Bioengineered Monsters

[Marcelinari]

Hi everyone. I'm preparing a campaign of 5e Red Hand of Doom, for which this (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?540370-Red-Hand-of-Doom-5e-Conversion-Guide-Spoilers-WIP-PEACH) thread has been an enormous help. However, one of the fundamental changes I've made to the campaign is giving me a slight problem, and I need some help, or even just a couple of ideas.

In the original campaign, the invading hobgoblin army, the eponymous Red Hand, worships Tiamat, and one of their schemes is the creation of a variety of dragon-adjacent monsters grown and bred for a variety of tasks, each type from one of the chromatic colours. However, in my campaign the Red Hand worships Bane, which significantly reduces the logical use of chromatic dragons. I've managed to adapt near everything else to this change, but haven't managed to find an alternative to the Blackspawn Raider (an infiltrator CR4), Bluespawn Thunderlizard (an artillery piece CR6), or the Greenspawn Razorfiend (elite melee CR7). The other chromatic types don't appear as spawn in the campaign, so can be safely ignored.

What can I use to replace these monsters? My criteria are thus: the creatures need to be plausibly bio-engineered (use of magic available), thematically and visually related, and able to serve the roles indicated above. I'm willing to homebrew a lot of monsters, so don't feel restrained to published sources - I just need a jumping-off point.

[Ertwin]

The Simic Hybrids from Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica are bioengineered, it's a PC race, but could work as a stepping stone.

[JackPhoenix]

If you're bioengineering stuff, what's the problem with bioengineering using dragon parts? Or using the same creatures and refluffing them to look however you want?

[Marcelinari]

If you're bioengineering stuff, what's the problem with bioengineering using dragon parts? Or using the same creatures and refluffing them to look however you want?

Bio-engineering stuff out of dragon parts is an option, I guess, but it is such a strong visual theme in and of itself that it might get the players thinking along the wrong lines, assuming that dragons are an integral part of the adventure. That’s something I would prefer to avoid. Plus it kind of comes out of no-where now. There’s no hints or foreshadowing pointing to dragons any more.

As for using the same creatures but refluffing them - I will also have to convert them from 3.5 to 5e, which means basically inventing stats for them wholesale. If I’m re-fluffing them and also re-crunching them... I effectively have a whole new creature, with no jumping off point to start from. Hence the thread.

[Chaos Jackal]

Outside of the simic hybrids in GGtR, there are also the Krasis monsters from the same book, which are basically customizable statblocks of various CRs representing bionengineered monstrosities the simic create. You can take a look at them.

[ShikomeKidoMi]

This won't fix all of them, but I feel like you could use a variant Banelar Naga for the Thunderlizard, since they usually attack at a distance with magic and are known to work with Bane cults.

[SpikeFightwicky]

Question:

Dragons fit into many motifs in the original RHoD (if it's Bane, is it Black Hand of Doom? :smallbiggrin: ). Does Bane in your campaign have a representative creature or otherworldly race? That would be a good starting point... otherwise, no constraints?

[Tetrasodium]

Hi everyone. I'm preparing a campaign of 5e Red Hand of Doom, for which this (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?540370-Red-Hand-of-Doom-5e-Conversion-Guide-Spoilers-WIP-PEACH) thread has been an enormous help. However, one of the fundamental changes I've made to the campaign is giving me a slight problem, and I need some help, or even just a couple of ideas.

In the original campaign, the invading hobgoblin army, the eponymous Red Hand, worships Tiamat, and one of their schemes is the creation of a variety of dragon-adjacent monsters grown and bred for a variety of tasks, each type from one of the chromatic colours. However, in my campaign the Red Hand worships Bane, which significantly reduces the logical use of chromatic dragons. I've managed to adapt near everything else to this change, but haven't managed to find an alternative to the Blackspawn Raider (an infiltrator CR4), Bluespawn Thunderlizard (an artillery piece CR6), or the Greenspawn Razorfiend (elite melee CR7). The other chromatic types don't appear as spawn in the campaign, so can be safely ignored.

What can I use to replace these monsters? My criteria are thus: the creatures need to be plausibly bio-engineered (use of magic available), thematically and visually related, and able to serve the roles indicated above. I'm willing to homebrew a lot of monsters, so don't feel restrained to published sources - I just need a jumping-off point.

I recommendKendal Santor's Treatise on the Mournland (https://www.dmsguild.com/product/280264/Kendal-Santors-Treatise-on-the-Mournland), It's got about 40 creatures warped by the mournland. CR's range from 1/4 to 24 but looks like about 20 in the cr 3-cr6 range. I've used a few od the critters there & they are great for throwing my players for a loop :D

[Marcelinari]

Question:

Dragons fit into many motifs in the original RHoD (if it's Bane, is it Black Hand of Doom? :smallbiggrin: ). Does Bane in your campaign have a representative creature or otherworldly race? That would be a good starting point... otherwise, no constraints?

It’s still the Red Hand, just so I can use all the handouts, but the doom hand priests all punch people with black gauntlets.

I’m doing something a little different with gods, using different names and stories for different cultures, but keeping the same roster of roughly 12 between them. Bane’s the god of War, Leadership, and Order, so probably devils? I was having trouble finding devils that fit the role and CR, though.

The key to the bioengineering angle is that the threat of more of these monsters needs to be able to be halted if the PCs take the right actions - if they can destroy the ‘hatchery’, they swing the scales of war. The intent is also that the creatures be strange, dangerous, and capable of assuming otherwise-vacant roles in the Red Hand’s army.

I’ve taken a crack at them using the Krasis rules in GGtR, and I’ve got decent mechanics for the Greenspawn and Bluespawn, trading out their poison breath for poisoned claws, and lightning breath for a sonic attack, respectively. The blackspawn is still giving me trouble, and I’m also still not sure how to indicate that these creatures are all from the same origin, which is a big goal for me. Maybe they’re all part snake? Is that too Yuan-ti?