Merfolk Reconciliation

[Regitnui]

Would it raise CRs or unbalance anything for me to add the following abilities to the MM Merfolk and the PSZ Merfolk? It's an attempt to unify the two into a coherent race.

Speed 10ft., swim 40ft., (30ft., swim 30ft. in humanoid form)

Shapechanger. The merfolk can use its action to polymorph into a blue-skinned humanoid, or back into its true form. Its statistics, other than its speeds, are the same in both forms. Any equipment it is wearing or carrying is not transformed. It reverts to its true form if it dies.

Spellcasting. The merfolk's innate spellcasting ability depends on its creed, being either Intelligence (Water), Wisdom (Wind), or Charisma (Trickster). It can innately cast one of the following spells, requiring no material components:

At will: (Wind) druidcraft, (Water) prestidigitation, (Trickster) dancing lights

I wouldn't know how to calculate Spell Save DCs. Should I assume that the Wind and Water creeds make the casting ability of the merfolk 12 instead of as listed in the MM?

Also, forgive me if this should have been in the homebrew forum.

[TheFlyingCleric]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think any of the spells you have there call for a saving throw anyway.

If you need it though there's a guide to calculating monster save DC's on pages 274 and 278 of the Dungeon Master's Guide (table and text, respectively).

[Ninja_Prawn]

Would it raise CRs or unbalance anything for me to add the following abilities to the MM Merfolk and the PSZ Merfolk? It's an attempt to unify the two into a coherent race.

Speed 10ft., swim 40ft., (30ft., swim 30ft. in humanoid form)

Shapechanger. The merfolk can use its action to polymorph into a blue-skinned humanoid, or back into its true form. Its statistics, other than its speeds, are the same in both forms. Any equipment it is wearing or carrying is not transformed. It reverts to its true form if it dies.

Spellcasting. The merfolk's innate spellcasting ability depends on its creed, being either Intelligence (Water), Wisdom (Wind), or Charisma (Trickster). It can innately cast one of the following spells, requiring no material components:

At will: (Wind) druidcraft, (Water) prestidigitation, (Trickster) dancing lights

I wouldn't know how to calculate Spell Save DCs. Should I assume that the Wind and Water creeds make the casting ability of the merfolk 12 instead of as listed in the MM?

Also, forgive me if this should have been in the homebrew forum.

I say: no change in CR.

The save DCs (none of those spells offer a save by RAW, but they're all quite flexible and I can imagine that a creative player could use them to cause effects that might need a save) are...

Water: 10
Wind: 10
Trickster: 11

The calculation is 8 + proficiency bonus (+2) + ability modifier (0, 0 and +1 respectively), just like for PCs. Edit: or, yeah, you could use the table.

[Regitnui]

And what about upping the casting ability to 12? Sort of a variant on the MM merfolk.

[Ninja_Prawn]

And what about upping the casting ability to 12? Sort of a variant on the MM merfolk.

It doesn't affect the CR as far as I can see (especially for Trickster, as their Cha is already 12). Increasing Wis has an impact on passive perception, of course, but 13 isn't that spectacular.

At the end of the day, giving monsters fluffy cantrips is one of the safest changes in the book.

[DracoKnight]

At the end of the day, giving monsters fluffy cantrips is one of the safest changes in the book.

It's so fluffy I wanna die!!!!

[Regitnui]

At the end of the day, giving monsters fluffy cantrips is one of the safest changes in the book.

Since I'm no homebrewer, I was aiming for a simple 'Zendikar' merfolk monster.

[Laserlight]

Since I'm no homebrewer....

It always starts that way. "I'm not homebrewing", they say, "I'm just changing the fluff", they say. Then it's "Why doesn't this monster have that trait? They should have done a better editing job to make sure the monsters were complete. I'll just fix that." Then it's "These monsters need a unified theme, I'll just homebrew a couple of things they all have in common." Next thing you know, your list of playable character races includes psionic zombie arboreal giant lobsters.

[SharkForce]

Since I'm no homebrewer, I was aiming for a simple 'Zendikar' merfolk monster.

uhhh... i think there's an unearthed arcana for that...

[Regitnui]

uhhh... i think there's an unearthed arcana for that...

Planeshift Zendikar had a race, the MM has a monster; I was sharing traits in an effort to make the zendikar variety usable with the MM.

[SharkForce]

Planeshift Zendikar had a race, the MM has a monster; I was sharing traits in an effort to make the zendikar variety usable with the MM.

you just grab the NPC stats and cram relevant traits into those ;)

[Regitnui]

you just grab the NPC stats and cram relevant traits into those ;)

And that's what I did. Although I need more statblocks; Merfolk Harpoonist, Merfolk Chief and Merfolk Seasinger.