An original monster and another tip: recycling monster traits!

The truth is, this is quite simple.

I'm bringing to you the Blyek, which is an enigmatic mysterious "far realm like" creature. It is meant to be weird and creepy without giving up too much about it. To create this weird creature, I got my inspiration from horror movies. Do you remember that moment when some people give up understanding the monster/creature and just straight forward try to kill it? They thing they succeeded, but the creature rises again as if back from the dead and keeps killing the characters. That's pretty much what I was aiming for, but how to simulate that in D&D and have the correct amount of Effective HP or AC applied to the monster? Oh, well: we go for the existing monster traits.

I needed something to make it come back after receiving a killing blow and the only creature with such mechanics was the Zombie:

Undead Fortitude. If damage reduces the zombie to 0 hit points, it must make a Constitution saving throw with a DC of 5+the damage taken, unless the damage is radiant or from a critical hit. On a success, the zombie drops to 1 hit point instead.

I didn't want to make the creature vulnerable to radiant damage, but I needed it to pass a feeling that even though it behaves a lot like a golem, it's still a living organism. So POISON was my way out. In general, the trait works the same way and will add the same amount of hit points to the creature. Poison damage is not that rare to rogues and any member of a crew can buy poison, so the trick will do more than enough. The result is a menacing creature with a new scaring trait that is not so new, but will more than just do the trick:

Blyek's Fortitude. If damage reduces the blyek to 0 hit points, it must make a Constitution saving throw with a DC of 5 +the damage taken, unless the damage is poison or from a critical hit. On a success, the blyek drops to 1 hit point instead.

We can do that in many different ways. Making special kinds of plant people only be killed by fire or skeletons that won't die until crushed. Many are the possibilities but use it wisely. It's important to let your players to have access to the damage types they'll eventually need.

Now, enjoy the creature...

New Monster and a tip! Creating new monsters from old ones...

This is going to be a quick tip and an easy one.

There are many ways to make a monster completely original but here's a quick one:

Mix things up.

Some combinations might just create a new thing that might surprise your PCs.

For example, a griffon is known creature, but when you throw a zombie griffon against the low level PCs, it's a whole new menacing monster with new weaknesses and strengths.

Here is an example of this recipe: a Saber-tooth Tiger with the Half-Dragon Template.

New Monster Features [Homebrew - D&D 5e]

MONSTER FEATURES - A few  tricks to add some dept to your combats...

                You can find quite a few Monster Features in the DMG that change the armor class, damage resistance, damage/turn,effective attack bonus of monsters and more. Those add a few new dynamics, surprising the PCs and making the combats more challenging and more fun.
                 Well, here you'll find quite a few new features crafted by me. The fluff can be easily changed to fit a scenario or monster you have in mind.
                  PS: Even if the feature doesn't affect a monster's challenge rating, adding many of those to the same monster might make it unbalanced..

There you go. I hope you'll enjoy

True Form - once the creature is reduced to 0 hit points, it reveals its "true form", The creature receives a +4 AC bonus, all its damages are doubled and it regains all its hit points.
Effect on Challenge Rating: Increase its effective AC by 2, multiply the effective damage per round by 1.5 and double its effective HP.

Reconstitution - Every 3 rounds, if the creature has more than 0 hit points, it regenerates all its hp. Or you reduce its hit points to 0 in the next 3 rounds, or it will be full hp and, most likely, keep fighting.
Effect on Challenge Rating: Multiply the monsters effective HP by 2.

Survivor's Rage - When the creature loses half its hit points, it has advantage on all its attack rolls.
Effect on Challenge Rating: Increase its effective attack bonus by 2.

Grandiosity - Until this creature is reduced to less than half its hit points, all creatures have disadvantage on attack rolls against it.
Effect on Challenge Rating: Increase its effective AC by 2.
PS: These features have been made with the same mathematical logic of the other features presented in the DMG. So as long as you follow the instructions and as long as you're familiar with the monster creation process in 5th edition, your original creatures are going to be balanced when you're using one of these new features.

If you guys enjoy this, I might bring way more!

Till next time.

Introducing myself

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to my blog.
Here, I'm going to try putting to good use my GMing (or DMing) skills and knowledge that I've gathered throughout the many years I've been playing RPG.

I might be bringing original content, adaptations, articles about how to be a better player, a better DM and many other things.

Stick around and we'll see how this goes! I just hope you all will enjoy it.