Monster of the Week #3

 

A friend sent me this formidable monster - the Braxat.

After looking into this, it appears to have been another 3rd edition monster that was updated to 5th - the people responsible for this and a whole host of these types of upgrades is on their Tumblr page.

I've had one of their other updates featured on the first week, so great to see that even other people are finding this blog.

Back to the Braxat.

While this large monstrosity isn't resistant to various types of damage (very surprising!), it has a host of crippling abilities. Boasting 3 multi attacks, and the ability to cast multiple spells, it could definitely present a challenge to a decent levelled party.

For its casting of standard actions, it can use Mindblast and Cone of Cold, both powerful crowd control options for the Braxat.

With Mindblast, adventures can be stunned as a result which could be crippling to overall action economy. While the DC for this creature is 14, my main barbarian would have a serious struggle against any INT based save (I currently have a -3 modifier!).

In addition to these strong spells, the creature can innately cast Confusion, Dimension Door and... Feeblemind... Yikes. Feeblemind can ruin Wizards - which I've personally experienced. 

While some of these abilities could be seem as incredibly strong, it does offer a unique opportunity for adventurers to try and use a strategy to take out the creature. With some custom narrative behind this creature, you could have a formidable and intelligent bad guy with this creature. I particularly like its monstrous design which can really help for you to add some flavour to its attacks and actions.

I would love to see this creature used in a game. I think I'll be introducing this soon to an encounter to see how the party fare against something that can juggle their high numbers well.

What do you think? It would be great to see your thoughts on this creature. It's always fun looking back to see how little older editions of D&D messed around. I love 5e, and may be biased as its the first edition I played, so revisiting older creatures and editions is a fun exercise to see how I can freshen up my current games.

-JT