Talk:Fell Rider (5e Creature)

This article is a current featured article nominee as of 16:10, 31 January 2024 (MST). Featured articles exemplify D&D Wiki's very best work, and therefore must meet the featured article criteria. Please become engaged in this process and support, oppose, and leave comments as to this page's featured article nomination (engage!).

• Once in a blue moon, numerous fell riders gather together on a moonless night to scour the land clean, in an event known as the Wild Hunt.

Is this to be taken literally, as in, once every 2 months to 3 years, the Fell Riders ride together, or figuratively? AmeyBoop (talk) 01:04, 3 August 2022 (MDT)

Up to the DM's interpretation. I don't think I need to be that exacting over a monster like this. Endermage77 (talk) 01:43, 3 August 2022 (MDT)

I need to say this: it's spelt "fel" not "fell". Unless these guys literally fell from somewhere (in which case they'd be fallen riders). —The preceding unsigned comment was added by vladulenta (talk • contribs) . Please sign your posts.

I dunno which dictionary you're using, but all the ones I can find spell it with two L's. Unless you're not going off of English spelling? Endermage77 (talk) 04:13, 3 August 2022 (MDT)

You're right, the English word is fell. I thought it was meant to be the Latin word "Fel" which just means poison, but is often associated with evil creatures. (primarily in World of Warcraft). I didn't think of the literary meaning of fell (like in one fell swoop). It's then grammatically correct. But I still think it sounds like they just fell down. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by vladulenta (talk • contribs) . Please sign your posts.

Featured Article Nomination

I've been workshopping this creature for a good while now, and taking feedback on it from a couple of other users. I think it's got some interesting elements to it that I haven't seen tried on a creature before, that would make it stand out as a solid candidate for featured article on the wiki. What do y'all think? Endermage77 (talk) 16:10, 31 January 2024 (MST)

• Support — It's an elegant, flavorful creature statblock excellent for a single challenging boss encounter at earlier levels or as a group of powerful enemies at later levels. I especially enjoy the section dedicated to various strategies they can be ran with in combat. --ZarHakkar (talk) 17:01, 31 January 2024 (MST)
• Comment. — Why does the fell rider have four different melee weapons? The glaive and halberd are identical and the other two are barely different. SirSprinkles (talk) 18:01, 31 January 2024 (MST)

Mostly for fluff purposes — and for DMs who want to strengthen this creature further by giving it a magic weapon, I suppose. I couldn't decide which one to go with, so I opted for all of them instead. Endermage77 (talk) 02:18, 1 February 2024 (MST)

The options of weapons, if for fluff or for the purposes of player gathering, could be listed in an optional assembly table, maybe? So a DM only needs maybe two options to put in the arsenal? It could cut down on the base number.--Yanied (talk) 11:23, 10 February 2024 (MST)

• Comment. I like the page's callbacks to 4e monster encounter tactics. Part of me wonders if it isn't too much. 5e's CR system is awful but I tried anyway. The fell rider has some drawbacks in being scared of sunlight, but I'm wondering if, despite those, it still beats out monsters like drider and invisible stalker (also CR6). I understand this thing is meant to be a boss (which is why I also miss the solo classification of 4e, which would be useful here), but the spell selection with recharges and attacking capability feel higher than CR6.--Yanied (talk) 11:23, 10 February 2024 (MST)

I wouldn't be opposed to adjusting the CR if that's needed. I just tossed out CR6 as a guess. Endermage77 (talk) 19:39, 16 February 2024 (MST)

CR Recalculation

In response to Endermage's recent comment, I'm going run the numbers to calculate the fell rider's CR. Assuming the most damage optimal play over three rounds is:

1st round: The fell rider uses Spell and Multiattack to cast bestow curse (+1d8 necrotic damage), bonus action casts thunderous smite, then makes two greatsword attacks against the cursed target for an average of 37 (20 slashing, 7 thunder, and 10 necrotic) damage.

2nd round: The fell rider bonus action casts thunderous smite, then uses Multiattack to make four greatsword attacks against the cursed creature for an average of 67 (40 slashing, 7 thunder, 20 necrotic) damage.

3rd round: Repeat of 2nd round.

That is a total of 171 damage over three rounds, or an average 57 damage per round. Plugging the all the numbers into 5etools' CR Calculator, we get an offensive CR of 9, a defensive CR of 7, and a final CR of 8. --ZarHakkar (talk) 20:33, 16 February 2024 (MST)