emberdm

[emberdm]

Canada Day: Dire Beasts & Maple Treant

Happy Canada Day! Since I'm getting back into the swing of things with my monster sheets, and adjusting to creating for 5.5's level of balancing, I thought I'd start simple! Recreating my Dire Beaver and Dire Moose, but also creating a variant Treant. The Maple Treant! I know that 5.5 doesn't use flavourful abilities like 'False Appearance' and more but... that's boring, so I gave it back, otherwise your treants are extremely easy to spot in the forest.

[emberdm]

D&D 2024/5.5 Monster Creation Table

After a lot of number gathering from the new Monster Manual, and averages crunching, and other math sort of things, here it is, the Monster Creation table for making your own Homebrew D&D creatures. If you compare it to my old work, you'll see HP has gone up a little bit, while damage has had quite a jump. I haven't played 5.5 yet, but I hope the updates to the player characters have made them ready for this kind of punishment! As always this table is for anyone to use for creating their own 2024/5.5 Dungeons & Dragons content.

[emberdm]

Resurrection

Get it? Because I've been dead for more than 10 days and thus Raise Dead wouldn't work. Ahem! For those of you who might still have been watching this profile after all this time, I'm back! Probably. For those of you who messaged me in the past while... I had a hiatus post put up as my last message like almost 4 years ago. What are you doing? But regardless, after some time away dealing with mental health and working on some other hobbies, I am back! And ready to keep creating in the new edition of D&D 2024/5.5. What do I think of the new addition? Not sure yet, haven't played or DM'd it. What do I think of the new monster manual? It is a garbage fire and I hope I can make some more interesting things than a book that had all the flavour sucked out of it by a Mind Flayer. Maybe I'll go into detail later about what I hate about it... but for now I have something I have been working on to post next.

[emberdm]

Kinda on Hiatus For Don’t Know How Long.

Yeah, I probably should have put something like this up ages ago.  But to be honest I kinda forgot this tumblr was here for well over a year now.  Haven’t updated my twitter, and haven’t worked on much D&D related since the Covid thing started. But right now I’m kinda on hiatus, please don’t send me any asks because I don’t know if I’ll ever get to them, or if it’ll be in a decade before I do.  Right now I’m going through a lot of stuff and the only D&D stuff I’ve been doing is projects for a friend.  Haven’t even been DMing or playing in any games for over a year now.  And the pages are kinda a pain to make sometimes so the only monsters I’ve made lately are in text form (without lore dumps and all that) Sorry to say, for anyone that still follows me, but I don’t know when/if I’ll be back.  I still love D&D, I still make a lot of custom monsters, but a lot of my drive to take up projects is dead right now.  Don’t wait up for me.

[emberdm]

Hey! I was wondering, how do you format your monster pages to have both description and statblock? - PS I love love love your monsters!

Each page is custom made in photoshop, so I can include whatever I want.  I’m not using any sort of pre-built monster builder thing like I think some other people use.  Everything is kinda made from scratch, and I had to figure out my own layouts and spacing and whatever.

[emberdm]

Did you create the pages for darkest dungeon? Were they made for table top by fans of the PC version?

I make all my pages custom in photoshop (CS:5).

[emberdm]

Do you have a place to get PDFs of your work so people don't need to scroll through your entire tumblr for a specific creation

Sorry, I don’t have any pdfs for anything I made set up.  I make all my pages on an old version of photoshop so generally it’s kinda a hassle to make them into actually functional pdfs.  The only ones I ever put into pdfs was a series of picture-less forest/nature themed monsters I uploaded to DMs Guild and I found it a little annoying to set up. Though if you don’t want to scroll through my whole tumblr to find something, there’s a list (Index) of everything I worked on here: https://emberdm.tumblr.com/monster_index Though it might be out of date?  Not sure, I haven’t looked at my stuff over here (or even made any pages) for some time now.

[emberdm]

Sorry I’m not doing any right now.  Kinda taking a break from D&D for awhile.  I also haven’t even checked my tumblr for half a year, and only came on because I was emailed about this message.  But when I do pick up doing stuff again it’ll probably be here.  https://twitter.com/ember_dm

Do you know of anyone who does similar stuff that you do, but for 5e?

A quick Google search turns up @emberdm, who has a commissions page here: https://emberdm.tumblr.com/commissions

I don’t know if they’re still taking commissions, though.

[emberdm]

MediEvil: Pumpkins, D&D 5e Monster Stats

For Halloween, and the PS4 remake, here are some MediEvil Pumpkin statblocks!  Spook your players with some sinister squash, ghoulish gourds, and powerful pumpkin monsters! (Actually these are pretty low level encounters).

Keep in mind the Pumpkin King’s challenge rating I’m a little iffy on.  It’s hard to accurately plan around an immobile enemy.  But I’ll be testing him myself tonight!

Tokens: 

Happy Halloween!

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[emberdm]

Darkest Dungeon, D&D 5e Monster Stats

It’s almost Halloween, so here’s a re-upload of the Darkest Dungeon monster stats, now with tokens!  The Collector, Crystalline Horrors, and the Shrieker.  Spook your players!

Tokens:

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[emberdm]

My kickstarter campaign is now live!

Represent your favourite class with these shirts. Even the Dungeon Master, and Blood Hunter from the ever popular Critical Role are available. With the inclusion of 14 different designs nobody gets left out of the fun!

[emberdm]

Magic the Gathering: Planeswalkers (Part 2, Ravnican Planeswalkers) v1.00.  D&D 5e Monster Stats Commissioned by King Kassynder

After a long wait, here’s part 2 of the planeswalkers!  Again, all commissioned by Kassynder (for use in his Ravnica campaign).  All five of the planeswalkers to be found in guilds upon Ravnica (admittedly I’m a little disappointed that each guild didn’t get a planeswalker.  Oh well, I’ll just have to imagine my goblin paladin as the Boros planeswalker).

Bonus: Thopters (To go along with Dovin Baan)

Like the previous ones I’m not entirely sure how balanced they are.  Spellcaster type characters tend to be tricky in that regard.  But at the very least I had fun trying to figure out how to bring their abilities into D&D.

Also these aren’t even the end.  I still have a few more planeswalkers I’ve finished the stats of, to upload at a later date.  (Such as Garruk Wildspeaker, Sarkhan Vol, and Tezzeret).

Here’s tokens: 

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[emberdm]

So I got Mario Maker 2

Because I just can’t resist a good level editor (making maps is probably why I’m so into DMing in the first place).  So far I’ve only made a single level but I’d love for anyone that follows me here (and that has the game) to go give it a shot.  I like levels that have a sort of theme to them (not much into making super skill testing levels as just enjoyable levels).  Though that isn’t to say it’s the friendliest sort of level to anyone that hasn’t played much Mario before. The level is Creepy Koopa Crypts, the code being “42H-X77-R4G”  If you try it then let me know what you think!

[emberdm]

so given the lack of beasts at higher cr, do you think making dire or giant versions of the currently released dinosaurs (including the mammoth), would help that, by putting one or two creatures near cr 10 if not slightly above? i’m not asking you to make these, i’ll probably make them myself, i’m more just curious if you think this would rectify the issue

Yeah, honestly I find that the amount of powerful beasts is lacking.  5e in general seemed to not want actual animals to be all that intimidating. More beasts of CR 4+ would mean that Circle of the Moon Druids don’t have such a pitiful selection of wildshape animals for the upper levels (they basically just have elephants and a couple dinosaurs).  And more beasts of CR around 10 means some more fun for Polymorph!  In my own games I even changed the Roc from being a monstrosity into being a beast (since it has no special abilities other than being big, and has animal intelligence), and the druid uses it as a polymorph of choice all the time! But yeah.  I have already made stats for stuff like Dire Bears and Dire Tigers for my own campaigns (the dire bears especially had a big role to play in my Sunday campaign) around CR:8-ish.  And more powerful bears and wolves that act as sort of partially divine beings (children of nature gods).

[emberdm]

Happy Canada Day

From a Canadian DM!  Enjoy!

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Dire Beaver

Medium Beast, Unaligned

Armor Class: 12 (Natural Armor)

Hit Points: 16 (3d8 + 3) Speed: 30 ft., swim 30 ft.

STR: 15 (+2) DEX: 11 (+0) CON: 13 (+1) INT: 3 (-4) WIS: 11 (+0) CHA: 7 (-2)

Skills: Perception +2 Senses: passive Perception 12 Languages: --- Challenge: 1/2 (100 xp)

Tree Felling. The beaver deals double damage to wooden objects and structures, as well as to creatures made of wood (such as Treants or Wood Woads).

ACTIONS

Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target.  Hit: 2d4+2 piercing damage.

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Dire Moose

Huge Beast, Unaligned

Armor Class: 14 (Natural Armor + Dex)

Hit Points: 76 (8d12 + 24) Speed: 50 ft.

STR: 21 (+5) DEX: 12 (+1) CON: 17 (+3) INT: 2 (-4) WIS: 11 (+0) CHA: 6 (-2)

Senses: passive Perception 10 Languages: --- Challenge: 5 (1,800 xp)

Charge. If the moose moves at least 20 feet straight toward a target and then hits it with an antlers attack on the same turn, the target takes an extra 2d10 damage.  If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a DC:16 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.

ACTIONS

Multiattack. The moose makes two attacks: one with its antlers and one with its tail.

Antlers. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target.  Hit: 3d10+5 piercing damage.

Hooves. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target.  Hit: 3d6+5 piercing damage.

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Canada Goose Harpy

Medium Monstrosity, Neutral Good

Armor Class: 12 (Leather + Dex)

Hit Points: 44 (8d8 + 8) Speed: 30 ft.,  fly 40 ft.,  swim 30 ft.

STR: 14 (+2) DEX: 13 (+1) CON: 13 (+1) INT: 10 (+0) WIS: 12 (+1) CHA: 16 (+3)

Skills: Intimidation +7, Persuasion +5 Damage Resistances: Cold Senses: passive Perception 11 Languages: --- Challenge: 2 (450 xp)

ACTIONS

Multiattack. The harpy makes two melee weapon attacks, if can only make bladed hockey stick attacks if it’s not flying.

Bladed Hockey Stick. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target.  Hit: 1d10+2 slashing damage.

Kick. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target.  Hit: 1d6+2 bludgeoning damage.

Intimidating Song. The harpy honks a magical melody. Every non-harpy creature within 300 feet of the harpy that can hear the song must succeed on a DC:13 Wisdom saving throw or be frightened of the harpy until the song ends.  The harpy must take a bonus action on its subsequent turns to continue singing.  It can stop singing at any time.  The song ends if the harpy is incapacitated.         A frightened target can repeat its saving throw at the end of each of its turns.  If the saving throw is successful, the effect ends on it.  A target that successfully saves is immune to this harpy’s song for the next 24 hours.

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[emberdm]

(Ko-Fi Goal) Zelda: Spells 01 v1.00.  D&D 5e Spells

Yet another Ko-Fi goal met (no small part in thanks to my Wednesday gaming group).  This time the goal reward was Legend of Zelda spells!  Particularly the three divine spells from Ocarina of Time and the magical arrows!  (Though in future games at least some of the arrows became an item, it was really more of a spell in the earlier stuff).

Din’s Fire (4th level), Fayore’s Wind (4th level), and Nayru’s Love (8th level) I think fit the Cleric spell list, and maybe the Druid spell list.  Elemental Arrows fits the Ranger spell list (and maybe Paladin). (Still haven’t decided on the next Ko-Fi goal yet.  I’ll make a post when I do.))

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[emberdm]

Guildmaster’s Guide to Ravnica: Undercity Medusa (Ember Ranting)

So, I was working on touching up one of the commissions I did awhile ago.  Preparing it for the next batch of planeswalker pages I want to upload.  Vraska, a Ravnican Gorgon that spent some time being a pirate on the plane of Ixlan. Now normally having something in the actual book to use as an example is really helpful.  If I have to make a specific and powerful character, it helps if there’s already something in the book for me to draw inspiration from.   But that’s where I ran into some problems, in planning to make Vraska a cutlass-swinging  Pirate-Assassin... I realized that going off of the Undercity Medusa in the Ravnica book (yes, Medusa and not Gorgon.  In D&D the species name is Medusa, and Gorgons are an entirely different monster.  But that’s a rant for another day) there was no reason for Vraska to ever use her sword.  Whether her sword was a cutlass (shortsword), a rapier, or a longsword it would still do less damage than just her claws.  A Claw attack which deal 2d8 + Dex Modifier.

2d8 is more damage than even a greatsword.  Normally a weapon’s damage has something to do with the size of a weapon.  A longsword does less than a greatsword because it’s a smaller sword, but a greatsword made for a human does less damage than a greatsword made for a giant.  Similarly the claws of an Eagle only does 1d4, while the claws of a brown bear does 2d6.  2d8 is a LOT of damage for a medium sized creature’s claws, more than the previously mentioned brown bear.  But you could still argue for a monster just having absurdly long claws.  So surely such damage would have claws big and impressive enough to go with it (we’re talking Boneclaw type talons), right?

...huh.  That’s disappointingly small.  More damage than a grizzly bear... and only that big?  We’re talking a single “Claw” too, and not the Brown Bear’s “Claws”.  I guess I just have to go with the age old ‘A wizard did it’ excuse.  Or... magic.  The claws are that dangerous because magic.  Unfortunately I think whoever had been in charge of making the Undercity Medusa statblock just sort of looked at the picture and a bit of the storyline and made some functional stats that fit a challenge rating.  The claws were just made that strong to fill out the required damage per round for the average challenge rating they had decided on.

At least that’s what I would think if it had been just a simple melee monster.  But anyone that owns a copy of Guildmaster’s Guide to Ravnica, I urge you to take a look at this statblock.  They are incredibly dangerous!  Good AC, high HP for their Challenge Rating, pretty good saving throws across the board thanks to their attributes.  They take half damage from spells and magical effects, they have innate casting of their own for making a quick escape.  Their average damage is only slightly under their challenge rating, but goes way over on the first round of combat!  Plus on top of making their full attacks each round they can also use their gaze attack to possibly petrify the player characters.  There was no reason for their damage to be so high!  Their other abilities, ESPECIALLY the gaze attack makes them a difficult fight already!

This must have been someone’s favorite monster or something, Because this is one of the most dangerous monster statblocks I have seen (for its Challenge Rating anyway).  And I mostly looked into it so carefully because their claw damage felt too high.  It really doesn’t need to have that high a dice number when they also have a petrifying gaze.  Or when they’re part of the Golgari Swarm and could have boosted the damage through poison perhaps.

Now because of that choice to give them 2d8 claw damage I have to make the decision to either give Vraska a sword or not.  If I give her the sword then I either have to boost its damage (for no apparent reason, like the claws), or not boost its damage and have DMs not bother ever using it in favor of the claws.  Or I can not give her the sword and just kinda neglect that part of Vraska’s storyline.  Yet another option is even just to reduce her claw damage to something more reasonable for their size, but then I’ll inevitably have someone question why Vraska’s claw attack is so much weaker than that of the rest of her species.

Anyways!  This rant is way too long for something so small (like those claws.  Baduum tish!).  Just a look into the dumb obstacles that get in the way of trying to make these statblocks as close to the source material as possible.  Maybe I’m just the one overthinking things when making statblocks, but in work (or a hobby) like this you do your best to avoid future nitpicks.

TLDR: I think Undercity Medusa does too much claw damage because now I can’t think of a good reason to give Vraska a sword.

(Next update will be Legend of Zelda spells, and after that more planeswalkers including Domri Rade, Ral Zarek, and Vraska of course.)