First time posting on pretty much any kind of forum, so please forgive me if it’s terrible. I’ll try to keep things neat so it all works. I just wanted to get thoughts on a recurring Slenderman monster I wanted to put into my campaign. This is not meant to be an unkillable creature, but it is certainly meant to be extremely difficult for all but those that are prepared for the fight. Think Dark Souls optional boss that sometimes shows up to fight you, only you can run away. The stat block is almost exactly pulled from a thread started by Terronus back in 2012 (link: here) but with a few alterations made to fit both the narrative I have and also the mechanics I wanted him to have. (I will try to make the stat block collapseable, if it doesn’t work, I’m sorry)
Slenderman:
Slenderman CR 23
CE Medium Aberration Init +5; SensesDarkvision; Perception +25
Aura Aura of Despair (60 feet), Deepest Fear (60 feet) (DC 27)
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Defense
AC 29, touch 25, flat-footed 22 (+5 Dex, +4 natural, +8 deflection, +2 dodge)
HP 180 (19d10+76); Terrible Rejuvenation
Fort +10, Ref +16, Will +14
Defensive Abilities Psychic Deflection; DR 15/cold iron; Immune death effects, fear effects, acid, disease, poison; Resist cold 10, electricity 10, fire 10; SR 24
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Offense
Speed 30 ft.
Melee Claw x2 (Slenderman) +21 x2 (1d6+2/x2) and
. . Tentacle x4 (Slenderman) +20 x4 (1d4+1/x2)
Space 5 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
Special Attacks Sneak Attack +4d6,
Spell-Like Abilities Crushing Despair (3/day), Debilitating Portent (3/day), Detect Thoughts (Constant), Dimension Door (3/day), Dominate Monster (1/day), Gaseous Form (At will), Ghost Sound (At will), Hold Monster (3/day), Invisibility (At will), Nightmare (1/day), Overwhelming Presence (1/day), Quicken Spell-Like Ability (Debilitating Portent) , Tongues (Constant)
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Statistics
Str 14, Dex 21, Con 18, Int 16, Wis 16, Cha 27
Base Atk +19; CMB +21; CMD +46
Feats Combat Reflexes (6 AoO/round), Crane Riposte, Crane Style, Crane Wing, Dodge, Feral Combat Training (Tentacle x4 (Slenderman)), Improved Unarmed Strike, Multiattack, Quicken Spell-Like Ability (Debilitating Portent) (3/day), Weapon Focus (Tentacle)
Skills Acrobatics +24, Bluff +30, Diplomacy +27, Disguise +27, Intimidate +27, Perception +25, Sense Motive +25, Sleight of Hand +14, Spellcraft +13, Stealth +27
Languages Aboleth, Celestial, Common, Sylvan
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Special Abilities
Aura of Despair(60 feet) (Su) Creatures in aura take -2 to saves. Lost when unconscious
Combat Reflexes (6 AoO/round) Can make extra attacks of opportunity/rd, and even when flat-footed.
Crane Riposte You take only a –1 penalty on attack rolls for fighting defensively. Whenever you deflect an opponent's attack using Crane Wing or lose the dodge bonus from Crane Wing because an attack missed you by 4 or less, you can make an attack of opportunity against the attacker after the attack misses.
Crane Style You take only a –2 penalty on attack rolls for fighting defensively. While using this style and fighting defensively or using the total defense action, you gain an additional +1 dodge bonus to your Armor Class.
Crane Wing When fighting defensively with at least one hand free, you gain a +4 dodge bonus to AC against melee attacks. If you using the total defense action instead, you can deflect one melee attack that would normally hit you. An attack so deflected deals no damage and has no other effect (instead treat it as a miss). You do not expend an action when using this feat, but you must be aware of the attack and not flat-footed.
Damage Reduction (15/cold iron) You have Damage Reduction against all except Cold Iron attacks.
Damage Resistance, Cold (10) You have the specified Damage Resistance against Cold attacks.
Damage Resistance, Electricity (10) You have the specified Damage Resistance against Electricity attacks.
Damage Resistance, Fire (10) You have the specified Damage Resistance against Fire attacks.
Darkvision (60 feet) You can see in the dark (black and white vision only).
Deepest Fear (60 feet) (DC 27) (Su) Foes ending turn in aura are shaken until out of range (Will neg).
Feral Combat Training (Tentacle x4 (Slenderman)) Use Improved Unarmed Strike feats with natural weapons
Immune to Death Effects You are immune to death effects.
Immune to Fear Effects You are immune to fear effects.
Immunity to Acid You are immune to acid damage.
Immunity to Disease You are immune to diseases.
Immunity to Poison You are immune to poison.
Improved Unarmed Strike Unarmed strikes don't cause attacks of opportunity, and can be lethal.
Psychic Deflection (Su) Add Cha mod to AC as a deflection bonus, lost when unconscious.
Quicken Spell-Like Ability (Debilitating Portent) (3/day) Spell-like ability is cast as a swift action up to 3/day.
Sneak Attack +4d6 +4d6 damage if you flank your target or your target is flat-footed.
Spell Resistance (24) You have Spell Resistance.
Terrible Rejuvenation (Su) Gain fast healing 5 when creature in aura is affected by a fear effect.
Bloody Theft (3/day) (Su) Three times a day, as a unique action, Slenderman can instantly transport one living creature within five feet to its lair on the same plane of existence in a bloody mist. DC 25 Will save negates
If there are any suggestions for improvement, or sidenotes to help improve post formatting, they would be appreciated.
Judging by the stats, especially SR, you have a typo in the challenge rating. It should be 13 I think.
Assuming it is then the two 9th spell level SLAs are an issue. A 10th level party sees it as CR +3, beatable with resource expenditure. They might all fail saves on overwhelming presence (likely needing natural 20s) and get murdered by it in turn without ever getting an action. Dominate monster could plug a hole if one of then recovers. On the other hand magic circle vs. evil would prevent both of these and from what I remember of the last party I'd had as a GM at level 10 they'd then wear it down by being hard for it to hit and being able to take the limited damage. Though if it dimension doored away and came back 2 hours later they'd be back to the no magic circle scenario and probably all die unless they scatter and run, which they wouldn't do.
If you avoid using it as a lone boss against a party of lower CR then it seems reasonable. On the other hand the Slenderman probably does want those tactics exactly, mooks or being a mook seem out of character. Different SLAs - quickened dispel magic to crack a magic circle vs. evil or a protection vs. evil, and losing the 9th level ones in favour of ones less likely to result in a TPK - might be a better idea.
Judging by the stats, especially SR, you have a typo in the challenge rating. It should be 13 I think.
Assuming it is then the two 9th spell level SLAs are an issue. A 10th level party sees it as CR +3, beatable with resource expenditure. They might all fail saves on overwhelming presence (likely needing natural 20s) and get murdered by it in turn without ever getting an action. Dominate monster could plug a hole if one of then recovers. On the other hand magic circle vs. evil would prevent both of these and from what I remember of the last party I'd had as a GM at level 10 they'd then wear it down by being hard for it to hit and being able to take the limited damage. Though if it dimension doored away and came back 2 hours later they'd be back to the no magic circle scenario and probably all die unless they scatter and run, which they wouldn't do.
If you avoid using it as a lone boss against a party of lower CR then it seems reasonable. On the other hand the Slenderman probably does want those tactics exactly, mooks or being a mook seem out of character. Different SLAs - quickened dispel magic to crack a magic circle vs. evil or a protection vs. evil, and losing the 9th level ones in favour of ones less likely to result in a TPK - might be a better idea.
BTW in combat what is a 'unique action'?
Thanks for the tips, I’ll do some tinkering...I’m not *necessarily* trying to TPK, it’s just meant to scare the bejeezus out of them. And be hard a hard fight for decent equipped mid-teens. Based on what you said and my goal for his strength, it sounds like he needs to be overall stronger, but more evened out wherever he’s at? And that last skill is homebrew, “unique action” isn’t a thing, it’s just meant to show that nothing else, or at least nothing I know of, has that ability. As far as speed, I would put it at a free or maybe swift action.
And that last skill is homebrew, “unique action” isn’t a thing, it’s just meant to show that nothing else, or at least nothing I know of, has that ability. As far as speed, I would put it at a free or maybe swift action.
Actually, to keep him from being able to just vanish half the party or more in one turn, I might make that skill a full round action, and give witnesses a +10 circumstance bonus to break any compulsions and attempt to flee. Like I said, I don’t want to TPK, he’s just supposed to be scary for a while and then eventually be something they can beat.
For the SLAs, I was looking at Cloak of Dreams, rather than Overwhelming Presence, but I think Dominate Monster isn’t too bad to stay since it’s only a single creature and would only be used on anyone that gets within range but isn’t close enough for Cloak of Dreams. And I was looking at Quickened Dispell Magic rather than Dibilitating Portent to work past protection if i have to. But then the question is, what do I need to do to level him up some from CR 13 to about CR 17?
CR 17 implies character level 13+ which I'm familiar with more in theory than in practice. Still, if I can help...
It needs either noticeably more damage or some sort of on-hit effect if it's going to use melee at all. Sneak attack will fail to work a lot of the time vs. characters with levels in the teens.
Characters of that level may have high enough will saves or immunities to beat even the effective DC 28 (10 + 6 spell level + 8 charisma, -2 shaken & -2 despair are an effective further +4) of cloak of dreams, but in any case it won't take out the whole party with a 5' radius. I think magic circle or protection spells won't be a hard counter to cloak of dreams. Casting time 1 round means that cloak of dreams is only effective if cast prior to combat BTW. Even invisible it'd be too easy to interrupt in combat.
I guess dominate monster is there as the scary trick it can pull off if cloak of dreams is not an option, or once/combat in any case.
CR 17 implies character level 13+ which I'm familiar with more in theory than in practice. Still, if I can help...
It needs either noticeably more damage or some sort of on-hit effect if it's going to use melee at all. Sneak attack will fail to work a lot of the time vs. characters with levels in the teens.
Characters of that level may have high enough will saves or immunities to beat even the effective DC 28 (10 + 6 spell level + 8 charisma, -2 shaken & -2 despair are an effective further +4) of cloak of dreams, but in any case it won't take out the whole party with a 5' radius. I think magic circle or protection spells won't be a hard counter to cloak of dreams. Casting time 1 round means that cloak of dreams is only effective if cast prior to combat BTW. Even invisible it'd be too easy to interrupt in combat.
I guess dominate monster is there as the scary trick it can pull off if cloak of dreams is not an option, or once/combat in any case.
Yes, I’m intending for them to actually beat him in the 13+ range if they ever decide to fight him. They’re just starting, and I plan on not introducing him for a while, but still early enough that he presents this unbeatable thing for a while, and then afterward like a very hard (and completely optional) boss.
I like the idea of an on-hit effect for the melee, maybe something that causes the shaken condition, or elevates it if it’s already present? Melee isn’t the majority of how he fights, but I want it to be viable if necessary...I also did some research on creating monsters and apparently the health was much to low, so I brought that up a lot. I don’t think I’m going to raise the AC because I don’t want him to be impossible, but I did give him CR appropriate health to compensate for being so (relatively) easy to hit
That was almost exactly the plan that I had for dominate monster, actually.
Do you or are you allowed 3rd Party Products? If so these templates might help you out. Like the bad guys in "Halloween" and "Friday the 13th", these baddies just keep coming back for more.
Do you or are you allowed 3rd Party Products? If so these templates might help you out. Like the bad guys in "Halloween" and "Friday the 13th", these baddies just keep coming back for more.
Thanks, I’ll look into them. I allow 3rd party character classes if the player knows what they’re doing, but I try to avoid using 3rd party monsters because I don’t always have internet access when I run a game, but I have access to all of the book information always. That being said, it would be easy enough to copy stats from one monster for this type of purpose. Thanks!
