Invisible Stalker Character Help

[Kotenkiri]

So one of my players in a to be started campgain want to play their invisible stalker homebrew race. Wondering if I can properly balance what they want and they reasonable.

He has
+2 Dex
You are Immune to poison, exhaustion, being grappled, paralyzed, poisoned, being knocked prone, being restrained and cannot be put to sleep.
He is constantly Invisible. (thinking about many making this a long rest ability)
Not only can you locate any creature on the planet, you also have darkvision. (fine with darkvision but thinking make this advantage on tracking survival tracks)

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

So one of my players in a to be started campgain want to play their invisible stalker homebrew race. Wondering if I can properly balance what they want and they reasonable.

He has
+2 Dex
You are Immune to poison, exhaustion, being grappled, paralyzed, poisoned, being knocked prone, being restrained and cannot be put to sleep.
He is constantly Invisible. (thinking about many making this a long rest ability)
Not only can you locate any creature on the planet, you also have darkvision. (fine with darkvision but thinking make this advantage on tracking survival tracks)

First of all, an Invisible Stalker (https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/invisible-stalker) is an elemental, I don't believe there are any playable races that don't have the humanoid creature type.

+2 Dex is fine.

Immune to poison damage and being poisoned is fine, Yuan-Ti have that.
Immune to exhaustion - absolutely no. Exhaustion is what requires characters to eat and drink and sleep, nobody gets to be immune to that, end of story.
Immune to being grappled - absolutely no, never for a PC. Advantage on Str and Dex checks to escape from a grapple, but not to resist being grappled, is appropriate for a playable race.
Immune to being paralyzed - again, absolutely no, advantage on saves against spells and magical abilities that cause paralysis is the best a playable race should ever hope for.
Immune to being knocked prone - absolutely no, again no playable race should get something like this because every playable race has legs.
Immune to being restrained - absolutely no once again, same as grappling immunity. Give it advantage on Str and Dex checks to escape from being restrained, but not to resist it initially.
Can't be put to sleep needs to be changed to immunity to magic that puts it to sleep, like Elves have.

Invisibility - absolutely no again, make it gain Invisibility as a spell 1/long rest at 5th level which can also be cast from his spell slots if he has them. Maybe, big maybe, he also gets Greater Invisibility 1/long rest at 9th level, again he can use spell slots to cast it more often. Pretty much every race that grants leveled spells gain them two levels later than a single-classed full spellcaster would be able to learn them.

Locate Any Creature is also absolutely no, but darkvision is fine. Maybe give it Locate Creature 1/long rest at 9th level instead of Greater Invisibility which he can use spell slots to cast more often.


Unless the rest of the party is using monstrous (i.e. not humanoid) races, this is a hard pass without major adjustments. If you are adjusting it, a Half-Invisible Stalker that's a humanoid with the above changes is still absurdly better than any PHB race. Split some of that between two subraces:

Half-Invisible Stalker
+2 Dex
Medium Humanoid
30 ft. land speed
Darkvision 60 ft.
Learn the spell Invisibility at 5th level, may cast it 1/long rest with this ability.
Elemental Ancestry: Advantage on saving throws against magic paralysis effects. Magic can’t put you to sleep.
Languages: Common, Auran.

Choose a subrace:
Swiftwind
Speed increases to 35 ft.
Advantage on Str and Dex checks to escape from being grappled or restrained.
Learn the spell Greater Invisibility at 9th level, may cast it 1/long rest with this ability.
Hunter
Proficiency: Choose one of Stealth or Perception.
Immune to poison damage and the poisoned condition.
Learn the spell Locate Creature at 9th level, may cast it 1/long rest with this ability.

[micahaphone]

This homebrew is bonkers OP. Have you played with this person before? Does your group normally use lots of homebrew races and classes?

There's nothing wrong with playing an OP homebrew if that's your group dynamic. But if this is just this one player, I'd avoid it entirely.

Take a look at air genasi - they get +2 con, +1 dex, and get a 1/day casting of Levitate. It'd be a bit of a boost to change Levitate to Invisibility, but it's still loads better than what they're recommending.
Invisible Stalkers are elementals, so this is also close to it thematically. Maybe their mom once fought and defeated an Invisible Stalker in a messy fight, and some of its essence got into her blood.

I really want to know more about this player and/or your group if they think they can just casually ask to have a CR 6 creature as their race.

[Magicspook]

If you ask me, there is no way to make a balanced invisible stalker because the very thing that makes the stalker unique is too OP for a player character.

[MrStabby]

First of all, an Invisible Stalker (https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/invisible-stalker) is an elemental, I don't believe there are any playable races that don't have the humanoid creature type.

+2 Dex is fine.

Immune to poison damage and being poisoned is fine, Yuan-Ti have that.
Immune to exhaustion - absolutely no. Exhaustion is what requires characters to eat and drink and sleep, nobody gets to be immune to that, end of story.
Immune to being grappled - absolutely no, never for a PC. Advantage on Str and Dex checks to escape from a grapple, but not to resist being grappled, is appropriate for a playable race.
Immune to being paralyzed - again, absolutely no, advantage on saves against spells and magical abilities that cause paralysis is the best a playable race should ever hope for.
Immune to being knocked prone - absolutely no, again no playable race should get something like this because every playable race has legs.
Immune to being restrained - absolutely no once again, same as grappling immunity. Give it advantage on Str and Dex checks to escape from being restrained, but not to resist it initially.
Can't be put to sleep needs to be changed to immunity to magic that puts it to sleep, like Elves have.

Invisibility - absolutely no again, make it gain Invisibility as a spell 1/long rest at 5th level which can also be cast from his spell slots if he has them. Maybe, big maybe, he also gets Greater Invisibility 1/long rest at 9th level, again he can use spell slots to cast it more often. Pretty much every race that grants leveled spells gain them two levels later than a single-classed full spellcaster would be able to learn them.

Locate Any Creature is also absolutely no, but darkvision is fine. Maybe give it Locate Creature 1/long rest at 9th level instead of Greater Invisibility which he can use spell slots to cast more often.


Unless the rest of the party is using monstrous (i.e. not humanoid) races, this is a hard pass without major adjustments. If you are adjusting it, a Half-Invisible Stalker that's a humanoid with the above changes is still absurdly better than any PHB race. Split some of that between two subraces:

Half-Invisible Stalker
+2 Dex
Medium Humanoid
30 ft. land speed
Darkvision 60 ft.
Learn the spell Invisibility at 5th level, may cast it 1/long rest with this ability.
Elemental Ancestry: Advantage on saving throws against magic paralysis effects. Magic can’t put you to sleep.
Languages: Common, Auran.

Choose a subrace:
Swiftwind
Speed increases to 35 ft.
Advantage on Str and Dex checks to escape from being grappled or restrained.
Learn the spell Greater Invisibility at 9th level, may cast it 1/long rest with this ability.
Hunter
Proficiency: Choose one of Stealth or Perception.
Immune to poison damage and the poisoned condition.
Learn the spell Locate Creature at 9th level, may cast it 1/long rest with this ability.

I think you are right to shift the invisibility and creature location options to spells - you could make it a class feature that they are added to the spell list for your class if you havea spellcasting ability. It is less of a big boost in power that way whilst still allowing for playing that character. You can similarly add other spells like invisibility to the list and other air themed spells like fly and levitate.

[MaxWilson]

If you ask me, there is no way to make a balanced invisible stalker because the very thing that makes the stalker unique is too OP for a player character.

You could just disallow them from having a character class. That's balanced in the sense that it's not an dominant choice nor is it dominated: some but not all people will want to play one.

Not everyone plays D&D in order to gain levels but some do.

[Kotenkiri]

I put up a post in dndbeyond forums recruiting players for a pbp campgain and this was subitted. At time I read it as an Elf Star Druid so I picked them for campgain but turned out they were an invisible stalker and decvision was made, (party needed a caster/healer). I would like to keep them so trying to make them halfway before I need to sort through submissions again.

[KorvinStarmast]

So one of my players in a to be started campgain want to play their invisible stalker homebrew race.
In order to save yourself a lot of headaches: tell them no.
Point them to the PHB, Volo's, Xanather's.
If they can't figure out a way to sneak around and attack people whil being mostly unseen, they perhaps do not have sufficient imagination for this game.
(FWIW: I suggst a Monk, Way of Shadows ...)
See also this thought. (https://rpg.stackexchange.com/q/163054/22566)
and then ...

Suggest the player rebuild their PC as either a Sorcerer (Shadow) or a Monk (Way of Shadows). I have played both of these classes and they can both find ways to move around as unseen, or nearly unseen, in a variety of situations.

or

Suggest the player rebuild as a Ranger, Gloom Stalker. At level 3, they become invisible to enemies who need darkvision to spot them. I played a Gloom Stalker Ranger, and hope to play him again if that campaign ever reactivates. I chose vHuman and Criminal background; Stealth is of course a prime choice for a Skill Proficiency if your Player takes this route. Of note, on the first round the Gloom Stalker gets an additional attack: for your 5th level party, that's three attacks in the first round.

or

Suggest the player rebuild into a Circle of the Moon druid. Why?
If the player chooses the race Firbolg (from Volo's Guide to Monsters) the Firbolg-Druid can turn invisible once per short rest.
Then, at level 10, the Druid can become an air elemental when using the wild shape ability. That's a step toward being able to change into an elemental type. With CR/3 as a guide, you could as the DM rule that at level 18 they could shift into an invisible stalker (CR 6, elemental) as a plausible variation on air elemental. That's a different challenge tier (4) than tier 2 where the players are now. Time enough between now and if the party gets to level 18 to decide if that option appeals to both you and the player.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

I put up a post in dndbeyond forums recruiting players for a pbp campgain and this was subitted. At time I read it as an Elf Star Druid so I picked them for campgain but turned out they were an invisible stalker and decvision was made, (party needed a caster/healer). I would like to keep them so trying to make them halfway before I need to sort through submissions again.

That's called a bait and switch, he's counting on you to keep him around instead of sorting through again and expects to get away with basically cheating. I'd tell him to switch back to Star Elf as advertised, or leave the game.

[Kotenkiri]

That's called a bait and switch, he's counting on you to keep him around instead of sorting through again and expects to get away with basically cheating. I'd tell him to switch back to Star Elf as advertised, or leave the game.

He's a Star circle (UA) Druid.

Anyways gave him option of homebrew suggested race or to switch to official one.