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View Full Version : D&D 5e/Next Harpy's Luring Song



RavenJovan
2015-10-24, 12:23 PM
I would very much like a homebrew of the harpy's luring song balanced for PC use, I'm currently working on a balanced homebrew version of harpies, and need a way to balance the current sonic song ability before I can start working on a singing class to accompany them.

Monster Manuel Version is the following:

Luring Song: The harpy sings a magical melody. Every humanoid and giant within 300 feet of the harpy that can hear the song must succeed on a DC 11 Wisdom saving throw or be charmed 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. While charmed by the harpy, a target is incapacitated and ignores the songs of other harpies. If the charmed target is more than 5 feet away from the harpy, the target can take the Dash action on its turn to move toward the harpy by the most direct route. It doesn't avoid opportunity attacks, but before moving into damaging terrain, such as lava or a pit, and whenever it takes damage from a source other than the harpy, a target can repeat the saving throw. A creature can also repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns. If a creature's 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.


Edit: My Idea so far.

Just changing the DC saving throw to work with the leveling system, still not sure on the range though. Changed the 300 ft. to 30 ft. instead. And lastly a limit to how many opportunities it can be used.

Luring Song: Once per long rest the harpy can sing a magical melody. Every humanoid and giant within 30 ft. of the harpy that can hear the song must succeed on a DC (8+charisma mod) Wisdom saving throw or be charmed 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. While charmed by the harpy, a target is incapacitated and ignores the songs of other harpies. If the charmed target is more than 5 feet away from the harpy, the target can take the Dash action on its turn to move toward the harpy by the most direct route. It doesn't avoid opportunity attacks, but before moving into damaging terrain, such as lava or a pit, and whenever it takes damage from a source other than the harpy, a target can repeat the saving throw. A creature can also repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns. If a creature's 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.

RavenJovan
2015-10-25, 12:57 PM
34 views and not one of you jerks help me out? I see how it is...:smallyuk:

In any case I think I limited it the best I can, thanks for nothing. :smallamused:

Mith
2015-10-25, 04:45 PM
Is the idea that a Bard for example can learn this ability? Or are you planning to have a Harpy be a playable race

Nothing pops out to me as jarring or broken, but I am not good at critique. The only odd thing is the fact that the save relies on two Ability scores (Wis save plus Cha mod). Otherwise, I think it's OK.

Cassious
2015-10-26, 03:38 PM
34 views and not one of you jerks help me out? I see how it is...:smallyuk:

In any case I think I limited it the best I can, thanks for nothing. :smallamused:

As a general tip, when trying to convert monster abilities to something for a PC I always look at what spells exist that grant similar abilities as balance benchmarks. In this case hypnotic pattern is pretty close to what you have: 30ft aoe, incapacitated status, but pattern is automatically cancelled by any damage (rather than granting a save) and it doesn't turn you into an attack of opportunity magnet.

So looking at it from this perspective your current version of Harpy Lure is noticeably better then a pretty decent 3rd level spell. If your okay with that power level then its all good, otherwise I'm not sure where to cut.

Overall it looks like a pretty good conversion of the ability to me and while rather strong it might be okay as a 1/day ability as long as the race doesn't get too many other goodies. Level gating like the drow/tiefling spells might also be a good idea.