Randall Flagg 5e Anyone?

[TodChuncker]

So I made the Man in Black my big bad for a one shot. Seeing if it’s overpowered or just down right awful.

Randall Flagg
Human(v) Warlock(old one)& Wizard(enchant) hybrid

9th lvl
Hp75
Str-9
Dex-16
Int-18
Wis-16
Cha-19
Con-11

Mage Slayer, Hypnotic Gaze, Instinctive Charm, Entropic Ward

Invoke Duplicity(homebrew)
Create 3 duplicate that each have 1/3 the health pool of the caster. The duplicates have access to the casters spell list and abilities. Each can hold its own concentration when casting spells. Each round the true caster will shift between the duplicates (roll a d4 to see which one) Upon a duplicates death, it will revert to a Mirror Image spell on the casters body which is stackable to the full extent of the spell.

Equipment- hand crossbow, black fashionable suit or jeans, jean jacket, cowboy boots and hat.

Spells
Cantrips- True Strike, Toll the Dead, Blade Ward, Vicious Mockery
Lvl1- Sheild, Color Spray, Sleep, Dissonate Whispers
Lvl 2- Shadow Blade, Phantasmal Force, Invisible
Lvl 3- Counterspell, Vampiric Touch, Hungar of Hadar
Lvl4- Confusion, Compulsion, Grasping Vine(Black Tentacle)
Lvl 5- Dominate Person

Once 0 Hp is reached phase two begins.

Flagg reverts to one of the 1000 forms of Nyarlathotep. Loses all Flagg spells, hp, abilities etc...

I chose Shambling Mound but skinned to be a mass of darkness, tentacles and eyes. Added an aura of confusion with increasing saves the longer players are in it. Engulf is now a wisdom check or take 1d6+ 4 psychic dmg. Slam is a a tentacle grab. Again 1d6+4 but bludgeoning this time. ( I lowered the dmg because the team is only lvl 3. Give or take.)

Lair actions?

The game:
It’s a Suicide Squad themed mission. The team is aware they are expendable and might die. By this point the team should be at about 1/2 there spells, and maybe 3/4 their life? Flagg is super charismatic and is gonna try and turn the team against their captors. (They have 24 hours before their Touch of Long Death is triggered inside each of them and if they kill the lvl 5 fighter no one can preemptively trigger it.) ANYway... if they fight, the second phase is meant to scare them away and burn the place to the ground. A previous encounter will inform them they have this as an option.

The Team:
PCs: all lvl 3- Gunsmith Artificer(Thunder Cannon is a placed turret), Glamour Bard, and essentially a Hexblade warlock.
NPCs- lvl 2 Goliath Barbarian, lvl 3 Death Cleric, lvl 5 Fighter

Couple things.
Along with adventurers basically being superheroes/ villains, I have given each of them “powers” to set them apart from the “normals”

Gunsmith is an evil Torbjorn from Overwatch. I gave him Action Surge that also gives the 1d10 heals as temp Hp for one round. And one Immolation (Torbs Ult)
The warlock has Animate Objects at half power. His homebrew class has a life steal ability. If this stacks a certain amount he goes into a Frienzied Rage.
The Bard can’t nat 1-3(depending on spell lvl) on ANY illusion or enchantment spell above cantrips or the target takes psychic dmg and the spell fails. Dmg 3d10 +Cha mod. He also suffers 1d10, falls asleep, and if woken takes one level of exhaustion. Crafted a great axe for him that is also a guitar(has its own detrimental properties as well). So he is proficient with it as it is a stringed instrument.

(Should they survive and we do more missions, these powers will grow if they advance in lvl)

These dudes are very seasoned so I wanted to make something fun yet challenging while also flexing some creative muscles.

The first session was super fun and everyone had a blast.

Thinks and thunks? Thanks in advance.

[djreynolds]

I apologize, but who is Randall Flagg?

Seriously, sounds like a cool build

I would like to see something for Erevis Cale and Drasek Riven

[TodChuncker]

No worries.

Randall Flagg is an ongoing antagonist that takes many forms in the Stephen King multiverse. Most recently he was the Man in Black in Dark Tower movie played by Matthew McConaughey

And then Nyarlathotep is from the HP Lovecraft mithos. On its Wiki, Flagg is listed as one of its 1000 forms.

[djreynolds]

No worries.

Randall Flagg is an ongoing antagonist that takes many forms in the Stephen King multiverse. Most recently he was the Man in Black in Dark Tower movie played by Matthew McConaughey

And then Nyarlathotep is from the HP Lovecraft mithos. On its Wiki, Flagg is listed as one of its 1000 forms.

Very cool, "all right, all right"

[TodChuncker]

Yeah I’m a novice when it comes to D&D lore so I brought what I know to the table.

[djreynolds]

Yeah I’m a novice when it comes to D&D lore so I brought what I know to the table.

Screams warlock to me. But now I can see the character.

Its often what helps me out is I see an image in a history book or read a novel or even see a movie.

[Spore]

Remember you are not bound to spell lists or even classes with monsters.

Also monsters should be designed around being generalists not specialists to keep avenues for all PCs' attacks and defenses open.

[TodChuncker]

Good point.

Ideally Flagg returns in the end game and is a much more dangerous being to the multiverse as a whole so I wanted him to grow as would the PCs. Expanding on spells, tactics, lair actions etc would come as the team continues to encounter him.

The way I’ve set it up hopefully makes them examine their characters. An RP section up front about killing their captors along with the realization that one of the PC characters God is just another encarnation of Flagg should lead to an interesting dynamic. One of the PCs is very much the “do bad for the greater good” person while another one didn’t even know he was a bad guy until waking up in prison.

Thinks and thunks?

[Spore]

The thing with Nyarlathotep is that you become weaker the more eldritch knowledge you possess. This can be displayed via the character levels, but also with the successful arcana or planes checks about Nyarlathotep.

Usually this is dealt with in the madness part of the DMG. You could however force them to do an Arcana check, and however has good results learns more and more about Randall Flagg. Weaknesses, preferred magic, strong points etc. People that know more however get disadvantage on the first mental save (wis/int/cha) in each battle against his spells and abilities. The point is that they NEED someone to learn about their enemy because they were helpless in the first encounter. But that person has to sacrifice a part of her self for it.

Additionally, they rack up permanent madnesses, and after a certain amount of them, the character goes mental (if you want that permanently or solvable in a side quest is your choice then). But that is really just if the players don't RP their madnesses. And in my groups, people take any excuse to RP their character a bit more weirdly.

[TodChuncker]

Accidentally deleted my comment.

I hear what you’re sayin. I’m all for it.

A temporary solution for my current game is the following:
All illusion and enchantment spells will have a fairly high DC. Every save lowers the DC by 1. But every 3rd save I’ll roll on the madness table. Every 3rd roll on the madness table will bump the table to the next level. And again after 3 rolls on the moderate table I’ll roll the long term. I’m changing the short term, moderate and long term to 1 round, 1 minute and the rest of the session respectively.
Flaggs second form has a confusion Aura within 10 feet(most of the group are ranged but this form has a long range grapple as well)
There is also a lair effect now every 3 rounds that will cast the Symbol spell(I’ll roll a d8 for the effect) The necrotic dmg is massively reduced. Probably 1d8.
So... there should be a maximum of 17 saves in phase one dispersed throughout the team. That is if he only casts the mind altering spells the entire time(which he won’t)And then phase 2 has the lair action and the aura.