You prolly dont care but if you're stoned like me atm you can stream pretty much all the latest series on Instaflixxer. I've been binge watching with my brother during the lockdown xD
I can not stress enough how invaluable your videos, not just the information but the suggestions as well, have been for me running my campaign, it's been nearly a year (irl) since my players last fought the phane, they have definitely forgotten it by now, so I think it's past due to remind them a particularly dangerous enemy is still stalking them.
The question is what would the next gen version of Empyreans maybe a species of anti fat realm beings that force the planes form of reality onto far realm creatures
Jacob Wilson I understand that you meant Anti Far Realm, but now I’m stuck thinking about the Fat Realm and how that would mess with people. Far Realm: Tentacles and Eyestalks Fat Realm: Kankles and Triple Chins.
I gotta say, I love the idea of the Inevitables being a check on creatures like Phanes. Some real terminator type stuff with both simply teleporting into existence in the middle of a town or some back alley in combat as the adventurers look on in amazement.
Yeah, I really need to do vids on them. Gotta say, Pathfinder has a much better take on them from what I have seen, so, going to freely steal that lore.
Phane: Temporal monsters that are the best trolls for time-traveling (or tweaking) gamers. I have a Rule of Disaster. When over half the Player Character party is wiped out, I allow the players to vote to go back to an earlier time and replay if they vote unanimously to do it. If they choose to just keep trying the same failed strategy in hopes for a better outcome, I bolster the enemy with better skills and gear to counter their future knowledge to bypass the cheat. When they abuse it the most, I involved time critters as bigger problems and the Rule of Disaster was no longer seen as a great way to just re-apply being stupid. I wish I had Phane back then.
New D&D players, I just ask them if they ever played Zelda or some other video game, just give them a respawn point. Now as for a time loop dungeon, other than the players, also have the monsters start to notice the time loop. Goblin, " Have we meet before, you seem familiar ?" Another note, my gaming shop normally had enough players at any given time the DM split the players into two groups, one of the adventures and the others as defending monsters. In one campaign setting for some reason of the DM's random chart on wild magic results along with the player did Whitewolf/World of Darkness(WoD) Mage the Awaken Time wizard. The player's PC became know for creating time loops a few hours each week, roll 1d6 for the number of loops, 1d4 for the hours worth of duration. Everyone makes a roll under wisdom check to notice the loop and how it played out last time. Parties go on for days and only hours pass of real time in game. 2.) WotC3e Psionic handbook had psionic powers to shift PC a few rounds to a few hours into the pass. Blue skin goblins at high levels can be a real fun pain to throw at a party.
On the surface, I agree with you, but here's what's going on. "Evil" is traditionally defined as seeking your own benefit at the expense of others. The reason we don't call animals "evil" is because they lack the conscience to be aware of others well-being and exercise empathy. The red and blue slaadi have 6 and 7 intelligence and wisdom. Quite low, barely on the range of sentient. However, once they get promoted to Death Slaad, they have 15 intelligence and 10 wisdom, BUT NOW they are classified as chaotic evil, not chaotic neutral. I find it easiest to think of most slaadi as too animalistic to understand what they are doing. Nevertheless, that isn't always a very satisfying answer. I've seen some people try to homebrew things like "life slaadi" to balance out the good and evil, which I am fond of. I'd definitely include those if I ever sent my players to Limbo.
@@ResonantChemist Yeah, I can see where you're coming from there. After all, Slaads do what they do to continue their species and not necessarily out of malice. I guess my real issue is that for a race that embodies chaos, they're a bit organized just by being a species. When I think of Limbo, I think of a place that existed even before nothing existed. It should be pure chaos without rules for even time and space. I think the denizens of such a place should be bizarre creatures that were slapped together by the chaos. Kinda like elemental weirds.
@@yesmansam6686 You hit the nail on the head that they embody chaos. Life is remarkably specific, requiring the body to function in an incredibly orderly manner, so chaos strongly lends itself to being detrimental even if not out of malice. I agree with you, likewise my issue is that the slaadi themselves seem to be exceptions to this. It'd make more sense if they were dangerous both to others and to themselves. If their own chaos makes an exception for themselves and preserves themselves, then that doesn't seem like a true embodiment of chaos to me.
Just the concept of Abominations is freakin' awesome to me! Powerful, misshapen, entities with God-like power! Sealed away! It leaves so much potential for writing and epic sagas. One of the most screwed up ones I heard about was called an "Atropal!" They're like an aborted diety! YIKES!
Look forward to these videos all week AJ. Have watched all of the monster ecology videos and loved them. I wait for that notification all week. Keep up the great work my friend!
So, I made a 5e Shadow Monk whose style is the Way of the Phane, being a Shadar-Kai who learned his martial art from observing and learning from a Phane
Actually in some of the sources it is stated that there are a few Abominations out there that are powerful enough to rival even the gods and primordials and that these ones could in fact Grant powers or spells to followers maybe not a full-blown cleric but totally within the realm of possibility to see a warlock with a pact with one
"Most people think time is like a river that flows swift and sure in one direction, but I have seen the face of time and I can tell you they are wrong. Time is an ocean in a storm. You may wonder who I am and why I say this; sit down and I will tell you a tale like none that you have ever heard." - Prince of Persia
These would be a fun monster to tie in some way with the spellweavers, whom are trying to reset the mutliverse back to a point they made an awful mistake, from the spellweavers p.o.v. Phanes n Spellweavers. Temporal Adventures XD
In the brackets in the Phane Stat Block you showed it says “Titan” not “Abomination”. Is there a difference or is it just different edition’s names for the same thing?
Oh yeah. I recall my usage of these Abominations against my players. Only because they wanted a challenge and dared to challenge the gods... the players learned the price of challenging the river of time.
I like the idea of the use of the legendary resistance, but instead of having them go in order of the encounter, have them be the reverse order, like as the fight draws on, it's going farther back in time to try and kill the characters at a weaker point in time. Also, keep track of how much damage it takes in those encounters. So for example in encounter 3, it was gone for 5 rounds and took 100pts of damage. Have the 1st legendary resistance show that, and it comes back 50pts weaker. Say encounter 2 it went back for 3 rounds and took 50pts before it left, at resistance 2, show that encounter, and it comes back 25 less, then encounter 1 when ot only stayed a round and not taken any damage, show it coming back and had regenerated some health. This will show that as the fight wanes on, it's getting weaker and isn't able to stay in the past for as long, also that as it gets more desperate, it's trying to kill them when they are weaker, not stronger.
I... REALLY like these villains, the idea of their legendary resistence being them fucking their way through time to get to the party in the past is brilliant, and by introducing the element of time travel I could potentially put my characters in a position to travel to the past and witness the events of legend firsthand.
I REALLY love the idea of random assassination attempts of the party early on in the campaign always amounting to nothing. Then way down the line (5-10 level difference) they realise the thing they're fighting is going back to the past trying to kill them so it doesn't have to deal with them in the present Ps. I always love "this wouldn't be happening if you didn't. . ." story lines
Very interesting. I know for a fact my DM watches your videos. And I'm playing a great old one warlock that was sent 300 years into the future when he touched a space rock. I could very well have to deal with one of these things soon.
Some of my favorite videos are ones in which you delve into the Epic Level Handbook from the 3rd edition. While it's not ecology, is there any chance of looking into the Epic level magics and comparing it to mythils and such?
Thought most of the epic handbook monsters looked awesome especially the big ice monster that would be a cool video highlights of epic monsters for high level games
You know what might be nice, some kind of summary of entities that make the gods tremble. Sure the adventures go about the business of day to day saving the world, but what does a god do with their spare time? What gives then reason to sweet? What rules exist even for gods that mortals can break (a loop hole in the rules of reality). DEEP THOUGHTS....
Abominations I've always ruled that it is a method for attaining godhood but it requires specific means to tear out that spark of godhood and claim it as your own.
Notes: These Phane, created by the gods in a plan gone awry, seem similar to the Kracken. If there are Death Slaads, could Life Slaads conceivably exist?
i'd love to see a creature like this meddle with my pc's personal goals. I'm brewing a 6 armed warforged who was guarding a holy spear in the underdark, at first it was the typical grave robbers he was fending off but he starts to notice after the first 500th graverobber, each raider afterword is oddly unprepared, with nothing but the loincloth on their backs, before he killed his last victim he questioned the sorry sod as to why he's underprepared, "I dared to even looked upon my drow mistress, and I was imprisoned within this tomb, and thanks to you I found out when they say imprisoned, they mean execution, don't you see?! the drow use you as their headsman, free of charge!" this murder has afflicted him with grief and anxiety, making him question why he protects a weapon that could change the world, to bring an age of peace and liberty, only for it to gather dust in the forgotten caverns leagues below the lowest dwarven settlement. this ate at him until his final visitor to him in his gilded vault appears, an albino drow boy, just old enough to speak and understand, blind and afraid stumbles around "momma? where are you? i'm scarred!" that's it. he will defend this hallowed stick no longer, "fear not chosen one, your legacy of heroism and fame begins here, he who is washed pale, bleached away from your forefathers sins, eat well and rest, for tomorrow I will mold your body into the warrior you need to be." and like a shaolin warrior the boy trained, and the sentry provided... I'm gonna run out of space if I'm not careful, he trained until he was a teen, the drow were going to invade, they escape, but the warforged sacrificed himself so his pupil would flee unscathed, but he survived, and his lv is reverted to whatever the dudgeon master wants me to start out as.
You should do more video intros like you did for the Deep Spawn... it really helped set the mood for how terrifying they are. Good job on the score for the intro as well.
Abused one to power some ancient civilizations time-manipulating mech...to be honest I just wanted an excuse to put Alexander from FF in my campaign and a Phane powered time-manipulating mecha fortress sounded about right to justify its existence.
Seems like a Phane would be used for a high level adventure before facing off against the BBEG. For example, the newly freed Queen of the Abyss who the party accidentally released and an encounter they nearly survived had not the party's cleric or NPC's cleric divine intervention not come through via a portal to the prime material plane or close enough to the infinity spindle if the party is already level 20, but need to become demigods just to have a shot of trapping the Queen of the Abyss, who would be a greater deity thanks to covertly gathering worshippers and using a phane to advance her plan of ushering absolute chaos and freeing the mad king of chaos just because she wants to throw a party. And that type of party would involve the slaughter of a town or city and converting those souls into demons as the town or city joins the Abyss.
@@AJPickett Definitely. Someday if I get the chance to play and eventually DM then hopefully I can DM and stream such a campaign. It would be nice to not only play an epic level campaign where everyone is level 20, but to DM one as well. If shows like Critical Role can pull it off then by having more campaigns that go to level 20 would entice those who rarely venture into higher level play(tier 4) to give it a try. Of course it doesn't have to be a weekly affair like Critical Role given scheduling conflicts and whose not to say that players couldn't pick up from one of their older campaigns and do it as a special one shot at first?
Ygorl's an odd one for me. Outside of 5E (which I've barely played past the playtest era) there isn't a single edition of the game where I haven't wound up in a party that faced him as a Big Bad at some point. I don't know why so many of my GMs over the years have been so fascinated with using the same boss monster, but I suppose he's at least an unusual choice compared to Tiamat or Orcus or whatever. Even played in a 13th Age (which is basically D&D 4.5 by another name) one-off where he showed up. I was tempted to ask him why we kept meeting this way but I was afraid he'd break the 4th Wall and actually tell me. Slightly on-topic, one our Feng Shui campaigns had a Phane ported over from D&D into the games. Time-bendy baddies work well in that setting.
For me it's Baba Yaga. Even when it's not her directly, it's her daughter(s), a hag(s) inspired by her, her minions, etc. Somehow a bunch of my DMs all got the memo to do Baba Yaga stuff.
AJ can you link the song you used in your original lich video I like listening to.the music its badass plus can you do a video on the demon lord of the knolls
i know this is an old video, but that isn't the only way to use the monster cr table. you average defensive and offensive cr. although it doesn't do much damage, its hit bonuses are high.
Ok though the hit points on that chart aren’t accurate. Take CR 2 for example because I had some recent trouble making some Cr 2 monsters to be fodder for a level 13 party. 86 to 100 hit points? Not a single CR 2 creature in print has 86 or more hit points on average. The highest HP of Cr 2 monsters is the gelatinous cube and the ogre zombie both of which have 85 a negative to their dex save and a sub 10 ac and are both considered to be extraordinarily tanky for their CR despite this. As most front line melee enemies of that CR have between 33 and 66 health. What CR has between 86 and 100 hit points? The lowest Cr creature with more than 86 hit points is Cr 3 and it’s a whale, a few particularly hearty Cr 4 have it like the coatl, the CR with the most monsters in the range of 86-100 HP is CR 5 though you see front line fighters having that much HP has high as CR 7 though they tend to be skirmishes. At Cr 9 or higher anything with less than 100 hit points is probably built like a caster or has some other powerful defensive ability like regeneration. The lower the CR on that chart the less accurate the health is and the higher the Cr the less accurate the damage is. but the chart consistently produces monsters way more powerful than the Cr would expect. Which to be fair is fine because 5e isn’t that scary if all your monsters do in combat is take and deal damage, and this chart is usually used for solo monsters and solo monsters are easy. But getting killed to a homebrew monster often feels like the dm is cheating you I think we need a new chart. It works fine for bosses but iv had some terrible experiences making fodder. A CR 2 creature probably shouldn’t be surviving multiple failed saves vs fireballs. It’s also not super helpful for recharge abilities or spell casters. For recharge average damage over 3 turns assume they get it it once is fine, but recharging multiple times can TPK easily. For spell casters you can’t average damage because the average of the first 3 turns is different than the second 3 turns! And if you want to say, raise the CR of a illusionist to 7 what level spells should it get? Uncertain. Reference monsters that are printed. Not that chart. Get a FEEL for making monsters. “People avert their eyes, although the status is more effective it’s the same Cr and size as the Medusa so let’s make it have the health and con of Medusa” is the kind of line of thought I often use when making monsters.
Anyone else think the Time Eater from Sonic Generations was based on a Phane? The Time Eater would probably just be a more powerful Phane. Also I think AJ should probably go more in depth with the Epic Level Handbook. I’ve check out what bits I can glean from just the internet and it seems to be a very interesting book. I’d kinda like to see a version or adaptation of it in 5th Edition later down the line.
Honestly, I'll never understand why you get thumbs down (no matter how few) on your videos. It's not offensive, you're not hurting anyone; it's just researched information. I just don't get it.🤷♂️
I think I have watched about all of your monster ecology videos, and to this day, you're outreau music makes me feel like I just finished watching PBS (an educational public broadcasting network)
Could you please do a video on the False Hydra? I know it's a home brew monster, but it is popular, interesting and has some very interesting story potential.
I would reimagine these in my setting as agents of entropy, working alongside the God of Entropy to push things toward their final rest. They would be lawful neutral in that setting, caring only for bringing the universe to its final condition. Natural law is sometimes messy.
@@AJPickett the mere existence of a phane messing with time, wouldn't that necessitate the intervention of a inevitable wouldn't it? What would happen if a phane and an inevitable were to clash?
@@sumdud2129 the phane keeps the inevitable busy dropping victims out of sync with time near it, while it does whatever it was planning to do. This is a great way to suddenly transport player characters through time and space with an inevitable suddenly on their ass unless they can prove a phane is responsible, not them.
@@AJPickett I want to thank you for all your videos cuz they're really informative I've been using third edition lore for my 5th edition campaign... Cuz honestly third edition lore was just cooler. Soon my party will fight the Phane That's been manipulating events behind the scenes. It will be the final fight of my three-year campaign.
so an abomination would be a monstrosity with an origin of being made by a god and likely with an aberration like appearance if they were to be adapted into 5e?
James Vann The Weeping Angels prefer not to kill, they temporally displace their victims, then feed off of the energy released when the victim’s future is uncreated. Don’t get me wrong, they’ll kill if they have to, but exterminating a species as easy to target as humans would be tantamount to people killing off every chicken on earth. There might be a lot of chicken to eat at first, but in the long run, no one gets chicken again.
@@Im-Not-a-Dog perhaps if they didn't reactivly quantum lock whenever something perceived them they would have already hunted us to extinction, and a pesky time traveller constantly interfering probably isn't to conducive to thier hunts either
@@AJPickett I've been using your ideas of it fighting the players in the past and have allowed it to duplicate itself by splitting/converging timelines
@@AJPickett I can't wait! Or maybe it's already happened and I'm lost in time. Either way thanks for making great videos, this one inspired me to make a Phane for my players who are now scratching their head at the mysterious thing attacking them in the past 2 sessions.
Dude you have made my friends year with using his stat block
You prolly dont care but if you're stoned like me atm you can stream pretty much all the latest series on Instaflixxer. I've been binge watching with my brother during the lockdown xD
@Corey King Definitely, been watching on Instaflixxer for since november myself =)
@@stetsoncollin2138 You're not fooling anyone
The whole idea of players seeing time travel and connecting the dots is absolutely brilliant! Also the breakdown of the adjustments is great as well
This guy loves Phane a lot. He's very pro Phane.
Pro phan ity. IT toke me a Moment to get it
Boooooooo lol
Hank Hill: Did I hear PROPANE???
I can not stress enough how invaluable your videos, not just the information but the suggestions as well, have been for me running my campaign, it's been nearly a year (irl) since my players last fought the phane, they have definitely forgotten it by now, so I think it's past due to remind them a particularly dangerous enemy is still stalking them.
Tell them I say Hi
I actually know the guy who made this and honestly this is like a dream come true for him
Thumbnail: OHHHHH SOO EDGY!!! You named your character Phane so he could...
Actual video: ...Oh...
Just finished up a three year campaign, without you and Matt Colville it would not be so. Cheers for all the inspiration
Woot! Congrats!!
Abominations are like the glitchy, bug filled Gen 1 of the Empyreans.
The question is what would the next gen version of Empyreans maybe a species of anti fat realm beings that force the planes form of reality onto far realm creatures
Jacob Wilson I understand that you meant Anti Far Realm, but now I’m stuck thinking about the Fat Realm and how that would mess with people.
Far Realm: Tentacles and Eyestalks
Fat Realm: Kankles and Triple Chins.
@@Im-Not-a-Dog The jowls. The jowls! THE JOWLS!!
I had tried to convince my dnd group to make a Demi plane of glass so a plane of fat is ok to me.
I gotta say, I love the idea of the Inevitables being a check on creatures like Phanes. Some real terminator type stuff with both simply teleporting into existence in the middle of a town or some back alley in combat as the adventurers look on in amazement.
Yeah, I really need to do vids on them. Gotta say, Pathfinder has a much better take on them from what I have seen, so, going to freely steal that lore.
Phane: Temporal monsters that are the best trolls for time-traveling (or tweaking) gamers.
I have a Rule of Disaster. When over half the Player Character party is wiped out, I allow the players to vote to go back to an earlier time and replay if they vote unanimously to do it. If they choose to just keep trying the same failed strategy in hopes for a better outcome, I bolster the enemy with better skills and gear to counter their future knowledge to bypass the cheat. When they abuse it the most, I involved time critters as bigger problems and the Rule of Disaster was no longer seen as a great way to just re-apply being stupid. I wish I had Phane back then.
New D&D players, I just ask them if they ever played Zelda or some other video game, just give them a respawn point.
Now as for a time loop dungeon, other than the players, also have the monsters start to notice the time loop.
Goblin, " Have we meet before, you seem familiar ?"
Another note, my gaming shop normally had enough players at any given time the DM split the players into two groups, one of the adventures and the others as defending monsters.
In one campaign setting for some reason of the DM's random chart on wild magic results along with the player did Whitewolf/World of Darkness(WoD) Mage the Awaken Time wizard.
The player's PC became know for creating time loops a few hours each week, roll 1d6 for the number of loops, 1d4 for the hours worth of duration. Everyone makes a roll under wisdom check to notice the loop and how it played out last time. Parties go on for days and only hours pass of real time in game.
2.) WotC3e Psionic handbook had psionic powers to shift PC a few rounds to a few hours into the pass. Blue skin goblins at high levels can be a real fun pain to throw at a party.
Honestly, I don't like the Slaadi as representations of Chaotic Neutral. The way they operate, they sounds more evil than neutral.
On the surface, I agree with you, but here's what's going on. "Evil" is traditionally defined as seeking your own benefit at the expense of others. The reason we don't call animals "evil" is because they lack the conscience to be aware of others well-being and exercise empathy. The red and blue slaadi have 6 and 7 intelligence and wisdom. Quite low, barely on the range of sentient. However, once they get promoted to Death Slaad, they have 15 intelligence and 10 wisdom, BUT NOW they are classified as chaotic evil, not chaotic neutral. I find it easiest to think of most slaadi as too animalistic to understand what they are doing. Nevertheless, that isn't always a very satisfying answer. I've seen some people try to homebrew things like "life slaadi" to balance out the good and evil, which I am fond of. I'd definitely include those if I ever sent my players to Limbo.
@@ResonantChemist
Yeah, I can see where you're coming from there. After all, Slaads do what they do to continue their species and not necessarily out of malice. I guess my real issue is that for a race that embodies chaos, they're a bit organized just by being a species. When I think of Limbo, I think of a place that existed even before nothing existed. It should be pure chaos without rules for even time and space. I think the denizens of such a place should be bizarre creatures that were slapped together by the chaos. Kinda like elemental weirds.
@@yesmansam6686 You hit the nail on the head that they embody chaos. Life is remarkably specific, requiring the body to function in an incredibly orderly manner, so chaos strongly lends itself to being detrimental even if not out of malice. I agree with you, likewise my issue is that the slaadi themselves seem to be exceptions to this. It'd make more sense if they were dangerous both to others and to themselves. If their own chaos makes an exception for themselves and preserves themselves, then that doesn't seem like a true embodiment of chaos to me.
Just the concept of Abominations is freakin' awesome to me! Powerful, misshapen, entities with God-like power! Sealed away! It leaves so much potential for writing and epic sagas. One of the most screwed up ones I heard about was called an "Atropal!" They're like an aborted diety! YIKES!
Look forward to these videos all week AJ. Have watched all of the monster ecology videos and loved them. I wait for that notification all week. Keep up the great work my friend!
So, I made a 5e Shadow Monk whose style is the Way of the Phane, being a Shadar-Kai who learned his martial art from observing and learning from a Phane
Teleport Telekinetic Punch C-C-C-Combo!!
Actually in some of the sources it is stated that there are a few Abominations out there that are powerful enough to rival even the gods and primordials and that these ones could in fact Grant powers or spells to followers maybe not a full-blown cleric but totally within the realm of possibility to see a warlock with a pact with one
I’m down for new old god warlock patrons or reskinning the Unearthed Arcana warlock.
Love the description of time travel battles! I tip my hat to you Good Sir.
Thank You for so many Great videos
"Most people think time is like a river that flows swift and sure in one direction, but I have seen the face of time and I can tell you they are wrong. Time is an ocean in a storm. You may wonder who I am and why I say this; sit down and I will tell you a tale like none that you have ever heard." - Prince of Persia
A weapon from the future.. [Terminator theme intensifies]
So basically phanes are like any bureaucratic body you have to converse with on the telephone... bloody time-vampires.
Seems that way.
Fucking Glorious. Makes me miss Ood so much. Nothing like an epic soul eater/ cerebromancer Ulitharid. 3.5 was so crazy
These would be a fun monster to tie in some way with the spellweavers, whom are trying to reset the mutliverse back to a point they made an awful mistake, from the spellweavers p.o.v.
Phanes n Spellweavers.
Temporal Adventures
XD
That time-jumping legendary resistance idea is GENIUS, dude!
( *bows* ) thank you.
So they feed off potentiality like the weeping Angels ?
exactly so.
So the Phane are one part Weeping Angel from Doctor Who when they consume your potential time you had? Crap that’s scary.
In the brackets in the Phane Stat Block you showed it says “Titan” not “Abomination”. Is there a difference or is it just different edition’s names for the same thing?
Titans in that context is more of a primordial
This is a great markup of the phane, thank you so much for doing the video.
This was a fantastic video. I love the abominations. I hope you cover them all eventually. We even got to learn about Ygorl, Lord of Entropy! :3
Oh yeah. I recall my usage of these Abominations against my players. Only because they wanted a challenge and dared to challenge the gods... the players learned the price of challenging the river of time.
I like the idea of the use of the legendary resistance, but instead of having them go in order of the encounter, have them be the reverse order, like as the fight draws on, it's going farther back in time to try and kill the characters at a weaker point in time. Also, keep track of how much damage it takes in those encounters. So for example in encounter 3, it was gone for 5 rounds and took 100pts of damage. Have the 1st legendary resistance show that, and it comes back 50pts weaker. Say encounter 2 it went back for 3 rounds and took 50pts before it left, at resistance 2, show that encounter, and it comes back 25 less, then encounter 1 when ot only stayed a round and not taken any damage, show it coming back and had regenerated some health. This will show that as the fight wanes on, it's getting weaker and isn't able to stay in the past for as long, also that as it gets more desperate, it's trying to kill them when they are weaker, not stronger.
I... REALLY like these villains, the idea of their legendary resistence being them fucking their way through time to get to the party in the past is brilliant, and by introducing the element of time travel I could potentially put my characters in a position to travel to the past and witness the events of legend firsthand.
In epic 3rd edition these things were BRUTAL.
I REALLY love the idea of random assassination attempts of the party early on in the campaign always amounting to nothing. Then way down the line (5-10 level difference) they realise the thing they're fighting is going back to the past trying to kill them so it doesn't have to deal with them in the present
Ps. I always love "this wouldn't be happening if you didn't. . ." story lines
Very interesting. I know for a fact my DM watches your videos. And I'm playing a great old one warlock that was sent 300 years into the future when he touched a space rock. I could very well have to deal with one of these things soon.
Best of luck 😊
Anything that has time powers is always going to scare the nine hells out of me.
Could we get a video on the hecatonchires some day?
That would come in handy.
Some of my favorite videos are ones in which you delve into the Epic Level Handbook from the 3rd edition. While it's not ecology, is there any chance of looking into the Epic level magics and comparing it to mythils and such?
yep.
If they're attracted to great events . . . could they be attracted to their own arrival?
MY BRAIN MEATS! *sizzle*
@@AJPickett The fun of time travel . . .
Self fulfilling prophecy 🤯🤯🤯
actually that's probably just wind up attracting another phane, and so on and so forth.
@@benthomason3307 wait would that mean that every Phane would pop up
Thought most of the epic handbook monsters looked awesome especially the big ice monster that would be a cool video highlights of epic monsters for high level games
You know what might be nice, some kind of summary of entities that make the gods tremble. Sure the adventures go about the business of day to day saving the world, but what does a god do with their spare time? What gives then reason to sweet? What rules exist even for gods that mortals can break (a loop hole in the rules of reality). DEEP THOUGHTS....
I’ve only been watching your videos for like... lords, five weeks now, why haven’t I already subscribed? Boom.
Thanks :)
Abominations I've always ruled that it is a method for attaining godhood but it requires specific means to tear out that spark of godhood and claim it as your own.
The Phanes are like the hyped up versions of Weeping Angels.
Time traveling shadow monster? Yes please
Notes: These Phane, created by the gods in a plan gone awry, seem similar to the Kracken.
If there are Death Slaads, could Life Slaads conceivably exist?
Your table, your game, your rules :)
i'd love to see a creature like this meddle with my pc's personal goals. I'm brewing a 6 armed warforged who was guarding a holy spear in the underdark, at first it was the typical grave robbers he was fending off but he starts to notice after the first 500th graverobber, each raider afterword is oddly unprepared, with nothing but the loincloth on their backs, before he killed his last victim he questioned the sorry sod as to why he's underprepared, "I dared to even looked upon my drow mistress, and I was imprisoned within this tomb, and thanks to you I found out when they say imprisoned, they mean execution, don't you see?! the drow use you as their headsman, free of charge!" this murder has afflicted him with grief and anxiety, making him question why he protects a weapon that could change the world, to bring an age of peace and liberty, only for it to gather dust in the forgotten caverns leagues below the lowest dwarven settlement. this ate at him until his final visitor to him in his gilded vault appears, an albino drow boy, just old enough to speak and understand, blind and afraid stumbles around "momma? where are you? i'm scarred!" that's it. he will defend this hallowed stick no longer, "fear not chosen one, your legacy of heroism and fame begins here, he who is washed pale, bleached away from your forefathers sins, eat well and rest, for tomorrow I will mold your body into the warrior you need to be." and like a shaolin warrior the boy trained, and the sentry provided... I'm gonna run out of space if I'm not careful, he trained until he was a teen, the drow were going to invade, they escape, but the warforged sacrificed himself so his pupil would flee unscathed, but he survived, and his lv is reverted to whatever the dudgeon master wants me to start out as.
You should do more video intros like you did for the Deep Spawn... it really helped set the mood for how terrifying they are. Good job on the score for the intro as well.
Abused one to power some ancient civilizations time-manipulating mech...to be honest I just wanted an excuse to put Alexander from FF in my campaign and a Phane powered time-manipulating mecha fortress sounded about right to justify its existence.
what about players taking over a tower that they cleared as a dungeon and upgrading it to the point it becomes Alexander?
@@kingmasterlord would require them to know the tech which at least mine cant reproduce
@@hashihime1703 they can hire gnome artificers to work on it while they're out adventuring
Why do beings of chaos want to destroy the world? Wouldn’t that bring balance?
i ran them as 2 groups doing just that, half controlling and fixing time and the others breaking and undoing the others work
@@johngumm very neat idea!
Seems like a Phane would be used for a high level adventure before facing off against the BBEG. For example, the newly freed Queen of the Abyss who the party accidentally released and an encounter they nearly survived had not the party's cleric or NPC's cleric divine intervention not come through via a portal to the prime material plane or close enough to the infinity spindle if the party is already level 20, but need to become demigods just to have a shot of trapping the Queen of the Abyss, who would be a greater deity thanks to covertly gathering worshippers and using a phane to advance her plan of ushering absolute chaos and freeing the mad king of chaos just because she wants to throw a party. And that type of party would involve the slaughter of a town or city and converting those souls into demons as the town or city joins the Abyss.
Sounds like the makings of a pretty epic campaign for sure.
This was painful to read.
@@AJPickett Definitely. Someday if I get the chance to play and eventually DM then hopefully I can DM and stream such a campaign.
It would be nice to not only play an epic level campaign where everyone is level 20, but to DM one as well. If shows like Critical Role can pull it off then by having more campaigns that go to level 20 would entice those who rarely venture into higher level play(tier 4) to give it a try.
Of course it doesn't have to be a weekly affair like Critical Role given scheduling conflicts and whose not to say that players couldn't pick up from one of their older campaigns and do it as a special one shot at first?
Man i love your channel. You have helped me hammer out like 5 games and use a 6th time travle game to help tie it all off with a space time bow.
Ygorl's an odd one for me. Outside of 5E (which I've barely played past the playtest era) there isn't a single edition of the game where I haven't wound up in a party that faced him as a Big Bad at some point. I don't know why so many of my GMs over the years have been so fascinated with using the same boss monster, but I suppose he's at least an unusual choice compared to Tiamat or Orcus or whatever. Even played in a 13th Age (which is basically D&D 4.5 by another name) one-off where he showed up. I was tempted to ask him why we kept meeting this way but I was afraid he'd break the 4th Wall and actually tell me. Slightly on-topic, one our Feng Shui campaigns had a Phane ported over from D&D into the games. Time-bendy baddies work well in that setting.
Thats fairly odd... every edition eh?
For me it's Baba Yaga. Even when it's not her directly, it's her daughter(s), a hag(s) inspired by her, her minions, etc. Somehow a bunch of my DMs all got the memo to do Baba Yaga stuff.
AJ can you link the song you used in your original lich video I like listening to.the music its badass plus can you do a video on the demon lord of the knolls
i know this is an old video, but that isn't the only way to use the monster cr table. you average defensive and offensive cr. although it doesn't do much damage, its hit bonuses are high.
Been eager for you to dive into time dimensionals and such.
Amazing work and ideas again thank you.
These guys seem fun. As you know A.J. I'm an avid 3.5 player and I haven't gotten to use them yet.
Some spicy morning vids before I sleep. Hell yea
Ok though the hit points on that chart aren’t accurate. Take CR 2 for example because I had some recent trouble making some Cr 2 monsters to be fodder for a level 13 party. 86 to 100 hit points? Not a single CR 2 creature in print has 86 or more hit points on average. The highest HP of Cr 2 monsters is the gelatinous cube and the ogre zombie both of which have 85 a negative to their dex save and a sub 10 ac and are both considered to be extraordinarily tanky for their CR despite this. As most front line melee enemies of that CR have between 33 and 66 health. What CR has between 86 and 100 hit points? The lowest Cr creature with more than 86 hit points is Cr 3 and it’s a whale, a few particularly hearty Cr 4 have it like the coatl, the CR with the most monsters in the range of 86-100 HP is CR 5 though you see front line fighters having that much HP has high as CR 7 though they tend to be skirmishes. At Cr 9 or higher anything with less than 100 hit points is probably built like a caster or has some other powerful defensive ability like regeneration.
The lower the CR on that chart the less accurate the health is and the higher the Cr the less accurate the damage is. but the chart consistently produces monsters way more powerful than the Cr would expect. Which to be fair is fine because 5e isn’t that scary if all your monsters do in combat is take and deal damage, and this chart is usually used for solo monsters and solo monsters are easy. But getting killed to a homebrew monster often feels like the dm is cheating you
I think we need a new chart. It works fine for bosses but iv had some terrible experiences making fodder. A CR 2 creature probably shouldn’t be surviving multiple failed saves vs fireballs. It’s also not super helpful for recharge abilities or spell casters. For recharge average damage over 3 turns assume they get it it once is fine, but recharging multiple times can TPK easily. For spell casters you can’t average damage because the average of the first 3 turns is different than the second 3 turns! And if you want to say, raise the CR of a illusionist to 7 what level spells should it get? Uncertain.
Reference monsters that are printed. Not that chart. Get a FEEL for making monsters. “People avert their eyes, although the status is more effective it’s the same Cr and size as the Medusa so let’s make it have the health and con of Medusa” is the kind of line of thought I often use when making monsters.
My head hurts now AJ,thanks a lot. 😒
By luck my birthday today is on the same day of our Friday dnd campaign, that said do you AJ plan to do more planer realms
Yes I do.
Anyone else think the Time Eater from Sonic Generations was based on a Phane? The Time Eater would probably just be a more powerful Phane.
Also I think AJ should probably go more in depth with the Epic Level Handbook. I’ve check out what bits I can glean from just the internet and it seems to be a very interesting book. I’d kinda like to see a version or adaptation of it in 5th Edition later down the line.
Yeah I would like to see more of the epic level handbook
@@pariswashington5543 yeah. I've heard there's a bunch of interesting monsters, items, and groups.
Honestly, I'll never understand why you get thumbs down (no matter how few) on your videos. It's not offensive, you're not hurting anyone; it's just researched information. I just don't get it.🤷♂️
My guess is people who think to themselves, "I should have come up with doing DnD lore videos, and now I'm jealous of this person for doing it first."
@@elKinesis I second this notion.
Object Class: Keter
I think I have watched about all of your monster ecology videos, and to this day, you're outreau music makes me feel like I just finished watching PBS (an educational public broadcasting network)
Well, these are D&D educational videos, so it fits.
@@AJPickett Exactly my thoughts, you nailed it! (Quietly fangirling from the reply of the all wise AJ Pickett)
You literally saved champagne idea with this one.
Groovy 😊
@@AJPickett I upvoted because I also still use "groovy" as a positive comment.
Fight it like you fight king crimson
Mothman?
Can you tell me where can I read dnd stories and other campaigns?
Not bad. How about doing articles on other abominations, like the Anaxim or Atropal?
Brian Corvello I’m pretty sure he has an Atropal vid already.
This is fantastic! I'll definitely be using this in the future
You do such a good job with your lore videos, I wish I could hit like and subscribe more then once...
Can I actually have a Phane in directly of adventures to do certain series of event for a Cmpaign
Could you please do a video on the False Hydra? I know it's a home brew monster, but it is popular, interesting and has some very interesting story potential.
I second this statement
3rd
Didn't it begin as a meme, or am I thinking of something else?
@@AJPickett No idea. Just been listening to some of the stories on All Things DnD and they are interesting. Definitely requires the right set up.
I would reimagine these in my setting as agents of entropy, working alongside the God of Entropy to push things toward their final rest. They would be lawful neutral in that setting, caring only for bringing the universe to its final condition. Natural law is sometimes messy.
They also speak supernal which means everyonr understands them
What fun, to drop temporal beasties on my players!!
a female slaad? that sounds rare and thus interesting
it only makes sense for 4e slaad. in 5e they've gone back to their old parasitically asexual method of reproduction.
Yep, this is a cool monster 😎
Bless the Mighty GlueStick
So inevitables don't like people who should no longer have ever existed? What would happen if such a person ascended to godhood?
Then they would be in a totally different category and the inevitables would pay little attention to them.
@@AJPickett the mere existence of a phane messing with time, wouldn't that necessitate the intervention of a inevitable wouldn't it?
What would happen if a phane and an inevitable were to clash?
@@sumdud2129 the phane keeps the inevitable busy dropping victims out of sync with time near it, while it does whatever it was planning to do. This is a great way to suddenly transport player characters through time and space with an inevitable suddenly on their ass unless they can prove a phane is responsible, not them.
@@AJPickett I want to thank you for all your videos cuz they're really informative
I've been using third edition lore for my 5th edition campaign... Cuz honestly third edition lore was just cooler.
Soon my party will fight the Phane That's been manipulating events behind the scenes.
It will be the final fight of my three-year campaign.
This instantly reminded me of Angeles from Dr Who
I won't phane ignorance, I truly haven't heard of this monster!
so an abomination would be a monstrosity with an origin of being made by a god and likely with an aberration like appearance if they were to be adapted into 5e?
Sounds about right.
That would probably be a Titan in 5e, unless you find the difference between them and the Tarrasque & Empyrians important.
They sound like dr who’s weeping angels
The weeping angels totally fit into dnd especially in Ravenloft
With movement:special
Absolutely savage. Love it ♡
1:30 Shadows from Babylon 5 :)
Just woke up to thks. Gone be a good dau
Wait, Phane feed off of creature’s lost temporal potentials? That sounds familiar...
Weeping angels=phane?😏
Weeping Angles + Daleks.
They got the “Emergency Temporal Shift” and love to “EXTERMINATE!”
@@Im-Not-a-Dog I don't know the weeping angels are quite fond of extermination themselves
James Vann The Weeping Angels prefer not to kill, they temporally displace their victims, then feed off of the energy released when the victim’s future is uncreated. Don’t get me wrong, they’ll kill if they have to, but exterminating a species as easy to target as humans would be tantamount to people killing off every chicken on earth. There might be a lot of chicken to eat at first, but in the long run, no one gets chicken again.
@@Im-Not-a-Dog perhaps if they didn't reactivly quantum lock whenever something perceived them they would have already hunted us to extinction, and a pesky time traveller constantly interfering probably isn't to conducive to thier hunts either
Sound like a fun time!
good video AJ
So these are the poor cousin Timmys of the Emperians?....... am I close? I was not able to pay as much attention as I wanted.
It would not be that far off to use the Empyrean stat block as the basis for a more powerful Phane.
Oh well. That is rad. Time hopping anti-godlings....... thst sounds horrifying.
Will you be doing anymore abominations?
Yes
What does the extra number in the stat block mean? Like when it says "int 22(+6)" what is the "+6 for? 9:36
Simplified: Ability check and save throw modifier - you add the number to your D20 throw (check pg7 PH 5e for basics, more on the topic in chapter 7).
@@stefanbrenkus5605 thanks
It's my birthday
Happy birthday
Happy Birthday 👏💰💸🎂🎁🎉
Happy Birthday!
Congratulations and thank you for not crashing the planet on your latest orbit.
Happy birthday 😁
Really confused on what youre saying at the end for its legendary actions, does it have only 2 of them?
This video is going to get remastered soon.
@@AJPickett I've been using your ideas of it fighting the players in the past and have allowed it to duplicate itself by splitting/converging timelines
@@AJPickett I can't wait! Or maybe it's already happened and I'm lost in time. Either way thanks for making great videos, this one inspired me to make a Phane for my players who are now scratching their head at the mysterious thing attacking them in the past 2 sessions.
Love your vids i have seen all of them
ATHAS.... Damnnnn it
7 am my time
Wakey Wakey, time to D&D
Ohhhhhhhh babyyyyyyyyy
Someone make a mini of this use glue stick
I like the idea. Ill nerf it a little for a spectrelike guardian in one of a dungeons