The Monsters Know What They’re Doing: Combat Tactics for Dungeon Masters unpacks strategies, tactics, and motivations for creatures found in the Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual. The githzerai anarch is a different critter, more similar to the vanilla githzerai monk. When you cast the spell, choose the creature’s form: Ghostly, Putrid, or Skeletal. Thus, it’s unlikely that its haste spell will ever run out—unless its concentration is disrupted by a large amount of incoming damage or a botched Constitution save. Githyanki and Githzerai: Lore, Races, Classes. Something does not work as expected? It’s allies aren’t so lucky. Otherwise, they’ll follow the same principles as the enlightened, not initiating any fight that isn’t a Deadly encounter for their enemies and retreating along with their allies if they’re not clearly winning by the end of the third round. The effect of Temporal Strike is, effectively, to take one enemy out of commission for one round. 2: I believe in the supremacy of the gith and that githzerai and githyanki will align to rule the multiverse. And since you can bring eight allies along for the ride, we can imagine a githzerai enlightened casting haste on itself, then teleporting itself and a whole squad of githzerai monks into the midst of its enemies for the ultimate surprise assault. Actions: Multiattack, Temporal Strike, haste ©, plane shift, teleport, blur ©, jump, see invisibility. I’ve been a D&D player since before there were flumphs. Which it chooses will obviously depend on which of its enemies it judges to be the most dangerous. They were capable of innately casting plane shift once per day. Strike is a freebie retaliation against an enemy with whom the anarch is engaged in melee. For a 5e stat block, I'd echo Laurefindel advice and limit them to two weapons (one melee and one ranged). As a 4e player, I find the 5th edition stat blocks a major step backwards. Githzerai tend toward lawful neutral. Githzerai Zerth [ Githzerai, zerth] Medium humanoid (gith), lawful neutral. Their facial hair was also car… I may need your help proofreading the document, so keep your eyes open. Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes goes into gith lore in considerable depth and offers stat blocks for five new gith variations: the githyanki gish, kith’rak and supreme commander, and the githzerai enlightened and anarch. So, while I may have my … (Side note: The jumping rules in fifth-edition Dungeons and Dragons are a stark contrast to the streamlined simplicity of the rest of the system. Click here to edit contents of this page. Begin only those tasks you will finish. Maybe someday I too will be aged. Saliently, expeditious retreat is the only bonus action available to the githzerai enlightened, but because it requires concentration, it conflicts with haste and blur. Now running a 5E campaign for my wife and her coworkers and loving it. In their fortresses within Limbo, the githzerai hone their minds to a razor's edge. It could just hover in place. Rotting Fist: Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target.Hit: 10 (2d6 + 3) bludgeoning damage plus 10 (3d6) necrotic damage. Salvatore, Bookshop Amazon Barnes & Noble TargetIndigo Kobo Google Play iBooks. From an encounter-building perspective, this has an interesting ramification: Any combat encounter you create that includes a githzerai enlightened must be a Deadly encounter. But the really interesting feature in the anarch’s toolbox is Change Gravity. Typical hair colors included black, russet, and sometimes gray, which male githzerai either shaved or wore in braids. Back in those days, the manuals were set in Futura, and plate mail plus a shield was AC 2, and we were thankful for it, you whippersnappers. Subclass. Menyar-Ag hand-picked me for my duties, and I will never betray the trust he showed in me. Firstly, yes, I know bout the UA that gave us 5e Gith already. Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License. Learn how to write compelling adventures focusing on the clashes between factions without making it obvious who the “good guys” and “bad guys” are. Note that this time I didn’t make any modifications to the stat blocks. However, combining jump with haste opens up interesting possibilities. Also, githzerai monks have Feather Fall, so they don’t have to worry taking damage from falling either. Therefore, we should want Change Gravity to do more than 72 points of damage. An enlightened isn’t going to stay engaged in prolonged combat. Factions represent the players in these conflicts. Watch headings for an "edit" link when available. The next time I laugh will be the first. Let’s break it down! As far as common traits go, githzerai are Medium Natural Humanoids, and are faster on their feet than githyanki at Speed 7. Story of The Black Pearls Although the two groups of gith despise each other, their hatred for the mind flayers from whom they escaped endures, and both githyanki and githzerai … Notify me of follow-up comments by email. The juice! Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under. If it were any less difficult than that, either the enlightened wouldn’t initiate combat to begin with, or it would gather all its friends and bamf out (using teleport, which would be available if they didn’t use it to bamf in) at the first available opportunity! This also makes haste far superior to blur, whose only benefit is disadvantage on incoming attacks (effectively an armor class buff of approximately +4). Pay them no heed. Not even the original name of their race remains from that distant time. After the third round, it’s going to conduct a risk assessment. The effective caster level for these effects is equal to the githzerai’s level. 10 Archdruid. This is … I follow orders, regardless of their implications. once it’s up they can use their later Legendary Actions to make 6 attacks a round while their foes float like helpless balloons. Manifester level equal to 1/2 Hit Dice (minimum 1st). As a commenter pointed out in response to my article on elite githyanki, plane shift is an imprecise spell: it can take you to a particular plane, but you have little discretion or control over where on that plane you end up. Because for that purpose, Temporal Strike is overkill. As someone already pointed out the Anarch’s fly speed means it can ignore **reverse gravity**. Feathers, beads, gems, and precious metals decorate their armor and weapons – the legendary silver swords with which they cut through their foes. Violence is a spice that makes life worth living. This also means that if they’re outdoors they can leave melee enemies helpless with it while they zip around and punch the squishies to death. Your email address will not be published. View and manage file attachments for this page. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! And it can be oriented in any direction. All githzerai receive basic training from monks, and the monks among them are unmatched in their When you cast them with this trait, they don't require components. Their skulls were long and angular, with deep-set eyes, flattened noses, and long pointed ears. Inertial Armour: Githzerai can use psychic force to block an enemy’s blows. With jump in effect, these values are tripled to 21 feet, 42 feet, 7 feet and 15 feet. The DC for these psionics is equal to 10 + the spell’s level + the githzerai’s Charisma modifier. * « search Monsters list. Bookshop Amazon Barnes & Noble TargetIndigo Kobo Google Play iBooks Libro.fm Audible. They didn't want to just keep obeying Gith's edicts or Vlaakith's laws. Once it’s back in business, it has to choose between blur and expeditious retreat, since it has only one use of haste per day. The more attack rolls they’re making and/or the closer together they are, the more it will favor blur. Expeditious retreat grants Dash as a bonus action, but haste effectively grants this same benefit by doubling the target’s movement, plus an additional action that isn’t restricted to Dashing, plus bonuses to armor class and Dexterity saving throws. This will generally be a high-level fighter with a triple or quadruple Attack or a shock attacker (rogue, monk, barbarian) capable of massive burst damage. How good is the enlightened’s ability to size up its opponents? When you cast them with this trait, they don't require components. Active 11 months ago. Or maybe it will simply cause them to “fall” 100 feet up in the air and leave them there until it gets bored and drops the spell—and them. (50 foot radius is enough to grab most every foe). When you reach 3rd level, you can cast the. The party could … They can move their +1 Intelligence, but they can move it into Wisdom for a +3, which should not be allowed. That’s equivalent to about 20d6, so the anarch reserves Change Gravity for when it can cause two enemies to fall 100 feet, three enemies to fall 70 feet, four enemies to fall 50 feet, etc. If Temporal Strike kills an enemy outright, the enlightened isn’t getting the full use out of it! Is there a monster you’d like me to analyze that I haven’t looked at yet? But also, for it to be worth the three-legendary-action cost, it has to do more damage than three unarmed strikes. Like the reverse gravity spell, Change Gravity affects an area with a 50-foot radius—this is huge!—and has a range of 100 feet. Learn how your comment data is processed. Humanity thrives only because we conquered the illithids. See invisibility is a relatively low-value use of an action, and the enlightened will use it only when three criteria are met: First, it knows one of its enemies is invisible; second, that enemy is one it’s already identified as a high-priority target; and third, it’s got haste going. The Anarch’s flying speed means it doesn’t have to worry about its own Reverse Gravity. We all go dark, but those who dare can burn bright. Its distinctive abilities include flight, globe of invulnerability, wall of force, and three legendary actions: Strike, Teleport and Change Gravity. Examining combat roles, class features, party composition, positioning, debilitating conditions, attacking combinations, action economy, and the ever-important consideration of the best ways to run away, Live to Tell the Tale will help you get the most out of your character’s abilities. Find out what you can do. Create custom stat blocks for monsters and save them for use in your campaigns. Traits False Appearance: While the roper remains motionless, it is indistinguishable from a normal cave formation, such as a stalagmite. For Spellcasting lists, use > to reverse-indent. Both globe and wall require concentration, so the anarch can use only one of them at a time. The Oath of Deliverance is an attestation that there are laws greater than the laws of governors and judges, kings and emperors—laws of freedom, justice, benevolence, and dignity. The Monsters Know What They’re Doing: Combat Tactics for DMs, Live to Tell the Tale: Combat Tactics for PCs, Pre-order from your favorite independent bookseller, Order from your favorite independent bookseller, “The Best Loot: A Dungeons & Dragons Gift Guide”. Check out how this page has evolved in the past. Why not a spellcaster? Apart from the consistency and naturalism it affords, it allows greater freedom of monster/NPC design while still allowing a 4e-style "here's a few stat blocks" approach. The sound of merriment takes me to the edge of violence. “I’ve always said, the Dungeon Master is the whole world except for his players, and as a result, I spend countless hours prepping for my home group. Getting the best use out of these abilities is going to require paying close attention to action economy and “spell” duration. To recap, githyanki and githzerai are divergent lines of the same race, once enslaved by mind flayers. Therefore, the enlightened is going to have to wait one round to see what everyone does before using this extremely powerful but also extremely limited ability. I treat others as if they were animals that simply don't know any better. The githzerai monk has the ability profile of a shock attacker, but it lacks the mobility to get in and out of combat easily. Having turned their backs on their warlike githyanki kin, the githzerai maintain a strict monastic lifestyle, dwelling on islands of order in the vast sea of chaos that is the plane of Limbo. Temporal Strike not only has recharge but recharges only on a roll of 6, so the enlightened wants to make immediate use of it—but also has to be judicious about whom it uses it against. The more spread out the opposition and/or the fewer attack rolls they’re making, the more it will favor expeditious retreat. Actions Multiattack: The mummy can use its Dreadful Glare and makes one Attack with its rotting fist. Unique Prestige Class the Githyanki Knights. A githzerai anarch’s enemies definitely do not want to encounter it at the end of a 120-foot corridor: they’ll be taking 10d6 damage while it stands there pointing and laughing at them, and then they’ll have 100 feet of ground to cover before it does it to them again. I see githyanki machinations behind every threat. Anarchs have strong self-preservation instincts and will retreat when only moderately wounded (reduced to 100 hp or fewer), unless they have a very strong reason to be fighting, in which case they’ll stay in the fight until seriously wounded (reduced to 57 hp or fewer). Highly skilled in martial and psionic arts, zerths were capable of transporting between planes only using their minds. Just as eruptions of magical energies and careless experimentation by incautious wizards have resulted in the creation of monstrosities such as the owlbear, the shambling mound, and the banderhobb, they’ve also produced fearsome mutations in the common pigeon. Zerthimon challenged Gith's motives, claiming that her strict martial leadership and desire for vengeance amounted to little more than another form of slavery for her people. The githzerai enlightened is the more fully developed version of this build concept, differing from the githzerai monk in three ways: higher ability scores, the Temporal Strike action, and a package of mobility- and defense-enhancing psionic “spells”: blur, expeditious retreat, haste, plane shift and teleport. Paladins who swear this oath serve those who suffer under the weight of tyranny and cruelty: the downtrodden, the persecuted, the abused. Notify administrators if there is objectionable content in this page. For the same reason, even though paladins are also good at dealing nova damage, the enlightened doesn’t necessarily want to use Temporal Strike against one. What Keith gets is that the monsters are the DM’s characters, and his work has been super helpful in adding logic, flavor, and fun in my quest to slaughter my players’ characters and laugh out the window as they cry in their cars afterward.”—Joe Manganiello, “The best movie villains are the ones you fall in love with. I can't see a non-githyanki as a real threat. It stands to reason that this should be the enemy who can do the most with his or her actions. The stat block has three main parts: basic statistics, action options, and the ship’s components. That being said, the enlightened also has an extraordinary Wisdom score, which means it doesn’t want to start a fight it can’t win. 46. While monstrosities seek food and territory, giants compete for status, dragons pursue power and treasure, and aberrations are after who knows what, conflicts with humanoid antagonists typically revolve around the things we don’t discuss at the dinner table: religion and politics. The mysterious flumphs drift through the Underdark, propelled through the air by the jets whose sound gives them their name. Focused philosophers and austere ascetics, the githzerai pursue lives of rigid order. Githzerai Flaw; 1: I see githyanki machinations behind every threat. Mostly, the enlightened is going to rely on the combination of haste and Multiattack to inflict barrages of bludgeoning and psychic melee damage. Enter your e-mail address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by e-mail. It judges based on the nature and effectiveness of its enemies’ attacks and on how spread out they are. As promised, I’ve converted stat blocks as necessary for Tales from the Yawing Portal using my “one-stop” method. Jump, as discussed in other articles, presents difficulties because (a) it consumes an action, (b) any distance over and above the target’s movement speed carries over into the next round, and (c) the enlightened has no ranged attack capability. ... Zereth technique shifts the main stat of a monk from dexterity to wisdom. 4: The next time I laugh will be the first. Home. See pages that link to and include this page. This full creature's stat block is not available. Your email address will not be published. ... 4 Githzerai Anarch. It goes without saying that the anarch will use this action only when it has room to exclude itself and its allies from the area of effect, and that it will orient gravity in the direction that causes the most falling damage. I imagine the stat blocks we’re about to see might have inspired that decision to some degree. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Male gi… 3: I respond to even minor threats with overwhelming displays of force. Hunger and thirst are unbearable pains to me. Bookshop Amazon Indigo Kobo Google Play iBooks. Menu Skip to content. If its own side is losing, or if it’s clearly turning into a battle of attrition, it decamps with its allies using teleport (if available) or plane shift. I believe in the supremacy of the gith and that githzerai and githyanki will align to rule the multiverse. If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a DC 12 Constitution saving throw or be Cursed with mummy rot. Zerthimon provides an example of conduct that I strive to duplicate. General Wikidot.com documentation and help section. Append content without editing the whole page source. Like all gith, githzerai were tall and emaciated-looking humanoids, but, thanks to their rigid training, had more muscular bodies. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. If you’re running games, it is a must-have enhancement. Featured in Syfy’s “The Best Loot: A Dungeons & Dragons Gift Guide”! It’s very good, but it’s not perfect. ... That's pretty close to how that exact same ability is worded on the Githzerai Enlightened stat block. Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window), Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window).