Tomorrow, my PCs are fighting an entire clan of ninjas. The scene? An inn/restaurant, of course.
The ninjas will come in five waves:
- 18 bakemono. These mindless, muscle-headed goblins purpose is to get the PCs to use up (most of) their area effect spells.
- 35 bandits led by 2 ogres. The next wave consists of a massive mob of bandits lead by 2 ogres. This is probably one of the more “insane” parts of the battle, but the PCs should be able to make it out okay. A lot of these bandits will be using their crossbows from a distance. I’ll probably introduce some fire here as well.
- 8 spies, 4 apprentice wizards, and 1 veteran. Now the battle is really ramping up. The spies have cunning action and sneak attack, which makes them deadly (they’ll be some low-level ninjas). Throw in the low-level caster levels of the apprentice wizards and it should be a pretty brutal match-up.
- 8 hobgoblin iron shadows. Here come the elites. Each hobgoblin wears a different mask and wields a different weapon. I may even get a little crazy with this stage and give them different abilities than normal.
- 3 masters. Finally, the masters (stats below) attack. I thought it’d be cool to make each one look like a different martial arts style: a weretiger, a thri-kreen (mantis), and a vanara (monkey).
There you have it: 77 members of the Du Clan attacking my PCs. Of course, I fully plan on having the battle on an awesome map. I know I want it to be in a tavern of some sort with a mezzanine.
Fortunately, Mike Schley’s map of the Blue Water Inn from Curse of Strahd works perfectly for that. If you’re not familiar with that particular map, here it is:
My plan is to print this bad boy up and put it on some thick poster board. Then I’m going to print out all of the bad guys and turn them into tokens.
Hopefully, the fight will go on throughout the entire place with ninjas, ogres, and bakemono attacking from all angles.
Okay, all I need now are the Three Masters.
The Three Masters
The three masters work for Madame Du of the Du Clan. They are Zorr de Feng, a thri-kreen warrior; Sine du Heliu, a weretiger martial artist; and Zhouyo Eryu, a vanara shaman.
Zorr de Feng
Medium humanoid (thri-kreen), chaotic evil
Armor Class 16 (natural armor)
Hit Points 78 (12d8 + 24)
Speed 40 ft.
Abilities Str 15 (+2), Dex 17 (+3), Con 15 (+2), Int 8 (-1), Wis 14 (+2), Cha 9 (-1)
Skills Perception +5, Stealth +6, Survival +5
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 15
Languages Thri-kreen
Challenge 5 (1,800 XP)
Chameleon Carapace. Zorr can change the color of her carapace to match the color of her surroundings. As a result, she has advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks made to hide.
Innate Spellcasting (Psionics). Zorr’s innate spellcasting ability is Wisdom. She can innately cast the following spells, requiring no components:
- At will: mage hand (the hand is invisible)
- 2/day each: blur, magic weapon
- 1/day: invisibility (self only)
Standing Leap. Zorr’s long jump is up to 30 feet and her high jump is up to 15 with or without a running start.
Actions
Multiattack. Zorr makes four attacks with her gythka or two attacks with her chatkcha.
Gythka. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d8 + 2) slashing damage plus 7 (2d6) poison damage.
Chatchka. Ranged Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, range 30/120 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d6 +3) slashing damage plus 7 (2d6) poison damage.
Whirlwind Attack. Zorr spins her gythka rapidly around her, trading it between her four arms. While she does this, all attacks against her are made at disadvantage. In addition, each creature that starts its turn or enters a space within 5 feet of her must succeed on a DC 14 Dexterity saving throw or take 6 (1d8 + 2) slashing damage plus 7 (2d6) poison damage.
Sine de Heliu
Medium humanoid (human), neutral evil
Armor Class 13
Hit Points 144 (17d8 + 68)
Speed 30 ft. (40 ft. in tiger form)
Abilities Str 19 (+4), Dex 17 (+3), Con 18 (+4), Int 10 (+0), Wis 15 (+2), Cha 13 (+1)
Skills Perception +7, Stealth +6
Damage Immunities bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks not made with silvered weapons
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 17
Languages Common, Shou (can’t speak in tiger form)
Challenge 6 (2,300 XP)
Shapechanger. Sine can use his action to polymorph into a tiger-humanoid hybrid, or into a tiger, or back into his true form, which is humanoid. His statistics, other than his size, are the same in each form. Any equipment he is wearing or carrying isn’t transformed. He reverts to his true form if he dies.
Keen Hearing and Smell. Sine has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on hearing or smell.
Pounce (Tiger or Hybrid Form Only). If Sine moves at least 15 feet straight toward a creature and then hits it with a claw attack on the same turn, that target must succeed on a DC 16 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone. If the target is prone, Sine can make one bite attack against it as a bonus action.
Actions
Multiattack (Humanoid or Hybrid Form Only). In humanoid form, Sine makes two fist attacks and one iron fist attack. In hybrid form, he can attack like a humanoid or make three claw attacks.
Bite (Tiger or Hybrid Form Only). Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (1d10 + 3) piercing damage. If the target is a humanoid, it must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or be cursed with weretiger lycanthropy.
Claw (Tiger or Hybrid Form Only). Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (1d8 + 4) slashing damage.
Fist (Humanoid or Hybrid Form Only). Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft. one target. Hit: 7 (1d6 + 4) bludgeoning damage.
Steel Fist (Humanoid or Hybrid Form Only). Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (1d8 + 4) bludgeoning damage. If the target is a creature, Sine can choose one of the following additional effects:
- The target must succeed on a DC 15 Strength saving throw or be pushed back 10 feet.
- The target must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or be stunned until the end of Sine’s next turn.
- The target must succeed on a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw or be knocked prone.
Zhouyo Eryu
Medium humanoid (vanara), lawful evil
Armor Class 11
Hit Points 71 (13d8 + 13)
Speed 30 ft., climb 20 ft.
Abilities Str 8 (-2), Dex 13 (+1), Con 12 (+1), Int 15 (+2), Wis 18 (+4), Cha 13 (+1)
Saving Throws Int +5, Wis +7
Skills Medicine +7, Nature +5, Perception +7
Senses darkvision 60 ft., Perception 17
Languages Common, Shou
Challenge 5 (1,800 XP)
Expert Climber. Zhouyu has advantage on Strength (Athletics) checks made to climb.
Spellcasting. Zhouyu is a 10th-level spellcaster. His spellcasting ability is Wisdom (spell save DC 15, +7 to hit with spell attacks). He has the following druid spells prepared:
- Cantrips (at will): druidcraft, poison spray, produce flame
- 1st level (4 slots): cure wounds, entangle, faerie fire, speak with animals
- 2nd level (3 slots): beast sense, heat metal, hold person
- 3rd level (3 slots): conjure animals, meld into stone, wind wall
- 4th level (3 slots): dispel magic, stoneskin, wall of fire
- 5th level (2 slots): mass cure wounds
Actions
Quarterstaff. Melee Weapon Attack: +2 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 2 (1d6 – 1) bludgeoning damage or 3 (1d8 – 1) bludgeoning damage when wielded with two hands.
Change Shape (2/day). Zhouyu magically polymorphs into a beast or elemental with a challenge rating of 3 or less, air elemental, earth elemental, fire elemental, or water elemental, and can remain in this form for up to 9 hours. Zhouyu can choose whether his equipment falls to the ground, melds into his new form, or is worn by his new form. Zhouyu reverts to his true form if he dies or falls unconscious. Zhouyu can revert to his true form using a bonus action on his turn. While in a new form, Zhouyu gains the game statistics and ability to speak, but his AC, movement modes, STrength, and Dexterity are replaced by those of his new form, and he gains any special senses, proficiencies, traits, actions, and reactions (except class features, legendary actions, and lair actions) that the new form has but that he lacks. He can cast his spells with verbal or somatic components in his new form. The new form’s attacks count as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistances and immunity to nonmagical attacks.
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Next up, I’m going to show you how I make monster tokens for large battles.
See you then!