The tune has been digging into the back of the bard’s head ever since they entered the dungeon, a small series of orphaned notes that he couldn’t figure out the source of. He puzzled over them in the free time he had, trying to figure out their accompaniment when not needed to tend to his ally’s wounds or before sleep claimed him. Even when they were faced with the lich who had used the dungeon as a means of creating an army of undead monsters and adventurers, those damnable notes pranced in the back of his mind. As the lich fell and congratulations began to pass between his party members, the notes seemed to grow loud – until everybody else heard them. Shimmering above them, its vibrant form rippling to the alien tune, was a pattern of colors from which faces, hands, and other features pushed. As the bard finally heard the full version of the notes that had been haunting him, they filled him with an indescribable dread that burrowed into his very bones.
Art by Daniel Larios
It's another big one! The idea for the dinn came quite a while back and originally started as something completely separate from Pathfinder as something that I was working on for another project. However, with the collapse of that project, I thought it might be fun to bring parts of it into Pathfinder, starting with the dinn. In designing these creatures, I wanted something threatening, something that could endanger hundreds, maybe even thousands, of people but weren't world-enders - on their own. With cooperation and maybe some levels in a few classes, they have the potential to be deadlier but have a solid baseline CR. As aliens made of living sound, they're naturally incorporeal and give off a disquieting tone, a play on the idea of sounds ability to affect ones feelings. Its a fairly powerful aura that the dinn can adapt to suit the situations in which it finds itself. Since the dinn is incorporeal, I kept its AC and hit points low though I think I may have incidentally made the latter of those too high. I compensated a little bit there by not giving it too many immunities, only stuff to do with vision and what it gets from being incorporeal, and also gave it some big weaknesses. Hitting it with more sound messes with its natural harmonics, making it surprisingly weak to such effects, while silence is its antithesis. I'm kinda proud of this - silence is a relatively low-leveled spell, but its one that logically make sense to be super dangerous to the dinn. Its a vulnerability that takes some thinking on the part of the players to exploit, which I think is always fun.
The dinn's attack is probably a little bit higher than an incorporeal creature's attack should be, so I tried to balance that with lowered damage. Its main means of combat is its spells, which I picked out from a slew of sonic-based spells. Took me quite a bit to dig through them all, but I'm happy with what I dug up. I also really enjoyed coming up with the dinn's special attacks. Its reverb was inspired by the counter-performance of bards while tune helps give it an edge against certain types of foes and paves the way for its final special ability - threnody. The idea behind this was that the dinn produces a counter sound to the unheard frequency at which an entire body vibrates, canceling them out. Given that its an ability that can outright kill a target, and inflicts hefty damage and conditions even on a success, I made it both a full-round action, and one that requires the dinn to spend at least two rounds tuning to that specific creature. If savvy players can figure out the dinn's powers before it can employ them, they can be avoided by simply putting distance between themselves and the dinn, forcing it to move and tune itself, leaving it open to attacks. I think there's a decent enough amount of counterplay to the ability but feel free to share your thoughts. Feat-wise, I focused on spells sprinkled with some combat focused capabilities.
Pathfinder 1e:
I didn't really get to explore anything new with the second edition dinn. I even already had a good reaction for it in the form of Reverb. Its AC and HP both use extremely low stats to compensate for its incorporeal ability and also to balance around its other powers. There aren't as many sound-based spells in second edition, but there were enough for me to be happy with them. I gave it some decently powerful but not crazily so at-will spells that it can mix in with its claw Strikes, but it can just as easily Tune and Cast a Spell to set up its Threnody. I was a little more gentle with the 2e version of it with it only afflicting death on a critical failure, but it did let me use ramping damage with the other degrees of success.
Pathfinder 2e:
This is normally the part where you see the D&D 5e version of a creature and while that is coming, I wanted to do something a little special. Since this creature is an outright alien in my setting, I made a Starfinder stat block for it. Starfinder is one of those games where I have all the books and I've dreamt up dozens of characters - but I haven't played a single session. Nevertheless, I wanted to try building a stat block for this creature. My initial idea had been to make it a spellcaster, but I quickly realized that there are no sonic spells in Starfinder. Silence isn't even a thing anymore! So I had to pivot and build the dinn as an expert-type creature instead. To compensate for its lack of spells, I did give it a ranged sonic attack. And even without silence, I was able to get a very similar effect with the dampening field spell. I modified its other abilities to fit in with the changes in Starfinder, some of which left a sour taste in my mouth, but I think I'm happy with it, at the end of the day. I don't think I'm going to make this a regular thing, but it was fun to try for this creature in particular.
Starfinder:
Blue's D&D 5e:
ENCOUNTER HOOKS
Master-Pieces: In a kingdom that the heroes have ties to, a grand symphony is being put together. Featuring talented artists from across the globe, one of whom may be one of the heroes especially if one is a bard, the symphony will be open to all people and is meant to be a show of unity and solidarity. As always, there are those who wish to ruin such things and the heroes are hired as security for the event. However, they discover that they aren’t the only ones making sure the symphony stays on track when they come across the body of a conspirator that has been brutally slain with shattered bones and shredded organs. When the heroes begin to dig into the symphony, they discover that the composer is a reclusive genius that has, according to rumor, gone insane. Investigating him leads to him divulging that the symphony is his magnum opus but that he owes it all to his muse – a creature that guided him in crafting the masterpiece. This creature is a dinn and if the symphony is allowed to complete, with the dinn accompanying unseen from the rafters of the symphony hall, it will bring about absolute devastation.
Requiem: A dinn known as The-Hushed-Dirge has discovered that souls have their own vibrational frequency. Through magical means, it discovers a that if it joins several specific souls in harmony, it will disrupt the separation between the Material Plane and the afterlife, which will inevitably end in the extinction of the planet. By the time the heroes learn of this plot, The-Hushed-Dirge has already put it in motion. Armed with the list of his targets, the heroes must find them and protect them while building up their strength before they can face the necromancy-wielding dinn directly in combat.
Lemme know what you guys think of this creature, especially in regards to how the Starfinder version looks. I was kind of unsure of what I was doing on it, but liked where I ended up. Next week, it's back to Monster Hunter Rise for a simian prankster and after that, I might be digging up an older monster while awaiting art.
If you're interested in joining the discussion on what creatures I'm working on or just discussing your own homebrew works, check out our Discord! We also actually have a special event going on in the Discord where we, as a community, are voting and deciding on a monster I should build. If that interest you, come on in and look for the Build-a-Beast pins in the-conniving-corner! If you want to get some teasers or help us get to our yet unlisted milestones for extra content, check out the Twitter.
Until next time, have a Monstrous Monday!
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