Behemoth (Worm Endbringer)

[AvatarVecna]

Made this awhile back, but it was buried in someone else's thread on the same, so since I'm making a homebrew sig right now, it gets its own thread.

Gargantuan Construct, Chaotic EvilArmor Class: 30 (Natural Armor)
Hit Points: 41 (2d20+20)
Speed: 120 ft, 100 ft Burrow

Attribute
Strength
Dexterity
Constitution
Intelligence
Wisdom
Charisma


Score
30
24
30
24
24
30


Bonus
+10
+7
+10
+7
+7
+10


Save
+20
+17
+20
+17
+17
+20


Skills
Athletics +28
Acrobatics +17

Arcana +17
Animal Handling +17
Deception +20




Sleight Of Hand +17

History +17
Insight +17
Intimidation +30




Stealth +17

Investigation +17
Medicine +17
Performance +20






Nature +17
Perception +17
Persuasion +20






Religion +17
Survival +17



Damage Immunities: Poison, any one Energy type
Damage Resistances: All
Condition Immunities: Blinded, Charmed, Deafened, Frightened, Petrified, Poisoned, Unconscious
Senses: Blindsight 1200 ft, Tremorsense 1200 ft, Passive Perception 32
Languages: None
Challenge Rating: 250 (4555000) (not really, but close-ish enough?)Aura Of Immolation: Behemoth's Aura extends 20 ft from his body. Any creature or object that enters this aura on their turn, or starts their turn there, takes 20d6 (70) fire damage (DC 28 Dex save for half) and 20d6 (70) bludgeoning damage (DC 28 Con save for half). Objects carried by creatures are not affected unless that creature dies from the Aura.

Battleborn Monstrosity: Behemoth critically hits on a 19 or 20. Additionally, when he makes a weapon attack, Behemoth may choose to subtract 5 from his attack bonus (or save DC) to increase the damage dealt by 10.

Earth Bound: Behemoth cannot leave the Material Plane by any means.

Impossibly Durable: Whenever Behemoth takes damage, he subtracts three times his current layer number from the damage taken; this is applied before damage reduction.

Layered Monstrosity: Behemoth is made of 25 "layers", akin to a Russian nesting doll. Whenever a layer is killed (whether due to damage or an effect that induces death directly), that layer is reduced to 0 HP and Behemoth's next layer becomes his current layer (restoring him to full HP plus an additional 2 HD, full Legendary Actions, and full Legendary Saves, as well as increasing the number of Legendary Saves he gets and upgrading Impossibly Durable). Any damage dealt to a layer beyond what it took to reduce that layer to 0 HP is dealt to the new layer, ignoring Impossibly Durable and damage resistance (since both have been applied to the damage once already). If Behemoth transitions to a new layer, and is affected by an ongoing effect that a save or ability check could've prevented, he receives a new save/ability check against that effect even if it doesn't normally offer additional saves to end the effect. At the start of Behemoth's turn, his current layer and the layer immediately prior to his current layer regenerate to full HP, and he resets to the previous layer's capabilities.

Legendary Saves: Behemoth has a number of Legendary Saves equal to his current layer number; when a layer regenerates to full HP, it also regenerates to full Legendary Saves. Behemoth can use a Legendary Save to succeed on a save he just failed.

Pounce: Behemoth can jump any distance, up to his maximum move speed (as modified by actions, such as Dash) without any checks required.

Siege Monster: Behemoth does double damage to all structures.

Unstoppable Juggernaut: Behemoth has advantage on all saving throws an ability checks. Behemoth does not need to eat, sleep, or breathe, and is unaffected by nonmagical environmental effects.Actions

Radiation Field: The radius of Behemoth's "Aura Of Immolation" is multiplied by 10 until the beginning of his next turn.

Multiattack: Behemoth makes five attacks, from any mix of the following options:

Cleaving Claw: Melee Weapon Attack, DC 28 Dex save, 30 ft reach, every creature in a 10 ft radius sphere.

Failure: 10d6+10 (45) slashing damage, and Behemoth may attempt a Shove for free.
Success: Half damage, an no Shove attempt.


Dynakinetic Blast: Ranged Weapon Attack, +17 to hit, range 1200 ft, one target. Hit: 8d12+7 (59) damage of an energy type you choose, and target must make a DC 25 Con save or be Stunned for one round.
Dynakinetic Disjunction: Behemoth can end a single magic effect within 600 ft as if he cast "Dispel Magic" using a ninth level slot. This counts as a spell for all purposes.
Earthquake Stomp: As "Earthquake" spell, except the duration is "Instantaneous", the area changes to 600 ft radius, the point of emanation is Behemoth himself, it creates 5d6 fissures in range instead of 1d6, and it deals maximum damage to structures.
Energy Manipulation: Ranged Weapon Attack, DC 25 Dex save, range 1200 ft, every creature in a 20 ft radius sphere.

Failure: 8d6+7 (35) damage of an energy type you choose, and creature must make a DC 25 Con save or be Stunned for one round.
Success: Half damage.


Frightening Presence: Every creature that can see or hear Behemoth must make a DC 28 Wis save or be frightened for 1 minute. A creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, with disadvantage if Behemoth is within line of sight, ending the effect on itself on a success. If a creature’s saving throw is successful or the effect ends for it, the creature has advantage on saves against Behemoth's Frightful Presence for the next 24 hours.
Shockwave: Every creature in a 200 ft cone emanating from Behemoth. DC 28 Con save.

Failure: 10d4 (25) thunder damage, and you are pushed back 30 ft and knocked prone.
Success: Half damage, and you are not pushed or knocked prone.


Smashing Fist: Melee Weapon Attack, +20 to hit, 30 ft reach, one target. Hit: 10d12+10 (75) bludgeoning damage, and Behemoth may initiate a grapple for free.


Bonus Actions

Change Immunity: Behemoth may change his energy immunity to an energy type of his choice.

Lightning Bruiser: Behemoth's speed is doubled until the beginning of his next turn, and he provokes no OAs for movement. All melee attacks he makes this turn deal +10 damage.

Reactions

Absorb Energy: After an effect affects Behemoth, but before the effect it has on him is determined, Behemoth may absorb the energy and put it to use fueling an attack: Behemoth suffers no consequences for the effect affecting him, and may make one attack (selected from his Multiattack options).

Redirect Energy: After an effect affects Behemoth, but before the effect it has on him is determined (and before taking Impossibly Durable/damage immunity/damage resistance/condition immunity into account), Behemoth may redirect the effect from himself to any creature or object within 30 ft (suffering no consequences for the effect originally affecting him). If the effect requires a successful attack roll or a failed save, these are made as if Behemoth was the source of the effect (+20 to hit, or DC 28 save), and otherwise work exactly as normal.

Sudden Immunity: Behemoth becomes immune to a damage type of his choice until the beginning of his next turn.

Legendary Actions

Behemoth has eight Legendary Actions per turn; if he is knocked out of his current layer, he resets to eight Legendary actions regardless of how many he has spent this turn.

Assault: Behemoth makes a single attack, chosen from his Multiattack options.

Charge: Behemoth moves his speed.

Reactionary: Behemoth regains his Reaction.

Walking Disaster (8 Legendary Actions): The radius of Behemoth's "Earthquake Stomp" and "Aura Of Immolation" are multiplied by 10 until the beginning of Behemoth's next turn.

[Yakk]

Cause 8 levels of exhaustion without saves. Nothing causes that to reset. You die, keep your exhaustion, die again in every shell, and poof, victory. (So long as the exhaustion didn't have a saving throw causing it).

The point isn't that this is a hole in your creature's near unstoppability. The point is that if you want a creature to be unstoppable, don't give it stats.

And definitely don't model using "rules for a monster for PCs to fight" rules something that isn't intended for PCs to fight? If you are going to say "rocks fall and everyone dies", don't preceed it with pages of rock physics modelling.

...

This thing has (25)(26) d20 (?) HD and hence 13325 HP. Simply adding up damage to kill it will take most of a game session, let alone anything else.

I guess you could use this in a game where PCs have simulacrum chains as typical builds. "I cast aleph-naught meteor swarms. Some small percentage result in failed saves. The creature has a total of 325 legendary resists; those eventually fail. Some percentage of those that fail the save and don't get LR deal more than 75 damage. The creature takes an unbounded amount of fire and bludgeoning damage. If the creature becomes immune to fire/bludgeoning, switch to disintegrate".

But, again, both of these (the PC and the monster) are far outside of what D&D was intended to model.

[noob]

Cause 8 levels of exhaustion without saves. Nothing causes that to reset. You die, keep your exhaustion, die again in every shell, and poof, victory. (So long as the exhaustion didn't have a saving throw causing it).

The point isn't that this is a hole in your creature's near unstoppability. The point is that if you want a creature to be unstoppable, don't give it stats.

And definitely don't model using "rules for a monster for PCs to fight" rules something that isn't intended for PCs to fight? If you are going to say "rocks fall and everyone dies", don't preceed it with pages of rock physics modelling.

...

This thing has (25)(26) d20 (?) HD and hence 13325 HP. Simply adding up damage to kill it will take most of a game session, let alone anything else.

I guess you could use this in a game where PCs have simulacrum chains as typical builds. "I cast aleph-naught meteor swarms. Some small percentage result in failed saves. The creature has a total of 325 legendary resists; those eventually fail. Some percentage of those that fail the save and don't get LR deal more than 75 damage. The creature takes an unbounded amount of fire and bludgeoning damage. If the creature becomes immune to fire/bludgeoning, switch to disintegrate".

But, again, both of these (the PC and the monster) are far outside of what D&D was intended to model.

It is not supposed to be unstoppable else it would not just be intentionally killable with hp damage. There multiple different mechanics interacting with hp damage in its stats making it extremely clear it is supposed to be able to be killed with hp damage.

[AvatarVecna]

This brew is years and years old, only gave it a thread for ease of sigging it. You are correct in saying that if I wanted a monster that was unbeatable it would have been easier and more effective to just not give it statistics sticks. Your mistake is in assuming invincibility was the goal.

Edit: Like seriously, the thread this was posted in initially was someone else's version of the same creature. Mine is drastically toned down from theirs.

[Tzardok]

I would propably describe the Endbringers as aberrations instead of constructs. They are after all made out of a living crystal, similiar to the Shards, and propably count as alive instead of built.

[Segev]

While it wouldn't be totally faithful, the Terrasque seems like the same "archetype" of monster as Worm's Endbringer Behemoth. This is obviously a lot more effort into making it the epic fight it should be. Multiple "shells" is good not just because of what it represents from the story, but because damage threshold points past which overflow damage doesn't apply from single hits is a great way to stage and stall a boss fight's end.

[Rynjin]

I would propably describe the Endbringers as aberrations instead of constructs. They are after all made out of a living crystal, similiar to the Shards, and propably count as alive instead of built.

They are literally constructed, and all aside the Simurgh (and maybe Khonsu?) seem largely mindless.

[Tzardok]

It's a plot point that they are the opposite of mindless (you are making the same mistake Armsmaster made when he called Leviathan a dumb brute while that one was playing him), and while they certainly are "created", I don't think we have any indications that they were built. On the contrary, when Blasto got his Simurgh sample, he was able to grow something from it. Sure, he needed to splice it first into a person's sample, but the endresult even grew wings and otherwise resembled the Simurgh, which it wouldn't do if the Simurgh was just matter fashioned into a shape.

Something about these crystals is alive, and the Endbringers are too.

[Rynjin]

It's a plot point that they are the opposite of mindless (you are making the same mistake Armsmaster made when he called Leviathan a dumb brute while that one was playing him), and while they certainly are "created", I don't think we have any indications that they were built. On the contrary, when Blasto got his Simurgh sample, he was able to grow something from it. Sure, he needed to splice it first into a person's sample, but the endresult even grew wings and otherwise resembled the Simurgh, which it wouldn't do if the Simurgh was just matter fashioned into a shape.

Something about these crystals is alive, and the Endbringers are too.

The Endbringers are certainly cunning but we have no real indication, even with Leviathan, that most are truly intelligent. No different in game terms than a spider. They are certainly "drawn to trouble" in a supernatural sense, but there are obvious plot explanations for that besides them being particularly smart.

Plus something being "alive"/self-propagating or even intelligent for that matter doesn't rule it out being a Construct, unless 5e is utterly different in that regard. A Nanomachine swarm (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/constructs/gray-goo/) is still considered a Construct after all.

[Tzardok]

So what? The nanomachine swarm is still described as "mechanical". The crystal of the endbringers isn't. Instead, it is the same living and thinking crystal the shards are made of. The endbringers as a really strange lifeform (i.e. an aberration) simply makes more sense to me, just like the shards. Or do you want to claim that the shards are constructs too?

[AvatarVecna]

So what? The nanomachine swarm is still described as "mechanical". The crystal of the endbringers isn't. Instead, it is the same living and thinking crystal the shards are made of. The endbringers as a really strange lifeform (i.e. an aberration) simply makes more sense to me, just like the shards. Or do you want to claim that the shards are constructs too?

Flesh Golems and Stone Golems are made out of the same materials as humans and Earth Elementals, but that doesn't make the golems not constructs.

I don't feel like this is a particularly complicated subject. The whole idea behind the Endbringers is that they were constructed by Eden for the purpose of generating conflict. <Spoiler> (or rather, their shard) suborned Eden's ability to make/shape Endbringers for their own purposes. The fact that Endbringers are made of the same stuff as shards, come from the same source, etc, etc, doesn't change the fact that they are assembled with a purpose in mind. Shard are parasites, Endbringers are minions - beefy minions, even intelligent minions who can betray their creators, but minions nonetheless. Being made of living crystal does not preclude them from being constructs, not in a setting where bioengineering is so rampant. Being intelligent and capable of betrayal does not preclude them from being constructs, not in a setting with AI.

The entities/shards themselves are definitely aberrations.

[Tzardok]

Being created to serve doesn't automatically makes you a construct either, otherwise Blasto's plant-animal-hybrids would be constructs.

I gave my opinion and my reasons for it. I believe aberration makes more sense, but I can't force you. I'll drop the subject.