Grumbling under his breath, the barbarian rolled his eyes as his sorcerer companion cheered at the announcement of the headliner. They, alongside the rest of their party and a sizable crowd, sat in an amphitheater that was abuzz with anticipation. While less than interested in the musical showings, the musclebound meathead tried to limit his complaints upon seeing the joy of his companions. However, he watched that joy drain, replaced with confusion as a looming figure stepped onto the stage. He dragged a curiously shaped lute onto the stage with him, a manic grin decorating a visage otherwise shrouded in shadow. Taking up stance in the center, he gave no introduction before slinging his instrument in front of him and strumming its strings to unleash a blast of sounded that threw the first several rows flying out of their seats. New screams, ones of panic instead of excitement, erupted from the gathered crowd while the party of adventurers shared a glance. The barbarian offered as much consolation as he could in his gaze but couldn’t stop the grin unfurling across his features as he went for his weapon.
Art from Metalpocalypse
Before we get into it, I am going on vacation again starting next week, so I'll be out for another two weeks and will be back for July 22nd.
It’s another menace Monday as I explore a new NPC. I built a caster this time around as I felt non-unique caster NPCs were a little lacking in Pathfinder, particularly around level ten. That led to the design of this particular performer, the manic metalhead! The metalhead is based on a bard and with a focus on being a caster, has only a moderate armor class and Hit Points. His attack values are moderate and his damage is low, but all his spells use a high DC and the Solo Act ability increases his attack value to high while he’s alone and also bolsters his damage a little bit. While these values might seem a bit on the low end, the metalhead is armed with an amazing arsenal of spells that all use a high DC for his level. His spells have a heavy focus on noise and the sonic trait with options such as biting words, haunting hymn, and noise blast but he also has some more showman type stuff like pyrotechnics, agitate, and roaring applause. He also has summon fiend, which is a spell from outside the occult spell list and is inspired by the 1980’s Satanic panic. While that was sensationalist nonsense, in a world of magic and mayhem like Pathfinder, it could be very true!
Now all those sonic spells and the metalhead’s composition cantrips let him put on a show that he can use to manifest his Mosh Pit, a reaction that creates an aura for him. This aura deals unlimited use area damage at a moderate DC but also turns the area into difficult terrain as enemies try to fight their way through the rowdy crowd. And should they critically fail that save, they are ejected from the venue by these raucous roadies. The metalhead also has Shred, a fairly standard area effect with limited use area damage and a high DC. This might seem weird to include on a caster, but I wanted an ability inspired by the musical assassins in Kung Fu Hustle while making use of some metal music terminology. Power Slide is very valuable for a caster, being a compounding of actions, but it can also lead to some fun options beyond simply casting spells and running around, which are fully enabled by Headbang. This ability can be a bit hard to properly pull off and has a chance of hurting the metalhead instead, but I think that risk adds some fun. However, with this, the metalhead could potentially put on a show with courageous anthem to trigger his Mosh Pit, Power Slide to a caster (who will be the most susceptible to his next action), and as long as he hit, follow it up with a Headbang. I've designed an ability like this before for a boss in a home game and it was a lot of fun there, so I'm happy I could include it here.
Pathfinder 2e:
Blue's D&D5e:
ENCOUNTER HOOKS
Battle of the Bands: This could be an entire side quest or module on its own where the heroes participate in a magical music competition-slash-gladiatorial combat. They conduct a series of performances to win the crowd and then fight against the opposing band, gaining bonuses if the crowd is on their side. The metalhead could serve as simply another competitor or be the full-on final boss with a band formed of demons or other fiends bound to his will.
I encourage and hope that you check out the video for this NPC on the YouTube channel and let me know what you think of it.
If you're interested in joining the discussion on what creatures/builds I'm working on or just discussing your own homebrew works, check out our Discord! If you want to get some teasers or help us get to our yet unlisted milestones for extra content, check out the Twitter.
Have a monstrous Monday!
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