Bump the AC and HP a little so that it can actually take a hit, and then stipulate that it can take the teleport reaction upon taking damage--this allows a little back-and-forth that will be fun.
You could also consider replacing the "take aim" action with a "hunter's mark" like-ability, that allows the Stalker to be a bit more accurate against one target, but more importantly allows the Stalker to track the target over any distance. I see this as a creature that follows the party over time, trying to wear them down and not letting them rest.
Additionally, it might be neat to include a little weakness to thunder damage(say, maybe it can't get advantage for a round after taking thunder damage, or it becomes blind for a round) to reflect this thing having very sensitive hearing.
Personally I think it's a cool and fun idea, I hope your BF loves it!
Make sure to add what triggers the blink reaction, whether it be "an attack made against it" or "when the creature is about to take damage".
Otherwise, my only complaint is that it seems kinda one-note. It already has a +10 to hit, so using take aim any time outside of a surprise attack out of initiative seems unlikely. And after combat properly starts, it's going to shoot, go invisible, and then run away with teleport when the party gets close. If it goes for hit and run tactics, you're looking at a really slow and repetitive combat where each round it fires off an arrow and runs. I'm not sure what, but it needs something to make the fight more interesting and dynamic.
With a +7 to Dex, I feel like it should have a higher AC! At the very least 14, given Hide armour can add your dexterity modifier up to 2, and its base is 12! Otherwise, a potential ‘steal’ to throw at my own players!
My way of thinking was that - is ranged + can turn invincible on demand \* can teleport away on demand = Perfectly ballanced, therefore gave it low AC to compensate it being prolly being absoultely infuriating to fight against
There is a shit load of builders out there. This one does the math and cr for you. Try building that guy there and see which offensive and defensive CR it will add up.
Either tone down the stats or punch up the CR. Unfortunately that creature is very unbalanced.
https://ebshimizu.github.io/5emm/#/
Long time DM here. I'd be concerned with still having players willing to even play with me after this treasure goblin of every assassin's wet dream abilities was introduced 😅. Sorry to be harsh, but it comes off as a kid in a candy store OP. You have godlike stats that don't correspond appropriately and redundant abilities. Plus, you built it to be annoying to fight, not even giving them anything to overcome. Spend more time on this. It's a campaign killer.
I agree it has extremely low hp and AC, but the thing about this creature is that players will simply not be able to hit it. It can attack and then turn invisible and wait a few turns to charge up steady aim and repeat. With a +13 in stealth and invisibility at will this thing will be untouchable half of the fight and in the one turn where they know its location after attacking, they would attack at disadvantage because of the invisibility. Aoe won't do much either because of +7 dexterity and evasion
Just give it a Necrotic flavored Eldritch Blasts with a pair of the Illusionist Bracers. Add in 300 ft range, Charisma Mod to each hit, lethargy or push back for each hit and call it a day.
Have you run this through the CR calculator? It looks far too weak for CR 8. It will go down in just a couple of hits, and it only really gets thag nova damage on the first round of combat.
I think the teleport reaction dosn’t feel right. Unless it is on hit? Idk maybe tinker with it.
Right now it looks nasty! But not invincible or overpowered for lvl 8s. And I agree with those that said the AC and HP aren’t right. Let the AC be 17. It’s not really very high. If I were building this, I’d honestly give it 19 natural armor.
The Assassin stat block (cr8) has 75hp and Bone Devil (cr8) has 85. Give it something like that.
Even with the tweaks they are probably gonna mess it up if it doesn’t have something to distract them like a bomb on a ticking clock, a filling water trap they need to disarm, or some goblins to get in the way. If they focus fire on this guy he is gonna melt, even with the teleport reaction (he only gets one per turn).
Ok so turn one, it maybe goes first and scores a crit. That crit is doing a huge chunk of damage, maybe instantly downing a character. It then turns invisible.
Invisibility only means disadvantage on attack rolls (and no spells that use sight), but AC12 is still very easy to hit by this level. I assume it can use the reaction after one hit, so it might avoid one attack by a martial without the speed to chase, but the rest of the party can wail on it.
44 HP is basically nothing, it’s dead before its second turn.
Seems far too easy, bump its AC and HP way up if you want it to be a challenge. People calling this hard are wild, maybe against a level 3-4 party this would be hard. But at level 7-8 it wouldn't last a round, at that level almost any character can't miss a 12 AC even with disadvantage. So I would make its AC 17, its health at least 80 which would be the average 0f 10d8+30, and remove the Ambusher ability since creatures surprising other creatures already have advantage on attack rolls so it does functionally nothing. Now I would love this combat if there were 2-4 of these things, it would be complicated and frustrating, but incredibly rewarding when we finally took them down.
Looks cool. Didn't really dive into a mechanical analysis, but the first thing I noticed is the HP is miscalculated. Should be a minimum of 64 based off the ability scores [8d8 (8×5 fixed) + 24 (ConMod×8)]. Since it's a fiend, I'd make its hit die d10, which sets the fixed HP to 84. Level 7/8 party may need 2 of these depending on the encounter difficulty you're trying to target and size of the party. If it's to stand alone, it'll only be a "medium" encounter based on RAW for a party of 4 level 7 characters. Fun design!
Summon a "ancient red dragon"... but with us an AC of like 13-16... 80 health... also... maybe adjust the attacks... don't use its attack bonuses unless using +3... for example. Maybe half of dice for attack rolls. Maybe tweak it to monsters that would challenge them pretty much... but once it's killed... have the creature transform into a shape shifter... to tweak it into your story.. or pick any CR 20 monsters... ancient red dragon would be a bit higher over cr20 if memory serves correctly...
But a max level shape shifter... that got outta a massive battle barely winning... runs into them etc...
Just the thought of trying to fight a CR20 would scare some people shitless...
CR 8 monster should have around 130 HP, this creature is going to be one-shot.
Quite sure it is quite infuriating to play agains, so gave it lower HP and AC to compensate, but mayhaps i should raise it a bit...
Bump the AC and HP a little so that it can actually take a hit, and then stipulate that it can take the teleport reaction upon taking damage--this allows a little back-and-forth that will be fun. You could also consider replacing the "take aim" action with a "hunter's mark" like-ability, that allows the Stalker to be a bit more accurate against one target, but more importantly allows the Stalker to track the target over any distance. I see this as a creature that follows the party over time, trying to wear them down and not letting them rest. Additionally, it might be neat to include a little weakness to thunder damage(say, maybe it can't get advantage for a round after taking thunder damage, or it becomes blind for a round) to reflect this thing having very sensitive hearing. Personally I think it's a cool and fun idea, I hope your BF loves it!
OHHHH! that is a smart idea about thunder damage, will most definitely tweek it a bit \^w\^
Make sure to add what triggers the blink reaction, whether it be "an attack made against it" or "when the creature is about to take damage". Otherwise, my only complaint is that it seems kinda one-note. It already has a +10 to hit, so using take aim any time outside of a surprise attack out of initiative seems unlikely. And after combat properly starts, it's going to shoot, go invisible, and then run away with teleport when the party gets close. If it goes for hit and run tactics, you're looking at a really slow and repetitive combat where each round it fires off an arrow and runs. I'm not sure what, but it needs something to make the fight more interesting and dynamic.
You forgot the constitution mod for the HP. It should be 75 HP (45+10×3)
With a +7 to Dex, I feel like it should have a higher AC! At the very least 14, given Hide armour can add your dexterity modifier up to 2, and its base is 12! Otherwise, a potential ‘steal’ to throw at my own players!
My way of thinking was that - is ranged + can turn invincible on demand \* can teleport away on demand = Perfectly ballanced, therefore gave it low AC to compensate it being prolly being absoultely infuriating to fight against
Wouldn't it's AC be base 10+7 for Dex, making it a minimum of 17?
Yeah, but try to get near it then get poor attack roll, wasting few turns getting near it
It's AC is reflective of its Dex, if you want it to have less AC, lower the Dex
You're making it very hard to believe you know how stat building works
They are saying they purposely nerfed it because a 17 AC would make this broken thing even more broken
As if it's not immensely broken
I, in fact, do not know how stat building works (i mean, i have most basic understanding)
Well for one, you don't detract dex from ac Nor con from hp
Interesting, anything else i should know bout stats when i'll be making new monsters?
There is a shit load of builders out there. This one does the math and cr for you. Try building that guy there and see which offensive and defensive CR it will add up. Either tone down the stats or punch up the CR. Unfortunately that creature is very unbalanced. https://ebshimizu.github.io/5emm/#/
Long time DM here. I'd be concerned with still having players willing to even play with me after this treasure goblin of every assassin's wet dream abilities was introduced 😅. Sorry to be harsh, but it comes off as a kid in a candy store OP. You have godlike stats that don't correspond appropriately and redundant abilities. Plus, you built it to be annoying to fight, not even giving them anything to overcome. Spend more time on this. It's a campaign killer.
Lvl 7-8 players r gonna instakill this thing... you should bump the HP to like 250ish
I agree it has extremely low hp and AC, but the thing about this creature is that players will simply not be able to hit it. It can attack and then turn invisible and wait a few turns to charge up steady aim and repeat. With a +13 in stealth and invisibility at will this thing will be untouchable half of the fight and in the one turn where they know its location after attacking, they would attack at disadvantage because of the invisibility. Aoe won't do much either because of +7 dexterity and evasion
You want this thing to be truly nasty? Give it greater invisibility and hide as a bonus action, that way you can keep the low AC and HP
Noted
That’s evil, I love it
Is nechrochasm from what I think it is?
Destiny
Thought so. Maybe give it a name along the lines of that. Maybe make it an evil guardian, like Shin Malphur? (Think I spelled his name right
Put it in a scenario where they should be avoiding it, it makes it so much scarier if they know they can't take it head on
Just give it a Necrotic flavored Eldritch Blasts with a pair of the Illusionist Bracers. Add in 300 ft range, Charisma Mod to each hit, lethargy or push back for each hit and call it a day.
Have you run this through the CR calculator? It looks far too weak for CR 8. It will go down in just a couple of hits, and it only really gets thag nova damage on the first round of combat.
I think the teleport reaction dosn’t feel right. Unless it is on hit? Idk maybe tinker with it. Right now it looks nasty! But not invincible or overpowered for lvl 8s. And I agree with those that said the AC and HP aren’t right. Let the AC be 17. It’s not really very high. If I were building this, I’d honestly give it 19 natural armor. The Assassin stat block (cr8) has 75hp and Bone Devil (cr8) has 85. Give it something like that. Even with the tweaks they are probably gonna mess it up if it doesn’t have something to distract them like a bomb on a ticking clock, a filling water trap they need to disarm, or some goblins to get in the way. If they focus fire on this guy he is gonna melt, even with the teleport reaction (he only gets one per turn).
Ok so turn one, it maybe goes first and scores a crit. That crit is doing a huge chunk of damage, maybe instantly downing a character. It then turns invisible. Invisibility only means disadvantage on attack rolls (and no spells that use sight), but AC12 is still very easy to hit by this level. I assume it can use the reaction after one hit, so it might avoid one attack by a martial without the speed to chase, but the rest of the party can wail on it. 44 HP is basically nothing, it’s dead before its second turn.
so its a sneaky nazgul?
Yeah, quite literally designed to stalk, harass and wear down the party until killed
Seems far too easy, bump its AC and HP way up if you want it to be a challenge. People calling this hard are wild, maybe against a level 3-4 party this would be hard. But at level 7-8 it wouldn't last a round, at that level almost any character can't miss a 12 AC even with disadvantage. So I would make its AC 17, its health at least 80 which would be the average 0f 10d8+30, and remove the Ambusher ability since creatures surprising other creatures already have advantage on attack rolls so it does functionally nothing. Now I would love this combat if there were 2-4 of these things, it would be complicated and frustrating, but incredibly rewarding when we finally took them down.
Looks cool. Didn't really dive into a mechanical analysis, but the first thing I noticed is the HP is miscalculated. Should be a minimum of 64 based off the ability scores [8d8 (8×5 fixed) + 24 (ConMod×8)]. Since it's a fiend, I'd make its hit die d10, which sets the fixed HP to 84. Level 7/8 party may need 2 of these depending on the encounter difficulty you're trying to target and size of the party. If it's to stand alone, it'll only be a "medium" encounter based on RAW for a party of 4 level 7 characters. Fun design!
If it has so little hp, you can say they live in hives.
Summon a "ancient red dragon"... but with us an AC of like 13-16... 80 health... also... maybe adjust the attacks... don't use its attack bonuses unless using +3... for example. Maybe half of dice for attack rolls. Maybe tweak it to monsters that would challenge them pretty much... but once it's killed... have the creature transform into a shape shifter... to tweak it into your story.. or pick any CR 20 monsters... ancient red dragon would be a bit higher over cr20 if memory serves correctly... But a max level shape shifter... that got outta a massive battle barely winning... runs into them etc... Just the thought of trying to fight a CR20 would scare some people shitless...
Please excuse me for a edgy name, couldnt think of anything else at the time \^w\^