Let's Read: The Dungeons and Dragons 5e Monster Manual!

[JNAProductions]

But still, 14*2 is only 28. And one solid hit with a Greatweapon will kill it.

[Spellbreaker26]

But still, 14*2 is only 28. And one solid hit with a Greatweapon will kill it.

Perhaps, but being invisible neuters most of that. I've realised that this provides excellent synergy with the invocation Voice of the Chain Master, to be used as a distraction.

[Shining Wrath]

By "solid hit" I assume you move "roll well and have high strength", e.g., roll 10 on 2d6 and have 18 Strength: so, granted. If you can find it and hit it. Hitting when rolling with Disadvantage is the problem, and you have to know which space to target to have any chance at all. And it can fly, so it can be 15' off the ground and breathe / cast spells down.

Anyway, I can totally see one of these as a reward to an "arcane" caster of any sort in return for a sufficiently great quest, depending on class.

I can even more see them as pets of Archfey Warlock Patrons.

[Millstone85]

Perhaps, but being invisible neuters most of that. I've realised that this provides excellent synergy with the invocation Voice of the Chain Master, to be used as a distraction.

*Takes note for own quasit familiar*

[Spellbreaker26]

*Takes note for own quasit familiar*

Damn, I didn't know that there already was one! Score.

[Millstone85]

Damn, I didn't know that there already was one! Score.

There are three. The imp, sprite and quasit all have the Invisibility action. Only the pseudodragon lacks anything like it.

[JNAProductions]

By "solid hit" I assume you move "roll well and have high strength", e.g., roll 10 on 2d6 and have 18 Strength: so, granted. If you can find it and hit it. Hitting when rolling with Disadvantage is the problem, and you have to know which space to target to have any chance at all. And it can fly, so it can be 15' off the ground and breathe / cast spells down.

Anyway, I can totally see one of these as a reward to an "arcane" caster of any sort in return for a sufficiently great quest, depending on class.

I can even more see them as pets of Archfey Warlock Patrons.

But it cannot take an offensive action AND hide in the same turn. But good point on flight-so an Archer would be better suited to taking them down. They can't one-shot them, but have a much better 49% chance (with +3 stat mod) of hitting.

[Millstone85]

But it cannot take an offensive action AND hide in the same turn.

Actually, a faerie dragon following the rules of Pact of the Chain could:
1) Attack with its reaction.
2) Become invisible with a bonus action.
3) Take the Hide action.

Superior invisibility indeed.

Edit: Only for 1 piercing damage with its bite, though.

[tsuyoshikentsu]

Flameskull

HEY GUYS, ARE YOU READY TO ROCK?! WELL HERE COMES THE MOTHER-LOVING FLAMESKULL!

Seriously, these things are metal as heck. Let's dive in.

Art

Skull? Check. On fire? Check. Looks like an awesome version of Ghost Rider? For sure. There's no sense of scale here, which is technically bad because this monster is actually Tiny, but I'll give it a pass because it's awesome.

Purpose and Tactics

Remember artillery from 4E? That's this guy. Not a lot of HP (though magic resistant), fire damage from afar, not a melee attack in sight. It also regenerates, which makes it an interesting guard beast for the front door--hits you coming in, hits you coming out.

Flavor

The skulls of dead wizards. There's actually quite a bit to do with that, though--see the plot hooks below. Also potential for hilarity if, oh, say, your character happens to be sharing head space with a ghost of one of the dead wizards lying around where someone's making flameskulls. (Oh, Adventure League Season 4....) The writing makes sure you know that these guys are absolutely nuts--"mad, echoing laughter"--and even gives you some ideas as to how they can become their own masters again.

Plot Hooks

Xivut the Powerful's friends have finally chipped in enough for a raise dead--except now his skull doesn't want to be put back! What will the party do about this conundrum?

The heroes have defeated the evil necromancer... but now his creations are roaming the countryside, burning down everything! Can they fix what they've inadvertently broken?

How much of Stagfalf's knowledge still remains in his head? Feel free to ask--if you don't mind dodging fireballs!

Verdict

Not exactly BBEG material, but still lots of opportunity for fun to be had.

[JellyPooga]

I love the Flameskull; they've got personality, they're a recurring nuisance and they're also highly customisable simply by changing their spell list, or changing their elemental damage type; Coldskull, Acidskull, Lightningskull? It all works for me...

...and best of all? As tsuyo mentions...these things are straight off a heavy metal album cover! Want to play DOOM&D? Flameskulls are where your decent into Hell might begin!

[Millstone85]

If you ever put one of those against a warlock with a sprite familiar, you absolutely have to say...

WATCH OUT! HEY LISTEN! Guard against its flame with a shield!

... and introduce the rule that knocking the skull back with a shield somehow extinguishes it for a round.

You know you have to.

[MrStabby]

The flameskull is one of those creatures that is much tougher than it's CR. OK, CR4 is no slouch but these guys are badass. I had a trio of these take on a mid-level party. They should have been OK but they nearly wiped the whole group.

Fireball is a good spell. Flame sphere is a good spell. Even magic missile can be brutal. Flying can be ridiculous.

An ambush opened with the flameskulls rising vertically out of a chasm with 3 fireballs vs a bunched up party. OK, no one died - most made their save (thanks to Paladin) but the part lost buffs due to failed concentration saves and the HP toll was still significant.

Melee specialists couldn't reach the flameskulls, casters went down on turn 2-3, the wizard and his firebolts were not achieving anything anyway. Backup weapons attacking using what was often a dump stat were just too slow at taking these guys down. Seriously - flying + resistance to piercing damage? The only thing that saved the party was using the corpses of the dead as cover whilst the paladin who had taken magic initiate - warlock used eldritch blast to chip away at them.

Even when the part did kill these things they didn't have a means to safely climb down into the chasm where they fell to finish them off.

[EvilAnagram]

The only time I pulled out a flameskull on my party, I made the mistake of using a really fun voice, so they befriended it and set it free... to terrorize the countryside.

[MasterMercury]

The only time I pulled out a flameskull on my party, I made the mistake of using a really fun voice, so they befriended it and set it free... to terrorize the countryside.

That's a D&D party alright.

[JellyPooga]

The flameskull is one of those creatures that is much tougher than it's CR. OK, CR4 is no slouch but these guys are badass.

This is a very fair point; Flameskulls are definitely on the strong side for their CR of 4.

- Flat out Immunity to the two most common elemental damage types for blasting spells (Fire and Cold)
- Resistance to the third most common (Lightning), as well as Piercing damage (pretty much the only ranged weapon damage worth a damn)
- Flight (so melee just isn't happening)
- Magic Resistance
- It's a 5th level caster.
- It just. won't. die! With a really fast recovery too (1 hour? It takes a Lich a minimum of 24!). A 4th level party doesn't even have access to the spell required to terminate them permanently (though holy water will do the trick...if you happen to be lugging some around).

These are definitely tough customers for lower level parties. Their only weakness, really is their low HP (40 isn't a lot for CR:4) and pretty crappy AC (though Shield and Blur make up for that lack significantly); a Cleric who prepared Guiding Bolt and Spiritual Weapon will wreck a Flameskull like DOOMguy with a Shotgun. But hey, you brought the holy man for a reason, right?

In one game I played, the GM took one look at the low AC and HP and severely underestimated just how strong Flameskulls are. We were a party of four level 2 characters; no Paladin, no Cleric. By the book, it's a Deadly encounter, but only just (it would technically only be Hard for five level 2 characters). I had to convince him to give us a chance to just run from that muther before we even rolled initiative and I think I got through to him when I pointed out that even if we all passed our Dex saves vs. Fireball, it'd still probably be a TPK (8d6 average = 28, halved to 14; IIRC the only party member with more than 20 HP was the Fighter and he didn't even have a ranged weapon)...

edit: I found this thread informative, entertaining and inspirational on the subject of Flameskulls.

[ShikomeKidoMi]

Melee specialists couldn't reach the flameskulls, casters went down on turn 2-3, the wizard and his firebolts were not achieving anything anyway.

And that's why you always take a couple blast spells that are a different element from your favorites.

And don't blast monsters that are naturally on fire with more fire.

[Gwendol]

A bit late, but just wanted to chime in on the ettercap (name is danish for spider, btw). It's an excellent monster around which you can build a first campaign (investigate the nearby woods where animals have gone missing, and now Todd didn't get home for supper last night). They're creepy, make good ambushes, and have spider friends, which are near mandatory early level enemies.

[ShikomeKidoMi]

Fireball is a good spell. Flame sphere is a good spell. Even magic missile can be brutal. Flying can be ridiculous.

Blur+Shield is not a bad combination at all, either, just to make them even harder to kill.

[Regitnui]

Flameskulls, in addition to being introduced by an appropriate tune, must be portrayed as laughing like the Joker. Otherwise, you're simply not doing it right.

[Gwendol]

"Highway to Hell" perhaps?

[Regitnui]

"Highway to Hell" perhaps?

Well, I suppose Meatloaf'sBat Out of Hell is more appropriate for stirges...

[Shining Wrath]

Flameskulls are part of Lost Mines of Phandelver.

They are just a wonderfully flavorful low-level challenge. "This is what happens when wizards screw up dying". Everyone else in the party ought to be looking at the party wizard just a little funny after meeting one of these.

For theme music I'm thinking Brunhilde's Immolation from Götterdämmerung.

[tsuyoshikentsu]

As far as I'm concerned, the only way to introduce a flameskull is to have it fly in screaming "KE-KE-KE-YEEEEEEEEEEEAH!"

Also, does anyone else worry about beating an entire party up with one Tiny creature? I've had past parties dislike it immensely.

[MrStabby]

Flameskulls are part of Lost Mines of Phandelver.

They are just a wonderfully flavorful low-level challenge. "This is what happens when wizards screw up dying". Everyone else in the party ought to be looking at the party wizard just a little funny after meeting one of these.

For theme music I'm thinking Brunhilde's Immolation from Götterdämmerung.

Not just low level challenge - higher level challenges can use these as well. Have your main monster accompanied by a couple of these and they can punch up the difficulty quite a bit.

As far as I'm concerned, the only way to introduce a flameskull is to have it fly in screaming "KE-KE-KE-YEEEEEEEEEEEAH!"

Also, does anyone else worry about beating an entire party up with one Tiny creature? I've had past parties dislike it immensely.

Well they are hard for a level 4 party, on the other hand is it harder than you would expect? It is tiny, because it is just a head. On the other hand how powerful would you expect a flying flaming skull to be? It sounds powerful, to me it sounds as powerful as it is.

[tsuyoshikentsu]

It's not a matter of harder than they expect so mich as being beaten up by something that's like a foot tall feels unheroic somehow. Same worry I have about faerie dragons.

[EvilAnagram]

It's not a matter of harder than they expect so mich as being beaten up by something that's like a foot tall feels unheroic somehow. Same worry I have about faerie dragons.

To quote a warrior and philosopher of legend:
"Size matters not. Judge me by my size, do you? And well you should not, for the Force is my ally, and a powerful ally it is."

[Professor Gnoll]

Ooh, getting close to the Gnoll now. Looking forward to that one.

[tsuyoshikentsu]

Flumph

It's a big, stupid jellyfish!

(Note: That was a Mass Effect joke.)

I'll be honest: as someone who spent my formative D&D years mostly in 3.X, my only knowledge of flumphs is from Order of the Stick. I'm actually kind of excited to delve in and see what they're all about.

Art

...You know, I can tell the artist tried. They did. But there's really no way to be loyal to the original illustration without looking insanely silly. I feel like WotC would have been better served going in more of a ethereal jellyfish direction.

Purpose and Tactics

They're kind of mooks, statwise, though again--poisoned is no joke. (I kind of wonder if there's a way to weaponize that radius, though.) Also, the turtle mechanic is pretty amusing. I might have to pull that on a certain Moon Druid I know. The acid tentacles could be nasty in a swarm.

My only real question here is: why no psionic options? This is a super psionic race, but that's barely refected in their statblock.

Fluff

Flumph fluff (heh) is pretty clear: they're the wise ethereal monks of the Underdark, and unlike almost every other damn role in the Underdark that's actually a somewhat under-utilized space. They make great quest-givers and social information sources in a setting where the players would likely have few other allies. The telepathy is also a nice way for them to be able to justify knowing stuff low-level parties probably don't.

Also, mind shielding plus commonly good alignment makes me want to have one be secretly evil. I'm just contrary.

I feel like the psionic parasite angle is cool, though somewhat downplayed here. Do the psions get annoyed--especially the more selfish ones? There's that line about them not taking tok much power, but it seems like a lot of psionic baddies would hate to lose any power.

Plot Hooks

In order to infiltrate the mind flayer hold, the heroes need a way in. Who might know such a thing?

Someone's been murdering flumphs! Who would hurt such a gentle and harmless creature? Could it be the kind and generous psionicist next door?

Before he lost his mind forever, the drow accused a flumph of attacking his thoughts. An evil flumph? Is that even possible?

Verdict

Let's be real: the name and the art are both stupid as heck. But if yoy can get past that--maybe steal some hanar shots from Mass Effect or gomazoa pics from Magic--a decent quest-giver and Underdark resident lurks here.

[JellyPooga]

Flumphs

Plot Hooks

People are going missing and turning up again, their memories hazy and filled with images of weird alien creatures. Others return with their personalities entirely changed. A cult has arisen; rumour has it they worship an eldritch elder being from beyond the planes. Dare anyone investigate...The Mystery of Cardinal Flumph?

(I love the idea of a Flumph as a BBEG! )

[Spellbreaker26]

I agree that they should have mental abilities, but that acid damage is actually kinda dangerous at level 1 (granted, so is anything). I could see them being used the same way kobolds are for campaigns with evil PCs.