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View Full Version : D&D 5e/Next New low-level celestials (and others) from my Summoner 'brew-- help much appreciated



Grod_The_Giant
2019-02-05, 11:44 AM
When I was making my Summoner homebrew class (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?576195-A-Man-and-his-Monster-Summoner-Base-Class#post23569287), I hit a snag-- while there are plenty of low-level elementals, fey, and even decent fiends, the were barely any celestial-ish creatures, much less proper low-level spirits of Good. So, digging back into the richness overwhelming volume of 3e, I came up with a set of mostly canonical options and converted existing creatures.

While I've tinkered with monsters for individual games, I've pretty much never created creatures from scratch, and I know I'm not as up on my 5e monster design principles as I am for player options. If ya'll could look at what I've got and let me know your thoughts, I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks!

https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/H1rZm77INN

VoxRationis
2019-02-05, 11:54 AM
I have three comments to begin with: Firstly, the stat block for the "Bondfire Archon" reads "Bondire Archon." Secondly, why is the musteval described as being rodent-like instead of weasel-like? Thirdly, though I know it's not quite in the spirit of mechanical simplicity, I do kind of miss the lantern archon's ability to ignore armor and damage reduction with its otherwise humble attacks; it is also missing continual flame.

Grod_The_Giant
2019-02-05, 02:12 PM
I have three comments to begin with: Firstly, the stat block for the "Bondfire Archon" reads "Bondire Archon." Secondly, why is the musteval described as being rodent-like instead of weasel-like? Thirdly, though I know it's not quite in the spirit of mechanical simplicity, I do kind of miss the lantern archon's ability to ignore armor and damage reduction with its otherwise humble attacks; it is also missing continual flame.

Whoops.
Was the musteval specifically called out as being a weasel?
Hmm... maybe replace Light Rays with Sacred Flame? I didn't give Continual Flame because these were all ultimately written to be accessed by a PC

VoxRationis
2019-02-05, 03:18 PM
The "X-al" celestials are themed after an animal whose Latin root appears in their name. Ursinals are named after bears. Lupinals are wolf-like. Cervidals are deer-like. Mustela is Latin for "weasel," hence Mustelidae, the family containing badgers, weasels, ermines, skunks, and the like.

That's fair enough about continual flame. I just remember that 3.5 had it and you could summon them then, but 3.5 also was the epitome of abusive tricks when it came to spellcasting. Replacing the light rays with sacred flame would probably be counterproductive, though, as it would reduce their effectiveness against high-CR opponents.

rferries
2019-02-08, 06:04 AM
IIRC "Mus" is also the Latin for "mouse", which is what I had always assumed Mustevals were based on.

Grod_The_Giant
2019-02-08, 10:44 AM
http://mysidia.org/Planescape/Images/musteval.jpg
The art looks more like a weasel than a mouse, I suppose, but it feels awful weird to describe a creature of pure celestial Good as "weasel-like."

Any mechanical feedback?