Conjure Woodland Creatures: Boggles

[MaxWilson]

Everyone likes to talk about druids theoretically summoning swarms of Pixies, and I'll admit that the Pixie is very strong (IMO should be CR 2 based on how much impact it has on difficulty when you toss it into a group of monsters), but have you ever noticed that Boggles (http://chisaipete.github.io/bestiary/creatures/boggle) from Volo's are also quite good? They have AC 14 and 18 HP (26 HP when summoned by a Shepherd Druid 6+), and they can grapple Medium creatures pretty well (Athletics -1 but at advantage from sticky oil), and they have an at-will terrain alteration (slippery or sticky oil) that lasts for an hour with no concentration requirement. They're only CR 1/8, due to their meager attack, but that doesn't hurt much when they're on your side because even if you have no use for their oil you can always have them Help other PCs--it's like having eight very durable wizards' familiars who can also grapple.

One druid with eight boggles could quickly make the whole dungeon sticky (i.e. make every room sticky before you ready your crossbows and open the door to the next room). Under those conditions, even a Fire Giant has a 15% chance of getting stuck for each square it moves though, and using its full 30' movement rate means it has a 62% or 95% chance of getting stuck, depending on whether or not your DM rules that it has to make 6 saves or 18 saves, respectively. (Since it occupies 9 squares at a time, every time it moves forward 5' it enters 3 new puddles, but is that one save or three?) But it only takes eight boggles a few seconds to generate all those puddles.

Also, the slippery puddles go pretty well with grappling attacks, if a boggles runs up to a Medium prone target and grapples it to keep it prone.

Interesting, huh?

[stoutstien]

Quickling is another one that can really be fun. You only get two but man they are nasty

[Rixitichil]

Huh. The opportunity my eyes zoomed in on with Boggles for my Bard was Dimensional Rift. They're exceptionally good thieves, creating rifts under tables and beds to get past locked doors or to snatch the treasure from inside chests and closed drawers.

[dejarnjc]

Quickling is another one that can really be fun. You only get two but man they are nasty

Throughout my level 20 campaign I've consistently found that quicklings are key when a druid needs to pump out damage. A 6th level slot gets you 4. An 8th level slot gets you 6. The 8th level slot probably isn't worth it but IMO the 6th level slot for 4 quicklings totally is and they'll wreck encounters where the enemy doesn't have a lot of AOE or a lot of mooks

[MaxWilson]

Quickling is another one that can really be fun. You only get two but man they are nasty

They're CR 1 though, so you only get two out of a Conjure Woodland Creatures IV, which means only six attacks vs. the more usual 8 attacks. (High attack bonus, but still.) Quicklings are good if you need mobility, but from a pure offense standpoint they're not unusual. Almost any animal from Conjure Animals will give comparable damage, and more meat shield HP.

[stoutstien]

They're CR 1 though, so you only get two out of a Conjure Woodland Creatures IV, which means only six attacks vs. the more usual 8 attacks. (High attack bonus, but still.) Quicklings are good if you need mobility, but from a pure offense standpoint they're not unusual. Almost any animal from Conjure Animals will give comparable damage, and more meat shield HP.
They are perfect mage killers. High speed, envision, and lots of attacks.
I do agree that you can roll at complete random with this spell and never really get a bad combo.

[Merudo]

I also found the Boggles extremely powerful and searched this forum to find if they had been discussed. I'm glad to see the insightful MaxWilson also took note of their potential.

I'll add that according to my reading of the spell, a Boggle can Grapple a creature Medium or smaller and then teleport it 30' through its Dimensional Rift ability. So a Boggle could teleport PCs around, making them skip rooms or floors for example. Even better, the Boggle can Grapple a foe (with advantage because of Sticky Oil), create a rift above a trap or hazard, and drop said foe right into it. Of course, they need an opening or frame to do it, but still - a Gobble can potentially kill/get rid of a Medium or smaller creature in a single turn.

Another use for the Dimensional Rift is to drop harmful items through it. Imagine 8 Boggles dropping Caltrops/Balls of Bearing/Oil on hostile creatures, remotely and safely. Or a Boggle using Dimensional Rift to light up something inflammable with a Torch. Combined with their Oil Puddle ability, the Boggles are the masters of environmental hazards.

[MaxWilson]

So a Boggle could teleport PCs around, making them skip rooms or floors for example. Even better, the Boggle can Grapple a foe (with advantage because of Sticky Oil), create a rift above a trap or hazard, and drop said foe right into it. Of course, they need an opening or frame to do it, but still - a Gobble can potentially kill/get rid of a Medium or smaller creature in a single turn. And you get 8 Gobbles with the spell!

It's up to the DM, but because "[o]nly the boggle can use the rift" I don't think teleporting (N)PCs by grappling them actually works. Spells like Dimension Door which allow you to affect another creature as well as yourself say so explicitly, which suggests to me that "only the boggle can use" is synonymous with "only the boggle can be teleported by" in 5E jargon.

But, ask your DM.

Edit: hmmm, it does explicitly say, "anything the boggle puts through the rift (including a portion of its body) emerges at the destination" (emphasis mine) so maybe I would buy this after all. It doesn't say "any object," it says "anything."

Edit2: grappling with sticky oil is potentially nice, and prevents enemies from attacking the squishies, but grappling and dragging an enemy through a pre-placed pool of sticky oil is even better. Gives advantage to other PCs (if the save is failed) and ensures that even if the enemy wastes attacks killing the boggle, they're still hampered until they spend another action getting free. The key question here is: does your DM apply Strength-based carrying capacity limits to grappling, and how big is the enemy? Still, being able to potentially grapple + restrain with a single Boggle attack (though a Dimensional Rift?) is a trick worth knowing about.

[Merudo]

Edit: hmmm, it does explicitly say, "anything the boggle puts through the rift (including a portion of its body) emerges at the destination" (emphasis mine) so maybe I would buy this after all. It doesn't say "any object," it says "anything."


Yes - I read "anything" to mean it works with creatures.