Building a better medusa

[RangerWickett]

I do like the tension that 'instant-kill' effects produce, but I don't like my PC dying from a single failed die roll in round one of combat. In fact, a single bad roll should never produce failure, just a greater challenge.

Even if I roll badly, I still want there to be a slim chance I can be saved in the nick of time.

In 4e and 5e they tried to do this by having the medusa slowly turn you to stone, giving you a few rounds to contemplate your petrification or perhaps shake it off. That really doesn't match the flavor of how Medusa works in Clash of the Titans.

Also, I think if you lock eyes with a medusa, that's it. You're stone. No amount of 'Fortitude' lets you be tough enough to not be petrified. If you want to avoid turning to stone, don't look at the medusa.

I propose an alternative:

The Better Medusa
Make a default rule that at the start of your turn you choose whether to close your eyes or not, and it lasts until the start of your next turn. ('Averting your eyes' has the exact same effect.) Then give the medusa the following power.

Hideous Visage: As an action the medusa can turn her hideous visage upon all creatures in a 30 ft. cone. Her eyes glow with malign light, revealing her face even if she is in darkness.

Each creature in the cone that can see the medusa must make a Dexterity save (DC 13). If it succeeds it can close its eyes. If it fails or if it chooses to keep looking, it must make a Wisdom save against fear (DC 13) or be stunned for one round at the horror of her appearance, unable to look away or close its eyes. If it succeeds the Wisdom save it is still restrained for one round (i.e., its speed is 0, attacks against it have advantage, and its attacks have disadvantage).

At the start of the medusa's next turn, each creature in the area that she can see and that can see her is petrified.

This gives you a three outs. You can simply close your eyes altogether on your turn, or hope that when you see her you are able to look away fast enough (1 - Dex save). Or you can glimpse her, be immobilized with fear, but still have your wits about you enough to look away on your turn (2 - Wis save). And if you mess up all that, your friends still have a round to intervene (3 - kill her, move her, or block her line of sight to you).

What do you think?

 

[Sacrosanct]

I'm not a fan of how weak the medusa is either, so I immediately houseruled a tougher version

Medusa, CR: 6, XP: 2300
S: 0, D: +2, C: +3, I: +1, W; +1, Ch: +2
AC: 15, HP: 128, Init: +2, Spd: 30ft
Attacks: 2 longbow (+7, 1d8+2 dmg) or 2 snake
hair (+5, 1d4+2 dmg + poison (DC 14 Con,
4d6 dmg))
Special: Gaze (DC 14 Con or restrained. Second
DC 14 check next round or turned to stone).

 

[Grazzt]

I'm not a fan of how weak the medusa is either, so I immediately houseruled a tougher version

Medusa, CR: 6, XP: 2300
S: 0, D: +2, C: +3, I: +1, W; +1, Ch: +2
AC: 15, HP: 128, Init: +2, Spd: 30ft
Attacks: 2 longbow (+7, 1d8+2 dmg) or 2 snake
hair (+5, 1d4+2 dmg + poison (DC 14 Con,
4d6 dmg))
Special: Gaze (DC 14 Con or restrained. Second
DC 14 check next round or turned to stone).

Isn't this essentially what's in the Basic Rules except the attack bonus is higher, and the "fail initial save by 5 or more = instant petrification" removed?

 

[Wild Gazebo]

I think the new dying rules really give the party enough options to deal with fallen companions. The save or die mechanics in this edition really only put the character on the path to dying...rather than dead, like many of the other editions. I look at it as a good way to increase suspense at the table...like a ticking timebomb.

 

[GX.Sigma]

I propose an alternative:



This gives you a three outs. You can simply close your eyes altogether on your turn, or hope that when you see her you are able to look away fast enough (1 - Dex save). Or you can glimpse her, be immobilized with fear, but still have your wits about you enough to look away on your turn (2 - Wis save). And if you mess up all that, your friends still have a round to intervene (3 - kill her, move her, or block her line of sight to you).

What do you think?

I think this version won't petrify anyone. Face it, this is D&D 5e. If the medusa doesn't petrify you in the first round of combat, she'll be dead before the second round.

 

[RangerWickett]

That's probably fine, then. I don't actually want to kill the PCs, just scare them and allow for some "remember when I saved you from that medusa?" moments.

Personally I'm planning a medusa necromancer as a 'boss' of a dungeon. She sends her eye-less skeleton minions to capture children and turns them to stone to create a family. My goal is to have a scary final fight. I'll keep an eye on how to buff her HP.

 

[Sir Brennen]

I do like you having the medusa initiating the attack and the glowing eyes effect (I can picture it perfectly from the original Clash of the Titans; can't remember if the recent CGI debacle did that, which shows how much of an impression it made on me.) I get that you're trying to mimic the Clash medusa, but in trying to simulate the movie, I think you're introducing a bit too much complication. Also, you're making it a much, much weaker ability. So, I'd almost call your version a Lesser Medusa, not Better.

The existing Petrifying Gaze is really like an aura, meaning it doesn't take an action to activate it, leaving the medusa free to also make physical attacks. It affects any creature within 30' of the medusa. Your version the medusa can't do anything else if it uses it's gaze, and it only affects those creatures in the cone area. With the whole "averting gaze" thing, this causes problems within the turn structure of the game, because creatures wouldn't have to close their eyes on their turn, which is when it matters, when they're making an attack. Having "closing your eyes last until your next turn" is kinda lame workaround in a game where much more complex actions than opening and closing your eyes are allowed for free. Why can't I attack with eyes open and close them after?

Also, do we have a precedent for "Make a Save of type X. If failed, immediately make another save of type Y. Either save negates the effect"? It's a bit clunky. I think you could achieve the same thing by having the first Dex save result in the stun effect on failure, then at the end of the target's turn, it makes the Wisdom save as an effort of willpower to break eye contact. Failing that turns it to stone. Again, your version is easier to make because you get two saves, and they're both at a lower DC.

Ways around this: leave the effect as described in the current 5EB doc, but the medusa has to use an action to initiate it (glowing eyes and all). The effect lasts until the beginning of the medusa's next turn. On a turn it uses it's gaze, it can still make a single melee or ranged attack as a bonus action. If your goal was to turn down the power a bit, give the gaze a recharge (5-6, or 4-6), so players never know when it's safe to open their eyes.

Or, if you want to stay with the cone area, allow the medusa to also turn it's gaze ability on any single attacker as a reaction.

Of course, remember that the monster in Clash of the Titans wasn't just a medusa. She was THE Medusa. Make her Legendary, with matching actions. She can use the cone gaze version on her turn, or as a Legendary Action on someone else's turn (cost 2 actions?). She can move (setting up for another gaze attack from a different angle, or against targets that thought they were out of sight.) She can make a regular attack.

But for "regular" medusas (medusi?), here's what I would do:

Hideous Visage: As an action, the medusa can reveal the full extent of its curse for all to see. Her eyes glow with malign light, revealing her face even if she is in darkness. Until the beginning of her next turn, any creature that can see the medusa’s eyes when it starts its turn within 30 feet of the medusa must make a DC 13 Dexterity saving throw. A failure means the creature did not avert it's eyes and is stunned at the horror of her appearance. At the beginning of the medusa's next turn, the creature must make a DC 13 Wisdom save to tear it's gaze away. Failure results in the creature becoming petrified. The petrification lasts until the creature is freed by the greater restoration spell or other magic. Neither of these saves are required if the medusa is incapacitated or can no longer see the creature.

Unless surprised, a creature that is not within 30' of the medusa or cannot see her can avert its eyes to avoid the saving throw at the start of its turn. If the creature does so, it can’t see the medusa until the start of its next turn, when it can avert its eyes again. A creature that makes the initial Dexterity save can also continue to avert its gaze on subsequent turns. If the creature looks at the medusa in the meantime, it must immediately make the initial Dexterity save.

During the turn the medusa uses this ability, it can also make a single attack as a bonus action, with either its shortsword, longbow or snake hair.

If the medusa sees itself reflected on a polished surface within 30 feet of it and in an area of bright light, the medusa is, due to its curse, affected by its own gaze.

Edit: If you don't want to be too cruel, let the "Unless surprised" paragraph stand as is in the current medusa entry, allowing the eye-averting for free.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

I'm not a fan of the change to Wisdom save. For any sort of reasonable laws of magic, the quantity and integrity of your meat should be a factor in how difficult it is to turn that meat into stone.

 

[Quickleaf]

[MENTION=63]RangerWickett[/MENTION]
I think you did a nice writeup for an "active gaze attack" medusa.

It's a tricky monster to use in a fight because the medusa is all about the alpha strike or some kind of Petrification circumventing plot device. Turning a medusa into a several round combat flies in the face of the save-or-petrify concept behind her.

If I were going for a thrilling boss encounter I would design fighting the medusa more as a puzzle than a combat. Put a series of cracked mirrors in ruins she inhabits which the PCs have to orient in the right combination to reflect her image back at herself. Make the fight not about needing to kill the medusa but to recover a treasure or petrified victim. Have a way to drive the already half-mad medusa over the edge by identifying which of the statues was her lover she unintentionally petrified and guilt tripping her. That sort of thing.

 

[CapnZapp]

I do like the tension that 'instant-kill' effects produce, but I don't like my PC dying from a single failed die roll in round one of combat. In fact, a single bad roll should never produce failure, just a greater challenge.

Even if I roll badly, I still want there to be a slim chance I can be saved in the nick of time.

In 4e and 5e they tried to do this by having the medusa slowly turn you to stone, giving you a few rounds to contemplate your petrification or perhaps shake it off. That really doesn't match the flavor of how Medusa works in Clash of the Titans.

Also, I think if you lock eyes with a medusa, that's it. You're stone. No amount of 'Fortitude' lets you be tough enough to not be petrified. If you want to avoid turning to stone, don't look at the medusa.

I propose an alternative:

What do you think?

I agree with previous posters that you're thinking of a legendary Medusa, not just any old medusa. If D&D had the balls to resist the "we want to fight cool creatures at every level" things would have been different.

I also agree with previous posters in that you seriously overestimate the life expectancy of a run-of-the-mill CR 6 critter.

My own solution is to allow the Medusa to retain her insta-stone variant of Petrifying Gaze (I note it is identical to the Basilisk's gaze; except what I gather is your beef; the part about failing by 5 or more) BUT to say that the petrification isn't complete until the next round AND will be aborted upon the Medusa's death or removal.

Essentially; your idea to give the rest of the party one round to defeat the Medusa is there, only the afflicted target can't participate (he did fail by 5 or more).

If the Medusa is killed or rolled off in a cart or whatever, the petrification wears off by itself over a short rest (1 hour).

Meaning one bad roll is still pretty dangerous, but not insta-death (since the rest of the gang can compensate by rolling well). The slow recovery is meant to reinforce the notion of just how close the call was.

Then of course, once the party reaches level 9 (or can cart off their stone friend to a level 9 NPC priest) this entire business becomes a non-issue. Meaning I wouldn't waste too much time on a fix.