Which CR4 or lower monster to play in a one-shot?

[FrancisBean]

Suppose you were playing in this light-hearted one-shot. A group of hapless, helpless goblins are seeing their peaceful village about to be overrun by those big scary human settlers. They’ve stumbled, quite by accident, onto a ring of wishes with one left, and wished for monsters to come and save them.

That’s you. You get to select any monster up to CR 4 from any of the official sources. The wish takes care of such pesky motivational issues as, say, a Blink Dog and a Displacer Beast on the same team, along with making otherwise mindless creatures (E.g., Black Pudding) capable of cooperation with the group. Hand-wavy, hand-wavy, abracalab’zam, and all that.

What would you pick? And what sort of 4-player team would you envision? Assume the goblins aren’t capable of helping.

I'll likely be running this one later this year, pandemic willing, so I'm scoping out the sort of monstrous choices clever players might pick. As for me, I'd be leaning toward the Flameskull if I were playing in it rather than running it.

[OldTrees1]

There are several interesting ones:

Black Pudding to play as an ooze
Phase Spider to play as a teleporting rogue
Wight / Ghast (nvm, 5E) to play as an undead necromancer
Doppelganger / Mimic to play as a spy
Rug of Smothering to play as a rug
Flameskull to play as an undead evoker
Ghost to play as an incorporeal rogue
Deathlock to play as an undead mage
Gargoyle to play as an earth elemental fighter


Black Pudding, Ghost, Mimic, Flameskull

I am leaning towards Mimic (assuming we remain intelligent).

[5eNeedsDarksun]

Lycanthrope would be cool to play and immunity to BPS couldn't hurt.

[FrancisBean]

I am leaning towards Mimic (assuming we remain intelligent).

Huh. Which also means I'll need to be prepared for someone playing a Mimic taking the form of, say, a melee weapon or even a suit of armor worn by another character. It's a handy way to get an "anything object" utility I'd overlooked!

[MaxWilson]

Dybbuk has so much potential. At will Dimension Door, 3/day Fear, illusions, corpse possession (gain knowledge and proficiencies too!), incorporeal movement, 120' telepathy, decent Stealth (+4), flying... you could be the ultimate spy master, and still pull your weight in combat due to corpse possession, a ton of resistances including magic resistance, a bonus action fear, and a reasonably strong necrotic melee attack.

[Wizard_Lizard]

A succubus/Incubus could be.. interesting.
A lycanthrope would be useful.
A couatl would be nice
I was thinking probably Undying Soldier because I love them, or a dolgaunt, because the flavour of a corrupted hobgoblin saving the goblins seems pretty cool.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Three Sea Hags in a coven are each CR 4 and they all share a pool of spell slots and cast as a Wizard 12.

Throw in a Helmed Horror for tanking and select the hags' three AoE spells of choice for its immunities, and you've got a pretty decent party.

[th3g0dc0mp13x]

Couatl: Healer
Ghost: Possession, Etherealness,
Ogre Battling Ram: The stickiest of sticky Tanks.
Red Dragon Wyrmling: Consistent AOE damage all day long.
Spectator: Mini beholder so fun eye rays.
Demogorgon: The one from hunt for the thesselhydra if it's possible. Main benefit is the regeneration so you're basically an immortal tank.

[BloodSnake'sCha]

Ancient Construct and Chuul both are great tanks with a nice debuffing abilities.

Bone Naga with lightning bolt is a nice blaster.


Red Dragon Wyrmling may also be fun

[Chaosity]

I would pick a goblin, just to see their reaction

[da newt]

basilisk
spectator
chuul
flame skull
ghost
helmed horror
intellect devourer
weretiger
babau (great at will spells and debuff)

Some good options above. I'd probably go Spectator, Flame Skull, Ghost, Helmed Horror for a party of 4, but I also think 4x Spectators could be very tough.

[Demonslayer666]

Merregon
Neogi Master
Stone Defender

I learned about some cool monsters today.

[FrancisBean]

My own personal list of choices, as OP: Flameskull, (Hunt for the Thessalhydra) Demogorgon, Ghost, Dybbuk, and Intellect Devourer. But for a group, it's really hard to beat the 3 Green Hag coven + a high HP tank -- the Demogorgon seems sort of obvious because it never needs to be healed. But then, I was asking the question to find ideas I might have missed. There are some really good ones here, and I'm still contemplating the Mimic options.

EDIT: Milady Wifeling told me she'd want to play a swarm, or ideally, a pack. It's an interesting take on things.

[Kyutaru]

I think it'd be cool to be a Banshee. One scream could potentially murder all the humans. She can magically detect other humans up to 5 miles away to continue the purge. Being incorporeal means there is no escape and being resistant to basically every damage type means she's hard to kill. The poor peasants wouldn't stand a chance.

[pr4wn]

Barghest

I like the irony of them being saved by something specifically created to destroy them...

-pr4wn

[FrancisBean]

Barghest

I like the irony of them being saved by something specifically created to destroy them...

-pr4wn

That thought had crossed my mind, too, and I love it. I'm not sure how the General of Gehenna would feel about it in the long haul, though....

[pr4wn]

That thought had crossed my mind, too, and I love it. I'm not sure how the General of Gehenna would feel about it in the long haul, though....

Easy, once they are safe from the humans, the Barghest turns on the goblins...


-pr4wn

[MrStabby]

I think my list would be:

Spectator
FlameSkull
Red Dragon Wyrmling
Ghost

[5eNeedsDarksun]

Wight would be interesting with it's ability to control a dozen zombies.

[8wGremlin]

Shadows - make more shadows, shadowpocalypse

[Wizard_Lizard]

Barghest

I like the irony of them being saved by something specifically created to destroy them...

-pr4wn

On a similar note, Dolgaunt or Dolgrim.

[BloodSnake'sCha]

Shadows - make more shadows, shadowpocalypse

So goblins ask help from shaodows.
Shadows kill goblins for more shadows.
Shadows and more shadows attack goblins enemies for even more shadows

[FrancisBean]

So goblins ask help from shaodows.
Shadows kill goblins for more shadows.
Shadows and more shadows attack goblins enemies for even more shadows

Hrm. I just checked the write-up, and I don't see anything about the new shadow being under control of the original. It's apparently just a new, hungry, independent shadow. Still useful, but more a guerilla, terrorist sort of thing than a controlled, organized thing. I'm trying to figure out how I'd handle it as a DM..... Probably a generalized weakening of the enemy forces which the group would never see because they wouldn't have insight into the unweakened strength, which makes it unsatisfying in play. That's something I'll have to think through for ideas.

Whelp, that's why I asked.

[BloodSnake'sCha]

Hrm. I just checked the write-up, and I don't see anything about the new shadow being under control of the original. It's apparently just a new, hungry, independent shadow. Still useful, but more a guerilla, terrorist sort of thing than a controlled, organized thing. I'm trying to figure out how I'd handle it as a DM..... Probably a generalized weakening of the enemy forces which the group would never see because they wouldn't have insight into the unweakened strength, which makes it unsatisfying in play. That's something I'll have to think through for ideas.

Whelp, that's why I asked.

You can always make something to control them(A lich looking at the area with his crystal ball for entertainment and controlling the shadows for fun).

Or just change some stuff to fit your campaign.

[FrancisBean]

Administrative note: by my count it's been exactly 45 days since the last post, so I'm not in thread necro land, just closer than I usually run.

The one-shot just became imminent, and I'm running it in less than a week. Power-gaming aside, which was my original concern, are there any "split the party" monsters I should guide my players not to take? The Doppelganger can be an issue, for example.

[Ir0ns0ul]

Couple of Hobgoblins Devastator casting sculpted Fireballs?

[JackPhoenix]

Administrative note: by my count it's been exactly 45 days since the last post, so I'm not in thread necro land, just closer than I usually run.

The one-shot just became imminent, and I'm running it in less than a week. Power-gaming aside, which was my original concern, are there any "split the party" monsters I should guide my players not to take? The Doppelganger can be an issue, for example.

Succubus/incubus is basically doppelganger+, as it fills the same role, but can fly and turn ethereal, making it even more able to go where others can't follow.

[FrancisBean]

Succubus/incubus is basically doppelganger+, as it fills the same role, but can fly and turn ethereal, making it even more able to go where others can't follow.

Ooof. Good point. I was thinking about it in terms of "I'll charm my party teammate to get free range telepathy!" rather than infiltration. Yup, that's another one. Unless the whole group goes infiltration, which shouldn't happen.

[dreast]

Ooof. Good point. I was thinking about it in terms of "I'll charm my party teammate to get free range telepathy!" rather than infiltration. Yup, that's another one. Unless the whole group goes infiltration, which shouldn't happen.

Intellect devourer also has infiltration potential (it’s what they do), and is generally very game-breaky.

[KorvinStarmast]

So goblins ask help from shaodows.
Shadows kill goblins for more shadows.
Shadows and more shadows attack goblins enemies for even more shadows And some more Lembas bread ...

Couple of Hobgoblins Devastator casting sculpted Fireballs? Only takes one, depending on how high of a level the party is. For a Hobgoblin Devastator to aid goblins is also quite thematic. I just noted that devastator can be broken down into two words:

Deva (A divine being)
Stator (the stationary airfoil preceding a Rotor in a turbine engine ...)

Jet Powered Celestial? :smallconfused:

[DwarfFighter]

hey’ve stumbled, quite by accident, onto a ring of wishes with one left, and wished for monsters to come and save them.

An Owlbear with human-level intelligence and a sense of humor.

-DF