleporting minions on top of it whilst the rest of the party were busy fighting off a doubled-hp Pit Fiend and buffed up Zariel + Aurelia (The DM was cruel). It never got anything meaningful done before it died, and the only reason we considered it a priority was because it could resurrect a scarier combatant.
Even if you ignore wizard shenanigans, without buffing the Solar up it kinda just loses to a ranged fight with even a single dedicated ranged PC if that PC can count on some buffs/healing from their supposedly useless party. It's extremely unlikely an entire party of epic-tier adventurers don't have anything to control positioning, and it's also not a given that the Solar will be fighting them in an environment that allows it to pull the tactics you suggest. Even if both of those were somehow the case, it doesn't inherently have a means of keeping its victims out in the open and certainly doesn't have the raw killing power to pose an immediate threat to high level adventurers in the opening rounds. (Seriously, even at lower levels a mere Mirror Image spell can make you endure a Solar's wrath for ages if it tries to fight from beyond 120ft)
That said, as a terrifying monster to threaten a far weaker party with, heck yes. They may not have access to the crazy high-tier spells or the damage output to trade blows with it from range, and then you can force them into all manner of clever tactics to counter the Solar's.
For "Team Angels" the Deva is far more devastating (accounting for CR) if the DM uses their abilities to their maximum effect. The change shape ability lets it put out truly absurd numbers, and if you have it change shape into a Githzerai Enlightened it can even match the Solar for melee damage output!
I will concede to you though, that an ancient brass dragon also seems extremely trivial to a high level party, and compared to that the Solar definitely has some things going for it. Another advantage it has there is that most people know how to fight a dragon, but few people know how to fight a Solar. That said, the brass dragon is more immediately threatening, which means your party has less time to figure out how to react effectively. The solar is going to need at least a minute or so before anyone's in genuine danger. A minute is plenty of time to think of some stop-gap measures to buy yourself even MORE time to think of a counter strategy.
@@TheFirstLanx interesting, although i am not sure how the minons could do anything, as soon as you cast that spell "teleporting minions into its space" it should activate its Legendary Action Teleport and remove itself from The risk before their turn activates. Unless your Dm lets you actually share a turn with you, which some do, but summons should have their own initiative or take their turn immediately following yours.
Also, It's slaying bow is a real threat to any target, and its true sight should bypass mirror image. ;) Then its Bow is a crazy threat to any squishy. and it can literally move up 510 ft per turn, (150ft fly, 120 ft teleport Times 3) so getting within range for true sight then out is not even a deterrent for it if it needs the true sight to hit a squishy.
Keep in Mind the Slaying Bow threatens permadeath to any character within one hit of being below 100. Even the D8 characters with a low Con of say 12, are on average only about 125 hp at that level. D6 characters are even more at risk.
I do agree though, you do point out that at that level there are spells and ways to create a cover that should function well enough, and a creative group should find ways to make it work, especially by supporting allies. If nothing else the group can magically escape. But focusing on typical tactics, I feel the Solar is a stronger threat particularly over the Pit Fiend and in most situations the Ancient Brass Dragon as well.
@@TheFirstLanx I'm fairly new to 5th edition, but what minions did you have that were able to do 400hp in a turn?
@@jayrucks5885 **Short version:** Devas. Devas are broken.
That said, a simple army of skeletons raised with the Animate Dead spell, if equipped with some Fabricated adamantine arrows could have comfortably done the same damage and is much less contrived than what I used.
**Warning! The following explanation is long and contrived, and is not intended to be taken as a recommendation as to how to play, but rather to serve as a silly anecdote for your amusement and possibly inspiration! As a new player, please don't expect your games or characters will be or should be played similar to this one.**
**Long version:**
So my DM allowed me to bring 6 minions and a simulacrum maximum to keep things "balanced". With the DM's consent I fully indulged in powergaming to the extreme, which was a part of the one-shot everyone was keen to engage with for this particular game. We assumed a year of downtime prior to play starting (though it only needs a week or two).
Step 1: Call and bind.
What I ended up running with was conjuring 6 horned devils (CR 11) with the infernal calling spell from Xanathar's Guide to Everything, using the devil's individual talismans (won't go in to how to obtain those here, varies per DM and isn't essential as you can just pick a CR 10 devil and the same cheese will work) and casting a Planar Binding spell on them with my simulacrum's 8th and 9th level spell slots using a 9th level glyph of warding to apply an 8th level planar binding to them for 180 days.
Step 2: Customise your minions
True polymorph really is a fantastic spell. You can use it to turn a pumpkin into a carriage, but that's for amateurs. A true wizard will use it to turn their sucky-as-literal-hell devils into awesome, rockstar Devas! So I did. I turned 5 of the horned devils into Devas. One of them I turned into a spirit troll, in case I needed a minion to take on a tarrasque solo, as a spirit troll is immune to both the tarrasque's attacks and can't be grappled. This proved to be a mistake in hindsight as we never fought a tarrasque and it's pretty useless outside of that niche.
Step 3: Let the Devas customise themselves
Devas. Are. Broken.
They can change themselves into any humanoid type monster, taking on its statistics and special abilities. When they do this hey keep their abilities, typing, resistances and hitpoints in addition to the ones they gain from the new humanoid form. So I had them turn into hobgoblin warlords with 20AC, multiattack 3, buffs to saving throws and attack rolls for allies and ranged weapon attacks. Now devas have this beautiful ability that makes all their weapon attacks deal an additional 4d8 radiant damage each. They were now rolling three of them per turn at 1d4+9 bonus to hit because of the hobgoblin warlord form for 5d8+4 damage per strike.
Step 4: Customise yourself to help the devas out
Part of my preparation was polymorphing myself into a Red Abishai from Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes. Besides the ability to pump out a good hundred or so attack damage in a turn and take approximately eleven hells of a beating, a Red Abishai has an ability to choose 4 allies and give them advantage on attack rolls for a minute. No cooldown, no concentration just... do it. So I did it twice before the fight. Every minion (including the ones who call themselves my "party members") was now attacking with advantage.
Step 5 execution
Finally, my simulacrum had been true polymorphed beforehand into a blue Abishai, which can cast spells. One of them was teleport. The DM graciously allowed one of the angel's torn-out feathers to serve as an associated object to the location "right next to the angel". So I teleported this posse of minions and the red Abishai on top of a VERY unfortunate Solar and annihilated it. Since one of my party members had managed to make the pit fiend fall out of the air for some fall damage previously, the Solar was not flying too high and the minions only took minor falling damage on the way to poundtown.
Step 6: Lessons learned
-The only appropriate response to the question "So what are you thinking of playing?" when you are playing a 20th level wizard is "The Monster Manual."
-Devas are broken, but I have since discovered that there are even more absurd humanoids they can take the form of like the Githzerai Enlightened, for four attacks instead of three and some movement options.
-A single Orc Warchief in the mix can also come in handy to call out and have them all (and the "party members") make an extra attack as a reaction, which is also particularly nasty if you happen to be a Red Abishai at the time.
-If a wizard capable of casting 9th level spells exists in your world, make sure you have some excuse ready as to why they are not already the undisputed master of the cosmos.
-Even in a game THIS over-the-top high-powered, the DM put his foot down at the option of casting Antipathy on every single minion and party member ahead of time for every conceivable type of creature you might go up against (you can cast 24 Antipathy spells using the wish-simulacrum combo in a day and it lasts 10 days). Apparently every enemy creature needing to make 10 wisdom saving throws every minute or run away the instant they catch a glimpse of the army is too much.
-Be careful min/maxing too hard, especially at later levels. The capabilities of some characters are just too absurd to truly account for as a DM
@@aaronwilliams8887 Well for streamlining the game we had them acting together with me, but if that's a problem for you you can simply ready an action to cast teleport on your minions' turn (assuming minions of the same type share a turn, which is how every DM I've ever played with has done it.) Barring that you can have the minions prepare their actions to attack in response to being teleported in range, you lose some multiattack but the Solar is sufficiently squishy you'll majorly chunk it at least. Barring even THAT, you can use a readied dimension door from your simulacrum and a readied Wish spell to suddenly encompass the solar in the area of a Mordenkainen's Private Sanctum spell, which is a tax on your resources for sure, but is hardly the end of the world and will utterly END a Solar. (Note that this is just a basic use of wish to replicate another spell and bears no penalties other than spending your 9th level slot)
I'm aware of its truesight passing Mirror Image, but its truesight is only 120ft range. If a Solar is within 120ft of your party it's already messed up and can be expecting to take about a hundred damage from your party's readied ranged attacks. As for its bow being a real threat.... how? It barely does any damage (for its level) and the victim needs to be below a hundred HP to even need to make the (quite easy) CON save... The failing of the CON save is also not an enforced permadeath at that level but an inconvenience as you need to revive them. Even before that you have the convenient option of a Death Ward spell on anybody to whom the bow is threatening to immediately negate that effect at the cost of one action and a mid level spell slot. In the level 20 one-shot it didn't really come into play at all because nobody had less than 250hp before buffs. As the wizard I had 300 from True polymorph + aid and then followed up by another 250 or so in my real hobgoblin form, though that never came into play.
**Read in gruff heavily armoured hobgoblin wizard voice**
"As for killing squishies, I'm not impressed by a monster that can threaten squishies. By the time you might warrant the attention of a Solar, being squishy is a choice."
A monster that relies on your party having exposed weak links is not a particularly threatening monster. That said, even if your squishy is a mid-level wizard that forsook CON in favour of Dex will have an armour class of over 20 with shield. Take the dodge action and that Solar has less than a 50% chance to hit them. Protection from Evil and Good and they don't even need to dodge. Place them in cover and it goes down even further. Cast Aid on them or give them some Temp HP and they won't be needing to make the save on the first hit. Heal them up in between the Solar's whimpy base damage attacks to keep them not needing to save. Even forgoing all of that and assuming 9AC on the squishy, unless they fail the save to instantly die, with 125 hp the Solar is going to need three whole rounds to kill his first squishy. Even if the whole party is squishies with zero defences, the solar is going to need about ten rounds to clean up the party with its bow. Ten rounds is a long time. Long enough even to cast Leomund's tiny hut!
In the meantime here's a (non-comprehensive) list of things that utterly shuts down or notably de-fangs the Solar's longbow strategy:
-Fog cloud
-Eversmoking bottle
-A generic eldritch blast warlock with a little support
-A few rounds of casting Mold Earth to make a bunker
-Camping in a Leomund's Tiny hut.
-Wall of force/Wall of stone
-Forcecage used defensively
-Teleport /Word of recall/Plane shift home
-Fight in or around an area of forbiddance or mordenkainen's private sanctum you set up beforehand
-Wish for an area of forbiddance or mordenkainen's private sanctum
-Party is not made of pushover squishy characters
-Party contains one martial character who's good with a longbow. Extra-kebabbed chicken-man if they have the sharpshooter feat.
-Frequently cast Death Ward
-Aid and healing
-Just lying down if you're the squishy and letting your non-ranged allies ready actions to hit it if it engages you in melee.
-Polymorph the squishy into a giant ape
-Just.... enter a building or cave...
Most of these options should be available to characters even remotely near an appropriate level to encounter a Solar and it only really takes one of these to prevent it from slowly rolling you over with its longbow. Now the Solar does have other capabilities to help it in some of those scenarios, but I think you'll probably agree most of them are not terribly overwhelming. While the longbow can put some parties on the back foot, the trouble with it is that it doesn't kill very fast or reliably. So even if the Solar's tactics are keeping it out of range as it wants, the three or four characters it's not currently targeting have plenty of time to assist whoever it is targeting, and think of some means to extricate themselves from the situation or to turn the tables. Using their healing/buffs etc. even a squishy 13th level character should take quite a few rounds to go down to the longbow alone between AC, disadvantage to hit, seeking cover, healing and temp hp. My money'd be on about 5 rounds per squishy unless they're caught completely off-guard. 5 return eldritch blasts, firebolts and longbow shots from readied actions is going to chunk even a Solar quite severely.
Conclusion is: yes, a Solar can do some neat stuff and might catch out a party unprepared, but it's hardly likely to swiftly TPK them. Most low level parties and any high-level party ought to have means of recovering from the situation. I think the Solar is far more threatening if it makes use of hybrid casting, ranged and melee tactics, though in this manner it lacks the sheer numbers of the dragons and other creatures it competes with.
I really appreciate the amount of work this took to make. Good job man! Love the channel.
Just happened upon your channel, and will definitely be checking out more of your videos. Thank you for the quality content!
I have a tumor and i love your shirt
Sorry to hear that. Hang in there!!
All best, Dave.
Beat that tumor my man!
The Nagpa look and sound like Skeksis from The Dark Crystal. I wonder if Disney is going to have a say in that monster.
In case you didn't see The Dark Crystal: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skeksis
HmmmmMmmmmm
I doubt it, Disney don't own the dark crystal franchise. Universal do.
Disney bought the rights to the muppets and the bear in the big blue house and that's it.
the most dangerous thing an adventurer can face is the dread beast known as "scheduling." some say hundreds of parties have been lost to its cavernous maw, never to be seen again…
its few survivors come back haunted, with tales of an ever-shifting network of guts, and the mounting dread as a path once trod before reveals itself to be crossed with thorns, the weeping exhaustion of careful planning dashed by an exitless corridor, as all the effort expended only to deliver them a dead end leaves their bodies and spirits ever weakened…
beware, ye foolhardy souls, beware! for though the powerful schedule may make a boon companion, to neglect it is to bid ruin come your way!
Not sure if this was a misinterpretation or miscommunication, but the abjurer's ward doesn't regain all 30 hitpoints every time they cast a spell, it regains (spell level x2) meaning a solid turn of attacks or a high level spellslinger could take down the ward in one or 2 actions at that level. Obv the spells are amazing, but they dont actually last all that long in my experience, tho I have only had one group of very particularly tactical players
So I have an issue with the CR 21 picks. My picks for the deadliest CR 21 is below.
1. Solars can kill targets with less than 100 HP if they fail their save. However, the DC is pretty low, and I'd up that to at least 20. Both the sword and the bow do decent damage, especially with that extra 6d8 radiant damage. And healing touch doesn't exclude the solar itself! You can also get blinded until lesser restoration gets rid of it, and the searing burst is also pretty gnarly.
2. Molydei are essentially wielding vorpal weapons. If they roll a natural 20, then it's off with the head. Let's not forget that DC 22 Constitution save from the snake bite otherwise your max HP is reduced. There's also the classic magical resistance, meaning that spellcasters might be screwed if the dice act up, Summoner variant can definitely turn the tide in the molydeus's favor. Thank god they can't summon balors because that would be bad.
With powerful vampires, I always like to think of Alucard from Hellsing, that complete arrogance, so use the normal stat block and have them lamely attempt to kill the party, have them go down.
As the party searches the room, gawking at magical items and riches like a gaggle of children. A low chuckle begins to sound from the still form of the battered vampire, it continues growing louder. Louder still. “Do you like the baubles children? I’m sure you’ll find aught of use in here” he remarked calmly, “you’ll need it” he sneered as an animal smile began to creep across his features.
The party turned, completely taken by surprise. The paladin, who’s shield was tied loosely on his back still, could do nothing but gasp as the black shadow surged across the hall, lightning fast.
Sharp claws wiggled their way lazily through the air, behind the hole in the paladin stomach area, his plate armor little more than paper, to the hardened claws of the predator before him. The paladin stared with shock into the eyes of the vampire lord, and saw no pretense of nobility, no mock human conduct, just sheer unbridled disgust and primal savagery, yet to be unleashed. The last thing Cedric Brightshield saw before his death, was a predator finally set free from its gilded cage, a force he stood powerless against, and who could really blame him? For he was but a babe, in a cage with a fearsome beast indeed.
Rule of cool says you can do it, trust me I checked
Honestly for CR 21 I was expecting the Molydeus from Mordenkainen’s. Ridiculous passive perception that even the best rogues will have trouble sneaking past, a Vorpal weapon, and spells like Dispel Magic, Teleport, Polymorph, and Telekinesis at will. Also can cast Imprisonment once per day, all these spells can be casted as a legendary action.
This is what I was thinking too. It also has a summoner variant also. This monster in my mind is the lord of cr 21. He can come in an hit a party trying to score that 20 to kill a target. Then attempt to teleport 3 times for legendary action. I don't know how you would stop this thing, if played optimally.
Kyle Willard Yeah it’s ridiculously powerful, be more terrified of fighting this than most high CR monsters.... I wanna run one as a BBEG
Yeah, Curse of Strahd is a real hit or miss campaign and hinging the big bad as vampire is overall, fairly lackluster. I was in a group that had a cleric, a paladin, and a divine soul sorcerer. Strahd came down to flex on the party at 4th level and had to flee after two rounds because he only had 10 HP left (A crit from the paladin, followed by a crit from guiding bolt). Our first item was his journal, so we learned how to kill him proper and then spent the rest of the game going through the story. Strahd only faced us once more, and that was at the end. He'd send other vampires to kill us, but those fights would only last 3 rounds, against solo encounters. At 5th level we fought all 3 brides at once, and killed them all without the Sun Sword. Two people went down, but no one died. We finished the game at 7th level and killed Strahd in 4 rounds.
Had my 5th level fight against a Flind and a Shosoova(CR 8 Hyena-Demon). Good fun. Paralysed the Sorceror, and brought everyone down to 0 hp several times.
I was sweating bullets the whole time.